History Main / MysteriousStranger

* The original Comicbook/ScarletSpider was revealed this way with Ben Reilly gradually on his way to meet ComicBook/SpiderMan during the lead-up to ComicBook/TheCloneSaga. Strangely enough, since the promotion for this event was so massive, fans knew exactly who he was even though the issues leading up to TheReveal tried to play it off like a surprise

[[quoteright:200:[[VideoGame/{{Fallout}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/7868bea817dcd0fdabfbefc41a21eef4.png]]]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'':

* In ''VideoGame/{{APICO}}'', a hooded merchant appears in the middle of the night to sell you rare items before disappearing before dusk. If you tell the other residents about them, they have various reactions to their presence and theories about their identity, such as Beetrix and Barnabee claiming that it was the other person in disguise.

** In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}'', your companion Nick Valentine is tracking the Mysterious Stranger [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation under the assumption that he's a possibly-immortal serial killer using stealth tech]].

** Adam, Henry's anonymous caller, is treated this way for half the series. He starts out only TheVoice on the telephone, then starting at the end of "Look Before You Leap" Adam is [[TheFaceless only shown]] to the audience from behind, or just his feet and the bottom of his coat, or a gloved hand. Henry sees his shoes and the bottom of his coat at the end of "The Frustrating Thing About Psychopaths" and from behind at the start of "Skinny Dipper." The audience sees who he is for the first time at the same time Henry does at the end of "Skinny Dipper". He still remains fairly mysterious, calling Henry or showing up at key moments, giving away very little of his past or present.

* {{Invoked}} in an episode of ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''. In a Western-themed holodeck LARP, Counsellor Troi plays "Durango", an enigmatic {{Film/The Man With No Name}}-esque gunslinger who wanders into town just in time to help TheSheriff (Worf) in a gunfight against the local gang of bandits. She explicitly calls her character a "mysterious stranger".

* {{Invoked}} in an episode of ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration''. In a Western-themed holodeck LARP, Counsellor Troi plays "Durango", an enigmatic Film/TheManWithNoName-esque gunslinger who wanders into town just in time to help the Sheriff (Wolf) in a gunfight against the local gang of bandits. She explicitly calls her character a "mysterious stranger".

[[folder: Mythology]]

* ''Series/InterviewWithTheVampire2022'': Lestat de Lioncourt is initially presented as one to the audience. We don't see his face in our tantalizing first glimpse of him because he's filmed from the back, which is then followed by a shot of his hands flipping through a [[RedLightDistrict Storyville]] blue book (a guide to prostitution for visitors to the district), so this item establishes him as an out-of-towner. When he's on-screen again a few minutes later, his visage is finally revealed when he removes his hat and turns towards the camera as [[LoveAtFirstSight his enamoured eyes follow Louis de Pointe du Lac]] walking past him. Although this currently unnamed blond, blue-eyed man remains enigmatic at the end of the scene, his FrozenFashionSense and the MysteriousMist behind him hint that he's a vampire.

** Halbrand is first introduced as the survivor of a shipwreck in the Belegaer Ocean. The circumstances that led to his presence in the middle of the sea accompanied by other humans remain an untold mystery, though his comparatively vital, engaging manner, versus those with him, is an initial clue to his duplicity.

-->--'''{{Tagline}}''' for ''Film/{{Django}}''

[[caption-width-right:200:Who could it be?[[note]]Believe it or not, it's just me.[[/note]]]]

* Midway through the first season of ''Series/OnceUponATime'', a stranger rides into town on a motorcycle. For several episodes we know next to nothing about him, not even his name. He eventually identifies himself as [[spoiler: August Booth]], and for some reason he knows about the Fairy Tale world. Turns out [[spoiler: he's actually from it. He's really Pinocchio.]]

* In the video for Music/MichaelJackson's "Music/RememberThetime", Pharoah Ramses's Queen is bored and wants to be entertained so he calls for people to do just that, which includes Pyro, a fire eater, and The Stick Man, a stick juggler, and a mysterious sorceror (portrayed by Jackson). Unlike Pyro and The Stick Man who are properly announced to the Queen and the Pharoah before him, the sorceror is brought in front of them without announcement, dressed in a BlackCloak that completely obscures his features. Subverted after the sorceror reveals himself and begins singing a LoveNostalgiaSong to the Queen about their shared history, indicating that he isn't ''really'' a stranger to her at all.

** The perk "Mysterious Stranger" causes a [[RevolversAreJustBetter magnum-toting]] badass in a NiceHat and [[BadassLongcoat trenchcoat]] (named simply Mysterious Stranger) to appear at random and lend you aid.

* [[spoiler: Cira]] from Literature/ABrothersPrice is this when she first turns up. The spoilered name is not her real name.

* In the MagicalGirl CrossOver ''FanFic/ShatteredSkiesTheMorningLights'', [[Franchise/SailorMoon Chibi-Chibi]], [[Franchise/PrettyCure Cure Echo]], [[Franchise/LyricalNanoha Alicia Testarossa]], and [[Franchise/MadokaMagica Nagisa Momoe]] each appear in the wrong world, leading survivors of [[ApocalypseHow the titular apocalypse]] through {{PortalDoor}}s to a PlaceBeyondTime. [[spoiler:The four of them are later revealed to be alternating forms of the same being, called "The Stranger", who is an embodiment of those erased from the flow of normal time by the villains' massive disruptions of time and space.]]

** ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' has the Lonesome Drifter, who is the Mysterious Stranger's son and can give you a copy of his father's gun (which plays the Stranger's theme music whenever you draw it).