History Main / TisOnlyABulletInTheBrain

[[folder:Film -- Live Action]]

* In ''[[Literature/TheMillenniumTrilogy The Girl Who Played With Fire]]'', [[spoiler: Lisbeth survives this. And then [[{{Determinator}} digs herself out of her own grave]], grabs an axe, and attacks the guy who shot her.]] It is explicitly a very low-power gun, the bullet is explicitly still halfway in the skull, and there's plenty of medical work done afterwards, but when all is said and done, there isn't even any noticeable brain damage.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* ''Film/DoctorStrange'': In his second scene the titular character successfully removes a bullet from the brain of a patient who'd been written off as brain dead, thus highlighting his skills as a supreme surgeon.

* Disturbingly-violent bank robber Mickey from ''Film/CockneysVsZombies'' survived a shrapnel wound to the brain while fighting for the U.K. in the Middle East. His injury left him with an alarming scar encircling a third of his scalp, a metal plate in his head, and a complete lack of the inhibitory neural circuitry which had previously stopped him from being a "soddin' nutter".

* Jerome Wireman from Creator/StephenKing book ''Literature/DumaKey'' is a realistic treatment of this. He survived a suicide attempt where he shot himself in the head, and it subsequently left him with a damaged psyche, chronic pain, and the inability to read for longer than a minute or two at a time with blinding headaches, among other effects. Midway through the book, he loses sight in one eye because the bullet is still inside and still moving, and has begun interfering with his optic center in his brain.

* In the ''Series/OneThousandWaysToDie'' segment, "Master E-Raced," the victim is a former Nazi member who got shot in the head, but survived. However, 50 years later, while trying to get some milk out of the refrigerator, the former Nazi accidentally hits his head on the freezer door, causing the bullet, which was lodged near an important blood vessel, to dislodge and cut said blood vessel causing internal hemorrhaging in his brain and death.

** A variation of this is that his ''wife'' is the one who shot him, while he was sleeping to which he assumed she had merely ''elbowed him'' in the head instead. Come the next morning, the man wakes up with a ''massive'' headache, and decides to go to the doctor for fear of it being a stroke. The doctor, sensing something off, orders and X-ray, and finds the source of the headache: a .357 bullet lodged in his cranium.

* Russian [[FourStarBadass field marshal Kutuzov]] survived a ''[[HandCannon musket ball]]'' in one of his early Turkish campaigns, when he was just a ColonelBadass. The bullet pierced his head temple-to-cheek, glancing his brain, and the wound was initially thought to be fatal. Surprisingly, he completely recovered with nothing worse to wear than splitting headaches after he used his right eye, injured by a bullet, for more than a couple of minutes. Because of this, he had to wear an {{eyepatch|OfPower}} that led to the popular myth about him being one-eyed. And then, probably just to finally prove that he was {{Nigh Invulnerab|ility}}le, he was injured a second time ''in the same place'' [[MadeOfIndestructium with the same result]].

* Creator/ErnstJunger recalled in his memoirs, ''Literature/StormOfSteel'', that he endured ''two'' headshots ([[MadeOfIron plus about a dozen of other injuries]]) on the battlefields of World War I. Although he went on to live [[LongLived till almost 103 years old]], yet it's little wonder that the guy ended up... a bit off-kilter.

* This trope is surprisingly common with victims of penetrating head trauma in modern emergency rooms. With [[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1878875017307672 studies]] finding an survival rate of 62% for adults and 32% for children.
* Donald Burgett, and American paratrooper in the 101st "Screaming Eagles" Airborne Division, recalled a moment that ''narrowly'' averted this trope: A buddy of his walked up to him carrying his helmet, which had two neat bullet holes punched in it, front to back, and triumphantly showed that his head was completely unhurt; apparently, the bullet had punched through his helmet but, lacking sufficient velocity or a good enough deflection angle, traveled between the steel pot of the helmet and the resin liner, then exited the other side. Apparently, the worst that the soldier suffered was one hell of a headache, but by that time he was just glad to have survived after seeing what had happenned.
* [[https://www.specialforcesroh.com/index.php?threads/mcgregor-joseph-c.15970/ First Lieutenant Joseph C. McGregor]] (often listed as MacGregor), a Scottish-born American paratrooper with the 501st Parachute Infantry Reg, 101st Airborne Division, served as a Pathfinder as part of D-Day ([[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/54208722/obituary-for-joseph-macgregor-aged-28/ recorded as the first American to land in occupied France]]) and later parachuted into Belgium as part of Operation Market Garden. On September 18th, under heavy fire, McGregor covered his men with a sub-machine gun at a crossroad and was subsequently injured and captured. The next day he was recovered having been shot in the head with the comment "his brains were showing"; he was not expected to live. Sent to England to recover, he returned to service in December 1944 in Belgium. On 30th December, he was injured by shrapnel from a mortar, but returned to service the next day. During the Battle of the Bulge he took out a enemy half-track with a bazooka, waiting until it was almost on top of him, terrifying the soldier lying beside him. On the 9th Janurary 1945 he was shot in the head a second time, this time fatally. While recovering after Market Garden he was visited by two older sisters that still lived in Scotland, who he'd spent leave time with prior to D-day. They believed that he returned to the war with the intention of dying having seen his personality change following his head injury.

* King Arthur cuts off the Black Knight's arm in ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail'' and demands passage claiming victory. The Black Knight's response: "'Tis but a scratch."

* Subverted in ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' when [[spoiler:Bobby]] is shot in the head, and while he had a chance at survival, he died in the hospital.

* The main character of ''VideoGame/{{Bioshock 2}}'' is brought back to life after being shot in the head in the game's prologue.

* [[https://www.specialforcesroh.com/index.php?threads/mcgregor-joseph-c.15970/ First Lieutenant Joseph C. McGregor]] (often listed as "MacGregor"), a Scottish-born American paratrooper with the 501st Parachute Infantry Reg, 101st Airborne Division, served as a Pathfinder as part of D-Day ([[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/54208722/obituary-for-joseph-macgregor-aged-28/ recorded as the first American to land in occupied France]]) and later parachuted into Belgium as part of Operation Market Garden. On September 18th, under heavy fire, McGregor covered his men with a sub-machine gun at a crossroad and was subsequently injured and captured. The next day he was recovered having been shot in the head with the comment "his brains were showing"; he was not expected to live. Sent to England to recover, he returned to service in December 1944 in Belgium. On 30th December, he was injured by shrapnel from a mortar, but returned to service the next day. During the Battle of the Bulge he took out a enemy half-track with a bazooka, waiting until it was almost on top of him, terrifying the soldier lying beside him. On the 9th Janurary 1945 he was shot in the head a second time, this time fatally. While recovering after Market Garden he was visited by two older sisters that still lived in Scotland, who he'd spent leave time with prior to D-day. They believed that he returned to the war with the intention of dying having seen his personality change following his head injury.

* [[https://www.specialforcesroh.com/index.php?threads/mcgregor-joseph-c.15970/ First Lieutenant Joseph C. McGregor]] (often listed as 'MacGregor'), a Scottish-born American paratrooper with the 501st Parachute Infantry Reg, 101st Airborne Division, served as a Pathfinder as part of D-Day ([[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/54208722/obituary-for-joseph-macgregor-aged-28/ recorded as the first American to land in occupied France]]) and later parachuted into Belgium as part of Operation Market Garden. On September 18th, under heavy fire, McGregor covered his men with a sub-machine gun at a crossroad and was subsequently injured and captured. The next day he was recovered having been shot in the head with the comment "his brains were showing"; he was not expected to live. Sent to England to recover, he returned to service in December 1944 in Belgium. On 30th December, he was injured by shrapnel from a mortar, but returned to service the next day. During the Battle of the Bulge he took out a enemy half-track with a bazooka, waiting until it was almost on top of him, terrifying the soldier lying beside him. On the 9th Janurary 1945 he was shot in the head a second time, this time fatally. While recovering after Market Garden he was visited by two older sisters that still lived in Scotland, who he'd spent leave time with prior to D-day. They believed that he returned to the war with the intention of dying having seen his personality change following his head injury.

* This trope is more common than you victims of penetrating head trauma in modern emergency rooms. With [[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1878875017307672 studies]] finding an survival rate of 62% for adults and 32% for children.

* ''VideoGame/HotlineMiami'' has this happen to [[spoiler:the hitman himself, courtesy of his employers. A sizable chunk of the game is him replaying the events that led up to this while he's in a coma.]]

* UsefulNotes/SimoHayha, the famous ColdSniper, was finally dispatched when the last man left of a counter-sniper team sent against him managed to shoot him in the head with a shot that took off half his face. Häyhä managed to maintain consciousness long enough to kill his attacker, survived the war, and lived until the age of 96.

* In ''Excessive Force II: Force on Force'', Stacie survives a bullet to the head from her ex-boyfriend (like 10 seconds after they had sex) after she refuses to become a dirty cop like him. She's been hunting him ever since, although she has to take pills to avoid terrible headaches and dizziness. [[spoiler:She repays him in kind at the end, although he doesn't survive.]]

* In ''Anime/MaiOtome'', [[spoiler:Sergay]] is shot in the head. He survives with little more than EasyAmnesia.

* ''WesternAnimation/SuicideSquadHellToPay'': [[spoiler:Zoom is channeling the speed force and delaying his death from when Batman shoots him in the head at the end of ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueTheFlashpointParadox'', all this time searching for the "Get out of Hell free" card.]]

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'': Hypnota was accidentally shot in the head by their sister Serva while practicing for their stage show. While they survived their personality was drastically altered and they became a villain.

* ''Series/ThePunisher'' has Dinah Madani surviving a shot in the head or at least the skull, something which [[OneManArmy Frank Castle]] himself is impressed about.

* Mary Jo Buttafuoco survived a gunshot to the head from [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_Fisher her husband's teenage lover]]. The murder attempt left her deaf in one ear and her face partially paralyzed (she underwent facial reanimation surgery years later). To this day, the bullet still remains in her head.

** One-shot villainess "The Absence" takes it to an absurd degree - because of [[ArtMajorBiology a very exaggerated case]] of Dandy-Walker Syndrome, the bullet shot through her forehead but missed her brain completely, [[http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110202182329/marvel_dc/images/d/dd/Una_Nemo_001.png leaving a softball-sized hole drilled through her skull.]]

* The orcs in ''Videogame/MiddleEarthShadowOfMordor'' can do things like take a brain to the head and, despite their death being confirmed, appear again to make your life miserable. Only decapitating them will permanently rid you of them.