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Spy School: Difference between revisions
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'''Marge''': Of course he's a spy! We just saw him go through spy school!|[[The Simpsons]], "Colonel Homer"}}
Pretty much any training program for spies, assassins and related [[Cloak and Dagger]] types. The primary purpose is to train new spies, but some spy schools might also include further training for experienced agents. Sometimes an experienced agent might retire from the career and become a trainer, or might be invited to be a guest lecturer from time to time.
Most spy schools are for adults, although there is a growing genre of series like ''CHERUB'' and ''Spy High'' that depict schools with university age, teenage or even preteen students. Such schools may be the origin of the [[Teen Superspy]].
The exact training program varies greatly, but most include a wide variety of espionage, commando and generally unconventional dirty trick training. Some are [[Mildly Military]], and many programs emphasis martial arts and weapons training to equip their agents to be an [[Action Hero]]. However, most give foremost importance to the ability to think outside the box, interact with people, and be a well-rounded [[Guile Hero]]. The school might have classes oriented toward being a [[Master of Disguise]] and a [[Cunning Linguist]].
{{examples|Examples: }}
== [[Fan Works]] ==
* In Red Witch's ''[[Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers|Galaxy Rangers]]'' Fanfic ''Sins of the Father,'' Miss Abercrombie's Charm and Finishing School looks like a snobbish prep school, but is really a covert training academy for espionage agents from Earth's wealthiest and most well-placed families. The other three Rangers are surprised to find their team's [[Badass Normal]] had initially been assigned as [[The Mole]], but screwed over his bosses to side with them.
== [[Film]] ==
* ''[[D.E.B.S.]]'': The heroes attend a secret academy for the title organization, a government agency.
* ''[[Get Smart (film)|Get Smart]]'': CONTROL had a training school.
* ''Carry On Spying'' was set, at least initially, in a spy school.
* ''Carve Her Name with Pride'' is a movie about a female SOE agent being trained and deployed.
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== [[Literature]] ==
* Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women in ''[[The Gallagher Girls|I'd Tell You I Love You, but Then I'd Have to Kill You]]''.
* [[CHERUB Series|CHERUB Campus]] is the training ground of the [[Teen Superspy]] James Adams in Robert Muchamore's books.
* There is a grotesque scene, of the protagonists walking through a Medieval spy training camp, in one of Andrzej Sapkowski's non-[[The Witcher|Witcher]] novels. Among the highlights are propaganda [[The Shill|shills]] [[No Indoor Voice|HONING THEIR VOICES]], and an old spy teaching young ones what to do if you're uncovered. {{spoiler|Cry that the Jews have poisoned the wells and leave when everyone's gone to do some pogrom.}}
* Novgorod from the ''[[The Bourne Series (novel)|The Bourne Series]]''.
* The temple of the Many-Faced God in George R. R. Martin's ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]''.
* Large part of Viktor Suvorov's novel '[[Aquarium]]' (and subsequent Polish-Russian TV miniseries) focuses on training of new GRU operatives in the secret facilities. Also counts as a [[Real Life]] example.
* One of the B-plots from Tom Clancy's ''Executive Orders'' has veteran field agent (and resident paramilitary [[Badass]] spook extraordinare) John Clark training a new batch of agents at The Farm.
* The Alien Investigation and Removal Agency school in Gena Showalter's ''[[Red Handed]]''.
* A large part of the [[Star Trek Expanded Universe]] novel ''A Stitch in Time'' is about Garak remembering his days in an elite school for future government officials, military officers, and [[State Sec|Obsidian Order]] operatives. Guess which one he becomes, considering his father is the head of the Order. Much of the curriculum involves infiltration and hiding.
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== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* ''[[Alias (TV series)|Alias]]'': In the backstory, Sydney went to a training school run by the SD-6.
* ''[[I Spy]]'': The Department has a training school on a military base in the San Francisco Bay Area, featured in the episodes "Anyplace I Hang Myself Is Home" and "Tag, You're It".
* Marcie Ross from the early ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' episode "Out of Mind, Out of Sight" gets sent to one of these by [[The Men in Black]] after she [[Invisibility|turns invisible]] and goes [[Axe Crazy]].
* Parodied on ''[[Friends]].'' When Sean Penn's character realizes he has been deceived: "There's no such thing as the top secret school for the children of spies!"
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[[Category:School Tropes]]
[[Category:Spy School]]
[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]
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