History Main / SecretWar

* The Resistance of Zion vs. the Machines inside ''Film/TheMatrix''.
* The central conflict in ''Film/CatsAndDogs''.
** It ''is'' somewhat helped by the fact that the actual ''war'' is long over -- it's just that the cats (and, it is implied in the sequel, the dogs as well) have their rogues who try to restart the war and win it in one go.

* ''Film/{{Underworld}}'': The war between vampires and lycans in the series is kept out of public knowledge, partly thanks to the Cleaners, a group made up of elite human soldiers and headed by [[spoiler:the first immortal Alexander Corvinus]]. Their job is to work behind the scenes to [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin clean up the mess]] the immortals leave behind. Following the third movie, where Corvinus dies and the Cleaners are all killed, humanity discovers vampires and werewolves and embarks on a full-scale genocide after there's no one left to clean up the two sides' messes.

* Between [[spoiler: Charon Indusries]] and the people of Chorus in seasons 11 through 13 of ''WebAnimation/RedVsBlue''. To cover up their attempted genocide of the planet’s inhabitants, [[spoiler: Charon]] has incited a civil war between two prominent factions, the Feds and the New Republic. Once the Reds and Blues find evidence that both sides are being played, they unite to fight the common threat. It’s still a secret war as [[spoiler: Charon]] has blocked all outside communication from the planet and shoots down any incoming ships. [[spoiler: The latter being how the Reds and Blues got involved at all, despite their individual actions prior to their ship crashing.]]

* Itsuki Koizumi implies multiple times that a particularly big and violent one is revolving around ''Literature/HaruhiSuzumiya'' in the titular series.
* Iriya is also implied to be involved in one in ''Literature/IriyaNoSoraUFONoNatsu''.
* The ancient struggle between [[DemonicInvaders Denizens]] and [[HunterOfMonsters Flame Haze]] in ''Literature/ShakuganNoShana''. TheMasquerade is remarkably easy to keep up when everyone can [[RetGone erase people from existence]] and [[PhantomZone pseudo]]-[[TimeStandsStill stop time]].
* The fights between the [[EldritchAbomination witches]] and the [[MagicalGirl magical girls]] in ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' are a secret, meaning that the MagicalGirl doing the fighting [[{{Deconstruction}} ends up isolated and friendless]].
* In ''Literature/ACertainMagicalIndex'', the conflict between the Science and Magic Sides is unknown to most muggles and most members of the Science Side except direct combatants.

* The war with the Dire Wraiths starts out this way in ''ComicBook/RomSpaceKnight''.

* In ''ComicBook/HexWives'', a centuries long war has been waged between a constantly reincarnating coven of witches and all-male secret society known as the Architects. The story starts with the Architects having come up with a new strategy to remove the witches from the board: make them forget they are witches.

* In ''Fanfic/TheRoboutianHeresy'', the forces of the Adeptus Mechanicus have been fighting against the surviving elements of the Dark Mechanicum under the surface of Mars since the end of the Heresy. The war and its related Lie of Iron was maintained to keep up the then-façade of 'the Imperium won at Mars'. [[spoiler:As of The Terran Crucible Part 2, the war on Mars was truly won.]]
* Fittingly enough, a Secret War is what a ''Warhammer 40,000'' fanfiction called ''Fanfic/SecretWar'' is all about.

* The war between vampires and lycans in the ''Film/{{Underworld}}'' series is kept out of public knowledge, partly thanks to the Cleaners, a group made up of elite human soldiers and headed by [[spoiler:the first immortal Alexander Corvinus]]. Their job is to work behind the scenes to [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin clean up the mess]] the immortals leave behind. Following the third movie, where Corvinus dies and the Cleaners are all killed, humanity discovers vampires and werewolves and embarks on a full-scale genocide after there's no one left to clean up the two sides' messes.

* In ''Film/Hellboy2004'', it's mentioned in passing that World War II was simply the public front of the Occult War, which only came to an end with UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler's ''real'' death in ''1958''.
* The war between the LegionsOfHell and the [[OurGargoylesRock Gargoyle Order]] (created by ArchangelMichael to fight the demons) in ''Film/IFrankenstein'' has been going on for centuries, if not millennia (it's stated by the gargoyles' leader that the demons were released on earth during [[TheDevil Lucifer]]'s rebellion). Both sides are vulnerable to one another (demons can only be "descended" by weapons marked with the gargoyle sigil, while gargoyles can only be "[[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence ascended]]" by beings without a soul, like demons [[spoiler:and Adam]]). There are finite numbers on both sides, and no reinforcements are coming ([[spoiler:although the demons are working to correct that oversight]]), and attrition has been slowly eating away at both sides, although there are still more demons than gargoyles. While the demons do employ unwitting humans for some tasks, they cannot use them as foot soldiers, since humans are unable to "ascend" gargoyles; the gargoyles won't use humans because they believe that human life is sacred (in fact, they give Adam a WhatTheHellHero speech after his fight with demons in an alley results in the death of a human).

* Itsuki Koizumi implies multiple times that a particularly big and violent one is revolving around ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'' in the titular series.
* Iriya is also implied to be involved in one in ''LightNovel/IriyaNoSoraUFONoNatsu''.
* The ancient struggle between [[DemonicInvaders Denizens]] and [[HunterOfMonsters Flame Haze]] in ''LightNovel/ShakuganNoShana''. TheMasquerade is remarkably easy to keep up when everyone can [[RetGone erase people from existence]] and [[PhantomZone pseudo]]-[[TimeStandsStill stop time]].

* In ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'', the conflict between the Science and Magic Sides is unknown to most muggles and most members of the Science Side except direct combatants.

[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin A war that is kept secret from the public at large.]] The involved parties may or may not be unknown to {{muggles}} as well, but the central concept of the trope is that the conflict itself is somehow hidden, covert or underground. Basic fodder for UsefulNotes/ConspiracyTheories and naturally fiction in general.

* During the Vietnam War the CIA had a whole lot of things going on, including the Phoenix Program: a program of infiltration, capture, terrorism, and assassination. President UsefulNotes/RichardNixon also a series of massive bombing raids into Laos and Cambodia in an attempt to sever the supply lines from North Vietnam to the Vietcong, which somehow were kept secret despite the B-52s dropping more tons of explosives than had been dropped in the entirety of World War II.

* During UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, there was a secret war (With a book and documentary series with that title) where Allied scientists and engineers matched wits with their Axis counterparts to top and counter each other's inventions. Ultimately, the Allied side proved much better in this contest, due in large part to Nazi ideology getting in the way: not only were they FascistButInefficient, the state pushed [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsche_Physik pseudoscience]] partially inspired by Myth/NorseMythology (in large part because what we now call quantum physics and relativity had been mostly discovered by Jews).
* Literature/TheGreatGame between UsefulNotes/ImperialRussia and UsefulNotes/VictorianBritain in the 19th Century, which was more or less a precursor to the UsefulNotes/ColdWar. It was mostly fought through proxies in Central Asia, occasionally spilling into regional conflicts like the Anglo-Afghan Wars, but never into direct confrontation between the two empires.