The Dog Was the Mastermind: Difference between revisions

* An early cut of ''[[House of 1000 Corpses]]'' had the relatively harmless Grampa Hugo Firefly turn out to be Dr. Satan. [[Rob Zombie]] decided this would have been anti-climactic and changed it.

* Parodied in the "Scooby-Doo Ending" of ''[[Wayne's World]]'', where it's revealed that Ben is really Old Man Withers, the amusement park owner who Wayne spoke to for five seconds near the beginning of the film.

* In ''[[The Usual Suspects]]'', diabolical [[Diabolical Mastermind|Criminal Mastermind]] Keyser Soze is {{spoiler|the "cripple" Verbal Kint, our pathetic narrator}}.

* The first ''[[Saw]]'' movie (see page quote). {{spoiler|The "guy on the floor" (John Kramer) is also seen in a flashback, where he's equally inconspicuous as a patient at the cancer ward.}}

* Played double in Takeshi Kitano's ''[[Zatoichi]]'', when the leader of the Yakuza is revealed to be {{spoiler|the tavern keeper. Then it's revealed that even ''he'' was a decoy for the elderly busboy, who was the real power behind it all}}.

* In ''[[Cube]] 2: Hypercube'', the supposed superhacker and mastermind Alex Trusk turns out to be... {{spoiler|a blind girl?}}

* ''[[Source Code]]'': major suspicion is cast on every person in the hero's immediate area (including [[The Hero]] himself!), and then the Villain turns out to be a random background character who had literally 2 seconds of screen time before [[The Reveal]].

* Similar to the [[Source Code]] example above, [[Dream House]] throws suspicion over nearly every character introduced. {{spoiler|The actual killer? Someone who drove by the main character's house during one scene and did not become relevant again until [[The Reveal]].}}

* In one of the ''Agaton Sax'' kids' detective books, someone who appears to be an average-looking member of the crew of crooks turns out to be the criminal mastermind boss himself.

* In ''Hush, Hush'', it turns out that the person trying to murder Nora was {{spoiler|Jules}}. Given how he was virtually nonexistent in the story, it was rather...jarring.

{{quote|He simply could not visualize {{spoiler|Dragur}} as the mastermind behind anything but fussy details of Korwarian bureaucracy.}}

 

* In ''Taz: Wanted'', {{spoiler|TWEETY}} is the mastermind behind it all. This is especially mind-numbing when you consider that {{spoiler|he's been your tutorial and hint provider for the ENTIRE GAME, including the final level.}}

* In ''[[Baten Kaitos]]: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean'', it turns out the traitor is the one person everyone suspected least: {{spoiler|Kalas, the player character}}.

** Until the reveal from a Drama CD revealing that {{spoiler|Saya was brought forth to Relius shortly after her kidnapping and Relius made a cryptic comment that she's going to be a vessel for something, meaning Imperator Saya, for all means, could be a [[Puppet King]] manipulated by Relius and Hazama, therefore the mastermind may have been both of them since the very beginning.}}

* One that's really only known in Japan is the culprit in the old mystery game ''[[wikipedia:Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken|The Portopia Serial Murder Case]]'' (although some may have heard about its [[Shout-Out]] in [[Haruhi-chan]]). The culprit is quite literally the one you'd least suspect, since not only is he your assistant, he's also (since the main character is an unseen [[Heroic Mime]]) ''the guy executing the player's commands and speaking for the main character''. The revelation was so out of left field that the phrase "Yasu is the culprit" is something of a [[Memetic Mutation|minor Japanese meme]] for this sort of trope.

** This meme gets used in ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro ni]]'', when we find out {{spoiler|the culprit's 'real'}} name is Yasu.

* In the open-world [[First-Person Shooter]] ''[[Boiling Point: Road to Hell]]'', a patron in the bar at the beginning of the game turns out to be the game's [[Big Bad]].

* Played with in the "Killerman" event in ''[[Illbleed]]''. Midway through, you're asked to finger a suspect for the role of Killerman (if you're right, you win more money). Besides the proper suspects you've encountered, the choices for who may be the murderous Killerman includes... [[Shaped Like Itself|Killerman]], and the ''[[Breaking The Four Wall|player]]''. The latter is explained that playing ''Illbleed'' [[The Most Dangerous Video Game|drove you insane and made you go on a killing spree]]. (This being ''Illbleed'', this is at least somewhat plausible.)

* The first case of ''[[Ace Attorney Investigations]] 2'' involves the attempted assassination of a visiting president. It ultimately turns out to have been orchestrated by {{spoiler|a clown at the local circus}}.

* In the [[Stylistic Suck]] "movie" ''Dangeresque 3: The Criminal Projective'', which is an episode of ''[[Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People|Strong Bads Cool Game for Attractive People]]'', after a plot involving Dangeresque's nemesis Perducci and Uzi Bazooka, the true identity of {{spoiler|actually, impostor of}} Dangeresque Too, the [[Big Bad]] is {{spoiler|Craig, a character played by The Cheat, who had been in multiple scenes, unnamed, and previously referred to with the in-game tooltips by "The Cheat" when everyone else was described using their characters' names in the tooltips.}}

* DS [[Visual Novel]] ''[[Time Hollow]]'' posits the notion, in an optional extended ending, that {{spoiler|Sox the cat was the being behind most if not all of the game's events, or at the least that he's a mightier being than he lets on.}}

* [[The World Ends With You]]: Okay, on the one hand, something was seriously wrong with Joshua. On the other hand, I don't think anyone was expecting him to be {{spoiler|the composer}}.

* In ''[[Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy]]'', one episode has the Eds track down someone who went to great lengths to frame them for various crimes. {{spoiler|It ultimately turned out to be Jimmy, who was angry at Eddy for casually giving him a wedgie.}}

* ''[[Scooby Doo Mystery Inc]]'' uses this a fair bit - usually, of the named characters, the culprit is the one who seems secondary, is introduced completely outside the course of the mystery, and doesn't seem to have anything to do with it at all.

*** [[Lampshaded]] when Velma complains that this should not count as her being wrong because she'd never seen the woman before and begins to sulk.

** The biggest examples from Mystery Inc. are probably {{spoiler|the Trickel's Triquids mascot}} from "Revenge of the Man Crab", who only appeared for 10 seconds, and {{spoiler|the Minner brothers}} from "Battle of the Humongonauts", who didn't appear at all before the unmasking and were only mentioned in radio ads and one scene on a billboard.

** [[Older Than They Think]]. In the original series episode "A Clue For Scooby Doo" no-one recognizes the unmasked monster at first, until Shaggy of all people puts a beard on him. The ghost of the dead Captain Cutler was actually...[[Faking the Dead|a very much alive]] [[Shaped Like Itself|Captain Cutler]].

** And in the Scooby-Doo movie ''Camp Scare'' The culprit ended up being {{spoiler|Deacon}} who was really {{spoiler|[[Baby Face]] Boretti}} and Velma actually said "I did not see that coming."

[[Category:The Dog Was the Mastermind]]

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