# Blunt force trauma to the head=safe, where did this trope come from?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blunt-force-trauma-to-the-head-safe-where-did-this-trope-come-from/611075>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [January 29, 2012, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blunt-force-trauma-to-the-head-safe-where-did-this-trope-come-from/611075 "2012-01-29T10:43:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\
**Post date:** [January 30, 2012, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blunt-force-trauma-to-the-head-safe-where-did-this-trope-come-from/611075/41 "2012-01-30T20:40:47Z")

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> [@Neo-Calredic](#):
>
> This one drives me crazy. Protagonists can survive rifle shots to the torso in most movies, yet sticking a five-inch knife blade anywhere in a bad guy’s body is immediately fatal. Not sure why a much slower-knife blade is deadlier than a bullet…

Or they just stop talking and look confused before slumping over dead. One scene I remember off the top of my head was in **You Only Live Twice**. James is talking to an Englishman who was his contact in Japan, (the same actor that later played Blofeld in Diamonds Are Forever), and as the contact was talking he abruptly stopped, got a pained look on his face, then quietly sank to the ground where Bond discovered the knife in his back.

I’ve never been stabbed, but I imagine my reaction would be more like “AAAAAAARRRRGGGHHHHH!!! Holy Shit I’ve been stabbed!!”

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