Not every Master Actor has the luxury of Becoming the Mask. No matter how well a character's been playing a part, it's still possible to screw up and let the mask slip just enough for someone to figure out that they aren't who they claim to be... and Rule of Drama holds that it will happen at the very worst possible moment, right when they're just about to achieve their goals and get away with their disguise intact, often at the very end of the story.
The identity-revealing mistake can take many different forms: a slip of the tongue, a sudden Accent Relapse, a gesture or a phrase that subtly unveils a clashing origin story, an Out-of-Character Alert, a failure to keep up with their own improv, or maybe the actor has gotten so emotional that they just can't keep the mask in place. In some cases, it might even be simply due to a false moustache falling off at the wrong moment. An Oh, Crap! moment is sure to follow as the actor realizes their mistake, perhaps a Villainous Breakdown in the case of more underhanded actors. Either way, it'll usually be a cue for the mask to come off entirely.
Compare and contrast Perfect Disguise, Terrible Acting, in which no such pivotal mistake exists because the performance is made of nothing but errors.
Compare Spotting the Thread, which is often used for more general forms of deception, can be spread out across the body of the work, and doesn't necessarily feature the mask being dropped.
Can overlap with Mangled Catchphrase.
Examples
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Anime & Manga
- Fullmetal Alchemist: Envy impersonates Mustang in an attempt to kill Hawkeye. However, after they refer to her as 'Lieutenant', Hawkeye corrects them and states she and Mustang use their first names when they're alone; Envy is so outraged at having slipped up that they drop their disguise - only for Hawkeye to riddle them with bullets and admit 'I Lied'.
Comic Books
- In Locke & Key: Alpha And Omega, Dodge has performed a Grand Theft Me on Bode Locke and has been able to uphold his disguise so effectively that his host's family doesn't notice that anything's amiss. When the time comes to enact his master stroke in the Drowning Caves, he tries to lure a group of partying students to their doom by guiding them to the scene of an emergency right in front of the Black Door... only for Kinsey and her friends to begin asking questions, prompting Dodge to lose patience and drop an F-Bomb, even calling Jamal an "ignorant cocksucker." In the stunned silence that follows, Dodge realizes his mistake and gives up on subtlety, unleashing the shadows on them.
- The Smurfs: In the comic "The Fake Smurf", Gargamel makes a potion to transform him into a smurf, so he'll be able to infiltrate in the Smurfs' village to kill them. His impersonation is perfect except for the absence of a tail, so he sculpts a round piece of wood, paints it blue and sticks it to his rear with glue. He deceives everyone until he falls into the river and is saved by the real Smurfs. That doesn't change his plans, but his soaked tail drops off, being found by a Smurf who shows it to Papa Smurf. With his cover blown, Gargamel locks himself into Papa Smurf's lab and concocts a potion that makes him turn back to normal... except that he is still smurf-sized, allowing him to be easily captured.
Film - Live-Action
- The Great Escape: During the planning for the POW Camp escape, one of the planners warns that a common German tactic to spot British or American escapees is to say something to a suspect in English as Schmuck Bait to see if they'll respond in English by mistake. The exact officer whom this is said to later gets caught by a Gestapo operative who tells him "Good luck" as he's getting on a train, and mistakenly thanks him in English.
- James Bond:
- Early on in Thunderball, villain Colonel Bouvar fakes his death and attends the funeral disguised as his widow, face carefully hidden behind a veil. James Bond is almost convinced by this display... up until the "rich widow" opens the door of the car herself instead of waiting for the chauffeur to open it for her - clueing Bond in and prompting his assassination of Bouvar.
- During the finale of You Only Live Twice, James Bond tries to sabotage Blofeld's spacecraft while disguised as a SPECTRE astronaut, and for most of the attempt, the disguise appears to be holding up. However, at the very moment Bond is about to enter the capsule, Blofeld notices that Bond is holding his air conditioning unit in his hand, which a real astronaut would never do, and immediately orders Bond seized.
- At the end of Diamonds Are Forever when Bond and Tiffany Case are having a romantic cruise, Wint & Kidd come at them disguised as cruise attendants serving them a luxury meal on behalf of Willard Whyte in order to kill Bond. While Bond had already recognized the smell of Wint's aftershave ("I've smelled that aftershave before, and both times I've smelled a rat"), he also tricks him on wine knowledge about Claret and Mouton Rothschild (Wint doesn't know they are the same, making him sound like a poor cellar master while pretending to be one).
- In Casino Royale, Bond and Vesper Lynd are eavesdropping on Le Chiffre in the corridor outside his hotel room when Obanno bursts out in a huff, forcing Bond and Lynn into a Fake-Out Make-Out so they won't look suspicious. For a moment, the ruse works perfectly, and Obanno passes them by without concern... but then Obanno's henchman notices that Bond forgot to remove his earpiece. Cue fight to the death.
- Inglourious Basterds: Lt. Hicox's meeting with double agent Bridget von Hammersmark is interrupted by Major Hellstrom, who is suspicious of the British Hicox's unconvincing German accent. Hicox improvises masterfully, simply saying he comes from a remote mountain area of Germany and apparently lays Hellstrom's suspicions to rest... until Hicox orders 3 glasses of scotch with a Western hand gesture. All three of them immediately know the game is up, and the bullets start flying moments later.
- In the finale of Primal Fear, Martin Vail has successfully convinced the jury that Aaron is actually suffering from multiple personality disorder and cannot be given the death penalty for what "Roy" did. However, in their final conversation, Aaron apologizes to Martin for Roy's attack on Janet Venable - accidentally contradicting his claim that he doesn't remember anything while Roy's in control... and when Martin points this out, Aaron drops his meek stutter and reverts to smug, self-satisfied gloating, revealing that it's not that there was never a Roy - it's that, as he puts it, "there never was an Aaron."
- In Tropic Thunder, Kirk Lazarus disguises himself as a farmer in order to get onto the Big Bad's compound. The ruse almost works, until he mistakenly says he has a poppy farm when earlier in that same conversation he claimed to have a rice paddy.
Literature
- In Animorphs: The Capture, Jake is infested by Temrash 114 during the raid on the hospital, and thanks to the Yeerk's access to his memories, he pulls off such a good performance that the rest of the team are convinced that Jake is absolutely fine. For a moment, it looks as if Temrash might have the opportunity to escape and hand the Animorphs over to Visser Three... and then Jake finds himself face to face with Ax. Yeerks aren't too fond of Andalites, and Temrash can't stop himself from letting his disgust show on his face - immediately revealing the truth to Ax. The rest of the Animorphs are dubious, but then Ax touches "Jake," prompting Temrash to let out an enraged scream of "Andalite filth." From then on, the Yeerk's attempts to continue the performance are all shot down by the various team-members.
Live-Action TV
- Farscape:
- Late in "Scratch 'N Sniff," D'Argo is given a pheromone disguise so he can get into Fe'Tor's slave auction without being detected; however, he is warned to stay calm or risk the "aura morph" wearing off before they can rescue Chiana and Jool. For most of the auction, D'Argo remains in perfect disguise, but just as it looks like the plan is going to go off without a hitch, D'Argo loses his temper over being manipulated by Raxil and reverts to his true form - triggering a massive shootout.
- The finale of "Bringing Home The Beacon" features Aeryn being replaced with a bioloid duplicate during the escape from the asteroid colony; for good measure, the copy is fitted with a tracker that will lead the Scarrans straight to Moya, so all she has to do is act the part and wait until the Scarrans arrive to capture the crew. Her disguise appears perfect... right up until Crichton offhandedly asks her about her pregnancy and the bioloid can only respond with a blank stare. Of course, the Scarrans didn't know that Aeryn was pregnant at the time of her capture, so they didn't program her duplicate with the information, and bioloids don't seem to improvise very well when it comes to gaps in their knowledge. A tense standoff follows, ending when the bioloid panics and pulls a gun on Crichton, only to be immediately shot in the head - revealing the bioloid components.
- In The Prisoner episode "The Schizoid Man", Number Two tries to break Number Six's mind by introducing him to a perfect double of himself and trying to make him believe that he is the double. When his double is killed, Number Six tries to pretend to be the double so he can escape the Village. Unfortunately, Number Two happens to ask him about Fake Six's girlfriend on the way out... and of course, the real Six has no idea about said girlfriend and is forced to improvise. Unfortunately, the answer is wrong.
- In the Red Dwarf episode "Psirens," the eponymous brain-eating monsters can perfectly disguise themselves as just about anyone or anything through the power of illusion, and usually have the acting ability to match. However, when one poses as Kryten in order to save Lister from getting eaten by another Psiren, it ushers him away with a remark of "come on, Dave" - but of course, the real Kryten has always referred to him as "Mr Lister." Realizing its mistake at the exact same time Lister notices it, the Psiren goes on the attack.
- In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Heart Of Stone," Kira finds herself inexplicably trapped in a crystalline growth that begins to slowly consume her. With earthquakes making the area increasingly dangerous, she soon orders Odo to leave her behind, but he refuses, admitting that he's in love with her... only for Kira to admit that she loves him too. Odo is suspicious: as he begins noting all the inconsistencies in the disaster so far, he points out that in all the years they've worked together, Kira has never given any indication of being attracted to him, and he knows for a fact that she would never lie to him just to make him feel better. Realizing that the jig is up, the imposter reverts to her true form - the Female Changeling; turns out that the entire incident was engineered just to trick Odo into rejoining his fellow Changelings in the Great Link.
- Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: In "Strange New Worlds", the Enterprise's medical staff use an injection to disguise Pike, Spock, and Singh as Rubber-Forehead Aliens to infiltrate the prison on Kiley 279 where Una Chin-Riley's First Contact team are being held. They have some trouble on the ship adapting the treatment to Spock's half-Vulcan physiology, and sure enough, on the ground he starts reverting back to his normal looks when they're trying to get past the last checkpoint, triggering a brief fight with a group of Kilean prison guards.
Video Games
- In the intro to the Mage origin in Dragon Age: Origins, you're accompanied on your Harrowing by Mouse, the disembodied spirit of an apprentice who failed his own Harrowing and is now trapped in the Fade. For most of this mission, Mouse seems generally defeated up until you manage to defeat the Rage Demon you were sent to kill, whereupon he abruptly changes tack and starts flattering you on your victory, even suggesting that you might be able to smuggle him back into the real world. If you've been paying attention, you can use this suspicious character change to identify Mouse as the real demon you've been pitted against - whereupon Mouse drops the act and takes up the Voice of the Legion as he resumes his true form...
- In Final Fantasy XIV, Hephaistos is the spitting image of Lahabrea, complete with voice and mannerisms. The Warrior of Light and Erichthonios call him such and are ready to write Lahabrea off as the mastermind behind the chaos in Pandæmonium. But Themis isn't so sure and asks if Hephaistos can say his name. Due to being sealed within the facility for so long and having little knowledge of what happens outside of it, Hephaistos calls Themis by his own name. This confirms Themis's suspicions that Hephaistos is an imposter. After all, the real Lahabrea would call him Elidibus, the title of his station.
- God of War Ragnarök: Odin accidentally gives away his disguise as Tyr when he lets his anxiousness to get the Mask away from the heroes and to Asgard get the better of him, proclaiming during a group meeting that he knows of a secret passage to Asgard that will allow the heroes to enter undetected. While he's able to wave off the initial skepticism pretty easily (pointing out that the party would've just gotten themselves killed charging into the lion's den early), his sudden change of heart on the issue of invading Asgard is the last clue that an increasingly suspicious Brok needs to piece together that something is going on, forcing Odin to drop his disguise and kill Brok.
- Hitman:
- Throughout the series, the effectiveness of any disguise often depends on how the player acts while wearing it, especially since some areas are strictly off-limits to everyone but the targets and their bodyguards. Consequently, it's possible for 47 to silently assassinate a target and accomplish all the ancillary goals - only to end up blowing his cover anyway just because a guard just happened to see a suspicious-looking waiter leaving a restricted area on the way to an exit point.
- In the Hitman: Contracts level "The Bjarkhov Bomb," one way of getting close to final target Sergei Bjarkhov is by disguising 47 as Fabian Fuchs, a prospective client that Bjarkhov's been expecting (and a target you've just bumped off, incidentally). Once introductions are made, Bjarkhov offers a glass of vodka - which 47 doesn't accept, since he's wearing Fabian's ski mask and can't remove it to drink without revealing that he's an imposter. Bjarkhov is immediately suspicious of this behaviour, and if you don't kill him before he makes the offer a second time, he'll realize that 47 is an assassin and yell for the guards.
- In Hitman: Blood Money level "Dance With The Devil," after assassinating crooked CIA agent Anthony Martinez, 47 can steal his distinctive golden devil costume. This immediately gives 47 free access to all areas in the level, as Martinez is the lover of Vaana Ketlyn, the hostess of the Hell party and the second target of the level. However, if Vaana happens to encounter 47 in public before he can kill her, she'll usher him into a private room for some one-on-one time... and much like Bjarkhov, 47's refusal to doff his mask immediately gets her suspicions up, prompting her to draw a Sword Cane and go on the offensive.
- Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines gives the player the occasional chance to suffer from this, most commonly involving persuasion options. For example, during the mission to the Elizabeth Dane, one of the police officers aboard mistakes you for a journalist he'd been paid to allow access to the crime scene. It's possible to play along with this impression, but if you don't have enough dots in persuasion or intimidate to fool him at least twice, your lie will be so unconvincing that he'll immediately sound the alarm.
Web Video
- In the Atop the Fourth Wall arc "A Piece Of The World Is Missing," Linkara belatedly realizes that the Entity has pulled a Kill and Replace on the 90's Kid and has been posing as him for the last few months. In the ensuing rant, he reveals that the Entity has unwittingly given itself away by virtue of its disguise surviving while everyone else in the world has been assimilated by the Entity - and also drawing attention to a morbid remark about using Kurt Cobain as a human puppet that the real 90's Kid would never have made. As Linkara lays out the evidence, 90's Kid begins to smirk ever so subtly, before finally unveiling himself in an increasingly synthesized voice:
This game has been most amusing... but I think it's time for it to end. HUUUUUUUUUUUU-MAAAAAAAN.
Western Animation
- Bugs Bunny:
- In "Baby Buggy Bunny", a diminutive bank robber by the name of Ant Hill Harry pretends to be a foundling to retrieve the stolen money that accidentally fell down Bugs' rabbit-hole. Bugs patiently tolerates "the baby's" antics and abuse - right up until his TV malfunctions and he hears the sound of an electric shaver from Harry's room; curious, Bugs peeks through the keyhole and sees the "baby" shaving, smoking a cigar, and sporting a tattoo that reads "Maisie Singapore 1932". Plus, the TV just happens to broadcast about the bank robber in that exact moment. Bugs then pretends he still thinks that Harry is a baby, but soon takes revenge on him before sending the criminal to the police along with the money.
- In "What's Opera, Doc?", at the crescendo of the love aria between Elmer and "Brunhilda", Bugs's horned helmet with attatched wig falls off, revealing his rabbit ears.
- Dungeons & Dragons (1983): On their way to the garden of Zinnn, the gang stops at the brink of a desert. While they discuss if they must return, the Dungeon Master shows up and tells them to go forward. Hank notices that he isn't talking through riddles and warns Eric, who tests the wizard by asking him the name he gave him along with Eric's shield (cavalier), and the fake can't answer. A second Dungeon Master shows up claiming he is the real wizard and the two fight; when one of the Dungeon Masters threatens to kill the other, Hank realizes that he is the imposter because the real wizard taught the kids to fight only in self-defense, then ties him up with a magic arrow. The fake turns into a phantom stalker, warns the kids the other is an imposter, too, and disappears. Unfortunately, he is right: the remaining Dungeon Master is another phantom, who tricks them into walking into a trap.
- Rocko's Modern Life: In "She's the Toad", Bev Bighead disguises Heffer and Filbert in an Ed Bighead costume so they can give a proposal at work while the real Ed is sick in bed. They give the proposal, and the board applaud them... and that's when they pop out and yell "Surprise!", not realizing they had to keep the masquerade going until the end of the day.
Real Life
- One of the most audacious escape attempts from the WW2 Colditz prison camp arose from the fact that one of the inmates bore a striking resemblance to The Dreaded German RSM note . The escape tailors duly created a German Army uniform with the correct distinctions and rank badges, and the officer perfected his impersonation of the German sergeant-major until it was nearly perfect, believing that the RSM would be able to walk unchallenged through the facility. On the night, everything went perfectly... until the real German RSM turned up on a surprise inspection and (after some confusion) the imposter was unmasked. In the end, the fact the prisoner didn't speak much German and was relying on bluffing his way through caught him out.
