Plot Armor is of course the principle that the character around which a movie revolves can’t really be in danger of getting killed (or otherwise taken out of the picture) because then there would be no movie. (Except if they die at or near the very end).
But what if this wasn’t so?
Here’s a challenge: remove the plot armor from a character and see what happens. The only rule I’ll stipulate is that the movie has to continue to some sort of end even if the main protagonist is taken out. I’ll start with
STAR WARS (A Forlorn Hope):
Having escaped from the Death Star, the Millennium Falcon fights off a squadron of TIE fighters until it can build up to light speed. Of course no one aboard knows that the fighters are under orders to make a show of fighting but let the Falcon escape.
But the Force was not with us today; a stray shot penetrates a momentary gap in the Falcon’s shields and takes out one of the defensive turrets. The Falcon escapes- but Luke Skywalker is dead. The Falcon continues to Yavin 4 and drops off Princess Leia and the droids. Han Solo collects his money and departs; but a subtle pang of conscience (and the pretty face of a feisty princess?) leads him to double back to where Rebel fighters are targeting the Death Star. Solo’s cover fire allows the last remaining Rebel fighter to fire its proton torpedoes, and the Death Star is destroyed. The movie ends as Solo is awarded a medal of valor by Princess Leia.
Having discovered that R2-D2 has run away, Luke Skywalker goes in search of him. But he is unlucky enough to run into some Sand People and is knocked unconscious. Now sometime the Tuscan Raiders will take prisoners to torture later, but this time they don’t bother- a shot to the head puts a swift end to the youth. Kenobi arrives just a little too late to save young Skywalker. He does figure out the message R2-D2 is carrying and makes plans to go to Alderaan. Obi-Wan briefly endeavors to return Luke’s body to his uncle and aunt, only to discover the Imperial Stormtroopers got there first. He makes his way to Mos Eisley with the droids and hires Captain Solo to smuggle them past the blockade.
Aboard the Death Star, Han, Chewbacca and the droids hide near the hanger bay while Kenobi goes to deactivate the tractor beam. Meanwhile, having discovered Princess Leia lied about the location of the Rebel base, Darth Vader comes up with a plan: certain that Obi-Wan is somewhere on board, he makes arrangements to let Leia “escape” as she’s being taken to the execution center, then broadcasts a stationwide alert certain to reach Obi-Wan’s ears. Sure enough, Kenobi manages to find the Princess and lead her to the hanger bay, but must sacrifice himself against Vader to cover her escape.
Maltese Falcon - after having been drugged into unconsciousness Spade is kicked in the head by the gunsel. Unfortunately this kick is a little too accurate, and Spade is killed. Captain Jacoby arrives at Spade’s office with the package, but only Effie Perine is there. Iva Archer walks in at the inopportune moment, sees the bundle and the dead man, and grabs the bundle on spec and runs out the door. Gutman et al catch up to Iva and kill her for the bundle. They retire to a safe spot, find out the falcon is a fake, have histrionics and then decide to return to Istanbul. They escape before Dundy gets wise, so Dundy decides to charge Effie with all four murders. She goes to Tehachapi for 20 years, but she gets out after 10 years for good behavior, and then pretends to be terribly upper clahss and marries a banker.
Saving Private Ryan – In the final battle, Private Ryan is killed alongside the last of the squad of Rangers sent to save him. Their dog tags are eventually recovered. In the final scene, the President begins writing a letter to Mrs. Ryan, letting her know that all of her sons died in the invasion. As his voice-over continues, we fade to a shot of an Army sedan driving up to her house as the grief counselors arrive. They hand her the President’s letter and she collapses. Fade to black.
The man visiting the gravesite is Private Ryan’s younger brother, who was too young to join the fight.
Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho very famously DID actually strip away the plot armor. From the first minute of the film up until the famous shower scene, the movie is entirely centered on Janet Leigh’s character. She is the prominent focal point of every scene, until she gets killed. Then, Anthony Perkins’ character abruptly takes center stage and the movie becomes about him. That’s why her death was such a shock to audiences when it first hit theaters.
Raiders of the Lost Ark - Indiana Jones tries to hang on to the periscope of a U-Boat as it cruises across the Mediterranean. Within 30 minutes, he loses his grip and is stranded in the middle of the sea, drowning a couple of hours later.
The Nazis proceed to take the Ark to a test location, open it, and kill themselves in face-melting spectacularness. God laughs and moves the Ark to a new place for evil people to find and get themselves killed.
Alien also strips the plot armor: Sigourney Weaver wasn’t billed as the lead, and was basically a complete unknown at the time. All the other characters get killed in the order of their billing, so the audience would keep on going “Wait, so I guess this guy is the real main character”.
That entire scene is wrong on 2 scores: not only would a WWII era submarine NOT have any reason to cruise submerged during peacetime (unless they think the RN is trying to find them, and even then they’d have to surface to recharge batteries sooner or later), the watch crew would be manning the bridge, and would easily find him) In that case the film otherwise plays out as it did.
Of course this is a film with a weird mutant ME 109…
There was an episode of “Big Bang Theory” where, after watching Raiders with Sheldon, Amy wonders why Indy is in the movie at all, since it would have ended the same way without him.
Blade Runner - Rachael decides to wash her hair, and is not there to save Deckard when Leon kills him. Roy visits and kills Tyrell, but dies soon after as his time expires.
Without Roy’s leaderships, and at a dead end, Pris and Leon just muddle around until Gaff finds and retires them.
Voyager: Various adventures kill off characters as the ship attempts to transit back to the Alpha Quadrant. After a few seasons, Tom Paris is CO with acting LCDR Wildman as XO, and a bridge staff that included various local people that the ship had picked up along the way (Ensign Kim died early on - sorry), and only one shuttlecraft remained.
Hmm… IMHO, a little too late in the story for plot armor failure to really kick you in the face. Ideally the bait and switch should be somewhere from 1/2 to 3/4 of the way through. I’d have Indy eat the poisoned fig; then the movie would switch to Marion escaping from her captors and taking up the quest for the Ark.
No one ever surveys Ceti Alpha planets for Genesis research. Klingon spies find the plans accidentally and build a Death Star that takes out the Vulcanian homeworld. Q sends Seven of Nine back in time to make Kirk wear a condom, reset button…
Well, Marion might disagree with that… then again, if she had died, we wouldn’t have had the youth protagonist for Crystal Skull… decisions, decisions.
Okay, this altering-the-timeline business is trickier than I thought.