Take notes if you wish to become a master of disguise.
"I don't have the same face anymore, Mrs. Sellner."
Welcome to WatchMojo.com and today we're counting down our picks for the Top 10 Best Disguises in Movies.
"A million pieces of mail every year. More mail than Santa Claus gets."
(kids giggling)
"Each precog has their own bedroom, television and weight room. It really is wonderful to be a precog."
For this list, we're taking a look at the most convincing and memorable disguises that characters in film have used to conceal their identities.
- "Quaid. That's Quaid!!" - (DOUG WHIMPERING)
- "Where?!" - "The woman. Get him/her!"
We've excluded simple masks, you know, like the cheap kind that you might pick up at any store and wear to rob a bank?
Because, while they usually get the job done, there really isn't much creativity to them.
"I believe whatever doesn't kill you, simply makes you..."
"...stranger."
Number 10: "Two-Faced", "Face/Off"
"Oh, that's the easy part. Here's the real science."
If the Face/Off machine actually existed in real life, identity theft would be more even common than it already is.
"This is a state-of-the-art morphogenetic template. The inside is modeled on your skull."
"The outside exactly like Troy's."
"Then, we fit his face on top."
"Not a replica, but the real thing."
It'd make is easier for the FBI to go undercover. And, that's just what John Travolta's Sean Archer does when he dons the face of Nicholas Cage's Castor Troy.
"Sean Archer here. Who's calling?"
"Well, if you're Sean Archer, I guess I'm Castor Troy."
This backfires on Archer, however, as Troy sees as his face in an action packed case of mistaken identity ensues.
"I'd like to take his face off."
Both actors to a highly entertaining job impersonating each other, as they go head-to-head in cinema's most manic case of overacting.
"And then, somehow, Castor came out of his (CHUCKLING), his coma and killed everybody who knew about the mission..."
"...but not before transforming into me."
Number 9: "Polyjuice Potion", "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1"
FRED AND GEORGE: "Wow!! We're identical!!"
This transformative potion is one of the niftiest concoctions in the wizarding world of Harry Potter.
MOODY: "Fancy this. You are not you. So, shut it and strip."
"Alright, alright."
Throughout the series, it helps Harry, his friends, and his enemies, access numerous heavily secured locations and slip past foes undetected.
For example, when a specially, ambitious Death Eater used it for practically an entire school year to impersonate Mad Eye Moody.
(BARTY GROANING)
However, we think polyjuice potion is most effectively utilized in the first "Deathly Hallows" chapter,
as six of Harry's closest allies assume his appearance to act as decoys and evade the Death Eaters.
It's an out-of-body experience for everyone, although Fred and George already know what it feels like to look identical.
"The whole wide world of ear-related humor, and you go for 'I'm holy'."
"That's pathetic."
"Reckon I'm still better-looking than you."
Number 8: "Mr. Stephano", "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortuante Events"
"You're Count Olaf."
"(SIGHS) Oh. Why would you, uh-- Why would you say something like that? (BREATHES IN AIR)"
"A Series of Unfortunate Events" deservingly took home a "Best Makeup" academy award for transforming Jim Carrey into the eccentrically, devious Count Olaf.
"I must say, you're a gloomy-looking bunch. Why are you so glum?"
"Our parents just died."
What's just as impressive, however, are all the disguises Count Olaf dons to get closer to the Baudelaire children's fortune.
His most entertaining character is Stephano, a big-nosed Italian who, at times, seems to be channeling Jeff Goldblum.
"(IN ITALIAN ACCENT) I am Stephano. I am an Italian man and I am here to assist him in his research as best I can, as well as to facilitate and remain observatory."
His disguise naturally decieves all the clueless adults, but those quick-witted Bauelaires see through the façade.
- "You're Olaf and we're not letting you in." - (KNIFE SHARPENING)
If only somebody else would listen to them.
"Anyway, that's why you should NEVER run with one of these, kids."
"Words of wisdom, indeed, Mr. Stephano." - "Whoops! You caught me being a mentor."
Number 7: "Scarlett Johansson", "Under the Skin"
"Are you going to meet someone?"
- "Alright." - "Alright. Thank you".
If you're an alien who lands on Earth and decides to start abducting random men off the streets, Scarlett Johansson is the ideal woman to model you're disguise after.
"Do one more?"
"Uh, why not?"
With her face and figure, any guy will gladly get into your van, with no questions asked.
"Under the Skin" is all about showing rather than telling. Thus, Johansson's almost entirely physical performance carries a majority of the film.
She's transcendent, as a being searching for personal identity, sexual identity and identity in general as she explores her new body.
Number 6: "Improv Disguise", "Sherlock Holmes"
- "Holmes, what are you doing?" - "Nothing."
- "Are you wearing a--" - "Forth note? No."
"Tell me, that that was a--"
(SHERLOCK CAWS)
Being the greatest detective who ever lived, Sherlock Holmes is also a master of disguise.
He can be sitting right in front of you, and still be invisible to the naked eye.
(DOG WHINING)
Always thinking on his feet, he doesn't need to plan ahead. He can devise a first-rate costume on the spot.
His camouflage and improvisational skills are best demonstrated in this 2009 interpretation,
as he throws together several random accessories to persue Irene Adler.
He makes blending into his environment look elementary to say the least.
Number 5: "Ethan Hunt's Face", "Mission: Impossible II"
"Sean, there's rats reached the end of the maze."
"Is he alive."
"Yeah. More or less."
"Bring him to me."
No matter how many times that mask trick fakes us out in the "Mission: Impossible" movies, it always takes up by surprise.
The cleverest utilization of the mask stunt is, arguably, in the first "Mission: Impossible" sequel, as Ethan Hunt gives his enemies the slip, by disguising a very unfortunate guard with his face.
(SCREAMS)
By the time the villains realize this, the real Ethan is already making his escape.
Between this and "Face/Off", director John Woo certainly has a thing for identity swapping, not to mention, epic choirs.
Number 4: "Rice Framer", "Tropic Thunder"
(SPEAKING VIETNAMESE)
In "Tropic Thunder", Robert Downey, Jr. plays Kirk Lazarus, a blonde-haired, blue-eyed Australian actor, playing an African-American sergeant, who later impersonates a Vietnamese farmer to infiltrate a base.
(SPEAKING VIETNAMESE)
So, basically, he's a dude playing a dude, disguised as another dude.
"Laz, don't let him take me off the yak."
(SHOUTING IN PAIN)
As a gifted method actor, Lazarus is able to ad-lib a character to distract the enemy soldiers.
The more he rambles on however, the more mixed up he becomes with the small details.
Eventually, they catch on to his rues and the award-winning actor finds himself starring in a critical bomb for once.
"Where is your farm, American?!!"
"My farm?"
"Oh, shit."
"Here's my mother (BLEEP)ing farm!!!"
(FIRING MACHINE GUNS)
Number 3: "Sgt. Jim Pembry's Face", "The Silence of the Lambs"
"Well, Clarice, have the lambs stopped screaming?"
"Dr. Lecter."
Although, Hannibal Lecter is incarcerated throughout much of "The Silence of the Lambs", you know that he's just waiting to fly, fly, fly away.
"You fly back to school, now, little starling."
"Fly, fly, fly."
After several earlier scenes of tense buildup, Dr. Lecter is given a window of opportunity and demonstrates just how cunningly sadistic he is.
(SCREAMING)
Executing his escape plan, he fools the authorities in the most horrifying and disgusting way imaginable, by stripping off a cop's face and wearing it as his own.
"Ready when you are, Sgt. Pembry."
By the time the police realize the swap, the theatrical serial killer is already free.
"Vital signs are good."
"Pressure is 130 over 90."
"Yeah, that's right, 90"
"Pulsating at four. Got him on lactated ringers. And we got him on ten liters of oxygen."
Number 2: "Mrs. Euphegenia Doubtfire", "Mrs. Doubtfire"
"Look at this!! My first day as a woman and I'm getting hot flashes!!"
It isn't easy for a man to pass himself off as a woman, especially if it's his ex-wife and three children he's trying to fool.
"That's so sad, because marriage can be such a blessing."
"So can divorce."
If anybody can pull off such a deception, though, it's Robin Williams, being a master of voices...
"I do voices."
...Williams can pull off a female English accent with ease.
However, it's the WHOLE Mrs. Doubtfire ensemble that completes the illusion.
"Oh, I'm sorry to frighten you, dear. I must look like a yeti in this getup!"
Elevated by Oscar-winning makeup effects, we completely forget that it's Williams under this disguise.
Well, except for when he occasionally breaks character.
- ("DUDE (LOOKS LIKE A LADY)" PLAYING) - Back off, asshole!! Beat it!!!"
Before we unveil our number one pick, here are a few honorable mentions.
"Look!! The orcs!! They're moving off!!"
"He seems to furl."
"So, make it last."
MAN: "Aim!"
(GUNSHOT)
(CROWD SCREAMING)
"(MUFFLED) There! Is that better?"
(THUD)
"Two weeks."
- "Excuse me?" - "(MUMBLING) Two weeks."
"Two weeks!!"
"(IN HANSEL'S VOICE) We hear you loud and clear."
"(IN DEREK'S VOICE) Listen, Matil. I've been thinking a lot of that bulimia thing and I want you to know, I understand where you're coming from."
"My brother? A twin?"
"You would follow the whole time?"
Number 1: "Dorothy Michaels", "Tootsie"
"No one will hire you!"
"Oh, yeah?"
While Robin Williams was completely uncanny as a woman, Dustin Hoffman may have been better as Tootsie.
"My name is Dorothy. It's not Tootsie, or Toots, or Sweetie, or Honey, or Dao."
- "Oh, Christ." - "No. Just Dorothy."
As an actor who can't find work because of his hard-to-work-with reputation, Michael Dorsey is forced to reinvent himself as Dorothy Michaels.
This premise has been done to depth since, but one of the reasons Tootsie remains a comedy classic is because Hoffman is, so, utterly convincing as both these characters.
"What about this thing?"
"No, no. I don't have the right shoes for it, I hate the way the horizontal lines make me look too hippy and it cuts me across the bust."
Hoffman could approach any random person in this getup and they'd be thrown for loop.
- "You are psychotic!!" - "No, I'm not. I'm employed."
- "I got the WHOLE world-- I'm not going to make fun of you." - "Don't, don't, don't. Ssh! Don't get close to me."
It's a great performance, complimented by a most perfect disguise.
"But, in the end, I'm the one that's exploited."
"Bullshit, Ron! You know what? I'll understand you look a whole better than I think I do."
Do you agree with our list?
"Yes. I do feel it's time to set record straight."
What's your favorite movie disguise?
"I got it. Let's get the hell out of here."
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- ("LUCK BE A LADY" PLAYING) - "Are we close?"
- "Any closer and you'd be Mom." - (SINGING) Luck, be a lady