And I would have gotten away with it, if it wasn't for those meddling kids!

October 12, 2007 11:57 AM

What movies have a plot device where a character is able to wear a rubber mask resembling another character that is so convincing that no one questions his identity until he's unmasked?

This seems like a cliche, but I'm having trouble coming up with movies. Mission Impossible 2 is one.

posted by andrewzipp to media & arts (37 comments total)

All the MI movies (1, 2 and 3) actually feature this I believe.

(Just in case you hadn't considered the other two)
posted by chrisbucks at 12:00 PM on October 12, 2007

Didn't Sellers do this in one or more Pink Panther movies?
posted by GuyZero at 12:01 PM on October 12, 2007

Wayne's World had the Scooby Doo ending where they pulled off Rob Lowe's mask and he was old man Foley, the owner of the old amusement park.
posted by ND¢ at 12:01 PM on October 12, 2007

Darkman would be another example.
posted by never used baby shoes at 12:02 PM on October 12, 2007

I'm not sure if the rubber mask itself is important or the ability to appear to be someone else - Mystique in the X-Men movies could appear to be other people as could Candace from the last season of the TV series Heroes. Also the T-1000 from Terminator 2 could change shape and modulate its voice to appear to be other people.
posted by sherlockt at 12:03 PM on October 12, 2007

Yea, I'm specifically looking for examples where people are using existing technology (rubber) not superpowers or future technology, which is more plausible.
posted by andrewzipp at 12:05 PM on October 12, 2007

Alias did this. Not a movie, but the same deal as MI.
posted by smackfu at 12:08 PM on October 12, 2007

The Saint
posted by blind.wombat at 12:08 PM on October 12, 2007

I hate to say it for anyone who hasn't seen the film Sleuth (with Michael Caine and Laurence Olivier) but rubber prosthetics (if not a complete rubber mask) were used to great effect in that film. I just looked it up on IMDB and in a fairly large coincidence discovered that a remake was just released yesterday with Michael Caine again, this time playing the Olivier role. Not sure about rubber masks in the 2007 version, though.
posted by tractorfeed at 12:10 PM on October 12, 2007

Considering the question states rubber mask I would think the rubber mask is the important part sherlock.

I don't know if these count but: every Batman movie has multiple characters that are perceived as another character no matter how simple the mask.
The movie The Mask.
The Spider-man movies.
Daredevil.
Lone ranger.

Most of those masks were rubbery type.
posted by zephyr_words at 12:11 PM on October 12, 2007

The movie Face/Off hovers at the boundaries of "existing technology," but based on that French woman who had a partial transplant (late 2005?) it seems plausible. My impression is that it's the moral/emotional outcry more than lacking technology that has prevented this kind of surgery from becoming commonplace.
posted by vytae at 12:12 PM on October 12, 2007

Not a mask, but they use a simple makeup kit in Zoolander.

And Mrs. Doubtfire is based entirely on the mask idea.
posted by dogwalker at 12:14 PM on October 12, 2007

Was White Chicks masks? I've never seen it. Too horrific.
posted by Mavri at 12:22 PM on October 12, 2007

The List of Adrian Messinger, top that.
posted by Freedomboy at 12:29 PM on October 12, 2007

F/X
posted by chocolatetiara at 12:32 PM on October 12, 2007

Master of Disguise, Mrs. Doubtfire, Whitechicks
posted by uncballzer at 12:52 PM on October 12, 2007

Murder by Death
posted by jefftang at 12:53 PM on October 12, 2007

Charlie's Angels?

Although I guess that must have been a magical mask, as it turned a 5'4" Drew Barrymore into a 6'2" LL Cool J.
posted by Jakey at 12:58 PM on October 12, 2007

Angelica Houston in The Witches.
posted by mewithoutyou at 1:08 PM on October 12, 2007

The Man in the Iron Mask? Not exactly rubber, but I guess they'd have to work with the technology available...
posted by porpoise at 1:18 PM on October 12, 2007

Scooby-doo
posted by Vindaloo at 1:21 PM on October 12, 2007

Not a very good movie but Along Came a Spider has this. Also, I second F/X, which is a great movie.
posted by dirtdirt at 1:26 PM on October 12, 2007

Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey. Rufus changes gender.
posted by mkb at 1:27 PM on October 12, 2007

In Along Came A Spider the kidnapper of a congressman's daughter spends something like two years working as a teacher at an ultra-secure school for the children of diplomats and politicians while wearing facial prosthetics.
posted by andythebean at 1:27 PM on October 12, 2007

Dang, dirtdirt beat me to it!
posted by andythebean at 1:31 PM on October 12, 2007

There are a few more examples here. Good ol' TV Tropes.
posted by darksasami at 2:30 PM on October 12, 2007

Yes, White Chicks had masks (and body suits). (And the movie is incredibly horrifying -- I'm still horrified that I sat through it).
posted by bluefly at 2:51 PM on October 12, 2007

Police Academy 6?
posted by Salamandrous at 2:56 PM on October 12, 2007

Dick Tracy had this, I think.
posted by featherboa at 3:11 PM on October 12, 2007

Sleuth
posted by iconjack at 3:17 PM on October 12, 2007

Live and Let Die
Lightning Bug
posted by infinitewindow at 3:27 PM on October 12, 2007

I'm not sure about unmasking, but Martin Lawrence is masked and body suited in the "Big Momma" movies.
posted by Dreama at 4:21 PM on October 12, 2007

Not rubber, but Hannibal Lecter disguised himself with another man's actual face in Silence of the Lambs.
posted by yellowbinder at 5:34 PM on October 12, 2007

Face of Another. The mask may not be rubber, but its a medical prosthesis. I won't spoil the unmasking.
posted by lilnemo at 5:51 PM on October 12, 2007

Just saw it last night:
Strait-Jacket with Joan Crawford. Not a great film, but one of the most effective uses of rubber mask as disguise ever. You could tell it wasn't really who it was supposed to be, but only by looking closely.
posted by nprigoda at 4:51 AM on October 13, 2007

Who Framed Roger Rabbit, kind of. I mean, they just don't know that Judge Doom isn't human, it's not that he's taken on anyone else's identity.
posted by crinklebat at 9:04 PM on October 14, 2007

Checking to say this was used in Swamp Thing, too.
posted by dirtdirt at 6:41 AM on November 16, 2007