History Main / NoOneShouldSurviveThat

* Real life example: Rasputin if the stories are to be believed. He was supposedly stabbed, shot, poisoned, and drowned, [[RasputinianDeath naming another trope]] in the process. Cause of death? Hypothermia, from being drowned in an icy river. And he was in the process of clawing his way up from under the ice when he died.

* What's the highest fall without any parachute or equipment whatsoever that a person has survived? 200 feet? 300 feet, maybe? Try ''thirty-three thousand, three hundred and thirty feet.'' Yugoslavian stewardess Vesna Vulović had been confused with another stewardess of the same name, and she ended up on a flight supposedly carrying the Yugoslavian Prime Minister by mistake. It was after they reached cruising altitude that her DC-9 contracted a fatal case of the [[StuffBlowingUp explodes,]] courtesy of Croatian terrorists. She fell into a pond in Czechoslovakia, and was rescued by a nearby doctor. She was the sole survivor and later made a full recovery.
** Rear gunner Nicholas Alkemade was forced to bail out of a Lancaster bomber at 18,000 feet (5,500 m) without a parachute. The parachute had burned up and he decided to jump rather than die in the inferno. Pine trees and deep snow broke his fall and he suffered only minor damage. The Luftwaffe personnel at the POW camp celebrated the colleague who had survived the two horrors of military airmen, crashing and flames, and provided him with a certificate testifying to the truth of his story.

* Has happened [[http://www.greenharbor.com/fffolder/ffallers.html a few times]] in real life.

* The ''Film/HomeAlone'' movies, particularly the second. In ''Film/HomeAlone2LostInNewYork'', Marv alone should've died 14 times. The most JustForFun/{{egregious}} instance, however, was when Harry's head is lit on fire and he dunks it into a toilet, not knowing that Kevin has replaced the water with kerosene. The resulting explosion ''destroys the entire first floor'', and yet Harry escapes with nothing more than a few minor burns and getting his hat ripped open.

*** Kira also had the good sense to hit the emergency shut-down when the reactor was breached. And contrary to popular perception, a nuclear fission reactor might melt down in the event of a containment breach but it's physically incapable of exploding. The mushroom cloud seen at the end of the episode was certainly caused by the battleship Minerva's [[{{Antimatter}} positron cannon]] hitting the nearby ocean in a failed attempt to destroy the Archangel, which happened at the same time Shinn stabbed Kira's Gundam.

* ''VideoGame/MiddleEarthShadowOfMordor'' practically turns this into an art form. Through the game's ''Nemesis'' system, Talion will find himself doing battle with the Uruk Captains and Warchiefs of Sauron's armies, but if they're not explicitly defeated by [[OffWithHisHead decapitation]] or [[YourHeadAsplode head explosion]], [[BoomHeadshot even if you punch an arrow through their skull]], ventilate their braincase with your sword, [[KillItWithFire burn them alive]], [[EatenAlive feed them to Caragors or Graugs]], there's a very good chance they'll [[CameBackStrong come back stronger]] with matching scars to boot.

* Several of the characters in ''Film/{{Snatch}}'' appear to be virtually immortal - including Bullet Tooth Tony and Boris the Blade (aka "Boris the bullet dodger"). Shot over and over again they just won't die! [[spoiler:Until they do. Boris winds up the victim of a RasputinianDeath, while Tony, who became famous for getting shot 6 times by an enemy and being strong enough to kill the guy with a sword afterwards, gets killed by a stray bullet from a HandCannon.]]

* Kira Yamato in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED'' has a tendency to survive things he shouldn't for a MidseasonUpgrade. In the first series he survives a mobile self destructing while attached to his MS's chest. By no means a death sentence in a Gundam show, but the cockpit was shown to be scorched and damaged by those that find the wreckage, to the point that it is partially exposed.
** The second time seems to be the fault of his attacker, Shinn Asuka, who apparently can land kill-shots on named characters, but somehow miraculously misses them. When facing Athrun, he managed to clearly stab Athrun's suit through the cockpit, which was by no means spacious or empty (considering Athrun at the time had someone else aboard with him), yet there were no fatalities (or much in the way of injuries).

* Dr. Eggman from ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'' always manages to survive catastrophic ship failures, including one that sinks ''into a pit of lava'' with him in it while it's breaking down. ConvectionSchmonvection indeed.

* Goddamn [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid Liquid Snake]]. Helicopter crashes, stinger missiles, three story freefalls, multiple bullets. Then in the second game we find out that not even killing him stops him [[spoiler:until the fourth game confirms that he really did die and Ocelot was faking. It's complicated.]].
* [[VideoGame/{{Uncharted}} Nathan Drake]], full stop. The trick is ''he'' knows it, his ''enemies'' know it, and quite frankly, the entire cast is in disbelief at the sheer quantity and reliability of his luck.

* Emil from ''VideoGame/{{Nier}}'' was revealed to be alive in ending C, with only his head intact. Its not explained how he was able to get out of that magical blast field alive.

* President "Baby" Panay from ''VideoGame/JustCause 2'' also survived having a grenade blow up in his face, after which he also survives being shot up by [[TheHero Rico]]. [[spoiler: It takes a nuclear explosion to (presumably) kill him.]]

* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain'': While revealing his backstory to a prisoner, [[BigBad Skull Face]] states that the injuries he suffered were so bad that a nurse at the infirmary they took him to openly stated that they should just let him die.

-->"This fall would kill some people, and break bones in almost anyone except Grima Wormtongue!"

* Toki has survived getting her [[http://akaichounokoe.deviantart.com/art/Landmines-are-not-Toys-329199767?q=sort%3Atime%20((landmine)%20AND%20(by%3AAkaiChounokoe))&qo=0 leg blown off by landmine and being unconscious from blood loss for more than a few hours,]] [[http://akaichounokoe.deviantart.com/art/Flashbacks-I-Alone-and-Frail-334638145 luekemia when it hit terminal,]] and [[http://akaichounokoe.deviantart.com/art/Resentment-and-Insanity-301040723?q=sort%3Atime%20((resentment)%20AND%20(by%3AAkaiChounokoe))&qo=1 multiple suicide attempts.]] Also, she and her sister survived being frozen for about 70 years.

* Starscream of ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' can be like this in several of his incarnations. Occasionally he ''doesn't'' survive…and ''comes back anyway''. ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'' tried to hand-wave it by saying Starscream's spark was mutated in a way so it can never join the Matrix, but also made it completely indestructible. They also tried to clone his spark, resulting in Rampage, whose spark could apparently be cut by an energon blade without lasting damage (although it does cause him great pain) whereas other sparks in the situation are destroyed.

* [[JokerImmunity Team Rocket]] from ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}''. They fall into the gorge in the Butterfree episode, and survive every instance of "blasting off", and two falls which they themselves think will kill them (once in "Haunter Versus Kadabra", and once in the second movie). The one that takes the cake is in "Shell Shock", when James is hit by a boulder and falls into the gorge WITH THE BOULDER ON TOP OF HIM. (The antagonist of [[WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs Disney's first animated film]] is killed this way) Yet he turns up unharmed Team Rocket's next scene.

** It carries over into the sequel, ''WesternAnimation/TheReturnOfJafar''. As a genie, Jafar is now incapable of killing Aladdin himself, so he instead sets up an elaborate frame-up. Aladdin is about to be beheaded for the Sultan's murder on Jasmine's orders, and Jafar even shows up in person to taunt him one last time, mere seconds before his sentence is carried out. Jafar doesn't stick around to see it, though...which means he doesn't see that, once again, Aladdin escaped thanks to the Genie, and only finds out the hard way later.

-->-- '''[[WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall Linkara]]''' on Izaak Crowe from ''Franchise/{{Batman}}: Fortunate Son''

* In ''Machinima/RedVsBlue: Relocated'', Grif falls 800 feet. His teammates spend the entire time while he's in free fall arguing over whether or not to catch him. [[spoiler: [[ButtMonkey They don't.]]]]

* ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes'':
** Travis Touchdown survives several such episodes in the first game and its sequel, one of the most notable occasions being in a cut-scene before his battle with Holly Summers in the first game. He ends up in a pit of sand, and has three hand-grenades dropped directly onto his chest. This merely means he is bounced out of the hole by consecutive explosions, and he continues the game with no lasting ill effects. Every cutscene before a boss fight has him surviving way more than anyone should. During the final battle with [[spoiler:Jeanne]], she bloody [[NormallyIWouldBeDeadNow PUNCHES THROUGH HIS HEART]], but he just shrugs it off.
** The same works for some of the bosses. Skelter Helter provides the page quote for NormallyIWouldBeDeadNow, a couple of bosses from the first game return for the sequel, and then there's the terms on which [[AkashicRecords a few bosses in the sequel]] are fought.

* Kaneda in ''Manga/{{Akira}}'' (the manga version, especially), who constantly survives point-blank automatic weapons fire and ''being sucked into a black hole with a large chunk of Neo-Tokyo only to be expelled, alive, months later.''

* ''Anime/CodeGeass'':
** Nunnally Lamperouge. Assassination attempt on your life as a kid? Check. Madman strapping you to a live bomb? Check. Kidnapped [[spoiler: by one of your best friends who may or may not kill you?]] Check. [[spoiler: Survived a nuclear explosion that wiped out almost all of Tokyo?]] Check. [[spoiler: Surviving a world war?]] Check. No wonder she is TheWoobie...
** Mao. He survived multiple gunshot wounds, including from the high-caliber machine gun of a [[HumongousMecha Knightpolice Frame]], and then says "I got better thanks to Britannian medicine."

* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' oh, boy. Here we go. To the point where people even survive [[HesDeadJim multiple declarations of death and complete loss of spiritual pressure]] We've got a main character [[spoiler: cut clear in half at the waist]] and while she is out of the fight, with some healing it's implied that she can still make it. A certain evil character got stabbed through the ''brain'' and managed to hang on for a little while. Most recently, [[spoiler:the BigBad survived being disintegrated from the inside out ''and'' having his [[AppliedPhlebotinum Phlebotinum]] stolen]]. Mind you, this is the same series where [[TheMedic the main healer]] can bring people back from the dead, because she doesn't heal injuries, she UNDOES them.

* The Pandoras of ''Manga/{{Freezing}}''. While they are implanted with AppliedPhlebotinum and there is advanced medical practices in the future, the battles that they go through really make your eyes pop out.