History Main / NoSell

* Similar to the comic of the same name, Eric in ''Film/TheCrow'' is a walking example of this, since he's a dead man come back to life; while it's implied he still feels the pain from being wounded, at least briefly, said wounds eventually heal themselves. Subverted near the film's end when Top Dollar and his gang realize [[spoiler:that by taking out the crow itself, they'll be able to finish off Eric, as the crow is Eric's link to our world]].

** In ''[[WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda Kung Fu Panda 1]]'', [[BigBad Tai Lung]] and Oogway's nerve strikes are devastating to their targets, completely paralysing them. [[StoneWall Po]]'s layer of [[{{Kevlard}} body fat]], however, neutralizes those attacks, which comes in handy during the final fight. [[BlessedWithSuck Unfortunately]], it also neutralizes Mantis's acupuncture.

* In every one of the UsefulNotes/{{Nintendo 64}} pro wrestling games that make use of the AKI engine (which there are several; starting with ''WCW vs. Wrestling/{{n|ewWorldorder}}Wo: World Tour'' in 1997, ending with ''VideoGame/WWFNoMercy'' in 2000), the main counter to striking moves is animated as the character defending himself by simply sticking out his chest and absorbing the blow without flinching at all. This gameplay mechanic is particularly jarring, as it's possible to have the little 'ol geriatric (80+ years old!) [[JokeCharacter Mae Young]] casually stick out her chest and take a direct hit in the form of a full unrestrained '''smash''' from a charging 7' 5", 550-pound legendary Wrestling/AndreTheGiant without moving an inch.

*** In the [[Radio/StarWarsRadioDramas Radio Drama adaption]] of this film, Han exclaims (paraphrased) "No way, you can't just block a blaster's fire with your hand!" Right before Vader force-summons his weapon as well. Perhaps this applies to the film as well.
*** There is a CallBack to this in ''Literature/LukeSkywalkerAndTheShadowsOfMindor''. Being shot at by an army is a concern for Luke, but being shot at by one man is not.

*** The novel ''[[Literature/JediAcademyTrilogy I, Jedi]]'' shows that one Force power Jedi have is to absorb energy. Corran uses this ability at one point to no-sell a stun baton (by absorbing the shock and dissipating it in the surrounding environment), and it's implied that Vader may have been using the same ability in ''The Empire Strikes Back''. An even more impressive no-sell happens later, when Corran absorbs the energy of an explosion, redirecting much of it and the debris directly upwards and away from civilians. It completely exhausts him and [[NakedPeopleAreFunny leaves him without clothing]], but he survives (with relatively little injury), and there are very few casualties.

** ''Film/ThePhantomMenace:''

** The ''Franchise/XMen'' crossover novel ''Planet X'' features the ''Enterprise''-E being attacked by a powerful alien ship, with their only hope of victory being to ask Nightcrawler to teleport onto the enemy vessel. Storm notes that this plan is difficult as Kurt lacks experience in alien technology and anyone they send with him will be fatigued from the strain of the jump, but Riker suggests that they send Data with the mutant, as Data doesn’t get tired in the first place and has all the technical expertise they might need.

* ''Literature/{{Tempest}}'': In ''Tempest Revealed'', Tempest blasts the Leviathan with enough magic to kill any other creature, but the Leviathan barely seems to notice it.

* In 2008, the prominent Indian skeptic [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanal_Edamaruku Sanal Edamaruku]] put forward the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Tantra_Challenge Great Tantra Challenge]], where he invited an equally prominent [[ReligionIsMagic tantrik]] to kill him using nothing but his alleged supernatural powers on live television, after the latter claimed he could kill people in less than three minutes with them. [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome The tantrik spent nearly two hours chanting mantras and waving his hands in Edamaruku's face without success before giving up.]] A second attempt to kill him using RitualMagic was met with similar results. Videos showing skeptics ignoring attempts to incapacitate/kill them with chi/psychic energy/magic/etc are common online. Worse are the skeptics who are also martial artists challenging "psychic" martial artists to a fight. The "psychic" martial artists' techniques do nothing offensively to the skeptic while also providing no defense to the following punches/knees/etc to the face. Of course, actual monks and martial artists (read: people who have literally physically trained in their art ''since birth'') have also come forth to denounce "psychic martial artists" who attempt this on skeptics, on the basis that this is ''not'' how chi is supposed to work.

** USS ''United States'', the first of the six frigates, had a moment of this during UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar. By then she had been in ordinary and left to rot for years at Norfolk. As the war drew to a close, the rebels sought to turn the ship into a harbor blockade by scuttling her. Despite years of neglect, the live oak timbers were ''still'' strong enough to ruin a whole box of axes just trying to cut into them. It took drilling holes into the ship's hull just to sink her. Even ''that'' wasn't her final fate -- Union forces raised her from the harbor bottom intact after retaking Norfolk, only for her to be broken up and sold for scrap after the war's end.

** Another notable case of sandbagging came on an episode of WCW Nitro where [[Wrestling/BigShow the Giant]] went to chokeslam Stevie Ray, but for whatever reason, Stevie Ray visibly refuses to jump to make the move work. Instead, the Giant used his impressive strength to lift up Stevie Ray all on his own and delivered the move anyway.

* In 2008, prominent Indian skeptic [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanal_Edamaruku Sanal Edamaruku]] put forward the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Tantra_Challenge Great Tantra Challenge]], where he invited an equally prominent [[ReligionIsMagic tantrik]] to kill him using nothing but his alleged supernatural powers on live television, after the latter claimed he could kill people in less than three minutes with them. [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome The tantrik spent nearly two hours chanting mantras and waving his hands in Edamaruku's face without success before giving up.]] A second attempt to kill him using RitualMagic was met with similar results.
** Videos showing Skeptics ignoring attempts to incapacitate/kill them with Chi/Psychic energy/magic/etc are common online. Worse are the skeptics who are also martial artists challenging “Psychic” martial artists to a fight. The “Psychic” Martial Artists techniques do nothing offensively to the Skeptic while also providing no defense to the following punches/knees/etc to the face. Of course, actual monks and martial artists (read: people who have literally physically trained in their art ''since birth'') have also come forth to denounce "Psychic Martial Artists" who attempt this on skeptics, on the basis that this is completely ''not'' how chi is supposed to work.
* A somewhat common act of defiance for children (and some adults) after being hurt - "Doesn't hurt!" - though that particular response can be tempting fate.

** In ''Film/DoctorStrangeInTheMultiverseOfMadness'', [[spoiler:Wanda]] no-selled everything launched against [[spoiler:her]]. Best example is when [[spoiler:America fight Wanda, America's punches literally fails to do something beyong annoying her.]]

* [[ComicBook/SpiderMan Spider-Man's]] spider-sense is capable of detecting threats before they happen, and is powerful enough that some people consider it precognition. However, there are a few things that can bypass it:

** In ''WesternAnimation/UltimateSpiderMan'', Peter realizes that people he completely trusts (i.e. May, his teammates, Fury, Agent Coulson, etc) can sneak up on him without registering on his senses, whether he wants to see him at that moment or not (something Coulson demonstrates on at least one occasion).

** A vault of supernatural artifacts too dangerous to be used is protected by, among other things, an immense golem with a weakness-inducing aura. When they have to open the vault after a robbery, the supernatural entities are all visibly immoblized, while the ARCHON agents Maxima, Dabbler, and Sydney make short work of the golem. When asked why the aura didn't affect them:

'''Sydney:''' Nothing gets through [[DeflectorShields Mister Bubble]].\\

* ''WesternAnimation/XiaolinShowdown'' has a [[MacGuffin Shen Gong Wu]] called the Two-Ton Tunic. When called upon, it transforms into an armored shirt that allows the wearer to shrug off any attack, even a punch from the [[MegatonPunch Fist of Tebigong]]. The only Wu that is able to affect it is the Reversing Mirror, which can reverse the powers of whatever Shen Gong Wu back on its user.
* In Gladiator's introduction in ''WesternAnimation/XMenTheAnimatedSeries'', Juggernaut punches him in the stomach. He's unfazed, and tosses Juggernaut across the ocean. Then Phoenix shows up for the first time, [[TheWorfEffect and she shrugs off Gladiator's attacks and throws him into space]].

* ''WesternAnimation/VeggieTales'': In ''[[Recap/VeggieTalesEpisode22SumoOfTheOpera Sumo of the Opera]]'', the Italian Scallion goes up against sumo champion Apollo Gourd. Despite Scallion having trained harder than he had in his entire life, while Apollo hadn't trained at all, Scallion is badly outmatched...until Apollo tries using his SignatureMove on Scallion. For the first time in Apollo's whole career, ''it doesn't work''. Scallion comes close to beating Apollo, but only ends up getting a draw. Still, even that is more than any other challenger to Apollo's title had ever accomplished.