History Main / GrandTheftMe

** Their Goddess appears to be making a habit of this. Concerned about her inability to maintain control over Agatha, she planned to hijack [[spoiler: Zola]]'s body instead. The twist this time: [[spoiler: Zola's perfectly willing to share.]]

* In one of LarryNiven's ''[[KnownSpace Gil the Arm]]'' stories, a notorious gangster and organlegger kidnapped a rich family. Both parents were killed; the ordeal left one of the children mute and the other traumatized and never really back to his old self. It turned out that the latter was actually the organlegger's brain transplanted into the kidnap victim's body.

* ''TheHauntingHourTheSeries'': The Ending of "The Dead Body".

* In ''[[VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic Star Wars: The Old Republic]]'' [[spoiler:Darth Zash tried to pull that on her apprentice, the protagonist of the Inquisitor story line. She has been living under a Force illusion for quite a while; in reality, her body is desiccated and almost dead-like. When Force techniques that preserve a dying body we no longer enough, she decided to perform an ancient ritual and transfer her consciousness into another person, extinguishing the host mind in the process. Being the sly Sith she is, she makes the protagonist prepare everything for the ritual without revealing its true purpose until the very end. It backfires hilariously.]]

* In ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'', a [[BossBattle boss]] named Doopliss transforms into a shadow version of Mario. [[spoiler:After the battle is over, the player learns that Doopliss actually swapped bodies with Mario. What follows is a bizarre confrontation, where Mario (in the shadow body) and one of his enemies must fight Doopliss (in Mario's body) and all the [[PartyInMyPocket party members]] Mario has acquired by that point in the game.]] Bonus points because, unlike most examples of this, [[spoiler:Doopliss stole Mario's NAME as well as his body; While as a shadow, Mario's voice is muted if he tries to say his name (as shown when Vivian says she can't hear him)]].

** ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsDreamDropDistance'' takes this UpToEleven: [[spoiler:Xehanort's ultimate plan is revealed to be posessing ''13'' people with his darkness. He's got Xigbar and Saix. ("Me? I'm already half-Xehanort," and possibly a few time-traveling versions of himself. With Riku now "immune" to darkness after that first attempt, he tries to turn Sora, of all people, into the 13th.]] At this point, he's starting to look more like TheVirus...

* In ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'', a [[BossBattle boss]] named Doopliss transforms into a shadow version of Mario. [[spoiler:After the battle is over, the player learns that Doopliss actually swapped bodies with Mario. What follows is a bizarre confrontation, where Mario (in the shadow body) and one of his enemies must fight Doopliss (in Mario's body) and all the [[PartyInMyPocket party members]] Mario has acquired by that point in the game.]]

* [[spoiler:The Colorless King]] from Anime/{{KProject}} has done this - [[BodySurf To multiple people]], including and not limited to [[spoiler:The protagonist himself]]

* In the horror game ''[[VideoGame/TheWitchsHouse The Witch's House]]'', it turns out that [[spoiler:Ellen, the title witch, has pulled this on your character Viola via some evil demonic magic. And the freaky legless thing that chases you down near the end? That's Viola in Ellen's old body, which Ellen did horrible things to so she wouldn't be able to switch back]].

* In the horror game ''VideoGame/TheWitchsHouse'', it turns out that [[spoiler:Ellen, the title witch, has pulled this on your character Viola via some evil demonic magic. And the freaky legless thing that chases you down near the end? That's Viola in Ellen's old body, which Ellen did horrible things to so she wouldn't be able to switch back]].

* [[spoiler:The Colorless King]] from Manga/KProject has done this - [[BodySurf To multiple people]], including and not limited to [[spoiler:The protagonist himself]]

* [[spoiler:The Colorless King]] from Anime/KProject has done this - [[BodySurfer To multiple people]], including and not limited to [[spoiler:The protagonist himself]]

!!Examples

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* In an episode of ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'', Mozenrath tries to swap bodies with Aladdin since he (Mozenrath) is dying, but due to interference, both are stuck in Aladdin's body.

* in the SyFy original movie, {{Soulkeeper}}, an entire cult is made up of formerly damned souls now inhabiting the bodies of the living in order to experience earthly pleasures. Eventually one of the main characters is threatened with having his body stolen by the demonic leader, Simon Magus, who shoots himself in the head in order to die and allow his soul to possess another.
* Also the central plot of MST3k episode ''TheBrainThatWouldntDie'', although there involves a woman's head (aka "Jan-in-the-Pan") being transplanted onto a new body. Given an unpleasant sexist spin by Jan-in-the-Pan's new body being selected by her husband, using predictable criteria.

* In the 8th season finale of ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'', when Klaus is given the chance to get his human body back Stan hesistates and when he takes him to the CIA a week later they find his body decayed because it wasn't kept frozen. Klaus angrily bludgeons Stan with a margarita pitcher and switches bodies with him while he's knocked out.

--> ... before taking over a plauge victim ...

** Happens ''again'' in the first episode of season 2 of the new ''Series/DoctorWho'', where Cassandra transfers takes control of Rose's body to replace her old dying, immobile body.
--> '''Cassandra:''' Oh my ''god'', I'm a ''chav!''

* In Alastair Reynold's ''RevelationSpace'', [[spoiler:The captain]] has done this to [[spoiler:Sajaki]] some time prior to the events in the book, requesting that the alien Pattern Jugglers overwrite his victim's mind with his own. A fanatical cult in the novella ''Turquoise Days'' hopes to use the same technique to sacrifice themselves voluntarily to allow their leader's personality to replace their own.

* In ''TheDresdenFiles'' the necromancer Capiorcorpus, which Harry translated as the Corpse Taker, specializes in doing this. As far as we know only living people despise the name. The literal Latin translation of "corpus" is "body," so the name makes perfect sense. Unfortunately, Harry learned Latin via a correspondence course.
** In ''Ghost Story'' [[spoiler: Capiocorpus' ghost tries to get the power to manifest in the real world. She could then use her abilities to take whatever body she wanted, effectively coming back to life. Harry speculates this is the same method her mentor Kemmler used to return to life six times.]]