History VideoGame / HitMan

Filler text

[[redirect:Franchise/{{Hitman}}]]

[[quoteright:319:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hitman_47.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:319:Death is his business,\\
and business is good.]]
->''"This room. This bullet. There's a bullet for everyone... and a time, and a place. An end."''
-->-- '''47'''

''Hitman'' is a series of [[ThirdPersonShooter third-person]] [[StealthBasedGame stealth]] games by Danish developer Creator/IOInteractive, a former division of Eidos which was later a part of Creator/SquareEnix. As of June 2017, they are now an independent company.

Each title follows the career of Mr. 47 (Creator/DavidBateson), a genetically-engineered super assassin. Accompanied by his handler, Diana, he performs hits for a clandestine [[MurderInc "Agency"]] whilst avoiding the law and rival hitmen. It plays like a {{pastiche}} of [[SpyFiction spy]]/crime thrillers, blowing kisses at Creator/IanFleming and Creator/JohnWoo in particular.

Players are [[GameplayGrading scored on stealth]], so ideally, you should only kill your targets and leave without alerting anyone, like a real assassin. That said, if (hah! ''when'') you are discovered, or if you become addicted to the RagdollPhysics, you can Rambo your way through everything in your path--but you won't escape the consequences if you leave a trail of bodies behind you. The missions aren't really designed for cover-based shooting, and you'll soon find that stealth is far more fun and rewarding. Or you can just [[SoMuchForStealth cave their heads in with a fire extinguisher]], that works too.

The games are well known for their replayability and emphasis on variation. Most every level across each game is designed to be replayed multiple times as their are multiple solutions to each kill. Sure, you can ''just'' shoot that target, but it feels a lot more gratifying to kill them by poisoning their food, dropping them off of a high place, or perhaps something more unique for the given situation. While certain methods must be used in certain levels to reach the highest ranking, there is nothing in place to discourage experimenting, and the astute, intelligent or observant player may find a solution to a problem they thought impossible.

Either way, tighten those leather gloves and straighten that red silk tie, because it's time to make a killing…

To date, there are six games in the main series:

[[index]]
* ''VideoGame/HitmanCodename47'' (2000)
* ''VideoGame/Hitman2SilentAssassin'' (2002)
* ''[[VideoGame/HitmanContracts Hitman: Contracts]]'' (2004)
* ''VideoGame/HitmanBloodMoney'' (2006)
* ''VideoGame/HitmanAbsolution'' (2012)
* ''VideoGame/{{Hitman|2016}}'' (2016)
* ''VideoGame/{{Hitman 2}}'' (2018)
[[/index]]

[[AC:Compilations]]

* ''Hitman Trilogy'' (2007) - A box set that includes the [=PS2=] versions of ''Silent Assassin'', ''Contracts'' and ''Blood Money''.
* ''Hitman HD Trilogy'' - A compilation of the same games as above, but remastered on [=PS3=] and Xbox 360. A digital bundle was also released for the Xbox 360, titled the ''Hitman HD Pack'', containing just ''Silent Assassin'' and ''Contracts'', aimed at players who already owned the stand-alone 360 version of ''Blood Money''.

[[AC:Spinoff Games]]

* ''Hitman [=GO=]'' (2014), a [[GenreShift turn-based puzzle game]].
* ''Hitman Sniper'' (2015), a mobile game similar to the Sniper Challenge included with ''Absolution''.

[[AC:Comic Books]]

* ''Agent 47: Birth of the Hitman'' (2017- )

[[AC:Films]]

[[index]]
* ''Film/{{Hitman}}'' (2007)
* ''Film/HitmanAgent47'' (2015), [[{{Reboot}} unrelated to the previous film]]

[[AC:Literature]]

* ''[[Literature/{{Hitman}} Hitman: Enemy Within]]'' (2007), written by Raymond Bensen.
* ''[[Literature/{{Hitman}} Hitman: Damnation]]'' (2012), written by William C. Dietz
[[/index]]

[[http://nordic.ign.com/hitman/6526/news/hitman-tv-series-in-the-works-at-hulu-from-john-wick-creator A TV-series is in the works by Derek Kolstad]] (writer/director of the ''Film/JohnWick'' films), but nothing is written on stone.

If you're looking for the trope for the hitman character type, see ProfessionalKiller. If you're looking for the comic book by Creator/GarthEnnis that {{Crosses The Line|Twice}} several billion times, [[Comicbook/Hitman1993 look no further!]] And if you're looking for the short-lived, [[{{Calvinball}} rather confusing]] GameShow, see [[Series/HitMan here]].
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!! The ''Hitman'' series contains examples of :

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[[folder:#-B]]

* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: A common sight in ''Silent Assassin'' and ''Contracts''. At least your enemies can't follow you down there. Usually.
* AcceptableBreaksFromReality:
** Kind of like how James Bond still manages to be a "secret" agent while being treated like an international rock star, somehow, the Slenderman impersonator with the barcode tattoo doesn't get detained on sight, despite him being in the vicinity of high-profile murders . As the games go on, though, it becomes less and less plausible, particularly since (before the [=PS4=] release, that is) 47 never changed his standard appearance until he was neck-deep in the mission.
** A notable thing about [=NPCs=] is that they aren't very observant. Most KO's don't count as a witness even if they were alone with you seconds before you jammed the syringe into them. They rarely if ever glance upwards, and if a locked door is suddenly wide open, no one cares. (A common exploit is to shoot/wire guards through half-open doors.) If gasoline is pooling around their feet, no one smells it.
** The improved lighting engine doesn't help matters. The menacing outline of 47 is clearly seen, but enemies will not turn around to check where this shadow is coming from--even in restricted areas! In ''Absolution'', guards won't be able to spot you behind an air vent (even at eye-level), despite the telltale flicker of 47's lighter.
** As long as you're wearing the right disguise, guards generally don't mind if you try to navigate the levels in more-than-suspicious ways (climbing the pipes and walking on roofs). In one level of ''SA'', you can silently attach the bomb to a car while disguising as a limousine driver... and go straight down the sewer hatch, which guards apparently consider a perfectly normal thing to do.
** ''Absolution'': Wait until the "BBQ Pro" Mason [=McCready=] sends one of his men to fetch his hot sauce, which you were clever enough to exchange for some spicy butane. What's interesting is you do not hide, or even do anything during this scene. His friends will just gawk as Mason goes up in flames and will not attempt to help him. What is this, ''The Sims''?
* AceCustom:
** The [=W2000=] rifle from ''SA'' is a bit different from the one used in ''[=C47=]'' in that it's a bolt-action, i.e. you have to reload after each shot. The Custom Rifle is more up your alley. It's wielded by the enemy snipers, so it's possible to grab one early -- if you don't care about ratings.
** Two characters in ''Blood Money'' carry their own custom 1911 pistols loaded with Magnum ammo. It's also one of the few weapons that's unavailable after completing a mission with it.
** Each of the 'boss' characters in ''Absolution'' carry unique equipment which can be added to your collection. For instance, the leader of the Saints, [=LaSandra=], carries an Ares Charging Ram with an engraving of barbed wire running up the barrel. The Agency outfits all of its people with ICA-branded guns and knives.
** 47's own [[GunsAkimbo Silverballers]] from the second game onwards are customised for his own needs. ''Blood Money'' expands on this, allowing the player to customise them to their own specifications along with one weapon in every other category.
* ActionBasedMission: Several missions in the first two games, which were probably the least well-received parts of both. ''Absolution'' is the most contentious of them all, though, with its revamp to ''VideoGame/SplinterCell Conviction'' style gameplay.
* AirVentPassageway:
** All over the place in ''Absolution''. 47 will automatically take out his lighter and hold it in front of the camera.
** In SA, you can use the hospital vents to scope out which O.R. the cult leader is staying in, but the game engine apparently wasn't ready for this yet, so the "vent" is accessible by ladder. You don't even have to crouch.
* AintTooProudToBeg:
** In "Invitation to a Party", Spetnaz sends someone to thwart the defection of a General and kill his accomplice, the Ambassador, if he gets in the way. Germany can't delegate its way out of this one. "I give you money. Let me go, ja?" The player can choose to save the Ambassador though.
** The Swing King will beg 47 for his life, even promising to pay "triple" the amount of money 47 was paid for this contract. A dubious claim, judging by the state of his amusement park.
** If you pull a weapon in front of Lorne de Haviland, he'll scurry away while pleading, "What do you want, girls? Cars? Junk? REAL ESTATE? I've got it all! I'm the guy who knows the guys who know!"
** The last target in "Requiem", Rick Henderson, is a sad-sack journalist with no means of protection. When you confront him, he'll kneel to the ground and beg for mercy. "You're secret's safe with me. I swear to God, I won't tell a soul!" However, you can clearly see a tape recorder in his hand.
** The crown goes to Lenny Dexter in "End of the Road". Not only does he spend the entire time begging, but he'll [[BriarPatching passive-aggressively insult you]] depending on which weapon you're carrying, then offer to give 47 "a real good reach-around" if you spare him.
* AKA47:
** ''Codename 47'' and the demo of ''Silent Assassin'' used real names for firearms, except for one older gun that was simply called the "Derringer", but the full release of the latter changed all the names to generic or false ones, and every game since then has continued the trend. Apparently IO just didn't want to pay for licensed gun names.
** The AMT Hardballer is an interesting use of this. Like the other guns, in the original game it was referred to by its real name, and it also looked rather generically like a 1911 (being a clone of that gun and all). In ''Silent Assassin'' onward, where it was renamed to the "Baller" and then the "Silverballer", the in-game model also got an extensive redesign with custom grips and the series' stylized fleur-de-lis logo, indicating that they are meant to be a custom design and "Silverballers" are [[NamedWeapon his name for his personal handguns]].
* AlcoholInducedIdiocy:
** ''Silent Assassin'': It's just possible that Gen. Zhupikov [[http://hitman.wikia.com/wiki/File:KGBOfficer_full.jpg might have a drinking problem.]] He also has a bad habit of intercepting drinks meant for the other guests, which proves fatal when the waiter turns out to be 47. (Ironically, the first General you encounter in the game is constantly sipping from a glass, only it turns out to be water if you kill him.)
** ''Contracts'': Alistair and a hunting buddy are getting hammered in a 1st floor study. They don't even turn to look at the butler to see if it's him. If 47 steals the glass that the butler (constantly) refills, he can poison Alistair's drink, which kills him quietly, without his intoxicated friend noticing.
** ''Blood Money'': Pine Cone is not an actual rehabilitation center. It's a safehouse for mobsters laying low. There's even statements that people who go into the clinic ''come out'' as alcoholics due to their being nothing to do in the place but lie back and indulge. 47 carries around 4 cocktails in his pocket that can be used to spike the other drinks.
*** The Santa at Lorne's party is completely shitfaced. Ditto "Corky the Clown". The least difficult by far is "Slugger's" sexy wife, who starts the mission drunk and waves off guards who are placed there for her protection.
* AllCrimesAreEqual: The games tend to give most guards only two alert levels - "perfectly fine" and "immediate application of deadly force". The intermediate "warning" is a rarity found only on very few missions.
** Here's a great headline from ''The Long Island Sun'' (''Blood Money''): "Kids Lemonade Stand Condemned and Demolished".
** If a guard sees you gun down a civilian in cold blood, he'll shoot you in the face. If a guard sees you running in public wearing nothing except a pair of swimming trunks, he'll shoot you in the face. If a guard sees you walk into the EMPLOYEES ONLY bathroom, he'll sternly warn you. Then shoot you in the face.
** The Hotel Galar is littered with metal detectors and cops will shoot first and forget about questions altogether. (They won't even bother to collect your change and make you walk through it again if you set it off. They'll just open fire on you.) In later games, they will calmly frisk you and confiscate any weapons.
** Taken to extremes in the New Orleans level of ''Blood Money'', where a bouncer for a perfectly normal bar will shoot you in the face without warning for ''walking into a Blues-themed party with a panama hat''.
** ''Absolution'' downplays this, entering a low-level restricted area without a disguise will first result in a warning, followed by an attempted arrest if the player lingers, then deadly force if the situation escalates further. High-level security areas start at "attempting arrest" and escalates to deadly force normally. The "shoot on sight" rules will only apply during missions where certain types of enemies are actively hunting 47.
** Averted in ''2016''. To truly earn the guards' ire, the player needs to do something that is blatantly suspicious and/or illegal. The player entering restricted areas or fiddling with stuff they are not supposed to will at first just prompt guards to either ask 47 if he is lost and then politely but firmly ask him to leave the area, and it takes them quite a while to actually escalate to using force.
* AllPartOfTheShow:
** In ''{{Theatre/Tosca}}'', Cavaradossi attempts to fake his death and flee the country with Tosca, which fails when the executioner's fake gun is exchanged for a real one. As Cavaradossi dies, Tosca exclaims "What an actor!" before hurrying to Cavaradossi's body and discovering in shock that he is really dead. The incredible irony is that if the player chooses to replace the fake gun with the real one, the events unfold like a story within a story, with Alvaro as Cavaradossi and his gay lover as Tosca. Just to show you how much attention to detail is given: when you switch the prop gun for the real thing, the actor playing the executioner will say (in French) something to the effect of "Wow, this thing feels so real".
** In "A Dance With The Devil", you can dunk [=NPCs=] into the shark tank backstage, then watch as a shark swims by and gobbles them up, dragging the victim to their death. Then go outside to the dance floor to watch the shark play with its prey while everybody keeps dancing. One of the targets, Vaana, can be to plunge herself into the tank if the pyrotechnics show is sabotaged. After rigging the stage and cooking Vaana, you can hear a guest saying something along the lines of, "That show was amazing--especially the shark attack at the end! How do you figure she did that?"
** "Fight Night": This method requires you to shoot Sanchez with a sniper rifle from above the arena, which is more difficult than it sounds, and can create extra casualties if the bullets hits an audience member. Also, in order to pass the "Wingman" challenge, the guards cannot become alerted and you cannot be spotted while firing, so the shot needs to land right after the Patriot hits Sanchez to make it look like the Patriot knocked Sanchez out. If you do it right, the gunshot will be loud but it seem like nobody but apart from the guards picked up on it.
** ''Hitman'' (2016): In the training missions, targets, guards and civilians are played by ICA employees. 47 can throw them off buildings, drown them in toilets or throw knives at them which remain stuck in their heads. Good thing Diana told him beforehand that all weapons are just “simulated”. Even if the player avoids doing all that, the Jasper Knight missions offers an opportunity to trick "Knight" into activating a fighter jet ejector seat that blasts him ''through a hangar roof and off into the sky''. The actors even break character for a minute and call 47 a "crazy bastard". 47 and Diana just straight up murdered a fellow employee for real and ICA hires them anyway!
* TheAllSeeingAI:
** ''Hitman'' is notorious for its rather broken A.I. Though the problems have been ironed out for the most part, guards will still turn psychic now and again.
** ''Hitman 2: Silent Assassin'', which, being a Stealth-Based Game, ought to be generally good in this respect, is the worst of the lot. The game has what can only be described as highly jittery bunch of guards, often resorting to gunfire at the slightest infraction or social gaffe. Take the snow pass level: the developers apparently forgot that a blizzard, at night ought to have some effect on the ninjas' ability to spot you; they're also preset to realize that your outfit is stolen and open fire after a five-second wait animation - even if you walk away and are well out of sight by the time they're done checking your "ID". It gets worse with the snipers in watchtowers. Even if you are wearing a ninja uniform that completely covers your face, they will instantly recognize you as an impostor from hundreds of feet away and shoot you on sight.
** In any level of ''Blood Money'' in which 47 must avoid or eliminate rival assassins before they can get him, the rivals can always see through his disguise instantly, whatever it might be. Vaana, the hostess in the Hell Party, will be completely fooled if you're wearing her boyfriend's costume, but Maynard John, the bartender at the same party, will automatically recognize 47 through the masquerade mask despite him having no physically defining features from the front. Sigh.
** Case in point: "Amendment XXV". Sneak a gun in a briefcase yourself? The guards shoot you full of holes. Sneak the gun in in someone else's case? Said civilian is escorted for questioning and said case is conveniently left for your retrieval.
** For ''Absolution'', the Instinct gauge and out-of-place disguise system (suddenly every street vendor in the area will be alarmed and call every Yakuza and policemen in the vicinity just because ''you'' are also disguised as a street vendor...) leaves the stealth mechanic feeling very forced; like something which was forked in there. Like they made an action game, but then went "''um, okay, where can we put some stealth in this?''" and then put the disguises on a ''timer'', to be used only for squeezing past a checkpoint.
* AmoralAttorney: The shotgun-toting lawyer in "Anathema", the literally devil-horned Andrei Puscus, Ken "The Brick" Morgan, and the cutthroat Tokyo trial lawyer Yuki Yamazaki.
* AnachronicOrder:
** As you progress through [=C47=], you may find letters lying about the Targets' rooms. It seems the four men all served in the military together and kept in close contact. In Lee Hong's letter, he spelled out the importance of the Jade Figurine in winning the loyalty of the Hong Kong Triads, which explains how your mystery "client" knew to steal it. Also, Pablo has a letter from some character named "Ort-Meyer" telling him to expect a visit from 47 soon. The missions are broken up by short flashbacks of five guys chatting over a body. Eventually the player will work out that these shadows belong to the men 47 has assassinated.
** ''Contracts'' and ''Blood Money'' are all over the shop. In chronological order, the individual missions would go:
### the second and third missions of ''Blood Money'',
### the entirety of ''Contracts'' (which itself consists primarily of flashbacks to earlier missions, [[UpToEleven which are themselves not in chronological order]]),
### the '''first''' mission of ''Blood Money'',
### and then the fourth mission of ''Blood Money'' onwards.
** It's been said that Hitman 2016 is a reboot/sequel/prequel. It's a sequel taking place after ''Absolution'' that also contains a prequel tutorial chapter showing 47's induction to the ICA ''and'' is a reboot because they overhauled most of the game and quietly dropped the clone aspect of 47's backstory, [[spoiler:although the mention of Ort-Meyer at the end of season 1 might subvert the reboot aspect.]]
* ArmsDealer: No shortage of these in ''Hitman''. Rutgert Van Leuven (Hell's Angel), Boris and his brother Sergei (Russian mobsters), Masahiro Hayamoto Sr. (Oyabun), Cmdr. Bjarkhov (former Red Army officer), Carmine [=DeSalvo=] (Italian-American mobster), Agent Martinez (CIA) and his mistress Vaana , Blake Dexter (business mogul), and Vito Đurić (elusive target in ''Hitman'' (2016)).
* ArtificialBrilliance: Despite all the interesting ways to abuse the AI, the series still has rather sophisticated disguise system, particularly seen in ''Silent Assassin'' and ''Contracts'' - various characters react differently to your disguise, depending on your clothes and behavior. Part of the difficulty in older games is not only finding a way to silently kill a target, but also navigate the level without giving guards enough opportunities to see through your disguise - if you loiter around for too long or start running without a reason, they'll get suspicious of you, and a couple of seconds is enough for them to decide that the weird bald dude with barcode on his head isn't a guard
* ArtificialStupidity: Stupidity is endemic throughout the ''Hitman'' saga, and you can read all about it in each game's subpage. Each subsequent game improves on it somewhat, though it is still very much possible to break the AI.
** Starting with ''Contracts'', it's possible to kill some people "by accident". When civilians see the target go down, they will run in panic and 47 can watch them try to alert the guards who stand with a FlatWhat. Eventually, one will approach 47, try a search for weapons, and upon finding nothing of interest, return to his guard post. Then again, the whole idea of accidents is lack of any connection with the Hitman, so there is no reason why the guards should harass a bald guy in a suit only because someone got nailed by a falling piano.
** The AI is generally pretty good, but it has quirks that can easily be exploited. For example, the standard procedure for handling stray explosives seems to be "gingerly pick it up and carry to the nearest guard booth". And in the absence of said booth, a guard may just ''[[ExplosiveStupidity slip a live explosive into his pocket]].''
* ArtisticLicenseGeography:
** Nuristan, for those not in the know, is a region of Afghanistan which, unfortunately, looks nothing like its depiction in ''Silent Assassin''. It's more mountainous, surprisingly green, and the culture has a heavy Chinese influence. IO picked it because it's a place in Afghanistan.
** It's pretty obvious that the setting of Hope, South Dakota in ''Absolution'' was originally intended to be located in Texas, based on the climate, wildlife, fashion sense of the inhabitants, and prominence of the HS football teams, among many other things. Only the cinematic at Mt. Rushmore is uniquely South Dakotan and it could easily be a late addition. It looks like the setting was changed to South Dakota very late in the game's development, presumably because there are 27 million potential customers to offend in Texas and less than a million in South Dakota, and moving the game setting to an even less populous state would have made the the disparities even more noticeable.
** The "A Vintage Year" mission in ''Blood Money'' is set in Chile, in a winery/drug-lab described to be outside Santiago. The place happens to be in the middle of a rainforest with an enormous waterfall behind it. There are no rainforests to be found in Chile, specially around Santiago, which is a semi-arid and subtropical region. The Valdivian Temperate Rainforests and Magellanic Subpolar Rainforests are mostly in Chile, though far south from the wine-producing regions. There are still some forests near Santiago, though given the low amount of rainfall (360 mm on a good year), they're not at all dense.
* AristocratsAreEvil:
** We know she's your homegirl and all, but Diana deserves a spot on this list. In the promotional materials for ''Absolution'', we learned that she's the daughter of a baronet and has studied overseas. She probably could run a Fortune 500 company or buy a political office if she wanted, but she chose to work for Murder Inc. (Not that it hasn't paid off handsomely for her.) Travis described her as a "first-class mind in an upper-class skull."
** The Beldingfords tick every Blue Blood stereotype, including poisoning their brandy and hunting human beings for sport.
* AnAssKickingChristmas:
** In ''Blood Money'', 47 spends Christmas with a famous pornographer and the woman-beating failson of a U.S. Senator.
** "Holiday Hoarders", a bonus level featuring a Christmas makeover for the Paris mission. Santa Claus randomly appears around the building, inviting you to whack him and steal his suit.
* AssInAmbassador:
** In SA, the German Ambassador is a good acquaintance of Gen. Zupikhov and has agreed to squirrel him out of Russia. Also, he apparently has an appetite for sweets as can be seen by the sheer amount of chocolates stashed in his embassy safes. (He's not all bad, though; if you save him from the Spetnaz, he'll let you walk off with the suitcase scot free.)
** In ''Contracts'' and ''Blood Money'', one of the recurring characters is Richard Delahunt, a "one-time Presidential Candidate" and current Ambassador to the Vatican. Dick became an embarrassment after he was implicated in a child sex ring (actually, he's the ringleader), and he was flushed from the system shortly thereafter. He continues to make trouble in Paris, which is why 47 was asked to rub him out.
* AssholeVictim:
** Nobody does psychotics like IO does.
** Almost all of 47's victims tend to be either criminals or just plain corrupt individuals. There are exceptions, such as a [[YouHaveFailedMe private investigator that has failed his job and was captured]], a journalist who got too close (and was also captured), [[spoiler:another journalist and a priest]], and an unlucky amusement park owner whose unmaintained ride accidentally caused the death of the client's son (and several other people)... and hired a hitman to dispose of any naysayers.
* AuthorAppeal: The IO development team are fanatics of the F.C. Copenhagen (FCK) soccer team. They always find excuses to fit those initials in somewhere.
* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking:
** A few of the major super-criminals, notably Pablo Ochoa in the first game, BigBad Sergei Zavrotko in the second game, and Lee Hong in the first and third games can survive significantly more damage than standard Mooks (they can take a few dozen 9mm rounds to the chest, as opposed to just 2 or 3 for everyone else). They all die instantly from headshots or assault rifle fire, though, so it's not too noticeable.
** In ''Blood Money'', final villain [[spoiler:Alexander Cayne]] has a little over twice as much health as a standard enemy despite being a withered old man in a wheelchair, and he's also equipped with one of the game's best pistols. Likewise, Blake Dexter isn't quite as tough as some of the villains from the earlier games, but can still take noticeably more damage and is packing one hell of a machine gun. (Note: this may be justified in that these guys would be expected to be wear body armor.)
* AwesomeButImpractical:
** Dual-wielding guns. Alas, it takes ages for 47 to prepare them, they make your targeting reticule go crazy--and in ''Silent Assassin'', they're so powerful, the target tends to go ''[[PunchPackingPistol flying]]'' into the path of bystanders, so you'll probably never use them if you're concerned about stealth! These things just stick out like a sore thumb, so only use them if you've been found out. The double shot means almost an assured kill.
** [=SMGs=] and rifles are noisy and therefore useless unless part of a disguise. The silenced SMG would be very silent and useful...if you could conceal it. Unfortunately, it is made less useful by the size of the sound suppressor, which makes it act as a rifle (i.e. it can't be hidden and you can only carry one). Also, the enemies usually have the same weapon, making them a considerable threat. Only use if in serious trouble. In a confined space, Kalashnikov is your best friend.
** Southeast of Pablo's coke mansion is an angled tent where you will also find your first Minigun. There's a lot of ammo laying around for it and the gun itself just screams, "take me with you!" Leave it alone, because it really isn't worth the trouble. The Minigun is ''not'' standard issue and slows 47 to a '''crawl''', and so if you want to take it into the house for the fight against Pablo, you'll need to take out everyone outside first. And then, ho hum, taking those guys out will alert the tower guards, and then you'll have to take them out, too (yawn), and then you'll also probably have to take out some of the patrols along the fence... It can be done if you're good enough, but it's not recommended unless you're out for some pain. The other big drawback is that it takes nearly 2 seconds to actually shoot the weapon. Basically, the barrel needs to be spinning before it starts spitting. So, by the time you start to fire, your target either has moved out of the way or...uh, killed you. Not good.
*** The minigun shows up again in "Meet Your Brother". In ''Contracts'', if you have "Ortmeyer's Key" (uncovered in a later mission) you can replay the asylum level and use it to open the two locked doors in the lab. One yields this weapon. The catch is, there's no way to walk out with it without a bloodbath, and even then, it'll take forever and a day to carry it upstairs to the exit.
** The sniper rifle is only mandatory in the first mission of H:C47. There are some great sniper's nests in "Say Hell to My Little Friend" and "Gunrunner's Paradise" if you want to play it high and dry ... except it lacks a silencer, and there are just too many people to kill once you start. In ''Contracts'', the W2000 is strapped to a silencer by default, and each level has been remade to be more sniper-friendly.
** New to the ''Contracts'' collection is a quicker knock-out toy, the sedative syringe. The ''poison'' syringe is introduced in ''Blood Money''. This thing can be used up close, but there's no real reason to do so; the wire is faster and it's not like poison is somehow cleaner. Both syringes can be used to poison food and drink, but you can forget about getting away with it under observation. There's a lot of incidental food and drink around in ''Blood Money'', but not all of it is useful to poison.
* AxCrazy:
** Some of the Asylum inmates are surprisingly sociable. Others, not so much. In one of the surgery rooms, a patient is hacking away at the body of a Mr. 48. And a little further into the mission, the Politia are funneling the inmates into a room near the front door to try and catch 47. One of those inmates has a gun, and will open fire on everyone in the room once it gets too full for his liking.
** Malcolm Sturrock, brother of Campbell, isn't mentioned in the briefing, but if you're not careful, he'll pounce on you outta nowhere like Scissorman and cleave you to bits. He turns out to be a childlike stalker who murdered an underage girl and put her pickled body on display in a meat locker. When you find him, he is dancing around in his underwear in front of the object of his affection.
** If you dress up as a psychologist in ''Blood Money'', you can get Carmine on the couch.
--->"I've always been a real angry person, you know? Anger, that's ''like'' a drug, you know? [stammering] I mean, it gets in your blood and it boils in your head. It gets--you can't see straight. You can't talk to anyone without wanting to twist their fuckin' head off. Like a bottle cap, you know?"
** Should you wind up alone in a room with Eve (''Blood Money'') it will trigger a cutscene in which she leaps on top of you and stabs you to death while cackling to herself. Instant Game Over. As there's no way to stop this once the scene triggers, it also manages to turn into Paranoia Fuel, as you try to deal with her WITHOUT the scene going off...
** There are a number of characters in ''Absolution'' who fit the bill. Blake Dexter, Wade, The Saints, and Ben Travis. To these psychotics, the words "collateral damage" may as well be in Aramaic.
* BackStab: In each game, 47 has special attacks (garrote, syringe or chloroform, along with some special attacks) that automatically kill or disable an unaware target. These attacks are almost always much easier to perform from behind (the garrote specifically ''only'' works from behind).
* BadBoss:
** Pablo is shown kicking the tar out of an underling in the surveillance footage.
** In his letter, Ort-Meyer complains of a lack of funding and says he may need to "move the entire lab soon", as some of his staff members are getting jittery about the project. Dr. Kovacs is probably the rat in question; some months later, Ort-meyer deploys you to eliminate him.
** In ''Contracts'', one of the sailors tries to talk down Boris after he readies the nuke. [[BoomHeadshot Bad idea.]]
** Scoop is also very unforgiving: he can be seen executing one of his soldiers to prove a point.
** The strip club owner, Dom Osmond, berates his dancers every chance he gets. And that's if you're lucky. The seditious workers are chained up in the cellar and tortured as Dom cobbles a snuff movie out of it. Osmond is tight with two of the game's main adversaries, Blake Dexter and Edward Wade, and he is overheard arranging a private session for the latter when he's in town. Wade is a sadomasochistic, sociopathic necrophiliac, in that order.
** During an interrogation, Dexter tries to bludgeon 47 with a baton—but on closer examination, it's actually a sex toy which Skurky left lying around. ("[[ImplausibleDeniability Hell, that ain't mine.]]") He later executes Skurky's girlfriend, "Mrs. Cooper", in front of witnesses after forcing her to dress up as Victoria. He also murders a hotel maid in order to stall Mr. 47.
* BadGuyBar: Lee Hong's place (Wang Fou), the Meat King's party, the Flamin' Rotterdam, the Shark Club, and the Vixen Club. Each of these fine establishments contain torture rooms. That's not a coincidence.
* BadGuysPlayPool:
** The pool cue makes its debut in ''Contracts''. You'll find some in Beldingford Manor and on the bar strip in Rotterdam. The Vixen Bar also features some hoods playing pool.
** A funny example in the Great Balls of Fire Tavern: One player deliberates on his shot while his opponent uses reverse-psychology, clears his throat loudly, and distracts him ("some guy is [[LookOverThere taking your girlfriend to the bathroom!]]")
--->"I ''swear'' to '''God''', if you don't shut up I'm gonna [[AssShove ram this stick up your ass]] and call it modern art."
* BadEnding:
** ''Codename 47'': When the Mr. 48s are all dead, ready your gun and prepare to meet Ort-Meyer. The Doc will come out with open arms thinking you're a 48; however, he runs towards you after he's done talking (he's brandishing a tazer). At that point, 47 either fills him with lead, or gets sedated and winds up back where he began: a prisoner.
** In ''Blood Money'', an alternate ending occurs if the player does not refill 47's health bar with the movement controls. The antidote to the fake-death serum apparently fails to work and 47 is cremated, allowing [[spoiler:Cayne]] to roll off on his merry way and reboot Dr. Ort-Meyer's research. This is highly likely for those playing it for the first time.
* BadHabits:
** ''Blood Money'': The "priest" officiating the hick wedding is completely shitfaced. He mixes up the the couples' name and makes a pass at the bride. When he ducks into a closet to "read the good book" (it's a secret container for his flask), knock him out and steal his clothes. Naturally, there's a bonus cutscene where you can tie the knot for your target.
** In "A Dance With The Devil", Maynard's choice of costume is a Satanic minister with red makeup, an inverted cross, and horns. Eve is dressed as a killer Victoria's Secret model: cheap-looking wings, a halo, and body tape.
** The sequel ''Absolution'' had a trailer featuring a hitsquad of female assassins called The Saints who wear nun habits as disguise. They take these off when going into combat wearing latex fetish outfits with insanely high-heeled platform boots underneath, keeping their veils on. As if to make fun of this, not even The Agency knows why they dress like that. (Trailers try to play up how badass and dangerous the women are by showing them fighting in a jungle in those outfits.) 47 himself goes undercover as one in "Rosewood", complete with a Jesus fish on his lapel.
* BallroomBlitz:
** "Invitation to a Party". There is going to be an invitation-only gala at the German embassy, and lots of spies will be attending. However, the Agency couldn't get an invitation for you, so you will have to be creative in order to get inside. And worse, the Russians have managed to smuggle in a Spetznaz agent who will be competing with Mr. 47 for the General's briefcase. To make the Spetnaz come out of hiding, you need to get inside the ballroom.
** "Meat King's Party." The targets are found at a party held in celebration of Campbell's charges being dropped... A party which 47 intends to crash.
** In ''Blood Money'', 47 invites himself to Lorne's yearly Christmas bash in the Rocky Mountains.
** The location of Raymond's sniper nest is meant to be random, but he always spawns above the Blue Oyster (blues bar), the Rocker's Choice (rock n' roll), or Latin Fever (salsa).
** Later, 47 must hunt down a rogue CIA agent involved in weapons trafficking. The buy will be going down at the Shark Club, an underground sex dungeon disguised as an office building.
** In the Paris level of ''Hitman 2016'', 47 pays a call to a world-renowned fashion designer, and can crush him beneath the lighting display of his own catwalk.
* TheBartender:
** A whopping four of them feature in ''Contacts'':
### The bartender at Campbell Sturrocks' bar/opium den will give you different hints, depending on whether you're dressed as a butcher or a waiter.
### "Rendezvous at Rotterdam": Just speak with the bartender inside the Flamin' Rotterdam. If you're dressed as a journalist, he'll provide you with express passage to the gang leader, Rutgert. Later, 47 can glean some useful info by talking to the barkeep in The Dirty Rabbit.
### "Traditions of the Trade": If you don't want to wait around the sauna for Fritz, you can prepare him a cyanide cocktail. But doing so requires 47 to convince the hotel bartender to take a pissbreak. The good dentist will drink his fill and keel over.
### "Lee Hong Assassination": This guy appeared in the original [=H:C47=]; he was the one who referred 47 to the restaurant's "new girl", Mei Ling. In the remake, the bartender is literally ready to shit his pants at the mere mention of Lee Hong. Apparently, another intruder (Agent Smith, no surprise there) was nabbed by the guards after asking too many questions about the...proprietor.
** There's another one in the Rockies, glumly handing out aphrodisiacs while wearing a Santa hat. He complains of the drunk Santa Claus hired for this party, and looks like he'd rather spend the New Year someplace else.
** Maynard poses as a bartender at the Shark Club, just waiting to introduce himself to a bleary-eyed Mr. 47. Unsurprisingly (given that he probably has no drink mixing experience), his drinks are terrible and cause one guest to flee the party for the parking garage and vomit.
** In "Great Balls of Fire", your objective is to cross the bar in question and speak with the bartender, ''without'' upsetting the locals in-between. If you want to start a conversation, then your first task is to sic the truckers on Kane (star of ''VideoGame/KaneAndLynch''™, Buy Your Copy Today) to clear the room.
* BatterUp: The baseball bat melee weapon appears in both ''Blood Money'' and ''Absolution'', if you swing that way. In particular, Joseph "Swing King" Clarence was a big fan of baseball and has memorabilia all over his office, including signed posters and a mounted bat used for a perfect home run in the 1970s.
* BattleInTheRain:
** "Redemption at Gontranno". Sergei's got your boy, Vittorio, at the sanctuary and threatens to kill him if 47 doesn't show himself. Your goal is to work your way to the tool shed (which Sergei hasn't found yet) and grab the gun you need to slaughter all 21 of his henchmen. When you start the mission, you will be in a darkened, rainy courtyard in front of the church doors.
** At the end of "Amendment XXV", 47 engages Parchezzi in a rainy gun battle on the White House roof.
* BavarianFireDrill:
** "Shogun Showdown": The laser traps can be circumvented, but where's the fun in that? Play a practical joke on Hayomoto by tripping the alarm in his gallery. When the old man races downstairs to retrieve his treasure, he will find the mini-bomb which you helpfully left behind. Oops. Or you can blow up his escape helicopter.
** Hayomoto won't budge if one of the door alarms is triggered, so if you would rather play it quiet, just trigger the alarm (which doesn't count as an Alert) and wait for his minions to herd downstairs. That will leave just one sentry between you and Hayomoto.
** "Basement Killing". While in the laundry room, dump the Agency's smoke bomb down a chute. A herd of firefighters will come pouring out, leaving behind a spare uniform. Aha! Camouflage! The metal detectors will buzz as you go through it, but it's okay, because you're a big, strapping fireman with a metal ax and hat. The guards think that you're heading to an emergency, so they will leave you alone. As dramatically appropriate as it might be to sneak through the server room and surprise your target, you needn't bother. He'll try to sound the alarm, but there's no one to be alarmed, since they've all fled upstairs away from the fire scare. Take the axe and give him forty whacks.
** "A House of Cards". Juvenile, but effective. (It will make you wish more locations had fire alarms.) The easy way to spook Tariq is to pull the fire alarm and then sneak into Tariq's room after his bodyguards herd him to safety. Another trick is to stick a bomb in Schmutzy's suitcase and wait for Tariq to come have a look. BLAM. If you pull the fire alarm as you press the button, nobody will find his body.
** Mark P. sets one off in the Oval Office when your confront him there. The bomb blast activates the sprinkler system and momentarily knocks 47 on his ass, allowing Mark to get away.
* BedlamHouse:
** The Asylum from ''Codename 47'' is even more nightmarish in flashbacks. The so-called Operating Theatre has a mutilated corpse lying in full view. Paranoid patients are left untreated, locked in solitary confinement or worse: exploited for Ortmeyer's clone research. The actual asylum is in extreme disrepair and exists mainly as a front.
** Pine Cone rehab facility. Many celebrities claimed the center has saved their lives, although its infamous quote, "We only discharge the clean and the dead" has led some to wonder what happened to people who can't be cured. 'Troublesome' patients are confined to the medical wing in the basement, surrounded by their masters, the hospital orderlies.
* BeneathNotice:
** "Slaying a Dragon". If you feel like getting up-close and personal with the Target, there are gardeners weeding the park around his pagoda. The Red Dragons will frisk a gardener for knives and guns, but there are quieter ways of killing people. Cuppa tea?
** Humble disguises like caterers, janitors, or garbagemen raise less suspicion from the fuzz. (If you're caught on camera in the driveway of Vinnie's house, the FBI just assumes you're collecting the trash.) They are, however, at a disadvantage by restricting the areas you can enter while wearing them.
** 47 in his stylish peasant attire. If you stick to your turban, you can move about freely in Nuristan and nobody will raise more than an eyebrow. Unfortunately, trying to snipe the motorcade without a solider's uniform practically guarantees you'll be caught.
** In ''Absolution'', it's also a good idea to turn your back on policemen by interacting with claw game machines.
* {{BFG}}:
** The almighty minigun in ''Codename 47'' and ''Contracts''. At $1,000 a magazine, there's a reason you can't buy this thing in Hong Kong.
** Leave it to ''Silent Assassin'' to [[DeconstructedTrope take the fun out of the anti-materiel rifle.]] The [=MI95=] (real name Barrett [=M95=]) is so unique to the region that it will '''ATTRACT''' passerby. This is bad news if you do not want to be seen with it, since you can't just drop it and wait for the [=NPCs=] to leave. Note that the game considers this to be both a Sniper Rifle AND a Heavy Weapon due to its enormous power.
** The [=M60=] is a very powerful belt fed large machine gun that normally is handled by two people - one to fire and one to handle the ammo belt. However, in this game, you handle it just like any machine gun. It's about as accurate than the [=M4=] and is certainly more powerful although it has a slower rate of fire than an assault rifle. The only major drawback to this weapon is that it's pretty loud so you can expect guards to come call knocking if you fire it.
* BikiniBar: The Flamin' Rotterdam, the Dirty Rabbit, the Pink Mansion, the Shark Club, and the Vixen Club.
* BilingualBonus:
** The inscriptions on the ammo boxes in ''Silent Assassin''. If you know your Danish, there's a warning written on the magnum rounds: "If you can read that, you're too close! This ammo will really kick your ass!" The pistol and .45 ACP rounds have funny messages, as well.
** Hong and Tzun conversing in Chinese. Also, the scene in the brothel is updated for ''Hitman: Contracts'': 47 plays dumb and claims not to understand the madam's elegant Mandarin. The madam keeps her game face on, but proceeds to curse at you and Mei Ling under her breath.
** Almost every one of Sergei's lines begins with [[SirSwearsALot Russian swear words]]. Some of his phrases, like "Пиздец" or "Хуйня", are considered impolite in Russia and other slavic countries.
** On some of the Pink Mansion's walls (e.g. in de Havilland's bedroom) are illustrations with different Japanese/Chinese characters: 体　= body; 女 = woman.
** In ''Blood Money'', some of the newspapers that report on your hits at the end of a stage are foreign. Though all the articles will be in English so you can read them, look around and you'll see bylines for stories like "Eiffel Tower supposedly built by aliens from Jupiter." in French (for instance).
** In the ''Blood Money'' headlines there is a presidential candidate called "'''L'''ance '''O'''. '''R'''egen'''T'''". You might wonder why "t" is capitalized. This is mostly for Danish fans to discover, since "LORT"" means "excrement" in that language.
** "Va el juego a fuera o leyo un libro. Jugar juego de video solamente le hara mas estupido." This quote in the Chilean paper is written in very bad Spanglish. Basically it tells you to read a book or play outside instead of playing, because videogames will only make you stupid.
** "No tengo ninguna pista que estoy escribiendo" = "I have no clue what I'm writing".
** "Des grenovilles tuesuses une petit ville". Translation: "Killer frogs destroy small villa".
** The strip club in ''Absolution'' runs under the name "Vixen", which means "to wank" in German, albeit spelled differently. Coincidence or not...
* BlackAndGreyMorality: 47 is a violent, unrepentant killer who has no qualms about killing for money and is not above killing innocent people in order to get the job done (although he does feel ''some'' guilt about his actions, as ''Contracts'' makes apparent). However, his targets are ''almost'' exclusively people even nastier and more vicious than him.
** He does display some remorse at times though. Particularly when he expressed disgust at Blake Dexter and Benjamin Travis for using "children as weapons" in ''Absolution''. He would also question his morals in the novels, and in one scene in ''Absolution'' let Victoria dump the ransom money instead of retrieving the briefcase out of greed.
* BlandNameProduct:
** The [=KinkyCola=] logo. It uses the same typeface as Coca-Cola.
** In the much-loved 'A New Life' stage of Blood Money, one of the best ways to get started is to slip a pair of drugged donuts to some FBI agents, so you can steal their uniforms. The fauxnuts are, of course, from 'Delicious Donuts', using the characteristic color scheme and font of Dunkin' Donuts.
** Judging from the white color of the filter and the pinkish-red ring, it can be inferred that Wade enjoys Camel No. 9 cigarettes.
* BlatantItemPlacement: The ''Hitman'' series tries to avert this, with most weapons being held in armories and security rooms. However, Agency-issue equipment is often delivered to strange locations, sometimes in plain view of patrolling guards and always stored in "inconspicuous" open black crates. ''Absolution'' plays this trope painfully straight, with sniper rifles propped up near vantage points (exactly what is a Carcano rifle doing in the storeroom of a donut shop?) and bricks of C4 just laying around on top of crates etc.
* BlingBlingBang:
** 47's signature weapons are a pair of custom stainless steel AMT Hardballer pistols with stylized fleurs-de-lis engraved on the slides and Pachmayr American Legend grips. Not too shabby. It was just a plain AMT Hardballer in the original game , but they got a chrome makeover in ''Silent Assassin''. In ''Silent Assassin'' and the movies, even his silencers are chrome-plated.
** The gold Desert Eagle from ''Contracts''. Layla Stockton, meanwhile, has a golden SIG Sauer P226 with etched wooden grips.
* BloodlessCarnage: In real life, throat-slitting will leave behind quite a mess as your victim bleeds out all over the place. However, this isn't an issue in ''Hitman'' 1 & 2 as your immaculate victim just flops to the ground.
* BloodstainedGlassWindows:
** ''Hitman'' is a huge fan of pseudo-Catholic imagery, and 47 fights in plenty of churches.
### The first occurs in Sicily, when Sergei and his hit squad take over the Gontranno Sanctuary and hold Father Vitorrio for ransom.
### The second happens at the end of ''Blood Money'', at an art deco crematorium somewhere on the east coast, where [[spoiler:Cayne plans to destroy 47's remains so nobody can create clones of him. The upside is 47 gets to shoot the attendees at his own funeral.]]
### Rosewood Orphanage has two floors to explore, including a chapel and infirmary full of bullet-riddled nuns.
### And again near the end of ''Absolution'', 47 and [[spoiler:Sheriff Skurky]] have a showdown in the Hope Springs Church.
### The final mission of ''Absolution'', also called ''Absolution'', takes place at the Burnwood family tomb. It not-so-subtly evokes the finale of ''Blood Money'', with Diana in place of 47.
* BloodyHilarious:
** Some of the "accidental" deaths are pretty much straight out of ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' or are deliberately silly cliches. Among the objects you can drop on targets are an opera chandelier and a ''piano.''
** In several of the games, the right combination of weapons and disguises is pretty hysterical. Busboy armed with a [[KatanasAreJustBetter katana]]? Pizza delivery man with an [[MoreDakka M60]]? [[MonsterClown An all-too-serious clown]] [[ShotgunsAreJustBetter with an automatic shotgun]]? Why the hell not? Or, going in the reverse, you can be an FBI Agent armed with his trusty [[JokeWeapon Red Ryder BB gun]][[note]] [[Film/AChristmasStory You can't shoot your eye out if you are wearing]] CoolShades! Everyone else is fair game, though.[[/note]].
* BlownAcrossTheRoom:
** The Silverballers can do this if fired at close range. They were nerfed in ''Contracts'' and AGAIN in ''Blood Money'', but if you load 'em with magnum rounds, they will still have this effect.
** The shotguns in all [[strike:four]] five of the ''Hitman'' games will do this.
** In the ''Absolution'' mission "Attack of the Saints", 47 gets blown across the room in mid-run when the rocket fired by the Saints hits his hotel room.
* BodyguardBabes:
** Lee Hong has some female gangsters patrolling the ground floor of his restaurant. They're wearing suits, sunglasses and packing an uzi like their male counterpart. For the ''Contracts'' remake, the female [=NPCs=] were all exorcised apart from Mei Ling and her pimp.
** There are 3 female bodyguards who hang out with Charlie in the hot tub. Charlie is completely helpless, but the ladies are concealing six-shooters, so don't mess with them. There is another woman playing a piano in the living room, and she's packing heat, too.
** The gag in ''Absolution'' is Travis' insistence on surrounding himself with well-armed ladies in fetish gear. Some of the ICA bigwigs are skeptical of The Saints' methods, and at least one of Travis' co-workers complained that the gimp suits completely defeat the purpose of them dressing as nuns.
* BondageIsBad:
** "The Meat King's Party". There's a fetish party being held on the first floor of a slaughterhouse to celebrate Campbell's victory in court. The fiendish lawyer, Andrei, is the guest of honor, so it's tricky to get some alone time with him.. Also, Malcolm (Campbell's brother) uses the rooms on the second floor of the slaughterhouse for his creepy murder rituals.
** In ''Blood Money'', 47 is sent to dispose of four agents in the Shark Club. There's very little bondage activity going on there, though; mostly it's a swingers club for wealthy Nevada residents.
** For years, Lorne has taken money under the table by blackmailing public figures (actors, politicians, clergymen, etc.) with CCTV footage from his many strip clubs. He tries to extort money from Colorado senator Chad Bingham with a video of his son killing a prostitute in a BDSM game. Someone in Bingham's camp hired 47 to recover the tape and eliminate both Lorne and Chad Junior.
** In "Skurky's Law", corrupt Sheriff Clive Skurky chains himself up in his own jail so a dominatrix can whip him during office hours. ''Blake Dexter'' even calls him a pervert for it. At other points in the game, various Dexter Inc. mooks are seen watching bondage porn--which is actually footage of the Sheriff himself! Have you no decency sir? At long last?
** While they never actually engage in BDSM practices in the game, the Saints are always seen wearing latex-and-leather, fetish-y nun outfits.
* BookEnds:
** ''Codename 47'' begins and ends in the same Romanian asylum, run by Dr. Ort-Meyer.
*** ''Codename 47'''s NonStandardGameOver especially.
** ''Silent Assassin'' opens in the Gontranno Sanctuary, with 47 EasingIntoTheAdventure, shooting some melons, and visiting confession. The final hit of the game takes place inside the very same sanctuary.
** The first and last missions of ''Contracts'' revolve around 47 being trapped in a building surrounded by special forces immediately after a successful hit.
** Also, the end of ''Blood Money'' shows [[spoiler:47 about to carry out an assassination in a Chinese brothel, recalling the Hong Kong setting of the first missions in ''Codename 47''.]]
** In ''Absolution'', both the tutorial and the achievement for completing the final mission are called "A Personal Contract".
--->''"From here on out, I shall only refer to her as 'my target'. I must not get [[ConsummateProfessional personally involved.]]"''\\
''"I shall not refer to him as 'my target'. Nothing so clinical will do. This is [[RevengeBeforeReason personal.]]"''
* BookcasePassage:
** The first one is in Romania. Once Smith is feeling better, he'll lead you out to a secret entrance to Ort-Meyer's lab. He will get into an elevator and ride it up after a short conversation, revealing a hidden staircase within the shaft. In ''Contracts'', the stairs are gone, and the basement is accessible via the elevator panel.
** In "Invitation to a Party", it's a hidden wall panel leading to the embassy balcony. If you can find it, there's a spare tux and a super-rare W2000 rifle out there
** Lord Beldingford owns a two-way mirror which allows him to spy on his maids while they're bathing. This ultimately proves his undoing, since 47 can use it to sneak into his master bedroom. There's another hidden trapdoor in the hedge maze. This dumps you into the wine cellar, circumventing the front door/staff entrance entirely. Finally, there are ''actual'' bookshelf passages that will give you the run of the house.
** "A Vintage Year": The wine cellar below the Hacienda is also home to a drug lab. The door is disguised as a wine casket. It has two other secret passages, one connecting it to the Hacienda and the other to the docks.
** There are two photographers at Lorne's party: one in the studio filming a bad softcore film, and one lounging beside a fake waterfall. You can quite easily kill/sedate this one and hide him in a tunnel between the two waterfalls. Help yourself to his clothes.
** In the Blackwater Park penthouse (''Absolution''), there's a panic room entrance built into one of the walls. This one is easier to find since Layla goes in there herself.
* BoringButPractical:
** Perhaps the most useful weapon across the entire spectrum is the humble silenced pistol. Most rifles are just too darn loud (Apologies to Huey Lewis).
** As a corollary to that, the SLP.40 S can easily become your best friend in ''Blood Money''. It is less complicated to use than 47's Silverballer and, since many guards come equipped with a regular SLP.40, ammo is very easy to come by. Ditto the silenced Beretta in the first two games.
** Chokey chokey! One of the most useful bits of equipment is the simple fiber wire garrote. It's silent, can't be picked up by metal detectors or frisked, and is always sure to kill a target. In ''Absolution'', using the fiber wire lets you automatically drag away bodies to hide. In ''Blood Money'', 47 can use it to lift his victim on top of elevators, allowing easy concealment of the corpse.
** In the rare instances in which it appears, you should use the stun gun liberally. It's fun, and you don't incur a penalty for this quick K.O. It's such a quick and dirty weapon that 47 isn't allowed to take it with him to the next mission, since it makes sedation way too easy.
** In the gun store mission of ''Absolution'' where 47 must recover his Silverballers, he can sneak through the store and firing range for the key to the cases...or he can simply beat the local sharpshooter in a shooting competition, after which the store owner will reward him with the guns.
** The ability to pick up random items in ''Absolution'', which can give you either a handy improvised weapon or a quick and convenient way to distract guards.
** In ''Blood Money'' pushing anyone on stairs or over the railing is a handy instant kill with the added bonus of looking like an accident, which means someone finding the body will not raise an alarm or impact your score.
* {{Bouncer}}: Bouncers are a regular feature in ''Hitman'' and come in all shapes and sizes. You got your Jet Li lookalikes in China, the biker gang variety in Rotterdam, the mask-wearing gimps in Romania, the bald, black variety in Las Vegas, and the "Stone Cold" Steve Austin lookalikes in Chicago.
* BoomHeadshot: If you have time, aim the crosshairs at an enemy's head in first-person view. They should drop dead. This even works on bosses.
* BorrowedBiometricBypass:
** That barcode on the back of cue ball's head isn't a fashion statement. If you try to get into Ort-Meyer's lair, the reader will scan it and ascertain that you are ''not'' Mr. 48, causing the room to fill with gas. Be smart and drag the body of the Mr. 48 over to the scanner. This will confuse Ort-Meyer and he will allow you in.
** Defied in ''Hitman: Absolution''. The biometric scanners you run into are state-of-the-art. Not only will using a dead enemy not work, but forcing a hostage's head into the scanner will ALSO fail, since the device can detect (presumably via pupil dilation and rapid eye movement) that they are under duress. The only way to trick a scanner is to either use disguises to trick an authorized person into opening it for you... or just walk up to a console and register yourself as authorized. Don't ask how you hacked the computer though; maybe the password was on a sticky-note attached to the monitor.
* BossInMookClothing: Every time a rival assassin shows up, there's a hidden body somewhere nearby, like you'd need to do, and they can take about the same (or less) punishment as 47.
* BottomlessBladder: [=NPCs=] visit the facilities so frequently that they should probably see a doctor about it. For practice runs, or when learning the area, the bathroom will likely be where you nab your first weapon/disguise.
* BriefcaseFullOfMoney:
** In ''Codename 47'', the Agency can't get a fix on Boris' location, even in satellite view. Boris does all of his deals in Rotterdam, the biggest harbor in the world. The only way to find his ship, the ''Katarina Invanova'', is to hide a GPS in a payment suitcase which is headed his way.
** Two examples of it in ''Blood Money'', both of which 47 can help himself to. Or you can just hide bombs in these, and let the couriers make their deliveries. Boom.
### Follow the money. "The Murder of Crows" kicks off with a diamonds exchange in New Orleans. Diana says the courier is headed for Mark Purayah's hideout, so it's a good place to start.
### The Aryan Nation is delivering some DNA samples to a wealthy Sheikh in Vegas. The black suitcase contains a generous amount of untraceable blood diamonds--perfect for Hendrik Schmutz, who is headed for South Africa once this is over.
** In exchange for sparing his life, Agent Smith offers 47 "red suitcases" full of diamonds. He calls it a down payment for thwarting the assassination of President Stewart.
** In ''Absolution'', the ICA delivers a suitcase with $10 million dollars to Blake Dexter in exchange for Victoria. At the end of "Countdown", [[spoiler:Victoria dumps the money over Blake's dead body before she and 47 leave]].
* BulletTime:
** A ''MaxPayne'' ability is present in the original ''Codename 47'' as an easter egg [[spoiler:press the scroll lock button to activate bullet time during gameplay]]. In ''Blood Money'', the game will go into bullet time mode when 47 runs out of health; if you can achieve 3 headshots during this short period, you're given a second chance (but taking 1 more hit will result in instant death).
** When 47 first awakens from his dead state and begins to stand up, the environment will be moving extra slow (similar to the near death slow down 47 experiences on any other mission as he dies).
* TheButcher:
** The Sturrock Bros, Campbell and Malcolm. Of the two, Malcolm is more dangerous, since he's marked as a civilian on the interface map. If he spots you snooping around the attic, he will brandish a meat cleaver and charge at you, carving up your health meter with a few swipes.
** "Butcher" is a rank the player will receive if they waste several people during the mission. It's actually a mark of shame, way below "Silent Assassin" and just a bit above "Mass Murderer" ('''everyone's''' dead).
** 47 uses this as an alias in Budapest. "Mertzger", which is German for butcher.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:C-E]]

* TheCakeIsALie: Agent 47 is actually working for the man he's out to stop. Roll in a thunderous cacophony of drums. Script, pitch, and go!
## In [=C47=], the mysterious 'client' is Dr. Ort-Meyer. He's testing 47's capabilities while also breaking the backs of his rivals.
## In SA, the client is Sergei, a Russian mob boss who is assembling pieces of an untraceable nuclear warhead.
## In ''Blood Money'', The Franchise's mysterious boss is the same man [[spoiler:spearheading a task force to capture 47.]]
## Killing Diana for Travis. Turns out all he ''really'' wanted was Victoria delivered back to ICA. [[spoiler:The ending shows that 47 smelled a rat from the beginning, and purposely aimed for a non-vital area when he plugged Diana, which allows her to recover.]]
## Diana lampshades this in ''Hitman'' '16, saying that all the contracts they did up to that point are from perfectly legitimate sources ([=MI6=], an Ether shareholder, Hamilton-Lowe and the Highmoore Family) but seem to serve some overarching purpose for a fixer behind the scenes.
* TheCanKickedHim:
** If you're ever at a loss at what to do, look for an alleyway or camp out in the nearest restroom. Eventually, some NPC will come out to uh... water the plants. It never fails.
** In the ''Hitman'' series, if there's an available bathroom, it is almost always the best place to hide a body, and within the bathroom, toilet stalls are the best place to put them. (An outhouse makes a welcome appearance in "Attack of the Saints".) Oddly, random people tend to look into large body-sized containers with regularity, but will not consistently open an unlocked toilet stall door blocked by a corpse.
* TheCaptain:
** Captain Skip Muldoon is a target in Blood Money, along with his bodyguards.
** ''Codename 47'' included a captain on the crow's nest of Boris' ship. If things go according to plan, he should be your last target. If not, one of the surviving enemies will shut off the ship's engine, preventing you from leaving. In the remake, the Captain tries to talk Boris down once the police raid the ship. It doesn't end well for him.
* CaptainErsatz:
** [=H:C47=]: No, the title for the seventh mission didn't come from a Lloyd Bridges comedy. The mansion is where Pablo has holed up for the day, snorting a mountain of cocaine. Pablo will go crazy on you with an [=M60=] when you arrive, and he's a pretty good shot for someone shooting so wildly. When you do enough damage to him, he'll taunt you (endlessly). Once Pablo falls, a fresh batch of guards will enter the house and climb the stairs and fountain area; picking up Pablo's M60 will help you cut them down. (Trivia: Despite being based on [[Film/{{Scarface1983}} Tony Montana]], he in fact Colombian; ironically, Tony himself hates Colombians.)
** Vinnie Sinistra is also somewhat based on Montana. Both are Cubans who arrived on the Mariel Boatlift. Mrs. Sinistra is also a parody of Elvira, Tony's wife.
** The bodyguards in the Jacuzzi with Charlie (a blonde, Asian, and brunette), along with Charlie himself, are a reference to ''Series/CharliesAngels.''
** Sergei's appearance is likely inspired by the antagonist in the Schwarzenegger film ''Film/{{Eraser}}''. The character in the film even shares the same first name.
** The Meat King may be a reference to the character "Fat Bastard" from Austin Powers, as they are both Scottish and both morbidly obese. His inspiration may also have come from the character "Pearl", an obese vampire in the film ''Film/{{Blade}}''. Like Sturrock, Pearl hosts lavish S&M parties and tortures his victims in the hideout. Also like Sturrock, Pearl is confined to his bed and helpless.
** Cayne resembles Le Chiffre from the remake of ''[[Film/CasinoRoyale2006 Casino Royale]]'' starring Daniel Craig.
** Wade is modeled on David Carradine's character in ''Film/KillBill''. (Before his death, Carradine was planned to voice Blake Dexter, but the role eventually went to his brother Keith.)
** Hitman's Christmas '16 mission: Kill the bumbling burglars from ''Film/HomeAlone''. Marv even giggles each time he robs a trinket or floods a sink.
* CasinoPark: The Thermal Bath Hotel has a casino on the second floor. If you track Fritz down to the casino or restaurant, you can initiate a conversation with him to see what type of man he is and also to hear some cool lines delivered by David Bateson. (Always bet on black.) ''Blood Money'' used the Shamal Hotel and Casino for a nighttime mission, but you still can't play the tables.
* CameraPerspectiveSwitch: From the second game onwards the player can switch from third- to first-person at any time. Certain actions force one perspective or the other.
* CampingACrapper:
** Pretty much everybody has to go sooner or later, and a person standing in a room by themselves with their face against the wall just screams "Easy kill!" Even if your primary target doesn't take bathroom breaks, odds are his personal bodyguards will so you can easily get their clothes and go anywhere you like.
** You'd think you could just wait in the Cheng Chau bathroom and kick down the door in a surprise attack, but the Chief [[DefiedTrope didn't rise in rank by being stupid]]. If you're in the bathroom after everyone's entered the restaurant, the Chief will come and kick you out. You could, of course, just kill him then, but then the Blue Lotus negotiator will take off, causing a Game Over. Funny how one of ''Hitman''[=s=] very first bathrooms can't be used for ambush.
* CerebusRollercoaster: Take a look at ''Blood Money'' and Hitman 2016: The scenes are high-end fashion shows and supermodel pool parties. Now look at ''Absolution'': It had that dirty and sometimes western feel to it. A gruffer, scarred, tougher-looking Hitman starred in that game.
* ChangingClothesIsAFreeAction: In ''Hitman'', 47 changes clothes insanely fast, and doesn't have to transfer his gear to a new outfit either. It takes a few seconds, meaning that if the coast isn't clear you can be caught unawares by guards.
* CheckpointStarvation:
** Depending on the difficulty level, you can only save a certain amount of times during a single mission, or sometimes not at all. In SA, you're still rewarded with a bonus save if you rescue Agent Smith or Mei Ling, which is nice, as those missions are easily the most grueling of the game.
** The original ''Codename 47'' had no save states '''OR''' checkpoints. If you screwed up just once, you were likely to end up being riddled with bullets and sent back to the beginning of the mission; some of the more elaborate missions could be 30-50 minutes or more in length. Later games let you save in the middle of a mission, and (on the regular difficulty) allowed 47 to sustain much more damage before dying.
* ChefOfIron:
** Dress up as a chef and make a dish to die for. Literally.
** In [=H:C47=], you may get attacked by one of the chefs wielding a meat cleaver in Hong's place.
* ChokeHolds:
** The ''Hitman'' series plays this in a realistic way with the fiber wire; granted, it's very quick and easy, but the fact that 47 suddenly crushes his victim's windpipe very forcibly means it's ''always'' fatal.
** Played somewhat straighter in ''Absolution'', which adds chokeholds to your repertoire. While standard goons go down in about six seconds, the player must to surprise them, enemies always struggle and have to be wrestled, and 47 has the option of breaking their neck if they're too uncooperative.
* CIAEvilFBIGood: Inverted. Smith is an upstanding (if incompetent) CIA agent who has the best interests of his country at heart. The terror ringleader of ''Blood Money'' on the other hand, is [[spoiler:a former Director of the FBI]]. This further complicated by [[spoiler:Cayne]]'s vast network of friends in the other agencies--including one Agent Martinez, a bag man for the CIA.
* CigarChomper:
** Two of 47's 'parents', Pablo and Boris, are shown lighting up.
** When we first meet the Don in chile, he tosses a cigar stub into the river. This man is a threat to public health, in more ways than one.
** Alexander Cayne is shown rummaging for a cigar during his interview, and gets very agitated at having to ask a nurse to light it.
** The leader of the Saints, [=LaSandra Dixon=], steps out of the bus with a stogie clenched between her teeth. Now ''that's'' an entrance. Dexter is also shown puffing on a cigar in the comic-book renderings.
* ClimbingClimax: Many targets seem to have an allergy to the first floor. Lorne, Hayomoto Sr., and Blake Dexter are some prominent examples.
* CloningBlues:
** Averted. 47 never angsts over being the clone of some of the worst criminals on the planet and its not until ''Blood Money'' that his being a clone becomes really relevant to the plot.
** The Mr. 38 "Betas" are only half formed, with missing limbs and exposed muscle tissue on their face. When we do meet an earlier model of Hitman, Mr. 17, he appears perfectly normal apart from a lack of independent thought. The cult leader in Punjab manages to brainwash 17 into coming over to his side.
** ''Blood Money'', in turn, reveals that Dr. Ortmeyer's cloning techniques are being "circulated" through the hands of various organizations including The Franchise... but due to missing details, or maybe some special ingredient (the "47th chromosome") known only to Ortmeyer, all of the clones are flawed. Specifically, they're all albino and mysteriously die after one or two years.
* ColorCodedForYourConvenience:
** There's no mistaking the Red Dragon Triads and the Blue Lotus Triads.
** 17 is similar to his little "brother" in appearance, the difference being that he wears sunglasses and a golden tie. Much like 47 did with Tom the Tailor, 17 has imprinted on the Russian mob in his style of dress.
** In Pine Cone rehab, you can tell the goombas apart from their colored robes.
** "The Murder of Crows": There are 3 types of bird suits wandering around Bourbon Street. The yellow ones are guards, hired to keep watch over the big bird building. They won't bother you unless you sneak in or attack them. Diana tells you to pay close attention to the bird in red: This is Billy Jack, a courier employed by The Crows. He was assigned to transport a suitcase containing diamonds to an albino, who is The Franchise's point-man on this operation. The black birds are your targets, and are the hardest to find. Note also the Red, Blue, and Green neon signs above the music bars. The bouncers won't let you in the doors if you're wearing anything other than a partygoer's outfit, and it's got to match the color of the sign. (A waiter costume will also work.) Once you're inside, nobody cares what you wear.
* CombatDiplomacyStealth: Most missions give you the options of run-and-gunning (at the risk of killing civilians), disguises (which sometimes let you access areas or talk to people whom you couldn't otherwise), or avoiding or evading conflict in the first place via stealth.
* CombatStilettos:
** Charlie's bodyguards are wearing color-specific bikinis and high heels. Two of the Franchise assassins in ''Blood Money'' are also wearing heels.
** The Saints aren't really dressed appropriately for the jungle.
** If you corner Layla in the panic room (again in ''Absolution'') A cutscene will be triggered in which Layla strips to her underwear and high heels and tries to seduce 47. She will then whip out a gun and unload it. At this point you have a few seconds to save yourself. Should you lose the quick-draw duel, Layla looms over 47 and [[CameraAbuse drives her heel through the camera lens]].
* {{Confessional}}:
** Shortly after taking control of 47 in the prologue, talk to your friend and mentor Father Vittorio. 47 needs to speak to him about his troubles and Father Vittorio tells 47 to meet him confession.
** In California, 47 says the password (11:45) and meets with Diana in person (she's in the confessional booth) for his briefing.
* ConspicuouslyPublicAssassination: "Accidents" happen every day.
** You either play it loud or quiet. The funny thing about "The Jacuzzi Job" in particular is that it's supposed to look like a robbery gone bad. However, if you get a good rating, then security will find a safe broken into, the power knocked out, a sopping-wet, naked corpse hidden behind a vibrating bed, with a dead identical twin in the basement and a half dozen clueless witnesses. Nope, nothing odd about that.
** "The Murder of Crows". If you pop Raymond but neglect Angelina for too long, she'll climb aboard the Secretary's float and slit his throat. Yes, she is that crazy.
* ContextSensitiveButton: Under the ''Hitman'' control scheme, pressing the "Use" key may cause the player character to perform any one of literally hundreds of actions, depending on context. Walk up to certain [=NPCs=] with your hands empty and "Use" will start a conversation with them. Sneaking up on them from behind with a pistol drawn or looking down on them through the roof hatch of an elevator with your garrotte equipped will yield far less benevolent options.
* ContinuityNod:
** The Red Dragons symbol is on the Meat King's opium pipes. Looks as if Lee Hong was supplying him with opium. Seems legit, considering how vast his enterprise was in 1999.
** Assorted radio reports in ''Hitman: Absolution'':
*** A radio broadcast that can be heard during "A Personal Contract" mentions the death of Richard Strong, the target of the pre-order bonus "Sniper Challenge" mission.
*** In the Shangri-La Garden ("Run For Your Life"), the dial is tuned to Radio/CoastToCoastAM (or something like it), and the host is mulling over the suspicious death of Alexander Cayne.
*** The announcer in "Attack of the Saints" states that The King of Chinatown was Don Fernando Delgado's main buyer.
** Upon close examination, the Praetorian EliteMooks from the final battle of ''Absolution'' are albino, and appear to be remarkably identical in appearance. This, combined with their unique MadeOfIron durability (it take about 20 assault rifle rounds to kill one of them), may be a hint that they're Class II clones, like the Franchise's Mark series were.
** Yuki Yamazaki in "Situs Inversus". Her backstory explaining her rise to power begins with the gang wars that resulted from 47's assassinations of Masahiro Hayamoto and his son in ''Silent Assassin''.
* ContrivedCoincidence: Nearly every mission of every game will include at least one; a model working closely with a target looks almost exactly like 47, or a target has a taste for deadly fugu fish, or a fondness for a vintage microphone notoriously prone to fatal electrical surges. In her briefings Diana will often take an amused tone when describing these coincidences, but she never seems to notice just how often they occur.
* CoupDeGraceCutscene: The White Room.
** ''Codename 47'' delivers a NeckSnap to Doctor Ortmeyer after the player shoots him. It's actually the opening cutscene for the first level in ''Contracts''.
** After the final shootout in ''Silent Assassin'', 47 simply caps Sergei in the melon to finish him off.
** At the end of ''Absolution'', 47 delivers a final gunshot to Travis after blowing open the crypt he's hiding in.
* CradlingYourKill:
** If you've poisoned or tranquilized someone.
** Players do this to Dr. Ortmeyer seconds before 47 snaps his neck ("You broke my heart, my son."), and again to Diana after he shoots her non-lethally.
* CrapSaccharineWorld:
** Rural Sicily is shown to be something of an {{Arcadia}} in ''Silent Assassin''...when you aren't being beaten and/or extorted by mobsters who can barely squeeze their fat asses into their sports car.
** Hope, South Dakota is an ironic name. It's where hope goes to die.
* CreatorCameo:
** It is interesting to note that the ICA logo is based on the original [[SecretIntelligenceService MI5]] emblem, replacing the characters in its three corners (originally M, I, and 5) from left to right with IOI, for IO Interactive.
** Ort-Meyer's car (the one you can escape in) has an emblem on the grill reading "IOI", short for IO Interactive of course. Same goes for the sedan you're supposed to bug in "Deadly Cargo" (the one which belongs to Rutger's lieutenant). Campbell Sturrock is also processing and shipping IOI brand meat.
** An Easter Egg in "Asylum Aftermath": In the lab adjacent to 47's "fathers" all floating in cryo-pods, there's another set of pods with [[DevelopersRoom the IO producers' names engraved on them.]]
** Giles, the VIP in "Beldingford Manor", bears a resemblance to Jesper Kyd, the composer of the ''Hitman'' soundtracks. This might explain why he talks in an American accent.
** "Death of a Showman" is surely a reference to ''Theatre/DeathOfASalesman'', but did you know that Jesper Kyd scored the music of ''Death of a Saleswoman''?
** In "The Meat King's Party", another (male) developer's face is included on Malcolm's candlelit altar, as a joke.
** There are signs at the Shamal (particularly a big one in the lobby) that read "Allan Hansen's Street Magic". Allan Hansen is one of the developers of the ''Hitman'' series and ''VideoGame/FreedomFighters''.
** IO animator Barbara Bernad recorded the off-key vocal performance for the song Eve sings.
--->"Boy, is she hot! Terrible singer, though."
** In the White House level, in the security room next to the metal detectors, there's a newspaper with the text: "PPOT ROCKS! The [[UsefulNotes/{{Commodore64}} Commodore 64]] revival band gets major breakthru in the U.S." Indeed. One of the game's programmers, Theo Engell-Nielsen, plays synth in that band.
** In the ad following "Amendment XXV", the two boxers that fight it out at "IOI Grand Palace" are actually Martin Guldbaek and Rune Brinckmeyer, two programmers that worked on the previous ''Hitman'' games. Brinckmeyer sat out ''Silent Assassin'', though. They also programmed ''Freedom Fighters.''
** In the final level, "Requiem", the name on the gravestones is "Guldbrandsen", a talented programmer who worked on all the previous ''Hitman'', ''Freedom Fighters'' and some others (hence the dates "1998-2004").
* CreepyCrows:
** Cawing outside of the Gontanno Sanctuary in the final level of SA. ''Blood Money'' opens with them fluttering around the gravestones at 47's funeral.
** "The Crows" are a pair of assassins, Raymond and Angelina, who have a loose affiliation with The Franchise. They're both wearing bird costumes which ordinarily would give away their positions, but blend in well for this nighttime mission.
* CrowdPanic: Civilian [=NPCs=] panic and flee at anything vaguely violent or seeing someone with a gun in a non-military context. They'll also run if they find evidence of your handiwork, i.e. corpses or in some cases bloodstains. In SA, the civilians will give you more headaches than the guards in most cases.
* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Most "accidental" deaths are especially gruesome and [[IronicDeath ironic]] compared to the alternative of being garroted or shot, such as killing Dr. Green by [[spoiler:dropping him into a pit of pigs]] in ''Absolution''.
* CutsceneIncompetence:
** Cutscenes eat up way too much time in ''Silent Assassin''. It is important that you skip the cutscene which follows after you shoot Sergei through the confessional window; if you don't, then most times Sergei's [=SP12=] Shotgun will eat through your health in an instant (although sometimes he will just bolt upstairs). If you skip the cutscene, it will keep him from firing at you roughly 95% of the time.
** If you follow Eve into the office after she invites you and she pulls out her stiletto before you can kill her, you are dead -- even if you manage to kill her before the cutscene with her knifing 47 to death appears.
** As you enter the Oval Office, a scene will play, and 47 refuses to plug Mark in the forehead when he has the chance. Instead, Mark activates a mine hidden behind right behind you, and you'll wind up chasing his pasty ass up to the roof.
** Twice in ''Absolution''. First attempting to garrote Sanchez, then sneaking up on Skurky while [[HarmlessElectrocution standing on a puddle of water]].
* CuttingOffTheBranches: The opening to ''Hitman'' (2016) kicks off with a montage of 47's kills, one from each game. According to canon, the Red Dragon ambassador was shot with a sniper rifle (not poisoned), Fritz Fuchs was drowned in the hotel pool, Junior ate fish spiked with fugu, Don Delgado was throttled while playing the cello, and Dom was shot from behind a security mirror.
* DamnItFeelsGoodToBeAGangster:
** By 47's own words, he doesn't perform "ordinary hits", and charges three times the usual Agency rate--up to $750,000 per hit. "I've got a reputation to protect." Also, the majority of his targets are either protected by the government or residing in some opulent mansion with round-the-clock security. Seems reasonable to demand a bigger salary if the risk is high and he's in such high demand.
** Masahiro Hayamoto and son. Hayamoto resides in a six-story feudal castle which is guarded by high-tech shinobi ninjas, snipers, and electronic security measures. Not to mention the 4th floor is inhabited by his concubines.
** Deewanna Ji does pretty well for a messiah who eschewed all worldly vices. His cult made him immensely rich and powerful, affording him two private islands, lavish medical treatment, and a 60 ft. yacht (moored next to your starting position in "Terminal Hospitality").
* DamnYouMuscleMemory:
** Anyone who switched from the later games to ''Codename 47'' will be surprised with how different the controls and interfaces are.
** The control system was also significantly revamped in between ''Contracts'' and '''Blood Money''.
* DangerRoomColdOpen:
** Ort-Meyer's training facility is a cardboard cityscape with pop-up cutouts to shoot ("Red is for baaaaad guys!"). There is also a shooting gallery and a stationary doll to strangle. In the updated ''Contracts'' training level, there are SWAT officers to sneak up on and kill.
** In the ''Hitman'' '16 training missions, the targets, guards and civilians are played by ICA employees. 47 can throw them off buildings, drown them in toilets or throw knives at them which remain stuck in their heads. Good thing Diana told him beforehand that all weapons are just "simulated".
* DarkerAndEdgier: ''Contracts'', ''Blood Money'', and ''Absolution'' have a darker and grittier atmosphere. ''Absolution'' in particular was inspired by grindhouse films and the works of Creator/QuentinTarantino, and is particularly lurid and wanton.
* DeadMansChest: Yes, Body Box (tm) brand body disposal devices. Making ''Hitman'' games way easier since 2006!
* DeadPersonImpersonation:
** On rare occasions, 47 can assume the identity of a Target (the Red Dragon negotiator, Dr. Kovacs, Ort-Meyer's clones, Fabian Fuchs, Hendrick Schmutz, or Agent Martinez), but you'll have to kill them first. It doesn't always work, however: a lab coat alone won't permit you entry into Fritz's dental office, and Angelina will show you no mercy if you get caught with her hubby's Mardi Gras costume.
** "Gunrunner's Paradise" involves ambushing and taking over an illegal weapons deal.
** There's a VIP room in the Pink Mansion where the Franchise assassin waits out the mission, and if you go in there, she'll try to stab you in the throat. If you look behind the sofa, 47 spies the silhouette of a unfortunate hostess lying dead in the same room. Looks like the hitwoman killed the bunny and assumed her place.
** If you hang around the Shark Club's garage, a guest will stagger out the elevator and puke on the pavement, claiming the bartender is to blame. He's refering to the hitman Maynard John, who obviously isn't very practiced in bartending. Also, if you chat up the waiter in the "Heaven" party upstairs, he mentions how awful the cabaret singer is and that they had to rush-hire another singer because the old one "had a fatal accident". That's a great clue right there as to "Eve's" real identity (a good assassin and a ''bad'' singer).
* DeathByGluttony:
** "The Meat King". Most of the stealthy ways of killing him involve serving him a ''whole roast chicken''. Once you're inside his booth, Jabba the Scotsman will dismiss his hoochies and demand the food. Draw the blinds, retrieve your weapon, and let him have it. The chicken that is. Once he starts eating, you can either shoot him or slash him with a melee weapon. Diana probably had a good chuckle at reading that autopsy report.
** In "Flatline", Lorenzo seems to have an obvious problem with authority, as he was told to stay on a strict diet but is secretly cooking Italian food in his room with a small butane lighter. Give him a terminal case of heartburn by leaving the gas on.
** Ditto Skip Muldoon from ''Blood Money'', considering the stealthy ways to kill him involve smuggling things in ''a cake''. In the mission which immediately follows that, 47 can also meddle with a wedding cake. Make yourself scarce, and eventually the groom will come in, sample the merest fingertip of icing, and perish from the poison.
** The Hope Cougars are enjoying some Chicago-style pizza in celebration of their first big score. "Limp-Dick" Lenny Dexter plans to move north with his old man and take over the city with his alkie friends. You can safety neutralize him by adding sleeping pills to the pizza.
** After gunning down the sushi guy, Layla will take his food platter and set it down in the banquet hall as though nothing happened. (Keep the change, we guess.) There's a vial of poisonous tree frog extract elsewhere in this level. Give her a case of indigestion. After a taste, Layla will decide she's a ladybug and jump off the top floor of the skyscraper to her death
* DeathByLookingUp:
** Chandeliers, cement blocks, disco balls, whale skeletons, cars, [[PianoDrop pianos...]]
** The ability to rig up proximity mines in ''Blood Money'' opens up a whole range of possibilities.
** In the winery, Manuel Delgado follows a set route, barring his one-time trip to the drug lab with the pony-tailed agent. After snorting in the wine cellar, he stands under the precarious elevator full of barrels, almost screaming out, "Please drop these on me!" And who are we to argue?
** Strangely, in the winery, you can make the barrels drop by throwing items at them, but this doesn't seem to faze Manuel if he's under them. What gives? This was fixed in ''Absolution'': the 'throw' function will cause much bigger problems for your enemies than just annoying them, if aimed correctly.
** One of the most interesting accidents happens in "A New Life". If you check out the home extension with the indoors pool, the ceiling is made out of glass. If you shoot the ceiling, the glass will shower over everyone below, killing them. But watch out, since it can kill 47 also.
* DeepSouth: ''Death On The Mississippi'' and ''Till Death Do Us Part'' in ''Blood Money''.
** You would think South Dakota was also part of the South, based on the stereotypes it plays up.
* DeliveryGuyInfiltration: When you absolutely, positively have to kill someone overnight.™
** As 47 approaches the Villa Borghese, he spots 3 disguises right out of the gate: a mobster, a delivery boy, and a postman. If you run, you get the postman or the mobster before they're done piddling in the bushes. The delivery boy can't be replaced (he's a regular face around here), but hiding guns in his crate is a good tactic.
** "Basement Killing": One large pizza with pepperoni, mushrooms and death. This plan is also fun, mostly because of the pink shorts. (It helps that the delivery boy is balding, just like 47.)
** 47 has the option of stealing the caterer's suit in "A New Life" and First-Class Purser's uniform in "Death On the Mississippi". You can also dress up as Billy Jack (the red bird) and make the money drop, if you like.
** Fodder for some black humor in "Blackwater Park". As 47 presses the elevator panel to go up, a gasping delivery boy carrying a big tray of sushi dives in the elevator at the last minute. His attempts at small-talk [[UncomfortableElevatorMoment fall flat]] on the mute Mister 47. When the elevator doors open, [[DeconstructedTrope he gets shot to pieces]] by Layla's guards while 47 zips up the emergency hatch unharmed. Layla will then fetch his sushi platter and bring it into the boardroom. You can still avenge the delivery guy by spiking the fish with poison.
* DesperationAttack: The "'''Last Man Standing'''" mechanic in ''Contracts'' and ''Blood Money''. When the player has lost all health, 47 enters {{bullet time}} and has a small sliver of time to save himself. He must score at 3 headshots to escape the mode. Alternatively, if the player has completed all objectives and is very close to the exit, it is possible to escape while in slow motion. If the player succeeds in taking the shots, time will speed up again and the game continues, but another hit will kill 47 for good.
* DeusAxMachina:
** "In case of emergency break glass"? Don't mind if I do. Axes are found in a few ''Absolution'' missions. They can be used as throwing objects (to distract, or to hit someone with) or to kill someone from behind.
** The loading screen to "Basement Killing" has 47 menacingly brandishing it. Not a whole lot of ambiguity to your objective, then? A firefighter's uniform will get you into the titular basement, as well as provide you a perfect murder weapon. This is quite possibly the most fun Silent Assassin rating you'll ever get.
* DevelopersForesight:
** In ''Absolution'' mission "End of the Road", [[spoiler:Lenny]] has several responses to various weapons you brandish at him, including a silenced pistol.
** In ''Absolution'', one mission has 47 in a courtroom. It is possible to subdue or kill the judge, disguise as him, and ''dismiss a case then order a recess'' in order to proceed and access to the next section. This is one of the rare moments (if not the only one) where 47 not only dresses but also acts as the person he impersonates.
** Since it's possible to dress as a priest in ''Blood Money'', the player is allowed to perform a wedding ceremony.
** In ''Absolution'', in the first level of "Dexter Industries", you must disable two security systems. While you are given a prompt to disable them by pressing a button, you could also simply shoot it.
* DiabolicalMastermind:
** Dr. Ort-Meyer in ''Codename 47''. Seeking to birth a new human race, the authorities condemned his experiments. He escaped to France, and later Romania where he concealed his illegal research in the cellar of a hospital. He has juice with the Hong Kong Triads as well as other gangs.
** [[spoiler:Cayne]] in ''Blood Money''. He's a dirty political boss who intends to kill the President and install a puppet in his place.
* DigitalBikini:
** "Traditions of the Trade". It's not every day you shoot a pair of Nazis in their speedos.
** You gotta love the maids in Beldingford Manor. "I wear my clothes in the shower, but I make sure my thong is showing."
** Talk to the bartender in the Rotterdam strip joint, and he'll tell you that he can arrange a private session for you. How thoughtful. But, being the efficient killer you are, you know that this session can be put to better uses: In [=C47=], the dancer is more than happy to distract the driver for you (using the lamp post for a grinding pole, no less), but no more. In ''Contracts'', she and the driver will neck in the alleyway for a minute, then both will return to their posts. Was ''that'' really worth $1000?
** In ''Blood Money'', if you slip a mickey into the martini at the bar, eventually the waiter in the white tuxedo jacket will bring the martini to Bingham and he will promptly drink it. From time to time, a woman in a red bikini will sit down next to Chad and flirt with him. He and the woman will go into a back bedroom for some privacy, so peek into the keyhole if you're feeling voyeuristic. After a VERY long...... lap dance. The woman will return to the party in her bikini while Chad (still clothed) will head for the to the cliffside balcony to have a cigarette.
* DirtyCop: The ''Hitman'' series has several antagonists who are corrupt members of law enforcement.
** ''Codename 47'' has the Hong Kong Chief of Police. While he does his best to keep the bloodshed to a minimum, his relationship with the Hong Kong Triad is a cozy one. The big fear is that something might happen to the Chief to replace him a callow subordinate who refuses to play ball.
** ''Contracts'' features one as the main antagonist. Albert Fornier is a police inspector with tendrils stretching all across Paris. He has been educated about 47 by the Franchise (as revealed in ''Blood Money''), and sends a 51-man GIGN team to kill him. In ''Blood Money'', the Tenor is making his big comeback after his acquittal on statutory rape charges. Although the lead witness was later found dead in a ravine, her death was ruled a suicide...
** The client in "Rendezvous in Rotterdam" is a Mayoral candidate who is photographed with a prostitute in the back of a police van. Between that, and his relationship with Teller (the Target), it can be guessed that he worked for the police before entering politics.
** In ''Absolution'', pretty much the entire sheriff's department of Hope, South Dakota, including the sheriff, Clive Skurky, is on the take from Blake Dexter. Also, in some of the Chicago levels, police officers work for the crooks in some capacity (that is, when they aren't dealing drugs themselves).
* DisconnectedByDeath:
** After getting the drop on Mr. 17, our hero overhears Sergei's voice barking orders at 17 over his earpiece. 47 decides to try some Clone-Jitsu and talks back like nothing's happened, since he and 17 share the same voice.
** Reach out and touch someone. If you call Vinnie's cell phone from the FBI van across the street, you can snipe him through a window as he's answering it.
** You can also shoot the Sheik as he's returning Tariq's call. The casino blocks all calls coming from outside the casino (to prevent cheating), and the Sheik is too well protected to kill inside the building, so this is a clever way to lure him outside. Just phone him from Tariq's suite on the 8th floor, and eventually, the Sheikh will emerge way down below in the outdoor area you can see (and aim at).
* DisneyVillainDeath:
** If you dump bodies via the balcony, the game doesn't count it as kill, but an accident. For some reason, a fall from at 30 stories won't raise suspicion, but this is another way to hide bodies, anyway.
** Any human shield can be picked up and hurled off a balcony. Dexter's secretary can fall to her death if you dose her with a hallucinogen.
** If you're feeling wicked, you can also shoot out the bottom of the jacuzzi Chad is in, the glass will give way and Bingham will fall to his gruesome death. And we have it on good authority that the three bunnies in the tub with him were all habitual kitten abusers, so don't let them burden your conscience.You can also catch him during a post-coital smoke break, which is quieter. Shove him off the balcony, and he'll topple into the jagged rocks far, far below.
* DistressedDude:
** Agent Smith, often. No wonder he took up drinking.
** Vittorio is a kindhearted priest in mob-controlled Sicility who does his best to keep his nose clean. However, Sergei Zavorotko and Man in Black have other plans... They enlist the Sicilian mob to abduct Vittorio as a ultimatum to his gardener, Mr. 47. This is really just a lure to get 47 had to accept a special contract which Sergei has already filed with the Agency.
** Are you a bad enough dude to rescue President Stewart?
* DisturbedDoves:
** The loading screen for "Redemption at Gontranno" is another nod to John Woo.
** There are some doves nesting in the belfry of the Paris opera house. If you climb up and down the ladders, birds will scatter all over the place. Pigeons play a role in the Chicago levels of ''Absolution'', too, namely in the library and the pigeon coop.
* DonutMessWithACop:
** In ''Absolution'', certain items can allow 47 to hide in plain sight if he has the right disguise; while an electrician outfit lets you pretend to fix a cable, the cop outfit naturally allows you to hang around the donut box. The scene is spoofed by Creator/HarryPartridge in this animation where our Master of Disguise is dressed not as the cop, but one of the donuts!
** ''Hitman: Blood Money'' extends this trope to FBI agents. By far the easiest way to accomplish this mission is to inject a pack of donuts with anesthetic (or poison, if you're feeling mean) outside the unmarked surveillance-van and knock on the door, and run away. The FBI-agent pops out, goes "Ooooh, donuts! Score!" and then proceeds to share them with his partner. If you don't leave the donuts and knock, the FBI agents will eventually steal them from the catering truck on their own.
* DragonLady:
** The brothel madam in [=C47=] and ''Contracts''. She's harmless enough in the PC game, but makes a much bigger impression in the remake. (Skip out on the bill ''at your own risk''.)
** Travis' lieutenant is Jade Nguyen, an ICA analyst. She is sporting a visible dragon tattoo on her abdomen, hair sticks, and the name is vindictive of Vietnamese origin. As for her business suit....well, black vinyl isn't usually worn on weekdays, though it's not unheard of in ICA. (''Still'' less conspicuous than the Saints.)
* DressingAsTheEnemy: A simple method of infiltration, and the game's main feature. Beware, other assassins will use this same tactic against you.
* DropTheHammer: An ordinary household hammer is one of the many weapons that 47 can use to execute his targets (or anyone else for that matter). Made all the more gruesome by a special head-crunching animation when 47 successfully pulls off a sneak attack on his victim.
* {{Eagleland}}: Amerika ist wunderbar. ''Blood Money'' takes 47 to New Jersey, California, the Rockies, UsefulNotes/NewOrleans, the DeepSouth, Las Vegas and Washington D.C.; appropriately, a wide range of accents are represented. ''Absolution'' alternates between Midwestern accents for the missions in Chicago, and Southwest accents for those taking place in Hope, South Dakota.
* EasierThanEasy: The amount of health 47 has on "Easy" is too much for a stealth game, but is suitable for a shooting game.
* EasterEgg:
** '''''[[http://imgur.com/CleeZ God dammit, Allan!]]'''''
*** For those not in the know, a pointless item in ''Blood Money'' (a lobster in the sex club level) has no description in the inventory, but rather the message "[[AC:Allan please add details]]". This has since become a meme where IO demands "More details, Allan!" as a form of mockery.
** Dolph the Fascist Hippo, [=FCK=] soccer, [[VideoGame/CommanderKeen Dopefish]], Webcomic/PokeyThePenguin, [[VideoGame/MiniNinjas Hiro]] and others make regular appearances.
** The rubber ducky that appears in every installment is notable because it even made it into the film adaption and was referenced in a cross-promotion crossover with ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2.''
* EiffelTowerEffect:
** Happily averted in [=C47=]. Our globetrotting 'hero' rarely checks himself into a conspicuous place ("So this is Hong Kong...Not really my scene"), though ''Blood Money'' eventually led him into the White House.
** Katsuyama-Jo bears resemblance to a [[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Katsuyama_Castle_Museum_2002-06-10.jpg real castle]] in Central Japan, also named Katsuyama, on the Fukui Prefecture. The real castle, which is a reconstruction of the original 16th century castle founded by Shibata Katsuyasu, is a lesser-known tourist attraction in Japan. Just like the real Katsuyama, the in-game castle has 6 floors and houses a museum.
** In ''Silent Assassin'', 3 missions are set in and around the Petronas Towers.
** "Terminal Hospitality". This level was originally going to be set in the Golden Temple, but due to pressure from religious groups, IO changed it. Sikhs said the scene looks exactly like the inside of the Golden Temple in Amritsar.
** During the mission which takes place in the Shamal, it is possible to see models of real life locations such as the Belmondouz Hotel taking place for the real life Bellagio. The Shamal Casino bears a slight resemblance to the real-life Mirage Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.
** The opera house appears to be based off the real-life Salle Le Peletier opera house in Paris. The chandelier in the actual theater is almost identical to the one in this opera house, as are the murals on the ceiling and around the chandelier.
** Pine Cone is very similar to real-life California luxury rehab clinics like Passages and Promises in that they cater only to very wealthy clients and have celebrity alumni. However, they are known for their lenient ("revolving door") policies as opposed to Pine Cone's very strict methods. The architecture of the building is meant to resemble that of Frank Lloyd Wright.
** The church in "Requiem" is supposed to resemble Jubilee Church in Rome, although there are differences in the layout, and the in-game church seems to be somewhere on the American upper east coast. It's also possible that the church is based on the private chapel of the "Palácio da Alvorada," Brazil's presidential palace.
** In Act 2 of ''Absolution'', we fade in on Mt. Rushmore as Birdie is haggling with two Southwestern men. Blake and his henchman present their counter-offer: dangling poor Birdie over the gorge.
** Averted on any occasion that 47 actually visits Paris: In ''Contracts'', he's holed up in a hotel while recovering from a gunshot wound that he got after performing a hit at an opera house during the events of ''Blood Money''. The 2016 game's first episode is entirely set at a major fashion event. None of these events occur anywhere near the Eiffel Tower.
* EliteMooks:
** [=SWAT=] officers are equipped with body armor, assault rifles, and have a unique A.I. that actually sweeps through the level in squads searching for you, instead of simply guarding one location and reacting to your actions like every other enemy type in the game. They also attack much faster than regular enemies.
** There are Elite Mooks up the wazoo in ''Absolution''. Chicago SWAT officers wield sub-machine guns and wear body armor, Blackwater Tactical Team members come equipped with body armor and silenced weapons, and the mother of all Elite Mooks, the Agency Heavy Troopers, who are covered head to toe in armor and use the most powerful assault rifles in the game.
** The Saints are played up in the promos to be a badass group of assassins dressed as nuns, and 47 just barely survives the encounter. In-game, however, they are as susceptible to all the [[OneHitKill One Hit Kills]] the normal mooks are, from headshots to garroting.
** Travis' last line of defense is referred to as the Praetorian Guard: a squad of white-haired special forces who hole in at the church and booby trap the outside. As badass as they may be, they go down just like everybody else.
* EmptyQuiver:
** In "Plutonium Runs Loose"/"Deadly Cargo", Boris arranges for the sale of a nuclear bomb under cover of nightfall. If 47 (or anyone else) tries to bring him to justice, he'll arm it, potentially engulfing the entire harbor in an atomic blast.
** Charlie Sidjan and his brother created a missile guiding chip capable of fooling the United States automated missile shield by making hostile missiles appear to have been launched by the US.
** In ''Silent Assassin'', Sergei is the client you've been helping track down all the various missile components. But now he's crossed the line (acquiring a nuke), and the United Nations wants The Agency's help in ridding the world of this clown. It is against The Agency's ethics, such as they are, to perform a hit on a former customer, but they have decided to make an exception due to the business prospects associated with the UN.
* EnemyChatter
** In the remake of "Traditions of the Trade", you can overhear one of the male guests complaining about Fritz Fuchs reserving the entire indoor pool for himself only. "What's the point of staying at the Thermal Bath Hotel if you can't use the ''Thermal Bath''?"
** ''Blood Money'' was the first to let you eavesdrop on [=NPC=] banter, although it was still pretty limited. Mostly it's stuff to do with the upcoming Presidential election. In the rehab clinic, one of the nurses complains about a grouchy "albino" doctor lurking around the place, but he's already come and gone, so don't worry about it. (This is a hint for 47 to steal a doctor outfit.) Also, there's a funny scene where one of the "Gators" tries to charm a southern lass on the boat, only to receive "keep in your pants, Romeo" as an answer. Shove him over the side of the boat to ''really'' ruin his evening.
** ''Hitman: Absolution'', which advertises itself as having "a living, breathing world" ®, contains numerous irrelevant sequences with both enemies and civilians. For example, "Terminus Hotel" itself contains (among other things): a shoe salesman attempting to flirt with a maid; a woman arguing with her unemployed partner (who is having a midlife/existential crisis); a territorial landlady bickering with security; and two electricians discussing a friend who was struck by lightning and who can now light bulbs by touching them.
--->''Life is a wonderful thing. Full of hopes and fears. Comedy and tragedy. Thousands of lives intermingle. An intricate web of relations and situations. Desires and regrets. Plans. Allegiances. Watching from the shadows, 47 learns the most intimate of secrets.''
* EnemyDetectingRadar: The sat-map of the area you carry in a laptop is insanely accurate, even displaying which way doors open, where the fusebox is, and the movements of every person on the premises, yourself included. If only 47 could stay on the move while on his computer, he could navigate the whole level like Doomguy, never leaving his laptop. On the higher difficulty levels, crucial details are removed, making it a much more nerve-wracking experience (the "look through keyhole" action comes quite in handy).
* ExclusiveEnemyEquipment: Most of your inventory has to be procured from enemies you encounter, such as the katana blade, snub revolver, Bull .90, and [=M14=] (carried only by the Marines patrolling the White House).
* EscortMission:
** In both versions of the Hong Kong missions (in ''Codename 47'' and ''Contracts'') it's possible to secure a key to Lee Hong's living quarters by escorting Mei Ling to an exit (in ''Contracts'', you can just tranq/kill her, if you prefer).
** Agent Smith needs your help again in "Tubeway Torpedo". To get access to the bunker where Smith is being held, 47 needs to borrow a spare Russian officer's uniform. Congratulations on your promotion! You can also rescue Mei Ling again from Katsuyama-Jo ("Shogun Showdown"), if you so choose.
** The U.S. Secretary of the Interior, Jimmy Cilley, is visiting New Orleans to stump for the re-election of Tom Steward. ("I grew up in 'Nawlins!") Since you can't control the movements of his float, you have to protect him from the roving Angelina as well as her husband, Raymond.
** Subverted twice in ''Contracts''. In the mission "Beldingford Manor", 47 must rescue the client's son - but he's a champion sprinter, so he's more than capable of escaping without 47's help. In the mission "The Meat King's Party", 47 is likewise tasked with rescuing the client's daughter who has been kidnapped. Turns out she's been chopped to pieces. (No refunds.)
** ''Absolution'' has a segment where you have to lug Victoria (who is sedated) a short distance while avoiding Wade's crew.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Some of the guard conversations you overhear involve them talking about their families or girlfriends. Dexter himself loves his son Lenny very much too, which is evident when [[spoiler:you kill Lenny. Dexter takes it ''very'' hard. He's also willing to risk his life by staying behind to wait for Layla when evacuating Blackwater]].
* EveryBulletIsATracer: This was the case until ''Blood Money'', when the franchise took on a more realistic flavor.
* EveryoneIsArmed:
** In "'Til Death Do Us Part", all of the guests, half the guards, the two targets, and the dog (probably) are packing heat. The Blue Crabs who don't have six-shooters have shotguns instead. This mission is one of the "heaviest armed" in the ''Hitman'' saga since every NPC apart from the bride and the priest carry weapons.
** "Requiem" drops you in a confined space with 12 members of the Franchise, including [[spoiler:Cayne]] himself. One of the agents in the crowd carries not only a stiletto, but also sometimes lobs an RU-AP mine at 47 as a grenade [!].
** "Birdie's Gift": Shooting someone in the middle of a crowded gun range? Sure, nothing could possibly go wrong there! Well, unless you count 47 being turned into a human colander as something wrong...
* EveryManHasHisPrice:
** Ort-Meyer is so rich and powerful, the Agency's Board of Directors agree to accept a 5th mission from him even after realizing they've been duped.
** At the end of each level, you get your rating (as always) and, depending on how you performed, you may get a nice fat paycheck. In the original game, the Agency would deduct fees from your salary to pay for "cleaners" who tie up any loose ends you've missed, like witnesses or bodies. One perk of ''Blood Money'' is that you have the ability to decide how those cleaners are allocated. You can bribe civilians to lower 15 notoriety points, the chief of police to lower 40 notoriety points, or the US government to get an identity change for a maximum of 100 points!
* EverybodySmokes: Quite a few Sicilians and Russians go on smoke breaks.
* EvilCripple:
** All over the place in ''Absolution''. The prosthetic voice box-equipped owner of the gun shop who [[spoiler:keeps 47's Silverballers locked up]], the prosthetic-handed Benjamin Travis, the prosthetic-legged Dr. Green...
** Cayne from ''Blood Money''. Due to an undisclosed accident, he was recently confined to a wheelchair. The left side of his face is completely flayed of skin, suggesting an explosion was involved.
* EvilDetectingDog: ''Don't'' go near any animals. Best case scenario, they will give you away with their noises. That includes horses.
* EvilIsNotWellLit: This is ridiculously common. Notables: Lee Hong's restaurant in ''Contracts'', the Meat King's slaughterhouse, Cayne's mansion, and Dexter's penthouse.
* EvilOldFolks: Frantz Fuchs (ex-member of the Hitler Youth), Masahiro Hayamoto Sr. (the reclusive Yakuza boss), Don Delgado (retired Chilean spymaster), Lorne [=deHaviland=] (pornographer), Pappy [=LeBlanc=] (redneck gang leader), Blake Dexter (weapons manufacturer), and [[spoiler:Erich Soders (former headhunter for ICA).]]
* EvilRedhead:
** Diana Burnwood, not coincidentally, is a ginger.
** Dr. Von Kamprad is the first female target of the series, as well as the second ginger (just behind Agent Smith).
** Vaana, the owner of the Shark Club in Las Vegas, can be found presiding over the "Hell" section of the dance floor. The Devil wears...cornrows?
** Margeaux [=LeBlanc=] a.k.a "The Bayou Beauty".
* ExposedToTheElements:
** 47 almost never wears a hat, even in Siberia! Also, if you run around at full speed in California ("A New Life"), you'll bump into a New Age jogger who will compliment your "pace" but point out that you are not dressed properly.
** In ''Silent Assassin'', Mei Ling is wearing the same purple nightie from Hong Kong. ...Except this is Japan, and it's 5000 ft. higher in altitude and -0° outside the castle.
** This is lampshaded in the Rocky Mountains by the ''Popqurn'' models you meet there. Most are wearing red bikinis and shivering from the cold.
* ExtendedDisarming: In SA, if you drop all weapons to, say, pass through a metal detector unnoticed, you'll drop: The two handed non-concealable weapon, a Beretta 9 mm, the same with a suppressor, a Tokarev (Russian handgun), a Desert Eagle, a .357 Python, 2 Hardballers, the same with suppressors, a sawn-off shotgun, a machine pistol, a kitchen knife, a combat knife, and a scalpel. You can still ''keep'': the .22 silenced handgun (probably made of titanium, since it doesn't trigger the sensors), the fiber wire (for strangulation), and the chloroform. Made worse than other examples of the trope, since you can carry them all in a tuxedo, and this is supposed to be a stealth game!
* ExternalCombustion:
** In [=H:C47=], one of the first missions requires Agent 47 to blow up a Triad limo. This is just a practice run for the game's most difficult level, "Plutonium Runs Loose": Remember the earlier mission, where Ivan tells you the location of his weapons cache (he thinks you are the arms dealer, remember?). That armory is in this mission. Just install the bomb in Boris' car and that's that.
** Ditto for SA's "Kirov Park" -- essentially a watered-down and less sadistic remix of the Harbor mission. Even if your shot barely grazes the targets, they'll both flee into their armored limousines, which 47 was [[GambitRoulette kind enough to rig with dynamite.]]
** In ''Absolution'', the best way to kill using explosives is to do lure them to their car (either by throwing an object in the vicinity or triggering the car alarm). Once he's close enough, detonate the bomb from a safe distance.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:F-H]]

* FacelessGoons:
** You come across some sent from ICA in ''Absolution''. Most frustratingly and bizarrely illogically, when you disguise yourself as them, you take everything '''but''' their masks.
** The SWAT Teams from ''Contracts'' and the ninjas from ''Silent Assassin''.
* FakeAristocrat:
** In "Beldingford Manor", 47 can conceal himself in hunting gear, complete with a tailcoat and riding boots. Steady on, old chap. Just don't unholster the shotgun while indoors.
** In India, 47 passes himself off as "Lord Sinclair". No swag worth mentioning, unless you count those stunning hospital slippers. Apparently Hitman looks so ridiculous in his hospital gown that nobody thinks he could possibly be a world-renowned assassin.
* FakingTheDead:
** "Requiem".
** Discussed in ''Absolution'''s final mission (of the same name). Benjamin and the ICA decide to exhume [[spoiler:Diana's coffin]] because they aren't sure if [[spoiler:47 killed her or not]]. In the final cutscene, [[spoiler:it's revealed that Diana faked her death, and she thanks 47 in the post-mission result screen]].
* FallingChandelierOfDoom:
** The majority of these appear in ''Blood Money'', although 47 rigs one to blow in the trailer for the new ''Hitman'' (2016)
** You can send a few crashing at the Bayou wedding. When the groom is playing the piano at the reception, use the remote-controlled mine to destroy the winch and can drop the chandelier on his head. Note that this will bring many men running to the attic, so you had best not be there at the time. Two more appear at the Opera House and the Pine Cone rehab clinic.
** There are also many winches in the Chicago library.. You can use them to release large chandeliers to kill a cop standing underneath, or just or to distract them.
* FanDisservice:
** After poor Fritz suffocates in the sauna, bare the horrors of seeing that purple g-string one more time and take his key. Just don't think about where he stashed it.
** The Jacuzzi Job. The only JigglePhysics you'll find here is a fat naked guy. Feast your eyes as 47 struggles to drag Charlie's walrus form around the penthouse.
* FatBastard:
** Franz Fuchs, the Sicilian mob don, the Sidjan Brothers, Campbell "Meat King" Sturrock, Clarence "Swing King" Clarence, Captain Skip Muldoon, and others.
* FatSweatySouthernerInAWhiteSuit:
** ''Hitman: Blood Money'': Skip Muldoon is a captain of a luxury riverboat, drug smuggler, and flaming gay stereotype. One half-expects him to break out into song.
** John "Pappy" Le Blanc: a paranoid, senile, and dangerously rich head of the Mississippi drug cartel that his half-brother Skip worked for.
** Blake Dexter, the Big Bad of Absolution and an industrialist who kidnaps Victoria.
* FatalFamilyPhoto:
** In ''Silent Assassin'', 47 stumbles across a family photo of Charlie and his twin brother, realizing he's just killed the wrong Sidjan. Looks like the Agency goofed.
** 47 was hired to kill Joesph "Swing King" Clarence by the father of one of victims in the ferris wheel accident. His special request is that Swing King be shown a photo of the boy before he dies.
* FedToPigs:
** "The Jungle God". If you really, really don't want to shoot a wild boar, you also put a dead guard on the cat's altar (they're of the pig species, too, aren't they?). Of course, you will have a lot of fun (not) dragging a body there since there are no guards near the altar.
** Alligators are present in the swamp surrounding the [=LeBlanc=] mansion. They will eat anything (or anyone) who falls in it, with the exception of 47. They can also be used to dispose of bodies. The best part is watching the feeding frenzy as they tear the victim apart in the water and carry him off into the sunset.
** One of the targets in ''Absolution'' subverts this - According to some factory workers, when he was just a kid, Dr. Green and his little sister got locked in a pig sty by a burglar, left alone and defenseless against the ravenous hogs. One of them charged his sister and Green got in the way to protect her, somehow managing to kill the pig. Unfortunately for Green, the pig collapsed on top of his leg, trapping him. It wasn't until a couple of days later that the police found them and by then Green's leg had to be amputated. This created both a phobia and hatred of pigs which persists into his adult life... making his demise all the more ironic: you can shoot out a glass floor where he stands to send him falling into a pit filled with swine. Luckily for him, the fall alone may have killed him.
* FengSchwing:
** When you start "The Jacuzzi Job", you will be on a ledge just outside a window looking into the bedroom, where 47 sees Charlie dallying with his three female Bodyguards. He's got a Jacuzzi, a wet bar, and a heart-shaped bed with a vibrate button you can activate. It should be pointed out that the windows are bulletproof, so you can't pop Charlie from here.
** Vinnie Sinistra is kind of a playboy: If you break into his room, you'll notice a collection of mirrors on the ceiling.
* FilmNoir: The later games started to veer into this territory by virtue of aiming for a more DarkerAndEdgier feel. Several missions in ''Contracts'' and ''Blood Money'' are genuinely noir in tone, as well as the two missions in Rotterdam from Codename 47. ''Absolution'', instead, goes for something of an ExploitationFilm [[GenreThrowback throwback]] feel.
* FinalBossPreview: The final boss appears or is mentioned in the opener of each game.
** ''Codename 47'': Dr. Otto Wolfgang Ort-meyer is in charge of your education in the initial training level.
** ''Silent Assassin'': Sergei appears in the flesh in SA's second mission, "St. Petersberg Stakeout". Just like [[spoiler:the bride]] in ''Blood Money'', he's actually your mystery client, so sniping him by mistake results in a Game Over.
** ''Blood Money'': Cayne spends the entire game recounting how he 'caught' 47 to Rick Hendersen, a reporter from ''First Addition''.
** ''Absolution'': Travis is steamed over Diana's defection from the Agency. He installs himself as your Handler to ensure the hit goes down smoothly. (It doesn't.)
*** In "Terminus", 47 sneaks his way to the top floor of Dexter's hotel, intent on killing him. Unfortunately, he didn't count on running into a pissed-off Mexican with gigantism.
** ''Hitman'' (2016): [[spoiler:Soders appears in your ICA Induction]] before becoming the last target of 2016 season 1. The Shadow client, who is expected to be the final boss overall, narrates the opening cinematic.
* FinishingMove: Ever since ''Contracts'', there are multiple kill animations for the Fiber Wire and a few other melee weapons.
* ForDoomTheBellTolls:
** At the conclusion of ''Silent Assassin'', Sergei rings the church bell in Palermo to summon 47.
** The priest in Mississippi will ring a bell in the front lawn. This is to let the guests know to convene at the wedding gazebo. Obviously if you subdue him this will never happen.
** As part of the "Pearly Gates" aesthetic, the Shark Club pipes in sounds of a belltower.
* FramingTheGuiltyParty:
** As you learn by reading the Lee Hong briefing, the Agency wants you to kill two emissaries from rival Triad gangs, but you've also got to make it look like the opposing faction did it. At first, the Chief of Police agrees to mediate a truce between the two. However, once the Chief is killed at a gang summit, the police withdraw their protection and Hong has no allies left.
** In Nuristan, you can stop the motorcade by shooting the engine of the front jeep, since that's pretty much the function of the [=M195=] rifle in real life. If the Khan is killed in town, and nobody is immediately sure who did it, the U.N. guys will obligingly start a gun battle with the local soldiers. This creates some very nice cover for you on your way out, but don't let them spot you in a soldier's uniform. You can pretty much walk out with impunity, since nobody knows you did it.
** In "Amendment XXV", Vice President Morris planned to have his boss whacked as soon as Air Force One returned from Los Angeles. The assassination attempt was thwarted when 47 killed Morris and his gunman, Mark Parchezzi III himself. In the media firestorm which followed, Parchezzi was blamed for Morris' assassination.
** In the sub-mission "Chinese New Year" of ''Absolution'', one of 47's targets is trying to buy info on [[spoiler:Birdie]] from a DirtyCop. If 47 steals the files without them noticing it, they start an argument which quickly descends into a QuickDraw fight[[spoiler:, resulting in the death of the target.]]
* GambitRoulette: Most of Agent 47's methods of causing "accidental" deaths, especially in ''Blood Money'', might seem this way to the characters, but that's because they don't know that he's [[SaveScumming done this a couple of dozen times before getting it right]].
* GardeningVarietyWeapon: Shovels and pruning shears make their debut in ''Blood Money''.
* GeneralFailure: Benjamin Travis is shockingly incompetent for a leader of an organization which seems to consist entirely of {{Consummate Professional}}s. [[spoiler:He is unable to keep calm under pressure, makes hasty decisions that end up costing his subordinates their lives, bungles a ransom handoff losing $10 million of the Agency's money in the process and allows himself to be outsmarted by both 47 and Diana Burnwood.]] He also looks disheveled and out of shape, all of which begs the question: how could someone like that rise to the upper echelons of the Agency?
* GenreShift: The gameplay is fairly consistent, but in terms of story and tone, ''Codename 47'', ''Silent Assassin'', ''Blood Money'', and ''HITMAN (2016)'' are rather akin to conspiracy/political thrillers, while ''Contracts'' is very much in the vein of a PsychologicalThriller. ''Absolution'' evokes a style akin to Grindhouse cinema, as noted in {{Pastiche}}/{{Homage}}.
* TheGhost:
** Diana, 47's handler at The Agency. In the first three games, she's just a voice on the phone. In ''Blood Money'', she's mostly seen at a distance and from behind (though you ''do'' see her face reflected in the window in the game's final cutscene). [[spoiler:She's also seen in the tutorial mission of ''Absolution'', where she's the target]].
** President Steward.
* AGlassOfChianti:
** What's a human rights violator to do in retirement? Why, open a vineyard of course! You can dump any inconvenient corpses that might be lying around the winery into the wine vats littering the cellar area. Whether or not this will improve the taste remains to be seen--though it is sort of ironic to have drowned a vintner in his own wine.
** Alistair Beldingford sends his butler downstairs to fill his whiskey carafe several times. If it is collected, the carafe is described as being made with precious gems or metals, as well as being a family heirloom "used for nefarious purposes more than once".
* GoOutWithABang:
** The General in "Invitation to a Party" has only one thing on his mind... and it's not war. He occasionally wanders off down a hall for a dalliance with the maid.
** Charlie Sidjan is a Malaysian electronics tycoon based in the Petronas Towers. Life has been treating him pretty good. When 47 breaks into his penthouse, he finds Charlie in a hot tub with three buxom ladies. ("You're ''all'' my favorite girls!") The catch is he's completely naked and defenseless under there, so he won't be leaving that hot tub alive.
** Lord Winston is an "amorous" old croaker who preys on the maids in his mansion. He even built a secret passage and two-way mirror near his bedroom which allows him to spy on them showering. Anyway, he seems to have some sexual prowess in him (he shares his bed with a maid during this mission), but it's implied that they strongly dislike him. If you don't want to awaken his mistress, you can suppress the muzzle flash with a pillow to kill Winston. Bonus: you don't even have to dump the body. Waiting for Winston in the bathroom and killing him there is also a viable option.
** The bartender at the Pink Mansion is handing out free aphrodisiacs. But 47 can put it to better use: pour it in the "Gubernatorial Mistake's" cocktail glass. Eventually, the hoochie who keeps asking for some private time will lead Chad away to a private room. You will need a VIP guest or bodyguard outfit to enter this section, but it is very poorly patrolled (for obvious reasons). After a few minutes, Chad's companion will wander off, and he'll go downstairs for a smoke--out to a lonely deck where nobody can see him. Once alone with Chad, feel free you have your way with him.
** If you want to kill Dom quietly (as in a non-accident), you'll have to wait for him to get a lapdance in the VIP booth. Well, he'd better enjoy it, because it's the last one he's ever gonna get.
* GoingForTheBigScoop:
** In Rotterdam, a dapper reporter (the guy who looks like Inspector Spacetime) is helping himself to a smoke in an alleyway, working up the nerve to proceed into the lion's den: Rutgert's biker bar. He's there to bribe their leader for some incriminating dirt on your client, a Mayoral candidate. Obviously, this will not stand. He's not a target, but if you mug him for the money envelope and he meets with Rutgert anyway, he ''will'' get shot.
** Inverted with Rick Henderson, a Washington reporter who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. In the beginning, Rick thinks he's been assigned to record Cayne's "post-retirement reflections" and write an opinion piece on terrorism. This is actually a cover story for Cayne's real scoop: the capture of Mr. 47. Initially, Rick doesn't trust Cayne's account of events and attempts to poke holes in the story. But when he sees 47's 'body' being readied for cremation, he realizes that the "story of the century" has fallen right into his lap -- [[spoiler:just in time for the antidote to kick in, poor bastard. Although he will try to run away from the bloodbath, Diana locked the gates to prevent his escape.]]
* GoodGunsBadGuns: If the target isn't a crack dealer or a pimp, they're most likely running guns. ''Hitman'' doesn't think too highly of merchants of death--forgetting that 47 makes full use of Kruger-Schmidt's services in each game. Thankfully he buys 'good' guns. A majority of enemies in ''Hitman'' wield [=SMGs and AKs=].
* GottaCatchEmAll:
** In ''Contracts'', this is represented by unlocking a different bonus weapon for each mission by means of a Silent Assassin rating. These weapons are generally either dual or silenced versions of existing weapons found in the game. Collecting every weapon in the game is something many players strive for. [[GunPorn It helps that the games tend to give you a]] [[WallOfWeapons wall to display them on]] and a firing range to try them out on.
** In ''Absolution'', your secondary objective is to collect pieces of "Evidence" that, presumably, incriminates you somehow. They are usually well-guarded. Apart from bragging rights, they don't give you any benefit.
* GottaKillEmAll: Most levels have multiple targets, and killing enemy [=NPCs=] is a requirement for certain Achievements.
* TheGroup: The International Contract Agency, which is usually known as just The Agency. In the first movie, the group is called "The Organization". A competing group from ''Blood Money'' is The Franchise.
* TheGuardsMustBeCrazy: GOOD LORD! A COIN! FUCK THE DOOR I'M SUPPOSED TO BE GUARDING! (Humor was ensued many times.)
** Guards in the slaughterhouse are more thorough in their procedures. They will even confiscate the meat hook if you're dressed as a butcher. But the ''freshly-severed human arm in your inventory'' doesn't merit a second glance.
** Apparently the penalty for running in public, using the wrong bathroom, walking into the EMPLOYEES ONLY lounge, or setting off a metal detector is always a bullet to the head.
** Oh, and the general stupidity. Step one, flick the lights off. Step two, strangle the guard as he comes to switch them back on. Step three, wait for guard to find body. Repeat.
** In "Tubeway Torpedo", Smith steals a general's clothes, the guards sound alarm, the gatekeeper is too engrossed in his book, ignores it. Finally, he starts to reach for the phone, but stands at attention for 47 and Smith.
** In the Mardi Gras level of ''Blood Money'' - if you enter a (perfectly normal, ordinary-bar, not-very-fancy) party without a costume? The bouncer at the door will open fire (By the way, nobody else is wearing a costume). Instantly. In the middle of a huge crowd. On the same level, turning the lights in the hotel foyer on and off repeatedly sends a woman running to the nearest policeman, who decides that the best way to deal with a man [[DisproportionateRetribution harmlessly playing with a light-switch is to open fire.]]
** '''Lenny'''. Despite having come face to face with 47 once earlier, he will not recognize him if he is in a barber disguise with his face visible. He will even reminiscence about what happened at Rosewood Orphanage while watching 47 through the mirror.
*** Layla will occasionally step into the panic room where Victoria is held as part of her route. If you follow, a cutscene will be triggered in which Layla strips to her underwear and tries to seduce 47. Note that this cutscene, which is required to complete the challenge "Skin Trade", will not be activated if 47 is disguised as a guard for some reason (even though Layla has already seen 47 up-close in Skurky's jail).
** When Dr. Valentine goes to test his 'product', he will die in a rather spectacular manner (he turns into Ghost Rider and plummets down a shaft to his death), but his anguished screams don't alarm Dr. Ashford or the other people stationed in the silo. Time is money!
** "Skurky's Law" is a laugh riot. Whereas in previous games, high-profile targets could not be impersonated without a face covering of some kind, Hitman can steal the identities of both the defendant (Tinfoil Hat Man) ''and'' the Judge, then walk into a trial ''still in progress'' and throw the case. The bailiff won't see through the disguise, despite having escorted THM to prison numerous times already. Shit is bananas.
* GuideDangIt:
** Getting SA rank or a Zero in most missions. "BODIES FOUND"? Goodbye Mr. Silent Assassin, hello Hitman.
** Unlocking some of the weapons in some games, most notably the minigun and [[GunsAkimbo dual Desert Eagles]] in ''Contracts''.
* GunAccessories: In ''Blood Money'', the Silverballers are given a wide range of accessories and different ammo types. There are just so many cool things to experiment with, turning it from a pretty inaccurate pistol to an apocalyptic nightmare with a jumbo magazine, scope, laser sight, full-auto capability, and other deadly extras. The M4 carbine (did anyone say "'''drum magazine'''"?), [=MP5=] Tactical, SPAS-12 and [=WA2000=] can be modded for similar purposes.
* GunPorn: The whole series. You can slap a ton of mods to your five custom weapons in ''Blood Money''.
* GutturalGrowler: Boris, Travis, Birdie.
* HandCannon:
** Smith & Wesson Model .500 in ''Contracts'' and Bull .480 in ''Blood Money''.
** The Deagle has the largest caliber of ammunition of all of the handguns making it very powerful. Unfortunately, it also makes it very loud and you will attract unwanted guests in hurry. And it has a nasty kick which makes it hard to accurately fire off a quick burst of rounds.
** There are also Agent 47's Silverballers. While they fire "only" a .45 ACP round, they are still amongst the most powerful handguns in the game, and often [[BlownAcrossTheRoom send people flying]]. It's at least justified in ''Blood Money'', where you get customized magnum ammo for double the damage.
* HarderThanHard: "Professional" and "Purist" modes. The difficulty determines how much damage you can take, the number of guards on the map (''Absolution'' only), their accuracy and sensitivity, the visibility of [=NPCs=] people on the in-game Map, and the number of in-mission saves you can make.
* HeKnowsTooMuch:
** In the aftermath of St. Petersberg, the three Generals who survived the attack start their own investigation into who ordered the hit. (One of them, Gen. Bardachenko, is interrogating poor Agent Smith to get to the truth.) This has made your client very unhappy, and becomes a giant plot cul-de-sac.
** With the Hitman closing in, General Zhupikov sets up a meet at the German Embassy where he plans to trade some Russian nuclear specs in exchange for asylum. The Spetnaz agent is under orders to apply extreme measures to prevent this from happening, up to and including the assassination of the German Ambassador. The Spetznatz agent is labeled as a target, but you don't ''have'' to kill him. Likewise, the ambassador is labeled as a VIP, but you don't ''have'' to save him.
** The objective of "Requiem" is to [[spoiler:kill ''everyone'' at the church who can positively identify 47, as Rick's story hasn't hit the presses yet. That means taking out the 12 guards, Cayne (a paraplegic who can barely roll away), the Chaplain, and Rick Hendersen himself.]] Depending on which directions your enemies scatter, Rick will probably be your last target. Put a cap in his dome to end the game.
* HellHotel:
** The dreamscape hotel in ''Contracts''. When signing in at reception, one of the rooms on the signature pad is listed as ''666'', even though the hotel only has around 310 rooms. There's also a ghost wandering the restricted wing, which is taped off by police.
** In the final mission, the neon sign outside of the French hotel is burnt out, leaving only the letters [[SignsOfDisrepair "H", "E", and "L" in red.]]
** Terminus, a run-down 19th century building with a very sordid history. In addition to the Accidents you can perform, we see a maid cleaning up after a 'suicide' [[TheCoronerDothProtestTooMuch involving a wrench.]]
* HeroicSecondWind: In ''Contracts'' and ''Blood Money'', once your health is gone, the game goes into slow motion black and white. If you can score four headshots before 47 keels over, you get a minimal amount of health back. If not, it's game over.
** Playing "Requiem" on Professional Mode means you are 99.9% guaranteed to enter near-death mode, so make those shots count. Once you make the headshots and clear out the church, 47 can only sustain one more hit before dying for good.
* HerrDoktor: Otto Wolfgang Ort-Meyer, his associate Dr. Odon Kovacs, and Dr. Hannelore Von Kamprad (currently settled in India).
* HiddenWeapons:
** ''Silent Assassin'' introduced the concept of smuggling items into buildings. (Though actually, hiding guns in the men's room was introduced as early as ''Hitman 1''.) Sticking guns in crates is a regular feature in ''Blood Money'', starting with the training level. The contents of toolboxes will not be searched when you are frisked, and a carpenter's uniform seals the illusion.
** Any checkpoint can be circumvented. Look for a delivery boy and stash your stuff in the groceries, or steal a cop uniform, or slip your pistol into with a tourist's luggage. Or heck, buy a foiled-lined sniper rifle case and carry it through the metal detector. As long as they doesn't SEE you do it, everything is cool.
** The Agency's "recommendations" in the early games. These are marked with the ICA symbol on the map, and typically there are 1 or 2 of these boxes in any given mission. In James Bondian fashion, your Quartermaster (Diana) will leave you ammo--and maybe even a some tech toys--in a black crate somewhere in the level.
** As we know, many weapons can be saved by completing a level with them in your inventory. But another way is by droping them inside an ICA box. In ''Blood Money'', they can also be used to store rare or customized weapons for later retrieval.
** In the Patronas Towers, you can dump a smoke bomb down the laundry chute to set off the fire alarm. If you're feeling especially devilish, you can drop your gun down there, too.
** Try using the dumbwaiter in "A Dance With the Devil" to get past the guards on both floors.
** Diana will occasionally gift-wrap a 'present' for you, along with a personalized note at the coat-check area. FYI, this happens in both the Hotel Galar and the Paris opera.
* HideYourChildren: There are no children of any kind in the game. Although Victoria is treated with kid gloves by 47 and Diana, she's conveniently sixteen years old, and mostly appears in cutscenes, besides. ({{hand Wave}}d in that all of the children were sent away on a field trip before the gunfight took place.)
* HoistByTheirOwnPetard:
** A lot of enemies can be killed in this manner. Lee Hong, for instance, has a personal bodyhuard (Tzun) who follows him around. This man is also a taste-tester, so if you spike Hong's soup with laxative & pass it on to Tzun, Hong will be left totally defenseless. Here are some more unusual examples:
** "Traditions of the Trade" in ''Hitman Contracts''. In this hotel, the nice thing about Fritz's dental clinic is that the walls are lead-lined to hide his explosive, so nobody outside (or inside, if you fire a gun next door) will hear your gunshots.
** Thanks to the dodgy a.i., it is possible to lure Vinnie out into the driveway after alerting the FBI, then sit back and watch as he gets run over by his own witness protection team.
* HollywoodSilencer:
** In ''Blood Money'', if you spring for the premium suppressor for your Silverballer, you can shoot someone in the head and guards standing less than 10 feet away won't hear it.
** Averted in ''Silent Assassin'': suppressed weapons can be heard by people nearby, sometimes even through doors/walls. Yet another thing the manual doesn't bother to mention.
* {{Homage}}:
** The series owes a good bit to James Bond. From the well-dressed heroes with funny names (Agent 47 and his lovely assistant, [[PunnyName Diana Burnwood]]), to the exotic locations, to the use of "Tomorrow Never Dies" (''not'' [[Film/TomorrowNeverDies the Sheryl Crow song]]) for the end credits, they're the greatest 007 games never made.
** Try climbing a ladder in the Japan missions (''Silent Assassin''). By aiming the camera down, you can point it over 47's snow jacket to see he's still wearing his expensive suit underneath -- just like the [[http://media.agonybooth.com/images/articles/Moonraker_1979_Recap_Supplement/splash_780.jpg movie poster]] for ''{{Film/Moonraker}}''.
** "Seafood Massacre" is a lively mission, straight out of ''Film/TheGodfather''. Before the Police chief and his henchmen arrive, you're allowed into the restaurant and can talk to the bartender. He'll give you a key to the bathroom. (Talk to your targets to heighten the drama if you like.) If you drop your gun in there, you can retrieve it when 47 returns while dressed as the mob negotiator.
** 47's camo facepaint and army fatigues in Columbia are likely a reference to ''Film/{{Predator}}''. You can also nick a hat and minigun from the enemy camp, if Jesse Ventura is more your speed.
** In "Traditions of the Trade", make sure to collect Frantz's mail and then talk to the florist. He'll give you a box of roses with a nice surprise inside; he's even nice enough to give you some extra rounds for your new Mossberg. (In ''Contracts'', the florist is closed for the day, and the letter is addressed to 47 from Diana; she's sent along some "drop dead gorgeous" roses.) The point of getting the shotgun, other than making like Arnie in ''[[Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay Terminator 2]]'', is to make a quick and ''loud'' kill. If you've got a silenced weapon and don't particularly care for seeing roses fly around in the air as you drill someone, then by all means, skip it.
** "The Meat King's Party" contains a possible homage to ''Series/TwinPeaks''. In your possession is a glamour shot of the client's teenage daughter, a blonde. The upper echelon of the slaughterhouse is where you'll find her. ''She's dead...wrapped in plastic.''
** The animation of someone in elevator being strangled from above is a tribute to ''Film/TheProfessional''. As is the option to dress as a SWAT member and cooperate in their armed raid in ''Contracts''. Whee!
** In ''Blood Money'', the scene with a suit-wearing, Bible-quoting gangster with gas can is a reference to Quentin Tarantino, namely ''Film/PulpFiction'' and ''Film/ReservoirDogs''.
*** The Achievement for using a Katana in ''Absolution'' is "Go Medieval on his Ass." Note also the reference to ''Film/BadLieutenant''.
** An old Soviet-Polish movie called "Deja Vu" introduces its protagonist in a scene which can be recreated shot-for-shot (no pun intended) in "Curtains Down": here, too, a hitman has to assassinate a performer in a play of "Tosca", and his on-stage execution scene is the perfect opportune moment for it. In the movie, he is shot with a sniper rifle, though other options are available to 47.
** The falling chandelier in "Curtains Down" is also a reference to a famous scene from ''Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera, which takes place in the opera house on which this fictional one is based.
** In 47's flophouse next to the newly-painted wall, there is a birdcage on the table with a yellow canary inside. This is likely a reference to Jean Pierre Melville's ''Le Samourai'' which, if you haven't seen it, was a French film about a contract killer named Jef Costello.
** The scenes with Alexander Cayne call to mind ''Film/InterviewWithTheVampire''. Just like Malloy, [[spoiler:Rick gets killed as soon as the interview ends.]]
** In the shootout at Rosewood Orphanage, IO consciously evokes the bank robbery/hostage scenes from ''Film/TheDarkKnight''. The place is crawling with Wade's henchmen, all wearing garish suits and masks.
* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: Mei Ling appears twice as a concubine who has a habit of obtaining keycards from her pimps' trousers.
* HowWeGotHere: When we first catch up to 47 in ''Contacts'', he has been shot by someone who was lying in wait for him. But the assassin failed to polish off 47, and he is now losing consciousness in a Parisian hotel. When we flash forward to ''Blood Money'', the focus has shifted to Alexander Cayne, who gives his first-hand account of what happened after Paris.
* HumanShield: If you want to knock someone out, it's a lot faster to zip over, CQC and K.O. them than it is to prepare your syringe and then move the body. It is, however, slightly noisier, as the victim will usually yell something when grabbed.
* HowWeGotHere: The main menu of ''Blood Money'' displays scenes from 47's impending cremation. How he has ended up on that cremation table is for you to find out.
* HyperspaceArsenal:
** Is that a shotgun in your trouser leg or are you happy to see me?
** A crazy female assassin wearing nothing but Kleenex. In ''Blood Money'', she turns out be carrying FIVE different stiletto knives if you examine her body.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:I-L]]

* IFoughtTheLawAndTheLawWon:
** [=C47=]: Whatever you do, do NOT shoot any cops. The only cop you're allowed to kill is the Hong Kong Police Chief. Kill any more and it's $5000 off of your income EACH, not to mention that if you kill too many, the Agency gives you a fail and you have to do it all over again.
** The one exception is the final mission of ''Contracts'': Your target is a Chief Inspector, the guy who drew first blood back at the opera house. You're still asking for a world of pain if you choose to fight the SWAT members, though.
** In ''Contracts'', the SWAT officers are much more cunning. The problem is that the [=SWATs=] are all monitored via GPS, so no matter HOW you kill one, the others in his squad will always know, and will always find you, even if you do it with the lights out. After all that work, it's not even worth the effort. (Don't say the status bar didn't warn you, though.) The trick is to find a SWAT who has been separated from the pack, ready your needle, and jump him. It's near-to-impossible to subdue a mobile SWAT from behind when his buddies are around. If you stupidly get into a gun battle with them, change into a SWAT outfit as soon as you can as the extra armor it provides will help a lot.
** The Agency has a very cozy relationship with U.N. authorities. If you're trying for the [=M4=] rifle in "The Motorcade Interception", remember that you ''can not'' be seen killing any of the U.N. escorts directly. They ''must'' be shot up by the Afganis or their own comrades. Alternatively, if you take out the Khan and then wait for things to cool down, you can sneak up behind a UN trooper and wire him. As long as he does not detect you (and no one sees you do it), the Agency doesn't care.
* ISurrenderSuckers:
** In ''Absolution'', if 47 is caught by a guard, he can pretend to surrender. The guard will then approach him, giving him a moment to disarm and hold said guard hostage.
** The first time 47 runs into his brother, Mr. 17, he's grazed by a few harmless shots before 17 ducks into a crawlspace. If you follow him, you'll be [[SchmuckBait caught in the blast of a bomb]].
* ImmortalityImmorality:
** In exchange for the research funding, Ort-Meyer provided his former comrades with donor organs harvested from clone bodies, which significantly extended their longevity. In his correspondence with Lee Hong, Frantz Fuchs seems to be feeling his age more than the other donors, thus explaining his impatience with Ort-Meyer: "I'm sick and tired of waiting for this old man. As you know my work needs a steady hand and sharp wit. And I'm not getting younger. Therefore I support the idea about splitting the fruit. Let's split the fruit while we can still savor it!"
** Mark Parchezzi III is the best clone that the Franchise could produce, but he is also a class 2 clone and therefore dies after only 18 months of reaching maturity. It is revealed that Parchezzi is haunted by this fact and seeks to acquire a sample of 47's bone marrow, which holds the key to reversing his rapid aging.
** [[spoiler:Soders]] suffers from a rare condition, Situs Inversus, in which his internal organs are reversed. He received his first heart transplant in 1995, a procedure which might have involved illegal, black market organ trading. However, being an [[spoiler:ICA employee]], no formal investigation was made. However, Intel suggests that [[spoiler:Soders]] is once again dying and in need of a heart transplant. His second donor heart is from a Brazilian "guttersnipe", a pejorative generally used to describe a young, poor and often homeless person.
* ImpersonatingAnOfficer: Women love a man in uniform. You really can't go wrong with this disguise, though it can be tricky to get.
* ImprovisedWeapon: Whether 'tis stabbing somebody in the ear with a screwdriver to slicing somebody's skull open with a meat clever, the weapons are believable and natural.
* TheInformant:
** Apart from Carlton Smith, many civilians have been paid off by the ICA to help you. Guys like Lee Hong have made a lot of enemies, and any number of people would love to see them dead.
** Vinnie in "A New Life". Instead of just whacking criminals, now we're whacking criminals who are turning State's Evidence. How times change.
* InCaseOfBossFightBreakGlass:
** In "Tubeway Torpedo" 47 walks in on General Makarov playing some sweet chin music on poor Smith. You could get at the General by shooting through the two-way mirror of his interrogation, but there's a quieter way. Dom Osmond can be disposed of in a similar manner.
** In the Christmas-themed level of ''Blood Money'', there is a glass bottom spa which your target is relaxing in.
** "Death Factory": The floor of Dr. Green's control booth is lined with glass to enhance the vista. Turn him into fertilizer by shooting the glass while he's standing on it, sending him plummeting into the hog pit where he'll be promptly devoured.
* InMediasRes:
** One of the objectives of the last mission of ''Contracts'' showed Richard Delahunt as a completed objective. He was one of the two targets in "Curtains Down", implying that ''Contracts'' takes place during ''Blood Money'', after which Diana informs 47 of [=ICA=] agents getting picked off. (There is a bit of a continuity gaffe, however, in that the opera singer changed names from Philippe Berceuse to Alvaro D'Alvade between ''Contracts'' and ''Blood Money''.)
** This explains the ominous DramaticGunCock in the ending cutscene of the opera mission in ''Blood Money'', and in the next mission Diana asks, "How's that wound healing up?"
** It's also implied that Albert Fournier, the Inspector you were to kill in ''Contracts'' was tipped off to 47's location by the Franchise.
*** Seeing as how ''Blood Money'' takes place during a very long timeframe, almost two years, with sometimes months between missions, there is plenty of time inbetween the missions for 47 to have been doing other missions.
* InnSecurity:
** The nameless Hotel in "Hunter and Hunted". 47 hides on the top floor to nurse his gunshot wound, but the cops aren't far behind.
** The Hotel Galar in "Traditions of the Trade". Frantz sits out the entire mission in his room--in fact, he doesn't set foot out of the shower. Conveniently, there is a silenced pistol on a nightstand nearest him.
** The Shamal Hotel & Casino in "A House of Cards". Talk about one stop shopping! Throw Tariq off a balcony, shoot Schmutzy in his room, then call the Sheikh and snipe him, all from one convenient spot!
* InstantDeathBullet:
** The plot of ''Contracts'' centers on averting this.
** Mostly averted in-gameplay, where killing enemies (or other [=NPCs=]) depends on your weapon, where you hit them (even more so if they're wearing body armor), and random chance. Sometimes, they'll still be able to run, they'll be knocked out, they'll be incapacitated and might bleed to death or just die. Mostly averted because it doesn't apply to you.
*** It's also played dead straight with head shots. Head shots are universally fatal, regardless of caliber, distance traveled, or angle of impact. Victims crumple to the ground instantaneously and without a sound.
*** In ''Silent Assassin'', head-shots with the suppressed .22 are not ''always'' fatal. Same with the [[AKA47 SG220]] in ''Contracts''.
*** However, in ''Silent Assassin'', the M195 anti-materiel rifle can kill the target no matter what part of the body is shot.
* InstantSedation:
** The chloroform-soaked rags and syringes filled with sedatives. Takes a few seconds of struggling against, so you better do it in an area that's not prone to have people walking in on you.
** Chloroform [[AvertedTrope averts]] this trope in a realistic fashion. It's possible to dial up the dose to keep enemies asleep for a longer stretch, but unless you're trying for Silent Assassin, it's generally not worth the bother. They only stay down for about a minute per "bottle", and if they awaken without their clothes, they will (sensibly) sound an alert. If you give him a full rags' worth, you'll have 5 minutes tops.
* InterplayOfSexAndViolence:
** Google "Hitman Shockingly Executed".
** The shower assassination at the beginning of ''Absolution'', considering who 47 is killing.
** Here is a partial list of people Hitman has killed in the course of this series. ''Hitman'' in general has environments and targets that are really fetish-driven:
###Lee Hong: Pretty much Fu Manchu, owns a brothel
###Campbell Sturrock AKA The Meat King, a half-ton meat salesman holding a BDSM party in an abattoir whilst defending himself from kidnapping charges for his brother's murder of a girl.
###Lorne de Havilland, a Hugh Hefner stand-in who you have to kill during a big Playboy-esque party.
###Anthony Martinez and Vaana Ketlyn, costumed fetishists who you have to kill in yet another erotic party filled with scantily clad men and women dressed as angels and demons.
###Angelina Mason and Raymond Kulinsky, an assassin couple who keep in contact with each other through sexually-charged radio banter. Oh and they're dressed as crows.
###A Mississippi skipper who enjoys hunting alligators with assault rifles, has an incestual relationship with his niece and also hits on his pursers.
###Fetish nun assassins in high-heels (I guess now we know what IO Interactive likes to do on weekends)
* IslandBase:
** In India, there are two island hospitals within a dinghy ride of each other. Both are run by affiliates of the local cult.
** Pappy lives in a fortified mansion on a river island. The easy part is reaching the island, since 47 rents an airboat to get there.
* JackTheRipoff:
** Pablo Ochoa is probably named after the famous drug kingpin, Pablo Escobar, and the Ochoa brothers, members of the Medellin Cartel. Both were based in Columbia.
** Fritz and Frantz may be an allegory to Franz Fuchs, a xenophobe who mailed bombs to people he felt were overly "friendly to foreigners."
** Angelina Mason met Raymond sometime after public disgrace and embarking on a life of crime. Together, they developed a strategy for high-profile kills they called the "[[UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy Grassy Knoll]] scheme." Also, Raymond Kulinsky is most likely named after Richard Kuklinski aka "The Iceman", a real-life mob hitman who claimed to have committed at least 250 murders.
* JigglePhysics:
** Charlie Sidjan looks like a New Year's Baby with glaucoma.
** In ''Absolution'', the female models' boobs jiggle even after they've been knocked out/killed.
** Sanchez's belly wobbles during the match in "Fight Night". On closer inspection, it makes a full 360 degree turn when 47 appears in the ring, a graphical error.
* JokeWeapon: The air rifle. Also, some of the sillier melee weapons.
** LethalJokeWeapon - For some bizarre reason, some people consider it this, but considering it takes forever to kill someone with it...
*** The gun is as silent as the Silverballers with the fully upgraded silencer, and is still a OneHitKill if you aim for the head.
*** Any throwable object you care to pick up in ''Absolution'' is potentially a one-hit kill, including Bibles, radios, hula girl bobble-heads, ''plungers''...
** The cardboard tube in ''Contracts.''
* JustifiedTutorial: Five of the six games in the Hitman series (''Codename 47'', ''Silent Assassin'', ''Blood Money'', ''Absolution'', and 2016) have one (''Contracts'' has a dreamscape training ground instead)
### Ort-Meyer's laboratory in [=H:C47=]. The first thing it has you do is change 47's clothing. One of the most core mechanics of the game, discovered right away. Then you move around, it gives you a chance to get used to the controls, teaches you to jump across balconies, etc. It's also fun to pick up new weapons just for the sake of hearing the intercom describing them in detail. Then it's all target practice from that point, until 47 puts a few bullets in an orderly and makes his escape.
### ''Silent Assassin'' catches up with 47 after he's retreated to Sicily and given away all his possessions. There are some ruins behind his gardener's shack that serve the same function as Ort-Meyer's obstacle course. After the padre is kidnapped, Diana does the Judi Dench routine of suggesting [[strike:007]] 47 isn't up to Agency standards, is getting old, needs more training, etc. You can use the scarecrow, the melon patch, and even the church bell for target practice.
### ''Contracts'' drops you off moments where the first game ended. Given its purpose (as an introduction), it's not that representative of the rest of the game, but it has a surprising amount of interactivity and layers, for instance: multiple disguises that can achieve a different goal, being able to shoot a corpse hanging from the ceiling (and you can obtain his disguise faster that way), a cache of weapons to use against some difficult (armored) enemies, sniping in the courtyard, etc. The patients slaughtering clones and blood all over the place help establish the horror tone of the game.
### ''Blood Money'' opens on a relatively quiet mission in Baltimore. It's the most linear of the game's missions; each building is designed to show off the new game engine. (There's only one disguise, for instance.) It's the multiple ways in which you can kill the Swing King that set it apart from the training levels: A fire extinguisher, baseball bat, poison, bomb, strangling, pistol, shotgun, sniper rifle, or a good old push down the stairs. (Speedrunners ''hate'' this level like poison, but when they are forced to do it, it's pretty interesting to see their tricks for getting Silent Assassin.)
### It's the same story in ''Absolution''. The tutorial lady holds your hand during the hit on Diana's place.
### ''Hitman'' (2016) flashes back 20 years to Mr. 47's induction. Ms. Burnwood drills you on the finer points of murder, using old ICA assignments (a luxury yacht and an airstrip) for reference.
* KarmaHoudini:
** Article of interest in a Nevada paper: ''"Lady Luck Gets a New Twang: Bajou Beauty Spreads the Chips".'' This "Bajou Beauty" is none other than Margeaux [=LeBlanc=], [[spoiler:the black widow bride from "Till Death Do Us Apart". Looks like she fled Mississippi after the spate of murders and became a local celebrity]], thanks to your help.
** [[spoiler:Birdie]] from ''Absolution'', who plays every faction in the game off against the others, yet emerges unscathed at the end.
* KarmaMeter:
** Generally speaking, it's a bad idea to kill everyone you come across, even if 47 gets away with it. The Agency doesn't like unauthorized kills and may penalize you for it.
** ''Blood Money'' has a notoriety meter which is filled up whenever someone sees you commit a highly suspicious act and gets away to tell someone. Filling it up too much will make it easier for random people to recognize you and call for help, and the newspaper report you get at the end of each level will slowly start to build up a description and composite ID picture of Agent 47, meaning cops are more likely to shoot you on sight. You can bribe people to lower your notoriety.
* KatanasAreJustBetter:
** If only 47 didn't swing it around like a floor lamp. Also looks damn good when displayed on the wall.
** His swordsmanship is improved in ''Hitman: Absolution''. In fact, using a sword in Chinatown constitutes an Achievement.
* KickTheDog: ''Absolution'' has the villains '''''[[spoiler:murder their way through an orphanage run by nuns.]]'''''
* KickTheSonOfABitch: More often than not, however, the people 47 is hired to kill do honestly have it coming.
* KnifeNut: Used for cutting fish, veggies, throats, what have you.
** In the fourth game, 47 can lob them at heads with laser accuracy at 95 mph.
** And in ''Absolution'', you can ''retrieve'' thrown knives. Always wanted to do that in ''Blood Money'' but never could.
** According to her dossier, Angelina Mason grew up in a traveling circus, where she was trained as an acrobat and knife thrower. She carries a mean-looking combat knife and will slice and dice you if you engage in close quarters combat.
** Eve, the psychotic assassin who tries luring you into an empty office. Once there, a cutscene plays in which she stabs 47 to death. If the player keeps at a safe distance, she will begin to cartwheel around the room and throw stiletto knives at 47, or use her Desert Eagle if she is fired upon.
** The Brutus playstyle in ''Absolution'' encourages the player to invoke this by getting 5 knife kills.
* LadderPhysics:
** ''Silent Assassin'' takes this to ludicrous extremes: Climbing a ladder forces the camera in to 3rd person perspective, and it doesn't restrict your firing capabilities at all, meaning you can and are forced to watch Agent 47 run up a ladder in third person while contorting his body so much that he can fire a shotgun directly below and behind him.
** In ''Hitman Contracts'', Agent 47 has forgotten his ladder skills. Try and descend a ladder in a rush and the great assassin leaps off in a suicidal swan dive.
* LargeAndInCharge:
** Sergei is a goddamn wrecking ball.
** ''Hitman'' isn't likely to introduce a bigger crime boss than the Meat King.
** It's easy to see why Rutgert runs the biker gang. Oddly, the bald bouncers who guard the 2nd floor entryway are even bigger.
* LastSecondEndingChoice: In [=C47=] and ''Blood Money'', there are two endings to the final mission, depending on whether you hesitate to kill your adversary (Dr. Ort-Meyer in the original, and [[spoiler:Alexander "Wheelchair Guy" Cayne]] in ''Blood Money''), with the former being the bad ending.
* LastStand:
** If you've played Hitman, then you've done this at least once. Alarm goes off, and instead of (or at the same time as) cursing the gods for your failure, you whip out the Silverballers and make things messy as you go.
** In Paris, 47 calmly knocks back drinks as the Paris police raid his hotel. The menu reveals the Police Inspector, Albert Fornier, is an escaped Target whom 47 is still intent on killing, "even in my death". You always remember the one that got away.
** Subverted in ''Blood Money''. "Requiem" starts on 47 cleaning his pistols in anticipation of a gunfight with [[spoiler:Cayne]] which will make Normandy look like a tea party, but Diana wisely sneaks up and sedates him before he can act. The payoff turns out to be a combo of stealth and brawn, as Diana smuggles 47's body into the Franchise's lair and [[spoiler:revives him while everyone else is distracted and at ease]]. (Although it is possible, albeit very difficult, to kill them all with "accidents".)
* LaughablyEvil:
** Somewhere in the middle of ''Codename 47'', you just surrender to how terrible the voice acting is, and start to enjoy it on that level. Ort-Meyer's especially due to his ham-and-cheese delivery.
** Since ''Absolution'' has such a big cast, only a few Targets other than The Saints stand out. The villains on view are mostly a pack of clowns led by the hammy Keith Carradine. Mind you, in ''Blood Money'' and prior, most of the Targets are characterized via Diana's messages. This means it's simply a short message where we're told how crazy they are. All the cartoonish acts they commit happen off-screen. On the other hand, we get to see all the nutso characters from ''Absolution'' acting out in cutscenes and their over-the top idiocy.
* LawOfInverseRecoil
** Explained with a sort of hand wave in ''Hitman'' 1-3. Agent 47, being a peak-level human clone, handles any sort of gun with ease, minus the recoil.
** Averted in ''Blood Money'': All guns have recoil. His trusted .45 Silverballers can even be upgraded to full-automatic, making them even ''harder'' to control...add the "Akimbo" upgrade and say your good bye to your reticule.
* LeaveNoWitnesses:
** In a ''Blood Money'' cutscene, 47 is seen rather pointlessly killing a postal worker for delivering a message from the Agency, now in its death throes. The message was a 'for your eyes only' type.
** The final mission of ''Hitman: Blood Money'' starts with a whole lot of people learning something 47 can't afford for them to know (namely, [[spoiler:that he's not actually dead]]). He has a way of fixing that.
** Method of the Saints in ''Absolution.'' One wonders how firing off an RPG at a crowded motel is unreported by anyone.
* LegitimateBusinessmensSocialClub:
** The Wang Fou (Emperor's Garden) Restaurant is Lee Hong's stronghold. The 2nd floor is off limits to the public, apart from the johns. The basement contains some torture instruments as well as a huge weapons cache. Hong's mansion lies at the far end, across a moat.
** Pablo sells curios as a cover for his drug operation. The Agency learns one of his planes crashed in the jungle; onboard the plane was a religious idol stolen from the U'Wa, and they would really like it back.
** Fritz Fuchs is masquerading as a traveling dentist, with a corner office in one of the towers of Hotel Galar.
** Ignore the loading screen for "Gunrunner's Paradise". You're not after him--''yet''. Instead, you're looking for Ivan, the criminal with the strangest bio. How many criminals do you know of who run circuses?
** In ''Contracts'', he is replaced with Rutgert Van Leuven who runs a [[CounterfeitCash counterfeiting ring]] out of his biker bar.
** You can't take weapons into "The Setup", but hey, what would any asylum be if they didn't stock up on semi-automatic machine guns and shotguns and whatnot all over the place? Well, it'd be a ''normal'' asylum, which this one isn't.
** In Kuala Lumpur, your next major task is to eliminate one Charlie Sidjan, a devious (and very talented) hacker. He has managed to steal a very important piece of code from the United States and the client wants you to find it, plus destroy all records of it. Charlie's corporation, Carniwarez Inc., is located inside one of the Petronas Towers.
** The Delgado Vineyard is owned and operated by one of Pinochet's ex-intelligence officers and his son. Here the Delgado family produce their famous "El Diablo" wine as well as smuggle cocaine through the cellar. According to the Chilean wine critics, El Diablo is pretty foul.
** The Gators run drugs up and down the Mississippi, using the tourist steamboat ''Emily'' as a cover.
** Sheikh Mohammad Bin Faisal Al-Khalifa, commonly shortened to Sheikh Mohammad, is the CEO of APEX International, a corporation located worldwide of the pharmaceutical industry. The Sheikh has been suspected to be involved in biological warfare and perhaps cloning as well.
** Vaana Ketlyn is a famous Romanian circus performer and party hostess around Nevada. She is also secretly an illegal arms dealer in league with her lover, CIA agent Anthony Martinez. She hosts the Heaven/Hell parties in "A Dance with the Devil".
** Birdie parks his mobile headquarters in a lot behind the "Lucky Ducky Dumpling".
** Hallelujah, the police are shown actually ''doing their job'' in and around the Vixen Club, investigating the death of a girl found with a Hawaii postcard on her person. The staff insists that what the dancers do "on their own time" is not their problem. (Forgive us if we don't take the mob-owned nudie bar at their word.) Looks like the net is closing tight on Dom Osmond, even if you killed him already: the cops are seen combing through the basement with flashlights, not far from where Wade practices his grisly art. Dump a cadaver over the railing and at the officers' feet to close this case.
** The Cougars barely qualify as a gang. They each work day jobs, operating out of a small city block which includes an auto mechanic, plumber's, and barber. Each time Dexter drives another store owner out of business, the Cougars move in. Colvin has an office that on the upper level of the Green Mountain, a convenience store run by his girlfriend; Gavin and Landon are always at the auto shop; Mason and Luke can be found hosting a party at the barber shop.
* LevelMapDisplay: On easier difficulties, it also shows positions of enemies.
* LetsPlay:
** ''Blood Money'' has Tom Bowen's [[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL87627ADBF776295D "How Not to Play Hitman"]] series, which combines hilarious amounts of [[NoKillLikeOverkill carnage]] and SoundtrackDissonance.
** There's also the more recent LP by [=TheAuZZieGamer=], who goes through every mission with [[ClusterFBomb vulgarity]], [[RunningGag running gags]], [[StuffBlowingUp carnage]] and general surgical precision. There's only one mission he doesn't get Silent Assassin on, and it's the tutorial (which, as mentioned above, isn't very easy to get Silent Assassin on).
* LighterAndSofter: ''Codename 47'', ''Silent Assassin'', and the 2016 ''Hitman'' all have a lighter, more adventurous "international man of mystery" feel to them.
* LikeRealityUnlessNoted: It's generally a very grounded thriller series, aside from the core premise revolving around human cloning and genetic modification.
* LittleUselessGun:
** The Derringer (found in ''Codename 47'') is a gun you see in the movies, usually Westerns (though no self-respecting cowpoke would ever own one). There's always a point in the flick where the hero needs a bit of help and that's where the sassy lass in the big, frilly skirt offers her little pea shooter. That's the Derringer. Like the nail file in ''Blood Money'', it was DummiedOut of the final product, possibly out of concern for 47's dignity. It's completely useless as there really is no need for a gun so pissweak and inaccurate. It is silenced, however.
** As an inside joke, Lenny Dexter's only means of defense in ''Absolution'' is a Derringer.
** ''Silent Assassin'' also had the Makarov and .22 pistols, both of which had little stopping power. The .22 is just about the only gun in any of the games that doesn't always kill with a single headshot — you can perforate a man's brain with this gun and it will just make him mad. As a consolation prize, it is undetectable ''and'' silent.
** Contracts gives us the [=SG220=], which basically functions as a watered down alternative to the silenced Silverballer. Headshots at close range aren't even guaranteed kills with this weapon, though it is much quieter than the Silverballer and uses the much more common pistol ammo.
* LivingMacGuffin:
** 47's bone marrow. [[spoiler:Cayne]]'s main goal was to wipe out the ICA and acquire a DNA sample from 47, which was required to create a successful clone.
** The girl in ''Absolution.''

[[/folder]]

[[folder:M-P]]

* MacGuffinMelee:
** "Invitation to a Party". Fearing for his life, Gen. Zhupikov defects to Germany in order to gain political asylum there. He also takes with him a missile guidance system, which he intends to sell to NATO once he arrives in Germany. To make matters more interesting, the Russians are plenty mad that the General has defected and have sent a cleaner to the Embassy.
** Your next major task in SA is to retrieve some valuable cargo for the client. It was stolen by fanatics (with the help of the renegade Mr. 17) who have hidden it in the desert. In addition to obtaining the cargo, you are also to kill the people responsible for its theft.
** The girl in ''Absolution.''
* MadDoctor:
** Ort-Meyer created you from the DNA of himself and that of his friends, Lee Hong, Pablo Belisario Ochoa, Frantz Fuchs, and Boris Deruzka a.k.a. Arkadij Jegorov. They all met during their stints in the French Foreign Legion. After they went about their separate ways, they helped to set up Dr. Ort-Meyer's experiments in DNA research and cloning using money from their respective enterprises. However, the impatience of the other participants, gathered from the letters left behind after killing them, may have led Ort-Meyer into using The Agency to kill them. In addition, judging from the Doctor's own ramblings, another reason for having his friends killed is so he could have all of the clones, and glory, to himself. The power he gained from all of the cloning research made him megalomaniacal.
** ''Paging Dr. Cropse''... When he's not checking into hotels under horrible aliases, 47 has his pick of doctor disguises: a psychotherapist in the Romanian asylum, and a surgeon in the cult hospital. Careful with that scalpel.
** To prevent [[spoiler:Soders]] from trading a full list of ICA operatives to Providence, 47 can impersonate the chief surgeon at the hospital where [[spoiler:Soders]] is hiding.
* MadeOfIron:
** On the default difficulty, 47 can withstand noticeably more damage than other stealth game protagonists such as [[VideoGame/SplinterCell Sam Fisher]], [[Franchise/MetalGear Solid Snake]], or [[VideoGame/{{Thief}} Garrett]]. Likewise, each game usually has a handful of unique enemies who are part of the main plot and can survive significantly more damage than the regular Mooks.
** Pablo Ochoa takes the cake. After he takes a dose of cocaine, 47 can [[MoreDakka riddle him with bullets]] and he'll stop and taunt 47. He does this a couple of times until he drops. Subverted if you can shoot him before he snorts the line.
** Downplayed with Sergei Zavorotko, the second game's BigBad. He can survive several shots, but an assault rifle or the [[{{BFG}} M60]] can bring him down relatively quickly.
* TheMafia:
** None other than the Sicilian mob. The headquarters of Giulliani's group is the family villa, Borghese, in the countryside of Palermo.
** In "Flatline", 47 flies out to California to sneak into a celebrity rehab clinic. A trio of New York mobsters have taken refuge there.
** The Chicago Outfit is vaguely hinted at, but not mentioned, in the city levels of ''Absolution''. Dom Osmond represents the 'bad' sort of mafia, peddling vice and beating his seditious sex workers to death with a baseball bat. Tommy Clemenza represents the [[FriendlyNeighborhoodGangster 'good']] sort of mafia -- the gentlemanly type who's into opera and will offer protection for a price.
* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident:
** A game mechanic introduced in ''Blood Money''. The player can shove people over balconies, rig heavy objects to fall on top of them and so on. It won't fool the coroner (their deaths are reported as "murders" in the press), but it will confuse the guards and keep them off you back. Of course, the obvious question is if you were to assassinate someone, why would you do it in such a questionable way? 'There are a million and one ways we can have this man killed, let's prioritize the least plausible ones.'
** Vice president Spaulding Burke was killed in a supposed limousine crash (staged by The Franchise). He died on the Maryland Beltway around 5:40 PM, when said limo spun out of control, flipped into oncoming traffic and was hit by a southbound tractor trailer. Yuck.
** The famous tenor, Alvaro D'Alvade, was once charged with the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl. The charges were dropped after the girl refused to testify and subsequently 'disappeared'. Although Alvaro did fall under suspicion, her body was later found in a ravine and her death ruled a suicide.
* ManOnFire:
** In ''Blood Money'', a gangster in the tutorial level threatens to immolate the divorce lawyer. That's one way of getting out of paying alimony.
** In "A New Life," 47 can coat a barbecue in lighter fluid, causing it to set the target's wife on fire when she uses it. (She isn't a target, but it counts as an "accident," so it doesn't affect the rating for the mission.) If you set the lawyer or Vinnie's wife on fire, they leave behind a flayed skeleton instead of the usual death pose. Pretty grisly.
** In "Flatline," you can kill one of the mafiosos by tinkering with a gas stove he has hidden in his room.
** "A Dance With the Devil": Boy, they really hand you this one on a platter, don't they? While dressed as a bouncer or Agent Martinez, go backstage and rig the pyro show to aim at Vaana. Eventually, the hostess catches aflame and leaps into a fish tank to cool herself--only to be eaten by a shark.
** A recurring accidental kill in ''Absolution'' is from the use of a spilling gasoline pump. A flicked cigarette is the usual starting spark, but in one challenge, the player must [[spoiler:spill out three separate gasoline pumps, then set off a remote explosive which blows up the entire gas station and hopefully your two targets with it.]]
** Another one from ''Absolution'' is centered on a scientist trying to find a cure for his hair loss. [[spoiler:You can mix in "fire paste" into his glowing beaker full of hair tonic, turning it red. He applies some to his head, which ''catches fire.'' Presumably the radiation from the mysterious hair tonic wouldn't have killed him fast enough.]]
** One of 47's targets in "The Beldingford Manor" has dozed off in a recliner in front of a fireplace. He can be killed by dropping a gas can down the chimney.
* ManInWhite:
** Pablo Ochoa. His counterpart in ''Blood Money'', Don Delgado, wears the same attire: a white suit and pink shirt.
** Hayomoto Junior has platinum hair and an all-white suit. Although, if you play your cards right you won't ever cross paths with him.
** The Albinos dress and equip themselves in a direct parody of Mr. 47.
** The "angel" outfit in the Shark Club consists of a white mask and tuxedo.
** "Requiem". This is the only mission in which 47 does not don his usual Suit, instead wearing white for his cremation.
** The King of Chinatown will meet with "Snow", an douchey guy in a white running jacket (w/ popped collar, of course), and follow him into a nearby building to sample the merchandise.
** ''Hitman 2016'': Kalvin Ritter in "Unexpected Guest", and Viktor Novikov in "Showstopper".
* MarathonLevel:
** In ''Hitman 1'' and ''2'', it takes many tries to reach Pablo, Boris, and Hayomoto, so whatever you bring here will be all you'll have later:
### The Columbia and Rotterdam missions all take place on a huge map, and will prove to be your most frustrating time. (Enjoy the huge salary, at least.) "Plutonium Runs Loose"" is definitely the hardest mission in the entire game. You could say the Colombia missions are harder, but the difference here is that this final Rotterdam mission is not only a matter of survival, but of absolute stealth and precision. If Boris gets wise to your presence he'll arm his nuke and split in a car, turning the harbor to ashes. The map is so large that it's easy to forget a few minor details and botch the whole mission.
### "Hidden Valley." This mission was voted by the ''Hitman'' fans as the Second worst mission of the whole franchise, "At the Gates" being the first.
* MeetTheNewBoss:
** Pablo isn't seen or mentioned in any of the sequels/remakes. Instead, 47 is sent to assassinate another drug lord, this time in Chile. In "A Vintage Year" there are several pictures of 47 in the hacienda, furthering the Pablo connection. 47's only other target located in Latin America, who also just happens to be a druglord? This could just be a coincidence, or a subtle {{retcon}} on the part of the developers. The missions share other similarities, such as the presence of an underground cocaine lab, exfiltration by airplane, or the fact that both targets are located in a secluded room on the upper floor of their mansion.
** Sergei takes 47 on errands, and then tries to kill him when the plan comes together. Also, like the good Doctor Ort-Meyer, Sergei won't come out of hiding until you kill all of his henchmen.
*** Skurky hides within a local church and uses the priest as a shield, just as Sergei does in SA. Also, the showdown with Travis (''Absolution'') is similar to the final battle with Sergei: A rain-swept cemetery with plenty of guards, and Travis hiding behind an impenetrable door.
** Mr. 17 is an inferior clone specimen created by Dr. Ort-Meyer. He was most likely locked away in the asylum and later sprung loose when Sergei and his partner came looking for 47. Like the previous game's Mr. [=48s=], he doesn't have much in the way of brains, and is easily brainwashed by Deewanna Ji into hijacking the nuclear warhead meant for Sergei. After the cult leader dies, he returns to work for Sergei, ambushing Mr. 47 from inside of the Pushkin Building.
** In ''Silent Assassin'', you face two morbidly-obese twin brothers: one is an introvert who enjoys [[{{Pun}} hacking]] (ahem), the other an extrovert who loves women and fine art. Remember the Meat King?
*** In "Basement Killing," Charlie's twin was not responsible for the sale of the weapons guidance system, and was a victim of mistaken identity. In "Meat King's Party", Campbell takes the fall for his brother, Malcolm, after the missing girl's father demands satisfaction and fails to get it from the courts.
*** Dom Osmond acts as a composite of Campbell Sturrock, a club owner who dotes on his murderous brother (Instead of the air freshener murder room, we have the Hawaii-themed torture room), and Lord Winston Beldingford, a pervert who is assassinated with the help of a two-way mirror. Dom also secretly films his customers, much like Lorne [=DeHaviland=] does.
** Your ultimate goal in Japan is to eliminate Masahiro Hayamoto, a majordomo in a Yakuza and a well-known agoraphobe. He has recently come into possession of a {{MacGuffin}} you need, and he's handy with a kendo sword. It takes 4 missions to finally kill him, and Mr. 47 boosts one of his vehicles to escape. Oh, and the upper floor of his headquarters contains a brothel with Mei Ling and a nosy geisha who might give away your position. Sound familiar?
** "The King of Chinatown" should be a walk down memory lane for older players. Push the King down a manhole ("The Seafood Massacre"), sneak in the pagoda and poison his thermos ("Slaying a Dragon"), or trick him into ingesting some fugu ("Tracking Hayomoto").
** "Hunter and Hunted" is clearly a reference to the ''Hitman: Blood Money'' mission where 47 goes to a Mardi Gras to stop a political assassination by three persons in black: Angelina Mason, Mark Purayah II and Raymond Kulinsky. The targets this time are Wade's three hitmen, who are coercing/buying information on Birdie's whereabouts in Chinatown. The mission is set during the Chinese New Year, when the streets are choked with partygoers.
** Dr. Ashford is an amalgam of the doctors who gave 47 his regular rotation of drugs in the asylum. It's interesting that 47 flashes back to his childhood when Victoria mentions the grotesque experiments she has had to undergo. Sanchez is another former test subject of Dr. Ashford, the result of a defective [[SuperSerum "super-soldier" serum]] back in the eighties. As a side effect, he developed gigantism. It is mentioned in "Death Factory" that Ashford performs barbarous experiments on [[TestedOnHumans "crazies and vagrants"]], and even [[YouAreNumberSix assigns numbers]] to them instead of names.
** In "Absolution" (the final mission of said game), we get the Praetorians, the poster child for The Franchise after 47 took a weed-whacker to the organization.
** This nostalgia is evident in the references to "Anathema" found in "World of Tomorrow", such as the flower delivery man and the target playing golf.
** The Jordan Cross hit serves no purpose other than drawing Cross' father away from his private island so the Shadow Client can take him out. The ICA is not happy upon finding out about this. Ironically, the ICA used the exact same method to draw out Hayamoto in ''Silent Assassin''. Jordan also bears some similarities to Chad Bingham, a scion who escaped justice following a crime of passion, and now lives in fear of his father.
** Deewanna Ji and [[spoiler:Soders]] are both awaiting a transplant heart in a state-of-the-art hospital complex. The difference is you can actually destroy [[spoiler:Soders']] donor heart. This only works because the patient has situs inversus and the probability of finding an inverted heart in time is effectively zero.
* TheMenInBlack:
** Mr. X in ''Silent Assassin''. He's the brains of the operation, with Sergei contributing his manpower and muscle to the cause.
** The MIB skin is used frequently in ''Blood Money'': some bouncers dress in black, as do the FBI, Secret service, and members of The Franchise.
** In ''Absolution'', Diana's head of security is wearing a black suit and sunglasses, unlike the guards in the adjacent wings. This character stays in the rumpus room by default, and your goal is to obtain a keycard he has. Unfortunately you can't rely on pickpocketing with all these rent-a-cops teeming around, so you have to somehow drug/kill the MIB.
* MetalDetectorCheckpoint:
** The Galar Hotel has a quite a few in place for the world summit, including one stationed the front door (in the remake, that is). It's possible to smuggle a gun inside if you're clever, just as it's possible to smuggle Fritz's bomb out (it's a mission objective). A security uniform helps -- cops are ''supposed'' to be armed, of course.
** These make a comeback in "Basement Killing". You have to dress up as a fireman or a pizza boy to pass through them; luckily those fireman's axes have a lot of 'secondary' uses...
** In ''Blood Money'', your final mission requires you to infiltrate the White House as part of a tour group. The main challenge is the metal-detector/X-ray checkpoint. There's a number of ways to smuggle weapons inside - your Sniper Rifle can be upgraded with a special foil-covered Attache Case which can glide through the X-Ray, but you can also smuggle in your trusty Silverballers by slipping them into a tourist's luggage. When the soccer mom gets nabbed at the checkpoint, the guns are confiscated, and you can then retrieve them from the Marine lock-up later (after you've 'borrowed' a uniform, preferably.)
* MobWar:
** The Chinese campaign seems to take place over a few days or weeks as you inevitably turn the Triad world upside down.
** Due to "a recent shift" in the power structure of the New York mob, Mr. 47 will have to rub out a few Italians in the mission "Flatline". There are three button men secretly staying at the rehab clinic. None of the targets (Carmine, Lorenzo, and Rudy) actually have a substance abuse problem, they're just taking a vacation so as to avoid their friends back home.
** In "Till Death Do Us Part", [[spoiler:the bride]] wins her mob war without firing a shot.
* MoreDeadlyThanTheMale:
** Diana Burnwood. Easily the cleverest woman in the series, but there is a downside. She can even make hardened killers look stupid. 47 learned that.
** It is mentioned that Lee Hong's only weakness is women.
** At Lorne's, there is a dark-haired woman in one hall who will beckon you into a side room. If you follow, she'll try to kill you, and she suddenly counts as a target. Teach her why ''real'' assassins shoot first and taunt later. She doesn't count as an optional objective or have an interesting weapon, so there's not much point to this little encounter.
** Margeaux takes over her father's drug cartel after Pappy's dementia takes a turn for the worse, mainly due to paranoia about being assassinated like Skip. [[spoiler:She also arranges for the downfall of the Gator gang, killing six of their members and marrying their leader, Buddy, whom she puts a hit on immediately after their wedding]]. With Pappy, Skip, and Buddy all taking their dirt nap, Margeaux winds up holding the whole pie.
* MuggedForDisguise:
** A very common tactic, with 47 capable of both finding disguises already lying around (generally as laundry) and killing or knocking out people for their clothes. OneSizeFitsAll, so there are very few outfits in the game (usually ones owned by people of very different, usually obese, body types or ones worn by people that the player isn't meant to disguise themselves as anyway, such as targets) that 47 cannot wear. ''Absolution'' even lets 47 steal some samurai armor in Blackwater Park and pose on armor stands to hide himself.
** In ''Absolution'', wearing a disguise seems to mean you're a neon sign. You might buy that for a small squad of bodyguards, but it's hard to believe every Chicago police officer (of which there are 12,000) knows every other Chicago police officer by face. Anyway, this forces you to use disguises in conjunction with blending and sneaking. Mostly sneaking, mind you.
* MultipleEndings: ''Blood Money'', depending on [[GuideDangIt whether you randomly pan the camera around and find out you're supposed to frantically analog-twirl/press W.]] This perhaps falls more under NonStandardGameOver or FissionMailed, depending on your interpretation.
* MurderSimulator: Hitman is in fact '''the''' murder simulator, more so than any other. None of the MoralGuardians had noticed however, if anything they were more drawn to ''Blood Money'' and the ''Beautifully Executed'' or ''Shockingly Executed'' marketing. There has also been controversy over the portrayal of the Shi'ites as killers, as well as a smart phone app where you could send a contract to Mr. 47 to kill real people (what could go wrong?), which was quickly closed down, or the "nun" trailer (PVC-clad dominatrixes being shot, beaten, stabbed, and garroted by the ''very male'' Agent 47) which seemingly glamorized and fetishized violence toward women, and then kept going to the 'place a hit on your friends!' thing. IO managed to get an article in the Guardian, and even a tweet from Creator/CharlieBrooker:
-->'''Brooker''': Trail for Hitman: Absolution is terrible shit aimed at [[RatedMForMoney base, clueless imbeciles]]. Fuck the game industry if it thinks this shit works. Fuck it.
* MysteriousEmployer:
** Dr. Ort-Meyer in the original.
** Sergei Zavorotko was a Russian crime lord who, with an unnamed man, formed a plan to lure Agent 47 out of retirement after he quit the ICA. Sergei needed to get Agent 47 out of retirement in order to kill all of his business associates, because he wants to sell nuclear weapons to a Sikh cult.
** The Shadow Client in ''Hitman'' (2016). Considering the sudden amount of attention Number 6 is getting in the tie-in comics, the Shadow Client is going to turn out to be either a relative of 47, or somebody affected by his recklessness. We haven't seen his physical prowess yet, but his plans left both Providence and ICA running around like headless chickens.
* MythArc: ''Codename 47'', ''Silent Assassin'', ''Blood Money'', and ''HITMAN (2016)'' all featured conspiracy story arcs that run in the background to the [[MonsterOfTheWeek individual assassination stories]]. As powerful as he is, 47 is more often than not just a tool for the greater powers to eliminate key targets with.
* MythologyGag:
** There is a scarecrow functioning as a training doll in The Gontranno Sanctuary in ''Silent Assassin'' which has Ivan's clothes and hat. You crossed paths with him in "Gunrunner's Paradise."
** The Jaguar from "The Jungle God" was stuffed and mounted on Lord Winston's staircase. Later, it is sold to Charlie Sidjan, a collector of rare artifacts--along with Lee Hong's jade dragon figurine.
** In "A Dance With The Devil", next to the "torture room" where the couples are necking, the guy sitting on the couch is wearing the same costume as the defense attorney in ''Contracts.'' But you can't get into the room, only look into it from behind a gate, so you can't take the outfit.
** If you add the nailgun to your inventory, examine the description: It is a ''Rieper 2000 Pro'' nailgun. (Dig the [=C47=] reference.)
** Cheung Chou Chinese Restaurant is a location in ''Codename 47''. This restaurant gets advertised in a ''Blood Money'' newspaper and serves "specials" named after the Chinese Triad hits of a past ''Hitman'' games: "Deep Fried Red Dragon feet", "Blue Lotus Spring Rolls", "Zun's Noodle Feast -6 persons" (probably cause Zun was really fat), and "Mei Ling Stir Fry".
** In ''Absolution'', Birdie tells 47 that he ought to run from Blake Dexter's men. 47 responds with "I don't believe in running". A bit of a joke towards the [[TheGuardsMustBeCrazy extremely twitchy guards]] who would react to 47 running with [[AllCrimesAreEqual gunfire]] in the first few games, such as ''Silent Assassin'', no doubt.
** Tom the Tailor is referenced in the 2016 ''Hitman'' game. During the final tutorial Level, Jasper Knight radios in to talk to the KGB and refers to himself as "Blind Tailor".
** In Sapienza, two guards can be heard discussing movies, and one of them mentions a horror film called ''The Haunting of Beldingford Manor.''
* NailEm: Why, yes, you can use a nail gun. Not very effective from anywhere but point-blank, and it requires a headshot to take down someone. Still, it's a weapon you can carry openly if you're wearing a worker's suit.
* ANaziByAnyOtherName:
** Agent 47 was cloned by former Nazi scientist Doctor Ortmeyer from himself and 4 other men whom he served with in the army.
** The Fuchs siblings in "Traditions of the Trade". And Hendrik Schmutz in "House of cards", to some extent (blond race supremacist).
* NeckSnap:
** After gunning down his father, Dr. Ort-Meyer, there's a scene of him cradling the Doctor's head before twisting it around.
** "Flatline". Weightlifting can be fatal.
** In ''Blood Money'', 47 does this to a target instead of garroting them if the kill takes place on an uneven surface. There's even a sound effect.
** 47 performs this on [[spoiler:Sanchez]] (with his legs) during the CutsceneBoss battle in the ''Absolution'' mission "Fight Night". He can also perform this as a quicker alternative to knocking someone out in a stealth melee attack.
* NeedleInAStackOfNeedles:
** Boris is smart: he conducts business in the overcrowded Rotterdam harbor under cover of dark. By planting a GPS in the payment briefcase, The Agency tracks his ship down to Dock 45.
** In "St. Petersberg Stakeout", 47 must snipe one of the Generals convening at the Pushkin Building, but the Agency doesn't tell you ''which'' General. Listen to Diana's banter, and pull the trigger once David Bateson confirms that you're looking at the right guy.
** In New Orleans, your job is to keep track of the hitmen in bird costumes. Unlike other civilians in ''Hitman'', the mass of partygoers will, by and large, ignore you; they won't notice when you do naughty things in relative proximity. (The cops and the big birds are the ones you really have to be concerned with.) The problem is having to spot Angelina or Billy Jack in this mob, which is made tougher by the partygoers wearing bird hats. The second task is to carry out the hits, which can be done in any order. All three carry walkie-talkies which give away the position of the other two: Raymond is atop one of the three music bars, Angelina is circling the block at ground level, and Marc is hiding on the top floor of the big bird building.
** "A Dance With the Devil" has 2 targets and 2 concealed hitmen attending a masquerade ball. (On the Professional difficulty level, both Eve and Maynard John will be marked as civilians on the map.) Since they hand you Martinez and Vaana on a platter, and the duel with Maynard is a scripted event, all you have to do is figure out where Eve is hiding and kill her without affecting your rating. She's quite easy to find, actually. The hard part is killing her before she kills you.
* {{Nerf}}:
** In ''Contracts'', the Ballers are nerfed to dish out less damage than service pistols, as well as lower accuracy.
** In ''Absolution'', they now use an 8-round magazine instead of the 9. Also, each gun is now fired alternately as opposed to previous games where they were fired simultaneously, allowing for better ammo efficiency but halving the damage. As compensation, they both come with silencers and long slide now, so you don't have to upgrade them.
** The semi-auto [=W2000=]. See, in the older games, having a semi-auto rifle was a game breaking advantage, since you could pop heads from a safe perch all day long. In ''Blood Money'', the developers realized their mistake and replaced it with a bolt-action [=W2000=], which is behind a paywall and takes longer to obtain. You begin the game with a semi-auto one, but it has a much bigger kick and makes your shots go wild.
** You cannot bring the [=M195=] (from "The Motorcade Interception") into "Kirov Park Meeting", even with All Weapons cheat. Most likely, this is to prevent you from disabling the armored limousines with it.
** The good news is that the stungun lives up to its promises, as a single zap from any side will drop any enemy, even a riot cop. However, it '''cannot''' be used on other levels. Even in a completed game, the stun gun will not be in the collected weapon inventory. Obviously this is not a bug but deliberate design.
** Enemies bleed out in ''Blood Money'', so the knife is no longer the ultimate stealth weapon. Melee weapons also get covered with gore in one strike, removing their camouflage.
* NintendoHard:
** In the second and third games, it's very hard to achieve a completely stealthful mission, because the guards are extremely skittish and will instantly raise the alarm if they see you doing anything even remotely suspicious. ''Blood Money'' tones this down a lot; so long as you have the right disguise and don't commit any criminal acts, the guards will generally ignore you.
** IO Interactive has promised that the Purist mode in ''Absolution'' will be this and IO delivered. Not only does it reduce your health and your instinct capacity, it removes the new HUD so you have no idea how much ammo you have left, what weapon you're equipped with, or if you're being spotted.
*** Even without Purist mode, ''Absolution'' rivals ''Codename 47'' and ''Silent Assassin'' as the most difficult ''Hitman'' experience yet. Unlike ''Contracts'' and ''Blood Money'', the guards in ''Absolution'' will quickly detect you even with the proper disguise if you do not use instinct. Moreover, the save system has been replaced by checkpoints, [[GuideDangIt many of which are found in rather obscure locations.]] These can lead to a lot of frustration if you're going for a Silent Assassin run.
* NoArcInArchery: Sniper rifles have absolutely zero bullet drop. This gets especially silly when the second game has a ''crossbow'' that fires in a straight line at the range of several hundred meters.
* NoHeroDiscount: It's hard being a Hitman. In later missions, the ICA stops making it's "recommendations"; if you skip the inventory screen at the start of the level, you'll be stuck with just the fiber wire to raid a complex. Not fun at all.
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed:
** The targets in Nuristan are clones of Saddam Hussein, Ayatollah Khomeini, and Osama Bin Laden.
** "Scoop" is a reference to the rapper Snoop Dogg.
** Lorne is a parody of ''Playboy'' mogul Hugh Hefner, and the Pink Mansion is a more fanciful version of the Playboy Mansion. Lorne is said in his in-game biography to be a born-again Christian, a reference to ''Hustler'' founder Larry Flynt.
** Morris' plan mirrors a conspiracy theory related to UsefulNotes/GeraldFord's real-life rise to the presidency. Ford was also voted into the vice presidency by congress, later to abruptly become acting president, without being popularly elected to either office. However, both of Ford's successions were caused by corruption-related resignations instead of deaths.
*** Morris might also be a sly wink to UsefulNotes/AlGore. Supposedly, [[UsefulNotes/HillaryClinton Hillary]] trod on his toes back when he was VP.
** ''Hitman 2016'': The chess player is Bobby Fischer, the disgraced grandmaster who went to the USSR to compete.
** Thomas Cross seems to be a mix of many media moguls, with the added touch of being into pretty shady things. Jordan Cross’ microphone is also called a Branson, so it’s safe to call it a deliberate reference--along with the fact that both men (Thomas Cross and Richard Branson) live on remote private islands. It's also mentioned that Thomas has aerospace holdings, including his own space station.
* NoGearLevel:
** In ''Codename 47'', you are to go to Romania for a final assignment, and it takes place within a psychiatric hospital. A relatively simple mission, but there is more than meets the eye here. It is a high security facility and you are not allowed to bring in firearms. Diana doesn't even allow you to purchase weapons. When you reach the basement, you will find that whatever Body Armor you brought with you has been stripped away. In addition, while you still have the weapons you gained from the previous mission, any extra ammo will be stripped away as well. And, finally, there is no map to display on this mission.
** In ''Silent Assassin'', you start the last mission with nothing but the reel of piano wire, while every enemy has a gun - and no spare ammo to loot. It is immensely satisfying when you break into your weapons storage locker after skulking around and being extremely vulnerable.
** This Happens again in "Skurky's Law", when 47 is captured by the police and has to break out of a county jail.
** In most of the games, the player can choose not to bring any weapons with them as a SelfImposedChallenge......or if they're just short of cash.
* NonstandardGameOver:
** You can get two in cutscene form in ''Blood Money'', the first one at Lorne de Havilland's party, where [[spoiler:a Franchise assassin stabs you in the neck if you don't kill her quickly enough]], the second being [[spoiler:stabbed to death by the completely psychotic Eve at the Heaven and Hell party, once again if you stand still and let her kill you.]]
** Also, at the end of ''Codename 47'', if [[spoiler:you let Dr. Ort-Meyer get too close to you without killing him, he'll stab you with a syringe and you black out... and wake up in the sanitorium again, in a sequence that's disturbingly similar to the very start of the game...]]
** ''Codename 47'' also has a scene during the mission 'Find the U'wa Tribe', in which [[spoiler: 47 can get killed and dragged off by a jaguar in a cutscene.]]
** In ''Absolution'''s "Operation Sledgehammer" mission, if 47 waits too long to shoot [[spoiler:Sheriff Skurky]] before he fires, 47 slowly dies as [[spoiler:Skurky]] stands over him and gloats.
** Again in ''Absolution'', in the Factory Compound level, there is a room with what appears to be a large bomb suspended from the ceiling. Hit the bomb too many times and the scene flashes white. You are then treated to a special cutscene involving a giant mushroom cloud before the game over screen appears.
** Also in 'Absolution'', in the Central Heating level of Rosewood Orphanage, [[spoiler:47 will have a point-shooting face-off at the end of the level. If the player does not target all enemies in time, Wade will murder 47 in one shot and the player is shown a cutscene of wade talking to his corpse]].
** Again in ''Absolution'', during the Penthouse level of Blackwater Park, [[spoiler:Layla Stockton will pull a gun on 47 if he confronts her inside of the panic room. Failing to shoot her in time will trigger a death cutscene in which she shoots 47, before casually approaching his prone body and crushing his throat with her foot.]]
* NoOSHACompliance:
** Frequent, especially in ''Blood Money'' and ''Absolution'', which has the option of making a hit look like a freak accident. A risky way of murdering the King of Chinatown, for instance, is pushing him into a wide open sewer grate.
** ''"Where do you want me to put these fireworks" "Oh, you just put them beside that gasoline pump".'' How about an open vat of petrol underneath a balcony? Or a generator next to a metallic fence? And be sure to pour your kerosene and lighter fluid ''in very similar-looking jugs.''
** Played for laughs in "Dexter Industries", as Dexter has mines and explosives in the main lobby of his company to reassure potential partners on their storage safety. (Only in America.) Naturally, all of them can all be re-armed and detonated, including '''the active nuclear warhead hanging precariously over the main desk.'''
** ''Hitman'' (2016): Why on earth would they put mines everywhere at a fashion show?!
* NostalgiaLevel: Many of the missions from ''Contracts'' are remade from ''Codename 47''.
** ''Hitman GO'' has a set of levels based on Curtains Down from ''Blood Money'', and another for St. Petersburg Stakeout from ''Silent Assassin''.
* NoticeThis: '''[ ! ]'''
** On the lower difficulties, "Points of Interest" are indicated on the map. It's replaced with the "Instinct Mode" in ''Absolution'', which highlights enemy patrol paths and objects of interest. You may also see a cutscene at the start of the level hinting at 47's next move.
* OfCorpseHesAlive:
** Alastair Beldingford keeps ordering more whiskey, so at any point 47 can poison the caske, and that will snuff him out. Everyone will assume Alistair couldn't hold his whiskey, so leave the body as is.
** In "A New Life", if you can poison Vinnie in his barcalounger while he's watching TV, the FBI agent will sit back down next to Vinnie and never even notice he's dead.
* OffOnATechnicality: Bullets make pretty good cases. Mainly cold ones.
** In Pablo's capsule biography, it is mentioned that he joined the Foreign Legion to avoid punishment for slaying a Judge.
** The "Meat King" beats a murder rap when the victim, a teenage girl, vanished without a trace. 47 is hired to dig up ironclad evidence of her murder and to dispense his own unique brand of justice. It turns out the King was just covering for his brother, Malcolm, who was really responsible for the killing.
** Joseph "Swing King" Clarence was found not guilty of a gross negligence after one of his fairground attractions killed forty people. Money talks, and killers walk. However, the legal battle bled Joseph's finances dry, and he's on the verge of declaring bankrupcy. After his wife leaves him, Joseph 'Breaks Bad' and re-purposes the husk of his theme park into a crack den.
** With the help of the American Ambassador, Richard Delehunt, Alvaro got himself off the hook for the rape and murder of a 13-year-old girl.
** One of the citizens suing Dexter Industries misses his court date by a hair. Sheriff Skurky explains the witness got tied up downstairs after an "accident" involving his deputies.
--->'''Judge''': [struggling not to grin] Think he'll pull through?\\
'''Sheriff''': Ahhhh, not lookin' good. He, uh... he hit his head pretty hard.
** Ken Morgan led the defense of Jordan Cross when his then-girlfriend mysteriously fell to her death from Cross' penthouse loft in DUMBO, New York. Thanks to Ken's legal wizardry, Hannah was branded an out-of-control party girl, and Jordan came out smelling like roses.
** Thanks to the machinations of Yuki Yamazaki, no less than five Yakuza bosses walked free after a supposedly-airtight sting operation.
* OfficeGolf:
** There is a putter in Judge Strickland's office (''Absolution''). Handy if you want to impersonate him.
** In "Anathema" (''Silent Assassin''), the Don's on the upstairs balcony, practicing his golf stroke. After he does, he stands there for a second looking at the ball, which is your cue to snipe him. The club is much weaker in this edition; it will take several whacks to drop an enemy.
* OnceAnEpisode: There'll be a sniper mission, a mission at a crowded party, a mission in the snow (or at least with it), a rescue mission involving Smith, a double-cross in the penultimate mission, and a firefight at the end.
** Although ''Absolution'' is the first game in which Smith is completely absent.
** 2016 slightly subvert with the firefight at the end, but since it's only Season 1, the pattern may still hold.
* OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness: The Agency is a a large, secretive network about which we know very little, only that it's an international syndicate with links to some unknown royal family. The only contact was Diana and we know little about her either. You're the world's greatest assassin and you still know little-to-nothing about the corporation for which you work.
* OminousLatinChanting:
** ''Silent Assassin'' has a bombastic score provided by the Budapest Symphony orchestra. A few of ''Blood Money''[='s=] tracks make use of a chorus, also.
** The track 'Apocalypse', for example, features [[http://lyrics.wikia.com/Jesper_Kyd:Apocalypse lyrics]] that speak of a [[EldritchAbomination great eternal race of builders that threaten the listener with complete cosmic destruction]].
* OneBulletClips: Shockingly averted in ''Hitman: Codename 47''. If you reload, the entire magazine is tossed away.
* OneBulletLeft: You're allowed 1 kill, 1 shot, 1 close-call, and/or 1 alert. How you spend them is up to you. It can be done easily enough. Sometimes you have to shoot out a computer screen, leaving you with only a knife or fiber wire kill the target.
* OneDoseFitsAll:
** Any poison or sedative administered to any NPC will be equally effective on any of them.
** In the fish restaurant mission, it's possible to assassinate both targets by serving them poisoned tea. Both die very shortly afterwards within a few seconds of each other, despite their different sizes.
** In SA, sedating an NPC with a given amount of chloroform will knock them out for a fixed period of time, regardless of whether they are a petite woman or a burly Russian gangster. There is also at least one instance in which a possible means to assassinate two targets is to serve them the same poisoned drink near-simultaneously, following which they both drop dead within seconds of each other, despite their different sizes.
** In ''Blood Money'', the poison and anaesthetic syringes affect every NPC exactly the same way, regardless of size or constitution.
* OneHitPolykill: All it takes is one audible gunshot and your targets will flee the scene. (Sniper rifles are very '''LOUD'''.) So why not kill two birds with stone? Always remember that sniper bullets can kill two at once.
* OneSizeFitsAll: It makes sense that guard uniforms would fit all body types, but the "Invitation to a Party" and "Death on the Mississippi" missions take the cake. There is a guest wandering around in a tuxedo with an invite/VIP card in his hand. You can take his tux (which is now yours) and it will fit perfectly.
* OpenSecret: Throughout the ''Hitman'' series, the International Contract Agency had been portrayed as an extremely secret clandestine organisation, connected to most major nations' secret services and the UN, only every operating through proxies' proxies. After their reformation in ''Absolution'' however, ''something'' changed, as they began to send large squadrons of highly conscipuous operatives in ICA ''uniform'' and marked vehicles to take over urban centres, where they cordon off streets, search houses and round up civilians like a police force. At one point, [[spoiler:one of the ICA directors even swoops down on a South Dakota courthouse in an ICA helicopter and declares to the town's sheriff over megaphone that they're taking over]]. So much for subtlety.
* OptionalSexualEncounter:
** ''Hitman'' exploits this trope on one occasion and parodies it in another. While attempting to assassinate a Senator's playboy son, you may be "seduced" by a character who invites you to a bedroom. She's an assassin, the one was marked in the mission loading screen with a shadow and question mark. You will die if you stupidly follow her in. In the "New Life" mission, where you are assassinating a witness under FBI protection, the intoxicated wife of the target will invite you to the bedroom. She'll pass out before doing anything, though.
** There's a third situation in a Vegas hotel later in the game; encountering a drunk, older woman stumbling about the halls, she'll invite you back to her room, where she'll awkwardly attempt to dance and be 'sexy', ending with her passing out on the floor. It's not a complete waste of time - her balcony gives you a nice view of the Target's suite.
** In ''Absolution'', if you follow Layla Stockton (Traci Lords) into the hidden panic room, what follows is a cutscene wherein Layla performs a striptease before making a grab for her gun holster. ("Let Layla take you Heaven.")
* OptionalStealth: In the Hitman series, you can play the game like a typical Third-Person Shooter; however, you get a better rating (and thus unlock better weapons) by using stealth and deception to bump off your targets. The protagonist 47 is quite vulnerable to gunfire however, and for the first few instalments was unable to heal in the course of a mission, so even you wish to kill everyone in sight you would have to do it somewhat carefully. Blood Money added the ability to purchase bulletproof vests and medication to stave off injury, mitigating this somewhat. Granted, this ability was removed in Absolution and remained absent in 2016.
* OverlordJr:
** Hayomoto Junior. Not a patch on his old man, but he nonetheless handles all of the negotiations on behalf of the clan.
** Lord Winston Beldingford and his son, Alistair, in "Beldingford Manor".
** The Delgado vineyard disguises a cocaine factory that Manuel is set to inherit. Manuel also samples the merchandise regularly, which is why he's considered to be the weak link in their operation. He has no formal education, and his listed hobbies include "cocaine, water-skiing, tennis and downloading internet porn."
** "Pappy" [=LeBlanc=] is a Mississippi crime boss as well as the father of Margeaux, who is arranged to be married to the boss of a rival cartel. Margeaux has other plans, [[spoiler:and hires 47 to bumps off her father, uncle, ''and'' husband, allowing her to skip town with all their cash]]; when last seen Margeuax is partying with a {{Chippendales dancer|s}} in Vegas.
** Lenny Dexter, son of arms magnate Blake Dexter, is a low-ranking (almost subterranean) gangster in Hope. He is, however, much more amicable and, as 47 notes in his log, ripe for interrogation. He tries his hand at being leader of the Hope Cougars, and later a hired gun for Wade, but fails miserably at each: his whole gang revolts, and Lenny accidentally plugs a nun in the head, leading to his execution in the desert. He probably could've turned out okay had his life gone differently, but we are in the darkest timeline.
* PacifistRun: You can choose to help people or avoid harming them, but the job comes first. Getting Silent Assassin ratings in ''2'' and ''Contracts'' generally requires the player to kill or harm no one except for the target(s) of each mission. In ''Blood Money'', the player can kill as many people as they like and still get a Silent Assassin rating, so as long as they MakeItLookLikeAnAccident.
* PaidHarem:
** In ''Codename 47'', Lee Hong's Restaurant had a swanky brothel attached. If you pocketed a VIP pass on your way inside, 47 was allowed a moment alone with Mei Ling...well, let's not get too nostalgic. Mei Ling survived, lived long and married a prince... No, actually she shacked up with yet another majordomo , and can be found lounging in his castle (to 47's annoyance).
** In the campiest scene (and thus best-known scene) in ''Silent Assassin'', Charlie's lady friends will magically produce revolvers from their g-strings and cap you on sight.
** The "Meat King" is found in a living quarters on the second floor, where he lays in bed with two leather-clad prostitutes and is brought entire roasted chickens many times per day. Livin' the dream!
** In a repurposed funhouse on the edge of the Southland Amusement Park, "Scoop" reclines on a bed/throne with his hoes. The crack factory is also staffed by bikini-clad molls.
** If you feel like poking around the hotel rooms in New Orleans, there's a big bird relaxing with his two hoochies.
* PaperThinDisguise: The main game-play premise of the series. In ''Absolution'' however, a disguise will still arouse suspicion from certain people who will then try to approach you. In response, 47 can lower his head and raise a hand over his face (which consumes Instinct) or "pacify" them if they get too close.
* PerfectPoison:
** That's some serious bad-ass "Poison", eh? Bottles of cyanide and even rat poison will have the same, immediate effect.
** {{Hand Wave}}d in ''Blood Money'': one of Agent 47's primary weapons is a syringe that can be used to inject targets at the jugular or to poison food. For efficiency's sake, instead of using a single poison, a mixture of chemicals is used: sodium pentothol, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride. Since this is the exact combination of chemicals used in lethal injection executions, the victim dies quickly and noiselessly....Which only ''kinda'' makes sense. In lethal injections they use multiple [=IVs=] so the poisons don't mix beforehand and undergo a process called precipitation. A fancy way of saying they get all waxy and won't go in. And it can still take two hours for the victim to die. It would work better to just use one of the first two (the more fast acting drugs) and strangle the person after they pass out. However, ''Blood Money''[='=]s use of poison still makes more sense than the previous game, ''Contracts'': in several levels, you're forced to look for poisons in the surrounding area and dose people's food or drink with it, and weedkiller or rat poison aren't exactly painless '''or''' quiet.
** It should be noted the the poison in Blood Money isn't undetectable; kills with poison count as regular kills rather than accidents, and the newspaper headlines make mention of it.
* PayEvilUntoEvil: 47's targets are invariably incredibly depraved criminals. It's only in ''Blood Money'' that 47 is seen killing "innocents" as part of the story.
* PistolWhipping: Introduced in ''Silent Assassin'', if 47 is within close-range of anyone. He can do this in ''Blood Money'' and ''Absolution'' to pacify human shields.
* PlatonicLifePartners: 47 and Diana.
* PoliceAreUseless:
** "Hunter and Hunted". On the floor 47 is staying in, there's a switchbox at the end of the hall which will be useful for getting past the riot police. These fools are completely helpless in the dark; you can waltz right past them and they won't take notice. Also, if you escape via the ambulance, the not-so-bright patrolman will stroke his chin before waving you through.
** "A New Life". A small lampshade-hanging occurs if you plant the donuts and then hide to the side side of the surveillance van. You see a pair of feet below the vans backdoors and hear "Ooooh donuts! Nice... Full disclosure: We're actually FBI."
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain:
** Don Giulliani oversees the kidnapping of the padre himself, greeting him with [[HeyYouHaymaker a stiff shot to a jaw]] and another to the ribs when Vitorrio won't stop screaming. Talk about bad karma.
** In India, the hospital bilks old rich people out of their money and funnels it to the cult leader.
** Near the start of the "'Til Death Do Us Part", several wedding guests can be seen leisurely shooting alligators, an activity which Agent 47 can join in on. The target, Pappy [=LeBlanc=], is more sympathetic to the gators (possibly in memory of his brother, the leader of the Gator Gang) and will even toss them chicken wings.
** The strike team in "Rosewood" need swift death. Wade lays waste to an children's hospital full of clergymen, something which disturbs even his posse. ("Whatever happened to ''duct tape?''") As if that wasn't enough, some hoods are ransacking the drug dispensary for personal and entrepreneurial use.
* PrecisionFStrike: In ''Blood Money'', 47 reacts to [[spoiler:Diana's apparent betrayal by shouting "Bitch!" at her]]. This is the only time 47 has ever been verbally aggressive on-screen.
** [[spoiler:Victoria shouts "You ''bastard!''" at Dexter before [[LittleMissBadass single-handedly taking down all of his guards.]] ]]
* PretentiousLatinMotto: The Agency's is ''Merces Letifer'', [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin "lethal trade"]].
* ProfessionalKiller: All installments have 47 working for money. In ''Silent Assassin'', his asking price starts at double the regular rate and increases as the game progresses.
* ProperlyParanoid:
** A few of 47's targets are aware of their upcoming hit, and take steps to make your job extra difficult.
** Vinnie went so far as to surrender himself to the FBI in exchange for entering witness protection. Described as a paranoid shut-in, he gets hysterical whenever his FBI escort is delayed or doesn't meet him at the top of the stairs.
** The 'crazy' father of the bride in ''Blood Money''. It's quite funny to listen to an Alex Jones look-a-like banging on about clones and shadow governments and such, only to be proven right in his obituary.
* PsychoPsychologist: Ort-Meyer and his cronies, including Ödön Kovács, work as "doctors" in the Romanian Asylum where 47 was schooled in murder.
** In "Flatline", the psychiatrist outfit can go anywhere in the clinic apart from the medical wing, which opens up a few kill opportunities. Walk up to one of the mobsters staying at Pine Cone; he'll mention that it's time for his therapy session and lead you to the office upstairs. He'll jabber on for a while, so just walk behind the chair and wire him. Sometimes, a ''second'' target will also claim session time.
* PublicDomainSoundtrack: Agent 47's personal theme music, ever since ''Blood Money'', is "Ave Maria".

[[/folder]]

[[folder:R-T]]

* RagdollPhysics:
** The original is primitive by today's standards, but [=C47=] is notable as well for being a technical pioneer. It didn't actually invent ragdoll physics (the first one to actually use it was ''VideoGame/JurassicParkTrespasser'') but it was a major force for popularizing it, and articles like [[https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/131313/advanced_character_physics.php this]] one explain secrets of the early Glacier engine that were very influential in the 2000-2008 era, before game engines came with full physics simulation built-in as a standard feature.
** As this was the early stages, shooting someone with, say, an elephant gun could very easily catapult them over a 10ft wall and across the map. (''The SILENT BUT DEADLY ASSASSIN!'') Even 47's trademark [=.45s=] were enough to make someone go cartwheeling backwards, and if you were accurate enough to repeatedly land hits on them while they were in midair, it could make for some [[TheJoysOfTorturingMooks truly amazing acrobatic feats.]]
** ''Codename 47'' marvels with its sawed-off double-barreled shotgun. Not only were people blown across the room when both shots were fired at once, bodies were sometimes wedged in ceiling lights, pipes, or just the ceiling corner. Being classified as ''pistols'', the shotgun can be dual wielded, giving it four times the force of a normal shotgun. The trick worked so well, a fat bodyguard was blown out the window and into the South China Sea.
** Also in ''Codename 47'' was a man-portable M134 Minigun. Firing at 10,000 RPM and each bullet inflicting the force of a sniper rifle, it can force a pile of dead bodies (which it made) into spaces in between crates or under heavy furniture.
* RailingKill
** In ''Blood Money'' at least, pushing someone into a railing causes them to fall over it, and their death will be considered an accident by anyone discovering the body, no matter how many other 'accidental' or overtly-suspicious deaths may have occurred on the premises. It kills them even when the rail is ''three feet off the ground.''
** Should you choose to dispose of Doctor Valentine in ''Absolution'' by tampering with his hair-growth formula, in the midst of his panicked running around, he'll run straight into a railing and plummet.
* RareGuns: All over the place...gold plated, silenced, you name it, he's fired it. His [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMT_Hardballer default pistols are rare enough as is.]]
** The almighty W2000. Only 176 of these rifles were ever made because it was too expensive to reach widespread sales of the weapon. Notably, it is the single most expensive weapon in [=C47=]. It's also not available until you reach Rotterdam, which is 3/4 of the way through the game (he uses a Remington 700 until then). After that, 47 uses it as his primary rifle. (It is also featured in the sequels and The Movie.)
** A rather unusual handgun, the .22 S (based on the AWC Amphibian), is a small caliber pistol with a built-in silencer. It is also made out of materials that won't set off metal detectors. Not very powerful, or even accurate from medium to long distance, but it does make for an interesting addition. To highlight its simplistic beauty, Hayamoto has one on display in his museum.
** Mark Puriyah has an [=SG552=] stashed in his command center (fan-nicknamed the Big Bird Building), though he oddly never uses it. In real life, the grip is made of transparent plastic to let you see how much ammo you have at a glance.
** The chosen sidearm of Blake Dexter's psychopathic henchman, Wade, is a .44 Auto-Mag.
* TheRashomon: minor differences exist between several missions in ''Codename: 47'' and their remade versions in ''Contracts'': which versions are "true" is never made explicit.
* RatedMForManly:
** This is a series about a genetically-engineered assassin violently killing arms dealers and drug barons whilst wearing awesome suits and toting big guns.
** IO-Interactive had a [[http://www.forbes.com/sites/carolpinchefsky/2012/11/21/io-interactive-holds-hitman-absolution-launch-party-in-a-strip-club/ crazy launch party]] for ''Absolution''--pole dancers and all.
* RedBaron:
** The secret achievements. For instance, running around with a meat cleaver will inspire the local news to dub you "The Butcher". If you like sniping, then pick a [=WA2000=] sniper rifle and put a silencer on it, look for a cool sniping spot (there is at least one in almost every level like a ferries wheel or a tree house) and head shot everyone in the level. It'll gives you a special rating named "RUSSIAN HARE".
** By VideoGame/HitmanBloodMoney Agent 47 is called "Mr.47"
** Lee Hong is known in the underworld as "The Man With No Conscience".
** Mr. "Meat King" and Mr. "Swing King" (no relation). Both are warm-ups for harder missions ahead.
** The "Bayou Beauty".
** Keep your eye on The Sparrow...Kalvin Ritter, that is.
** Ken Morgan studied law at Cambridge, where he was nicknamed "The Brick" for his square-shouldered frame and ruthless cross-examinations.
* RegeneratingHealth: Added in ''Absolution'', although it only restores up to a portion of your total health. Also, unlike most examples it is ''extremely'' slow, so much so that it's not at all practical for combat purposes. It mostly fills up quietly while you're exploring, and is more to prevent you from getting stuck by making sure you always have at least enough health to survive a few bullets should you stumble into a firefight. Not that it matters on the hardest difficulty, Purist.
* RememberTheNewGuy:
** In ''Silent Assassin'', Mr. X claims to have actually witnessed 47 in action. It happened in Rotterdam, when 47 was chasing after the biker gang and Boris. Needless to say, X does not appear in [=C47=] or ''Contracts'' as an onlooker or otherwise. After that, we're introduced to Boris' hitherto unknown brother, Sergei, who is making inquiries about his death.
** In ''Contracts'', 47 is ambushed without warning and shot in the middle of a hit. As Diana explains in ''Blood Money'', in recent years a group known as The Franchise has entered the mix and been putting serious pressure on the Agency. According to Cayne, he first got wind of 47's scent during the Chilean mission, which occured sometime between SA and ''Contracts.''
** President Stewart was also elected president in November 2000, the same year [=C47=] took place.
** ''Absolution'' introduces Travis, Birdie, and Tom the Tailor. The first is Diana's mentor at ICA, the second is an information broker 47 apparently often uses, whilst the third is the maker of 47's suits. None of them had been seen or mentioned prior to ''Absolution''.
* RemilitarizedZone:
** The St. Petersberg levels in SA, most noticeably "Tubeway Torpedo". Not only do you have to kill a Russian Army General, but there's a CIA agent being held in captivity in the general's bunker.
** "The Bjarkov Bomb". You'll need to borrow a hazmat suit from the Red Army to enter the submarine, which is where Bjarkov builds his dirty bombs.
** "Death Factory", the weapons testing area of Blake Dexter's plant. Of particular note is the minefield testing area, where Dr. Green sits in his skybox and detonates hogs in a facsimile of 1950's American suburbia. Dr. Green informs you over the intercom that the whole place is honeycombed with mines. If you wander into the path of one, it won't be fun.
** ''Hitman'' (2016): For 47's final exam, Soders prepares a "no-win" scenario. Which turns out to be a mock-up of a Soviet air force hangar.
* RevolversAreJustBetter: From ''Silent Assassin'' onwards, each game has at least one revolver.
** The "Gunslinger" playstyle from ''Absolution'' encourages the player to invoke this, by getting them to make 15 kills with a revolver.
** Generally subverted throughout the series. While revolvers have [[HandCannon better stopping power]] than semi-automatics, they're louder and are incapable of mounting suppressors to mitigate that fact, have a lower ammunition capacity, slower reload time and, with one exception, can't be [[GunsAkimbo dual wielded]]. Basically, revolvers are AwesomeButImpractical.
* RingMenu: ''Contracts'' and ''Blood Money'' traded the drop-down menu for this. Part of the problem was it took too long to fish through your inventory in real-time.
* {{Roofhopping}}: Sicily, the Japanese Castle, the Paris hotel, and the exploding hotel from ''Absolution''.
* RubeGoldbergHatesYourGuts: Many of the missions allow you to kill your targets through the use of indirect and often ingenious methods, though most are rather obvious or hard to pull off without getting spotted.
* RunForTheBorder:
** In "Invitation to a Party", the last General has defected to Germany and is staying at the Embassy. The client wants his head--as well as the suitcase the General took with him.
** In ''Blood Money'', 47 and Diana are forced to flee to America. They narrowly escape the collapse of ICA, though Diana's hourglass is rapidly running out.
** Jasper Knight was world-famous chess player who murdered the Soviet ambassador, poisoning him with ricin-coated chess pieces during a match. Jasper then fled to communist Cuba, arranging safe passage across the Iron Curtain for himself. When Langley discovered what he had done, they hired Erich Soders to eliminate him. 47's final step toward becoming a full-fledged ICA agent is to recreate this hit.
* RunningGag:
** The rubber ducks from the first game make appearances in ''Silent Assassin'' and ''Absolution''.
** "Allan please add details," originally a description in ''Blood Money'' which was never edited before release, has since been referenced in ''Absolution'' and ''Hitman'' (2016).
* SafeCracking:
** In "Lee Hong Assassion" and "Invitation to a Party", there are 4 locked safes of which one contains the item you seek.
** In "Rendezvous in Rotterdam" and "Death on the Mississippi", your objective is to break into a safe and steal back some embarrassing photos that are being held over your clients' heads.
** "Birdie's Gift". Mr. [=MacGormand=] is blowing smoke about the gun range being difficult to beat. But if you're committed to mischief, you can break into his safe and take back the guns illegally.
* SaveScumming: Initially averted. The first installment had no in-mission saves, with limited saves being available on later games. The number of saves decreases until you reach professional, where you only get a saved game slot as a progress bonus (but don't count on it). ''Blood Money'' introduced a "Rookie" mode, which allowed infinite saves. In ''Absolution'' it sort of brings it back to the classic games with in game check points instead of manually saving. Weirdly they don't check event flags, so if you reload to the last check point after you've set up an accidental kill before it actually killed your target you'll have to go and set it back up again.
* SceneryPorn: Many missions have beautiful scenery, with the embassy grounds in "Invitation to a Party" from ''Silent Assassin'', and the Heaven Party in "Dance with the Devil" from ''Blood Money'' standing out in particular.
** If you want to drink in the sights of Chile, we wouldn't blame you. This is an absolutely gorgeous level.
** The tutorial level in ''Absolution'' takes place in a splendid-looking mansion.
* SecretLevel: The final mission of ''Blood Money''. So secret that, on the Xbox, you get an achievement for finishing the game ''before'' you get to it, and then a second, separate achievement for completing it.
* SelfImposedChallenge:
** You get to be cool by ''not'' using a disguise. Officially an "Achievement" as of ''Hitman: Absolution''.
** Instinct Mode isn't that necessary in ''Absolution''. But when it's necessary, ''holy shit'' is it necessary. You can try playing without it by throwing lots of distractions, or by using disguises sparingly (you have to turn your back to people while in disguise, which lead to goofy dance sequences where Hitman will nonchalantly walk sideways with his back to guards).
* SelfMadeOrphan:
** 47 was manipulated into killing his genetic donors. Ort-Meyer even referred to him as a son.
** Two weeks after he returned from military service, Lee Hong poisoned his own uncle to take control of the Red Dragon Triad, earning him the nickname "The Man With No Conscience".
** [[spoiler:Margeaux]] is a black window who put out a hit on her bridegroom and father in order to inherit all their money.
* SerialEscalation: Just how corrupt is Agent 47's world is going to be?
* SexySecretary:
** Carol Anne, "Mister Swing King's" niece.
** "Traditions of the Trade". When you get to the dentist's office, talk to the helpful receptionist and she'll tell you where Fritz currently is in the hotel. It's weird how criminals always have good-looking receptionists.
** The guards have set patterns in "The Jacuzzi Job"; the secretary in the safe room is the random element here. But she isn't too hard to dodge, and you can make minor adjustments based on what she does.
* SharedUniverse:
** At some points in ''Absolution'', Agent 47 can run into VideoGame/KaneAndLynch, whose franchise was also developed by IO.
-->'''[[LetsPlay/VideoGameDunkey Dunkey]]''': Hey, look who I found. It's Lynch. From ''Kane and Lynch''. 'Cuz IO Interactive makes those games, too. ''([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ky97jpPM4ZU fills him full of lead]])'' Those games fuckin' '''suck.'''"
** During the ''Skurky's Law'' mission in ''Absolution'' as you reach the holding cells and crawl through the vent. You can oversee one of the prisoners named Kane waiting to see his daughter, Jenny. It's uncertain where ''Absolution'' takes place in the K&L timeline, though Kane is beardless and sporting his bandage from the first one.
* ShesGotLegs: For 12 years, all we ever saw of Diana was her knees. Jade is also introduced in this manner.
* ShipLevel:
** In "Plutonium Runs Loose"/"Deadly Cargo", The Agency needs you to sneak about a cargo ship, the ''Katarina Ivanova'', and kill Boris before he has time to ready his nuke.
** "The Bjarkov Bomb" takes place in part on an old Soviet ship and submarine. Both are permanently moored and being used as a weapons factory.
** "Death on the Mississippi". (The ''Emily'' has no piloting wheel?)
** Played with in "Unexpected Guest". 47's last test as an "Initiate" was to reenact one of the Agency's greatest hits: slaying a GentlemanThief, Kalvin Ritter, aboard his private yacht. The boat, the party guests, the weapons, even the sunset--everything is fake.
* ShootOutTheLock: If you're in too much of a hurry to pick a lock, you can always shoot it out with a silenced gun without risking nearby guards hearing you. It'll also decrease your rating at the end of the level, since you wasted a bullet.
* ShovelStrike: These appear as weapons in ''Contracts'' and ''Blood Money''. Most notably, you can bean "Pappy" [=LeBlanc=] in the head as he's paying his respects to Skip, RIP.
* SimpleYetAwesome: Sure, you could take your target with your high-tech customized silenced sniper rifle. Or you could push them over a railing into the river, hit them with a hammer, or drop something on them.
* SickbedSlaying: Trust him, he's a doctor.
** The cult leader, Deewana Ji, is awaiting a heart transplant at an island hospital. Right now his cult is at a standstill, waiting for Mr. 17's stolen nuke to arrive. Once Deewana Ji is back on his feet, he plans to unleash Armageddon by combining the nuke with an unbeatable missile defense chip. Do the world a favor and jam a scalpel in his thorax while he's being prepped for surgery.
** The targets at the rehab facility, including Agent Smith himself, will die before their detox is over. Sal, Tony, and Giovanni (or whatever their names are) can each be strangled in the therapist's chair, drowned in the spa, or crushed to death in the exercise room. ([[ExploitedTrope Exploited]] with Smith: 47 fakes his death to make it easier to smuggle him out of the clinic.)
** So many ways to dispatch [[spoiler:to Soder]] in the last mission of 2016 Season 1. Just a pleasant hello will give him a shock and kill him, and tampering with his surgery will also do, but in case you want to outsource your killing again, just show the actual chief surgeon his patient is also his father's killer, and the good doctor will off your target himself.
* SinisterSilhouettes:
** The {{Big Bad}}s of ''Hitman'' 1 & 2 are kept in shadow of most the game. Most interestingly, the flashbacks with Ort-Meyer show 4 other men conversing over the newly-hatched body of Mr. 47. As you progress through the game, it becomes clear that these silhouettes belong to Lee Hong ("Will he be able to feel any pain? It makes people obey orders."), Pablo Ochoa ("Come to papa!"), Franz Fuchs ("His nose is very much like mine!") and Boris ("If I'd only had 50 of him in [[UsefulNotes/VietnamWar 'Nam]], it'd still be French!")
** On the loading screen for Lorne's mansion, you'll probably be curious as to who the '?' is. This represents a female assassin who's been sent to kill you by [[spoiler:Cayne]].
* SinisterShades: A requisite for bad guys. They must all be fans of ''The Matrix''.
* SleazyPolitician:
** The client in Rotterdam enlists 47 to recover some photos of him having sex in the back of a police van. Not the kind of image enhancement you want, especially when running for Mayor.
** Richard Delahunt is a one-time Presidential candidate from Louisiana who was implicated in a child sex scandal and flushed from the system. He currently serves as an ambassador to the Vatican (no comment) and resides far away in Paris, so he won't embarrass anyone back home.
** The son of Colorado's own Senator, Chad Bingham Jr., managed to bribe his way out of prison after an adventure with a stripper went bad. Write your congressman today and help correct this grave injustice. --Scratch that, it's an election year and daddy can't afford to let Junior upset any more apple carts.
* SlashedThroat:
** You will really come to appreciate the speed of a knife in ''Hitman''.
** If Angelina finds out that Raymond is dead, ''and'' payment has been delivered, she will scurry up the side of Jimmy Cilley's float and cut his throat with a huge-ass knife.
* SlidingScaleOfSillinessVersusSeriousness:
** The games have always been hitting a blend between the two ends of the scale, but ''Absolution'' leans a bit more towards the silly side. Some reviewers have said that the plotline is comparable to that of a [[Creator/QuentinTarantino Tarantino]] flick. Whether or not that's a good thing is up to you.
** ''Contracts'' is pretty far on the opposite end of the spectrum. See DarkerAndEdgier above.
* SniperScopeSway: Depending on your weapon. If you are using a fully upgraded W2000, there is little sway, though it only gets a single shot. Also, sway is affected if you move and by the length of time you hold the rifle after sighting. Sway can be eliminated by canceling the sighting and adjusting your position to the next target before sighting again.
* SniperPistol: In ''Blood Money'', you can easily convert your Silverballer into one of these with the purchase of a scope. You can't buy it until relatively far into the game though. Still, combine it with a silencer, and you've got yourself a portable, mid-range headshot machine which can't easily be detected. Don't count on being able to hit things from a great distance though.
* SniperScopeSway: In ''Hitman'', it depends on your rifle. If you are using a fully upgraded W2000, there is only a ''little'' sway, which can adds up to ''big'' problems since it only gets one shot (albeit one with higher precision than with a magazine). Also, sway is affected if you move and by the length of time you hold the rifle after sighting. Players can glitch out of sway by exiting the sniper sight (click click) and then re-adjusting your position before sighting again.
* SnipingMission:
** The first mission (apart from the tutorial) in ''Hitman: Codename 47''. It ''can'' be done without sniping, but it is dangerous.
** Ditto in SA, when 47 accepts "one last job" involving a summit at the former FSB headquarters. Yet again, you can ignore Diana's yapping and and just storm the place if you feel like it.
* SongsInTheKeyOfPanic: If you trip up and alert the police, don't worry -- Jesper Kyd will let you know it.
* SoundtrackDissonance: It would appear 47 finds peace in classical music to drown the sounds of his victims playing in his head:
** "Ave Maria" is the main menu song in ''Blood Money'' and on some maps, upbeat music is playing while you can happily slaughter your way through the innocent crowd. Furthermore, the Ave Maria [[spoiler:returns at the very end of the game, where it plays in the background of the final mission when 47 wakes up at his "funeral" and starts blowing mooks away left, right, and center]]. Specifically, the scene starts with "Ave Maria" [[spoiler:goes into a downer tune as the shooting begins, and goes back to "Ave Maria" as 47 leaves the church to finish off the survivors.]]
*** "Ave Maria" shows up again in ''Absolution'': it plays at the end of the mission "Skurky's Law", where [[spoiler:47 pulls an UnflinchingWalk while Hope, South Dakota burns in the distance.]]
** "The Meat King's Party" in ''Contracts''. Finding the mutilated body of a young woman hanging upside-down by a meat hook while Paul Anka's "Put Your Head on My Shoulder" plays in the background and her murderer prowls around behind you is unnerving, to say the least.
* SpiderSense: The map won't show you the guards' view cones (a la ''Metal Gear Solid)''. You do, however, get a suspicio-meter, a staple of the ''Hitman'' series, the threat meter determines how the guards react to Agent 47. When it is empty, everyone will treat Agent 47 as a normal bloke. He can generally run around without raising suspicion. When it is half full the threat meter will turn yellow/red, and this indicates that the guards have seen something suspicious and will go on alert. Running around may agitate the guards until they blow Agent 47's cover. When the meter is full it'll turn bright red, which means any guard present has seen through Agent 47's disguise and shoot on sight. In ''Blood Money'', the threat meter will decrease over time if Agent 47 acts normally, or hides from the guards, another thing that was new to the series but long overdue.
* SpySpeak:
** 47 and The Agency have a fondness for wordplay and passwords. You will find a few Agency contacts in Siberia (just ask for "Yuriska"), an herbalist in Lee Hong's resteraunt, a neo-Nazi in the Hotel Galar, and another one in a Punjab travel agency ("Special price, only for you!")
** In their communiqués, Ort-Meyer and his associates always sign off with the phrase. "Blood and Muscle". Late in the game, the other four donors start getting itchy feet, suggesting that they each "split the fruit", which implies they're planning to kill Ort-Meyer and seize his research.
** In the final battle of ''Silent Assassin'', Sergei holds Vitorrio and gunpoint and feeds him lines in the confessional booth. Vitorrio pleads with 47 to surrender to the guards and look inside "his heart". This is actually code for ''Aim for the heart-shaped window so glass will get in his eye and blind him.''
** Margeux is friendly to 47 when he introduces himself as "a friend" of her father's, most likely because she knows of his true identity as the man hired to kill her family.
** In "Amendment XXV" the Vice President gets a call from the assassin he's hired to kill President Steward. To duck out of a meeting without arousing suspicion, he pretends the voice on the other end of the line is his niece.
* TheStakeout:
** In "Rendezvous at Rotterdam", the ICA's stakeout ends in failure, forcing 47 to finish the mission all by himself.
** Hiding behind a resteraunt menu, 47 watches the "handoff" in New Orleans before the level even starts. Follow the big red bird, and he will ''eventually'' lead you to Mark Puriyah.
* StandardFPSGuns: Exaggerated, in that each game features ''dozens'' of varieties of each type of gun. GunPorn at its finest.
* StationaryBoss:
** The Meat King is immobilized by his own fat, and can only shout for help from his guards. How did he make it to court, you ask? Well, he needs a wheelchair to get around, and it can be seen lying next to his room. Campbell is one the few targets in this series who cannot be dragged anywhere, and you can't fiber wire him Jabba-style.
** Unusual for an adversary in ''Hitman'', Charlie won't defend himself or even try to flee when you confront him, instead hiding underwater like a little kid until you leave. Also a fun fact: Charlie's AI does not involve moving. At all. If you try to use anesthetic and drag him somewhere, he won't move at all. He'll float in the air and pretend to be swimming in the jacuzzi. Same happens with Fritz from ''Contracts'' if you sedate him while he's in the pool.
** Deewanna Ji is lying on a hospital bed and awaiting a heart transplant. The same goes for [[spoiler:Eric Soders]] in ''Hitman'' (2016), when you finally do confront him.
* StealthRun: Required for the "Silent Assassin" title.
* StealthBasedGame: And probably one of the first games in the genre to prioritize disguises and hiding in plain sight over pure stealth. The game certainly encourages you to play stealthily but it's by no means obligatory, however.
* StickyBomb: Mines can be placed inside suitcases or tool boxes and then detonated later from a safe distance. This is noisy and can cause the deaths of innocents, use with caution. It's also possible to stick mines to the walls, tables, trays, etc.
* TheStinger:
** The final stage of ''Blood Money'' starts with the credits rolling while 47 is [[spoiler:laying on a cremation table at his own funeral.]]
** After the epilogue of ''Absolution'', a scene plays where Birdie approaches a detective tracking down 47 and offering to help him.
* StormingTheCastle: Lee Hong's resteraunt, Pablo's mansion, Hayomoto's Castle, Gontranno Sanctuary, and Dexter Industries
* StuffedIntoATrashcan:
** Nothing unusual about slitting your throat, taking a stroll and then hiding yourself in a recycling bin.
** Garbage trucks can dispose of all kinds of waste. (Curiously, the body capacity is infinite.) The Terminus Hotel also has trash chutes lying conveniently open.
* SuperDrowningSkills:
** In ''Blood Money'', arranging an "accidental" drowning is as simple as pushing an NPC headfirst into a hot tub.
** Or better yet, pushing someone over into a pool ''as they're walking into it for a swim'' instantly kills them.
** This method is even funnier. In "Shaving Lenny", Gavin will often stop by the balcony of the scrapyard and look down at the ''wide-open vat of crude oil''. Not only will he drown immediately when pushed (possibly because he fell in head-first), but you will hear his death rattle (GLUG GLUG GLUG) as he sinks straight to the bottom.
* SWATTeam: 47 has to deal with various special police forces, mainly in Romania (penultimate level of ''Codename 47'' and first level of ''Contracts'') and France (the GIGN in the last level of ''Contracts''). They're usually deadlier than previous mooks, armed with the best submachine guns and equipped with bulletproof vests.
* TakeCover: Alcoves are your friends. This ability was removed in ''Blood Money'' thanks to the free roaming camera.
* TamperingWithFoodAndDrink:
** One of the many methods of killing in the Hitman series is to inject sedatives or poison into food deliveries. (In the Christmas mission, you can also put aphrodisiacs into a martini to summon your mark into a more remote location.)
** In the first three games, 47 must first locate some poison. It's either hidden in an ICA crate, one of the empty rooms, or in a sewer grate. In ''Blood Money'', 47 always comes equipped with two types of syringes: the lethal one, which will kill the target, and non lethal one, which will stun them. Alternatively, you can prepare a needle, hover it over the food, and apply it like ketchup.
* TapOnTheHead: In ''Blood Money'', 47 can knock people out by smacking them on the back of the head with his pistol. If you leave them where they lie and someone stumbles onto them, they can be revived almost instantly. It's probably justified in the fact that 47 is slightly super-human.
* TattooedCrook:
** In the biker bar, it's possible to poison the tattoo artist's ink well. This will make quick work of Rutgert.
** The hitwoman at Lorne's party. She has a distinctive [[IntimateMarks skull and crossbones tattoo on her buttock]], which sets her apart from the other bunnies. One of the saints, Dixon, has a similar tattoo on her right cheek (it's a teardrop).
** Wade's name in written in ink on his right hand. Lenny has much more ostentatious arm tattoos.
* TeleportingKeycardSquad:
** ''Codename 47'': Once Dr. Kovacs bites the dust, the local police force arrives and the building is placed on lockdown. There's a key on the wall which unlocks the rest of the sanitarium.
** "St. Petersberg Revisited": When Mr. 17 dies, all of the guards will disperse from the Pushkin Building to look for 47. In addition, several Guards will be posted at the Metro and four more will be deployed inside the sewers. The Mr. 17 Outfit will keep the mobsters off your back as you flee the building. It should be noted that no disguise will fool the guards by the Metro no matter what, which is why you need to dive back down into the sewers.
* TemptingFate:
** What's that old saying about 'not tempting the wrath from atop the high thing'? In ''Absolution'' and ''2016'' especially, [=NPCs=] are nonchalant about standing next to windows, chandeliers, pianos, and lit fireworks.
** In ''Absolution'', 47 overhears a steel mill worker talking about an upcoming wrestling match. The challenger is Sanchez, your target in the upcoming mission "Fight Night". The worker currently owes a friend twenty G's, and ''another'' twenty to his girlfriend with which he bet on Sanchez. Not to worry, though, he's sure to win!
* ThouShaltNotKill: Some civilians will report any mysterious behaviour to the guards. It is advisable not to do anything stupid in front of them. Also, do not kill them. This will take your score down in the final results screen.
* ThrowingTheDistraction:
** In ''Blood Money'', 47 can use a simple coin to distract guards. In a pinch, it works.
** In ''Silent Assassin'', Diana gives you a cell phone and pager to entice an interrogator to wander over to the other side of his two-way mirror.
** A subtle example. In "Hunter and Hunted", shooting a car outside of the police blockade triggers a car alarm. The gullible SWAT will go investigate the noise, leaving your target (the Inspector) all alone by his van.
** ''Absolution'' has vastly more rubbish to collect and throw. If you've run out of Instinct, lack a henchman disguise, or you just don't want to use Instinct, you'll need a throwable object to distract the guards.
* TimedMission:
** In ''Blood Money'''s "The Murder of Crows", once the courier delivers the payment to Mark Purayah, the Secretary will be assassinated after taking a couple of laps of the parade route in his float. Stopping the courier from making the payoff allows you to TakeYourTime (and makes it easier to fulfill the optional objective of keeping the case).
** "Till Death Do Us Part" doesn't have a time limit, but if you wait long enough, Margeaux and Buddy will get married, which moves all of the [=NPCs=] (minus Pappy) to the gazebo out back. Killing Pappy, or ringing the wedding bell yourself, speeds up the ceremony.
** The "Countdown" mission in ''Absolution'' is exactly what it means - 47 has four-and-a-half minutes to stop Blake Dexter before he leaves the building's roof with Victoria.
** In "Deadly Cargo" from ''Contracts'', the target will eventually detonate a nuke, causing the mission to fail, although it takes a long time to happen.
* TrailOfBlood: Bodies leak blood, so keep it clean or else you'll lead your enemies right to them. In ''Absolution'', there is a blood trail leading from the elevator to the chapel where Wade's goons are interrogating someone. It loudly squelches when you walk on it.
* TrapIsTheOnlyOption:
** The final mission of [=C47=], as its name implies (directly states), is a Setup. Your friend at the Agency, Diana Burnwood (the one who's been sending you all these choice assignments) actually shows some concern for your safety.
** "St. Petersberg Revisited", and the reemergence of a very familiar face.
* TranslationConvention: Cringe-inducingly played straight in ''Codename 47'', and notably (and thoroughly) averted thereafter.
* TrialAndErrorGameplay: Getting the "Silent Assassin" rating can be like this occasionally. It usually involves using the environment, sometimes in rather unintuitive ways. For example, in ''Hitman 2: Silent Assassin,'' one mission includes a smoke bomb in your starting equipment. You need to go into the building's laundry room and drop the smoke bomb down the chute, then hightail it over to the fire station, wait for the firemen to deploy, then sneak in and steal a uniform and axe so you can clear the security checkpoint with no questions asked, then run as fast as you can to the basement where your target is located, axe him in the head, then run back upstairs and escape via the elevator before the fire alarm ends. There's pretty much no way to figure all this out on your first playthrough without a guide.
* TrilogyCreep: Both "Hitman Trilogy", a boxset for the [=PS2=], and "Hitman HD Trilogy", a similar set for the [=PS3=] and 360, actually feature the second, third and fourth entries in the Hitman series (Silent Assassin, Contracts and Blood Money), skipping the original game in the entirely. The original game in the series, Hitman Codename 47, was a PC-exclusive; not to mention Contracts is, in effect, a remake of it.
* TwoShotsFromBehindTheBar:
** Maynard John is maserqading as a bartender in the Shark Club. When you confront him, he invites 47 to join him in a soundproofed room where they can "duel" in private.
** In [=C47=], the Sawn-Off is found only in the fish restaurant. Once the Chief is history, the Blue Lotus member will flee and the bartender will decide to go down guns blazing. By far the best gun in terms of entertainment (as it sends people flying), you'll have to take out the bartender if you want to get your hands on it, but once you do, make sure you make those two rounds count as those are the only shells the bartender had on hand.
** ''Hitman'' (2016): The Escalation with "shotgun bartenders" is a lampshade.
* TuxedoAndMartini:
** The German Embassy and the Cruise Ship.
** A tuxedo is an available outfit in most games, sometimes as an unlockable.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:U-Z]]

* UnreliableNarrator:
** Mr. [[spoiler:Cayne]] in ''Hitman: Blood Money''. Turns out he's the FinalBoss.
** And 47 himself in ''Contracts'': all of the missions are really him remembering past missions, but his memory is clearly colored by his present state (i.e.: ambushed, shot and dying alone in a shitty hotel room).
* TheUnseen:
** Diana. Well, until ''Absolution'', at least.
** President Tom Stewart. Although crucial to the plot, the POTUS never actually makes an appearance in either a newspaper or the game itself.
* UseYourHead:
** As of ''Blood Money'', 47 can dizzy his foes with a nice headbutt.
** If you attempt to strangle Fritz in the Hotel Galar, 47 will headbutt him and then force his head underwater, killing him in seconds.
* UselessSecurityCamera: Averted in ''Blood Money'', where being spotted by a camera (even after you've removed the tape from the VCR) will send any and all guards from the security booth to your location.
* VanInBlack:
** In Punjab, your main goal is to gain access to the doomsday cult "Gurdwara" through a secret passage in one of the shops in the city marked "Carpets International." (A pun on the ICA.) You will find another ICA contact (Agent Smith again) inside the International Parcel Service shop who will provide more info.
** In "A New Life", the florist van is an FBI outpost. It can be used, ironically enough, to lure Vinnie to his doom: if you brought a sniper rifle you can use the phone in the FBI van to bring him to the window, then shoot him from the garage of the house opposite his.
* VerticalKidnapping: You can do this via hiding at the top of an elevator and scooping up unlucky victims with your fiber wire, though the whole "kidnapping" part might be averted in the fact that the victim is dead...
* VictoriasSecretCompartment:
** "The Jacuzzi Job". So where, exactly, do they keep the revolvers?
** In "A New Life", Vinnie's ex-cohort in Cuba wants you to retrieve some evidence. Why MRS. SINISTRA has it around her neck, no one is sure. Shouldn't it be in some police station's evidence locker?
* VideoGameCaringPotential: ''Silent Assassin'', ''Blood Money'', and ''Absolution'' feature a few challenges or optional methods to save innocent bystanders from being killed by the antagonists.
** Granted, ''Absolution'' will give you a penalty if you are spotted by ''the people you are rescuing.'' They do thank you afterwards and promise not to to tell a soul, but hey - a witness is a witness.
* VideoGameCrueltyPotential:
** Some players see how many people they can murder with a hammer without being discovered in ''Blood Money''. Harder than it sounds, as even with a proper disguise, hammers look pretty suspicious when covered in blood.
** It's possible to complete nearly every mission in the second game with the golf club alone, with a Silent Assassin rating.
** Most of the settings take this UpToEleven-- nothing says heroism like slaughtering the entire population of a quiet suburb or massacring all the patients and staff of a rehab clinic. It's entirely possible to kill everyone on most levels; sometimes, you can even do so stealthily, though obviously that requires a bit of patience.
*** In the opening mission of ''Absolution'', a guard is getting news that he doesn't have cancer and says "Nothing can ruin this day!" You choose to throw him out the window... that's cold, bro. (''He just came down with a chronic case of dropsy.'')
*** The "End of the Road" mission in ''Absolution'' is all about letting you get creative with how you dispatch a certain target... or driving away, leaving him exposed to the elements in the middle of a desert.
** Large number of possible ratings (Terrorist, Mass Murderer, Sociopath, Deranged Slayer etc.) motivates one to experiment.
** Here's a fun trick in ''Blood Money'': in one mission, a woman will invite you to a private room, only to reveal herself to be another assassin. After you kill her, a guard passes by outside. Sedate him, take his clothes, and hide the body in the other room...by dragging him on top of the assassin's body. What's he going to think when he wakes up?
** One of the achievements in ''Blood Money'' is to get exactly 47 kills. This game encourages reckless abandon and merciless slaughter. Especially made fun on the "A New Life" if you set up a sniping spot and gun down each and every FBI agent and neighbor they can manage.
** Contracts Mode. This feature is simple, but genuinely unique. Pick a map and a target, and prerequisites for taking them out. Most of the user-created maps are mediocre, but every once in a while you'll get one that's like "kill the homeless man" wearing Agent 47's suit, with a shotgun, and then hide the body. Rake in 470,000 points.
* VideoGameCrueltyPunishment:
** At the end of each mission you receive data on how well you did. Your score and/or payment will be dished out on the basis of stealth and aggressiveness. A perfect score nets you a "Silent Assassin" rating. Typically, this requires you to kill ONLY the target, fire only 1 bullet per level, and never get caught.
** In ''Blood Money'', the music gets a lot more foreboding if you do something violent and terrible.
** The dogs in ''Blood Money'' don't attack, unlike the dogs in the first game, but they do bark a lot and summon guards, which is bad. If you shoot one dead, its body cannot be moved.
* WhereItAllBegan:
** Meet Your Brother drops 47 off right where the [=H:C47=] tutorial ended; all you have to do is work backwards. The orderly at the desk will draw a gun on you this time.
** Likewise, the Gontranno Sanctuary becomes a Russian stronghold after you fly back from killing Mr. 17.
* WhiteVoidRoom:
** [=C47=] and SA used this for 47's death poses.
** It is also used in boss encounters: Ort-Meyer, 17, and Sergei each appear in a white room when they die. The loose remake, ''Contracts'', begins in [[http://archive.kontek.net/hitman47.3dactionplanet.gamespy.com/hitman3/walkthrough/01_asylum/images/02.jpg that same white room]] as Ort-Meyer's body, right down to the pool of blood forming a "Hitman" symbol, which is quite cool and surreal. The game returns to normal when you exit through a door into the lab, and you can't reenter the white room.
** One cutscene in the second game will use this effect regardless of where 47 actually is, as if to convey that nothing else matters at the moment. The entire background will disappear until the cutscene is over.
** Should 47 be caught by the female counter-assassin in ''Blood Money'', the above effect will occur.
* WolfpackBoss: No surprise here; 'boss' characters are even more well-armed and well-protected than a normal Target.
## Ort-Meyer himself is armed only with a puny stun-gun, which will still [[OneHitKill InstaKill]] you if he somehow managed to hobble over to 47 and land a hit. He is protected by the Mr. 48 brigade.
## Sergei's no slouch. If you trip up and alert his henchmen, chances are you will be instantly killed in a crossfire of sniper bullets. He only comes out if the goons are all dead (barring a wall cheat which suddenly & embarrassingly kills him), and when he does, he's brandishing a big ole' SPAS-12 shotgun. He can take a serious beating before dying, too, so taking him-head-on is a bad idea.
## "Requiem": If you act quickly to revive 47, you can shoot [[spoiler:Cayne]] in the head before he is wheeled out. He travels with an escort, too, so he won't be as easy to grab when he's on the move. [[spoiler:Cayne]] also packs a powerful sidearm, if it comes to that.
## In the showdown with Blake Dexter, he wields a devastating machine gun and is protected by mines, guards in riot gear, and a whole bunch of other shit. Travis is an immobile enemy, but he's flanked by the Praetorian Guardsmen.
* WorldOfBuxom: There are three types of human in ''Hitman'': targets, guards, and civilians. The game only considers women capable of two of those roles. Targets (dressed in latex bondage nun outfits) and civilians (whose job is to get scared and run away) And anyway, most of the men are ''impossibly'' ripped, too.
* WorldOfWeirdness:
** Anyone who's played the previous games knows that the AI is a challenge (and not in a good way) and the story has always been a bit "off "and oddball, full of over-the-top gangsters and bimbos. Lets face it, in ''BM'' you had to kill three hitmen dressed as birds, and in ''Contracts'' you had to kill a guy in a S&M party in a slaughter house (with hanging animal carcasses on the walls no less). Any fan of the series will admit the odd, quirky, and distasteful situations are part of the game's charm.
* YouALLLookFamiliar:
** {{Palette Swap}}s will show up on occasion, the tour group in "Amendment XXV" being one of the biggest examples.
** The most glaring one is Paris. There are only two civilian models, the druggie and his pink-haired girlfriend from the hotel Mr. 47 is staying at. So if you stroll past the police cars, you'll see an army of scene kids all rubbernecking at the barricade. It's ridiculous.
** Most notably the crowd in New Orleans in ''Blood Money'', which consists of no more than a dozen individual character templates, cloned across hundreds, if not ''thousands'' of people. Needless to say, it's quite noticeable. Having said that, ''Blood Money'' was one of the very first games to have such a huge crowd of completely autonomous polygonal characters, so they probably had to make compromises somewhere.
* YouJustToldMe:
** In ''Contacts'', heading to the Wang Fou bar initiates a funny conversation where 47 extracts the truth from a bartender by giving him nervous bowel syndrome.
** In ''Absolution'' The prologue shows 47 driving up to Diana's gate in an ice cream van, pretending to be lost. The guard approaches an unseen 47 in the window and tells him they don't want any Fudgsicles today. "What about your partner?", 47 murmurs. "What partner?" the guard sneers, right before getting wired and dragged into the van.

[[/folder]]
----

** If you corner Layla in the panic room (again in ''Absolution'') A cutscene will be triggered in which Layla strips to her underwear and high heels and tries to seduce 47. She will then whip out a gun and unload it. At this point you have a few seconds to save yourself. Should you lose the quick-draw duel, Layla looms over the camera and drives her heel through 47's eye socket.

--->'''Brooker''': Trail for Hitman: Absolution is terrible shit aimed at [[RatedMForMoney base, clueless imbeciles]]. Fuck the game industry if it thinks this shit works. Fuck it.

Players are [[GameplayGrading scored on stealth]], so ideally, you should only kill your targets and leave without alerting anyone, like a real assassin. That said, if (hah! ''when'') you are discovered, or if you become addicted to the RagdollPhysics, you can Rambo your way through everything in your path--but you won't escape the consequences if you leave a trail of bodies behind you. The missions aren't really designed for FPS-style killing, and you'll soon find that stealth is far more fun and rewarding. Or you can just [[SoMuchForStealth cave their heads in with a fire extinguisher]], that works too.

** {{Hand Wave}}d in ''Blood Money'': one of Agent 47's primary weapons is a syringe that can be used to inject targets at the jugular or to poison food. For efficiency's sake, instead of using a single poison, a mixture of chemicals is used: sodium pentothol, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride. Since this is the exact combination of chemicals used in lethal injection executions, the victim dies quickly and noiselessly....Which only ''kinda'' makes sense. In lethal injections they use multiple IVs so the poisons don't mix beforehand and undergo a process called precipitation. A fancy way of saying they get all waxy and won't go in. And it can still take two hours for the victim to die. It would work better to just use one of the first two (the more fast acting drugs) and strangle the person after they pass out. However, ''Blood Money''[='=]s use of poison still makes more sense than the previous game, ''Contracts'': in several levels, you're forced to look for poisons in the surrounding area and dose people's food or drink with it, and weedkiller or rat poison aren't exactly painless '''or''' quiet.

** "Hunter and Hunted". On the floor 47 is staying in, there's a switchbox at the end of the hall which will be useful for getting past the riot police. These fools are completely helpless in the dark; you can waltz right past them and they won't take notice. Also, if you escape via the ambulance, the not-so-bright patrolmen will stroke his chin before waving you through.

** "Hunter and Hunted". On the floor 47 is staying in, there's a switchbox at the end of hall which will be useful for getting past the riot police. These clowns are completely helpless in the dark; you can waltz right past them and they won't take notice. Also, if you escape via the ambulance, the not-so-bright patrolmen will stroke his chin before waving you through.

* ConspicuouslyPublicAssassination:
** "Accidents" happen every day.

** There is a scarecrow functioning as a training doll in The Gontranno Sanctuary in ''Silent Assassin'' which has Ivan's clothes and hat. You crossed paths with him in "Gunrunner's Paradise."

** The Jaguar from "The Jungle God" was stuffed and mounted on Lord Winston's staircase. Later, it is sold to Charlie Sidjan, a collector of rare artifacts--along with Lee Hong's jade dragon figurine.
** In "A Dance With The Devil", next to the "torture room" where the couples are necking, the guy sitting on the couch is wearing the same costume as the defense attorney in ''Contracts.'' But you can't get into the room, only look into it from behind a gate, so you can't take the outfit.
** "Flatline": At the top left of the rank newspaper, there is an advertisement of Cheung Chau Chinese Restaurant, which is the same restaurant as the one in ''Hitman: Codename 47''.

** In "Invitation to a Party" The last General has defected to Germany and is staying at the Embassy. The client wants his head--as well as the suitcase the General took with him.

** Since ''Absolution'' has such a big cast, only a few Targets other than Travis stand out. The villains on view are mostly a pack of clowns led by the hammy David Carradine. In ''Blood Money'' and prior, most of the Targets are characterized via Diana's messages. This means it's simply a short message where we're told how crazy they are. All the cartoonish acts they commit happen off-screen. On the other hand, we get to see all the nutso characters from ''Absolution'' acting out in cutscenes and their over-the top idiocy.

** Since ''Absolution'' has such a big cast, only a few villains other than Travis stand out, Edward Wade, Sheriff Clive Skurky, and Blake Dexter being the three who get the most focus. Blake's a bit of a head case, so the goons who gravitate toward him tend to be oddballs as well: Skurky uses a jail cell in his precinct as his personal sex dungeon. Wade is a metal-mouthed sex freak who gets his jollies from shooting up orphanages. Dexter steals the show in the end, though; he's just the most insane, pitch-perfect villain for a game like ''Absolution'', rooted in just enough reality to make him scary, while simultaneously being the most insane of them all.

** One cutscene in the second game will use this effect regardless of 47 where actually is, as if to convey that nothing else matters at the moment. The entire background will disappear until the cutscene is over.

** Joseph "Swing King" Clarence was found not guilty of a gross negligence after one of his fairground attractions killed forty people. Money talks, and killers walk. However, the legal battle bled Joeseph's finances dry, and he's on the verge of declaring bankrupcy. After his wife leaves him, Joseph 'Breaks Bad' and re-purposes the husk of his theme park into a crack den.

** The semi-auto [=W2000=]. See, in the older games, having a semi-auto rifle was a game breaking advantage, since you could pop heads from a safe perch all day long. In ''Blood Money'', the developers realized their mistake and replaced it with a bolt-action [=W2000=], which is behind a paywall and takes longer to obtain. You begin the game with a semi-auto one, but it has a much a bigger kick and makes your shots go wild.

* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: You'll tire of sewers while playing these games, but at least your enemies can't follow you down there. Usually.

** The Cougars barely qualify as a gang. They each work days jobs, operating out of a small city block which includes an auto mechanic, plumber's, and barber. Each time Dexter drives another store owner out of business, the Cougars move in. Colvin has an office that on the upper level of the Green Mountain, a convenience store run by his girlfriend; Gavin and Landon are always at the auto shop; Mason and Luke can be found hosting a party at the barber shop.

Each title follows the career of Mr. 47 (Creator/DavidBateson), a genetically-engineered super assassin. Accompanied by his handler, Diana, he performs high-level hits for a clandestine [[MurderInc "Agency"]] whilst avoiding the law and industry rivals. It plays like a {{pastiche}} of [[SpyFiction spy]]/crime thrillers, blowing kisses at Creator/IanFleming and Creator/JohnWoo in particular.

** ''Blood Money'' has Tom Bowen's 'HowNotToPlayHitman' series, which combines hilarious amounts of [[NoKillLikeOverkill carnage]] and SoundtrackDissonance.

** Some of the voice acting in ''Codename 47'' veers past being terrible, and becomes hilarious instead. Ort-Meyer's especially due to his hammy delivery.