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Eyes Never Lie: Difference between revisions

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{{quote|''"Then one day Strangefolk arrived in the town.<br />
They came in camouflage, hidden behind dark glasses, but no one noticed them: they only saw shadows.<br />
You see, without the Truth of the Eyes, the Happyfolk were blind."''|'''[[Gorillaz (Music)|Gorillaz]]''', "Fire Coming Out of The Monkey's Head"}}
 
The suggestion that if you stare into someone's eyes deep enough, you can glimpse their true nature.
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== [[Film]] ==
* ''[[Blade Runner]]'': Replicants don't have human-normal eye reactions to emotion provoking situations. Rather than helping them lie, the lack of reaction is a vulnerability, marking them as a [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?|replicant]].
* ''[[The Negotiator]]'' -- Danny Roman ([[Samuel L. Jackson]]) delivers a lecture on facial cues, specifically touching on the tendency of the eyes to look toward the upper left when accessing memory and to the upper right when accessing imagination and making something up.
* In the 2005 film [[The Island]], after the duo escape from the cloning organ facility they once believed to be their sanctuary and home, while watching TV the heroine is somehow able to tell that the news reporter is lying about the events they just experienced due to the expression of her eyes.
 
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* In ''[[The Anubis Gates]]'', Beth Tichy recognizes a monster as her fiancé, transformed, by the expression in his eyes -- {{spoiler|just ''after'' she shoots it}}.
* ''[[Discworld]]''
** In ''[[Discworld (Literature)/The Colour of Magic|The Colour of Magic]]'' it's stated that gods, no matter how else they may transform themselves, are unable to disguise the true nature of their eyes.
** A similar rule applies to the various transformed creatures in ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Witches Abroad|Witches Abroad]]''. For example Greebo, a witch's [[Cats Are Mean|evil-minded cat]], is transformed into a human. As a human he still has the glowing, slitted eyes befitting a cat.
** Experienced conman Moist Von Lipwig of ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Going Postal|Going Postal]]'' notes that he likes the sort of person who looks in one's eye to see their true self, and has a whole gallery of true selves to show them.
** ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Night Watch|Night Watch]]'' plays with the trope: it's noted that unwavering eye contact [[Revealing Coverup|can make a confident liar stick out]].
** Slightly more inexplicably, [[Discworld (Literature)/Snuff|Snuff]] proves that Vimes can also identify a ''murderer'' by eye contact. Because he recognises in their eyes [[Not So Different|the same thing]] he sees in [[Shoot the Dog|his own reflection]].
* ''[[The Dresden Files (Literature)|The Dresden Files]]'': Wizards can read the intimate details of any person's soul just by looking into their eyes, which is called a soulgaze. It has its limitations, though-- [[It Only Works Once]], and the target gets to see the exact same things about the wizard. Also it's stressful at best, and can cause a person to [[Go Mad From the Revelation]] at worst, especially since one can never ''ever'' forget what they see. Wizards tend to avoid making eye contact unless they have a damn good reason to do otherwise.
* In ''[[Good Omens (Literature)|Good Omens]]'', the demon-in-human form Crowley adopts a stylish persona, including [[Cool Shades]] that he wears all the time (and gets mocked for by another character). Near the climax, he loses the shades, and it's revealed that at least part of the reason he wore them was that even in human form he still has his real eyes.
* All over the place in the ''[[Honor Harrington (Literature)|Honor Harrington]]'' series, where stoic naval officers with otherwise perfect poker faces give away their inner worries or kindness (e.g. Honor Harrington herself), and sociopathic villains give away the hollowness inside.
* ''[[The Man Who Was Thursday]]'' plays with the "wearing [[Sinister Shades]] to disguise his true nature" version of the trope, with a sinister character whose dark glasses prompt speculation about what horrors his eyes would reveal if they were visible. Ultimately, it's revealed that {{spoiler|not only are his eyes entirely normal, they proclaim his true -- kind and friendly -- disposition, so he had to hide them in order to appear sinister}}.
* ''[[The Moomins]]'': In one [[Nightmare Fuel]]-worthy scene, the characters find a magic hat that transforms things. Moomintroll tries it out of curiosity and is turned into a hideous monster. None of his family members recognize him, but in the end Moominmamma can still tell that it is him by staring into his eyes.
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== [[Live Action Television]] ==
* An episode of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)|Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' invokes this when Giles is turned into a demon; Buffy recognises him by looking him in the eyes and noting that no one else could look as annoyed with her. Lampshaded when Buffy suffers a [[Grand Theft Me]] later on.
{{quote| "Giles, you turned into a demon and I knew it was you! I mean, can't you just look in my eyes and be all intuitive?"}}
* ''[[Lie to Me (TV series)|Lie to Me]]'': Dr. Cal Lightman and the rest of the Lightman Group use microexpressions (a minute form of facial movements) and body language to determine whether or not someone is telling the truth. [[Dr. Jerk|Cal]], [[Team Mom|Gillian]], and [[Handsome Lech|Loker]] studied for years to learn it. [[Naive Newcomer|Torres]] is a "natural", one of something like 5% of the population who has the ability to spot deception.
* On ''[[NCIS (TV)|NCIS]]'' Kate claims she could tell if a person was good by looking into their eyes, but was not very good at it as she accidentally helped a bomber blow up the place where she had worked, then let the terrorist who later tries to kill her go because there was good in their eyes.
* ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'': River looks into the Doctor's eyes for this reason in the finale of Season 6.
 
== [[Music]] ==
* Stephen Foster's song "In The Eye Abides The Heart".
* "Fire Coming Out of the Monkey's Head" by [[Gorillaz (Music)|Gorillaz]] takes it to an extreme: the Happyfolk are so dependent on the "Truth of the Eyes" that they are unable to even see people with covered eyes. It's probably a metaphor for dangerous innocence.
 
== [[Real Life]] ==
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== [[Web Comics]] ==
* In ''[[The Order of the Stick (Webcomic)|The Order of the Stick]]'' this becomes a plot point. {{spoiler|Blind Pete is able to betray Haley because she relies upon this to sense motivations}}.
 
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* Disney's ''[[Beauty and The Beast (Disney)|Beauty and Thethe Beast]]'' -- that's how Belle realizes that skinny prince is really her Beast.
* In ''[[Codename: Kids Next Door]]'' the characters can distinguish between their friends and their friend's evil counterparts from the [[Mirror Universe]] by looking into their eyes.
{{quote| '''Eizzil''': How did you know I wasn't really your stupid girlfriend?<br />
'''Nigel''': When I look into Lizzie's eyes, I can tell she's not a jerk. }}
* Subverted in ''[[The Emperor's New Groove (Disney)|The Emperors New Groove]]''. Pacha refuses to make a deal with Kuzco unless he looks him in the eye and means it. He fails to notice that Kuzco is playing him for a sucker until he's hanging above a chasm.
* In ''[[Rango]]'', Rattlesnake Jake says that Rango won't shoot him because he doesn't have a killer's eyes. {{spoiler|In round two, Jake gets an [[Oh Crap]] moment after Rango has had his act together and is willing to kill.}}
* Subverted in [[The Simpsons (Animationanimation)|The Simpsons]].
{{quote| '''Homer''': Look me in the eye boy, and tell me you didn't do it.<br />
'''Bart''': I didn't do it.<br />
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