History Main / DeadlyDelivery

* Parodied in the short film ''Film/TheBoxAssassin'', where the eponymous hitman has the ability to [[HammerspaceHideaway conceal himself in a box of any size]], and uses an unknowing pizza delivery driver to bring him to his target. Fortunately he's AffablyEvil and lets the delivery driver go [[NiceToTheWaiter with a big wad of cash in compensation]] for getting blood in his car.

* Parodied in the short film ''Film/TheBoxAssassin'', where the eponymous hitman has the ability to [[HammerspaceHideaway conceal himself in a box of any size]], and uses an unknowing pizza delivery driver to bring him to his target. Fortunately he's AffablyEvil and lets the delivery driver go [[NiceToTheWaiter with a big wad of cash in compensation]] for getting blood in his car.

* In the 1989 Italian-Australian mini-series ''Series/TheMagistrate'', Franco Nero's character is targeted by TheMafia. Knowing the magistrate's favourite coffee, they wait till his wife goes to buy a tin, then swaps it for another by staging a theft of her purse, which is retrieved by an apparent good Samaritan. Unfortunately despite the well-known fact that he makes his own coffee, the wife decides to make it this time, and is killed by a bomb when she unseals the tin.

* In an episode of ''[[VideoGame/FZero F-Zero Falcon Densetsu]]'' Pico is hired to assassinate Tanaka and delivers a bomb to him.

* ''Film/SuicideSquad''. A delivery van pulls up at Van Criss Laboratories with a gift basket for someone inside. The guard refuses to let them in as they're not authorised, so the driver just passes him the basket which promptly explodes. The Joker and his goons then pile out of the van and shoot their way inside.

* Parodied in ''Film/AustinPowersTheSpyWhoShaggedMe''. After Austin Powers has saved the day and is about to get it on with Felicity Shagwell, there's a knock at the door and Fat Bastard bursts through in a knockoff [=UPS=] uniform with a revolver.

* Two missions in ''VideoGame/TheSaboteur'' have Sean escorting a character to their target so they can kill them with explosives disguised as gifts. One involves Veronique and ends with her and Sean pursued by Nazis after thei "gift's" explosion rocks the target's apartment. Another involves a brainwashed Nazi who gets caught and killed by the explosion before reaching his target, leaving Sean to take out the target on his own.

A criminal or terrorist poses as a package {{courier}} or mailman to deliver a bomb, or get the target to open the door so he can be shot or kidnapped. The advantages of this are obvious -- by insisting that the target sign for the package, the killer can be sure a) the door gets opened for a stranger, and b) he's got the right man. To some extent, this is TruthInTelevision.

%%* ''Literature/{{Durarara}}'': Once so beat Shinra.

** Hajime Saito pulls this stunt when he visits the Kamiya dojo, by posing as a peddler selling medicines and home remedies. Sanosuke almost falls for it, until he notices the calluses on Saito's hands, which are common for swordsmen. At which point Saito [[spoiler: drops the facade and attacks Sanosuke, nearly killing him. He notes the attack would have been fatal had it not been for the flimsyness of the sword he was carrying.]]

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* Done in ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CwM7yiPVms Ace Ventura Rising]]'' through clever editing of actual ''Film/AceVentura'' footage.
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* ''Film/ActionJackson'' (1988). Used by the Invisible Men to kill a witness, with a silenced gun held behind the ClipboardOfAuthority.

* Downplayed in ''Film/TheEigerSanction''. Government assassin Jon Hemlock poses as a courier to verify the presence of his target, but then leaves the building and enters by climbing a drainpipe. He brings a courier's cap with him and steals a box left outside another office in the building to further the disguise.
* ''Film/TheEqualizer2''. Dogs start backing when hitmen turn up at an apartment block, but when someone looks out the window all they see is a man in a raincoat holding a pizza delivery hotbox (from which he removes a silenced gun) so he assumes they're barking over the smell of the pizza. Note that this trope is just to get inside the apartment block not an individual apartment, which they break into.

* Likewise in ''Film/HeWhoDares'' (2014). A delivery driver turns up with a package which he claims is a late delivery. The bodyguard insists on checking it first so the delivery driver hands it to him, then draws a pistol and kills the bodyguard while his hands are occupied. The other terrorists then pile out of the van.
* Played with in the final scene of ''Film/{{Hoffa}}''. [[NumberTwo Ciaro]] sends a truck driver to deliver coffee to Jimmy Hoffa, who's waiting in the carpark. However he realises too late the truck driver is actually a hitman sent to kill Hoffa.

* The villain in ''Film/PhoneBooth'' [[spoiler: lures and kills a pizza delivery man to his hiding place to fake his suicide.]]

* ''Film/TheSubstitute'': Shale goes to his girlfriend's house knowing she's being held hostage. The gangbangers in the apartment know that she had a friend named Shale who is just coming to visit. What they don't know yet is he is also the mercenary posing as "Smith" their substitute teacher. He knocks on the door holding a gift box in front of his face so they don't make the connection and greets them with gunfire through the box.

* The movie version of ''Film/Thr3e'' opened with a scene where a girl is given a book by the Riddle Killer from a hot dog vendor. Said hot dog vendor is actually the Riddle Killer, giving her his message.

* ''Literature/AlexRider'':
** Alex himself does this in ''Scorpia'' to try to kill Mrs. Jones.
** Fails miserably in ''Scorpia Rising'' when Smithers uses an X-Ray scanner to prove that the delivery man was carrying a gun and the package was empty. He then gets rid of him with a trapdoor under a welcome mat.
* The trope gets a mention at the end of ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' novel ''Literature/GravePeril'', when Harry mentions that he doesn't order delivery pizza anymore after the start of the war with the Red Court, due to a fake pizza boy nearly killing him with a bomb.

* ''Series/{{Chuck}}'': Shows up at least once, when a courier picking up a package decides to also kill the guy he's getting it from.

* ''VideoGame/DeathStranding'' features a variation in which Sam is personally handed a piece of cargo by a Bridges delivery team member to transport along with some other supplies to South Knot City. The delivery team member is none other than Higgs in disguise, and the package is a miniature thermonuclear bomb set to detonate as soon as it reaches its destination.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Hitman}}'' series allows the player to use this as their method of infiltration quite frequently. Be it the pizza guy, sushi delivery, or even just the mailman every game has at least one instance where you have the option to imitate a courier to get to your target.
* The [[spoiler: suspected]] serial killer in ''VideoGame/Persona4'' does this, but with one little deviation from the trope. [[spoiler: He isn't posing as a deliveryman, he actually ''is'' one.]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* In the ''WebAnimation/HappyTreeFriends'' short 'Operation: Tiger Bomb', Flippy, Sneaky, and Mouse Ka-Boom attempt to kill Tiger General this way. Due to [[LethalKlutz Flippy throwing a slice of pizza instead of a knife, it fails]].
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[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1452266899092104700
%% Please do not replace or remove without starting a new thread.

[[folder:Films]]
* Parodied in the short film ''The Box Assassin'', where the eponymous hitman has the ability to [[HammerspaceHideaway conceal himself in a box of any size]], and uses an unknowing pizza delivery driver to bring him to his target. Fortunately he's AffablyEvil and lets the delivery driver go [[NiceToTheWaiter with a big wad of cash in compensation]] for getting blood in his car.

* ''Film/{{Quick}}''. The title female assassin (Teri Polo) gets into a police safe house by pretending to be a pizza delivery girl. She conceals a pistol under the pizza box.

* In the 1989 Italian-Australian mini-series ''The Magistrate'', Franco Nero's character is targeted by TheMafia. Knowing the magistrate's favourite coffee, they wait till his wife goes to buy a tin, then swaps it for another by staging a theft of her purse, which is retrieved by an apparent good Samaritan. Unfortunately despite the well-known fact that he makes his own coffee, the wife decides to make it this time, and is killed by a bomb when she unseals the tin.

* During the opening cutscene of 1999 PSX game ''Deep Freeze'', a sect of terrorist group Hephaestus infiltrates the vice president's wedding disguised in a deli delivery truck. The receptionist is mildly suspicious as the rest of food delivery came earlier, but lets them pass on grounds of them bringing a late order. As it turns out, [[HiddenWeapons they smuggled their rifles in the meat]].

* In the ''[[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Road Runner]]'' cartoon "Sugar and Spies," the Coyote sends a time bomb wrapped in a package to the Road Runner. But the package is returned to the Coyote for insufficient postage and is exploded in the Coyote's midst before he can retrieve a stamp for it.

%%* ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}'': Once so beat Shinra.

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

[[folder: Fan Work ]]

[[folder: Film ]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

[[folder: Live-Action TV ]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

[[folder: Web Original ]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* In ''Film/{{Traffic}}'', the key witness against a drug baron is finally murdered when a poisoned meal is delivered to his hotel room. The marshals guarding him don't realize this until the real hotel employee shows up. After roughing him up, they realize that the first guy was an imposter, but too late to save their witness.

* In an episode of ''[[VideoGame/FZero F-Zero Falcon Densetsu]]'' Pico is hired to assassinate Tanaka and delivers a bomb to him.
* In the very beginning of ''Anime/{{K}}'', HOMRA gets into the [[VeryPunchableMan gangsters']] hotel room by having one of them ring the doorbell dressed as a pizza delivery guy.
%%* ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}'': Once so beat Shinra.

* ''Comicbook/{{Deadpool}}'' had ordered a pizza, but Comicbook/ThePunisher, who was looking to kill him, was listening in, intercepted the actual delivery guy, and paid him a thousand bucks for his hat, coat, and pizza.

* ''Film/DragonFromRussia'': One of Yao's fight scenes is against Wong, a rival assassin who infiltrated Yao's hotel while disguised as a delivery guy, only to attack Yao as soon as he opens his door.
* ''Film/TheEqualizer2''. Dogs start backing when hitmen turn up at an apartment block, but when someone looks out the window all they see is a man in a raincoat holding a pizza delivery hotbox (from which he removes a silenced gun) so he assumes they're barking over the smell of the pizza. Note that this trope is just to get inside the apartment block not an individual apartment, which they break into.
* ''Film/ThreeDaysOfTheCondor'' opens with a CIA station being wiped out by three assassins. As the station is protected by CCTV cameras, locked doors and a guard -- even the receptionist has a gun in the drawer -- the killers get inside by sending in a man dressed as a postman. The place gets regular deliveries of books so this doesn't seem strange. The postman killer tries the same trick on the protagonist later on, but this time he's ready.

* The movie version of ''Film/Thr3e'' opened with a scene where a girl is given a book by the Riddle Killer from a hot dog vendor. Said hot dog vendor is actually the Riddle Killer, giving her his message.

* ''Film/TheSubstitute'': Shale goes to his girlfriend's house knowing she's being held hostage. The gangbangers in the apartment know that she had a friend named Shale who is just coming to visit. What they don't know yet is he is also the mercenary posing as "Smith" their substitute teacher. He knocks on the door holding a gift box in front of his face so they don't make the connection and greets them with gunfire through the box.
* ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'': In a likely ShoutOut to ''Film/TheGodfather'', the T-800 carries a longbox that looks like it's full of roses. And it is, but it's also got a shotgun in it.

* ''Film/TheProfessional''. 12 year old Mathilda pretends to be delivering takeaway to get her arsenal of weapons past the metal detector into DEA headquarters. The DirtyCop she plans to kill isn't fooled however, and speculates (ostensibly talking about the takeaway meal) which organised crime group might have sent this child assassin after him. "Chinese? Thai, maybe? Let me guess...Italian." Mathilda informs him ItsPersonal.
* ''Film/TheMechanic1972''. Creator/CharlesBronson uses lipreading to see his target is expecting drugs to be delivered in a fried chicken truck, and so gets hold of a similar truck and arrives early.
* ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'': Bane poses as a delivery man to get into the Stock Exchange, with a package in one hand when he arrives at the entrance, and a motorcycle helmet to hide his gas mask until the security guard tells him to remove it. Also, one of his accomplices poses as a food delivery guy to get onto the trading floor, hiding a pistol in a paper bag, and a janitor pulls out a submachine gun from inside a plastic bag in his cleaning bucket.
* In the film ''Film/EyeForAnEye'', the villain commits his second murder when he easily gains access to the house when delivering groceries. The cruel irony of this is that this is his actual job, but he's clearly been using it to scope out potential victims.

* ''Film/ActOfValor''. The CIA operative orders out for Chinese, but the delivery driver claims to have trouble finding the location. Short time later the buzzer sounds. Her colleague goes out to answer it.
-->"How much do I owe you?"
-->"Nada" ''(another man steps from the side and shoots him)''
* The Danish [=WW2=] film ''Film/FlameAndCitron'' (2008) opens with this. A woman with a bouquet of flowers (ostensibly sent from his colleagues) gets a collaborator to open the door, then LaResistance shoot him.
* Subverted and inverted in ''Film/{{Deadpool|2016}}'': Wade orders a pizza while waiting in a "Mr. Merchant's" apartment, presumably as an EstablishingCharacterMoment so that he can eat the pizza and shoot Merchant at the same time. Then it's revealed he actually wanted Jeremy, the pizza delivery guy, as he was hired to prevent him from stalking a girl he knew. Wade still ate the pizza.
* In ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'', Zemo arranges for a package to be delivered while he's [[spoiler:posing as the psychiatrist evaluating Bucky]]. The package in question knocks out the power in the area, [[spoiler:allowing him to free Bucky]].
* Played with in the final scene of ''Film/{{Hoffa}}''. [[NumberTwo Ciaro]] sends a truck driver to deliver coffee to Jimmy Hoffa, who's waiting in the carpark. However he realises too late the truck driver is actually a hitman sent to kill Hoffa.
* In ''Film/JudasKiss'', Coco and Junior pose as delivery people to get Dyson to open his door so they can abduct him.
* ''Film/SuicideSquad''. A delivery van pulls up at Van Criss Laboratories with a gift basket for someone inside. The guard refuses to let them in as they're not authorised, so the driver just passes him the basket which promptly explodes. The Joker and his goons then pile out of the van and shoot their way inside.
* Likewise in ''Film/HeWhoDares'' (2014). A delivery driver turns up with a package which he claims is a late delivery. The bodyguard insists on checking it first so the delivery driver hands it to him, then draws a pistol and kills the bodyguard while his hands are occupied. The other terrorists then pile out of the van.
* Downplayed in ''Film/TheEigerSanction''. Government assassin Jon Hemlock poses as a courier to verify the presence of his target, but then leaves the building and enters by climbing a drainpipe. He brings a courier's cap with him and steals a box left outside another office in the building to further the disguise.
* Parodied in the short film ''The Box Assassin'', where the eponymous hitman has the ability to [[HammerspaceHideaway conceal himself in a box of any size]], and uses an unknowing pizza delivery driver to bring him to his target. Fortunately he's AffablyEvil and lets the delivery driver go [[NiceToTheWaiter with a big wad of cash in compensation]] for getting blood in his car.

* ''Series/{{Chuck}}'': Shows up at least once, when a courier picking up a package decides to also kill the guy he's getting it from.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': In "What's My Line?", Cordelia lets a cosmetics salesman into the house, unaware that he is actually an assassin who [[TheWormThatWalks can transform himself into thousands of mealworms]].

* An episode of ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' has the detectives realize that the killer gained access to a victim's house by knocking out the real delivery guy and posing as him.
* In the 1989 Italian-Australian mini-series ''The Magistrate'', Franco Nero's character is targeted by TheMafia. Knowing the magistrate's favourite coffee, they wait till his wife goes to buy a tin, then swaps it for another by staging a theft of her purse, which is retrieved by an apparent good Samaritan. Unfortunately despite the well-known fact that he makes his own coffee, the wife decides to make it this time, and is killed by a bomb when she unseals the tin.
* On ''Series/{{Elementary}}'' a hitman poses as a delivery guy bringing in bottled water. The water jugs actually contain chemicals that when allowed to mix create a powerful bomb. The guy was even smart enough to return the stolen water truck so the bottled water company thought that they were the victim of a joy rider and did not report the incident to the police.
* ''Series/BoardwalkEmpire''. In "You'd Be Surprised", a young Bugsy Siegel gets past Gyp Rosetti's guards by posing as the paperboy, pretending the original paperboy is ill. When fleeing the scene afterwards he runs into the real paperboy, and [[LeaveNoWitnesses shoots him to death]].
* ''Series/{{Arrow}}'' has a variation in "Home Invasion". The hitman Mr. Blank uses a real courier he's holding at gunpoint from out of sight of the door. The bodyguard notices the courier's hands are shaking and draws his pistol, only for Mr. Blank to [[LeaveNoWitnesses kill them both]].
* ''Series/TheProfessionals''. In "Long Shot", a hitman infiltrating a high security area where an anti-terrorism conference is being held ambushes the military vehicle bringing the mail from London, forcing the driver to bring him inside the fence at gunpoint.

* There's a murderer in ''VideoGame/TraumaTeam'' who kills her victims by masquerading as a postal worker, then "delivering" a package containing a hidden bomb.
* In ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyJusticeForAll'', ProfessionalKiller Shelly [=deKiller=] disguises himself as a hotel bellboy delivering tomato juice to get into his target's room.
* The [[spoiler: suspected]] serial killer in ''VideoGame/Persona4'' does this, but with one little deviation from the trope. [[spoiler: He isn't posing as a deliveryman, he actually ''is'' one.]]

* During the opening cutscene of 1999 PSX game ''Deep Freeze'', a sect of terrorist group Hephaestus infiltrates the vice president's wedding disguised in a deli delivery truck. The receptionist is mildly suspicious as the rest of food delivery came earlier, but lets them pass on grounds of them bringing a late order. As it turns out, [[HiddenWeapons they smuggled their rifles in the meat]].

* Exploited in ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'': An insane member of Dale's gun club takes Hank, Bill, and Boomhauer hostage. Dale calls up several flower delivery services and sends them to the clubhouse and the nutcase runs away in a panic because he assumes they're hitmen.

* Parodied in the short film ''The Box Assassin'', where the eponymous hitman has the ability to [[HammerspaceHideaway conceal himself in a box of any size]], and uses an unknowing pizza delivery driver to bring him to his target. Fortunately he's AffablyEvil and lets the delivery driver go with a big wad of cash in compensation for getting blood in his car.