History Main / TheStakeout

* Film/TheLostMedallionTheAdventuresOfBillyStone'' has an unusual example of this for multiple reasons. A villain has his two henchmen spy on a kid, who is the son of an archeologist, believing he will lead them to a magic medallion. They hang out around his house and secretly record his conversations in the hopes of learning information, and they ultimately get it.

-->-- ''Series/BurnNotice'', "Broken Rules"

Supertrope of SpiesInAVan. Often leads to RearWindowInvestigation, WeWait.
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* ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'': When investigating chances that Kanji is about to be the next victim of the Midnight Channel, the Investigation Team decided to have one stakeout.
* [[VideoGame/TeamFortress2 Meet the Sniper]] has a fast-forward montage of the Sniper on one, downing thermos bottles of coffee and filling jars of piss.

A character, group of characters or organization wants to solve a mystery or put a controversy to rest, and they decide the only way to solve it is to pack up and set up camp at a location where they believe something of interest will occur, such as their opponent's headquarters, in hope of finding some critical clue. Often they will go to rather extreme lengths to find just one critical clue. Almost invariably, there's a risk that someone will find out about the operation and blow the observers' cover, and all their efforts will be ruined... or worse.

Usually, it's TheHero's TrueCompanions who are doing this, but occasionally a villain will use a stakeout, often to find a weakness in their intended victim's security, or reveal their SecretIdentity. And it almost certainly happens in RealLife, though probably not as often as in fiction.

* The characters involved in the operation must hide the fact that they are doing it from someone (or something) else.
* The purpose of a stakeout is to gather intelligence. If the purpose is to surprise someone, that's an ambush. If the purpose is to trick someone into revealing something he wouldn't have otherwise, it's a sting. Of course, there's no reason a stakeout can't become a starting point for a sting or ambush operation.

* All the police do in ''Film/{{Oscar}}'' until the climax.

* All the police do in ''Theatre/{{Oscar}}'' until the climax.

* ''Series/TheProfessionals''. The episode "Stakeout" has Bodie and Doyle staking out a bowling alley because it's somehow connected with a conspiracy to build a nuclear weapon. They run through the expected distractions and red herring suspects before nailing down the real culprits.

* In ''Anime/FullMetalPanicFumoffu'', Sousuke, with the help of Kyoko, calls for a stakeout when Kaname goes on a date with an old classmate.

* Some episodes of ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'' have TJ and the gang doing this trope, whether its regarding the teachers or even one of their own (the latter only in extreme cases). This also applies in [[WesternAnimation/RecessSchoolsOut the movie]] when a group of terrorists take over the school.

* Some episodes of ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'' have TJ and the gang doing this trope, whether its regarding the teachers or even one of their own (the latter only in extreme cases).

* Sonic goes on one with Vector in one episode of ''WesternAnimation/SonicBoom'' while trying to find Amy's missing hammer.

* The Australian comedy series ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Activity No Activity]]'' is entirely based around this trope.

* ''Series/ThePunisher2017''. In "One Bad Day", Frank Castle and Curtis Hoyle have to stake out the apartment of someone who will lead them to Billy Russo. Frank is [[BloodKnight very good at killing]], but not so much at sitting around waiting, which Curtis calls him on.

This trope provides plenty of opportunities for the writers to prolong the drama with dramatic or humorous sidestories. Amung the more commonly seen:

* This occurs as a mode in ''Pinball/JudgeDredd