History Main / DeepCoverAgent

** The manual to ''VideoGame/MetalGear2'' reveals that Snake used to be one of these in the CIA. Nothing is revealed about what he actually did (leading a lot of fangirls to jump to [[HoneyTrap the sexiest possible conclusion]]), but at one point Campbell threatens to blackmail him with records of the things he did, so it was probably extremely dubious.

Deep down, however, they've got a dark secret: they're agents from another country or a rival organization, sent on a long-term secret mission, spending their free time (or even work hours) involved in CloakAndDagger business. In extreme cases, the agent [[TykeBomb might have been planted as a ''child'']] and have lived their entire adult life in their host country, [[BrainwashedAndCrazy brainwashed]] into having [[PatrioticFervor total loyalty to their homeland.]]

This is often times TruthInTelevision, even [[http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/29/world/europe/29spy.html?ref=global-home in]] a post-UsefulNotes/ColdWar world. This is known as "non-official cover." Typically, however, non-oficial cover doesn't mean you have an elaborate fake backstory complete with faked photos, mysteriously deceased parents, annoyingly vague work history, etcetera - it usually means you're just you, only with a secret second job that might put you at risk of death if it's ever discovered. Theoretically, non-official cover means you only actually tell one lie - that being "I am not a spy."

Subtrope of LivingADoubleLife and UndercoverAsLovers. Add a sprinkle of NeuroVault, and you get the ManchurianAgent. Compare with CopiedTheMoralsToo, where a copy of a heroic character is created (often to be a spy on the heroes) but is unable to complete its mission because it received the heroic character's morals as well as their appearance. Contrast the DiplomaticCoverSpy, who work in the sending country's embassy and don't need this much elaborate backstory to do their work because they have DiplomaticImpunity. (That's Official Cover, as in, you are a government official and entitled to the diplomatic protections that are afforded to such persons - but have correspondingly less freedom to do human intelligence work, because the other side have almost certainly worked out what you really are ''long'' before you entered their country.)

* ''[[Literature/TheBourneSeries The Bourne Ultimatum]]'' novel features another such facility, where Carlos the Jackal was trained (until he got thrown out). There's also a character who's trained to be an American. His mother (another DeepCoverAgent) has been captured by the Americans and he wants her freedom.

* In one episode of ''Series/{{Castle}}'' the bad guy turned out to be a Soviet DeepCoverAgent in the CIA who had gone rogue after the fall of the Soviet Union.
* In ''Series/{{Chuck}}'', the episode "Chuck Versus The Suburbs" shows Chuck and Sarah going undercover in a sunny suburban neighborhood to find a sleeper cell. It turns out that [[spoiler:a married couple living on the street are agents of Fulcrum.]]
** Then [[spoiler:Chuck discovers that the ''whole neighborhood'' is one big front for Fulcrum and its residents are all agents.]]

* [[spoiler:Hobbes]], in ''VideoGame/WingCommander III'', specifically of the ManchurianAgent variety.

* In ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOpsII'', you play as another deep-cover agent for the first half of a level taking place in Yemen, again acting as a spy against the BigBad. Unlike in ''Modern Warfare'', though, you aren't forced into a massacre and, on lower difficulties, can get through that entire part of the level without killing any Yemeni soldiers. Depending on your actions, you can even prevent the agent's death. [[spoiler: Until the next level, that is...]]

* In ''VideoGame/AlphaProtocol'', [[spoiler:Omen Deng]] was raised from birth to be a double agent for [[spoiler:Taiwan]].

* In ''Manga/SPYxFAMILY'', agent Twilight's latest mission to investigate an enemy politician requires him to get married and have a child, who is to attend the same school as his mark's son, Eden Academy. He takes the identity of Loid Forger, a psychiatrist, adopts an orphan named Anya, and marries a civil servant named Yor in order to keep up the cover.

* Appears frequently in ''ComicBook/NthManTheUltimateNinja'', usually as deep-cover Soviets impersonating American citizens and soldiers.

** ComicBook/BuckyBarnes, during his time as the Winter Soldier, often served this role during the UsefulNotes/ColdWar, given that he was an American [[BrainwashedAndCrazy brainwashed]] into serving as a Soviet assassin.
** [[spoiler: '''Cap himself''']] was revealed in 2016 to be a HYDRA agent ''and always has been''. WordOfGod claimed this is the real [[spoiler:Captain America]] and not a clone, copy, mind-control, TheMole, etc... and then the very next issue revealed that [[spoiler:his memories had been altered.]]

* Marvel's ''ComicBook/CivilWar'' involved Namor having multiple sleeper cells in the USA. Of course, seeing as this was the B-story, this didn't go anywhere.

This is often times TruthInTelevision, even [[http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/29/world/europe/29spy.html?ref=global-home in]] a post-UsefulNotes/ColdWar world. This is known as "non-official cover."

Subtrope of LivingADoubleLife and UndercoverAsLovers. Add a sprinkle of NeuroVault, and you get the ManchurianAgent. Compare with CopiedTheMoralsToo, where a copy of a heroic character is created (often to be a spy on the heroes) but is unable to complete its mission because it received the heroic character's morals as well as their appearance. Contrast the DiplomaticCoverSpy, who work in the sending country's embassy and don't need this much elaborate backstory to do their work because they have DiplomaticImpunity.

* Mitsuko's mother in ''{{Series/Kikaider}}'', who was hired to spy on Dr. Komiyoji, and only gave birth to her as a means to appear like a normal happy family.

%%* Ur-example -- the EvilMatriarch from ''Film/TheManchurianCandidate''.

* In Creator/TomClancy's novel ''Executive Orders'', the Iranian religious leader placed deep cover agents in several countries with orders to become part of their respective leaders' security details. The first use of one of these agents is to assassinate the president of Iraq, starting the book's major conflict. Naturally, there's another agent, in [[spoiler:the U.S. Secret Service]].

* Jessica Priest from the earlier ''ComicBook/Spawn'' comics. By day she's an average all-American wife with two beautiful children, by night she's a brutal, enthusiastic killer. The contrast between being a loving mother and a merciless child killer is heavy, made worse by the fact that she absolutely loves spreading suffering.

* ''Manga/MedakaBox'': In order to oppose "Not Equal" Ajimu Najimi, Medaka decides to raise successors for the Student Council and begin generations of students that would continously keep the school safe. After five visiting middle schoolers survive Kumagawa's "Cruel Selection", Najimi herself reveals that a "Not Equal" was hidden among those five, and would assure the success of the Flask Plan (the project to create a perfect human) by becoming the successor of the "perfect human" Medaka. The Student Council members interview each candidate alone and make no real progress in rooting out the "Not Equal"... [[spoiler:and then the audience learns that ALL FIVE are "Not Equal".]]

** ComicBook/BuckyBarnes, during his time as the the Winter Soldier, often served this role during the UsefulNotes/ColdWar, given that he was an American [[BrainwashedAndCrazy brainwashed]] into serving as a Soviet assassin.

* In ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'', Wally Squad Judges are heroic... well, Mega-City One [[LawfulNeutral justice]]... versions. They're plainclothes judges who live entire lives as ordinary citizens, and are notably the ''only'' plainclothes officers on the force. They're called the Wally Squad because being an "ordinary" Mega-City One citizen means being insane, and most of them have [[BecomingTheMask become the mask]] to some extent. Two strips have focussed on Wally Squad members: ''ComicBook/LowLife'' and ''ComicBook/TheSimpingDetective''.

* Jessica Priest from the earlier ''ComicBook/Spawn'' comics. By day she's a average all American wife with two beautiful children, by night she's a brutal, enthusiastic killer. The contrast between being a loving mother and a merciless child killer is heavy, made worse by the fact the she absolutely loves spreading suffering.

* ''Film/SecretlyGreatly'' is about North Korean spies who are instructed to blend in in a South Korean village. They have totally innocuous covers: the village idiot, a wannabe rockstar, and a high school student.

** [[spoiler:Preem Palver]], the fourth agent we meet, has been a member for many years, and is actually the First Speaker of the Second Foundation. His role is to teach a student who wishes to join the Speakers and to [[spoiler:take care of Arkady while she's on Trantor]]. Dr Darell never uses the EEG machine on them.

* In ''Colonel Butler's Wolf'' by Creator/AnthonyPrice, a Russian deep cover agent reveals himself to British intelligence after BecomingTheMask, but is killed by his former colleagues before he can explain what his mission was. The protagonists have to figure that out, and also whether there were any more deep cover agents sent on the same mission.

** In the final book, it's revealed that [[spoiler:''the Harringtons'']] were originally deep-cover Mesan moles, who severed contact with their control after emigrating to Manticore and eventually forgot their origins. Their modern day descendants never even find out about it.

* ''Literature/TheRomulanWay'' has Arrhae ir-Mnaeha t'Khellian, outwardly the household manager of a relatively minor Romulan nobleman. Inwardly, she's Lieutenant Commander Terise Haleakala-[=LoBrutto=], a Federation Starfleet officer who underwent MagicPlasticSurgery and was inserted onto Romulus. However rather than having a mission of sabotage, she's an anthropologist tasked to covertly study the secretive Romulans so that the Federation can hopefully have more amicable dealings with them in the future.

* ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'' has [[spoiler:Bobbi Morse]] who happens to be HYDRA's head of security. She has been there for a while prior to the second season. Being a head of security means that double crossing her organization would mean instant doom to any mole within it. [[spoiler:Turns out that she was sent there by S.H.I.E.L.D. to watch over Jemma Simmons in case things go south.]]
* Irina Derevko/Laura Bristow from ''Series/{{Alias}}'', a KGB agent tasked to marry an American CIA agent. The show also features a training facility in Russia where people are trained to blend in in American {{Suburbia}}.

* In ''Series/{{Allegiance}}'', Katya O'Connor, her husband and their eldest daughter Natalie are all secretly Russian spies. The O'Connors' two younger children, one of whom is a CIA analyst, have no idea.
* The FX series ''Series/TheAmericans'' is based around the Jennings, a married couple of deep-cover [[UsefulNotes/MoscowCentre KGB]] agents living in suburban America in 1981, at the start of the UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan administration, with an FBI agent moving in next door. Series writer Joseph Weisberg, who worked for the CIA in the early 90's, has said that the 2010 FBI bust of a Russian spy ring (see top) was a direct inspiration for him. ''Both'' of them seduce Americans for information.
** In Season 2 the KGB decides to recruit the US-born children of S-Directorate agents like the Jennings since these second-generation agents would be able to pass high level security checks that their parents could not. Thus they would be able to infiltrate organizations like the FBI or CIA. The Jennings are divided on the issue with Philip being vehemently opposed to the idea while Elisabeth thinks that it is their patriotic duty to support the plan.

* Used as a punchline to the ''Series/ComedyPlayhouse'' episode "Lunch in the Park" (later remade as an episode of ''Paul Merton in Galton and Simpson's''). Two office workers (Stanley Baxter and Daphne Anderson in the original; Merton and Josie Lawrence in TheRemake) meet for lunch once every week, and have a rather clipped conversation, mostly small talk, but also with a suggestion they'd like to see each other more often but have to be careful of appearances. It looks like a ''Film/BriefEncounter'' sort of situation, until he hands her a microfilm, and Special Branch swoop in on the pair of them...
* The ''Series/{{Elementary}}'' episode "Dirty Laundry" has Franchise/SherlockHolmes figure out that the murdered hotel manager and her husband are, in fact, Russian spies and a friend of their family is their handler ([[spoiler:and the killer]]). Completely averts the AccentRelapse trope, as none of the agents or their handler drop their American accents (makes sense, considering they have lived in the country for decades). In fact, the husband and the wife didn't love each other but were ordered to conceive a child in order to allow him or her to grow up as a native-born American and a second-generation agent. However, the father refused to let his daughter get mixed up in this. One of the clues that led to Holmes discovering this is that the husband quit his job shortly before the company signed a government contract. The only reason someone would do this is to avoid a deep background check all government contractors must go through, which would quickly reveal the truth.

* One episode of ''Series/NCISLosAngeles'' has the team uncover a network of eight couples who were inserted into the United States by the Soviet Union to detonate nuclear bombs in the event of a war. However, the agent they speak with tells Callen that while, at first, they would have obeyed the order without question, after a while he and his now-dementia-stricken wife [[BecomingTheMask Became the Mask]] of a normal suburban American couple, and they even have an adult son who doesn't have a clue. Also an InUniverse example of a StereotypeFlip: The couple in question is black (recruited as children in Africa), since a black guy is the last person American counterintelligence would suspect as a Soviet agent.

* On ''Series/SevenDays'' an NSA office is bombed with one female agent named Rebecca who vanishes and is considered the suspect. Sent back, Frank arrests her but the place is bombed a day earlier. Soon on the run, Frank and Rebecca must face a traitor within the NSA. After he's defeated, Rebecca vanishes again. Back at the base, Frank learns the "Rebecca" is actually a deep cover Russian agent, which was the reason she fled in the first timeline. She does leave behind a goodbye video to Frank in her true accent that still thanks him for his help and he has to accept it.

* ''VideoGame/NeedForSpeed Undercover'' features the player, as a CowboyCop, going into deep cover to disguise as a reckless criminal, doing crazy stuff like street racing, car thefts and high speed police pursuits just to get in good with the syndicate. [[spoiler:Turns out a DoubleAgent DirtyCop is backstabbing both the player, the law enforcement and the syndicate.]]

* The Imperial Agent class storyline in ''Videogame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'' features several such examples, but the most memorable of all might be "Bas-Ton", an imperial human agent who has been surgically altered to impersonate a Voss alien for several years. The original's wife, brother and two children don't seem to suspect a thing. To top it off, when talking to the agent, Bas-Ton is openly xenophobic against the aliens he lives with. Now that's some dedication to your cover story.

* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'': Wulfenbach [[spoiler:Airman Higgs]] lives as an average laid back member of the military, but is actually [[spoiler:the "sneaky" Jager General and is loyal to House Heterodyne. He has changed even his name to fly under the radar and while he's been focused on spying on Wulfenbach is enrolled in half the armies of Europa in places where him being missing for long periods of time will go unnoticed.]]

* Hawkgirl in the ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' animated series, who in the "Starcrossed" story arc at the end of the second season was revealed to have been a spy for the planet Thanagar, in preparation of its invasion of Earth. [[spoiler:She justified her actions because she thought she was helping Earth, but defected when she learned that Earth would be destroyed in the process.]]

* In ''Film/NoWayOut'', a Pentagon WitchHunt for a [[RedHerringMole supposed Soviet mole]] is used as a cover story to frame someone for a murder committed by the Secretary of Defense. Of course, it turns out that [[FramingTheGuiltyParty there really is a mole]], who was inserted into the country as a child and managed to work himself up through the military until he was in a position of absolute trust.

** Gets turned UpToEleven when [[spoiler:Chuck discovers that the ''whole neighborhood'' is one big front for Fulcrum and its residents are all agents.]]

* ''Film/BlackWidow2021'' reveals that in her teenage years, the title character and another recruit spent three years living in Ohio posing as the daughters of the true sleeper agents, who were there to investigate a S.H.I.E.L.D. facility. [[spoiler:Well, HYDRA posing as S.H.I.E.L.D. And one researching brain functions and such that would really help the Red Room create very compliant Black Widows.]]

Subtrope of LivingADoubleLife. Add a sprinkle of NeuroVault, and you get the ManchurianAgent. Compare with CopiedTheMoralsToo, where a copy of a heroic character is created (often to be a spy on the heroes) but is unable to complete its mission because it received the heroic character's morals as well as their appearance. Contrast the DiplomaticCoverSpy, who work in the sending country's embassy and don't need this much elaborate backstory to do their work because they have DiplomaticImpunity.

Deep down, however, they've got a dark secret: they're agents from another country or a rival organization, sent on a long-term secret mission, spending their free time (or even work hours) involved in CloakAndDagger business. In extreme cases, the agent might have been planted as a ''child'' and have lived their entire adult life in their host country, [[BrainwashedAndCrazy brainwashed]] into having [[PatrioticFervor total loyalty to their homeland.]]

* ''ComicBook/CaptainAmerica'': ComicBook/BuckyBarnes, during his time as the the Winter Soldier, often served this role during the UsefulNotes/ColdWar, given that he was an American [[BrainwashedAndCrazy brainwashed]] into serving as a Soviet assassin.
** [[spoiler: '''Cap himself''' was revealed in 2016 to be a HYDRA agent ''and always has been''. WordOfGod claimed this is the real Captain America and not a clone, copy, mind-control, TheMole, etc....and then the very next issue revealed that his memories had been altered.]]

This is often times TruthInTelevision, even [[http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/29/world/europe/29spy.html?ref=global-home in]] a post-UsefulNotes/ColdWar world.

* On ''Series/SevenDays'' an NSA office is bombed with one female agent named Rebecca vanishes and is considered the suspect. Sent back, Frank arrests her but the place is bombed a day earlier. Soon on the run, Frank and Rebecca must face a traitor within the NSA. After he's defeated, Rebecca vanishes again. Back at the base, Frank learns the "Rebecca" is actually a deep cover Russian agent, which was the reason she fled in the first timeline. She does leave behind a goodbye video to Frank in her true accent that still thanks him for his help and he has to accept it.

Subtrope of LivingADoubleLife. Add a sprinkle of NeuroVault, and you get the ManchurianAgent. Compare with CopiedTheMoralsToo, where a copy of a heroic character is created (often to be a spy on the heroes) but is unable to complete its mission because it received the heroic character's morals as well as their appearance. Contrast the DiplomaticCoverSpy, who work in the sending country's embassy and don't need this much elaborate backstory to do their work.

Subtrope of LivingADoubleLife.

Not to be confused with the Music/DrDre/Music/SnoopDogg song "Deep Cover". Add a sprinkle of NeuroVault, and you get the ManchurianAgent. Compare with CopiedTheMoralsToo, where a copy of a heroic character is created (often to be a spy on the heroes) but is unable to complete its mission because it received the heroic character's morals as well as their appearance. Contrast the DiplomaticCoverSpy, who work in the sending country's embassy and don't need this much elaborate backstory to do their work.

** [[spoiler: Citan]] is Hyuga Ricdeau, [[spoiler: one of the two Solaris Guardian Angels and once a MadScientist, assigned by Emperor Cain to attack and infiltrate Shevat and to observe Fei and his capacities as the Contact and determine whether Fei should be protected or eliminated. BecomingTheMask and HeelFaceTurn eventually happen as a result of both of these events - he falls in love with and marries Yui of Shevat and becomes close friends with Fei, eventually deciding to throw away his loyalties to Solaris to help protect humanity from its planned fate.]]

Not to be confused with the Music/DrDre/Music/SnoopDogg song "Deep Cover". Add a sprinkle of NeuroVault, and you get the ManchurianAgent. Compare with CopiedTheMoralsToo, where a copy of a heroic character is created (often to be a spy on the heroes) but is unable to complete its mission because it received the heroic character's morals as well as their appearance.