Dressing as the Enemy: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

[[File:WizOz.jpg|link=The Wizard of Oz (film)|frame|[[Paper-Thin Disguise|A most cunning disguise.]]]]

 

{{quote|'''Princess Leia:''' Aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper?

May lead to [[Friend or Foe]] since you do, after all, look like the enemy.

 

{{examples}}

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* A very odd example comes from ''[[Super Dimension Fortress Macross]]'' and its ''[[Robotech]]'' adaptaion: Max is trapped onboard a Zentraedi warship and hides in a bathroom. An enemy soldier comes in and Max knocks him out and steals his uniform. The pockets come in handy for rescuing the three human prisoners. The oddity is that Max didn't disguise himself, but rather his [[Humongous Mecha]] in the uniform of the equally giant alien.

* ''The Eagle Has Landed'' points out the illegality of this several times. There is a flimsy rationalisation where they wear their German paratrooper uniforms '''underneath''' Polish uniforms, and only engage in actual combat as Germans.

** It wasn't an attempt at an excuse, it was because the German CO regarded the deception as [[Dirty Business]] and was adamant that if their cover was blown "We [[Last Stand|will die]] as what we are; German paratroopers."

* ''[[The Guns of Navarone]]''. After turning the tables on and capturing their German Army interrogators, our heroes don their uniforms and escape.

* Inverted in two different way in ''[[The Dark Knight]]''. First when {{spoiler|the Joker's gang try to kill the mayor by taking the place of Police Officers in a parade}}, and then when {{spoiler|they put ''their'' masks on ''civilians'' who have their mouths taped shut and their hands taped to the fake/unloaded guns}}. The Joker acquires a {{spoiler|nurse's uniform when he goes to pay a visit to Harvey Dent.}}

* ''[[The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (film)|The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen]]''. Secret Service agent Sawyer performs a [[Mugged for Disguise]] on one of the Fantom's [[Mooks]] and then joins them. He later saves the League from being slaughtered by the [[Mook]]'s gunfire by shooting most of them.

* In ''[[The Gumball Rally]]'', one of the entries into the race is a Dodge police cruiser with black and white paint job, and magnetic door decals for police and highway patrol logos of every state they would be crossing through.

 

== [[Literature]] ==

** In ''[[The Aeneid]]'', the tactic is shown from the Trojan's viewpoint; it succeeds for a while, but the Greeks figure out their ploy, and the Trojan archers have no idea that the band of soldiers is made of their allies, so Aeneas loses a few men to the Greeks and to friendly fire.

* In Victor Hugo's [[Les Misérables]] French National Guard uniforms are worn by several {{spoiler|revolutionaries and a jealous adoptive father}} to pass through National Guard lines into the barricades.

** Nobby was never on the losing side of a battle when he was a quartermaster, the reason being that he'd sneak off and change into a stolen enemy uniform the moment his lot started losing. Due to his habit of selling all his army's weapons and armor (often to the enemy) this happened frequently: enough that experienced generals kept an eye on what he was wearing to see how the battle was going.

* In ''[[Open Sesame]]'' by Tom Holt, two main characters prepare to jump on a pair of guards, realise the outfits wouldn't fit, so give the guards their measurements. The guards, who are bound to [[Theory of Narrative Causality|narrative rules]], walk off and send in two more guards, who are promptly knocked unconscious, letting the main characters steal their perfectly fitting costumes.

* Kavi and Jiaan do this to infiltrate a palace under the control of the Hrum in the third book in [[Hilari Bell]]'s [[Farsala Trilogy]].

* Played with during one sequence in the [[Belisarius Series]], the title character has to escape from a city full of bad guys out for his blood. He needs a uniform to escape, but with the thousands of guards looking for him, he has difficulty finding a uniform that's both the right size, the right type, and being worn by a guard he can take out quietly. Several times he pulls a [[Bavarian Fire Drill]] on guards he runs into to get them to search someplace else. Eventually he finds the uniform, and makes it out of the city.

** And again when Hermione and Ron pretend to be Bellatrix and some Death Eater-friendly foreigner to {{spoiler|break into Bellatrix's Gringotts vault}}. Subverted again when {{spoiler|the Goblins had been warned that someone may try to enter the vault, and Hermione having Bellatrix's wand blows her cover instead of helping it.}}

* In David Eddings' ''Tamuli'' series, some of the heroes disguise themselves as mercenaries (complete with different faces) to get into [[The Dragon|Scarpa]]'s army.

* ''[[Mad Magazine]] Super Special Fall 1980''. In ''The Moronic Woman'' (a ''[[Bionic Woman]] parody''), Jammy Summons (Jaime Sommers) and Oscular (Oscar Goldman) have infiltrated the enemy palace. In order to get a guard's uniform for Oscar to wear, Jammy walks around knocking out guards until they find one who is Oscular's size. Oscular puts on the uniform and they go to the office of the dictator.

* ''[[Earthdawn]]'' supplement ''Prelude to War'', adventure "The Dragon's Daughter". The [[PC]]'s must dress up as members of a mercenary band to infiltrate the Theran Behemoth ''Triumph''.

* In ''[[Exalted]]'' you have charms that make any disguise you want to wear, perfect and infallible to non-magical means of perception. A Night caste Solar can infiltrate anything he wants.

 

 

** Also Meryl dressed as one of the guards in the first MGS.

* Several missions in ''[[City of Heroes]]'' and ''City of Villains'' give you an enemy disguise as a temporary power, allowing you to move freely among enemies while it's active. Of course, you don't ''have'' to use it...

* Partially subverted in ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]''. The heroes sneak aboard an enemy ship wearing the enemy army's uniforms. However, one of the teammates, a lion-like quadruped, stands out quite a bit as he staggers about trying to walk on two legs. Also, his tail is showing.

** Which, come to think of it, could easily be a shout-out to ''The Wizard of Oz'', only explaining why that makes sense would involve ''a lot'' of Fridge Logic.

** A major controversy erupted over a level in 4's sequel, in which the player goes undercover as a terrorist, infiltrates the villain's group, and then helps (optionally, the player can choose not to) open fire on dozens of innocent civilians at a Russian airport. However, the villain appears to be too [[Genre Savvy]], {{spoiler|abruptly killing the undercover player at the end of the mission, framing the US for the attack and prompting a Russian invasion of Washington DC. However, the villain was actually told of the undercover player by US General Shepherd himself, who wanted to start a war in which he could use the full power of the US military}}.

* In ''[[Star Fox (series)|StarFox: Adventures]]'', after a certain point in the game, Fox gets a Sharptooth disguise, which although it allows him to open certain doors and not get attacked by the enemy, leaves him unable to use Krystal's staff.

* ''[[Prototype (video game)|Prototype]]'' takes this one step further: not only can you dress up as the enemy, you can ''become'' the enemy by consuming them whole.

* In ''[[Pokémon Gold and Silver|Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver]]'', in which the main character has to dress as a member of Team Rocket to infiltrate the building they just took over. It actually makes sense that it works. Too bad your rival shows up and blows your cover.

* Early FPS/RPG ''[[Strife]]'' has a mission were you need to locate an officer's uniform before you can infiltrate an Order base without setting off all the alarms.

* [[Command & Conquer]] Red Alert 2 and [[Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3|3]] have the Allied spy unit which can do this. The Imperial Sudden Transport from [[Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3]] can disguise itself as an enemy vehicle.

* ''[[Covert Front]]'' has a scene where Kara has to dress in [[Imperial Germany|German]] officer's clothing so that she can drive past a German checkpoint safely. This all hinges on none of the soldiers getting a good look at her and realizing that she is not only a woman, but also the spy whose photograph is plastered over all their bases; once in Lisbon, Kara still has to avoid all the soldiers guarding the roads.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* Subverted in ''[[Antihero for Hire]]''. While the protagonist wears a Mantis Agent's outfit, which conceals the individual from head to toe, the Mantis use electronic and DNA based identification systems, and is immediately recognized as an intruder.

* Played with in [http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/20091016 this] ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' strip.

** [http://sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/091110 Done again] later in the same [[Story Arc]].

* In ''[[Tales Of Gnosis College]]'', Professor Corwin and Li Anwei escape from Federal custody by expropriating the gear of the [[Gas Mask Mooks]] in Senator Madder's "security detail."

* Inverted and played with in ''[[Our Little Adventure]]''. While [[Big Bad|Brian Souballo]] doesn't impersonate any of the heroes of the story, he magically impersonates a neutral wizard he tried and failed to recruit to his side. The Emperor goes to the very elven metropolis he's planning on invading and commits a mass murder while disguised as the neutral wizard. This way if the wizard goes to the city to warn the elves, he will instead be arrested.

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

** Similarly, in "Burns Baby Burns" Homer and Larry Burns are fleeing from the suddenly half-competent Police (who believe Homer to have kidnapped Larry), and duck into a costume store. The viewer is then shown a man who looks quite a bit like Homer, dressed as an organ-gridner leaving the store with a vaguely Larry-shaped man dressed as his monkey. The subversion comes when we see the clerk look into the store's bathroom, where Homer and Larry are actually hiding: "Either buy a costume or get out, fellas!"

** A similar thing happens in ''[[Scary Movie]] 4'', where the would-be clothes stealers are themselves beaten up and have to settle for garments on a clothesline instead.

* [[Inverted Trope|Turning the trick around]], in ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' "[[Avatar: The Last Airbender/Recap/Book 2/18 The Earth King|The Earth King]]", the Fire Nation ''antagonists'' dressed up as ''allies'' of the protagonists.

** Played straight in the first half of season 3 when the Gaang travels though the Fire Nation in local outfits, change their hair styles and Aang even uses a fake name (Kuzon; and when Sokka doesn't he's given away instantly).

* Played dead straightin ''[[The Venture Brothers]]'' by the original Team Venture in "Past Tense". Unfortunately this means [[Squick|a squad of elderly men]] in [[Fan Service|Fanservicey]] [[FemBot]] swimsuits.

* ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]'' episode "Bubble Boy" has Rowdyruff Boy Boomer captured by the girls. Bubbles impersonates him and infiltrates the Rowdyruffs in a bid to capture the other two. It's a nine-day wonder that Butch and Brick didn't catch on to Bubbles' noticeably higher voice and lighter eye color.

 

== Real Life ==

* Navies love this trope. During the Age of Sail, a popular tactic was to raise enemy colours (or, if you were really sneaky, a plague flag) and only lower them at the moment of firing. Died out after advanced naval gunnery and explosive shells meant that it was common practice to sink enemy vessels rather than capture them (the deception only worked if the disguised ship pretended to be a captured enemy one). Still the British raid on St Nazaire used this, flying a German ensign from the HMS Campbeltown. It worked.

** A particularily funny example from [[World War I]] also combined with [[Because I'm Jonesy]]. The British and Germans both employed armed merchant ships (the Germans used them to attack British shipping, the British to hunt down German raiders), and often used fake markings, false smokestacks, and other elements to disguise them as the other side's ship. In the 1914 [[wikipedia:Battle of Trindade|Battle of Trindade]], the German SMS ''Cap Trafalgar'' encountered the British RMS ''Carmania'', both of which were disguised. The problem was that not only was ''Cap Trafalgar'' disguised as ''Carmania'', ''Carmania'' was also disguised as ''Cap Trafalgar''. At that early point in the war, neither side actually knew which merchant ships the other had converted into auxiliary cruisers, and thus both ships' captains made poor choices of disguise.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Disguise Tropes]]

[[Category:Action Adventure Tropes]]

[[Category:Older Than Feudalism]]