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Dressing as the Enemy: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:WizOz.jpg|link=The Wizard of Oz (Film)|
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May lead to [[Friend or Foe]] since you do, after all, look like the enemy.
See also [[The Mole]], [[Trojan Prisoner]], [[Hey, Wait!]]. On a regimental scale, this is a [[False
{{examples}}
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== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* ''[[Hogan's Heroes]]'' used it a lot, to the point where they have an entire wardrobe full of various German uniforms of differing ranks and positions tailored to fit each of the Heroes. In one notable case, a pair of British spies impersonated an SS film crew to film the camp unnoticed.
* Subverted in the ''[[
** In at least three stories, the Doctor and his allies manage to disable a Dalek, remove the mutant inside, and substitute one of their number. How a whole person fits in there, when the mutant that came out is not much bigger than a human head, [[Fridge Logic|is never made clear]].
** At other times, people have fooled Daleks by dressing up as Robomen or Dalek troopers. In the former case, the deception was falling apart, but was saved when the Dalek were distracted by an attack by people without disguises. In the latter, the deception worked until they were seen in the self destruct chamber.
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* Played completely straight the first time we actually meet the Breen on ''[[Star Trek Deep Space Nine]]''.
* In an involuntary example of this trope, [[Star Trek the Next Generation|Troi]] wakes up one episode to find herself cosmetically augemented to look Romulan.
* Appropriately this comes up in the second [[Paintball Episode]] in ''[[Community (TV)|Community]]''. [[The One With...]] the [[Star Wars|Stormtrooper-esque]] bad guys.
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* In ''[[The Saboteur]]'', Sean is able to knock out a Nazi soldier and take their jacket. However he must only stealth kill to get the outfit as the blood would immediately give him away. Also it is noted in the How To part of the game that Sean reeks so much of booze and smokes that if he was to get to close to the Nazis for too long they will be able to spot him out.
** That, and he only ever takes the jacket and headgear, and leaves the pants and boots alone. While it's justified for a few reasons (There's usually too much risk to spend time putting on the full uniform and, in any case, the guy's likely soiled himself as he goes down - [[Squick|Not pretty]].) it does result in him being out of uniform from the waist down. Also, for whatever reason, Sean also refuses to wear the armband as well.
* In ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'', when Locke infiltrates South Figaro, you can switch between Locke's normal outfit, a merchant outfit, and an Imperial guardsman outfit; if you rescue Celes while wearing the guardsman outfit, Locke hides in plain sight as the enemy soldiers walk out, and there's a [[Shout
* A main ability of the protagonists in ''[[Spy Fiction]]''.
* It is entirely possible to beat ''[[Fallout]] 2'' in around eleven minutes, by swiping a suit of enemy power armor and waltzing into their nigh-impenetrable fortress.
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* The cartoonish class-based [[First-Person Shooter]] ''[[Team Fortress 2 (Video Game)|Team Fortress 2]]'' gives this ability to the Spy class, who is able to dress as any friendly or enemy character class. Opposing players see the model he is disguised as, but his allies see the Spy model in a cheap cardboard mask of the class he's impersonating.
* ''[[Red Faction]]'' features a slightly more realistic version in which your disguise will only stand up if you avoid getting closer than about ten feet to an enemy guard/camera for longer than around a second (you're basically public enemy #1 at this point).
** Even though it may be faster to run through guns blazing, you [[But Thou Must!|still]] need to switch clothing. The second time around, feel free to skip the disguise.
* In ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'', you have to do this twice: once, you wear a stolen Sith uniform to gain access to the lower levels of Taris, and later you have to wear Sand People's robes to safely approach a Sand People Enclave.
** Subverted on both occasions. On Taris, the uniform only works with the upper lever guard. The lower guard demands that you show him the proper papers before you pass. On Tatooine, the Tusken Raiders realise you're an imposter on closer inspection...[[Fridge Logic|somehow...]]
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* ''[[Fallout New Vegas|Fallout: New Vegas]]'' lets you disguise yourself with certain factions' armor, which causes those factions to think you're a friendly, but also makes their enemies hostile as well. In other words, walking into an NCR Outpost wearing Caesar's Legion armor is a good way to get yourself ventilated.
** This was after the aversion in ''Fallout 3''; on the way to see the President in Raven Rock, it's very possible to mug an isolated Enclave soldier for issue weapon and armor. They don't react any differently, and your impersonation isn't lampshaded or handwaved.
* ''[[Assassin's Creed II (Video Game)|Assassin's Creed II]]'' has dressing as a guard and carrying a chest to meet {{spoiler|Rodrigo Borgia}}. ''[[Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (Video Game)|Assassin's Creed Brotherhood]]'' also has a mission that involves dressing as a guard and carrying a chest to meet {{spoiler|a Borgia}}, as well as dressing as a Frenchman alongside Bartolomeo's men to infiltrate the French camp.
* 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 and Conquer]] Red Alert 2 and [[Red Alert 3|3]] have the Allied spy unit which can do this. The Imperial Sudden Transport from [[Red Alert 3]] can disguise itself as an enemy vehicle.
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== Real Life ==
* Thousands of [[Truth in Television]] examples. Not counting [[False
** A number of German soldiers who dressed in American uniforms in late 1944 were summarily court-martialled and executed when caught.
* The [[American Civil War]] battle at Pilot Knob ended with the union soldiers blowing up their cache of ammo and powder, and evacuating the fort under cover of night and rain wearing confederate uniforms.
* It's not actually ''illegal'' per se to dress in your enemy's uniform while engaging in hostile acts, but it does mean that you are not a soldier in combat, which means you're an ''enemy combatant'', and the other side can do to you as they wish after they capture you.
** It is however illegal to engage in perfidy (opening you to war crimes charges), which is using a hospital or truce sign to wage war.
* In nature, [
* This was the main modus operandi of the [
* 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 One]] 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 [
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Older Than Feudalism]]
[[Category:Dressing As The Enemy]]
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