History Main / GasMaskMooks

* In ''VideoGame/LethalEnforcers'', the terrorists in the chemical plant wear NBC/hazmat equipment, complete with gas masks.

* ''Film/PainkillerJane'': A group of men in Hazmat suits gun down Jane and her team in the opener. The gas masks are justified since they were exposed to a biochemical weapon.

* ''Film/Batman1989'' has a futuristic example in the Wayne Manor armory. Disconcertingly, it's just ''there'', practically begging for some kind of backstory. Did Bruce make it as an art project of some kind? Is it a Wayne Industries prototype? Did it come from a horrifying, still-recent chemical war? We don't never know.

In situations (especially video games) where the majority of Mooks are ''not'' FacelessGoons, gas masks are often the mark of EliteMooks. Despite the prevalence of gas masks amongst the enemy forces, it never seems to occur to them to use chemical weapons against the heroes. This is even though 1) being evil, they presumably have no qualms against doing so ''and'' 2) the heroes typically are wearing nothing except civilian clothes and a smile. [[{{Stripperiffic}} If they're lucky]].

* ''Literature/EscapeFromFurnace'': The guards of Furnace Penitentiary, the black suits, have gas masks sewn onto their faces. Its apparently because they look freakishly ugly underneath. The Wheezers from the same series also wear gas masks, but they wear them because they're getting nectar constantly pumped into their bodies.

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'': Zig-zagged somewhat, in that many different groups (not just the "bad guys") will use gas masks or [[PoweredArmor Power Armor]] with gas-mask-like helmets. Also, many who use Power Armor are actually among the most highly trained soldiers around, making their "mook" status debatable. Usually these masks or helmets will provide very helpful radiation resistance.

* ''VideoGame/{{Bug}}'': An enemy in [[BubblegloopSwamp Splot]] wears a gas mask. Justified, as its main method of attack is to turn around and ''[[{{Fartillery}} fart in Bug's face]]''!

* ''WebOriginal/AbandonedByDisney'': From ''Room Zero'' comes the InUniverse UrbanLegend of the Gascots, guests spotted at various Disney parks wearing gas masks shaped like Disney character heads who always seem to be able to disappear into the crowd at will. While the story is, of course, completely fictional, [[https://gasmaskandrespirator.fandom.com/wiki/Disney_Mickey_Mouse_Gas_Mask the gas masks are absolutely real.]]

* Introduced in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2'', Snifits are best known for using their masks to spit projectiles. It wasn't until ''VideoGame/PaperMarioStickerStar'', more than two decades later, that their masks were used for toxic purposes.

[[caption-width-right:220:[[JaywalkingWillRuinYourLife Pick up that can]].]]

** Used weirdly during the chuunin exam: Team 7 + Kabuto run into some ninjas from another village, but there are only three of them; they're wearing ''cloth'' masks separate from their gas masks which only cover their mouths, and they can be easily told apart. They all make a reappearance in a {{filler}} episode where they use their masks for breathing underwater, and we actually see one without his mask. It later turns out that Hanzo, their village leader ([[spoiler:until Pain takes over]]), wears one as well. Even later, we find out [[spoiler:it's not just to let him breathe underwater; it also prevents others from being affected by [[PoisonousPerson his poison breath]] and he himself from being temporarily paralyzed by the poison released if the transplanted organ he implanted in his abdomen which make it is ruptured.]]

* ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum'': Scarecrow wears a particularly nightmarish [[https://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/arkhamcity/images/e/e0/BAA_Scarecrow1_cutout_by_Crank.png/revision/latest?cb=20150318034601 version]]. Justified, since he sprays around his terrifying gas frequently.

** The Combine Overwatch soldiers and Civil Protection officers in ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'', as demonstrated above. Apparently, an early version of the script had City 17's air unbreathable, so that everyone wore gas masks. This was dropped, but the Combine gas masks weren't. It should also be pointed out that Overwatch soldiers required the mask to include their vocoder, due to their vocal cords being ripped out ([[spoiler:visible when you see the topless Overwatch model in Nova Prospekt]]), and Civil Protection officers would need them for anonymity, due to being rather brutal to citizens. The Gas Masks actually work against them at times. Using the "'bug bait" on a normal person gets no reaction, but using it on a Civil Protection Officer or an Overwatch Soldier causes them to flail about, apparently choking. That might just be because they're FriendlyFireProof.

** The XOF troops in the beginning ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain'' are wearing gas masks with large oxygen tanks on their backs because they're storming a burning building. In the same game [[ChildSoldiers Tretij Rebenok]] [[spoiler: a.k.a. Psycho Mantis]] wears a gas mask with a prominent filter at the front. Finally, the various {{Mooks}} that populate the areas of operation in Afghanistan and Central Africa will start wearing gas masks if you make it a habit of using sleeping gas on them.

* [[PlagueDoctor The mourners]] in ''Videogame/RuneScape''. Unlike some examples there's an actual plot point for the masks, [[spoiler: It hides the fact that they're elves with PointyEars.]] The player at one point is able to [[DressingAsTheEnemy infiltrate]] their ranks and base because [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome they can't tell you're an impostor]].

[[caption-width-right:220:[[CantGetAwayWithNuthin Pick up]] [[JaywalkingWillRuinYourLife that]] [[MemeticMutation can]].]]

* Black Hole infantry in ''VideoGame/AdvanceWars'' come close, wearing space helmets for no real purpose other than to make them look more alien. In fact, they ''are'' aliens! It's stated outright in the second game that they've arrived from space.
** The Xylvanian rifle grunts of sister series ''VideoGame/BattalionWars'' wear full gas masks, both because Xylvania is dangerously polluted and because their military is big on chemical warfare -- the Xylvanian equivalents to Flame Vets are ''Acid Gas'' Vets.

* ''VideoGame/{{Alundra 2}}'''s BigBad's MechaMooks wear gas masks.

** The Crimson Lance soldiers appear to be wearing gas masks. It's more visible (and numerous) in the Secret Armory of General Knoxx {{DLC}}.

* ''VideoGame/{{Bug}}!'': An enemy in [[BubblegloopSwamp Splot]] wears a gas mask. Justified, as its main method of attack is to turn around and ''[[{{Fartillery}} fart in Bug's face]]''!

** A number of the Ultranationalists in ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty 4: VideoGame/ModernWarfare'' wear gas masks, apparently just because they're cool. Some of the SAS troopers also wear them, but only for the sort of room-clearing missions where real life SAS doctrine does indeed call for gas masks for everyone, not because of gas but because their [[http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd287/lordtylerjp/AtlasSAS.jpg SF10 masks]] have tinted visors to help against flashbangs.
** A few of the Russian Federation paratroopers in ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare2'' also wear gas masks, with no more in-story justification for them than they had in the first game.
** ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare3'' continues the trend, though with some in-universe justification this time. While Makarov's Inner Circle commandos are often seen wearing gas masks for seemingly no reason, the mooks in the Russian military are only seen wearing them in the wake of massive chemical attacks which devastated every capital city in Europe. Thus, both they and you and your allies all wear masks to avoid contamination.
* In 1997 First-Person Shooter ''VideoGame/ChasmTheRift'' (first game devepoped by Action Forms, creators of ''{{VideoGame/Cryostasis}}'') all human enemy soldiers wear gas masks.

** Appears a lot in the ''Tiberium Series'', as the titular Tiberium is extremely toxic to organic beings.
** All Nod soldiers in ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRenegade'', except for plot-important {{NPC}}s. May be more justified, there since Nod likes to toy around with [[KillItWithFire Napalm]] and [[GreenRocks Tiberium]]. Not that the superiors seem to care much about safety... (this was most likely due to limitations in the game as seeing the same face on every soldier you killed would get boring, and also to try and skirt around censorship in Germany, much like the original C&C renaming civilians "farmbots" for the German release).

* In ''VideoGame/DestroyAllHumans 2'', some of the Soviet troops in Tunguska play this trope straight by wearing gas masks, while others do not. Gas mask or not, the soldiers are heartless, yet expendable mooks at the end of the day. Potentially justified in how [[spoiler:Tunguska is home to some dangerous radioactive and alien gases, some of which can cause mutation in alien mooks.]]
* ''VideoGame/DemolishFist'' have mooks clad in black armour and face-concealing masks in the park level as well as the crashed plane area. Said levels have enemies which are all mutants, and the game leaves it ambiguous whether the gasmask-wearing enemies are humans or actually mutants as well.
* In ''VideoGame/DeusEx'', some of the soldiers seem to incorporate light gas masks into their mouthpiece headgear. Oddly, these don't seem to provide any actual protection against tear gas grenades, or even against ''pepper spray''. That might be because tear gas and pepper spray are eye irritants -- since there's a global pandemic going on, it's probably not for protection against chemicals at all.
** ''VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution'' also has mooks with gas mask... that fail to protect them from gas grenades.
* City Watch soldiers in ''VideoGame/{{Dishonored}}'' wear surgical masks over their faces and the Whalers wear full-on gas masks. Justified due to the high presence of plague in the city and hazardous fumes at work.

* Later in the first episode of ''VideoGame/{{DUSK}}'', the game introduces possessed soldiers in military-garb and gasmasks, who become the main {{Mook}} you'll encounter when the game deters away from the HillbillyHorrors of the first third.

-->"My eye holes are fogging up!"

** Likewise, in ''VideoGame/MedalOfHonorAirborne'', the Mini-Boss-like Panzergrenadiers (guys with rocket launchers) and Nazi Storm Elites (guys with heavy body armor wielding [=MG42=] machine gun turrets as portable weapons!). The former is justified in that they wear the masks to protect themselves from their launchers' backblast and flash, but the latter wear gas masks for no apparent reason other than to signal that they're supposed to be badass.

* ''VideoGame/MetalGear''

* The Pig Mask Army in ''VideoGame/{{Mother 3}}'' is exactly this. The masks are just meant to make them look more pig-like.

* In the Hunter multiplayer mode of ''VideoGame/SplinterCell: Conviction'', the last part of each stage has these. In the Washington Monument stage, a GasLeakCoverup is used to evacuate the fairgrounds, and the [[PrivateMilitaryContractors Black Arrow]] troops sent in to get Sam are outfitted appropriately to the excuse.

** Same goes for the Drache Troopers in ''VideoGame/{{Wolfenstein|2009}}'', though, in their case, it could at least be argued that they need them to filter out the smoke produced by their flamethrowers (especially since they have a tendency to use them in confined spaces). The Veil Assassins and Heavy Troopers have no such excuse, though; rather, they wear gas masks because they are [[BodyHorror not]] [[StupidJetpackHitler exactly]] [[{{Ghostapo}} human]] [[SuperSoldier anymore]].

[[folder:Visual Novel]]

[[caption-width-right:220:[[CantGetAwayWithNuthin Pick up]] [[JaywalkingWillRuinYourLife that]] [[MemeticMutation can.]]]]

* ''Anime/BubblegumCrisis'': A rare good guy example is the S.W.A.T.-like troopers of the Armored Division Police who wear gas masks when going into combat, even though they mostly fight cybernetic killer machines which never actually use gas as a weapon. It's possible that they only wear those masks in order to prevent the viewer from becoming too attached to the {{Red Shirt}}s. There is a certain scene in the first movie hinting why they wear them every time. A short view from the perspective of one trooper shows them having H.U.D.s in the goggles. So they might be a cheap way of ensuring gas protection, combat information, and radio communication.\\\
Also note that they are normally not meant to fight military-grade boomers; Dialy in the first episode even suggests letting the military handle the boomers. The ADP is normally meant to fight terrorists or criminals using high tech or civilian-type boomers which went rogue. In the former case, gas attacks might happen and smoke grenades might be used by the police itself. Also, since they have riot shields in their arsenal, they might also be used as riot control, in which tear gas might be used by the police.
* The ordinary soldiers of the Britannian army in ''Anime/CodeGeass'' wear gas masks as part of their uniform. They don't get attention in the series often, in battles that are mostly decided with [[HumongousMecha Knightmares]], but for some reason, their opaque masks never gain significance even though they could block the protagonist's [[MindManipulation mind control]] powers.