History Main / PublicSecretMessage

Subtrope to DoubleMeaning. Supertrope to TalkingThroughTechnique, CovertDistressCode, CodeEmergency, and TroubleEntendre. Compare/contrast SarcasticConfession, HiddenInPlainSight, OvertRendezvous. May overlap with SpySpeak and CrypticConversation.

* ''Series/{{JAG}}'': In "The Black Jet", Jack Keeter has downed in Iran with secret airplane and is detained by the authorities. When first meeting Harm and Mac, accompanied by an Iranian official in prison, he says “No Martin Baker” several times over. Harm later decodes the message: Martin Baker is the manufacturer of ejection seats, and thus Keeter didn’t eject but landed the plane and was captured elsewhere.

** [[http://www.snopes.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/hillary-fingers.jpg This soldier]] infamously crossed his fingers while shaking hands with Hillary Clinton, which is the signal for "I am doing this under duress"[[note]]Though it should be noted he wasn't being outright ''forced'' to do it, but in his own words, "[he] he employed the gesture to indicate that [he] was not a fan of the senator’s and was not really as appreciative of having the opportunity to meet (and pose with) her as it might otherwise appear"[[/note]].

* ''Manga/CaseClosed'': In the two-part episode "The Secret of the Sun, Moon and Stars", Professor Agasa and Conan Edogawa suggest that the drawings of the sun, moon, and stars found on various objects in the home of Agasa's late uncle were a code much like the Dancing Men (see the Literature/SherlockHolmes examples, below).

** The Machine does the same thing in an earlier episode when Root is the one being held captive, using morse code transmitted at a frequency that Root will hear but her captor will not, because they're older and so their hearing isn't as good.

** There's Thieve's Cant, a language known only to Rogues that utilizes both a mix of obscure (and rather ineffecent) slang and jargon to hide information in seemingly-normal conversation and a system of symbols and signs, used mostly to mark gang territory and dangerous areas.

* A variation is used in ''[[Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy Heir to the Empire]]''. Mara Jade needs to send a message to her boss, Talon Karrde, but there's no way to do so without the message being intercepted by an Imperial Star Destroyer in orbit. Luke Skywalker (who is with her at the time), suggests using a "counterpart encrypt" between his astromech droid (also with them) and his X-wing (in Karrde's possession). The unusual encrypt works; the X-wing's computer decodes the message easily, while everyone else is stumped by it (although the Empire, while unable to ''read'' the message, does at least manage to figure out that the message is ''using'' a counterpart encrypt). While this does leave the Empire suspicious of Karrde, they're not ''that'' suspicious because they know he's a smuggler and his subordinates might have any number of things to say that they'd rather the Empire not know about. The important thing is that it doesn't give them any clue that Karrde was harboring ''Luke Skywalker'', who the Empire desperately wants to capture. Karrde later sends a message back using the same method, via the X-wing.
** There' a different version in the same book; Winter tells Han about Ackbar's 'kids' acting up, and he inquires about the 'neighbors' -- the New Republic [[HangingSeperately politicians]] and the Empire, respectively. Problem is, this wasn't a code that they'd worked out beforehand -- actually, they never worked it out at all. Winter came up with it on the fly because she knew they'd be listened in on, and just hoped Han would be able to work out enough of it to be useful. Han knows Winter means there's been some problems, but not just what they mean. This incident was, bizarrely, a case of RealLifeWritesThePlot. Long before the book was released Creator/TimothyZahn told some trusted friends about it and met them at a convention to discuss it further, only to realize that they were surrounded by scifi geeks who would know what he meant if he started talking about Luke and Leia and Han and Chewie, and then he'd be in trouble. So on the fly he called them Brother, Sister, Friend, and Copilot... and it worked.

* Joked about in ''WebVideo/RockedReviews''. While reviewing {{Music/Metallica}}'s album ''St. Anger'', he theorizes that there must be a hidden message to the album due to its harshness and distinct departure from Metallica's usual sound. The final track on the album (kinda) proves him right when James Hetfield repeatedly shouts the word "KILL" as loud as possible. This scene is accompanied by Luke seeming hypnotized and picking up a box cutter briefly before putting it down.

Subtrope to DoubleMeaning. Supertrope to TalkingThroughTechnique, CovertDistressCode, and TroubleEntendre. Compare/contrast SarcasticConfession, HiddenInPlainSight, OvertRendezvous. May overlap with SpySpeak and CrypticConversation.

Subtrope to DoubleMeaning. Supertrope to TalkingThroughTechnique and CovertDistressCode. Compare/contrast SarcasticConfession, HiddenInPlainSight, OvertRendezvous. May overlap with SpySpeak and CrypticConversation.

Subtrope to DoubleMeaning. Supertrope to TalkingThroughTechnique. Compare/contrast SarcasticConfession, HiddenInPlainSight, OvertRendezvous. May overlap with SpySpeak and CrypticConversation.

* TheIlluminati in ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' use this interestingly. They communicate primarily by heavily encrypted e-mails, which they know their oppponents will pick up and read. However, the information isn't in the e-mail, it's in ''the encryption key''. Each key means "Meet me at place X, at Y o'clock, on day Z".

Subtrope to DoubleMeaning. Supertrope to TalkingThroughTechnique. Compare/contrast SarcasticConfession, HiddenInPlainSight, OvertRendezvous.

* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': Sam and Dean have developed the "Hunter's Code", which are phrases they can work into conversation to let them know the other is in trouble. "Funkytown" means "Someone currently has a gun on me", "Something stuck to my shoe" means "I'm being followed," and "Poughkeepsie" means "Drop everything and run."

* In the Literature/JourneyToTheCenterOfTheEarth film sequel, ''Journey 2: The Mysterious Island'', Sean receives a radio signal with each word being characters of Jules Verne. With his stepfather's help to discover to be a Morse Code that the [[TrueStoryInMyUniverse island is real]] and able to get the coordinates combining the maps from Literature/TreasureIsland, Literature/GulliversTravels, and Literature/TheMysteriousIsland.

* In the Literature/JourneyToTheCenterOfTheEarth film sequel, ''Journey 2 The Mysterious Island'', Sean receives a radio signal with each word being characters of Jules Verne. With his stepfather's help to discover to be a Morse Code that the [[TrueStoryInMyUniverse island is real]] and able to get the coordinates combining the maps from Literature/TreasureIsland, Literature/GulliversTravels, and Literature/TheMysteriousIsland.

* In ''Manga/TheKindaichiCaseFiles'', Takato frames Kindaichi of [[spoiler:stabbing Superintendent Akechi]] in order to break his spirit. [[spoiler:Akechi manages to survive]] because the true culprit--who is Takato's UnwittingPawn--made a mistake. To drop the villains' guards however, [[spoiler:Akechci feigns his death and writes an orbituary on himself with a hidden message in the article, telling Kindaichi that he's still alive]].

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[[quoteright:350: [[Manga/ThePromisedNeverland https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/promisedneverland_minervamessages.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:If you're wondering where they're reading the words from, [[EveryoneKnowsMorse it's in Morse code]], on the rings around the owls.]]

* Used as a teaser in ''VideoGame/PokemonGo''. One of the announcements is accompanied by a five-sentence paragraph. The first letter of each sentence spells out U-N-O-V-A, the setting for ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'', strongly suggesting that Generation V Pokémon would be coming to ''Pokémon GO'' in the near future.

* ''Manga/DetectiveConan'': In the two-part episode "The Secret of the Sun, Moon and Stars", Professor Agasa and Shinichi Kudo (really Conan Edogawa) suggest that the drawings of the sun, moon, and stars found on various objects in the home of Agasa's late uncle were a code much like the Dancing Men (see the Literature/SherlockHolmes examples, below).

-->'''Floyd:''' It's an old fax machine.
-->'''Dominic:''' What does it say?
-->'''Floyd:''' ''(reading)'' Sharp right leg. Left knee, ACL. Tactical blade. Glass jaw.
-->''(Reese [[AttackTheInjury kicks mook's knee, then headbutts him in the jaw]], grabbing the tactical blade off him to cut his zipties)''