History Main / MarqueeAlterEgo

Compare AdaptationalAttractiveness.

* In ''Film/TheFugitive'' the plot calls for Dr Kimball to spend most of the movie in disguise; the filmmakers deliberately had him start out some distance from Harrison Ford's usual look, so that when he disguised himself by dying his hair and shaving off his beard he became the Harrison Ford audiences were paying to see.

* {{DareDevil}} has his mask ripped off right before his final fight with Kingpin. At least Ben Affleck was willing to wear one at all, unlike Colin Farrell's Bullseye.

* ''Film/IronMan'': While Tony is seen quite a bit out of the suit, having his mask come off in the final fight seems to be for this reason.
The films are also full of shots showing Stark's face from inside the Iron Man helmet, although that may just be because shining some lights in Robert Downey Jr's eyes is much cheaper than fully animating the suit in flight. Such scenes also serve to make the in-flight conversations with Jarvis slightly less TalkingToThemself-ish, and they're relatively common in the source material anyway.

* ''Film/TheAvengers'': Many of the heroes spend a great deal of time unmasked; Tony Stark and Captain America as above. Bruce Banner spends most of his time as a human also.

* Sylvester Stallone only spends about ten minutes with his helmet on in ''JudgeDredd'', despite the fact that in the comics we have ''never'' seen Dredd with his helmet off.

** And in ''X-Men: First Class'', both Mystique (now played by Jennifer Lawrence) and Beast (Nicholas Hoult) spend more time in human guise than in their blue skinned/furred forms.

* In the ''LordOfTheRings'' movie trilogy, Andy Serkis felt depressed about his groundbreaking work as Gollum being relatively anonymous. So the filmmakers shot a flashback scene as Smeagol for him.

* Strangely, the sequel to ''{{Shrek}}'' has Fiona turning back to normal for a while--maybe just to get mileage out of the model. Maybe the animators hoped to use it in promotional material that [[LateArrivalSpoiler wouldn't spoil viewers who hadn't seen the first one yet]].

* In ''Dark Passage'', the entire first act is done from [[POVCam the POV of the main character]] and we're not shown his face. Then he has plastic surgery, and when the bandages come off we see it's now HumphreyBogart.

* In the HarryPotter novels, Death Eaters wear masks when attacking, though the main characters can sometimes guess who's behind the mask by their voice. In [[Film.{{HarryPotter}} the movieverse]], the Death Eaters are played by good-looking actors with vocal fanbases so of course they are always whipping off their masks, even though the whole point of disguising themselves is so they can get away with their criminal behaviour.

* Seen often in ''{{Smallville}}''. Green Arrow seems to spend more time out of his hood and sunglasses than in them while in costume [[spoiler: even before outing himself]]. And this could be the reason why the writers took so long to give Clark in his mild-mannered, glasses-sporting civilian disguise.

* In ''Film/BatmanBegins'', Jonathan Crane spends almost ''all'' his time out of the mask, only putting it on for a few seconds at a time when he's using the fear gas. On the other hand, the Joker spends all his time in makeup in ''Film/TheDarkKnight'', and more strikingly Bane spends the whole of ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'' in a mouth-and-nose-concealing mask, [[spoiler:even after Batman breaks it in the final showdown.]]

* ''Film/IronMan'': While Tony is seen quite a bit out of the suit, having his mask come off in the final fight seems to be for this reason.
** And many shots show Stark's face from inside the IronMan helmet, although that may just be because shining some lights in Robert Downey Jr's eyes is much cheaper than fully animating the suit in flight.
** Does at least serve to make the in-flight conversations with Jarvis slightly less TalkingToThemself-ish.
*** Such "In-Helmet" shots are also relatively common in the source material, however. Tony Stark is a Marquee Alter Ego in the comics, too?

* ''Film/TheAvengers'': Many of the heroes spend a great deal of time unmasked; Tony Stark and Captain America as above. Bruce Banner spends most of his time as a human also, though that probably doesn't count (and given that Ruffalo did motion capture for his Hulk form, this might be considered a partial aversion).
* {{DareDevil}} has his mask ripped off right before his final fight with Kingpin. At least Ben Affleck was willing one to wear one at all, unlike Colin Farrell's Bullseye.
* Inverted somewhat in [[{{Film/Watchmen}} the film adaptation of Watchmen]], where Rorschach spends more time in costume than he did in the comic, specifically the prison break scene (where he originally was unmasked)

* In the video game ''SplinterCell: Conviction'', Sam Fisher (who is on the run after the events of ''Double Agent'') starts the game wearing a dressed-down ensemble and his standard gun, which is a far cry from the iconic infiltration suit getup her wore in the first three games. Over the course of ''Conviction'', though, you'll eventually revert back to your original getup by obtaining several key pieces of equipment (including your signature gun and trademark goggles).

* Universal Pictures executives ''wanted'' this trope to apply to JimCarrey when he played [[HowTheGrinchStoleChristmas The Grinch]], pushing for less-Seussian makeup than what Rick Baker had designed, and Carrey and director Ron Howard got so fed up with this that one makeup test they sent for the executives to consider was just Carrey painted green. The executives finally accepted the elaborate Grinch makeup/costume, the movie was a huge hit and Baker won an Oscar.

* Likewise, in ''Film/CaptainAmerica'' Steve Rogers spends a lot of time not wearing the half-mask hood—sometimes as himself, and other times with it simply pushed back. At one point he wears a helmet instead.

** The Red Skull spends about half the movie wearing Hugo Weaving's face before he finally [[DramaticUnmasking dramatically peels it off]].

It's not so strange when you consider how important an actor's face is in "selling" the acting in media such as film where body language matters. Comic books or prose narratives offer other methods of conveying the same information, rendering it less important to see the character's true face.

As a result, our strange-looking character is reverted back to a less costumed face, and may stay that way until the film's climax. Keep in mind this isn't just about character.

** Also minorly subverted, as the fact that he still has his permanent smile is enough to place to drop him in the UncannyValley.

* Likewise, Billy Zane gets a lot of face time in ''ThePhantom'', considering he's playing a character whose face is never shown clearly in the comics.

* In TheFilmOfTheSeries of ''TheFugitive'' the plot calls for Dr Kimball to spend most of the movie in disguise; the filmmakers deliberately had him start out some distance from Harrison Ford's usual look, so that when he disguised himself by dying his hair and shaving off his beard he became the Harrison Ford audiences were paying to see.

Examples:

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** In the third movie, we get a token few minutes of Venom's wonderfully creepy tooth-filled maw before he starts peeling back his "mask" every time he speaks - probably to give Topher Grace some more face time. Because the thing to get you really absorbed in a superhero film is the villain constantly turning back into the guy from ''That70sShow''...

* Averted in ''{{V for Vendetta}}'' where Hugo Weaving's face is never seen, except at the end just before the credits when the crowd takes off their masks.
** Although considering the comic V's face is never seen, maybe it's a straight example...

* Strangely, the sequel to ''{{Shrek}}'' has Fiona turning back to normal for a while--maybe just to get mileage out of the model. Maybe the animators hoped to use it in promotional material that [[YouShouldKnowThisAlready wouldn't spoil viewers who hadn't seen the first one yet]].