History Main / FlockofWolves

'''Due to the nature of this trope, spoilers abound.'''

* A Creator/GahanWilson cartoon in ''Magazine/{{Playboy}}'' shows Hispanic-looking revolutionaries overrunning the dictator's office. The dictator, confronting the revolutionary leader, snarls, "You fool -- I'm CIA, too!"

* ''Literature/LetsGoToGolgotha'' by Garry Kilworth is about time travel tourism, where one of the most popular trips is Christians travelling back in time to witness the Crucifixion. The tourists are disguised as normal first-century Jerusalemites. In the end, the protagonist suddenly realizes that the crowd watching Jesus being nailed to the cross is composed entirely of tourists from the future, and that no actual denizens of 33 A.D. are present at all.

* On the ''WebVideo/DreamSMP'', [[PresidentEvil Schlatt's]] cabinet in Manburg turned out to be this. Among the four people in the cabinet (excluding Schlatt), Tubbo was a [[LaResistance Pogtopian]] spy, and Fundy was an even more secretive Pogtopian spy. As for the other two people in the cabinet, George's presence in the cabinet was ''barely even relevant'' to the plot due to his tendency to ''not show up for the plot'', and [[VicePresidentWho Quackity]] was a FriendlyEnemy whose allegiance to Schlatt [[TheStarscream fluctuated]] [[YesMan depending]] [[PunchClockVillain on the day]][[note]]To clarify, he sometimes tried to rein [[TheCaligula Schlatt's behaviour]] in to help him make more reasonable decisions (since he genuinely wanted to make the country better, but to no avail every time); at other times, [[TheStarscream plotted to]] remove Schlatt from power so that he could become President instead; and occasionally acted as a devoted YesMan; but ultimately, the situation was complicated by Schlatt's mistreatment of him regardless of his allegiance at the time[[/note]] but eventually stood up for himself and left to join Pogtopia anyway. [[spoiler:By the Manburg-Pogtopia War, out of Schlatt's four main cabinet members, three of them were fighting on Pogtopia's behalf, and George didn't even show up to the final battle.]]

Somebody [[AWolfInSheepsClothing disguises themselves]] as a member of some group [[TheInfiltration to sneak among them]]. However, it turns out everyone else in the area is also in disguise. Primarily used in comedy.

A favorite scene is to have the primary detectives bust a criminal operation, only to learn that the criminals are cops running a sting. Depending on how much hilarity the writers are going for, there may be as many as three or four squads in the room at the time. Oftentimes, it will be remarked upon that if they weren't keeping up the charade, the organization they're trying to bring down probably wouldn't exist.

* ''[[Literature/GreatwinterTrilogy Eyes of the Calculor]]'' by Sean [=McMullen=]. After an electromagnetic pulse shuts down their technology, the Highliber forcibly conscripts mathematicians to operate the Calculor (a human-powered computer) but some escape via an UndergroundRailroad. Eventually, the secret police are able to shut down this escape line, only to discover that it's a sting operation by another agency to round up the remaining mathematicians. The Highliber gives his underlings a roasting for their RightHandVersusLeftHand antics.

* ''Literature/LetsGoToGolgotha'' by Garry Kilworth is about time travel tourism where one of the most popular trips is Christians travelling back in time to witness the Crucifixion. The tourists are disguised as Jewish citizens. In the end, the protagonist suddenly realizes that the crowd watching Jesus being nailed to the cross is composed entirely of tourists from the future, and that no actual Jewish Jerusalemites of 33 A.D. are present at all.

* In the'' Literature/TimeWars'' novel ''The Pimpernel Plot'' there's a scene where, apart from Literature/TheScarletPimpernel and his nemesis, everybody in the room turns out to be an undercover time traveler, with about half of them working for the villain and the other half there as backup for the heroes. ([[MythologyGag Possibly a bonus in-joke for readers familiar with the source novel:]] in the original version of the scene, apart from the Pimpernel and his nemesis, the room is empty.)

* The German neo-Nazi political party Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands (National Democratic Party of Germany) is [[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/mar/19/thefarright.germany heavily infiltrated]] by the domestic intelligence agency Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (Protectors of the Constitution). In 2001, the federal government and legislature considered banning the NPD. But its supreme court ruled that with so many [=BfV=] moles in the party, and the [=BfV=] unwilling to reveal their identities, it was impossible to tell what is the NPD's true behavior and what might be the work of an AgentProvocateur. Not to mention that all these moles would be exempt from prosecution, thus revealing their identities anyway. In fact, it seems that many of these planted moles are using their immunity and the [=BfV=] paycheck to actually help the party survive and thus guarantee their own job security (if the NPD were abolished, the Verfassungsschutz would likely not need as large a staff). In one case, a high member of the NPD openly stated that [[GoneHorriblyRight without being paid by the Verfassungsschutz, he wouldn't have been able to build up the party's branch in his state.]]
* Reportedly [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Bonny Anne Bonny,]] a pirate famous for disguising herself as a man, once became attracted to another pirate on her crew. She revealed her secret to the pirate and tried to flirt with him at which point she was shocked to discover that said pirate was [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Read Mary Read,]] ''another'' pirate famous for being a woman disguised as a man. This was rather awkward. Although it's alternatively claimed that Bonny knew all along that Read was a woman, and only Bonny's lover (and captain) Calico Jack Rackham was fooled.

* According to this [[https://ammo.com/articles/ruby-ridge-siege-forgotten-history-weaver-family-atf-standoff-militia article,]] "The irony of the federal government's desire to obtain informants within the Aryan Nations is that different branches of federal law enforcement and intelligence gathering occupied five of the six key positions in the organization. This means that the Aryan Nations were effectively a government-run shop, with agents spying on each other to ensure the integrity of an investigation – into an organization almost entirely run by the federal government."

* ''Let's Go to Golgotha'' by Garry Kilworth is about time travel tourism where one of the most popular trips is Christians travelling back in time to witness the Crucifixion. The tourists are disguised as Jewish citizens. In the end, the protagonist suddenly realizes that the crowd watching Jesus being nailed to the cross is composed entirely of tourists from the future, and that no actual Jewish Jerusalemites of 33 A.D. are present at all.

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks'', Boimler is trying to get a "Bridge Buddy" and pretends to be from Hawaii to get in good with Ransom and some of his friends who are from Hawaii. When Boimler admits the truth, it turns out that they've ''all'' been pretending to be from Hawaii to suck up to their superiors. Unfortunately for Boimler, the others are genuinely all from moons, leaving them with something in common and him out in the cold.

* On the ''WebVideo/DreamSMP'', [[PresidentEvil Schlatt's]] cabinet in [[FascistButInefficient Manburg]] turned out to be this. Among the four people in the cabinet (excluding Schlatt), Tubbo was a [[LaResistance Pogtopian]] spy, and Fundy was an even more secretive Pogtopian spy. As for the other two people in the cabinet, George's presence in the cabinet was ''barely even relevant'' to the plot due to his tendency to ''not show up for the plot'', and [[VicePresidentWho Quackity]] was a FriendlyEnemy whose allegiance to Schlatt [[TheStarscream fluctuated]] [[YesMan depending]] [[PunchClockVillain on the day]][[note]]To clarify, he sometimes tried to rein [[TheCaligula Schlatt's behaviour]] in to help him make more reasonable decisions (since he genuinely wanted to make the country better, but to no avail every time); at other times, [[TheStarscream plotted to]] remove Schlatt from power so that he could become President instead; and occasionally acted as a devoted YesMan; but ultimately, the situation was complicated by Schlatt's mistreatment of him regardless of his allegiance at the time[[/note]] but eventually stood up for himself and left to join Pogtopia anyway. [[spoiler:By the Manburg-Pogtopia War, out of Schlatt's four main cabinet members, three of them were fighting on Pogtopia's behalf, and George didn't even show up to the final battle.]]

** The novel contains a dark take or two on this. In one case, Capers, a member of the main character's TrueCompanions, joins an anti-UsefulNotes/VietnamWar student group with Shyla (another member of the group of friends, and who is passionately against the war) only to betray both the anti-war group and his friends by having been an undercover government agent the whole time. He tries to minimize the damage by saying that Shyla and the others were all just innocent dupes, and the leader of the student group was only real extremist and responsible for all of the more dubious actions the group took. At the trial, it turns out that the leader of the student group was also a government agent all along.
** Another case is something of an inversion. An undercover police officer tries to turn a peaceful student rally into a riot, but is caught and kicked out immediately because they realize he's much too zealous and dressed like too much of a stereotype to possibly be real.

** In ''Literature/MonstrousRegiment'', the main character [[SweetPollyOliver disguises herself as a man to join the army,]] only to find that nearly every single member of her squad is also a woman in disguise. [[spoiler:Even the ''very'' masculine [[BoisterousBruiser Sergeant Jack Jackrum]].]] In fact, the only male is the decidedly effeminate Lt. Blouse. Their disguises, including that of the ''pregnant'' Shufti, are so effective that when they opt to try the old "pretend to be the washerwomen" trick, Blouse deems himself the only one sufficiently capable of acting female to pass muster. (And he's ''right'' -- he makes it past the guards just fine, while the rest of them have rather more difficulty. The real washerwomen, who are mostly the indentured wives of the soldiers on their side, aren't fooled by Blouse's antics, but play along anyway.)
** And when the girls are put on trial for impersonating men by the StrawMisogynist army, Jackrum sends about half of the officers out of the room, and reveals to the other half he knows they're all women. Roughly a third of the army's high command turns out to be female. Even better is when Jackrum does this, he sees the way the women are looking at each other and is stunned to realize how ''every single one of them'' thought ''she'' was the only one in the army doing this.

** Similarly, Mr. Krabs once molts his shell right before some old buddies are coming to visit. Embarassed by his appearance, he asks Spongebob to impersonate him for the meeting. Of course it all gets found out and Krabs makes his confession. Then the others all reveal that they, too, had something to hide (and Mr. Krabs points out that their embarrassing secrets are permanent, while his shell will grow back soon).

A favorite scene is to have the primary detectives bust an operation, only to find out that the people they're busting are cops themselves. Depending on how much hilarity the writers are going for, there may be as many as three or four squads in the room at the time. Oftentimes, it will be remarked upon that if they weren't keeping up the charade, the organization they're trying to bring down probably wouldn't exist.

* In ''Literature/TheIrregularAtMagicHighSchool: The Girl Who Calls The Stars'', everyone wants basically the same thing: to prevent another world war. However, because of the national and factional tensions left by the ''last'' war (and the wrench that [[PoweredByAForsakenChild the Watatsumi slaves]]' existence throws into everyone's plans) it is about halfway into the movie before any of them realize this. Fortunately, all the soldiers involved know a common language and a [[EveryoneWentToSchoolTogether surprisingly high degree of them attended school together]].

* ''[[Literature/GreatwinterTrilogy Eyes of the Calculor]]'' by Sean [=McMullen=]. After an electromagnetic pulse shuts down their technology, the Highliber forcibly conscripts mathematicians to operate the Calculor (a human-powered computer) but some escape via an UndergroundRailroad. Eventually, the secret police are able to shut down this escape line, only to discover that it's a sting operation by another agency to round up the remaining mathematicians. The Highliber then gives his underlings a roasting for their RightHandVersusLeftHand approach to their job.
* ''Literature/GoodOmens'': As seen in the the page quote, an agent of [=MI9=] tries to recruit someone to join, only for them to turn out to already be a fellow agent of [=MI9=].

* In ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' series' recurring [[FictionalDocument in-game book]] ''A Game at Dinner'', it is implied that nearly all of [[ManipulativeBastard Prince Helseth]]'s advisors are actually spies for some other group. Naturally, Helseth [[BatmanGambit gets one of the spies to out himself]] and [[CarryingTheAntidote accidentally poison himself]] in a fashion [[MasterPoisoner so gruesome]] that another spy in attendance, the writer of the document the book is based on, resigns on the spot.

* In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'', the confederacy of terrorists Raiden fights against has six key leaders: Solidus, Fortune, Ocelot, Olga, Vamp and Fatman. Of these characters, two are secretly operating on behalf of the Patriots (Olga and Fatman), one is secretly operating on behalf of Naomi Hunter (Vamp), and two aren't working for any outside parties (Fortune and Solidus). However, Fortune was plotting to betray Solidus, who himself had anticipated her betrayal and was plotting to betray Dead Cell. [[spoiler:That's before getting into Revolver Ocelot's giant GamblePileup where he's working for Solidus, the Patriots, President James Johnson, Colonel Sergei Gurlukovich, Olga Gurlukovich, Fortune, and Richard Ames at various points throughout the entire game and most of them simultaneously, thus meaning he is always playing at least three different players against each other in a single moment. And then in a roundabout way near the end of the game, Ocelot ends up being betrayed by his own hand, which was formerly Liquid Snake's and results in Ocelot being possessed by Liquid...as part of Ocelot's bigger plan against the Patriots. In short, Ocelot is an entire flock of wolves by himself.]]

** Occasionally, due to perhaps a slight glitchiness of the game, a ''non-branded'' orc would find himself in an entourage of a branded warchief. When Talion summons the gang, the Sauron-loyalist will actually act just like a branded orc, being nonaggressive to the player. In essence it'd be an actual "sheep" finding himself in a FlockOfWolves and having to play along.

* The Website/SCPFoundation story [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/everyone-knows "Everyone Knows,"]] where it turns out that TheMasquerade no longer matters because ''every single individual in the entire world'' is involved with at least one organization dealing with the paranormal. Well, everyone but one person. The story kicks off with four drinking buddies realizing they all work for the Foundation, then find out their wives do, then about 70% of the population of the town they live in, and eventually it's revealed that roughly 3.5 billion people work for the SCP Foundation alone.

** Similarly, Spongebob once tries to disguise as Mister Krabs when he molts his shell so he won't look like a sissy in front of his old buddies; once Mister Krabs makes his confession, the others all reveal that they, too, had something to hide (and Mr. Krabs points out that their embarrassing secrets are permanent, while his shell will grow back soon).

* The German extreme right-wing party NPD (Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands, National Democratic Party of Germany) is [[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/mar/19/thefarright.germany infiltrated heavily]] by the Verfassungsschutz (Protectors of the Constitution, Germany's domestic intelligence agency). When talking about disbanding the party, the highest court ruled that with so many protectors in the party -- which would all be exempt from prosecution -- any abolishment trial would be doomed to fail. In fact, it seems that many of these planted moles are using their immunity and the paycheck from the Verfassungsschutz to actually help the party to survive and thus guarantee their own job security (if the NPD were abolished, the Verfassungsschutz would likely not need as large a staff). In one case, a high member of the NPD stated openly that [[GoneHorriblyRight without being paid from the Verfassungsschutz, he wouldn't have been able to build up the party's branch in his state.]]
* Reportedly [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Bonny Anne Bonny,]] a pirate famous for disguising herself as a man, once became attracted to another pirate on her crew. She revealed her secret to the pirate and tried to flirt with him at which point she was shocked to discover that said pirate was [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Read Mary Read,]] ''another'' pirate famous for being a woman disguised as a man. This was rather awkward to say the least. Although it's alternately claimed that Bonny knew all along that Read was a woman, and only Bonny's lover (and captain) Calico Jack Rackham was fooled.

* UsefulNotes/TheStasi had a such extensive network of about 91,000 regular employees and about 174,000 unofficial collaborators that most people in UsefulNotes/EastGermany were either spied on, spying on someone or ''both''. Most likely this was entirely deliberate, because nothing ensures compliance like the ([[ProperlyParanoid justified]]) belief that someone is always watching you.

* In 2011, Amina Arraf al Omari, a lesbian Syrian woman and operator of the blog ''A Gay Girl In Damascus'' was revealed to be a hoax persona created and maintained by American Tom [=MacMaster=]. While pretending to be Amina, [=MacMaster=] wrote for the lesbian-focused news site Lez Get Real and flirted with its founder, Paula Brooks. When the hoax was exposed, "Brooks" revealed herself to be straight, retired ''male'' construction worker Bill Graber. Graber described the incident as "a major sock-puppet hoax crashing into a major sock-puppet hoax".

* In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'', the confederacy of terrorists Raiden fights against has six key leaders: Solidus, Fortune, Ocelot, Olga, Vamp and Fatman. Of these characters three are secretly operating on behalf of the Patriots (Olga, Ocelot and Fatman) and one is secretly operating on behalf of Naomi Hunter (Vamp). Only Solidus and Fortune aren't answering orders from outside parties. However, Fortune was plotting to betray Solidus, who himself had anticipated her betrayal and was plotting to betray Dead Cell.

* In ''Literature/MurderOnTheOrientExpress'' by Creator/AgathaChristie, Poirot has to determine which of the twelve train passengers performed a revenge killing in the night. The answer is that they all did it.

* In the ''Literature/WarriorCats'' fanfic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12888612/1/A-Different-Outcome A Different Outcome]]'', it turns out that half the cats in [=ThunderClan=] have broken the warrior code at some point- and they all realize this on the same night.

* Creator/TimDorsey does this twice with his ''Literature/SergeStorms'' books. The first time, undercover agents of three different law enforcement agencies infiltrate a drug ring and try to bust each other (leading them to wonder if all drug dealers in Florida are secretly undercover cops). The second time, a group of people planning to overthrow Castro is composed almost entirely of agents of Cuban intelligence. The only exception is a retired CIA officer. The sad thing is that they all know it and yet they still make plots they have no intention of implementing and send reports back to Cuba about what was discussed in the meetings.

* Creator/TimDorsey does this twice with his ''Florida Roadkill'' books. The first time, undercover agents of three different law enforcement agencies infiltrate a drug ring and try to bust each other (leading them to wonder if all drug dealers in Florida are secretly undercover cops). The second time, a group of people planning to overthrow Castro is composed almost entirely of agents of Cuban intelligence. The only exception is a retired CIA officer. The sad thing is that they all know it and yet they still make plots they have no intention of implementing and send reports back to Cuba about what was discussed in the meetings.

* On the ''LetsPlay/DreamSMP'', [[PresidentEvil Schlatt's]] cabinet in [[FascistButInefficient Manburg]] turned out to be this. Among the four people in the cabinet (excluding Schlatt), Tubbo was a [[LaResistance Pogtopian]] spy, and Fundy was an even more secretive Pogtopian spy. As for the other two people in the cabinet, George's presence in the cabinet was ''barely even relevant'' to the plot due to his tendency to ''not show up for the plot'', and [[VicePresidentWho Quackity]] was a FriendlyEnemy whose allegiance to Schlatt [[TheStarscream fluctuated]] [[YesMan depending]] [[PunchClockVillain on the day]][[note]]To clarify, he sometimes tried to rein [[TheCaligula Schlatt's behaviour]] in to help him make more reasonable decisions (since he genuinely wanted to make the country better, but to no avail every time); at other times, [[TheStarscream plotted to]] remove Schlatt from power so that he could become President instead; and occasionally acted as a devoted YesMan; but ultimately, the situation was complicated by Schlatt's mistreatment of him regardless of his allegiance at the time[[/note]] but eventually stood up for himself and left to join Pogtopia anyway. [[spoiler:By the Manburg-Pogtopia War, out of Schlatt's four main cabinet members, three of them were fighting on Pogtopia's behalf, and George didn't even show up to the final battle.]]

* ''VideoGame/TheThing'': In multiple levels, Blake has to rescue other humans to advance to the next areas (like a mechanic needed to fix an automated door or a medic needed to heal another person), only for every other member in his team to turn out to be a Thing all along.

* ''VideoGame/{{Prototype}}'' devolves into a three-way flock-of-infiltrators war between the [[ZombieApocalypse Blacklight infected]], [[EvilArmy Blackwatch]], and the player character [[HumanoidAbomination Alex Mercer]]. Blacklight can infect regular civilians and turn them into manchurian agents who then infest apartment buildings and turn them into infected hives, Blackwatch has a lot of intel-carrying agents hiding amongst the still-living populace for you to hunt down, and Mercer can masquerade as any human he has eaten.
* ''VideoGame/Prototype2'', with a new protagonist and Mercer more intelligently leading the infection side, it goes further as you find out quite a few high-ranking Blackwatch scientists have been turned into [[HumanoidAbomination intelligent infected]] just like yourself. Of course, you find them when ''you'' infiltrate the high-security labs they are in charge of. How bad is it? Of all the plot-relevant Blackwatch characters, only ''two'' aren’t infected and you end up body-jacking one of them yourself. No wonder the military is so incompetent.
* In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'', the confederacy of terrorists Raiden fights against has six key leaders: Solidus, Fortune, Ocelot, Olga, Vamp and Fatman. Of these characters three are secretly operating on behalf of the Patriots (Olga, Ocelot and Fatman) and one is secretly operating on behalf of Naomi Hunter (Vamp). Only Solidus and Fortune aren't answering orders from outside parties. However, Fortune was plotting to betray Solidus, who himself had anticipated her betrayal and was plotting to betray Dead Cell.
* ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'' has an event in where a traveler in Lostlorn forest tells you about a strange woman living in a trailer there. The woman turns out to be a Zoroark disguised as a human. The corresponding event in ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite2'' reveals that the traveler was also a Zoroark in disguise.
* Get caught cheating in ''VideoGame/TitanFall'', and you will only be able to connect to servers reserved for cheaters.

* ''VideoGame/Fallout4'' has [[spoiler:the Bunker Hill merchants. All four of them are informants for The Institute, and seem to have no clue the other three are doing the same thing.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}'': In the infamous "The MilkmanConspiracy" level, the player must collect objects being used by the [[TheMenInBlack G-Men]] posing as [[MostDefinitelyNotAVillain trenchcoat-clad plumbers, road crew workers, gardeners]], ''[[MostDefinitelyNotAVillain housewives]]'', ''[[MostDefinitelyNotAVillain grieving widows]]'', [[MostDefinitelyNotAVillain and assassins]], among other, increasingly unlikely roles, and use them as a PaperThinDisguise. Amusingly, the G-men, despite gathering in groups, are all unaware of the fact that the other G-men are fakes; using Clairvoyance[[note]]A psychic skill that allows the player to see the world from the perspective of the target[[/note]] on them, they view all the other G-men as being totally normal people, too. Naturally, there's not a single normal person in the entire stage.

* In the gacha/VN hybrid ''VisualNovel/MoeNinjaGirls'', hyperactive high school girl Akari sets out to establish a "Ninja-Seeking Club" after one of her class' two new transfer students, [[OccidentalOtaku Johnny]], comes to school swearing he'd seen a ninja. She ends up browbeating a bunch of other students (including the main character, the ''other'' new transfer student) into joining the club Literature/HaruhiSuzumiya-style, oblivious to the fact that [[RealAfterAll the ninja Johnny saw]] had been attempting to assassinate him- because he's a rogue ninja himself. And then, after being unable to kill the main character, the assassin also joins the club. And then the cute underclassman Akari forcibly recruits also turns out to be a trainee ninja (with [[HeadPet the pink rabbit that sits on her head]] being her ninja familiar). Also, the school principal also has ties to several ninja clans, which is why there are so many ninjas enrolled in this school. And it turns that both the sultry upperclassman member and ''Akari's best friend'' are kunoichi employed by the school. And of course, [[LockedOutOfTheLoop Akari and Johnny remain completely unaware of this]]. And then after Akari eventually finds out, it turns out that, unbeknownst to her, her parents were ninjas from the same village as the protagonist, explaining her own natural athleticism. [[ButtMonkey So it's just Johnny then.]]

* ''Literature/{{Slayers}}'':
** In an episode of ''Slayers Next'', the team infiltrates a kingdom dedicated to training priestesses, and takes it so seriously it's supposedly a LadyLand which will execute any man found near its borders, never mind in the city. As it turns out, it's actually full of {{Wholesome Crossdresser}}s — even the ''princess'' is actually the ''prince'', forced to pretend to be a girl because his crazy mother didn't want to annul the rule, yet didn't want to execute her son either.
** In another episode in ''Slayers Revolution'', every employee and guest on the cruise ship they take turns out to have been hired by their enemies to get the [[LaserBlade Sword of Light]].
* In one of the ''Anime/ProjectAKo'' [=OVAs=], every single customer at the Lepton-mothership-turned-restaurant turns out to be a disguised spy... all for different organizations. Cue BlastOut.
* One episode of the ''Franchise/{{Patlabor}}'' TV show has them helping the Japanese intelligence service pick up a Soviet defector and his experimental HumongousMecha in a seaside resort town. Every single person there is said to be a spy of some sort. The one that really takes the biscuit being:
-->''"You see that dog crossing the road there? It's a Mossad spy dog!"''
* This is kinda what happens in ''[[Literature/HaruhiSuzumiya The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya]]'', except that Kyon, the MetaGuy [[TheProtagonist protagonist]], isn't one of the "wolves" and is dragged into the title character's Club For Finding Aliens, Time-Travelers, and Espers by force. However, it soon turns out that every other member of the club (including the founder) is some kind of supernatural being that they are supposed to look for. In a way, the title character ''[[InvokedTrope invoked]]'' this trope without being aware of it, due to being a WrongGenreSavvy RealityWarper.

* In the ''Manga/SoulEater'' manga, we already knew Crona was acting as a spy for Medusa when the DWMA started getting suspicious. It turned out there were ''four'' spies working for three different people (Crona for Medusa, Justin for Asura, and the two women at the cabaret Spirit visits for Arachnophobia) as well as a student that was really a witch (though she wasn't a spy).
* In ''Manga/TsubasaReservoirChronicle'', it turns out that only ''one'' human member of the original party isn't a spy -- Kurogane. And two of the spies [[ManchurianAgent aren't even aware of it]].

* In ''Literature/HeavyObject'', the city of Lost Angels was originally a normal city, but the presence of a nearby Object maintenance base resulted in spies from the other nations infiltrating the city. Said spies created "gangs" to act as covers for their presence, which soon ballooned out of control. By the time the protagonists arrive, all of the civilians have long since left the city; everyone who remains is either a spy posing as a criminal, an actual criminal profiting off their conflict, or a social exile with nowhere else to go.
* PlayedForDrama in ''Anime/TheVisionOfEscaflowne'', in which a flashback shows the shapeshifter Zongi kill a fellow member of his tribe when each was posing as part of the opposite side of a battle. He does not take it well.

* Creator/MarvelComics' ''ComicBook/SecretInvasion'' got close to this trope at times. For example, one meeting of Marvel's Illuminati (the big movers and shakers of Earth's superheroes) ended when everyone at the table realized he was a Skrull. They hadn't even known themselves!
* The City in ''ComicBook/{{Miracleman}}'' was created as a place to dump all the spies whose lifetime of paranoia had left them mentally unprepared to live in a {{Utopia}}. Everyone who lives there is a spy, but they all think ''most'' of the others are the ordinary civilians they're protecting.
* One ''ComicBook/{{Nightwing}}'' comic featured an entire town where almost every inhabitant was someone in the Witness Relocation program.
* A sub-series of Italian stories in the ComicBook/MickeyMouseComicUniverse has Goofy writing stories in various genres, with himself as protagonist and Mickey Mouse as his sidekick. The stories mostly make fun of various genres and their tropes. One of "his" stories from 2003 has the duo as undercover cops posing as prisoners, their mission being to befriend a certain prisoner and learn his secrets. They soon find out that their superiors went a bit overboard with their planning. With the exception of the secretive prisoner, the prison population consists entirely of undercover cops.
* In the Creator/ECComics Science-Fiction [=SuspenStory=] "Infiltration," a secret U.S. government agency for ferreting out Martian invaders who use hypnotic screens to disguise themselves as human beings discovers that it has been infiltrated by an alien. It turns out the agency is actually controlled by Martians, who are all too glad to rid themselves of the Earth "alien" in their midst.
* In one of Alan Moore's ''ComicBook/ThargsFutureShocks'' stories, a werewolf is loose on a spaceship and plans to feast on all the unsuspecting humans within. Naturally, every person on the vessel turns out to be a werewolf, to their consternation. It's implied that Earth came up with this as a means of getting rid of all the supernatural beings in their midst; the passengers shown boarding another ship at the end are all plainly vampires in PaperThinDisguise.
* By the final issue of ''ComicBook/TheSuperiorFoesOfSpiderMan'', [[spoiler:the entire gang except Shocker is discovered to be a double agent working for some other gang or supervillain.]]
* In ''ComicBook/TheInvisibles'', all four members of the Metropolitan Police's secret [[TheMenInBlack occult crime squad]] Division X were actually Invisible infiltrators. Only one of them knew that the others were also infiltrators from the start, and one of the others [[MemoryGambit wasn't even aware]] that he himself was an infiltrator.
* In ''ComicBook/{{Iznogoud}}'', the Caliph's rival/occasional friend Sultan Pulmankar turns out to have sent two spies to collect information in his palace. As it turns out, one of the spies was disguised as the titular Great Vizar's right-hand man, Wa'at Alahf, with the intent to spend time with Iznogoud and get information out of him... while the other spy was disguised as Iznogoud himself, with the intent to do exactly the same thing with Wa'at Alahf. Predictably, they end up meeting each other instead of the real Iznogoud and Wa'at Alahf, who were minding their own business. By the time they figure out the mistake, they had been trying in vain to con information out of each other for ''weeks''.

* A Creator/GahanWilson cartoon in ''Magazine/{{Playboy}}'' shows Hispanic-looking revolutionaries overrunning the dictator's office. The dictator, confronting the revolutionary leader, snarls, "You fool -- I'm CIA, too!"

** ''[[https://www.fimfiction.net/story/122849/changeling Changeling,]]'' has a similar premise to the above (everyone but Celestia, Luna, Twilight Sparkle, Trixie, and [[spoiler:Prince Blueblood]] are changelings), and Celestia even name-drops the trope. She also finds it rather amusing that neither Cadence nor Shining Armor knows the other is a changeling.

* In the ''Franchise/HarryPotter'' fanfiction ''FanFic/MakeAWish'', all of the Death Eaters on watch when the Death Eater lair was blown up were spies; fortunately, all of them chose that moment to report to their respective organizations, so none of them were killed.
* In ''Fanfic/HarryPotterAndTheMethodsOfRationality'', Professor Quirrell decides to allow spies between the armies for the battles he sets up. It gets so out of hand, that one of the students ends up being a ''quintuple'' agent. There are ''three'' armies. [[spoiler:The other two are Dumbledore and a disguised Quirrel, both of whom achieved their objectives far better than any of the official sides.]]
* In ''Fanfic/DiamondAndSilversExcellentAdventure'', Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon accidentally time travel to the past, and wind up among LaResistance in the ancient earth pony kingdom. At the next meeting, the majority of the Resistance reveal themselves to also be disguised time travelers.
* ''FanFic/AhAintGotNoAckcent'': After Rarity spends much of the story convincing Applejack to use a "Manehattan" accent instead of her regular "[[SouthernBelle Southern]]" one in order to appear more "cultured", [[spoiler:Rarity learns ''she'' is the only pony at the exhibit whose refined accent is genuine. Everyone else has a Southern accent and was trying to hide it for appearances' sake.]]
* In the ''Franchise/HarryPotter'' fanfic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12756784/1/A-Flock-of-Wolves Flock of Wolves,]]'' a rather boring meeting of Death Eaters is interrupted by Dolohov (and Bellatrix, and Augustus, and Macnair, etc) revealing that he's a spy. About the only members who aren't undercover are Avery and Lucius- although ''he'' only joined the group to hobnob with rich people. Fortunately, all these conversations take place while Voldemort is off somewhere else.
* ''FanFic/SeventhHorcrux'' has this happen as a result of Voldemort believing the rumors about Sirius being a traitor and inviting him into his inner circle, and Hagrid never being cleared for the Chamber of Secrets murders. Before long, between Sirius, Snape, Hagrid, and Voldemort's own YouHaveFailedMe tendencies and paranoia regarding actually loyal individuals, nearly all of his top brass are Order of the Phoenix plants, with only Lucius being mostly loyal.
* In the ''Literature/WarriorCats'' fanfic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12888612/1/A-Different-Outcome A Different Outcome,]]'' it turns out that half the cats in [=ThunderClan=] have broken the warrior code at some point- and they all realize this on the same night.
* ''FanFic/ProfessorArc'': In the chapter 14 omake, Jaune, Ozpin, Oobleck and Port are ''all'' revealed to be frauds who stumbled their way into becoming faculty. Ozpin invokes InsaneTrollLogic to declare Miss Goodwitch - the only real teacher in Beacon - is a real teacher masquerading as a fake masquerading as a real teacher. She {{Rage Quit}}s from the nonsense.

* During the Chunin Exams in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3665921/54/Black-Flames-Dance-In-The-Wind-Rise-of-Naruto Black Flames Dance in the Wind: Rise of Naruto]]'', there are more ringers and outside agents infiltrating the exams than there are actual genin trying to get promoted.
* ''Fanfic/ExcitingOpportunities'': During the diplomatic banquet being held on Illium for Jarrion, Loghain eventually reveals through her {{telepathy}} that all of the waiters there are undercover spies sent by rival intelligence agencies. Since each spy had assumed that they were the only ones undercover, they are just as shocked to learn this as the guests and [[MexicanStandoff immediately pull guns on each other]].

* In ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'' it's revealed that [[spoiler:HYDRA rebuilt itself and infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. ''from the beginning.'' While loyal S.H.I.E.L.D. agents are implied to outnumber HYDRA operatives, there are still way too many for them to count as just TheMole.]]

* ''Film/{{Cypher}}'': Played with. It turns out that ALL the attendants of the conferences that the protagonist visits across the country in his job as a corporate spy are also agents of [=DigiCorp=] sent to spy on their competitors. However, they're not actually spies, but targets for [=DigiCorp=]'s brainwashing program.
* ''[[Film/TheAssignment1997 The Assignment]]'' (1997). The plot involves a {{doppelganger}} of terrorist Carlos the Jackal who is trained by the CIA/Mossad to impersonate him, so he can make contact with a former lover of Carlos. However she turns out to be an informant for French intelligence; they ambush the man they think is Carlos and he has to kill several agents in the process of escaping.
* ''Film/TheSuperCops'' (1974). The protagonists are approached by a DirtyCop who turns out to be an undercover agent for the Knapp Commission into police corruption. The protagonists in turn try to arrest him for conspiracy to frame them. Turns out they were both tape-recording each other, and the police brass avoid embarrassment by promoting all concerned.
* ''Film/{{Screamers}}'': It turns out the [[MegaCorp N.E.B.]] camp has been infiltrated by RidiculouslyHumanRobots. How bad is it? There are only three soldiers left: a female captain and two male privates. Only one of the privates is an actual human, both the captain and the other private are robots. Ironically, he's the first to get killed under suspicion of being an "infiltrator"--after being accused of such by one of the actual robots!

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'':
** In ''Literature/MonstrousRegiment'', the main character [[SweetPollyOliver disguises herself as a man to join the army,]] only to find that nearly every single member of her squad is also a woman in disguise. [[spoiler:Even the ''very'' masculine [[BoisterousBruiser Sergeant Jack Jackrum]].]] In fact, the only male is the decidedly effeminate Lt. Blouse. Their disguises, including that of the ''pregnant'' Shufti, are so effective that when they opt to try the old "pretend to be the washerwomen" trick, Blouse deems himself the only one sufficiently capable of acting female to pass muster. (And he's ''right'' -- he makes it past the guards just fine, while the rest of them have rather more difficulty. The real washerwomen, who are mostly the indentured wives of the soldiers on their side, aren't fooled by Blouse's antics, but play along anyway.)
** And when the girls are put on trial for impersonating men by the StrawMisogynist army, Jackrum sends about half of the officers out of the room, and reveals to the other half he knows they're all women. Roughly a third of the army's high command turns out to be female. Even better is when Jackrum does this, he sees the way the women are looking at each other and is stunned to realize how ''every single one of them'' thought ''she'' was the only one in the army doing this.
** A [[FootnoteFever humorous aside in a footnote]] in ''Literature/{{Hogfather}}'', following a passage mocking conspiracy theories about AncientAstronauts, relates how aliens have had to stop abducting people from the Earth. It turns out so many different extraterrestrial species have been doing so, or monitoring each others' attempts to do so, that they've only succeeded in abducting other aliens, and they want to sort things out to determine if there even ''are'' any Earthlings. They begin to suspect they have exactly [[BigfootSasquatchAndYeti one native with large feet.]]
** ''The Discworld Companion'' describes how the [[LaResistance Turtle Movement]] in [[Literature/SmallGods Omnia]] protects itself from the CorruptChurch by only meeting in small cells, in which everyone wears masks. Which is why the senior churchmen who are members don't know that every other senior churchman is a member as well.
* ''Literature/TheManWhoWasThursday'' by Creator/GKChesterton is about a police officer who infiltrates a group of anarchists only to discover that all of the anarchists are also policemen. The President of the anarchists turns out to be the officer who recruited all of them. [[GainaxEnding He may or may not also be God.]]
* ''Let's Go to Golgotha'' by Garry Kilworth is about time travel tourism where one of the most popular trips is Christians travelling back in time to witness the Crucifixion. The tourists are disguised as Jewish citizens. In the end, the protagonist suddenly realizes that the crowd watching Jesus being nailed to the cross is composed entirely of tourists from the future, and that no actual Jewish Jerusalemites of 33 A.D. are present at all.

* Creator/HarryHarrison's ''Literature/BillTheGalacticHero'' had Bill getting recruited by an insurgency and then by military intelligence; eventually a bust occurs and every insurgent turns out to be (or at least says they're) working for the military.
* In Creator/HarryHarrison and Ant Skalandis's novel ''Literature/{{Deathworld}} vs. Filibusters'', the Pyrrans have finally managed to defeat the pirates only to find out that Henry Morgan, the pirates' leader, and several of his {{Number Two}}s were working for various agencies all this time, all under deep cover in order to expose the entire organization. The Pyrrans don't care and execute Morgan for all he has done (being an agent doesn't excuse murdering and pillaging).

* ''Literature/GoodOmens'': As seen in the the page quote, an agent of [=MI9=] tries to recruit someone to join, only for them to turn out to already be a fellow agent of [=MI9=].

* In the'' Literature/TimeWars'' novel ''The Pimpernel Plot'' there's a scene where, apart from Literature/TheScarletPimpernel and his nemesis, everybody in the room turns out to be an undercover time traveler, with about half of them working for the villain and the other half there as backup for the heroes. ([[MythologyGag Possibly a bonus in-joke for readers familiar with the source novel:]] in the original version of the scene, apart from the Pimpernel and his nemesis, the room is empty.)
* Friedrich Dürrenmatt's comedy/tragedy/drama ''The Physicists'' takes place in an asylum for {{Mad Scientist}}s. As it turns out, however, none of the three eponymous physicists is actually insane: one of them is ObfuscatingInsanity to prevent worldly authorities from exploiting his scientific breakthrough, and the other two are undercover agents from the CIA and GRU planted there to convince him to cooperate with their respective governments. And ''then'' it turns out that the female head of department of the asylum is the only one who ''really is'' insane.

* In ''Literature/MotherNight'', one Soviet spy is called a failure for "building an espionage apparatus entirely out of CIA infiltrators". But the joke's on the CIA: he never cared about spycraft, and just used the KGB's money to fund his art, which is entirely apolitical.

* In the Literature/RepairmanJack series, the [[ChurchOfHappyology Dormentalist]] higher echelons consist entirely of people who are desperately hiding the fact that they're "Nulls", meaning that they've failed to develop the psychic powers promised to devout Dormentalists. Naturally, the leader of the cult introduced the concept of "Nulls" specifically because he knew they never would gain such powers, as the faith's core creed is a load of garbage.
* By the end of the Claire Malloy mystery novel ''Mummy Dearest'', it's turned out that practically everyone Claire's met on her trip to Egypt is either a spy, an informant for spies, or a member of the smuggling ring that the spies have been hunting for. And every one of the spies works for a different Egyptian, British, American or international investigative agency.
* In ''Literature/MurderOnTheOrientExpress'' by Creator/AgathaChristie, Poirot has to determine which of the twelve train passengers performed a revenge killing in the night. The answer is that they all did it.
* In ''Literature/TheMoonIsAHarshMistress'', the main characters know that the Lunar Authority is going to plant spies in their group, but they also know they can find out who they are thanks to [[MasterComputer Mike.]] Professor de la Paz suggests that, rather than having them killed and thus risk the Authority realizing the rebels have spies, just form them all into their own cells, so they can only spy on other spies.

** And then of course we have [[spoiler:Coulson himself. He was in charge of the T.A.H.I.T.I. project that was working on the drug to bring back an Avenger in case they fell in battle, and recommended it be shut down since there were horrific side effects and the only thing that ''barely'' worked was erasing all memory of the treatment from the subjects' minds. He became its first success, but a few days after he discovered this, he began to exhibit those psychological side effects himself.]]
** In the following season, Agents [[spoiler:Morse and Mackenzie are spies for a splinter faction of S.H.I.E.L.D. that is seeking to supplant Coulson as Director. Agent Hartley was one for the same group as well, but she died before TheReveal.]]

* One of the vignettes in Music/TheBonzoDogBand's "Rhinocratic Oaths" sees a disguised police sergeant carrying out a sting operation at a gay bar (homosexuality being illegal in Britain before 1966), only to find that all the other patrons are policemen... [[SubvertedTrope who beat him up]].

* Occurs in ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}''.
** ''Paranoia'' in general lives on this trope. The [[PlayerCharacter PCs]] are charged by The Computer to hunt down mutants and secret society members. Every PC is both a mutant and a secret society member.
** The Industrial Workers of the World (Wobblies), introduced in the supplement ''Acute Paranoia'' (1986). When Friend Computer [[GossipEvolution heard about]] this secret society, it sent Troubleshooters to infiltrate it and report back to Internal Security; however, since the RealLife Wobblies fell apart before Alpha Complex was created, [[ShootTheMessenger they were executed]] for [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption failing to find it]]. After several iterations, one clever team ''[[TakeAThirdOption created]]'' the Wobblies so they'd have something to "infiltrate". At first, ''every single member was an [=IntSec=] spy'', but later they started finding "real" members of the society... who were actually spies from ''other'' secret societies.

* [[https://www.theonion.com/klan-rally-70-percent-undercover-reporters-1819566475 This]] article from ''Website/TheOnion'' parodies the rumor that the UsefulNotes/KuKluxKlan consists mostly of investigative reporters. Conversely, they also once made a reference to a child porn site being busted by authorities, and every single visitor to the site claimed to be a concerned citizen trying to infiltrate the site and bring it down from the inside.

* Similarly, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NPhg0d_lrk this Cracked]] sketch is that every member of a high school class is an undercover adult.
* The girl in [[https://notalwaysright.com/parlez-snooze-francais/33095/ this]] story from ''[[Website/NotAlwaysRight Not Always Learning]]'' insults her classmates in French, to prove to her teacher that she's the only one in the class ''not'' using an online translator for her homework.
* In ''Podcast/WelcomeToNightVale'', it's revealed that everyone in [[spoiler:the entirety of Night Vale itself]] is a sleeper agent for the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Vague Yet Menacing Government Agency]]. When they all get activated at the same time, they quickly decide to [[LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain never mention it again]].
* The Website/SCPFoundation story [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/everyone-knows "Everyone Knows,"]] where it turns out that TheMasquerade no longer matters because ''every single individual in the entire world'' is involved with at least one organization dealing with the paranormal. Well, everyone but one person. The story kicks off with four drinking buddies realizing they all work for the Foundation, then find out their wives do, then about 70% of the population of the town they live in, and eventually it's revealed that roughly 3.5 billion people work for the SCP Foundation alone.
* A ''WebVideo/LoadingReadyRun'':

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvYx7QBYV10 Badly Broken]] does this with people who pretend to watch ''Series/BreakingBad'' to avoid feeling left out. As they commiserate with the guy who ended up hosting the finale because so many people were in the same boat and skipped it, they see ''Series/BetterCallSaul'' announced and decide [[WeAreNotGoingThroughThatAgain they'd better catch up.]]
--->'''Graham:''' Then Jerry dropped out because he suddenly converted to a religion that doesn't let you watch Breaking Bad.

* On the ''LetsPlay/DreamSMP'', [[PresidentEvil Schlatt's]] cabinet in [[FascistButInefficient Manburg]] turned out to be this. Among the four people in the cabinet (excluding Schlatt), Tubbo was a [[LaResistance Pogtopian]] spy, and Fundy was an even more secretive Pogtopian spy. As for the other two people in the cabinet, George's presence in the cabinet was ''barely even relevant'' to the plot due to his tendency to ''not show up for the plot'', and [[VicePresidentWho Quackity]] was a FriendlyEnemy whose allegiance to Schlatt [[TheStarscream fluctuated]] [[YesMan depending]] [[PunchClockVillain on the day]][[note]]To clarify, he sometimes tried to rein [[TheCaligula Schlatt's behaviour]] in to help him make more reasonable decisions (since he genuinely wanted to make the country better, but to no avail every time); at other times, [[TheStarscream plotted to]] remove Schlatt from power so that he could become President instead; and occasionally acted as a devoted YesMan; but ultimately, the situation was complicated by Schlatt's mistreatment of him regardless of his allegiance at the time[[/note]] but eventually stood up for himself and left to join Pogtopia anyway. [[spoiler:By the Manburg-Pogtopia War, out of Schlatt's four main cabinet members, three of them were fighting on Pogtopia's behalf, and George didn't even show up to the final battle.]]
%%* The Website/BabylonBee video [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmJ0HDbZi5M FBI Busts FBI Plot]].

* A common gag in ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' versions of RedRidingHood; the wolf character dresses up as grandma to take her place in bed and wait for Red, only to find the bed ''already'' full of other wolves!

* The Dutch comedy show ''Series/{{Koefnoen}}'' mocked the reality tv "road abuse"-type shows in the sketch "Blik op de Wegmisbruikers", by showing the crews of two competing shows tailing and attempting to arrest each other.

* The Dutch comedy show ''Koefnoen'' mocked the reality tv "road abuse"-type shows in the sketch "Blik op de Wegmisbruikers", by showing the crews of two competing shows tailing and attempting to arrest each other.