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"Attack, faceless minions! Take him down!"
"Ow! My mask!"
Crow, as Blast HardCheese Big McLargeHuge Crunch Buttsteak Thick McRunfast David Ryder punches out a masked thug, Space Mutiny.
The Faceless also come in bulk, as demonstrated by this subset of Evil Minions whose defining characteristic — apart from being evil, of course — is the lack of individual identity. They will wear matching uniforms and helmets or masks that completely obscure their facial features. Sometimes, the (perpetually scowling) lower portion of their faces may be visible, but their eyes will pretty much always be hidden, like under the brim of a helmet, behind Scary Shiny Glasses, or beneath an opaque visor. Note that a balaclava or Ninja mask covers everything except the eyes, but goons wearing them still count. Note that a unique face as a symbol of identity means that You ALL Look Familiar allows for unmasked but identical mooks to be effectively Faceless.
You'll never see any faceless goon Pet The Dog, but you'll see them kick plenty of them.
The reasons for this trope are largely matters of convenience. Most obviously, the faceless goon does not display emotion; hence, he does not display humanity. It's much easier to accept characters as evil (and by extension, watch wave after wave of them get wiped out by the heroes) if you are able to forget that there's actually a human being behind each mask. Not showing any pesky emotions to undercut their menace also adds quite a bit to the creepiness factor.
There's also the fact that it's easier on a show's budget, as the director can keep reusing the same ten extras without the audience catching on quickly. It's also helpful in animation, because you only need to design one character (or render one model in the case of video games) and one action figure. Plus, it makes it more convenient for the hero should he ever need to hide amongst the goons...
If even hurting Faceless Goons seems a bit extreme, you'll get Mecha Mooks instead who are beaten till they show broken gears and sparks.
It's not completely unknown for the good guys' Red Shirt Army to get this treatment, but nowhere near as common.
Examples
Anime and Manga
Comic Books
- Marvel Comics have Hydra, whose members all wear identical green masked outfits. The motto of the group is "Cut off a limb and two more will take its place", referencing the monster that is their namesake and lampshading the fact that these guys aren't individuals.
- Other Marvel villain groups, A.I.M. and the Secret Empire, take this a step further— they are not only masked, but identify themselves only by numbers instead of names.
- A variant of this trope often occurs in Super Hero comics, with the various common criminals the hero can fight as a way to bring some action into the story. They are not given backgrounds or individual personalities beyond those of petty thugs, and are typically found robbing banks, mugging defenseless citizens, and committing other crimes that the hero must stop. Not very bright, the criminals frequently try to fight the hero, even though the hero has super powers and/or special training. Of course, they never stand a chance.
Film
- The Stormtroopers from the Star Wars series.
- The Umbrella operatives from Resident Evil: Apocalypse. (The Ops from the games wore hazmat gear for protection; the goons in the second movie wear black motorcycle helmets for no real reason at all.)
- The Immortals from 300. To be fair, the Immortals in the movie are pretty historically accurate, as the entire reason they were called "Immortals" in the actual war was because, since everyone was hidden by a mask, it seemed like they couldn't all be killed. This real-life usage of Faceless Goons for psychological effect makes this Older Than Feudalism.
- Another story, however, states they were called "The Immortals" simply because the King had reserves standing by to replace any who fell, keeping the number of the unit at precisely 10,000 men. Contemporary pictures of them from frescoes, etc, [1]
 ◊ depict them wearing open-faced caps and fairly unintimidating uniforms.[2]◊
- The dual katanas, however, were purely Frank Miller.
- Those were wakizashis, friend.
- They're still Japanese swords being used by ancient Persian troops, a few thousand miles away from Japan and probably at least a few hundred years before their use by the samurai.
- So, "curved sword with no sharp tip" is now considered "Japanese"?
- The Mooks in Ultraviolet. Astute readers may notice a pattern developing, in that Milla Jovovich evidently hates people in face-obscuring motorcycle helmets.
- The Grand Court guardsmen dressed in shiny black armor in the movie Judge Dredd.
- Interesting in the Comic, Dredd himself is a faceless goon (as he never takes off his helmet and loyal agent of the Judge System)
- The Tetragrammaton foot soldiers in Equilibrium are another example of the motorcycle helmet-wearing type, though in this case it's Christian Bale and not Milla Jovovich that does the hating. Since Equilibrium came out before Resident Evil: Apocalypse and Ultraviolet, it's entirely possible that Bale was the one who got Jovovich started on the trope.
- Same writer-director for Equilibrium and Ultraviolet. Thank you Kurt Wimmer.
- The soldiers of the evil Wizard Blackwolf in Ralph Bakshi's animated film Wizards. Yes, you saw it right, they work for a wizard and they wear World War I gas masks.
- To be fair, they ARE working for a dark wizard with Satan on his side using tech to strafe the magic-using good-doers.
- Any and all movies where Islamic terrorists are the bad guys; this is also probably for practical reasons, because there are only so many Arab or Arab-looking stuntmen available.
- The Soviet/South Yemeni/North Korean/any other communist nationality enemy pilots from Top Gun.
- In the audio commentary on the Lord Of The Rings films, Peter Jackson and company mention that they made the human allies of Sauron, the Haradrim, into Faceless Goons in ninja-wrap-turbans to de-emphasise their humanity, something they didn't have to do with the slavering, monstrous Orcs that make up the usual mookdom. They also subverted this in the extended edition, when Faramir looks at the body of a fallen Haradrim (with his young, handsome face exposed) and comments on what circumstances would have led him from his home and family to die violently in a foreign country. In the book, this was an internal musing by Sam.
- Although, ironically, in the book the dead guy's laying face-down..
- Used in the film of The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian. Every member of the Telmarine army wears a completely face-concealing mask - each with an identical face engraved on it.
- Police cars fall victim to this trope disturbingly often, even in films where the police are not portrayed particularly negatively. supposed "good guys" frequently have no problem smashing up ten or twenty in a high-speed chase. How many policemen do you think were killed or injured in the chase scenes in Blues Brothers, which were played for laughs? How many did Batman kill in Batman Begins?
- Of course, when it's a villain doing it, it's even worse. This troper still shudders when Magneto crushes the prison truck's police escort in the third X Men movie.
Literature
- The majority of the Chaos cults in Gaunts Ghosts wear masks or visors of some kind, and the most promenient enemy force, the Blood Pact, wear huge grotesque steel facemasks.
- The Social Police in Blade of Tyshalle wear reflective face-concealing masks and speak through voice-altering devices. Their utter anonymity is actually an important thematic element.
Live Action TV
- Doctor Who, of course, employed plenty. Some of the most typical were the War-Lord's goons (presumably of his race) in the last Troughton serial The War Games. Mask obscuring most of the face, vaguely Nazi-like, near-100% fatality rate, almost no kills - doesn't get more Faceless Goons than that.
- The Autons may be justified, as they are a species whose hat is looking like tailor shop mannequins.
- Although heavily subverted and non-combative, the Ood from the new series somewhat fit the trope.
- David Tennant isn't too big on people in face-obscuring motorcycle helmets, either. He killed a pair of them in the episode 'Smith and Jones'. (They were robots, though.)
- Most Federation soldiers in Blakes Seven.
- Xena Warrior Princess and Hercules The Legendary Journeys. Both shows drew from the same small pool of stuntmen (and women), so all the baddies usually had something face-concealing or at least partly-face-obscuring on when they were beaten into the mat by the heroes.
- In Stargate Atlantis, the Wraith Soldiers all look the same. Ironically, most commanding Wraiths (Those have a face) are played by the same actor, but they still give them some genuine facial features that differ.
- Peacekeeper commandos in Farscape. So expendable and useless, existing only to be gunned down in waves and make the crew look badass...almost a troperrific example of Faceless Goons.
Music
- The music video for Disturbed's cover of Land of Confusion smashes together every tired, overdone fascism cliché in the book, but the most prominent is easily the gas mask-like helmets worn by the evil military guys.
Tabletop Games
- Most troops in Warhammer 40000 are either alien monsters or wear full-face helmets, but most squad leaders and superior officers don't, to make them stand out more. Yes, men in suits of Powered Armour the size of tanks are running around with their heads completely exposed. Good thing 40k snipers haven't learned to hit the weak point For Massive Damage.
Video Games
- The Genome soldiers from Metal Gear Solid. For that matter, most of the non-boss enemies throughout all of the games.
- Cheerfully subverted in MGS 4 when Snake encounters Johnny, aka Akiba. Akiba wears a balaclava and sunglasses for the first half of the game, and is distinctly less capable than literally everyone else. At the end of act three, he takes off the balaclava, transforming him from Faceless Goon to Badass Normal.
- With the exception of their high ranking officers, most of the Helghast soldiers in Killzone wear a helmet, oxygen mask and goggles that give them eerie glowing orange eyes, squad leaders omit the helmet in place of an officers hat, recon troops just omit the helmet completely, elite soldiers wear just the goggles, and heavy assault troops wear powered armour that conceals the face entirely, the background info handwaves this by explaining that their planets atmosphere has mutated their lungs (among other things) to the point that they can no longer breathe oxygen.
- The various Combine Overwatch Soldiers in Half Life 2, and the gas mask wearing marines in the original Half Life, though in the latter case, only one of the various soldier models actually had their faces obscured.
- Several of the gangs in the game Manhunt wear masks that range from a simple nylon over the head to hellaciously creepy smiley faces covered in blood. The only gang that doesn't wear any still hides their features with camouflage facepaint.
- Most of the members of the violent "Burners" gang from Urban Chaos: Riot Response wear painted hockey masks, though unlike most Faceless Goons, they get pretty emotional when screaming profane threats at the Player Character.
- The Nod soldiers in Command And Conquer: Tiberian Sun and more egregiously in Command And Conquer: Renegade.
- In the Super Robot Wars series, both the various Mooks and the Red Shirt Army wear helmets or headgear which obscure their eyes.
- The ski-masked mercenaries in the employ of Horne and Vlad from the Max Payne series certainly fit the pattern.
- Played with in Max-Payne 2; the Mooks pose as "cleaners", complete with jumpsuits. Making them mooks who pretend to be people who are socially invisible. Later on, they add leather jackets, ski masks, and bulletproof vests and occasionally pretend to be NYC cops. Despite all of the Cleaners using the same models, they are given a surprising amount of character if the Player Character overhears them, including discussion of TV shows, complete with spoilering each other. On one occasion, the Player Character hears music upon entering an apartment. It turns out to be one of the mooks playing the piano, with another one standing there, watching him. This is made slightly eerie by the fact that the mooks intend to kill pretty much everyone in the apartment building.
- A pair near the end of the first game talk about their families, the one's daughter's piano recital, etc, and how henching is just their day job.
- The imperial army in Drakengard. The last shred of their possible individuality is taken away by them all speaking in a Creepy Monotone, courtesy of mass mind control.
- The Replica Soldiers in First Encounter Assault Recon all wear helmets with masking visors or night-vision goggles. Not that it would matter, as they're all clones, apparently. Also, the ATC security guards wear matching caps and sunglasses.
- Some of the enemy soldiers in Call Of Duty 4 wear balaclavas or gas masks, especially the Russian Ultranationalists, even when they don't need them. Maybe Russians just like gas masks.
- Similarly, all German soldiers in Call Of Duty 2 wear either dark glasses or dark glasses and a facemask, even though they almost never need them.
- Army Of Two inverts this; a good number of the enemy soldiers or terrorists have visible faces, while the heroes are the ones wearing the scary, implacable skull masks.
- The majority of the Mantel forces in Haze — including the main character, who only gets a unique model once he joins the Promise Hand. This is well in line with the game's themes.
- The Fire Emblem games (at least, 9 and 10. This troper isn't very far in any others) any character that wears a helmet and doesn't have a name (generic titles such as "Man, Soldier, etc." do not count) will not have eyes.
- Happens a lot in Final Fantasy:
- Imperial Soldiers in Final Fantasy VI are faceless goons, and in fact are often used for Star Wars references
- SHINRA goons in Final Fantasy VII also have full helmets. The see-the-chin variant is used for every member of SOLDIER except the important ones (such as Zack and Sephiroth)
- Final Fantasy VIII makes it a point to have all the Galbadian, Dollet, and Esthar soldiers wear masks or helmets. Two are actually named, recurring characters.
- The Archadian soldiers in Final Fantasy XII all wear full armor and face-concealing helmets. The Judge Magisters wear a similar getup, but each has a distinctive, but still concealing helmet.
- One of the few things we know about Final Fantasy XIII is that it will have faceless goons.
- In Final Fantasy The Spirits Within a group of main characters show up as faceless goons, head covered by standard-issue glowy-eyes space-goon helmets. Once they're introduced as actual characters they take their helmets off, and never put them on again. One must ask what the helmets were for in the first place if they obviously don't need them.
- The City Of Heroes universe has the soldiers of Arachnos. As an interesting subversion you can actually make one yourself if you get a villain to level 50. (It's bizarre that this one was missed, as the page opening image is an Arachnos soldier)
- Dare this trouper even bother to bring up the countless straight up and sometimes LITERAL examples? (Council, Nemesis, Carnival, Ancestor Spirits of the Tsoo, the Skulls, the list keeps going.)
- Assassins Creed notably averts this; nearly everyone except a few Crusader knights and your own Assassin allies has a visible face, and the lack of a particular character's face being visible is a minor but important plot point late in the game.
Web Comics
Web Original
- In Madness Combat the Mooks are literally faceless as they lack any facial features most of the time. The main character Hank remained faceless up until the third movie in the series, where he began getting bandages and whatnot to make him more distinctive.
Western Animation
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles used the Foot, who were turned into Mecha Mooks for the original cartoon. This might explain why they made such crappy ninjas.
- GI Joe - The Cobra soldiers wear combination faceplates/helmets that only reveal their eyes. By contrast, there were rare appearances by non-main-character Joe soldiers, who wore non-concealing kevlar helmets.
- Not to mention how the series averts this; Cobra Commander and Destro, the most prominent villains on the show, were both perpetually masked.
- The SKAR Troopers in GI Joe Extreme had grey, skull-like mask in the first season, and faceplates similar to the one used by the Cobra soldiers in the second season.
- Fire Nation foot soldiers in Avatar The Last Airbender. Though this is expressed only by minority Firebender soldiers, who sport white, skeleton-like masks for intimidation.
- The masks also have the side effect of giving them a Darth Vader style echoing voice.
- In the Disney animated feature Atlantis the villain's loyal mooks for some reason wore gas masks throughout the entire film.
- Kim Possible subverts the trope; Drakken's masked goons are a rare example of faceless Punch Clock Villains.
- The same goes for The Monarch's goons in The Venture Brothers, the lone exception being the two recurring ones who've been seen out of their costumes, thus "humanizing" them to the point they really can't be killed. But note that everyone around them still does...
- Lampshaded with a 50' shade by the two Genre Savvy henchmen 21 and 24, when they're sent on a mission with the new guy in episode 36. They constantly talk about how he's going to die, while they'll get away scott free.
Henchman 21: You still don't get it. 24 and I have been on, like, a thousand missions. We've been shot at, dipped in acid...
Henchman 24: Brock Samson hit me with a car. Drove right into my kidney. Here I am!
Henchman 21: Yeah, we can walk across this floor and nothing would hit us. But then like this huge log would swing down and take your head off.
Henchman 24: Hey, here; what's your name?
Henchman 1: Henchman number 1.
Henchman 24: See, you are nameless.
Henchman 1: I'm Scott Hall, my name is Scott Hall. Okay?
Henchman 24: No, won't help.
Henchman 21: Yeah, now it's just pathos. So you're dying in my lap and I'm all "Scott! Scott don't you quit on us! Don't you dare!!"
Henchman 24: You just made your unavoidable death more pathetic.
Henchman 21: (pause) Fuck it. (begins walking across a laser tripwired floor) Nothing's gonna happen to me.
- Played straight for most of The Incredibles, then subverted in one scene: Dash punches one mook's mask off, then pauses upon seeing his face (or maybe he paused because he saw the hovercraft was flying towards a cliff). This pause gives the mook time to punch Dash off the hovercraft, after which he dies in a fiery explosion about a half second later.
- Subverted in the original MTV animated Aeon Flux shorts, which would rapidly flip from showing the heroine gunning down the minions... to tragic sequences showing the suffering of those very same dying minions after the heroine has left. Typically they'd unmask at the start of these sequences, or the normally opaque eyelets in their masks would be transparent to show their feelings. In a later episode, the hero would be killed by a minion... who then unmasks, becomes the new hero, guns down minions, gets killed by a minion who becomes the new hero... etc.
- In Batman Begins, the League of Shadows' McNinjas obscure their faces, though they also ditch the masks when they infiltrate normal society. The masks actually become a plot point during Bruce Wayne and Ducard's duel: both don masks and hide among a throng of similarly-masked mooks.
Real Life
- The United States Secret Service wears those big reflective sunglasses for two reasons. The first is to obscure where they're looking and thus make it harder to hide from them. The second is because it makes it look like they're emotionless and have no eyes, and that's scary.
- Police riot-control uniforms and tactics are explicitly designed to be as intimidating as possible. Of course, they're trying to scare as many people away as possible before any conflict starts.
- And the "faceless" part comes in awful handy when they're dealing with the owner of a Death Note.
- The Klu Klux Klan.
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