History Main / NoPeripheralVision

* A particularly odd example comes from the 2007 ''Film/{{Transformers}}'', where Frenzy skitters right between two guards completely undetected (doubly odd in that Frenzy was also making plenty of noise as he did so), which the Podcast/RiffTrax crew is quick to lampoon:

[[caption-width-right:350:[[SuspectIsHatless Security is not hatless.]]]]

* ''Film/TheThirteenthChair'': After Ned Wales is murdered right in the middle of the seance, no one can find the murder weapon, not even after all the guests are searched by the cops. No one notices it stuck in the ceiling.
* In ''Film/TheVagabond'', Creator/CharlieChaplin is perched in plain sight in a tree branch that's maybe nine feet off the ground. He knocks out five mooks with a club, leaving a little pile of unconscious bad guys. No one ever looks up.

* {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in ''Film/GetSmart'': when 99 notices a KAOS agent on the plane, she tells Max to “use his peripherals.” Max, being [[TheFool who he is]], merely widens his eyes and then says he can't see a thing.
* A particularly odd example comes from the 2007 ''Film/{{Transformers}}'', where Frenzy skitters right between two guards completely undetected (doubly odd in that Frenzy was also making plenty of noise as he did so), which the Podcast/RiffTrax crew is quick to lampoon:
--> '''Mike''': ''So, how's your peripheral vision, Bob?''
--> '''Kevin (as "Bob")''': ''Terrible! Yours?''
* River hides from the doctors looking for her by climbing to the ceiling in the escape-from-the-lab opening of ''Film/{{Serenity}}''. And again to Jayne later on. Although that time, there was almost no light, and Jayne was drunk enough to think going after River over [[PapaWolf Mal's]] orders was a good idea.
* And again [[Film/SpiderManTrilogy Spider-Man in the movies]]. In [[Film/SpiderMan1 the first]], he at least had the excuse of a rather high ceiling in his loft apartment. He's also smart enough to try and hide as close to directly over the heads of the people he's hiding from as he can.
** Inverted in ''Film/SpiderManHomecoming'', twice in the same scene, even. First, Peter, crawling across the ceiling, fails to notice his friend, Ned, sitting in his bedroom waiting for him, while Ned was watching him the whole time. Then, when Aunt May walks in on them, she fails to notice his suit on the floor between herself and Peter.
* ''Film/{{Alien}}''? So many scenes where a friendly little bit of drooling by our favorite xeno-morph caused our soon-to-be-ex-protagonists to look up a little too late… Somewhat justified by the fact that the Xenomorph's natural colouration makes for very effective camouflage against a dark background in dim light: On a couple of occasions in the first film it's literally HiddenInPlainSight, looking like a piece of set dressing even to the audience.

* This happens quite often in slasher movies, only with the killer standing to the side rather than clinging to the ceiling. Notably ''Franchise/FridayThe13th'' and ''Franchise/{{Halloween}}''.
** ''Film/HalloweenII1981'', where a girl near the beginning looks out the door to see if she sees anything suspicious, but doesn't seem to notice that Michael Myers is almost directly ahead of her. She can't see him simply because he's standing slightly to her left, as if she's wearing those blinders that they put on horses.
** In ''Film/PromNight2008''. When the protagonist is under the bed she doesn't notice her friend's dead body ''right next to her'' until ''after'' she slowly looks to her right.
* ''Film/TheThirteenthChair'': After Ned Wales is murdered right in the middle of the seance, no one can find the murder weapon, not even after all the guests are searched by the cops. No one notices it stuck in the ceiling.
* A scene in ''Film/MrAndMrsSmith2005'' has Jane Smith jump out a skyscraper by using a special purse that turns into a metal rope that drops her right down onto a crowded sidewalk. No one seems to notice she came from several hundred feet in the air.
* ''Film/AdventuresInBabysitting''. Thankfully the only one who noticed them wanted them to escape safely. And they were definitely high enough, especially when everyone else in the room was focused on a table full of documents and papers.
* ''Film/{{Avatar}}'': Last Shadow's one weakness appears to be maniacs falling out of the sky from above. Naturally, this is basically the only way to impress it enough to fly one. Jake manages to sneak attack a flying beast, after realizing since the monster is considered king of the sky, it'd never bother to think to look up.
* Pops up in ''Film/AChristmasStory'', when the teacher asks where Flick is after he stuck his tongue to the pole. The camera shot over her shoulder reveals that Flick was right there, out the window, right within her range of vision.

* ''Film/AVPAlienVsPredator'' has a giant Predator spaceship pass by overhead without the guards seeing anything. It helps that the ship somehow moves without making a sound, but those must be the worst guards ever.
* In ''Film/{{Matilda}}'', Matilda manages to hide from Miss Trunchbull by using her powers to levitate herself up to the underside of a kitchen table. Miss Trunchbull doesn't think to look up. Somewhat [[JustifiedTrope justified]] in that Miss Trunchbull would have no reason to think someone could do that, but if she'd even ''happened'' to glance up (say, out of the corner of her eye while looking sideways), she would have seen Matilda there.
* Lampshaded a bit in ''Film/TheFisherKing'' when Jeff Bridges character is scaling a castle wall in New York City (makes slightly more sense in context), he remarks that he is glad no one in the city ever looks up.
* At one point in ''Film/FiveGravesToCairo'', Lt. Schwegler leans up against a wall, and completely misses Bramble, passed out on the floor about four feet directly to his left.
* In ''Film/TheVagabond'', Creator/CharlieChaplin is perched in plain sight in a tree branch that's maybe nine feet off the ground. He knocks out five mooks with a club, leaving a little pile of unconscious bad guys. No one ever looks up.
* ''Film/{{Secrets|1933}}'': With her father William hammering on the door, Mary hurriedly throws her dress down on the floor (it's a huge 19th century formal dress) for John to hide under. William enters the room, sees the dress on the floor, picks it up, and scolds Mary for not taking care of her dress, while John's legs are in plain view at his feet.
* ''Film/MadMaxFuryRoad'': Justified example. In the first battles, Furiosa ruthlessly rams anything off the road that gets near her. During the storm, a piece of debris shatters her side view mirror and gives Nux an opening to overtake her. Later on, she is far less able to use the massive rig itself as a weapon, with the notable exception of squashing the Interceptor against the People Eater's rig.
* In ''Film/Carrie1976'' No one at the prom spots the bucket of pig's blood in the rafters, even though it's only about 12 feet up, and in plain sight. The remakes fix this by having the rafters be ''much'' higher up.

* The final guy of ''Film/ViolentNight'' somehow doesn't see [[spoiler:Gertrude standing three feet away as she puts a gun to his head.]] {{Downplayed|Trope}} since he was focused on Santa, but she was clearly in his field of vision.

* The final guy of ''Film/ViolentNight'' somehow doesn't see [[spoiler:Gertrude standing three feet away as she puts a gun to his head.]] [[{{Downplayed|Trope}}]] since he was focused on Santa, but she was clearly in his field of vision.

* Pretty much every character in ''Series/TheWalkingDead''. The walkers are slow and stupid and should pose little threat to the protagonists, so the show compensates by having them somehow sneak up on people without them noticing.

There may be some real-life support for the idea of not noticing things on the ceiling. After all, in nature the only thing that will be above you is the sky and maybe a few birds, which are very rarely dangerous predators that you need to avoid. Police and military training spend a great deal of effort on teaching trainees to ''check "Up"'' when they are searching or entering an area. On the other hand, fiction tends to apply this to things which would be much more obvious than a typical sniper (who by definition is trying to stay hidden) or ceiling bloodstain. There's really no reason why Franchise/SpiderMan should ever be able to hide on the ceiling unless it's either 40 feet high or a ''really'' small room. In fiction people may even ignore moving objects that aren't directly in front of them, despite the fact that peripheral vision is sensitive to motion.

* Franchise/SpiderMan does this constantly. Except when it doesn't work and he has to give up a photograph and autograph to escape, which thanks to his colorful costume, makes it difficult to NOT be seen.
* Heroes in ''ComicBook/{{Invincible}}'' can do pretty much anything without being noticed as long as they're up in the air. Typically this means using their powers out of costume without blowing their secret identities. There is a fairly constant lampshade hung on it.

* [[Franchise/TheSlenderManMythos The Slender Man]] has a disturbing tendency of managing to hide in plain sight, in glaringly obvious places. Preferred spots include standing in front of a forest (or in a forest) usually one of the [[TheLostWoods Lost Woods]] variety, standing [[DaylightHorror in broad daylight]] in positions where he should be blindingly obvious yet goes unseen, and [[BeingWatched directly behind]] [[ParanoiaFuel you]].

** Averted in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS22E3TheMarkOfTheRani "The Mark of the Rani"]], where the Doctor dodges a danger that seems to be sneaking up on him out of sight. When Peri asks how he knew about it, he simply replies "[[IncrediblyLamePun Peripheral vision.]]"

* Elastigirl in ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'' pulled [[CeilingCling a Spider-Man]] to avoid being spotted by a pair of {{Mooks}} once inside the enemy compound.

* {{Inverted}} and {{Justified}} in ''Literature/FrozenInnocence'', the tenth book in the ''Literature/LaFuerzaSeries''. Blindspot’s superpower is that she can ''only'' be seen in your peripheral vision.

* During the escape from [[spoiler: the human zoo]] in ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'', the Crystal Gems ([[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and Greg]]) slip to their Roaming Eye ''literally right under [[spoiler: Holly Blue Agate]]'s nose!'' From the way she was looking, she should have seen them. Instead, she only sees them when she turns to face the ship directly.

* The {{vaporware}} ThirdPersonShooter ''VideoGame/StarCraft: Ghost'' would have given the player the ability to hide on the ceiling.

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' is relatively good about enemies noticing you sneaking around their peripheral... until you max out your Sneak skill. A character with the Silent Running perk is able to sneak attack just about anyone while wearing 50 lbs of futuristic plate mail, an [[BoringButPractical irritatingly loud vacuum cleaner/leaf blower hybrid]], and carrying the tons of tin cans, bottles, and various bits of junk this weapon uses as ammunition. Even while right in front of the enemy at point blank range, in some cases.

* One of the most prominent stealth techniques of the first ''VideoGame/SplinterCell'' game was the 'split-jump,' which allowed you to hide just above an enemy's head. Although you could sometimes still be spotted depending on the lighting. In later games, Sam can deliver an inverted NeckSnap while hanging from a beam.

* In the video game for ''VideoGame/{{GoldenEye|1997}}'', one of the stages has you shooting out security cameras. Sounds straightforward enough, but one of the cameras is placed slightly higher up than the others, and you never see it within your normal field of vision, which can get frustrating as you run around trying to find that last camera.
* This is inflicted on the enemies in ''VideoGame/{{Prototype 2}}'' by an upgrade which decreases the guards' fairly normal field of vision by 25%.

* Dead straight in [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20100527.html this]] ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary''. He's only about a foot above their heads...

* ''VideoGame/AlienIsolation'': while the trope is generally averted in this game, sometimes an enemy could pass straight wihout noticing you crouched in an angle on their side. Even the xenomorph while being generally devious and perceptive is not totally immune, like [[https://youtu.be/0Mtn3VbX50s?t=20 in this example]] where it doesn't notice the player on its side and then gets distracted by a flare (only to successfully resume hunting a few moments later). In certain circumstances it can even fail to see you directly in its front just because its AI routine is tunnel-visioning another input, [[https://youtu.be/tCyVO7VJzs8?t=45 like in this example]] with the noisemaker overriding its focus right after rotating (the following gunshots are a subversion because it later quickly returns to your last known position, meaning that it indeed noticed you were here but was prioritizing another target first). [[https://youtu.be/IO2UcQYStNg?t=159 this other example]] is even more egregious as the creature looks blind and dumb for not noticing the player in the corner, and the video is indeed making a comparison between normal behavior and a mod intended to make the game ''harder''. However, never count on such cases when planning your moves.

* ''VideoGame/AlienIsolation'': while the trope is generally averted in this game, sometimes an enemy could pass straight wihout noticing you crouched in an angle on their side. Even the xenomorph while being generally devious and perceptive is not totally immune, like [[https://youtu.be/0Mtn3VbX50s?t=20 in this example]] where it doesn't notice the player on its side and then gets distracted by a flare (only to successfully resume hunting a few moments later). In certain circumstances it can even fail to see you directly in its front just because its AI routine is tunnel-visioning another input, [[https://youtu.be/tCyVO7VJzs8?t=45 like in this example]] with the noisemaker overriding its focus right after rotating (the following gunshots are a subversion because it later quickly returns to your last known position, meaning that it indeed noticed you were here but was prioritizing another target first). However, never count on such cases when planning your moves.

* ''VideoGame/AlienIsolation'': while the trope is generally averted in this game, sometimes an enemy could pass straight wihout noticing you crouched in an angle on their side. Even the xenomorph while being generally devious and perceptive is not totally immune, like [[https://youtu.be/0Mtn3VbX50s?t=20 in this example]] where it doesn't notice the player on its side and then gets distracted by a flare (only to successfully resume hunting a few moments later). In certain circumstances it can even fail to see you directly in its front just because its AI routine is tunnel-focused on another input, [[https://youtu.be/tCyVO7VJzs8?t=45 like in this example]] first with the noisemaker while rotating and then the gunshots while running. However, never count on such cases when planning your moves.

* ''VideoGame/AlienIsolation'': while the trope is generally averted in this game, sometimes an enemy could pass straight wihout noticing you crouched in an angle on their side. Even the xenomorph while being generally devious and percective is not totally immune, like [[https://youtu.be/0Mtn3VbX50s?t=20 in this example]] where it doesn't notice the player on its side and then gets distracted by a flare (only to successfully resume hunting a few moments later). In certain circumstances it can even fail to see you directly in its front just because its AI routine is tunnel-focused on another input, [[https://youtu.be/tCyVO7VJzs8?t=45 like in this example]]. However, never count on such cases when planning your moves.

* ''VideoGame/AlienIsolation'': while the trope is generally averted in this game, sometimes an enemy could pass straight wihout noticing you crouched in an angle on their side, even the xenomorph while being generally devious and percective is not totally immune, like [[https://youtu.be/0Mtn3VbX50s?t=20 in this example (where it doesn't notice the player on its side and then gets distracted by a flare]]. It can even fail to see you directly in its front just because its AI routine is tunnel-focused on another input, [[https://youtu.be/tCyVO7VJzs8?t=45 like in this example]].

* ''VideoGame/AlienIsolation'': while the trope is generally averted in this game, sometimes an enemy could pass straight wihout noticing you crouched in an angle on their side, even the xenomorph while being generally devious and percective is not totally immune. It can even fail to see you directly in your front just because its AI routine is tunnel-focused on another input, [[https://youtu.be/tCyVO7VJzs8?t=45 like in this example]].

* ''VideoGame/AlienIsolation'': while the trope is generally averted in this game, sometimes an enemy could pass straight wihout noticing you crouched in an angle on their side, even the xenomorph while being generally devious and perspective is not totally immune.