History Main / IKnowYoureWatchingMe

** At the beginning of ''FiveNightsAtFreddysSecurityBreach'', going through some vents you can eavesdrop on Roxanne Wolf psyching herself up after her performance. Linger too long, and she'll mention that she knows you're there. Luckily, she's too anxious at the moment to go after you. It's justified - she has XRayVision.

* ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys'': If you find one of the mascots on the security cameras, chances are it will be [[NightmareFace leering]] directly into the camera.

* In the Creator/NicolasCage movie ''Film/{{Next}}'', the precognitive protagonist Cris is cheating at blackjack and several casino security officers are watching him on surveillance, trying to figure out how he's doing it. When someone realizes they recognize him, Cris looks up as though he heard his name being called, stares knowingly at the camera they're watching him through, and casually walks away before any security guards can apprehend him.

* Happened in ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'', after confronting and beating his SuperpoweredEvilSide, he looks up at the skies (where BigBad Aku is watching his every action) and says out loud: "I know you're watching. These tricks are starting to annoy me." Cue end of episode.

-->'''Red Arrow:''' ''(as Cheshire and Sportsmaster also turn to look at him)'' [[OhCrap Perfect...]]

* Invoked in a joke from [[RussianHumour behind the Iron Curtain:]] a traveler comes to a boarding house late at night and there are no free rooms, so he gets put in one that already has a group of loud people in it. They keep him awake with their rowdiness, till he can't stand it anymore. He briefly leaves the room, supposedly to use the restroom, but actually heads down to the front desk and asks for five cups of tea to be sent to the room in ten minutes. Returning to the room, he waits a few minutes before reaching for the ashtray and says "Five teas in room five, please, captain."\\

[[folder:Jokes]]
* Invoked in a joke from [[RussianHumour behind the Iron Curtain:]] a traveler comes to a boarding house late at night and there are no free rooms, so he gets put in one that already has a group of loud people in it. They keep him awake with their rowdiness, till he can't stand it anymore. He briefly leaves the room, supposedly to use the restroom, but actually heads down to the front desk and asks for five cups of tea to be sent to the room in ten minutes. Returning to the room, he waits a few minutes before reaching for the ashtray and says "Five teas in room five, please, captain."\\
The noisy roomies laugh, but five teas quickly show up, which shuts them all up. Our traveler gets a good night's sleep and wakes to find himself alone in the room. Going downstairs, he asks the landlord "Where have my roommates gone?"\\
"Oh, they were taken away tonight."\\
"And I wasn't?"\\
"The captain liked the tea joke."
[[/folder]]

* In the ''Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse'' novel ''Timewyrm: Exodus'', the Doctor is posing as a high official staying in a government hotel. After having a private conversation with his companion covered by the sound of the water taps, he turns the water off and directly addresses — gives ''orders'' to — the subordinate he knows is spying on him.

* The framing device of ''Podcast/TheStrangeCaseOfStarshipIris'' is a tyrannical interstellar regime listening in on the conversations of a crew of seditious smugglers via [[spoiler: ancient alien nanomachines in their blood]]. In the second season, they figure it out and the captain directly tells the regime's agents that she will bring them down. Later on they start actively trolling the surveillance team with false confessions that the regime has to waste resources investigating, and several hours of drunken singing and narrations of alien soap operas.

* In many ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'' articles, the described SCP at one point does something that hints that it is aware of the fact that the Foundation is observing and containing it. A particularly spine-chilling example is the last video transcript in the [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1981 SCP-1981]] article.

** In "Network Effect", Dr. Mensah is arguing for Murderbot to be brought along as security, conceding that the [=SecUnit=] does have its faults...such as how it's listening in on them right now. [[BlatantLies Murderbot denies doing so]] and quickly stops hacking her feed. Given that Murderbot is [[ProperlyParanoid always doing this]], she's just playing the odds on that one.

** In "Network Effect", Dr. Mensah is arguing for Murderbot to be brought along as security, conceding that the [=SecUnit=] does have its faults...such as how it's listening in on them right now. [[BlatantLies Murderbot denies doing so]] and quickly stops hacking her feed.

* ''Manga/{{Spriggan}}''. In "The Crystal Skull", Yu Ominae takes down several goons from a neo-Nazi organization. It's shown that a camera drone is recording all of this, and we cut to the neo-Nazi leader reviewing the footage with his CoDragons. They're not impressed...until the footage shows Yu suddenly turn and throw his pistol to knock the drone out of the sky.

* ''Anime/{{Spriggan}}''. In "The Crystal Skull", Yu Ominae takes down several goons from a neo-Nazi organisation. It's shown that a camera drone is recording all of this, and we cut to the neo-Nazi leader reviewing the footage with his CoDragons. They're not impressed...until the footage shows Yu suddenly turn and throw his pistol to knock the drone out of the sky.

* In ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'', while Kaworu is conversing with SEELE, Misato is watching him through binoculars from a distance of several kilometers. When the conversation is finished, Kaworu, smiling, ''makes direct eye contact'' with Misato despite the distance between them, startling her. Just one of many hints that Kaworu is not what he seems.

* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'':
** In ''[[ComicBook/Supergirl2005 Girl Power]]'', the Calculator is monitoring ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} under ComicBook/LexLuthor's orders. At one point, she glares straight in the direction of the camera the Calculator is using to watch her, which is enough for him to freak out in a SpitTake.

--->''Supergirl:''' (glaring upwards) Someone will pay for this atrocity, and that someone is... Hokum.\\
'''Harry Hookum:''' (sweating) S-she's '''looking''' at me! H-how is that possible?

* Nishijou Takumi from ''VisualNovel/ChaosHead'' likes to do this whenever his paranoia delusion flares up whenever he's alone, along with a rule to not look behind him when he does so. He quickly stops doing it when it shows that he ''is,'' indeed, somehow BeingWatched by [[spoiler:whoever was behind the horrific New Gen cases]].

* Number 6 has done this more than a few times on ''Series/ThePrisoner1967'', but it's UpToEleven in the episode ''Hammer Into Anvil'', where he managed to [[BreakTheHaughty convince the]] [[BigBad Number 2]] [[MonsterOfTheWeek of the week]] [[ParanoiaGambit of a non-existent conspiracy]] [[{{Gaslighting}} against him]] by doing basically ''nothing but'' variations on this trope, such as leaving envelopes containing blank pieces of paper in remote locations, knowing they'd be found and mistaken for coded messages, and engaging in meaningless small talk with people in hushed tones, knowing that it would be seen and mistaken for SpySpeak. Every time Number 2's underlings failed to find any hidden message, Number 2 became convinced that they were hiding it from him on account of being part of the conspiracy.

* It's happened a few times in ''Series/PersonOfInterest''. And it's always justified. [[ParanoiaFuel Because the Machine is ALWAYS watching.]]

* ''Series/{{Chernobyl}}'': After an imported West German drone breaks down in ''four seconds'' due to government higher-ups ''again'' prioritizing ass-covering over actually containing the disaster[[note]]They told the West Germans the radiation level was at a withstandable 2,000 roentgen (the "propaganda number") rather than the breaks-everything-more-complex-than-a-lightswitch 12,000 roentgen[[/note]], Shcherbina tears them a new one over the phone:
-->''"OF COURSE I KNOW [[UsefulNotes/MoscowCentre THEY'RE]] LISTENING! I WANT THEM TO HEAR! I WANT THEM TO HEAR IT ALL! DO YOU KNOW WHAT WE'RE DOING HERE? TELL THOSE GENIUSES WHAT THEY HAVE DONE! I DON'T GIVE A FUCK! TELL THEM! GO TELL THEM! RYZHKOV--GO TELL THEM HE'S A JOKE! TELL FUCKING GORBACHEV! TELL THEM!"''
* ''Series/TheBoys2019''
** "Proper Preparation And Planning". Furious that Homelander has turned up at her house and is making claims on their son, Rebecca Butcher goes to the guardhouse and demands he be thrown out (given that Homelander has superpowers, no-one is willing to do so). A monitor in the guardhouse shows there are cameras ''[[BigBrotherIsWatchingYou inside]]'' her house. Homelander is shown looking directly at one, and later makes it clear that he heard everything she said thanks to his superhearing.
** Anika and Black Noir spend most of "Nothing Like It In The World" using FacialRecognitionSoftware to track down Billy Butcher. They finally catch him climbing over the wall at a high-security Vought facility, whereupon he turns and defiantly flips the bird at the camera.
* ''Series/IronFist2017''. Danny Rand sneaks into the guarded building where Madame Gao is being held. There's a monitor showing the room she's imprisoned in, and the moment Danny sees it she stands up, walks over to the camera and speaks directly to him. [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane We don't see if there's a similar monitor inside her cell or she's somehow using her powers.]]

-->''"OF COURSE I KNOW [[UsefulNotes/MoscowCentre THEY'RE]] LISTENING! I WANT THEM TO HEAR! I WANT THEM TO HEAR IT ALL! DO YOU KNOW WHAT WE DO HERE? TELL THOSE GENIUSES WHAT THEY HAVE DONE!...I DON'T GIVE A FUCK! TELL THEM! GO TELL THEM! RYZHKOV! GO TELL THEM HE'S A JOKE! TELL FUCKING GORBACHEV! TELL THEM!"''

[[Professional Wrestling]]

* ''Film/{{Inception}}'': [[spoiler: Ariadne dives down into Cobb's subconscious, and believes she's watching memories of Cobb talking to his dead wife Mal. Then Mal looks right at Ariadne and the audience to a ScareChord that can make ''Creator/MarionCotillard'' freaky as shit.]]