Dressing as the Enemy: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

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

 

 

 

* Parodied in ''[[Austin Powers]]: International Man of Mystery''. Miss Kensington and Austin follow a pair of Virtucom employees into the restrooms, one a very tall and lanky man, the other an obese woman, and emerge seconds later in perfectly fitted uniforms.

* ''[[Indiana Jones (Franchise)|Indiana Jones]]'':

** ''[[Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade (Film)|Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade]]''

*** Indiana knocked out a Nazi officer at a book burning rally, leading to a too-close encounter with Der Führer himself.

* ''[[Bill and Teds Bogus Journey]]'' has the title pair do this to get into [[Fluffy Cloud Heaven]]. Once they do this, [[Fridge Logic]] rears its head to them: they mugged two guys in ''Heaven''.

* Subverted in the Swedish film ''The Third Wave''. A hitman who's stalking his target through an anti-globilisation riot kills a riot policeman and steals his gun, uniform and face-concealing helmet. This enables the hitman to get close to the protagonist and execute him with a shot to the head -- unfortunately it turns out the gun he stole is [[Oh Crap|loaded with plastic bullets]].

* ''[[The Wizard of Oz (Film)|The Wizard of Oz]]''. Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the Cowardly Lion are ambushed by three of the Wicked Witch of the West's castle guards. In the next scene, the heroes sneak into the witch's castle dressed in the guards' uniforms.

* ''The Simpsons Movie''. Homer dresses as a hotel doorman to fool a soldier that he is a superior officer. He's only given away when the soldier queries why an order from the President is written on a leaf.

** John keeps wearing the Peacekeeper uniform throughout the season, though, partially because he doesn't exactly have a whole lot of changes of clothes with him and partially because it makes him look badass.

** How often it actually works depends on how merciful the writers are at the time. In "Liars, Guns and Money Part 1," Crichton and Aeryn knock out a couple of guards in the middle of their bank heist, but are ambushed by more guards before they've even finished pulling the clothes off. Crichton flees with a half-hearted "Uh... they went that way!" to the new arrivals.

** Also used by Hiro and Ando, but Hiros glasses and lack of English give him away, forcing Ando to stun the other soldiers with his power.

* Used on a number of occasions in ''[[Stargate SG 1|Stargate SG-1]]''.

* Spoofed in [[Final Fantasy IX]]. Zidane and Blank steal Pluto Knight armor, and comment about the armor being sweaty, stinky, and breadcrumbs being in the pockets.

* ''[[Chrono Cross (Video Game)|Chrono Cross]]'' features a particularly goofy example. Access to the inner sanctum of Viper Manor requires the heroes to dress up in the uniforms of three guards. Three radically different-looking party members will all look the same, but pretty puffy pink pooch Poshul doesn't even bother putting on a uniform. Nobody seems to notice two guards hanging out with a neon-pink talking dog.

* ''[[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.

** Looker, being a spy and all, does this a few times.

** One part of the 2007 fangame Pokémon Illusion requires the player to put on a Team Rocket outfit for infiltration purposes. {{spoiler|Then Giovanni recognizes them when he addresses the grunts.}} Whoops!

* In ''[[Tales of Symphonia (Video Game)|Tales of Symphonia]]'' the healer of the group {{spoiler|and the failure assassin Sheena, if you chose the hard path}} dress up as Desians to infiltrate one of their ranches to destroy.

* ''[[Ever Quest|EverQuest: Secrets of Faydwer]]'' features a task called "Disrupt the Workshop", in which you are required to disguise yourself with a clockwork gnome illusion. This allows you to walk freely throughout S.H.I.P. Workshop without drawing the attention of most of its otherwise hostile inhabitants. Since you are allowed to refresh the disguise at will as long as the task is in your journal, this can be abused to make any endeavors in the zone much easier.

== [[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]].

** "The Crystalites". Zandor, Gloop and Gleep knock out some guards and enter the title opponents' fortress dressed in their uniforms.

** "Ruler of the Reptons". After knocking out several reptanks, several Herculoids use the tanks' shells as disguises to approach the enemy base.

* ''[[The Powerpuff Girls (Animation)|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.