History Main / SurgicalImpersonation

* In one episode of ''Series/LoisAndClark'', the villain attempts to use a double of Lois in order to convince her and others that she is insane... and then accuse her of murdering Superman.

* Desmond Bagley's spy thriller ''The Tightrope Men'' opens with the protagonist waking up in a strange hotel room and reacting in terror when he looks in the mirror because his face is completely different. Turns out his new face is that of a KidnappedScientist and he's been altered and brainwashed to take his place. Unlike other examples he ''knows'' he's not this other person, but his memories are so confused it takes a while for everyone to sort out what's going on.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E137Number12LooksJustLikeYou Number 12 Looks Just Like You]]", everyone undergoes a process called the Transformation when they turn 19. It involves altering their bodies into one of a set of pre-existing, physically attractive body patterns. They are at least 17 models to choose from. Lana Cuberle describes Number 12, which she chose, as "everybody's favorite".

* ''Series/DarkMatter'': One is revealed to have taken the identity of a notorious criminal by changing his face (and voice) with plastic surgery when he's captured by the same criminal. This is because [[spoiler:he's looking for the man who killed his wife, whom he suspects to be part of the ship's crew]]. (Both One and the real Jace Corso are played by Marc Bendavid, while One's previous identity as Derrick Moss is played by Dan Jeannotte.)

* In ''Film/JailBait'', a crook blackmails a plastic surgeon to change his face so the police won't recognize him. The plastic surgeon responds by giving him the face of his (the surgeon's) own son, who's been falsely accused of murder.

* ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}'': [[spoiler:Mika Harima]] was badly injured and had her face remade to look like [[spoiler:Celty's original head, which she was trying to destroy at the time, so she could get closed to Seiji, who is obsessed with said head. Seiji]] evidently figured it out at some point but remained in the relationship regardless.

->''“He’s the most brilliant and dangerous criminal mind I’ve ever known. For years I’ve been watching him, tracking him, studying his every move. I know his every mannerism, facial tic, gesture. I know him better than he knows himself. And now after all this time I’ve figured out a way to trap him -- I will become him.”''

A subtrope of MagicPlasticSurgery, this is when a person, whether by accident or on purpose, ends up with the face of another through reconstructive surgery. Usually, some kind of big accident is involved (or staged) that leads to the fateful operation, or the person might just disappear for a while and come back with the new face. However, as mentioned, this is a subtrope of MagicPlasticSurgery: it is not enough that the person has a new face, it is a ''specific'' face, the face of someone else that is known to the other characters, perhaps even a character who's a participant in the story. Also, this isn't LITERALLY having the other person's face ([[Film/FaceOff usually...]]), just having surgery to look like the other person. Bottom line is this: the person's new face is not a random or unknown one, it is a face well known to the other characters. Also, this is not the same as LatexPerfection: while that might be another way of impersonating someone, it is not at all permanent like Surgical Impersonation is, nor does it have as many dramatic options.

Subtrope of MagicPlasticSurgery. Compare LatexPerfection. A form of ActingForTwo.

* In ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny'', Meer Campbell, a Lacus Clyne {{fangirl}} who possessed a singing voice not unlike hers but was ''very'' different looks-wise, agrees to have surgery (and probable DNA manipulation) that turns her into an identical twin of Lacus. This is later revealed to be an attempt to abuse Lacus' political influence by Gilbert Durandal, since Lacus herself refused to work with him; Meer, a BrokenBird who's strongly implied to be a war orphan, went along with it because [[IJustWantToBeLoved she is desperately lonely]].
* In one case in ''Manga/CaseClosed'', the murderer received surgery in order to make his face look like that of the protagonist's, in order to pin the murder on him and get revenge on him. He faked his voice by claiming that he was sick with a cold - ironically, The Hero actually was.

** Once to help a nurse get revenge on the incompetent boss who ruined her career (by making her look like the singer the boss is obsessed with). In the latter case, Black Jack's [[MagicPlasticSurgery ability to perfectly replicate the singer's face]] is justified by saying that he'd done plastic surgery on the singer too. Or, to be more precise, he "made her face" as well.
* In one ''Manga/CryingFreeman'' story, an organization trying to infiltrate the 108 Dragons takes two agents and reconstructs them as identical clones of Freeman, down to his body tattoos, mannerisms and even ''genitalia''. Freeman returns the favor by managing to get one of them killed and impersonating him so he infiltrates the other organization in return.

* In ''{{LightNovel/Durarara}}'' [[spoiler:Mika Harima]] was badly injured and had her face remade to look like [[spoiler:Celty's original head, which she was trying to destroy at the time, so she could get closed to Seiji, who is obsessed with said head]]. Evidently [[spoiler:Seiji]] eventually figured it out but remained in the relationship regardless.
* In ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable'', the BigBad SerialKiller Yoshikage Kira is discovered by the heroes. After making an escape, Kira kidnaps a random man off the street and forces a Stand User to use her powers to give him the man's face, then kills both his victim and the Stand User to hide from the heroes once more by living his victim's life.

[[folder: ComicBooks]]
* Thomas Elliot, AKA Hush, the newest big member of Franchise/{{Batman}}'s rogue gallery, uses surgery on himself to impersonate people. Taken to a HUGE extreme, since ''he performs the surgeries on himself''.
* [[spoiler: The Joker]] has had this done to him right before the start of the comic in ''ComicBook/IJoker''.
* An old ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' comic had a story about a man who'd had reconstructive surgery after being trapped in a fire as a boy: he'd been saved from the fire by Superboy, and asked to have his new face made to look like Superboy's as a tribute. As an embittered adult, he started committing robberies disguised as Superman.
* ''Comicbook/{{XIII}}'' utilizes this trope in conjunction with [[spoiler:DeadPersonImpersonation]] to [[spoiler:draw out members of a government conspiracy.]] After the titular conspirator kills the president, [[spoiler:the rest of the group has him killed. His wife, another conspirator as well as TheMole, hires his rival from his old army unit to impersonate her late husband so the rest of the group will come out of hiding to try and finish him off.]]
* In ''ComicBook/{{Uber}}'', [[spoiler:Josef Goebbels]] has plastic surgery to replace [[spoiler:Adolf Hitler]] after he is murdered. This is achieved through a superhuman with extremely delicate and accurate [[RealityWarping disruption halo]] powers.
* Franchise/{{Batman}} foe Killer Moth once decided to kidnap a millionaire and use plastic surgery to take over his identity. The millionaire her decided to kidnap? Bruce Wayne. At the end of the story, bullet wounds damaged his face and the new reconstructive surgery removes his resemblance to Wayne.

* Probably the most literal example is ''Film/FaceOff'', where agent Sean Archer undergoes a special operation in which he has his face literally taken off and replaced with terrorist Castor Troy's in order to infiltrate his organization... and later Castor wakes from a coma to return the favor to Archer.
* The amnesiac variant is seen in the movie ''Film/Shattered1991'': Creator/TomBerenger's character wakes up after an accident with full amnesia, and later discovers he's not the person everyone thinks he is.
* In Creator/EdWood's ''Film/JailBait'', a crook blackmails a plastic surgeon to change his face so the police won't recognize him. The plastic surgeon responds by giving him the face of his (the surgeon's) own son, who's been falsely accused of murder.
* ''Film/DiamondsAreForever''. Blofeld has two {{mook}}s undergo plastic surgery to make them look like him in order to distract Film/JamesBond.
** In another Bond example, in ''Film/{{Thunderball}}'', SPECTRE agent Angelo Palazzi is given plastic surgery to KillAndReplace NATO pilot François Derval.
* ''Film/OurManFlint''. Flint kills several Z.O.W.I.E. guards and is arrested.
-->'''Flint:''' They're impostors.
-->'''Cramden:''' Gridley? He's been with us...That's Gridley!
-->'''Flint:''' Sir, if you look around the eyes, you'll see some scars. On the bridge of the nose. Plastic surgery.

* In ''Film/TrapForCinderella'', Micky is told that she is actually Domenica, whose face was reconstructed to match Micky's after the accident. [[spoiler:In actuality, Micky was the one who survived the accident]].

[[folder: {{Literature}}]]
* One of the ''[[Literature/SweetValleyHigh Sweet Valley University]]'' Thriller spin-offs was based around a girl obsessed with Jessica's current boyfriend. The girl had inherited a lot of money from her late parents, so after the guy took out a restraining order against her, she used this trope to assume the identity of a popular sorority girl from her university and continue stalking him.
* A Greg Egan story revolves around an insane artist whose attempts to reenact old paintings in real life include surgically altering models (against their wills if necessary) to match the characters in the paintings.
* In Book 1 of ''Literature/{{MARZENA}}'', we have [[spoiler: Dr. Lauren who is actually a BodyDouble of the real Dr. Lauren [[DeathByOriginStory who is already long dead]]]]. Beware, you are what you think (or at least you will be soon).
* ''Literature/TheExecutioner''. Mack Bolan visits a fellow Vietnam vet who now works as a plastic surgeon, and among a number of suggested faces picks one who looks like an Italian-American soldier, then infiltrates the local Mafia family under that name. When the mob boss hears a rumor that particular soldier died in the war, Bolan drops a hint that he was a substitute hired to take his place so he could dodge the draft.

* In ''Literature/MonaLisaOverdrive'' a conspiracy to kidnap sim-sense star Angie Mitchell takes a young hooker and has her face reworked into a duplicate of Angie's.

[[folder: LiveActionTV]]

* In the ''Series/{{Baywatch}}'' ''Hawaiian Wedding'' ReunionShow, Mitch is about to marry Allison, who's a dead ringer for his long-dead love, Stephanie Holden. While all his friends are surprised at the resemblance, conniving Neely is the one who suspects something, getting into a catfight in a pool with Allison. She tells Mitch that the fight was an excuse to get a closer look and feel the scars by Allison's ears and hairline that show she had some plastic surgery and this "resemblance" is no coincidence. At first not believing her, Mitch studies Allison himself to find the scars and realizes she's a con artist altered to look like Stephanie to trick Mitch, all as part of a plot of revenge by an old enemy.

* The entire ''Series/KnightRider'' series starts off with the main character getting a new face, that just so happens look like the son of the man who paid for the operation.
* In ''Series/TheManFromUncle'' episode "The Double Affair," a THRUSH agent gets Magic Plastic Surgery and voice training to look and sound like Napoleon Solo so he can replace him and sabotage UNCLE affairs.
* An assassin in ''Series/TwentyFour'' does this by impersonating a photographer and stealing his identity to get through security.
* Employed by various villains in ''Series/TheWildWildWest''.
* ''Series/TheIncredibleHulk1977'': "Broken Image" is a gangster example.
* In ''Series/LoisAndClark'', there was an attempt to use a double of Lois in order to convince her and others that she is insane... and then accuse her of murdering Superman.
* In ''Series/{{Highlander}}'', there was a double episode where a villain tried to get to Duncan by changing a woman into an exact double of his long dead love, Tessa (although the double never pretended to be her, it was a bit more complicated).
* Even telenovelas doesn't escape this: a recent one was ''El rostro de Analía'', whose plot could be described as ''Film/FaceOff'' crossed with ''Manga/PrettyFace'' [[AC:[[RecycledInSpace AS A LATIN SOAP WITH A WOMAN DOING THE FACE EXCHANGE!]]]]
* With the advanced technology in ''Franchise/StarTrek'', this is used in place of LatexPerfection. [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Cmdr. Riker]] was turned into an alien for a recon mission, and Counselor Troi, Capt. Picard and Lt. Data were (willingly or not) changed into Romulans.
* In the sitcom ''The Piglet Files'', a Chinese spy imitates the protagonist this way, despite obvious surgical scars and still retaining his Chinese accent. As usual the other [=MI5=] agents are too incompetent to notice.
* ''Series/DarkMatter'': One is revealed to have taken the identity of a notorious criminal by changing his face (and voice) with plastic surgery when he's captured by the same criminal. This is because [[spoiler:he's looking for the man who killed his wife, whom he suspects to be part of the ship's crew.]] Both One and the real Jace Corso are played by Creator/MarcBendavid, while One's previous identity as Derrick Moss is played by Creator/DanJeannotte.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In "Arc of Infinity," the TragicVillain [[Recap/DoctorWhoS10E1TheThreeDoctors Omega]] wants to transfer from his world into ours, and he uses the Fifth Doctor's biodata to achieve this. The process makes him look ''exactly like'' the Fifth Doctor for a while, but it's imperfect: his form begins to break down just when he's gotten to enjoy himself.
* A variation on ''Series/Dynasty2017''. Alexis has her face burned in a fire with surgery needed. Conniving son Adam arranges for the doctor to be given a photograph of Fallon so that when the bandages come off, Alexis is now a dead ringer for her own daughter (Elizabeth Gillies thus plays both parts). Incredibly, the vain Alexis is convinced this is "me five years ago." It takes the entire family reacting for her to finally realize the resemblance and how they all think this was Alexis' twisted idea...which is just what Adam wanted them to so Alexis was alienated from the family as part of his plan. Alexis eventually leaves, declaring her first move is to get herself another new face.
* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E137Number12LooksJustLikeYou Number 12 Looks Just Like You]]", everyone undergoes a process called the Transformation when they turn 19. It involves altering their bodies into one of a set of pre-existing, physically attractive body patterns. They are at least 17 models to choose from. Lana Cuberle describes Number 12, which she chose, as "everybody's favorite."
* In ''Series/RaisedByWolves2020'', atheist soldiers Caleb and Mary found a [[ChurchMilitant Mithraic]] couple named Marcus and Sue who had some physical similarities to them, killed them and then had a surgical android reconstruct their faces so they could pass for them and leave the ravaged Earth on The Ark. What comes as a surprise to them is finding out they have now inherited a son, Paul.

[[folder:NewspaperComics]]
* This is done to create a double of Modesty in ''ComicStrip/ModestyBlaise'' arc "The Double Agent".

[[folder:Web Original]]
* Bonesaw of ''Literature/{{Worm}}'' used her Tinker skills on captured civilians to create {{Body Double}}s of the Slaughterhouse 9. Most were killed either due to the modifications or the ensuing battle between the Capes and 9.
* One of the two toad spies who undergoes "species reassignment surgery" in the TheBuckyOHareWebSeries is made to look like Bucky O'Hare so he can assassinate Chairman Dogstar.

[[folder: VideoGames]]
* In ''Videogame/BorderlandsThePreSequel'', the Doppelganger DLC character was an actor by the name of Timothy Lawrence who signed a contract to be Jack's body double in order to pay off his student loans, complete with surgery and a voice modulator (though it's hinted that he wasn't completely OK with those).
* In ''[[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Justice For All]]'': [[spoiler:the murderer is revealed to be a woman who was believed to have died in a car accident, when it turned out that the one who died was actually her sister. She took her sister's identity by presenting the girl's picture while she was in surgery in order to escape the publicity from a traumatic medical malpractice incident.]]
* Decoy Octopus, Foxhound's infiltration and espionage expert in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' uses this method to impersonate people.
** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain'' also gives us [[spoiler:Venom Snake--the former Militaires Sans Frontieres medic who was in the helicopter crash in ''Ground Zeroes'', given cosmetic surgery and hypnotherapy to be a body double for Big Boss. He's the one who Solid Snake kills at Outer Heaven in the original ''VideoGame/MetalGear1''.]]
* ''Videogame/SaintsRowTheThird'' makes use of this in the mission, My name is Cyrus Temple. Interestingly enough, the mistakes the boss makes while under the disguise of Cyrus Temple are different for every voice of the boss.
* ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity'' - One of the sidequests involves a serial killer surgically removing his victims' faces. It turns out to be Hush, who (as in the comics) has reconstructed his own face to resemble Bruce Wayne.

[[folder: WesternAnimation]]

* ''WesternAnimation/JonnyQuest'' episode "Double Danger". Dr. Zin uses plastic surgery on a man to make him look like Race Bannon so he can impersonate Race and steal a secret formula.
* On ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "The Bob Next Door", Sideshow Bob trades faces with his cellmate, who was to be released the next day, in order to enact his latest plan to kill Bart.
* An episode of ''The Adventures of T-Rex'' is centered around villains ordering their own doubles for the purpose of alibi.

* The amnesiac variant is seen in the movie ''Film/{{Shattered}}'': Creator/TomBerenger's character wakes up after an accident with full amnesia, and later discovers he's not the person everyone thinks he is.

* In one ''Manga/CryingFreeman'' story, an organization trying to infiltrate the 108 Dragons takes two agents and reconstructs them as identical clones of Freeman, down to his body tattoos, mannerisms and even ''[[BiggusDickus genitalia]]''. Freeman returns the favor by managing to get one of them killed and impersonating him so he infiltrates the other organization in return.

* In the second case of ''[[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Justice For All]]'': the murderer is revealed to be a woman who was believed to have died in a car accident, when it turned out that the one who died was actually her sister. She took her sister's identity by presenting the girl's picture while she was in surgery in order to escape the publicity from a traumatic medical malpractice incident.

* In one case in ''Manga/DetectiveConan'', the murderer received surgery in order to make his face look like that of the protagonist's, in order to pin the murder on him and get revenge on him. He faked his voice by claiming that he was sick with a cold - ironically, The Hero actually was.

* ''Series/DarkMatter'': One is revealed to have taken the identity of a notorious criminal by changing his face with plastic surgery when he's captured by the same criminal. This is because [[spoiler:he's looking for the man who killed his wife, whom he suspects to be part of the ship's crew.]]

* In the ''Series/{{Baywatch}}'' ''Hawaiian Wedding'' ReunionShow, Mitch is about to marry Allison, who's a dead ringer for his long-dead love, Stephanie Holden. While all his friends are surprised at the resemblance, conniving Geena is the one who suspects something, getting into a catfight in a pool with Allison. She tells Mitch that the fight was an excuse to get a closer look and feel the scars by Allison's ears and hairline that show she had some plastic surgery and this "resemblance" is no coincidence. At first not believing her, Mitch studies Allison himself to find the scars and realizes she's a con artist altered to look like Stephanie to trick Mitch, all as part of a plot of revenge by an old enemy.

* In ''Videogame/BorderlandsThePreSequel'', the Doppelganger DLC character was a former intern by the name of Timothy Lawrence who signed a contract to be Jack's body double in order to pay off his student loans, complete with surgery and a voice modulator (though it's hinted that he wasn't completely OK with those).

* In the ''Series/{{Baywatch}}'' ''Hawaiian Wedding'' ReunionShow, Mitch is about to marry Allison, who's a dead ringer for his long-dead love, Stephanie Holden. All those who knew Stephanie (including sister Caroline) are stunned by how Allison is a near dead ringer. Conniving Geena is the one who suspects something, getting into a catfight in a pool with Allison. She tells Mitch that the fight was an excuse to get a closer look and feel the scars by Allison's ears and hairline that show she had some plastic surgery and this "resemblance" is no coincidence. At first not believing her, Mitch studies Allison himself to find the scars and realizes she's a con artist altered to look like Stephanie to trick Mitch, all as part of a plot of revenge by an old enemy.

* ''Series/TheIncredibleHulk'': "Broken Image" is a gangster example.