History Main / HolographicDisguise

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[[caption-width-right:350:Here's a holographic entity impersonating another holographic entity.]]

May involve HardLight, often subject to GlamourFailure.

See also LieToTheBeholder.

* Scooter from ''WesternAnimation/ChallengeOfTheGobots'' is capable of using his hologram projector to disguise himself, at one point playing a trick on the Renegade Crasher by making himself look like Cop-Tur.

* In one episode of ''Series/StargateSG1'', an unnamed and markedly non-human alien race uses holographic projectors to impersonate SGC personnel. Later, a human assassin steals one of the salvaged projectors and uses it to frame Jack for murder.

* In ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaStrikerS'', Teana Lanster uses the Fake Silhouette spell to create multiple holographic copies of herself moving in different directions to hide her own movement. Since the copies are not perfect, she also distorts her own appearance to look like one of them.

* ComicBook/{{Deadpool}} uses this to hide his scarred and tumor-infected face from the public.

* ComicBook/{{Nightcrawler}} of the ''ComicBook/XMen'' has one to make him look human instead of demonic. Beast occasionally uses one as well, but mostly he ''likes'' the attention a bright blue furry humanoid gets.
* In ''ComicBook/PaperinikNewAdventures'' there's the A.I. called Two, who himself is a ProjectedMan. Being able to choose his own appearance, he has on more than one occasion done impersonations in order to deceive others. One of those times he pretended to be his own artificial holographic twin.

* In ''ComicBook/ThePrivateEye'' P.I.'s latest client enters wearing a "7000 dollar hologram job" in the form of a massive collar that gives her a holographic head of a tiger
* Subverted in ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'' storyline ''ComicBook/TheSuperRevengeOfLexLuthor''. ComicBook/LexLuthor creates a device which projects a holographic disguise, but he uses it on Superman instead of himself to make people believe his nemesis -whom he is gaslighting- has become a monster.
* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'': After establishing the resistance group's experiments with captured holographic projectors Franchise/WonderWoman uses one to disguise herself as the Emperor's advisor A'iir who was captured by Diana's revolutionary group.

* ''Fanfic/WithStringsAttached'': Paul's magical clothing illusion. At first, it was pretty fake-looking, but with practice, he got much better at making it seem reasonably normal. Even so, most people realize he's wearing an illusion. Which is not a problem, since he's only wearing it so he doesn't appear naked all the time. He also gets use out of the illusion as an InvisibilityCloak.
* In ''Fanfic/TheKeysStandAlone: The Soft World'', Ringo wears a holoprojector in the Tipaan arc because he has to disguise himself as a G'heddi'onian, so he needs to lighten his skin and give himself a more appropriate face. (He also wears a voice changer.) Later in the same arc, Paul and John briefly wear cloaks that make them look like Svenjaya so they can travel into the Svenjaya tunnels without being stopped. It's explicitly noted that the cloaks make them look like existing Svenjaya who are laid up—the community is small enough to notice strangers among them—and their guide has to quickly explain to another tribesmember why a sick individual is suddenly walking around.

[[folder:Films — Animated]]
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}'' uses a wristwatch-like device to create holographic disguises. It even allows him to become someone much shorter than his real self (Space Dad).
* Mater gets a set of holographic disguises in ''WesternAnimation/{{Cars 2}}''. Making an effective one is more complicated than originally thought because Mater's bumps and dents sometimes poke through the hologram.

[[folder:Films — Live-Action]]

* In ''Film/SpiderManFarFromHome'' [[spoiler: it appears that Quentin Beck rarely wears the full Mysterio costume; his "heroics" are done by a hologram he controls, and when he needs to interact with people he just steps inside the hologram.]]

* In the ''Literature/{{Xanth}}'' series, Sorceress Iris does this in the first book to make herself appear young and attractive since her magical talent is Illusion.

* In ''Literature/ThePrideOfParahumans'' a bloodhound bounty hunter tries to lure Argentum in using a hologram to look like a hot boy fox. It doesn't disguise his scent though.

* In ''Literature/TheEmpressGame'', Kayla and Isonde each have one of each other so that they can change places when it's time for Kayla to impersonate Isonde in fights. It takes a little work to get them right.
* In Creator/MCAHogarth's ''Literature/ParadoxUniverse'' the Alliance has two versions. The "domino" is just a hologram and popular at parties, while "roquelaures" are exclusive to Fleet Intelligence and use a [[HardLight solidigraph]] that can be touched and alters the user's apparent mass and voice.
* The ''Literature/DrakeMaijstral'' series by Walter Jon Williams has a couple of examples:
** The darksuit used by allowed burglars when on the job is described as projecting a holographic "cloud of darkness". Very effective at night; not so much during the day.
** In ''Literature/TheCrownJewels'', the "Ronnie Romper" suits worn by Amalia Jensen's kidnappers are holographic. They make the two appear to be the same height, even though they're not, and move with their bodies, but don't allow for facial expressions--the fixed smile is mentioned as creeping people out.
* The alien guests at Benny Summerfield's wedding in the ''Literature/DoctorWhoNewAdventures'' novel ''Happy Endings'' have these to avoid freaking out the good people of early 21st century Earth. This leads to complications as the four-foot-high alien gerbil disguised as a normal-height human woman has to try and explain that the extremely small bridesmaid dress is actually fine, thanks.

* One such device was used in the pilot episode of ''Series/BabylonFive'' by an alien attempting to assassinate the Vorlon ambassador Kosh and frame Commander Sinclair for it in the process.
* ''Series/CowboyBebop2021''
** In "Dog Star Swing", Spike and Jet are watching CCTV footage of the VillainOfTheWeek when they realize he's SpikingTheCamera to make sure it has a good image of his face. Jet then realizes he's using a Face Changer to alter his appearance--holographic technology used by sex workers to make them more appealing. They go to the RedLightDistrict and activate a jammer so the criminal will return there to get his disguise fixed.

** In "Sad Clown A-Go-Go", Vicious plans to kill the leaders of TheSyndicate by having his fellow capos Mao and Santiago hand him over as a PlayAlongPrisoner, whereupon he will throw off his fake handcuffs and kill the Elders. However they betray Vicious and he's handed over gagged and in shackles. But when Mao cuts off Vicious' head she discovers she's just killed Santiago wearing a Face Changer; Vicious (wearing a Face Changer to make himself appear to be Santiago) knew they would betray them, overpowered Santiago and swapped places, binding and gagging Santiago [[AndIMustScream so he wouldn't give the game away]].
* ''Series/DoctorWho''
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime "The End of Time"]]: The [[RubberForeheadAliens Vinvocci]] use a device known as a "shimmer" to disguise themselves as normal humans.
** [[Recap/DoctorWho2013CSTheTimeOfTheDoctor "The Time of the Doctor"]]: The Doctor and Clara wear PerceptionFilter clothing so they can be naked as required by the Papal Mainframe without Clara getting embarrassed. It fails to achieve this, especially since only the two of them can see the clothes...
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E5TimeHeist "Time Heist"]]: Saibra has a natural ability to mimic faces, bodies, and voices, but has a hologram generator to make sure her clothing looks like that of the original.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS38E4NikolaTeslasNightOfTerror "Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror"]]: The Skithra agents use these to appear human, looking like various people they've killed. It does not disguise their {{red eyes|TakeWarning}}.
* ''Series/TheFlash2014'': In the third season, we are introduced to technology from Earth-19 that allows HR Wells to disguise himself so he can go out in public (since he looks just like the man who killed Barry's mother); he also makes it so that the team (and the viewers) can still recognise him. The disguises get used again later in the season, most notably when [[spoiler: the BadFuture where Iris is killed by the season's BigBad is prevented by HR [[HeroicSacrifice switching places with her]] and disguising themselves as each other]].
* ''Series/{{Heroes}}'': Candice from season 1 and early season 2 has the ability to cast illusions which make her appear different to people. In practice, it's the same basic ability as ShapeShifting, but it's explicitly not that.
* In episode 6 of ''Series/TheOrville'', Captain Mercer and Lt. Malloy use holographic technology to disguise themselves as Krill in order to infiltrate a Krill warship. The devices are provided to them by Isaac, a member of the technologically-advanced robotic Kaylon race. The holograms appear to be more than just visual, as when Mercer and Malloy get stuck in a doorway, you can hear the sound of two leather outfits rubbing against one another, implying either some kind of HardLight or an auditory simulator.

* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'' episode "Skin Deep". In this episode, they address the need to not move quickly, or else the hologram will flash and give you away.
* In one episode of ''Series/StargateSG1'', an unnamed and markedly non-human alien race used holographic projectors to impersonate SGC personnel. Later a human assassin stole one of the salvaged projectors and used it to frame Jack for murder.
* ''Franchise/StarTrek'' had some episodes where somebody used holographic images to hide their identity when communicating with someone else via screen.
** [[Series/StarTrekVoyager The Doctor]] (no, not [[Series/DoctorWho that doctor]]) is an interesting case--he's already a hologram, so he just has to reconfigure his appearance. He doesn't do so very often, however, as he's rather attached to his default appearance.

* The [[Creator/{{Syfy}} Sci Fi Channel]] movie ''Literature/AnonymousRex'' has dinosaurs posing as human using these.

* ''TabletopGame/MutantFuture''. A robot can have a Holo Screen device that projects a holographic image around it. The image can make the robot look like anything of roughly the same size, such as an outcropping of rock or an animal.
* The ''Disguise self'' spell in ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''
* In the ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}'' adventure "The Yellow Clearance Black Box Blues," one of the R&D gadgets in Mission 2 is the Autoresponse Imager. It creates holographic disguises around the wearer, such as a combot or Teela-O-MLY. When it malfunctions it will create images like Peter Lorre (in black and white) and Wile E. Coyote.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'''s [[SpaceElves Eldar]] use a variant as a form of camouflage. Their "holo-fields" don't bother to maintain a disguise over their bearers, but instead scatter light so that an Eldar [[HoverTank grav-tank]] or [[MonsterClown Harlequin]] appears as a fast-moving swirl of colors that baffles enemy targeting systems, to say nothing of the naked eye.
* In ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}} Ultra-Tech'', the [=TL10=]/superscience holobelt projects an image that allows a person to disguise themselves as a tree or a large rock, or anything else bigger than they are. At the same tech level is the holo-distort belt, which blurs the wearer's face, as well as spoofing sensors. One tech level up is the clothing belt, which is able to create a hologram that follows the wearer's movements. It can be used to conceal the wearer's identity by programming it to cover the face, but is too low-res to create a "realistic" disguise.

* Used frequently in the Franchise/RatchetAndClank series such as in the first game to get past a robot factory.
* In ''VideoGame/SecretAgentClank'', Clank can scan an enemy and produce a holographic disguise which will fool enemies other than the exact individual in question.
* ''VideoGame/TheJourneymanProject 3'': The Chameleon suit, time machine, and holographic disguise. The game prevents you from interacting with people while wearing their disguise, except with the pilgrim in TheShangriLa, who simply assumes you're a spirit. [[spoiler:Except the pilgrim actually turns out to be one of the Sosiqui.]]
* In ''VideoGame/StarTrekAwayTeam'', the USS ''Incursion'' is a modified ''Defiant''-class ship that uses an experimental system to sidestep the Treaty of Algeron (the one that prohibits the Federation from developing and using {{Invisibility Cloak}}s) in letter if not in spirit. It works by projecting another ship around the ''Incursion'', while also transmitting the proper transponder signals.
** The technology is stolen by the Romulans in ''VideoGame/StarTrekStarfleetCommand 3'' and used to attack the joint Federation/Klingon ''Unity'' station. It's finally banned after that.
** The ''Incursion'' makes a cameo in ''[[VideoGame/StarTrekArmada Star Trek: Armada 2]]''.
* ''VideoGame/HomeworldCataclysm'' introduces [[SpacePirate Turanic Raider]] gunships with this ability, which the player's faction reverse-engineer and fit to Mimic suicide-ships. It's useful for a few campaign objectives but human opponents in multiplayer are less easily fooled than the AI even without the specific tech to counter it.
* Mofang technology in VideoGame/{{Obduction}} is capable of this along with general holographic projections. [[GlamourFailure As it turns out, though,]] [[spoiler:the projection still retains an all-over red shimmer, and this is even before the disguise-ee has a chance to fail at mimicking voice patterns.]]

* The main characters of ''Webcomic/KilaIlo'' have holographic projecting bracelets to look human, or in Ferris's case like a dog-rabbit.
* The assassin "Mr. Graves" in ''Webcomic/QuantumVibe'' uses holo-masks. When not impersonating a specific person he prefers [[NixonMask Presidents]].
* The aliens from Webcomic/KilaIlo use them to disguise themselves as humans.
* Galatea in ''Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob'' built herself a cute little beret hat that can holographically disguise her as a human. After her most recent space adventure left her stuck under house arrest on an alien planet, her sister Molly has now taken to using it.

* ''WesternAnimation/GetAce'': Ace uses a limited version of this in "Date With Disaster", to cover up a bad case of acne on his big date. The hologram slightly breaks when his mother kisses him and later completely dissipates at the worst possible moment, scaring off his date[[note]]at this point, circumstances have made him look a complete wreck, not just bad acne[[/note]].

* On ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries'', the Chameleon did his shapeshifting through a holographic device on his belt that would let him take pictures of people and then copy those images (his ability to imitate voices seems to be a natural one though).
* Commander Keith used one when infiltrating Wade's secret base in the opening episode of ''WesternAnimation/VoltronForce''.
* Technically this is actually Mirage's full special ability in ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'', though in practice he almost invariably ends up using it to camouflage himself into {{invisibility}}. He did use the disguise ability at least once, in conjunction with Windcharger's MagnetismManipulation, to allow several non-combining Autobots to impersonate [[CombiningMecha Menasor]]. It [[CurbStompBattle didn't hold up for long]] against the real deal, but it did confuse [[BigBad Megatron]] long enough for his new superweapon to blow up in his face.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TransformersRobotsInDisguise2015'' [[spoiler:the Autobot High Council turn out to be Decepticons using Light Benders -- devices that project holographic illusions -- to masquerade as Autobots to manipulate the public.]]
* The protagonist of ''WesternAnimation/{{Phantom 2040}}'' makes extensive use of holographic invisibility.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyTest'' episode "Johnny & The Amazing Turbo Action Backpack", Johnny has Duke wear a holographic disguise as one of Johnny's sisters to go on a date to distract Bling Bling Boy in order to get the backpack back.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/BikerMiceFromMars'' episode "Hit the Road, Jack", Romana Parmesana uses a hologram projector to disguise herself as a human, when the other Plutarkian villains relied on [[LatexPerfection masks]].
* The ''WesternAnimation/{{Sidekick}}'' episode "The Maxum Switch-eroo" features several examples thanks to the Man-Of-A-Thousand-Faces' device: [[GenderBender Trevor becomes Vana]] ([[BookEnds twice]]), Eric disguises himself as Maxum Mom to [[SpottingTheThread catch the Maxum Man imposter]], and Eric, Vana, Kitty, and Mayor Swift all [[CloningBlues turn into Trevor at the end]] after Vana [[NiceJobBreakingItHero destroys the device in a fit of rage]].

* Scooter from ''WesternAnimation/ChallengeOfTheGobots'' is capable of using his hologram projector to disguise himself, at one point playing a trick on the Renegade Crasher by making himself look like Cop-Tur.

* In ''Anime/WolfsRain'', the wolves use psychic illusions to pose as humans.

* Erek King and other Chee androids in ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'', combined with force fields.

* ComicBook/{{Nightcrawler}} of the ''Comicbook/XMen'' has one to make him look human instead of demonic. Beast occasionally uses one as well, but mostly he ''likes'' the attention a bright blue furry humanoid gets.

* Paul's magical clothing illusion falls under this trope in ''Fanfic/WithStringsAttached''. At first, it was pretty fake-looking, but with practice, he got much better at making it seem reasonably normal. Even so, most people realize he's wearing an illusion. Which is not a problem, since he's only wearing it so he doesn't appear naked all the time. He also gets use out of the illusion as an InvisibilityCloak.
* Ringo wears a holoprojector in the Tipaan arc of ''Fanfic/TheKeysStandAlone: The Soft World'' because he has to disguise himself as a G'heddi'onian, so he needs to lighten his skin and give himself a more appropriate face. (He also wears a voice changer.) Later in the same arc, Paul and John briefly wear cloaks that make them look like Svenjaya so they can travel into the Svenjaya tunnels without being stopped. It's explicitly noted that the cloaks make them look like existing Svenjaya who are laid up—the community is small enough to notice strangers among them—and their guide has to quickly explain to another tribesmember why a sick individual is suddenly walking around.

[[folder:Anime/Manga]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}'' uses a wristwatch-like device to create holographic disguises.

* In ''ComicBook/JemAndTheHolograms'', Jem is a hologram disguise over Jerrica Benton with a better reason -- to prevent Jerrica from having super stage fright when in front of other people than her family.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}} Ultra-Tech'', the [=TL10=]/superscience holobelt projects an image that allows a person to disguise themselves as a tree or a large rock, or anything else bigger than they are. One tech level up is the clothing belt, which is able to create a hologram that follows the wearer's movements. It can be used to conceal the wearer's identity by programming it to cover the face (and in one of the vignettes is used to "blur" a princess so she can avoid the paparazzi), but is too low-res to create a "realistic" disguise.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}} Ultra-Tech'', the TL10/superscience holobelt projects an image that allows a person to disguise themselves as a tree or a large rock, or anything else bigger than they are. One tech level up is the clothing belt, which is able to create a hologram that follows the wearer's movements. It can be used to conceal the wearer's identity by programming it to cover the face (and in one of the vignettes is used to "blur" a princess so she can avoid the paparazzi), but is too low-res to create a "realistic" disguise.

* ''ComicBook/{{Horizon}}'': The protagonists (Coza, Zhia, Marisol, and Finn) all have clothes that project a holographic disguise over themselves, allowing them to pass off as humans.

* ComicBook/{{Nightcrawler}} of the ''Comicbook/XMen'' has one to make him look human instead of demonic. Beast occasionally uses one as well, but mostly he ''likes'' the attention a bright blue furry humanoid gets.

* In ''ComicBook/JemAndTheHolograms'', Jem is a hologram disguise over Jerrica Benton with a better reason -- to prevent Jerrica from having super stage fright when in front of other people than her family.
* ''ComicBook/CleopatraInSpace:'' To intimidate intruders, small orphanage owner Anna Mae has one of a large alien creature.

** [[Series/StarTrekVoyager The Doctor]] (no, not [[Series/DoctorWho that doctor]]) is an interesting case--he's already a hologram, so he just has to reconfigure his appearance.

* SelfDemonstrating/{{Deadpool}} uses this to hide his scarred and tumor-infected face from the public.

When a character uses a personal {{Hologram}} projector to disguise themselves. Often with no explanation how they manage to keep it synced with their own body movements, especially if they are bigger or significantly smaller than the disguise.

Also covers instances of magic being used to project illusions, or uses of holograms as a InvisibilityCloak.

* In ''ComicBook/JemAndTheHolograms'', Jem is a hologram disguise over Jerrica Benton with a better reason -- to prevent Jerrica from having super stage fright when in front of other people then her family.

* Paul's magical clothing illusion falls under this trope in ''Fanfic/WithStringsAttached''. At first it was pretty fake-looking, but with practice he got much better at making it seem reasonably normal. Even so, most people realize he's wearing an illusion. Which is not a problem, since he's only wearing it so he doesn't appear naked all the time. He also gets use out of the illusion as an InvisibilityCloak.

* In the ''Literature/{{Xanth}}'' series, Sorceress Iris does this in the first book to make herself appear young and attractive, since her magical talent is Illusion.

* The alien guests at Benny Summerfield's wedding in the ''Literature/DoctorWhoNewAdventures'' novel ''Happy Endings'' have these to avoid freaking out the good people of early 21st century Earth. This leads to complications as the four-foot high alien gerbil disguised as a normal-height human woman has to try and explain that the extremely small bridesmaid dress is actually fine, thanks.

* ''Series/{{Heroes}}'': Candice from season 1 and early season 2 has the ability to cast illusions which make her appear different to people. In practice it's the same basic ability as ShapeShifting, but it's explicitly not that.

* ''VideoGame/TheJourneymanProject 3'': The Chameleon suit, time machine and holographic disguise. The game prevents you from interacting with people while wearing their disguise, except with the pilgrim in TheShangriLa, who simply assumes you're a spirit. [[spoiler:Except the pilgrim actually turns out to be one of the Sosiqui.]]

* The ''WesternAnimation/{{Sidekick}}'' episode "The Maxum Switch-eroo" features several examples thanks to the Man-Of-A-Thousand-Faces' device: [[GenderBender Trevor becomes Vana]] ([[BookEnds twice]]), Eric disguises himself as Maxum Mom to [[SpottingTheThread catch the Maxum Man imposter]], and Eric, Vana, Kitty and Mayor Swift all [[CloningBlues turn into Trevor at the end]] after Vana [[NiceJobBreakingItHero destroys the device in a fit of rage]].

** [[Recap/DoctorWho2013CSTheTimeOfTheDoctor "The Time of the Doctor"]]: The Doctor and Clara wear PerceptionFilter clothing so they can be naked as required by the Papal Mainframe without Clara getting embarrassed. It fails to achieve this, especially since only the two of them can see the clothes..

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* The [[Creator/{{Syfy}} Sci Fi Channel]] movie ''Literature/AnonymousRex'' has dinosaurs posing as human using these.
* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'' episode "Skin Deep". In this episode, they address the need to not move quickly, or else the hologram will flash and give you away.

* ''Franchise/StarTrek'' had some episodes where somebody used holographic images to hide their identity when communicating with someone else via screen.
** [[Series/StarTrekVoyager The Doctor]] (no, not [[Series/DoctorWho that doctor]]) is an interesting case--he's already a hologram, so he just has to reconfigure his appearance.
** In ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'', at least one Section 31 ship is able to disguise itself as an asteroid. This may have been inspired by the game ''VideoGame/StarTrekAwayTeam''.
* ''Series/{{Heroes}}'': Candice from season 1 and early season 2 has the ability to cast illusions which make her appear different to people. In practice it's the same basic ability as ShapeShifting, but it's explicitly not that.
* In one episode of ''Series/StargateSG1'', an unnamed and markedly non-human alien race used holographic projectors to impersonate SGC personnel. Later a human assassin stole one of the salvaged projectors and used it to frame Jack for murder.

** In the episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime The End of Time]]", the Vinvocci use a device known as a "shimmer" to disguise themselves as normal humans.
** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E5TimeHeist Time Heist]]", Saibra has a natural ability to mimic faces, bodies, and voices, but has a hologram generator to make sure her clothing looks like that of the original.
** The Doctor and Clara wear PerceptionFilter clothing in "[[Recap/DoctorWho2013CSTheTimeOfTheDoctor The Time of the Doctor]]", so they can be naked as required by the Papal Mainframe without Clara getting embarrassed. It fails to achieve this, especially since only the two of them can see the clothes..

[[folder:Tabletop RPG]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]