17

In the final episode, he notices the blood and this seems to be the first time he knows he has been hit.

Is there a way a huge round like that could hit a person anywhere without them feeling some sort of major impact? I guess the idea is that bullet went through soft tissue and did not hit bone. Wherever it hit it would cause major damage as it did, but I think it is impossible, even in the heat of a very heated moment, not to have felt something.

Improve this question
4
  • 2
    There are some reports of people which have been shot over on Quora and one description (machine gun bullet to the shoulder) is that it felt like a hard tap on the shoulder. Only realizing the damage after putting the hand on the shoulder and seeing the blood on the hand. I haven't seen the scene nor do I intend to do so, but "adrenaline gunshot" gave me some good results on google.
    – Arsenal
    Commented Sep 9, 2022 at 11:22
  • i watched an interview with a sniper in a warzone i don't remember. they said that a clean shot through the heart would not be noticed and people often times walk on for 3 to 5 steps and then suddenly dropping dead
    – clockw0rk
    Commented Sep 9, 2022 at 11:26
  • A friend of mine was shot while on duty. He felt it, but believed it hit the vest. It hit his belly, just under the belly button. I think there's a lot of factors involved with such a thing.
    – user60027
    Commented Sep 9, 2022 at 13:47
  • @60027: I certainly have read of people sustaining very serious injuries without knowing it. it occurs to me that some injuries are so bad that they affect the nerves that would transmit the pain signals. And the "heat of the moment" is a very powerful factor: the famous woman lifting car that had fallen, that was a function of adrenalin that i guess not just gave her strength but blocked out the pain which came from fracturing vertebra -- Walt probably did have very high levels of adrenalin himself.
    – releseabe
    Commented Sep 9, 2022 at 17:07

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
43

TV Tropes covers this under Belated Injury Realization with a note that it falls under Truth in Television as being somewhat plausible in real life.

Quite often, when The Hero has been in some terrific struggle with life and death hanging in the balance, he'll get hurt and not even notice it. The pain of the wound never registers with the character any more than the fact that he's losing blood. It's only after everything has calmed down that he even becomes aware that he's injured as if the wound never truly existed until The Hero himself observes it.
This is actually Truth in Television: adrenaline suppresses pain. This is a survival trait, as pain exists to warn of injuries but can be debilitating in a dangerous situation. It's common for a person to be unaware of their own injuries during a fight, only to succumb to them afterwards.

There is obviously the potential for TV to exaggerate this effect, sometimes to extremes.

Improve this answer
1
  • Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat.
    – A J ♦
    Commented Sep 11, 2022 at 16:35
16

Yes but I think he did feel it.

He's laying on Jesse and a distinct "OH" is heard from him and he jolts.

Improve this answer
5
  • 3
    Agreed. If you pay attention, he actually does it twice; the first one larger than the second. The movement of his glasses emphasizes it. @ time 0:42. He also seems injured as he rolls off Jesse and takes a while to rise.
    – CitizenRon
    Commented Sep 9, 2022 at 15:00
  • 1
    This may be an instance of "he knows it but we don't", conversely to my 'trope' from the other answer. The final reveal is quite slow to be delivered to the audience. I think they're playing with the realisation moment that you might not spot the origin of at first watching.
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Sep 10, 2022 at 17:24
  • This is correct. Which means that the "Belated Injury Realization" mentioned in the other answer, is incorrect.
    – galacticninja
    Commented Sep 13, 2022 at 13:56
  • That's what actually happened, but the question is one of plausibility. Not incorrect, but also not on-topic, unless you can ask real-world questions here just because you saw it in a movie.
    – Mazura
    Commented Sep 16, 2022 at 22:51
  • > seems to be the first time he knows he has been hit Mazura. The question was inspired by a false assumption and I corrected it, but the question is implicitly two-fold. 1) Did he feel it and 2) would it be realistic if the show claimed he didn't. The question's false assumption is something that needs correcting and simply answering the plausibility allows misinformation to spread. My answer is on-topic, short, to the point, and allows users an excuse to watch an excellent scene in television, and you took time to say it's off topic
    – Raven
    Commented Sep 19, 2022 at 1:56

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .