History Main / MysteriousInformant

* ''Series/{{Castle}}'' had a secret informant for the conspiracy involving Beckett's mother's murder. Instead of helping solve the case, however, his job was to tell Castle when to tell Beckett to ''back off'' an investigation, so the murder wouldn't come after her too. He was [[spoiler: apparently killed]] and had his identity revealed, but showed up for one last meeting in the same mysterious manner even though he was addressed by name.

* In ''Crock'', the Foreign Legion would go to [[Film/TheMalteseFalcon1931 "The Fat Man"]] for information on whether their fort was in danger. The Fat Man would then insist on being called "full-figured" or agree that the fort was in danger...from termites, and try to sell them an insurance plan.

[[folder:Fan Fic]]

* 'Film/PromWars'': Someone calling herself Linda Lovelace from the girls' school repeatedly calls the Selby kids to tip them off about upcoming competition twists or Lancaster cheating. The tipster turns out to be Jen L., the member of the GirlPosse running the completion who (besides Diana)
most hates the Lancaster students and wants to see them lose.

* In ''FanFic/MegaManReawakened'', Robert hears from one in Arc 5, chapter 6. It's Darian Darhk.
* In ''FanFic/ChrysalisVisitsTheHague'', this role is filled by Golden Dirk, a mysterious Royal Guard sergeant with direct access to the Royal Canterlot Archives. There's even a ShoutOut to [[Film/AllThePresidentsMen Deep Throat]].

* In ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}'', Izaya might not be nice or helping the good guys too often, but he is mostly definitely an informant.
* At LightNovel/DenpaTekiNaKanojo, KidDetective Juu gets a phone call with only a word with a distorted voice saying ''park'', the place where the SerialKiller would strike next. Subverted because the informant is really [[spoiler: TheManBehindTheMan trying to get Juu LuredIntoATrap.]]

* In the Literature/{{Discworld}} novel ''Literature/TheTruth'', there is a mysterious informant known only to William De Worde as Deep Bone, who provides him some key information about the alleged attempted murder at the palace.

* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'':
** Used in both the first installment and ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2''. The mysterious informants both dub themselves "Deep Throat", although the second then says to call him Mr. X (''Series/TheXFiles'') because Raiden, in FanGirl mode, made comparisons to the Shadow Moses "Deep Throat".
** Then subverted in the fourth game, where Snake guesses who the mysterious informant is about three sentences into the conversation:
--->'''Snake:''' Is this...[[spoiler:Jack]]?

A type of {{messenger}}, the mysterious informant exists to feed information to the good guys, often just enough to keep them on track to expose TheConspiracy. The information is usually fragmentary and/or in cryptic SpySpeak. They tend to meet the main character in secluded areas like {{parking garage}}s or shadowy alleys, be impossible to find unless they want to be found, always wear a ConspicuousTrenchcoat, and are usually masters of the StealthHiBye, to prevent heroes from pursuing them. He also insists that IWasNeverHere.

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[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/TheXFilesGame https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mysterious_informant.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:"The most important thing is that you cannot tell anyone that I was here or that we spoke."]]

->'''Agent Smoulder:''' Sore Throat, my mysterious informant. Why are you always meeting me in the parking garage?
->'''Sore Throat:''' I parked my station wagon here in '89 and can't remember where I left it.