Magic Plastic Surgery: Difference between revisions
adding reference to Instant Plastic Surgery
m (Mass update links) |
RivetVermin (talk | contribs) (adding reference to Instant Plastic Surgery) |
||
| (18 intermediate revisions by 8 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
[[File:
For all that TV does to hurt the laws of physics, there's another discipline that has it worse. Reconstructive and cosmetic surgery, more so than any other form of medical or scientific endeavor, is severely abused on TV.
Granted, cosmetic techniques can do some amazing stuff. There are ways to lengthen bones in legs, alter the shape and position of facial features, alter the length and shape of the vocal cords, seamlessly integrate an enormous bosom onto a tiny
In the least accurate TV
This happens in daytime soaps when a major character is recast. A more minor character will usually get the [[The Other Darrin|"Other Darrin"]] treatment, but if the change in appearance is to be a plot point, it will be through '''Magic Plastic Surgery'''. Sometimes the character will keep his identity a secret. Sometimes the audience is in the know, but sometimes not. Often there is an element of doubt.
Magic Plastic Surgery rarely seems to take into account the character's height, or voice, or scent, and may make an [[Easy Sex Change]] even easier. Compare with [[Latex Perfection]] and [[Instant Plastic Surgery]]. For when the surgery is used to impersonate someone else, see [[Surgical Impersonation]].▼
▲Magic Plastic Surgery rarely seems to take into account the character's height, or voice, or scent, and may make an [[Easy Sex Change]] even easier. Compare with [[Latex Perfection]]. For when the surgery is used to impersonate someone else, see [[Surgical Impersonation]].
{{examples}}
* One chapter of [[Osamu Tezuka]] 's ''[[
▲== Anime & Manga ==
▲* One chapter of [[Osamu Tezuka]] 's ''[[Black Jack (Manga)|Black Jack]]'' involved a doctor blaming a deadly mistake on the nurse who was just following his orders, ruining her life. She attempts suicide, but the eponymous super surgeon offers her a chance at payback, which involves turning her into an exact likeness of the pop idol the doctor was obsessed with. It doesn't take much effort for her to get the evidence Black Jack needs to blackmail the villain out of his profession. In an extra twist, it's revealed at the end that the reason the nurse's transformation into the pop idol's double was so flawless (in addition to Black Jack's improbable skills) is because Black Jack ''himself'' gave the pop idol that face.
** This goes up a notch when the Black Jack's father comes back into the picture after his second wife Renka is disfigured. This is the new wife whom he left Black Jack and his mother for while they were hospitalized in an explosion. His father gets his help to repair the new wife's face, and 'make her more beautiful' while at it. Black Jack complies and gives Renka ''his mother's'' face: partially to punish his [[Jerkass]] father, partially because Black Jack ''genuinely'' thought his [[Hot Mom]] was the most beautiful woman ever.
** Another example: Black Jack uses plastic surgery to turn a deer into a human, complete with speech and sudden awareness.
** In another story, a rich guy wants Black Jack to save his jerkass son who's been severely injured in a car crash, and has a random bystander (who is a very nice guy) accused of trying to kill said son and [[Organ Theft|sentenced to death so that his organs can be used for the operation]]. Black Jack instead gives the bystander plastic surgery to make him look exactly like the son. By grafting the son's skin on him (or if you prefer the ironic formulation, by grafting ''every'' organ into the son, brain included).
* ''[[Pretty Face]]'' plays the trope a little closer to reality than
* ''[[One Piece]].''
** Taken to insane extremes in
* Magic is literally used to transform a homely otaku into a handsome bishonen the manga ''Duck Prince'', but the spell takes effect in such a way as to make it look like magic plastic surgery -- Facial reconstruction surgery after a car accident and a growth spurt experienced during a year-long coma. ▼
** This is basically Emporio Ivankov's super-power. His Horu Horu no Mi Devil Fruit is notorious for being able to give a subject an [[Easy Sex Change]], but in truth, he can alter a person's hormones to change their appearance in a variety of ways, including body temperature, skin pigmentation, growth, stamina, even their emotional state. (Yeah, he can cure depression.) Because he tends to associate with enemies of the World Government, his talents are ideal for a criminal on the lam who needs a change of identity.
* Used in ''[[Durarara]]'', when a girl named {{spoiler|Mika Harima}} gets one of this after being disfigured by {{spoiler|Seiji Yagiri, who smashes her face into a wall for sneaking into his apartment and taking a look at Celty's deatatched head.}}▼
▲* Magic is literally used to transform a homely otaku into a handsome bishonen the manga ''Duck Prince'', but the spell takes effect in such a way as to make it look like magic plastic
▲* Used in ''[[Durarara!!]]'', when a girl named {{spoiler|Mika Harima}} gets one of this after being disfigured by
* ''[[Franken Fran]]''. More often the grotesque variety as seen in the first school episode, where the students are outdoing each other in requesting the most outrageous mutilations they can think of. And imagine how many of their parents wouldn't even let them get their ears pierced.
* ''[[
* ''[[Hanna Of The Z]]'': The titular character has to impersonate her friend and club member Kuunyan in a fighting tournament (after accidently knocking her out with a flying fist) but lacks Kuunyan's large breasts. So other club member Mamia performs a very impromptu breast enhancement... using a saw and a kitchen knife, and recycled paper as filling. This only works because Hanna can heal anything and is practically immortal. Mamia says that she never could do the same thing on a normal person.
* ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'': Several bounties were captured using a device that could show how probable a target was the bounty with plastic surgery.
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* Christopher Chance, [[The DCU]]'s ''Human Target'', has made a career of impersonating people with dangerous lives. He's had plastic surgery more times than should be possible in a single issue alone, and much more. He's used plastic surgery to become ''black'' before. He's had his face altered to look like a man for a short time, then returned to his normal face, then altered to resemble the same man ''again'', ''then'' back to his regular face again, with no ill effect. Cosmetic surgery is basically used as a magic wand. At least some of Chance's transformations are done with latex masks, body suits, makeup and suchlike. [[Latex Perfection|The masks are as suspiciously convincing and easily removed]] as those in ''Scooby
* In one storyline of [[The Punisher]], from [[Marvel Comics]], the scarred villain Jigsaw decides to get revenge on Frank by carving up his mug to scar ''him''. Frank escapes and uses his knowledge of the underworld to dig up a talented plastic surgeon. This one was forced to quit because of prescription drug abuse. And of course she is hot. But anyway, to make a somewhat believable story insanely goofy, the un-licensed surgeon not only un-scars Frank (why couldn't Jigsaw find her) but turns him BLACK.
▲* Christopher Chance, [[The DCU]]'s ''Human Target'', has made a career of impersonating people with dangerous lives. He's had plastic surgery more times than should be possible in a single issue alone, and much more. He's used plastic surgery to become ''black'' before. He's had his face altered to look like a man for a short time, then returned to his normal face, then altered to resemble the same man ''again'', ''then'' back to his regular face again, with no ill effect. Cosmetic surgery is basically used as a magic wand. At least some of Chance's transformations are done with latex masks, body suits, makeup and suchlike. [[Latex Perfection|The masks are as suspiciously convincing and easily removed]] as those in ''Scooby Doo''.
* Shortly before his death, [[The Flash|Barry Allen]] was in a fight and has his face beaten to hamburger only to have his face reconstructed to a completely different appearance (by gorilla surgeons, no less!)
▲* In one storyline of [[The Punisher]], from [[Marvel Comics]], the scarred villain Jigsaw decides to get revenge on Frank by carving up his mug to scar ''him''. Frank escapes and uses his knowledge of the underworld to dig up a talented plastic surgeon. This one was forced to quit because of prescription drug abuse. And of course she is hot. But anyway, to make a somewhat believable story insanely goofy, the un-licensed surgeon not only un-scars Frank (why couldn't Jigsaw find her) but turns him BLACK.
* Though admittedly spread out over a few continuities, [[The Batman
▲* Shortly before his death, [[The Flash|Barry Allen]] was in a fight and has his face beaten to hamburger only to have his face reconstructed to a completely different appearance (by gorilla surgeons, no less!)
▲* Though admittedly spread out over a few continuities, [[The Batman (Animation)|Two-Face]] has had his face fixed and [[Status Quo Is God|un-fixed]] more times than you would care to count.
* On the subject of Batman villains, Hush ''is'' a Magic Plastic Surgeon, capable of performing major facial reconstructive surgery '''on himself''', which is now why he looks like {{spoiler|Bruce Wayne.}} The heroes actually take advantage of this after defeating him and use Hush as a substitute to hide {{spoiler|Bruce's "death"}} from the rest of the world.
* Mocked to the point of Deconstruction in one album of the [[Franco
* "Plastic smurfery" is the explanation used in the original English translation of ''[[The Smurfs]]'' comic book story "The Smurfette" to change the title character from her original appearance into a real Smurf. The cartoon show version of the story eschews that and simply has Papa Smurf change her completely into a Smurf through magic.
* Dwight from ''[[Sin City]]'' has plastic surgery in order to hide from the authorities. That's not too
* In the Marvel ''[[G.I. Joe]]'' comics, the Fred series of COBRA's [[Praetorian Guard|Crimson Guard]] all had plastic surgery to look completely identical to each other. As the Freds were highly placed infiltrators into government and corporations, the thinking was any Fred could take another's place if something happened. We're talking about four dozen men across the country who look exactly alike, without bone structure, height or body shape ever coming up.
* In an early ''[[Lucky Luke]]'' comic, the Dalton cousins (the ones who were competent but killed off fairly early) forced a town doc to give them new faces. Yes, the doctor of a frontier town in the wild west during the 19th century. After they heal up surprisingly fast, it turns out they now have the faces of four ''other'' wanted
== Films -- Animation ==▼
* Used to cover a new actress assuming the role of Penny in the show-within-a-show in ''[[Bolt (Disney)|Bolt]]'' after the original Penny quits. However, given the circumstances surrounding Penny's departure (she nearly died in a studio fire) the audience can't be certain the new girl really isn't the original Penny until the scene cuts to show her at home watching the show with her pets. Naturally, [[Ascended Fanboy]] Rhino promptly complains that [[They Changed It, Now It Sucks|the show has totally gone downhill.]]▼
==
▲* Used to cover a new actress assuming the role of Penny in the show-within-a-show in ''[[
* This is used in the film ''[[The Pink Panther|Curse of the Pink Panther]]'', where {{spoiler|Roger Moore}} plays Inspector Clouseau after plastic surgery, to [[Fake Shemp|allow Clouseau to appear in a film after the death of Peter Sellers]] and give the character a sendoff.
* Examples from the ''[[James Bond (
** A major plot point for ''two'' characters in ''[[
*** A villain thought to be dead disguises himself by using groundbreaking gene therapy to alter his entire ethnicity, to change from a Korean colonel to a snobby British playboy. The new identity supposedly hailed from Argentina, and moved to Iceland where he found diamonds and built a mine (a fake one, basically used to launder African conflict diamonds obtained as payment for illegal arms trading.)
*** The general's second-in-command is in the middle of such an operation, and is left with no hair, pale skin, ice-blue eyes, and a bunch of diamonds stuck in his face (they'd been put there by an explosion, but you'd think taking them out would have been the ''first'' thing the surgeon would do).
** The explanation for what Ernst Stavro Blofeld was up to between ''[[
*** Also, while it's not explicitly stated, it's a plausible explanation for Blofeld going from a horribly-scarred [[Donald Pleasance]] in ''[[
** Likewise, some fans considered this an explanation for Bond's change in appearance between ''YOLT'' and ''OHMSS''. This theory kinda fell apart when [[Sean Connery]] returned in ''DAF''.
* In [[Ed Wood (
* There was a 1970s drama where a gang of criminals hold everyone in a plastic surgeon's office hostage while the boss gets a new face before leaving the country. {{spoiler|Since he didn't care what the new face was, he let the surgeon pick it. The surgeon used a magazine article to give him the face of a wanted Nazi war criminal.}}
* This was the entire plot to ''[[Face Off]]''. John Travolta's character becomes Nicholas Cage's character in order to infiltrate the terrorist organization and prevent the shit hitting the fan. Awesomely enough, it happens vice-versa.
Line 67 ⟶ 62:
* In ''[[Arsenic and Old Lace]]'', it is mentioned that Jonathan Brewster had plastic surgery and wound up looking like [[Boris Karloff]] since his surgeon/accomplice had a drinking problem. This is because in the original stage production, the actor ''[[Celebrity Paradox|was]]'' [[Boris Karloff]].
* The movie ''[[War]]'' used this heavily, leading up to the major twist ending.
* ''[[Kamen Rider the Next]]'' has one of the main characters' little sister get horribly mutilated due to an accident with two [[Rich Bitch
* In ''Stepfather III'' the killer has plastic surgery performed by a
* In ''[[Get Smart (
** Done for [[Rule of Funny|laughs]]. Agent 99 shows Max a picture of herself before plastic surgery as an equally beautiful blonde, who is nevertheless completely different in appearance. Some say that the photograph was of original 99, played by Barbara Feldon.
* The 1990 ''[[Captain America (1990 film)|Captain America]]'' movie has the Red Skull receive the mother and father of all skin grafts over his namesake visage.
** Or he could just be using a lot of greasepaint or a latex mask to look a bit less monstrous.
* Averted in the movie ''Dark Passage''. [[Humphrey Bogart]] plays a man wrongly convicted of murdering his wife. He escapes prison and has [[Back
** The reason for this, of course, is that Bogart plays the same character both before and after the surgery, but he did not in fact undergo plastic surgery in real life; the character cannot be shown in his "before" appearance because the "after" appearance is that of a man who looks just like Bogart! Arguably a case of extended [[Actor Allusion]].
*** In point of fact, we ''do'' get to see the "before" version of the character via a newspaper photograph. In another trope aversion, he actually does look a little like Bogey, only heavier-set and with a
* In ''Problem Child 2'', Junior tried to avert a wedding by having the woman get plastic surgery to get the world's biggest nose. The woman woke up and discovered her new nose. Then, just a few hours later, she reappeared with her original nose and she said that she had some emergency plastic surgery. So, she had two surgeries on the same body part in the same day with no scars.
* Not surgical, but ''[[Innerspace]]'' has Tuck ([[It Makes Sense in Context|in a microscopic experimental craft in another guys bloodstream and needing to outsmart an international arms dealer so he can return to normal size]]) disguise his host as said arms dealer by applying electrical charges to his facial nerves. Apparently all you need to change Martin Short into Robert Picardo is tweak a few nerve endings. Justified by [[Rule of Funny]].
Line 82 ⟶ 77:
* The 70's porno film ''The Resurrection Of Eve'' has a woman who is mangled in a car accident receive plastic surgery, only to transform into Marilyn Chambers.
* Played for laughs in [[Tropic Thunder]]: Robert Downey Jr.'s character undergoes magic plastic surgery as part of his [[Enforced Method Acting]] plan. Double magic: the surgery lasts exactly as long as it has to, surviving weeks in the jungle but yet is easily removed (as easily as a [[Latex Perfection]] mask, but with the backstory stating it was done surgically) during his [[Heroic BSOD]].
* In ''[[G.I. Joe:
* In the new [[Sherlock Holmes (
* Averted in ''[[Gattaca]]'', where Vincent is seen undergoing a long, painful leg-lengthening procedure with his lower legs bolted into a metal frame. (This type of surgery is called [
== [[Literature]] ==▼
▲== Literature ==
* In an early ''[[Mack Bolan]]: Executioner'' novel, the hero gets plastic surgery that makes him look ''Italian''. More specifically, like an Italian-American buddy of his in the [[Vietnam War]], making it even more unlikely (underlying bone structure?)
* In a popular spy series, the hero receives plastic surgery after every mission. He no longer remembers what he used to look like.
* [[Gore Vidal]]'s book ''Myra Breckinridge'' involved a gay man (Myron Breckinridge) [[
* In the ''[[
** Biosculpting is repeatedly mentioned in the series as something the rich indulge in. The phrase "could have easily afforded it but didn't, saying interesting things about X's character" seems to appear in some variation quite frequently too suggesting that the author doesn't like or think much of those who use plastic surgery as all the "principled" people don't use biosculpt.
** Much the same thing, with much the same name, is also mentioned in [[Poul Anderson]]'s [[Technic History]] ''Dominic Flandry'' stories. Flandry notes a couple of times that he got an excessively handsome biosculpt job when he was younger and is thinking about having it toned down a bit.
* There's a minor character in ''[[The Witcher|Witcher Saga]]'' who offers us an interesting take on this trope: she was disfigured really badly, so after deciding there's nothing they can do with it, the healers just hid it under an exceptionally strong illusion.
* During the ''[[Hand of Thrawn]]'' duology, while Lando Calrissian and Han Solo are freaking out about the possible [[Back
* In [[William Goldman]]'s ''Brothers'', the lesser-known sequel to ''[[Marathon Man]]'', it turns out {{spoiler|Scylla}}'s not dead after all: he just got really great plastic surgery and now comes back to warn Babe about ANDROID TWIN BOMBS THREATENING THE ENTIRE WORLD. He's also straight now.
* In the ''March Upcountry'' series, the hero has to (eventually) hide from his mother's enemies, so he gets plastic surgery turning him from a tall, thin, blond bishie into a short, stocky Asian. He even gets plastic surgery on his ''DNA''.
* Averted in ''The City Of Silent Revolvers''. The protagonist and his counterpart are similar enough that a simple nose job is enough to make one look exactly like the other.
* In the Vorkosigan saga, Ellie has plastic surgery to give her a new face after hers is burned off by a plasma arc leaving a "face like a boiled onion." Her new face is too pretty.
* In the [[
** Skeeter goes under the knife to look like another person. Attempted justification: [[Identical Stranger]]. Skeeter already very strongly resembles him.
** Played straight earlier. Dr. Booker is her own model and has dozens of pictures of herself looking wildly different.
* [[H. Beam Piper]]'s ''[[Space Viking]]'' subverts this: when one of Lucas Trask's subordinates suggests that [[Adolf Hitler]]-[[Expy]] Zaspar Makann may be, not merely allied with Trask's enemy Andray Dunnan, but Dunnan himself disguised by plastic surgery, Trask knows that's going too far, because Makann is six inches shorter than Dunnan; "there are some things no plastic surgery could do." He doesn't trouble to point that out, though.
== [[Live-Action TV]] ==▼
* In the pilot episode of ''[[Knight Rider]]'', Michael Long is played by an actor who looks nothing at all like [[David Hasselhoff]]. Then, left for dead, Michael is rescued by the Foundation for Law and Government, given a new identity as Michael Knight, and magically transformed into the Hoff.▼
▲== Live-Action TV ==
* Janet Green on ''[[All My Children]]'', a convicted murderer and known psychopath, is given her release from prison in exchange for undergoing experimental plastic surgery. Her portrayer, Kate Collins, left and was replaced by Robin Mattson. However, when Janet returned in 2005, she was Kate Collins again, with no explanation. (Same happened when James DePaiva left ''[[One Life to Live]]'' but later returned.)
** Steven Carrington of ''[[Dynasty]]'' is another example of this. He was originally played by Al Corley. He was in an accident and had plastic surgery and was then played by Jack Coleman (Noah Bennett on ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'') until the series ended. For the reunion movie, he was again played by Corley, with no explanation.
* Herr Flick from ''[['Allo 'Allo
* ''[[Another World]]'' had a set of identical twins, Vickie & Marley, who went through a couple of recasts over the years. Near the end of the show's run, they had Marley get plastic surgery an she ended up looking like the actress who originally played the roles. Vicky was still played by the actress who'd been doing it over the last few years. The new Marley was noticeably taller and had longer hair than the actress playing Vicky.
* A failed pilot called ''Fugly'' begins with a radical plastic surgery that turns one of a pair of identical twins that looks like [[Hollywood Homely|5-foot-nothing, 150 pound]] [[Marissa Jaret Winokur]] with ugly prosthetics
* Morgan Edge in his ''[[Smallville]]'' incarnation was originally played by [[Rutger Hauer]], but when they wanted to bring the character back Hauer wasn't available so they said that Edge had gone into hiding and undergone plastic surgery. He was played by [[Patrick Bergin]].
** At least Edge is rich enough to afford the very best.
** In another episode ''Facade'', plastic surgery is used to turn an ugly girl hot- but this being Smallville, [[Green Rocks|Kryptonite]] is used in the procedure, giving her the ability to give people life-threatening illusions.
* In the live-action ''[[Superboy]]'' series, Superboy's nemesis Lex Luthor was played by Scott James Wells in the first season. In the
* Averted in ''[[The X-Files]]'', where an evil plastic surgeon uses human sacrifice to transform his looks beyond the limits of science.
* Jo (Red Striker Borg) from ''[[Big Bad Beetleborgs]]'' also suffered from this, literally. But because of [[A Wizard Did It|all the hocus-pocus]] on the show, they were able to [[Justified Trope|justify it]] by executing the switch in a magical accident.
* ''
* Used for comedic effect in ''[[Just Shoot Me]]'', ''[[Friends]]'' and other sitcoms. Long-lost male friend of cast member returns after plastic surgery, now looks like hot girl. Is played by actual female.
* Done comically in ''[[
* ''[[Star Trek]]'' has perfected the art of magic plastic surgery. It doesn't matter what species it is. If it has two legs, two arms, and one head, doctors can make any species look like any other, though this is usually done by adding [[Rubber Forehead Aliens|pointed ears, weird forehead bumps, etc., to the same actors]]. Sometimes it can be implausibly perfect even allowing for futuristic technology. For instance, in one episode, Worf went undercover in a pre-contact civilization, requiring extensive surgery which removed his huge Klingon brow ridges. At one point, he returned to the ship and had his normal features restored perfectly, and then a few scenes later he had the extensive reconstruction surgery done ''again'' to go back down among the natives.
** Overlaps with [[Easy Sex Change]] in the ''[[Deep Space Nine]]'' episode "Profit and Lace", in which Quark can undergo complete sex reassignment surgery to appear female ''within a few hours'', then be changed ''back'' into a man the very next day.
** ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise]]'' plays with this. Naturally being less
* In ''[[Dream On]]'', the hero, Martin Tupper's [[Black Best Friend]], Eddie Charles, is [[The Other Darrin|replaced by a different actor]] partway through the first series. This is explained away by having him get surgery to change his eyelids. So he gets a whole new face and several extra inches of height!
* Alexis Meade of ''[[Ugly Betty]]'' is
* In ''[[The Young and The Restless]]'', Sheila gets plastic surgery to look like Phyllis, explaining her actor change to the same as Phyllis.
** And the evil Matt Carter gets plastic surgery so that he can return to Genoa City (where he was still wanted for rape charges) and ingratiate himself into the lives of his unknowing victim and her husband and start wreaking havoc.
** Soaps have often done when they've recast a character in order to explain the complete change in appearance, particularly for a "bad" character who would need to conceal his identity. Another example of this is Todd Manning on ''[[One Life to Live]]'', who was played by Roger Howarth until 2003. When his character was severely beaten and left for dead, he returned to town several months under a new identity, now played by Trevor St. John.
* On
* In ''[[The New Adventures Of Beans Baxter]]'' episode "There's No Place Like Omsk," Beans hides a Russian defector, who via one plastic surgery session, looks exactly like Miss Universe Shawn Weatherly.
* In the ''[[Green Hornet]]''
* Used in the second season finale of ''[[Highlander (TV series)|Highlander]]'' to turn an escaped con woman into a Tessa lookalike to try and bring Duncan down.
* Done at least twice on ''[[The Wild Wild West (TV series)|The Wild Wild West]]'', once by recurring villain Doctor Loveless to turn one of his henchmen into a perfect double of James West, and once by a villain of the week to make [[Why Am I Ticking?|explosive]] doubles of both James West and Artemus Gordon.
▲* In the pilot episode of ''[[Knight Rider]]'', Michael Long is played by an actor who looks nothing at all like [[David Hasselhoff]]. Then, left for dead, Michael is rescued by the Foundation for Law and Government, given a new identity as Michael Knight, and magically transformed into the Hoff.
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* In ''[[
** There are some things that even Vicissitude can't
*** Changes that make them prettier, anyway. Changes that make them uglier, or cosmetically status quo (don't move their appearance trait at all) stick, while improvements 'heal' painfully in minutes. Makes sense considering Clan weaknesses are a malevolent curse rather than a genetic quirk to be fixed.
* In the ''[[Cyberpunk
** Wanna get ugly? A straight razor is fifty-nine cents.
== [[Theatre]] ==▼
▲== Theatre ==
* [[Dario Fo]]'s ''Trumpets and Raspberries'' centres around this. Gianni Agnelli, the head of the Fiat car company, is kidnapped by terrorists, then involved in a car crash which smashes his face. One of his own factory workers finds him, puts his coat around him, then flees the scene when the police mistake him for one of the terrorists and start shooting at him. Agnelli is recovered and his face is reconstructed to look like the picture in the documents found in the worker's jacket. Both main characters are [[Acting for Two|played by the same actor]], with frequent quick changes where the actor has seconds to exit one wing, change costumes, and emerge from the fridge. [[Hilarity Ensues]].
== [[Video Games]] ==▼
▲== Video Games ==
* In ''[[Saints Row]] 2'' , You can instantly revamp your character as many times as you like at $500 per visit at the plastic surgeon.
** And yet {{spoiler|[[Shoot the Dog|Carlos is shot]] because his [[Bishonen|pretty face]] [[Gameplay and Story Segregation|couldn't be saved from mutilation]].}}
** The sequel has you get plastic surgery to {{spoiler|become completely identical to the military commander in charge of the ship you want to sneak aboard, voice and all.}} Yes, even if you're female.
* In the second ''[[Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney]]'' game, one character {{spoiler|has a traffic accident so devastating that her face is rendered completely unrecognizable, and uses plastic surgery to turn herself into a clone of her own sister. The likeness is perfect, and everybody -- friends, family, doctors, teachers -- believes her to ''be'' her sister, never noticing a change in voice, mannerisms, height, build, eye color, hair, or anything else. Strangely, the case relies on her face looking as it did before the accident.}}
** It ''is'' ridiculous, but {{spoiler|both sisters were in the car accident, and one died. The sisters looked like each other anyway, and as you force the woman further towards admitting the truth, she makes facial expressions where you can see what she looks like better, and she very much resembles her previous self. It looks like facially, the sisters didn't look that much different anyway, so perhaps the damage wasn't as horrific as it seems.}} But really, nobody looks like ''that'' after any such injury.
** While plastic surgery is never specifically mentioned, {{spoiler|it seems to be the only way that Calisto Yew could have become Shih-na. Even if she changed her hair and personality, you would think her co-thief or the man she'd shot at, or the Interpol agent set on finding the ring Yew was known to have joined would notice she looked rather familiar.}}
* You can buy tokens in ''[[Guild Wars]]'' online store (with real money, naturally...) that allow you to change a character's
* ''[[City of Heroes]]'': Thanks to the Super Science Super Booster, heroes and villains can now easily change the size and shape of their bodies, even switch genders. Of course, in a world where there is a black market for magical artifacts and [[Alternate Universe Reed Richards Is Awesome|super science is used daily]], this is pretty well [[Justified]].
* In ''[[Fallout 3]]'' you can change your face as easily as getting a haircut. (Provided you find the right person)
* This is the in-universe excuse for Shepard's appearance if you change it between ''[[Mass Effect 1]]'' and ''[[Mass Effect 2]]''; s/he ''died'' in the interim and had to be completely rebuilt.
* Parodied in an episode of ''[[
* In the [[Tex Avery]] cartoon ''[[Northwest Hounded Police]]'', an escaped convict chased by Droopy goes to a plastic surgeon to get a new face. After a few seconds of surgery (which involved hammering and sawing) the convict had a new
▲* Parodied in an episode of ''[[Cow and Chicken (Animation)|Cow and Chicken]]'', where Chicken becomes a plastic surgeon and enters the interschool competition where he ultimately {{spoiler|turns himself into a ''Photo-Realistic Beaver'' (depicted with real footage over the cartoon) as the final trial}}.
▲* In the [[Tex Avery]] cartoon ''[[Northwest Hounded Police]]'', an escaped convict chased by Droopy goes to a plastic surgeon to get a new face. After a few seconds of surgery (which involved hammering and sawing) the convict had a new face -- Droopy's. He asks the doctor to change it back and he does. He thanks the doctor -- only to find that Droopy was the doctor all along!
* In an episode of ''[[Family Guy]]'', Peter went out and got liposuction. Then, he went out one day and came back later with a new chin, abs, and several other things.
* [[Egregious
** To be fair, reality takes a sidestep in a show where the protagonist can get his head stuck between a closing drawbridge and be perfectly fine.
** Another episode revolved around Moe getting his entire face re-sculpted to make him a very handsome man. His [[Status Quo Is God|face returns to its previous "ugly ugly"]] state when a large backdrop falls on it. Moe himself starts to [[Fridge Logic|point out that his face really should have turned into a new, different face from the previous two]] before the episode ends and cuts him off.
Line 174 ⟶ 165:
[[Category:Applied Phlebotinum]]
[[Category:Acting for Two]]
[[Category:
[[Category:
| |||