"...destroying his left frontal lobe-" little did matpat know he was going to do a lot more cases on frontal lobes two years later...

the production quality has gone up tremendously since this video

Me: "Are you my brain?" Brain-in-a-jar: "Ah, lovely, figured that out, have we? Would you like a cookie?" Me: "Yes."

Headshots in Bethesda games are just flesh wounds, a good nights rest will fix it

The perfect blend of attributes allowed the Courier to survive. He was just strong enough to stop the bullet's force. He was just perceptive enough to notice the angle of the gun. He was just durable enough to survive the ensuing bloodloss. He was just charismatic enough to make Benny doubt his aim. He was just intelligent enough to know how to angle his head. He was just agile enough to move his head in the right direction. And he was just lucky enough so that these all came together. Add those up in any way and you have the perfect recipe for a revenge-fueled Wasteland Survival Guru.

It's amazing how the human body can live without the frontal lobe... Y'know?

talking to my brain was probably my favourite part of fallout: new vegas

When quarantine gets to you and you end up watching 8 year old videos

Benny's pistol could also have misfired, and since one can load their own rounds in the game, it is quite possible, whether Benny or an underling hand-loaded the rounds, the rounds were packed with insufficient powder. This is a likely scenario because Doc Mitchel plainly states HE HAD TO DIG OUT THE BULLET. This would mean the round was highly likely a junk round (very lousy ammo in the game), and had a lower muzzle velocity. Benny is portrayed as a poser; he acts like a big shot, but he's also cheap (he weasels out of paying the Khans he hired). I also doubt Benny is much of a marksman since he, again, is a poser. He relies on his underlings to do his dirty work, and let's face it, none of them are very bright. So combined with lack of marksmanship, a highly decorative - yet mediocre - 9mm pistol that probably hasn't been properly maintained, and finally the high probability of low-grade ammo combined with poor maintenance means Courier Six could have survived a headshot fired from Maria. As for the second shot you mentioned, when did that happen? Doc Mitchel only dug out ONE bullet. As for bleeding, Vic pulled you from the ground and brought you to Doc Mitchel within minutes of being shot, increasing the odds of post-headshot survival greatly. Finally, one last aspect that probably doesn't matter, but considering the odds of junk rounds being used, deserts get cold at night, and it's quite possible a poorly crafted bullet would allow excess gasses to escape ahead of the bullet due to imperfections in the geometry combined with condensing metal as the temperature drops. Like I said, that probably doesn't make much of a difference, but it sure doesn't help.

It is literally impossible, even with a critical hit, for Maria to kill the player in the cutscene using the combat damage tables. Even at level 1, Endurance 1, no armor, and assuming Benny has maxed Guns skill (he doesn't), it doesn't do enough damage to kill even with the critical and headshot bonuses. Ain't that a kick in the head?

"destroying his left frontal lobe" me: FNAF is that you?

Maybe the glitch at the beginning of FNV, where Doc Mitchell's head turned, wasn't an actual glitch. Maybe it's the aftermath of the courier getting shot in the head by Benny and having sustained minor brain damage! Mind=Blown.

I've always found it ironic that there are laws for war. "You can kill people, but only using this ammo"

Oh my Talos! They killed...You know what? No-one actually cares about Heimskr.

"You should have aimed for the head"

Didn't the Courier only get shot once...?

I just assumed Benny didn't put any points in PER or Guns.

Phineas and Ferb reference? Just when I thought you couldn't get any more awesome.

Don't worry, Courier had 10 Luck

Wait what? When the hell did the courier in New Vegas get shot in the head a second time by Benny?!? In the dialogue with Mobius in the Old World Blues DLC the courier said "bullet" not *bullets* when addressing his/her cranial injury.

You also have to consider the possibility that the Courier is super human. Seriously, look at the shit he endures with basically no real effort. I'm starting to think all the protagonists from Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout 3 and New Vegas are the same bloodline, considering they're all capable of FAR more feats of terrifying ability than anyone else in the wasteland.

The Courier was only shot once. The whole shot twice thing comes from the original cut intro for new Vegas in which jessup pistol whips you then Benny shoots you in the head twice.

_What MatPat failed to take into account is that the moment "New Game" was clicked on, The Courier became the Player Character, therefore gaining a suite of supernatural capabilities, ranging from control over reality itself via Console Commands, the ability to create return points in the timeline, carrying hundreds of pounds without trouble, and of course, surviving many many headshots over the course of a short time. Though it would have been more realistic if you had the "Head Crippled" status effect when you woke up._

Love these old ones definitely gonna miss him

You know, considering that Fallout takes place in a post-apocalyptic world, and that a lot is salvaged from pre-war era, maybe Benny shot you with bad bullets: one in which the gunpowder has degraded to the point where it couldn't propel the bullet to lethal speeds.

maybe he shot the protagonist in the mouth, because we all know how good our vault boys are at speaking actual words :D

holdup, Holdup, HOLDUP!!!! I thought hippocampi were magical fish horses! ...PERCY JACKSON YOU LIED TO ME!!!

I just realized benny kinda looks like the guy in the Westside story scene he showed, that combined with benny naming his gun Maria can only mean one thing... TIME TRAVEL

The funny thing? In-game, it's absolutely impossible to die from just two headshots from Benny's Maria, if you're at full health.

dont forget, sometimes in fallout when YOU shoot them in the head, they dont die instantly

Returning to this video after Matthew's retirement feels like re-entering a favorite gaming world, each theory and revelation a new level unlocked in our quest for knowledge. It's like flipping through a well-worn strategy guide, uncovering hidden secrets and strategies to conquer the next boss.

Mat, if you see this, know that I will forever have the "Maria" jingle from WSS stuck in my head because of how you kept using it, and I thank you.

In real life, you're dead. But this is Fallout which being in the future with a 1940's theme... its the future past, they clearly show all throughout the game they have advanced technology and medical improvements. They also showcase their ability to change how your mind things. In the game if you get addicted to something no matter how bad it is, they give you something and bam addictions gone like it never even happened. That means they would have had to use something to fix the brain's chemical dependency which is not possible today. So it's possible they could fix someone up, hell they could create humans in that game so... yeah not a problem for them.

I think the courier did suffer brain damage and that's why he can do anything without guilt or remorse and he sees war as just a game.

"Some children are more special than others," I died.

Remember the days when you didn't have to put a disclaimer on a video telling kids not to shoot themselves point blank in the head because it is technically possible to survive

Ok, I might have to point out a few flaws in your theory... here's four points that might be clarifying. 1. You CAN find hollow point ammo in the Mojave Wasteland. It's very uncommon, but there are merchants that sell different ammo types in the wasteland, such as the standard FMJ, to even incendiary rounds. It's just few and far between to find it. I'll bet my Pipboy 3000 somebody sells 9mm ammo variants it in the game. Benny probably only had standard (not hollow) ammo on hand when he tried to kill you, thus that why you probably survived. 2. You DID suffer memory loss in the game. (SPOILER) It is implied that you used to do Courier work, and that you were supposed to deliver a package to Benny. There was a snafu, and Benny decided to take the package for himself, I believe... Haven't played to far in the game, but that's the main thing I remember... 3. The Geneva Convention doesn't mean crap in 2281. Otherwise there wouldn't have been a full scale nuclear war in the first place. Everybody used the most devastating weapons they could find or make. They even have a gun called the Fat Man, which is a friggin portable mini-nuke gun! Definitely not friendly with the Geneva Convention. O_o 4. Benny goofed up when he tried killing you. Like you said at the end. It take two shots to kill you in the head point blank (insert movie reference here). The first would render you unconscious. After Benny shot you once, he probably would have thought you were dead, since you appeared to be, when you were actually unconscious. What if it was a perfect storm? Benny's bad aim, standard ammo instead of hollow point, and a doctor nearby to fix your head. That would be extremely lucky, but hey. After all, you ARE in Vegas! Also... BOOM. Headshot!

I have a theory for you. The Courier has been exposed to radiation just as much as the next guy in the wastes. They are not the same as us anymore. The radiation could have of toughened their skin or their muscle mass to soften the impact or penetration of a 9mm ball. A rifle round would be a different story in this case though.

Glad to see the video is back to being public, I remember a few years ago I tried to find this again and I had to watch it on some random guys channel

Hop on the fallout4 hype train

How do you know that Benny was using ball ammo? Did you forget that AP and hollow point are readily available in NV? No one cares about the GC anymore after all. Also, the guns you're using in most modern shooters fire a much smaller round then older guns do. 5.56, what the M16 uses, is basically a .22 on steroids.

.22+brain almost always equals death. It's a very valuable tool for real life hitmen because the bullet has enough force to go into the skull but, usually, not enough to escape it. So it ricochets in your head. I'm not going to speak on headshots with other calibre guns but in real life higher calibre bullets tend to have a lower mortality rate for body shots than lower calibre bullets. Hence why a lot of murder victims were killed with lower calibre bullets and why so many people survive a .50 calibre shot (again, talking about body shots). Bullets are said to be most dangerous when there's no escape wound.

saw the live stream and i thought "what my favorite theory?" and man seeing all these old videos warms my heart so much. seeing mat grow and make so much change has been such an experience as a viewer and I can't wait for more to come

Who else came here after watching mat pat's video on the value of nuke cola bottle caps?

Holy hot damn, I didn't expect this to be a two year old video when I just watched the newest video on the page.

2:37 All children are S.P.E.C.I.A.L :D (Fallout 3 :P )

One thing to note though the bullet didnt penetrate enough (at least one of them didnt) as Doc removed it to the point where you can pick it up as in game item.

You gotta love old mat

6:20 Abs-Sew-Lute-Lee-Knot. This made me subscribe XD

Huh? Who says he shot you twice? He only fires one shot. Besides, he even mentions in the game that it serves him right for using a 9mm. Also, this being 200-odd years past the apocalypse, that's unlikely to be match grade factory ammo he was using. could be it was a shitty low-quality hand-load with bad powder. The theories so far are about cranial shots. There have been people shot in the face where the bullet never even made contact with the cranium. It'll still make a mess and knock you out, but that was used for the justification of character customisation: Doc Mitchell had to reconstruct your face and pull bits of bullet out of your head.

I would like to point out 8 years lateyears late that your character gets shot twice in the head

3:34 phinas and ferb .

5:15 you know you've been on youtube too long when you recognize this call of duty video...

We have to remeber that your enemies in fallout can sometime survive more than ten headshots.

Considering the performance of Maria in-game, the tumbling pattern of the bullet would likely traumatize an entire hemisphere of the brain, triggering almost instant death. Especially if he has Hollow Points loaded. PS, the Geneva conventions don't really apply to the civilian market, seeing as you can buy Hollow Points if you really want to.

Whoa ...production values are amazing now. Good job. This video reminds me of watching VHS now that I'm used to HD

In fallout new vegas theres an add-on called the Big MT, in this add-on you get to meet your own brain which is mostly visible inside a glass tank (its at this point you can actually see where the bullet hit)

Clive Wearing reminded me of the movie 50 first dates, having to repeat the day like that and then losing and repeating.

The guy with the missing jaw was actually a very good sniper for some European county. Can't remember which. He was brilliant against the Russians. He killed hundreds. He survived mortar fire and everything, but got shot in the face which took his bottom jaw. 1:45

8 years later and this is still my favorite game theory video. 😊

Wait what? When does Benny shoot the courier twice? It's one gun shot and then the game cuts to intro?

3:20 "It's amazing what you can do without the frontal lobe..."

10:16 hahahahah I can just HEAR him grinning sarcastically

Proud to say I've been watching since these olden days of yore. I remember when the main channel was called MatthiewPatrick13

In my research, I found something interesting. In the final version of the game, Benny only shot once. However, before that cutscene was made, there was a placeholder one that wasnt pre-rendered, wherein benny shot twice. I believe most dialogue that states that it was two shots is leftover from before that change was made.

What's the song at the end? and DON'T say the meme that shall not be spoken. You know the one.

I love how you managed to get Jerry's stand-up routine nailed. I laughed so hard one of my roommates told me to get help. XD

Thanks Mat for reminding me of the tub thumping song, I used to like it as a child in the 90's.

If anyone is wondering, the musical is West Side Story.

I miss him putting those songs at the end.

The show is called Phineas and Freb. The girl's name is Isabella.

Still my favourite episode of game theory. Shame the ending got scuffed due to copyright claims

OH MY GOD I thought I was the only one who thought your brain sounded like Stewie!

One mistake, when you said "you are using high caliber full auto weapons as opposed to the simple handgun in Fallout" (paraphrasing), you showed gameplay with an MP9, ironically as it's name suggests it is also a 9mm, no more powerful. Also, there is no indication the 9mm ammo in Fallout is Ball, the more popular pistol cartridges for civilian defense is hollow point and seeing as Fallout is based off off of a 50's style america where the army is using .45 ammo of the real 50's US military or the fictional 12mm pistol, most 9mm ammo found in America would be civilian hollow point style. Also, interesting story, my father is an old police officer and his city was one of the few to still have .38 revolvers at the beginning of his service, the .38 is even more prone to unsatisfactory power than a 9mm, he knows a fellow officer who shot a perp in the chest and it deflected off of his sternum 90 degrees upwards, split the tip of his nose and broke a neon sign above him. Another story had a perp shot in the side of his head, the bullet stayed under the skin and didn't penetrate the skull, causing it to follow the curve of his head and lazily drop out of a hole on the exact opposite side of his skull. After my father saw the guy with nothing but two cotton balls stopping the bleeding from small holes in his skin on either side to his head (my dad not aware of the circumstances), he asked: "What happened to this guy?" "He got shot in the head." "Haha, no, seriously"

Any video with my good friend Phineas Gage is a good video. He actually rode back into town and when he was talking to the doctor, the doctor didn't believe he actually had a metal rod go through his head!

It makes sense that a simple mild mannered courier would turn into the wasteland demon after taking frontal lobe damage

This always gets me about X-Men. In X-Men origins, Wolverine is shot in the front of the head, the frontal lobe, which is dealing with problem solving. Realistically, our Wolverine should get up and forget how to walk, not forget his past.

When did you get shot twice? I've had 8-9 play throughs of that game and I only remember one.

I think watching the older videos is better because there isn’t forced advertising squeezed into the actual content.

Love the song at the end. Just wonderful.

how do we know we were shot twice? the robot and the doctor says "bullet" which is not plural.

"Oh i see."

This is the only game theory video I havent seen in 3 years!

Omg this video is old..... Damn I remember watching this when it came out

I knew Phineas Gage would be mentioned in this...

I got shot in the face wit a an air soft gun

When madpatt had no filter

thanks for the biology and ballistics lesson

Mentioning the Geneva convention is totally irrelevant as it ONLY applies to war and was thrown out window when the entire world was nuked (the Geneva convention says thats a no-no too by the way). Also, a 9mm round is actually larger slug than most military weapons which generally fire 5.56 or 7.62 mm ammo, but those rounds usually have more powder. Hollow point and jacket rounds will work just fine in any standard 9mm pistol and are available in the game. So, odds are, Benny is shooting a larger, slower bullet that is designed to deform on impact and WONT pass through the skull resulting in the bullet likely only barely breaching the skull and lodging itself in the soft gray matter a couple inches in which coincides with what the doctor says when mentions pulling bits of bullet out of your head.

:) I think the more pressing question is...guy get's shot in brain...survives...becomes completely mentally/physically superfunctional killing machine for various factions. It be like me getting shot in the head and going on to win the Olympics...ALL EVENTS.

no-one ever thought how the bullet felt

The funny thing is that this show has taught me more about science than my school ever has :D

I don't remember anything about Benny firing a second shot? Where did that last point come from?

You just dropped down my level of fear when it comes to headshots. Thanks Game Theory!

more than 3 years old, wow Game Theory has changed in a sense that the quality has gotten better as well as not changed at the same time lol

It's so weird watching Baby MatPat now that he's Old Man KZfaq 😆 ::waves from 2023::

I am hopeing Inaho survives the head shot edit: He lives!!!

Benny should have used an energy weapon, then he wouldn't even have to bury the body, because the Courier would be ash. Being able to easily survive headshots actually makes sense once you get the Brainless perk from OWB. No brain, just a receiver so you are essentially piloting your body remotely.

Omg that kitty drinking the milkshake becoming smart was ADORABLE!!!

This video actually help me remember things for psychology class