Using You All Along

So you're The Hero, and a mysterious figure gives you The Call to adventure! Naturally, you're going to jump at it. So, you go out on your adventure to defeat the Big Bad, possibly gaining four friends along the way, of whom only one is female. Finally, your quest is nearing its close, you confront the Big Bad. But wait, why is he laughing? You most definitely do not suck! You just went through all of those trials and hardships to fight the Big Bad. You fought Mutant Robot Gorillas who were guarding the Ancient Artifact of Doom in order to use its power to defeat the Big Bad! Wait a second, what? You mean that the mysterious figure who gave you The Call was the Big Bad? The Big Bad sent you on a quest to destroy him? Why would he do that? You mean your entire quest was all part of his plan? All this time you were bringing him the MacGuffin?

Alternatively, the Big Bad may be giving the heroes their marching orders, though the heroes are unware of this fact. The heroes may believe they are serving some noble purpose and may or may not use this to justify any distasteful actions they undertake on the Big Bad's behalf. But the truth of the matter is that all the hero's actions somehow advanced the Big Bad's plan and may even include defeating a lesser villain. This lesser villain is often painted as the Big Bad when he is just in the way of the true Big Bad's plan.

In short, when The Hero's entire adventure is an Evil Plan by the Big Bad or someone else.

Compare Detective Patsy, the crime/mystery equivalent. May overlap with MacGuffin Delivery Service or Kansas City Shuffle. If the hero knew he was being played this may be a case of Out Gambitted. If not, then the hero is an Unwitting Pawn. The realization that the heroes were being used will often lead, not entirely justifiably, to Nice Job Breaking It, Hero.

This kind of gambit is one of the trademarks of a Chessmaster or Magnificent Bastard and will often include said person playing the Evil Mentor. At one point the hero or one of his allies may notice something is somewhat off and go running straight to the boss to sort things out. Expect them to run straight into Have You Told Anyone Else? like a brick wall. This is also the usual MO of the Decoy Damsel.

Usually part of the Twist Ending, so spoilers ahoy!

Anime and Manga

 * In Fullmetal Alchemist, all the military operations of the Amestrian Military were orchestrated to sacrifice the entire country to make a massive Philosopher's Stone, so that Father could absorb Truth, i.e. Fullmetal Alchemist's god.
 * In the 2003 anime version, the plan is instead for the Homunculi to use the country to make Philosopher's Stones and become human.
 * Gendo Ikari and definitely Keel Lorenz from Neon Genesis Evangelion.
 * Magic Knight Rayearth..
 * Oban Star Racers, in which, yup, the whole thing is a Xanatos Gambit (more like a Gambit Roulette really) by the Big Bad, Canaletto.

Comic Books

 * In Superman/Batman : Generations, Bruce Wayne Junior as Batman investigates Ra's Al Ghul's organization, and when confronting the head finds out it's not Ra's but.

Fan Works

 * The entire rationale behind With Strings Attached is that the four are being used by the Fans. First they're sent to C'hou by Shag and Varx as part of an undergraduate Alien Psychology experiment. After this collapses and things go weird, they're sent on a quest to remove a curse from a continent and told that's why they were sent to C'hou in the first place.  They mostly learn the truth about   manipulations, but they never do learn about those of Shag and Varx, because the two lie quite convincingly to the four.

Films -- Live-Action

 * This is the surprise twist in the thriller State of Play. Critics generally called it a Shocking Swerve.
 * Total Recall uses this,.
 * In Death Wish IV: The Crackdown', Kersey finds out the rich man who offered him assistance to take out the drug dealers,.
 * "Season of the Witch" actually is about this sort of plot--

Literature

 * In The Man Who Was Thursday, Sunday does this to the entire police force/anarchy council. Unusually in this case, Sunday is a good guy, using other good guys.
 * In the Memory Sorrowand Thorn series by Tad Williams, it is revealed at the end that the titular three magic swords that the heroes were gathering to stop Ineluki were actually the three talismans necessary to free Ineluki. What makes this especially appalling is that the heroes found out about the swords in the first place from a mystical dream, but they also knew that mystical dreams were under the control of Ineluki.
 * Played with in The First Law; the revelation is that Bayaz is actually a villain, but he doesn't hide the fact that the MacGuffin he's after- the Seed- is a terrible destructive weapon, and the enemies he plans on using it on really are as insane and dangerous as they appear to be and need to be stopped, even if Bayaz is probably more evil. Plus, the quest to find it fails (though it turned out to be closer than anyone thought), and the Ragtag Bunch of Misfits he assembles aren't actually very nice people. Ferro, the one who actually finds the Seed, discovers what a treacherous backstabbing bastard Bayaz is as soon as she gets it...but decides to let him have it anyway, since they happen to have the same enemies and she hates them even more than he does. Ferro regrets it, but that regret becomes an Ignored Epiphany.
 * Done twice in fact, when its discovered that Quai- Bayaz's assistant- was murdered and replaced by Tolomei, a girl from Bayaz's past he claims was killed by her father (when in fact he murdered both of them). Played more straight in that she wants it to bring forth The Legions of Hell and bring about The End of the World As We Know It, and nobody thinks thats a good idea.

Live Action TV

 * In CSI, we're led to believe season 8's Big Bad is Lou Gedda, until the finale when.
 * Sloan and SD-6 on Alias, though unusually, it is revealed almost immediately.
 * Every Winchester in Supernatural falls into this trope, due to . Especially John and Dean, but especially especially Sam. Several people use this as evidence that there is no free will- or at very least, not for humans.
 * Doctor Who and

Tabletop Games

 * Dungeons and Dragons adventure The Apocalypse Stone. A high level wizard tricks a party of PC's into stealing a stealing a powerful magic item for him by pretending to be a divine messenger.
 * Call of Cthulhu supplement Curse of the Chthonians, adventure "The Curse of Chaugnar Faugn". The investigators are manipulated into helping a mad professor bring the statue of a powerful Mythos deity to life.

Video Games

 * Bomberman64
 * Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia did this. Just saying the title's probably spoiling it, as there's really only one person who you report to in this game.
 * Crackdown:  turns out to be one of these.
 * Assassin's Creed:
 * Code Name: Viper has the player rescuing fellow operatives, each of whom has bits and pieces of a message revealing the identity of the terrorist leader.
 * The original Metal Gear: Big Boss is the Big Bad! In Metal Gear Solid.
 * Baten Kaitos, specifically the second game of the series.
 * One of the storylines in Sonic Heroes involves someone hiring the protagonists to solve a crime. Subverted though, he really did need their help.
 * The final boss of Milky Way Wishes in Kirby Super Star:
 * Again in Kirbys Return to Dream Land:
 * Jade Empire: Taken to it's logical extreme.
 * Very common in Japanese RPGs
 * This is the storyline of Konquest mode of Mortal Kombat: Deception.
 * Deus Ex: JC's employer for the first three missions is.
 * Bio Shock:
 * In Mega Man X Command Mission,
 * Wet's first mission.
 * Wario Land 3: "A hidden figure" is actually Rudy the giant evil clown, taking advantage of Wario's greed in order to unseal himself.
 * Final Fantasy XIII:

Western Animation

 * The Flintstones: In The Man Called Flintstone.