# Hiding in Plain Sight in the Movies
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiding-in-plain-sight-in-the-movies/786971
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [May 19, 2017, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiding-in-plain-sight-in-the-movies/786971 "2017-05-19T00:20:58Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2017, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiding-in-plain-sight-in-the-movies/786971/21 "2017-05-21T00:17:07Z")
This is television, rather than movies, but: the 1992 _Star Trek: The Next Generation_ episode “The Next Phase” included a a scene in which two characters (Geordi and Ro) who’ve been put ‘out of phase’ in a transporter incident, enter a Romulan ship and discuss the situation in front of a number of Romulans who can neither see nor hear them (due to being ‘in phase’). As Geordi and Ro leave, one of the Romulans–who’d been in plain sight the whole time–gets up and follows them. As it turns out, he is also ‘out of phase’ and so could see and hear them.
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### Author:  [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2017, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiding-in-plain-sight-in-the-movies/786971/22 "2017-05-21T02:36:54Z")
Rambo hid in a mud bank.
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### Author:  [@snoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snoe)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2017, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiding-in-plain-sight-in-the-movies/786971/23 "2017-05-21T03:00:09Z")
I _think_ LL Cool J is in plain sight in the couch scene in _Toys_. I haven’t no found a gif/video of it to check.
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### Author:  [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2017, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiding-in-plain-sight-in-the-movies/786971/24 "2017-05-21T03:07:04Z")
**Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom:** A man who at first appears to be part of a mural painting turns out to be a real assassin.
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### Author:  [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2017, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiding-in-plain-sight-in-the-movies/786971/25 "2017-05-21T03:21:22Z")
[The stoned girl on the couch](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuGvVJhhedE) in Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is there the whole time.
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### Author:  [@jerez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jerez)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2017, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiding-in-plain-sight-in-the-movies/786971/26 "2017-05-21T17:26:58Z")
There’s a scene in The Godfather in which Michael is sitting and each of Vito’s men shakes his hand, as a sign of allegiance. The guy who ends up being the traitor shakes with his _left_ hand.
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### Author:  [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2017, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiding-in-plain-sight-in-the-movies/786971/27 "2017-05-21T18:04:51Z")
The Return of the Pink Panther. The otherwise beautiful Catherine Schell walking around in tbe opening wearing a beard and dressed as a man.
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### Author:  [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2017, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiding-in-plain-sight-in-the-movies/786971/28 "2017-05-21T18:12:08Z")
> [@madsircool](#):
>
> The Return of the Pink Panther. The otherwise beautiful Catherine Schell walking around in tbe opening wearing a beard and dressed as a man.
It’s on TV right now. I assume you’re watching.
In a similar vein, _Sleuth_; Inspector Doppler is on screen for quite a while before it’s revealed that he’s Milo in disguise. I’ve only seen the original, but I didn’t recognize Michael Caine until just before he revealed himself.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2017, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiding-in-plain-sight-in-the-movies/786971/29 "2017-05-21T19:49:44Z")
Just remembered another one: In _Labyrinth_, there’s a shot in the middle of a stone corridor, stretching off as far as the eye can see to the left and right. The correct direction to take is [Straight forward](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0K5T0AqVlY), into the corridor that’s _right there_ in front of you, and impossible to see
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### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [May 22, 2017, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiding-in-plain-sight-in-the-movies/786971/30 "2017-05-22T00:28:27Z")
So far, no one’s mentioned Alfred Hitchcock’s cameos in all of his own films? :dubious:
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### Author:  [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)
#### Post date: [May 22, 2017, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiding-in-plain-sight-in-the-movies/786971/31 "2017-05-22T00:32:00Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#):
>
> It’s on TV right now. I assume you’re watching.
>
> In a similar vein, _Sleuth_; Inspector Doppler is on screen for quite a while before it’s revealed that he’s Milo in disguise. I’ve only seen the original, but I didn’t recognize Michael Caine until just before he revealed himself.
Yep. 🙂
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### Author:  [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)
#### Post date: [May 22, 2017, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiding-in-plain-sight-in-the-movies/786971/32 "2017-05-22T00:34:19Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> Just remembered another one: In _Labyrinth_, there’s a shot in the middle of a stone corridor, stretching off as far as the eye can see to the left and right. The correct direction to take is [Straight forward](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0K5T0AqVlY), into the corridor that’s _right there_ in front of you, and impossible to see
Similarly, the ending of “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” has the transparent bridge leading over to the Grail. So answer me these questions three.
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [May 22, 2017, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiding-in-plain-sight-in-the-movies/786971/33 "2017-05-22T03:45:41Z")
> [@Gordon\_Urquhart](#):
>
> …Here’s another one I was thinking of: near the end of _Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows_ (2011), Watson is typing in his office to finish his memoirs of working with the late Holmes, who didn’t survive his confrontation with Moriarty, when he receives a package. The package’s contents lead him to believe that Holmes did, in fact, survive the confrontation. Watson leaves his office, and the camera shows us that Holmes has been in the office all along.
>
> (See at about 1:15 in [this clip](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlOwLUwAbbQ) – I’d code it to go to the moment of revealing Holmes, but it works better in context.)
Just the scene I came in here to suggest.
> [@The\_Tooth](#):
>
> It would have been easier to spot them if they had bright orange skin or something, too. But then there’d be no movie.
They could always have set it at the White House and made it a political thriller.
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### Author:  [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)
#### Post date: [May 22, 2017, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiding-in-plain-sight-in-the-movies/786971/34 "2017-05-22T05:21:21Z")
Probably not what you mean, but this reminded me of the urban camouflage scene in **Be Kind, Rewind.**
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### Author:  [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)
#### Post date: [May 22, 2017, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiding-in-plain-sight-in-the-movies/786971/35 "2017-05-22T11:47:38Z")
> [@Tinker\_Grey](#):
>
> In memento (2001 – has it been that long?), there is the scenes depicting Sammy Jankis in the mental ward. At one point, a nurse passes in front of the camera and where Sammy was sitting is now Leonard – for maybe 1 or 2 frames – and then it’s gone.
Nice one. But are Leonard and Sammy literally the same person, or was Sammy a real case that Leonard has imbued with the character of a template for himself? Maybe this has been definitively resolved, but [this recent discussion](https://www.reddit.com/r/FanTheories/comments/2sali0/memento_the_sammy_jankis_story_is_the/) suggests it hasn’t.
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### Author:  [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)
#### Post date: [May 22, 2017, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiding-in-plain-sight-in-the-movies/786971/36 "2017-05-22T12:02:06Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#):
>
> They could always have set it at the White House and made it a political thriller.
You’re thinking of the Lizard People.
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### Author:  [@Mavic\_Chen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mavic_Chen)
#### Post date: [May 22, 2017, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiding-in-plain-sight-in-the-movies/786971/37 "2017-05-22T15:16:53Z")
Does the Jigsaw in Saw playing dead in the bathroom count?
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [May 22, 2017, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiding-in-plain-sight-in-the-movies/786971/38 "2017-05-22T15:29:46Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> The end of _Harry and the Hendersons_ had a scene like this. The family has brought Harry back to the Pacific Northwest, and they drop him off in a perfectly nondescript piece of forest. And then all of the other bigfeet who were standing right there step out of hiding to welcome him back.
This is what I first thought of when I read the thread title.
The classic case of this is Edgar Allen Poe’s story _The Purloined Letter_, the first literary case I know of something literally “hidden in plain sight”. The story has been adapted numerous times on TV (The Wikipedia article lists two, but you can google and find others), but I don’t know of any movie cases
> **[The Purloined Letter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Purloined_Letter)**
>
> "The Purloined Letter" is a short story by American author Edgar Allan Poe. It is the third of his three detective stories featuring the fictional C. Auguste Dupin, the other two being "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" and "The Mystery of Marie Rogêt". These stories are considered to be important early forerunners of the modern detective story. It first appeared in the literary annual The Gift for 1845 (1844) and soon was reprinted in numerous journals and newspapers.
> The unnamed narrator is with ...
Something of the same sort occurs in **Who Framed Roger Rabbit** with Acme’s Will, the McGuffin of the film, but Marvin Acme’s using “Disappearing/Reappearing Ink” is a dodge that makes this almost cheating for this case.
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### Author:  [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)
#### Post date: [May 22, 2017, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiding-in-plain-sight-in-the-movies/786971/39 "2017-05-22T15:51:27Z")
In the [stalking scene](https://youtu.be/HHWf6Eof_ng?t=301) in Memories of Murder, you can see the killer pop up in the background if you know where to look.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [May 22, 2017, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiding-in-plain-sight-in-the-movies/786971/40 "2017-05-22T15:59:40Z")
One of my favorite “hidden in plain sight” reveal scenes is in the 1964 movie **The Long Ships** , where Richard Widmark goes to where The Great Bell, “The Mother of Voices” they are seeking is supposed to be, and finds (at first) only a relatively small bell, until his frustrated action shows him the Real bell.
Unfortunately, I can’t find an image or video of the scene. Only the aftermath.
> **[The Long Ships (film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Ships_(film))**
>
> The Long Ships is a 1964 Anglo–Yugoslav adventure film shot in Technirama directed by Jack Cardiff and starring Richard Widmark, Sidney Poitier, Russ Tamblyn and Rosanna Schiaffino.
> The film was very loosely based on the two volume Swedish novel The Long Ships (1941 and 1945) by Frans G. Bengtsson, retaining little more than the title (of the English translation) and the Moorish settings of Orm's first voyage. Although the protagonist is named Rolfe, the film was released in Sweden with the ...
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