The Faceless / Live-Action Films

aka: Film

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• 8 Women: Marcel's face is never shown; he's only seen from the back or through a window from a distance. Given he's supposedly murdered, he's easily kept out of sight. It's a stylistic choice as the film revolves around the eponymous eight women in his life.
• Air: Michael Jordan's face is never seen outside of real-life archival footage, either being obscured by another character or having his back face the camera. He also only has one line, and that's when he says hello to Sonny on the phone when they finally get the chance to talk to each other.
• All the President's Men: The confidential informant "Deep Throat", whose identity had not yet been made public, was depicted in deep shadow, with his face not visible. This was aided by the Real Life fact that his meetings were held in a parking ramp.
• Aquaman: The Cast of the Angler has the Angler's face always hidden beneath his helmet, with only his eyes and mouth showing.
• Austin Powers: Dr. Evil is introduced this way. His face is never seen until after he burns Mustafa alive.
• Black Widow (2021): Taskmaster’s face is concealed with a mask for the majority of the film.
• The Chairman in Baśń O Ludziach Stąd may literally have no front. Don't ask how he talks or interacts with the Muggles.
• In both the 1925 and 1959 versions of Ben-Hur, the face of Jesus Christ is never seen. In the sound version, nor is his voice heard. This is done out of reverence, of course. The Robe, another big budget Bible Times epic that came out in 1953, also uses this convention for Jesus, although in The Robe his voice is heard.
• The hideously disfigured Cropsy has his face concealed in shadow until the finale of The Burning.
• In The Butchers, the Zodiac Killer's face is never revealed as it always concealed by a hood. Presumably, this is a tip of the hat to the Zodiac Killer's identity being unknown in Real Life.
• In Citizen Kane, Thompson, the reporter whose investigation into "Rosebud" is the backbone of the plot, is only shown from behind or with his face in shadow. In fact, all of the reporters and news-media personnel in the film (those not employed by Kane himself) are The Faceless, reinforcing that what they do is more relevant to the story than who they are.
• Gene Hackman's employer in The Conversation is only ever seen in shadows. Made all the more tantalizing because he's played by a very famous actor (Robert Duvall), who was unbilled in the film's original release, leading many viewers to say 'hey, is it really that guy?'
• In The Dark Knight, Commissioner Gordon's daughter is at first completely unseen, and later we only see the back of her head (she looks to be about eight or nine). She is even only listed as "Gordon's Daughter" in the credits. Probably done to not get our hopes up about a possible future Batgirl appearance (or maybe just to not cause the confusion of the two Gordon kids both being Jrs. to their parents).
• In Eyes Wide Shut, the Mysterious Woman wears a face mask throughout her scenes in the film. Her real identity is left ambiguous.
• In Dark Passage, the entire first act is done from the POV of the main character and we're not shown his face. Then he has plastic surgery, and when the bandages come off we see it's now Humphrey Bogart.
• Dementia (1955): The weird man in the cemetery who shows the woman the graves of her parents never shows his face; instead, it's always hidden in shadow. The same is true of the crowd of oddly passive onlookers around the rich man's body.
• Dick Tracy The Blank, until revealed to be Breathless Mahoney.
• The driver of the semi in Steven Spielberg's Duel. Because the truck is the important character.
• In Ernest Saves Christmas, Ernest has got a friend whose face we never see. All we see is his first person perspective, as Ernest clumsily bumbles about his house. This is a Shout-Out to Ernest's numerous commercials. Most of them had him talking about Product X to someone named "Vern", while "Vern" was doing something off-screen, like changing a lightbulb while Ernest held the ladder. Apparently, "Vern" is supposed to be a stand-in for the audience.
• E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial: With the exception of Elliot's mother, the audience doesn't see the faces of any adults until the final third of the movie, playing up the perspective from a child's POV.
• Literally in the case of Okajima in The Face of Another, whose face was blasted off in an industrial accident. Also true in the trope sense, as the film never really gives a good look of what Okajima's destroyed face really looks like. He's usually swathed in bandages, once he's shot from directly overhead, and there are a couple of quick looks from a distance in one scene where he's scrambling to put the bandages on when a visitor arrives.
• 1928 experimental short film The Fall of the House of Usher never shows the face of the man who comes to visit Roderick and Madeline Usher, shooting him from behind, or showing his top hat, or showing his hands. In one scene his face actually is shown as he's leafing through a book—but it's out of focus.
• Flash Gordon (1980) - Klytus, Head of Ming the Merciless' Secret Police. His mask effectively obscures his features, though we're afforded a good view of his eyeballs and tongue when he gets tossed onto some spikes.
• Snake Eyes in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra and G.I. Joe: Retaliation.
• The Highwaymen: Bonnie and Clyde are never shown up-close until their death scene, adding to their mystique. When Hamer finally has them dead to rights after luring the pair into a trap, the two spree killers look surprisingly young (they were in their mid-twenties when they committed their crimes).
• John, the mysterious alien Guide in Enki Bilal's Immortel ad Vitam has his head completely wrapped in black cloth at all times, presumably to protect himself from Earth's hostile atmosphere. When he finally succumbs to our air, he evaporates into nothingness, leaving only empty clothes behind.
• The spouses of the protagonists of In the Mood for Love are only ever shown from the back, though their voices are heard.
• Initially done but then utterly averted for Sanford Scolex in Inspector Gadget (1999), despite Dr. Claw being one of the most famous Faceless bad guys in fiction, much to the chagrin of the fans of the cartoon. In the sequel however this is played straight with Claw's face being always kept in the dark making him closer to his animated counterpart (and likely because they couldn't get Rupert Everett back, too).
• James Bond:
  • Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the Big Bad of From Russia with Love, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and Diamonds Are Forever. His face is finally revealed in You Only Live Twice (the first movie where he's the main villain instead of just telling Rosa Klebb and Largo what to do) when he meets James Bond, and is shown for the rest of his appearances, except for his death in the beginning of For Your Eyes Only. By then, the studio lost rights to SPECTRE and the bald guy with the white cat "technically" could have been anyone.
  • Octopussy's face is obscured when Kamal Kahn goes to see her early in the movie; only her hands are shown as she feeds her pet octopus while talking to Kahn. This, plus the way he takes orders from her and the fact that the movie is named after her made it seem like she would be the Big Bad and not him.
• Averted in Judge Dredd. Although Dredd keeps his helmet on whenever he's on duty, he has it off most of the movie, unlike the original Comic Book.
  • Played straight in Dredd 3D, to fans' relief.
• In Julia's Eyes, during the middle of the film, in which Julia has her eyes bandaged, everyone she interacts with has their face obscured to the viewer; either we see them from behind or their head is cut off by the camera.
• Bill in Kill Bill Volume 1, but in Volume 2 you see his face just about first thing.
• King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem in Kingdom of Heaven, who suffered from leprosy, wears a mask in every appearance until his sister Sybilla removes it after his death.
• In Let Me In, the English-language remake of Let the Right One In, a clever stylistic choice signifies how it is a film principally about children (more or less), where the adult characters are mostly peripheral and often fleeting. Owen's island-like status is emphasised by his absent father only making one scene, by telephone, and his mother – a fairly constant presence in the book — appears numerous times yet is never once seen properly on camera: she varies from being a distant figure, a ghostly reflection or obscured by a door, to fully visible yet thrown way out of focus or seen only from the neck down; even a passport-type photo glimpsed in her wallet is crumpled to the point of indistinguishability.
• The Nazgûl from The Lord of the Rings. Their faces aren't hidden; rather the Nazgûl are completely invisible to the normal world, and Frodo can see them when he puts on the Ring at Weathertop (clearly in the book, distorted in the movie). If the Nazgûl take off their robes, living people see nothing; this is revealed in the end, where (in the book, and partially in the film) the head Nazgûl takes off his hood, showing a crown sitting atop an invisible head.
  • Sauron, in the same film also fits this trope. He is never given a face as a way of dehumanizing him. In the introduction, he wears a massive helmet. In the actual film, he appears only as a massive eye. This is in keeping with the books, where after the cataclysmic destruction of Númenor he no longer had the power to incarnate at all.
• Master and Commander: The French captain's face is never seen by the audience throughout the movie, until the end, when his body is seen lying in the sickbay. And then it's not even his real face yet, because the real captain swapped clothes with a dead marine, and dressed up instead as the ship's doctor, who pretended to be treating the 'captain's body' in the sickbay when Aubrey turned up (sort of a Chekhov's Gunman). The real ship's doctor turned out to have died months earlier. Of course, Aubrey and Maturin only find out once the other ship is out of reach again... which means, 'Beat to Quarters'.
• The killer from the Show Within a Show in Midnight Movie is never seen without his mask. However, we do see the face of the actor who played him.
• The 1976 film Mohammad, Messenger of God depicts early Islamic history. Mohammad never appears on-camera; his presence is indicated by the camera taking his POV, and an organ music leitmotif replaces his dialogue. It's longstanding Islamic tradition that Mohammad should never be seen in any form, under the premise that such depictions would run the risk of being used as idols, leading to worship of Mohammad rather than of Allah.
• Mara Chekhova, the operatic diva in Dario Argento's Opera.
• The 2011 film Paul, “The Big Guy” is seen from behind or face covered for majority of the film with only her hands shown until the final act.
• For most of Pokémon Detective Pikachu, Harry Goodman is only ever shown either from behind or with some sort of headgear covering his head so you can't get a good look at him. This is to conceal the fact that he's portrayed by Ryan Reynolds.
• Prospect: Cee pretty easily gets over the fact that Ezra murdered her dad, making a deal with him to get the gems and also not abandoning him later when he urges her to after he's been wounded. At the end of the film it's implied they'll even stay as partners.
• In Radio Flyer Mikey and Bobby's abusive stepfather "The King"'s face is not fully seen throughout the movie until the end, reportedly this was done because his actor Adam Baldwin didn't want to be associated with child abuse.
• In Raise the Red Lantern The Master's face is seen clearly only at a distance, and even that only a couple of times.
• In [REC], the face of Pablo is never shown, given that he's the one behind the camera most of the time - and even when he isn't (after he dies), his face is never shown.
• The Rental: The killer's face is never seen. He's either wearing a mask or the shot only shows the back of his head.
• In the movie Ringu, future Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl Sadako is always shown with her long hair covering her face, even in flashbacks to when she was still alive. Her grisly, rotted features are revealed in Ringu 2, however, and her "good" half in Ring 0 Birthday always has her face on display.
  • Even in The Ring, the ghostly form of Samara remains with her face hidden behind her hair in almost all of her appearances. The Reveal of her face near the end of the movie easily qualifies as terrifying, if only for the expression on it.
• Salvatore Giuliano: The title character is only seen a few times from a distance, and in the only scene where he has more than one line, he's off-camera completely. He's also seen a few times as a corpse although even then the film never gives a good look at his face. The film nonetheless covers Giuliano's life and exploits in considerable detail.
• Saw: Before the reveal of his identity at the end, Jigsaw's face is obscured via Unreveal Angle whenever he appears onscreen.
• Irene Adler's enigmatic employer in Sherlock Holmes (2009) ( A.K.A. Professor Moriarty) is presented like this in his appearances. We finally get to see his face in the second film.
• The Lonely Twin in Shrooms, who wears a sack over his head.
• In Slashers, Hideo, the cameraman who follow the contestants through the Danger Zone, is generally only heard not seen. The only part of him that is seen is his hand when he accepts a glass of water and wipes a spot of dirt off the lens.
• Shoot to Kill. The antagonist starts the movie with a ruthless and well-planned theft, but is forced to Kill and Replace a member of a fishing expedition to escape across the Canadian border. Because the audience hasn't seen his face at this point (he was either in darkness, filmed from behind, or hiding behind a Human Shield) suspense is provided over which member of the expedition the killer is.
• Sky High: Royal Pain’s face was kept concealed inside a helmet until the climax of the film where the reveal on who’s behind the identity.
• In Starkweather, 'The Dark Man' always has his face fully wreathed in shadow from his fedora; no matter the lighting around him is doing. Justified, as he is a manifestation of Charlie's darkest impulses and only exists inside Charlie's head.
• Star Wars:
  • Darth Vader in the original trilogy, until his Dramatic Unmask at the end of Return of the Jedi.
  • The Sand People of Tatooine cover their faces with goggles and wrappings to protect themselves from blowing sand. According to Star Wars Legends, they tend to get very offended if anyone tries to get a peek at what's underneath as in their culture exposing any part of the flesh is considered taboo. Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II eventually revealed what the Sand People look like without their masks: vaguely like humanoid cats, with flat faces and drooping jowls.
  • The Jawas appear to be this as well. Very few of them in any material have ever removed their hoods—all anyone sees of their faces are two glowing red eyes. The Expanded Universe does mention that under their hoods they are "rodentlike" in appearance, and have "shrunken faces."
  • The Imperial Stormtroopers. We never see any with their helmets off, keeping them as faceless goons.
  • Boba Fett. The prequel trilogy revealed him to be Maori in appearance. In the Expanded Universe, the Mandalorian helmet is treated as being his "real" face, because it's what his identity is tied to. He occasionally takes advantage of this, because nobody will connect his human face to the legendary bounty hunter.
  • Darth Sidious, until Revenge of the Sith and later.
  • Subverted in The Force Awakens when a captive Rey calls Kylo Ren "a monster in a mask" and, in response, Kylo unmasks himself to reveal a normal, boyish face. Played straight by Captain Phasma and all the First Order Stormtroopers, except Finn.
    • Speaking of Phasma, she's the only one whom her LEGO counterpart is also faceless, while the rest of the First Order Stormtroopers have at least a Clone face.
• In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014), though we do see glimpses of him, The Shredder's mostly seen in shadows until he dons his Powered Armor, so we don't get a proper view of his face.
• The Thing (1982) - John Carpenter invented another variant where the titular creature is seen frequently, but in forms which are obviously an ever-changing mishmash of other alien life forms, dogs, and/or men. Its natural shape is never revealed, even in death.
• In the film adaptation of John le Carré's novel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, the Soviet spymaster Karla's face is never shown, although we do hear his voice, see parts of his body and hear his name frequently as he is central to the plot.
• Rinzler in TRON: Legacy, to hide the fact that he's actually a brainwashed Tron.
• "The Man" from Undercover Brother, justified since the film is a spoof on Spy Fiction and he's a parody of mysterious shadowy Big Bads like the original Blofeld and Dr. Claw.
• The DJ who acts as Greek Chorus in The Warriors (although we do see her lips up by the microphone).
• Rorschach in Watchmen until he gets captured and unmasked.
• Guggenhiem, the student the Janitor is telling the story to in When Evil Calls. As all of his scenes are shot from his point of view, the audience occasional glimpses his hand or his leg, but that's it.
• In Who Framed Roger Rabbit:
  • Baby Herman's mother in the Roger Rabbit shorts is an archetypal Faceless authority figure ala Mammy-Two Shoes, who is only seen from the legs down and occasionally shows her hand to either caress her child or threateningly admonish Roger about keeping Baby Herman safe while she's away.
  • The Toon who really killed Marvin Acme never takes off his rubber mask, so all we ever see of his real appearance are his ever-shifting red eyes. Even when he dies, his body dissolves under the Human Disguise, leaving no trace other than the mask and Empty Piles of Clothing.

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