History Main / HiddenInPlainSight

Sister trope of RightUnderTheirNoses, when people sneak past someone by doing this.

Not to be confused with RightUnderTheirNoses, when people sneak past someone by doing this.

Can overlap with ItWasWithYouAllAlong, TakenForGranite.

{{Sub Trope}}s include NeedleInAStackOfNeedles, WaxMuseumMorgue, ShaggySearchTechnique.

{{Sub Trope}}s include NeedleInAStackOfNeedles, WaxMuseumMorgue. See also ShaggySearchTechnique.

Compare WeirdnessCensor (bizarre things are not noticed because they are so outlandish that our minds block them out in the interest of sanity), ContrivedProximity, RefugeInAudacity, DevilInPlainSight (when a conspicuous villain does this). For robots in disguise, see TransformingMecha.

{{Sub Trope}}s include NeedleInAStackOfNeedles, WaxMuseumMorgue.

Compare WeirdnessCensor (bizarre things are not noticed because they are so outlandish that our minds block them out in the interest of sanity), ContrivedProximity, RefugeInAudacity, DevilInPlainSight (when a conspicuous villain does this), TransformingMecha. See also ShaggySearchTechnique.

Compare WeirdnessCensor (bizarre things are not noticed because they are so outlandish that our minds block them out in the interest of sanity), ContrivedProximity, RefugeInAudacity, DevilInPlainSight (when a conspicuous villain does this), TransformingMecha.

** Just to show how badass he is [[spoiler: Vetinari actually figures it out much earlier, he would cut the candles down light them for a few minutes and hide the cut off part. He faked the illness afterward]]. Bonus points for hiding the murderer in plain sight as well even, [[spoiler: BilingualBonus the fish shaped lamp on the candle maker's crest Lampe de Poisson, poison lamp]]

* Melisande's plan to escape into LaSerimissa in [[KushielsLegacy Kushiel's Chosen]] relied on this trope. Her looks were too striking that any body looking for her would have an easy time spotting her. She decided to walk out in the open as [[spoiler: Prince Benidicte's]] new D'Angeline wife who wore a veil because of her faith in the goddess Asherat.

* The uncut diamonds that the ex-cons are looking for in ''[[OutOfSight]]'' turn out to be hidden [[spoiler:among the stones at the bottom of a fish tank]].

* In ''[[PansLabyrinth Pan's Labyrinth]]'' the first scene where the Faun appears, he's standing face towards the wall in the bottom of a cavernous well, but remains unseen to the protagonist and all but the most attentive viewers until he starts to move, due to his skin, which resembles rotting wood.

* ''[[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075807/ Candleshoe]]'': [[spoiler: The pirate treasure is diguised as a bronze statue of a treasure chest.]]

* EdgarAllanPoe's story ''The Purloined Letter'' is probably the UrExample. A blackmailer's home was searched for an incriminating letter. Even though they searched under every rug, in every drawer, for loose paperwork in every book, and even for hollow hidden compartments in the furniture, the searchers never found it because they didn't bother to consider and look closely at the letter framed and hung in a prominent place on the wall. An alternate solution, [[FridgeLogic often suggested by readers]] or misremembered as the one used, was to stick it in a filing cabinet full of [[NeedleInAStackOfNeedles other letters]].

* ImprovEverywhere [[http://improveverywhere.com/2006/04/23/best-buy/ had a skit]] where they sent 80 people into Best Buy wearing the Best Buy uniform. To film the event, they inserted their own memory cards into the store's demo cameras and started recording. Additionally, one of the few photographers to not get caught was the one [[FailedASpotCheck literally holding her camera in her hands.]]

--> '''Kelso''': ''['Coming to', apparently surprised]'': ... [[BlatantLie Perry, hi, how are you?]]

* EdgarAllanPoe's story ''The Purloined Letter'' is probably the UrExample. A blackmailer, knowing his home will be searched, disguises the incriminating letter as a mundane one and hangs it from the mantlepiece. An alternate solution, [[FridgeLogic often suggested by readers]] or misremembered as the one used, was to stick it in a filing cabinet full of [[NeedleInAStackOfNeedles other letters]].

* From the Bullseye's greatest hits miniseries. Bullseye tells the FBI agents interrogating him that he has hidden the plutonium he stole in a local park under a big X. Of course, they assume he's being uncooperative. Once he kills them and escapes, Bullseye goes to meet his contacts:

* '{{Transformers}}'' is all about this. Most of them have altforms that are indistinguishable from the Earth equivalents, but no one seems to have told them that you don't normally get [[FridgeLogic such a diverse selection of vehicles in any one place]].

Can overlap with ItWasWithYouAllAlong. NeedleInAStackOfNeedles is a subtrope.

A common fate for victims of TakenForGranite; WaxMuseumMorgue is a specific subtrope of this.

Related to WeirdnessCensor, in which bizarre things are not noticed because they are so outlandish that our minds block them out in the interest of sanity.

Also related to ContrivedProximity. Compare RefugeInAudacity.

See DevilInPlainSight for when a conspicuous villain does this.

* The trope name is quoted verbatim by Optimus Prime in the 2007 ''{{Transformers}}'' [[TheMovie movie]]. Most of them have altforms that are indistinguishable from the Earth equivalents, but no one seems to have told them that you don't normally get [[FridgeLogic such a diverse selection of vehicles in any one place]].
** This bit of fridge logic is lampshaded in the IDW comic series, when Optimus some of his Autobots engage a squad of Decepticons in a pseudo-Russian landscape.

* The hiding place for the Fear has been playing throughout the entire series. The protagonists were practically staring ''right'' at the {{MacGuffin}}'s hiding place on several occasions.

* In ''TheSimpsons'' episode ''Lisa the Iconoclast'', Lisa attempts to prove Jebediah Springfield, the beloved town founder, is actually a murderous pirate named Hans Sprungfeld. Her only solid evidence is that both Hans and Jebediah (supposedly) had silver tongues. After she gets the town to dig up Jebediah's grave, they find no silver tongue. She learns later the curator of the Jebediah Springfield Museum swapped the tongue out of the skeleton's skull before anyone noticed it, and hid it as a cowboy in one of the display cases of his museum. The 'plain sight' aspect is slightly questionable, since no one (except Lisa) ever visits the museum.