History Main / DressingAsTheEnemy

* The girls of ''WesternAnimation/TotallySpies'' do this from time to time.
** "Black Widows" has the three infiltrating the lair of Margaret Nussbaum/Candy Sweet disguised as her robot cheerleaders. Nussbaum, needless to say, is not fooled.

* The Baudelaires from ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'' unintentionally do this in ''The Hostile Hospital'' when they disguise themselves as doctors and are mistaken by Olaf's associates for the two powder-faced women who are also disguised as doctors.

** On the other hand, Skorezny himself escaped conviction after the war by pointing out that he'd never actually ordered his men to ''fight'' in US uniforms, just use them for sneaking around purposes. The tribunal might have wanted to press the issue, but considering how many examples there were of US troops doing the same thing, they declined.
** The U.S. troops famously caught some of these spies by asking questions only Americans would be expected to answer correctly, like baseball trivia, particularly trick questions like "What year did Babe Ruth hit 64 home runs?"[[note]]The correct answer would be "Never, the most he ever hit in one season was 60." In fact nearly 80 years after WWII ended there still hasn't been an American League player to hit 64 home runs, the current AL record is 62, set by Aaron Judge of the Yankees in 2022.[[/note]] It didn't always work—one U.S. general was held at gunpoint by a couple of privates after he incorrectly stated that [[GretzkyHasTheBall the Chicago Cubs were in the American League]]. The questions also failed to take into account the numerous British soldiers in the area, who couldn't answer them any better than the Germans could. When a reconnaissance officer found himself faced with a guard demanding “Who won the World Series in 1940?” all he could say was “I haven’t the faintest idea.”

* One inspired escape from the Colditz prison camp involved an inmate capitalising on a resemblence to the feared German Regimental Sergeant-Major, by dressing as him, and intimidating the guards into allowing him to pass. Both the impersonation and the fake uniform worked like a charm - until the real German RSM showed up.

* ''Series/TheWheelOfTime2021'': Ingtar and Masema dress in the garb of Seanchan soldiers when trying to escape Falme during the Season 2 finale.

* A main ability of the protagonists in ''VideoGame/SpyFiction''.

* ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfDorsa'': As assassin in the uniform of an Imperial Army soldier attacks Tasia after she becomes the Empress, with the fact being covered up afterward because morale could be badly affected were the real soldiers aware more infiltrators could be among them.

* Subverted in ''Street Angel''; the eponymous heroine is some 12 years old, 5'1", 95 lbs. She knocks out a ninja and wears his costume to impersonate him and get information from his cohorts. After they blindly feed her the info she was after, the ninja she assaulted wakes up and exposes the charade. Only it turns out they weren't fooled by the prepubescent girl impersonating a grown man -- they actually knew it was the Street Angel specifically and just didn't want her to beat them up.

* ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'' parodied this when the Joes are sent to Afghanistan. Three of the Joes dress as terrorists and are then immediately gunned down by the actual soldiers who mistake them for terrorists.

* In the ''AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho'' story "[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWhoNEDAS3E3TheBeastOfOrlok The Beast of Orlok]]", the Doctor's companion Lucie does this without meaning to; after getting CoveredInMud during her escape from the castle, she's then mistaken for a Golem warrior.

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** The U.S. troops famously caught some of these spies by asking questions only Americans would be expected to answer correctly, like baseball trivia, particularly trick questions like "What year did Babe Ruth hit 64 home runs?" It didn't always work—one U.S. general was held at gunpoint by a couple of privates after he incorrectly stated that [[GretzkyHasTheBall the Chicago Cubs were in the American League]]. The questions also failed to take into account the numerous British soldiers in the area, who couldn't answer them any better than the Germans could. When a reconnaissance officer found himself faced with a guard demanding “Who won the World Series in 1940?” all he could say was “I haven’t the faintest idea.”

* In the 2020 BMovie ''Enemy Lines'', an NKVD team find the Allied team [[KidnappedScientist have got to their target first]], so remove the uniforms of the dead German guards lying around so they can continue to track them through a Nazi manhunt. At a roadblock a German soldier notices the bullethole in one of them, causing their leader to say that "He's bullet proof" as a BlatantLies explanation before opening fire. This is later used as a BadassBoast when that soldier has to HoldTheLine. "I'm bullet proof!"

** ''Film/ANewHope'' gives us the situation seen in the page quote, where Luke and Han mug some stormtroopers to sneak around the Death Star to rescue Princess Leia.

** Inverted in ''Kingdom of the Crystal Skull'', where the American army convoy at the start of the movie are Russians.

* ''{{Film/Transformers2007}}'' demonstrates the Decepticons being more actively... [[MeaningfulName deceptive]] by [[TransformingMecha disguising themselves as various kinds of devastating military tech]] used by the PunyEarthlings they plan on later exterminating. The effectiveness of this varies -- Blackout infiltrates a military base in Qatar as a Sikorsky MH-53 helicopter, [[SpottingTheThread but a handful of soldiers realize something's amiss after noticing his tail number, which belonged to a helicopter that was confirmed destroyed days prior]]. Starscream meanwhile manages to evade notice as an F-22 Raptor fighter jet -- when several ''actual'' F-22 pilots come to fight the Decepticons in Mission City, Starscream momentarily blends in with the squadron, giving them mere moments to spot the imposter before he takes out half of them.

** ''Film/DrNo''. Bond knocks out one of Dr. No's workers and steals his radiation suit so he can infiltrate the nuclear reactor room.
** ''Film/{{Goldfinger}}''. The title villain dresses as a U.S. Army general during the assault on Fort Knox.

** In ''Film/{{Thunderball}}'', Bond steals a black wetsuit and hood to masquerade as a SPECTRE diver.
** ''Film/YouOnlyLiveTwice''. While in the SPECTRE base, Bond and two escaped cosmonauts dress in white security uniforms so they can take the place of the SPECTRE astronauts.
** In ''Film/{{Octopussy}}'' Bond disuises himself as "Colonel Toro" to infiltrate an air base. It works like a charm, until he's caught by - Colonel Toro.

* ''VideoGame/{{Okami}}'': All imps that inhabit the Moon Cave will mistake Amaterasu for one of them due to her wearing a sheet with a custom drawing.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Hitman}}'' series has this as a key gameplay mechanic. No matter who you knock out, their clothes will always fit, and the others will never notice that their friend is now a bald white guy with a barcode tattooed onto the back of his head, the exceptions being the levels in ''[[VideoGame/Hitman2SilentAssassin Silent Assassin]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/Hitman2016 Hitman (2016)]]''. In ''Silent Assassins'' case, it's due to each guard uniform having an ID tag, which is used to determine which specific area they must patrol. If your disguise's ID does not match the area you're in, the guards will attack you. In the case of ''2016'', certain [=NPC=]s are tagged as 'Enforcers' who know everyone on their payroll and will see through any disguise in the family they belong to: the head chef will know the faces of every one of their waiters, for example, but will be fooled by a janitor's uniform.