False Flag Operations seen in Live-Action TV series.
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.:
- In season 2, HYDRA attacks a UN conference while posing as S.H.I.E.L.D., in order to discredit them and get them labeled a terrorist organization officially. Every single member of S.H.I.E.L.D. feels the need to ask the director to make sure it wasn't actually them.
- S.H.I.E.L.D. gets their own back with much more success when they allow Bakshi to "escape" and convinces him that senior HYDRA leaders are conspiring to seize control of the organization. The result is that three of the four leaders are assassinated by HYDRA kill teams when Bakshi reports their "conspiracy", allowing the last one to be easily killed by S.H.I.E.L.D. when they recapture Bakshi.
- One of these kicks off the war between S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Inhumans at the end of season 2. During a sit down between S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Robert Gonzales and Inhuman leader Jiaying, she kills him with a Terragene crystal, then shoots herself with his gun. And then on top of that, she has a couple of her lackeys hijack a Quinjet and open fire on the Inhumans' compound, making it appear as if S.H.I.E.L.D. is trying to kill them all. This thus allows Jiaying to start the war that they feel is inevitable anyway.
- In "Uprising", the Watchdogs launch EMP attacks on multiple cities and release a video supposedly from the "Inhuman resistance" claiming responsibility for it. This not only stirs up anti-Inhuman sentiment, but gives the Watchdogs an excuse and opening to hunt them down.
- In "World's End", AIDA and Ivanov have an LMD of Daisy attack an international intelligence meeting regarding S.H.I.E.L.D.'s latest activities and shoot General Talbot. This not only finalizes the process of destroying S.H.I.E.L.D.'s reputation and getting them rendered terrorists, but because Daisy is an Inhuman, it further stokes anti-Inhuman anger and fear.
- Arrow: In "Suicidal Tendencies", Senator Cray stages a fake terrorist attack so he can cast himself as a hero to help his bid for President.
- Avenue 5: In "Intoxicating Clarity", Mads stages several attempts on Matt's life in order to earn him sympathy from the crew and make Ryan look like a dictator trying to assassinate a rival. Matt, having had no knowledge of this beforehand, is understandably horrified and calls him insane for it.
- The Drakh run one to get the entire galaxy mad at the Centauri in Babylon 5.
- The Earthgov regime under President Clark also plots one of these to implicate Babylon 5 in an attack on a Starfury squadron ("Epiphanies"). Bester, in an Enemy Mine collaboration, warns the Babylon 5 staff about this so they can thwart it.
- In Babylon Berlin, the 'Communists' who manipulate Greta to depositing a bomb in Dr. Benda's (who is both the chief of the Political Police and Jewish) office desk are later revealed to be members of the Nazi Party's SA.
- Better Call Saul:
- In season 4, Gus Fring kills Salamanca button man Arturo and blackmails Nacho Varga into turning Double Agent for him using his knowledge of how Nacho caused Hector's stroke. He comes up with a scheme that allows him to cover up Arturo's death and also make a move to drive the Salamancas out of Albuquerque. He has his henchmen Victor and Tyrus stage a shooting "attack" on Arturo's car, wounding Nacho and riddling Arturo's dead body with bullets, then blow up the car. This accomplishes several goals: it covers up the true cause of Arturo's death, obscures the fact that Nacho is now a double agent conscripted into working for Gus, and makes it look like Arturo's death and a truck robbery Mike had orchestrated on one of Hector's money couriers back in season 2 were the work of a rival gang wanting to take on the Salamancas. To complete the illusion, Gus has his men deliver some of the Salamanca's drugs to the Espinozas gang and then has Nacho "identify" them to the Cousins, who subsequently massacre the Espinozas' compound.
- In season 5's "JMM", Gus blows up one of his own restaurants so that the incarcerated Lalo will think that Nacho carried out his instructions to attack Gus's legitimate businesses.
- Parodied in The Black Adder: King Richard tells a lord to attack the Swiss. The lord informs him that the Swiss are on their side. Pondering for a moment, King Richard then tells him to "have them dress up as Germans".
- The Blacklist: At the end of season 2, the Cabal hires a known agent of the SVR and frames Keen as another one and uses them to assassinate an American senator, all as part of their plan to start a new Cold War they can profit from.
- Boardwalk Empire plays with this in season 4. Al Capone is almost killed when gunmen open fire on his office. The attack is blamed on Hymmie Weiss and his North Side gang but there are hints that Johnny Torrio tried to have Al killed and make it look like Weiss did it. Subsequently, when Torrio narrowly survives an assassination attempt, it is clear that he suspects that Capone was behind it. However, both men agree to blame Weiss for the attacks and the potential conflict is resolved when Torrio retires and gives control of his rackets to Capone. Historically, both attacks are attributed to Weiss.
- In Burn Notice most of the episodes involve the characters crafting cover ID's in order to approach or infiltrate the inner circle of the Villain of the Week. Some are isolated personas designed to be an easy target for harassment or pretending to be a Corrupt Cop who already knows everything but wants a slice of the payout, but other times they have to get creative and make an entire rival criminal organization to raise the threat level.
- Fiona pretends to be a CIA agent in order to get an allied nation's intelligence agent to hand over documents concerning a black flight landing in his home country. She does this because Michael's similar attempt as a pretend Russian agent backfires spectacularly when it turns out that the Polish agent hates the Russians with a passion despite (maybe even because of) the fact that his mother was a Russian.
- There was an entire episode titled "False Flag" in which an assassin pretends to be a client to get Michael's help in finding a man in hiding, claiming to be the distraught mother of the man's kidnapped son. The episode's prologue contains a Bait-and-Switch moment when Michael describes "false flag" as an espionage term for a false identity, which he is trying to acquire from a local forger, because he can't travel out of Miami under his current name.
- In Burn Notice: The Fall of Sam Axe, Veracruz plans to destroy a medical clinic and blame the rebels. The attack could be used as a justification for receiving greater US military aid.
- A few episodes of Criminal Minds (namely "Criminal Minds S 1 E 16 The Tribe" and "Criminal Minds S 7 E 15 A Thin Line") involve Unsubs who take a page out of the Manson Family.
- In Crossbones, Blackbeard arranges to have two men from Sam Valentine's crew attempt to kill him so that he can have Valentine executed without having to worry about the rest of the island seeing him as a dictator.
- In the first episode of Damnation, Connie Nunn is hired to turn a peaceful protest at a mine into a full-blown riot so that the mine operators can have an excuse to violently suppress the labor strikes that have slowed down their operations. To this end, she snipes at the protests from a distance, killing people on both sides.
- Daredevil:
- To get himself out of prison at the start of season 3, Wilson Fisk sells out a giant Albanian syndicate to FBI Agent Ray Nadeem. Once the syndicate is taken down, Fisk pays an inmate named Jasper Evans to shank him nonfatally and make it look like he's been branded as a snitch within the prison walls. He also arranges for Evans to be quietly released from prison so that no one can question him. Nadeem, seemingly convinced of the danger, pushes for Fisk to be transfer to the penthouse of a Midtown hotel that he secretly owns through a bunch of shell companies. It is actually to Fisk's benefit that the Albanian syndicate he sold out make their own attempt to kill him while he's being transferred to the Presidential Hotel, as it makes people less likely to suspect that his shanking was in fact staged, at least until Matt visits the prison and learns about Evans from some Albanian inmates, and subsequently works with Karen to track him down.
- After Benjamin "Dex" Poindexter saves Fisk from said assassination attempt by the Albanians, Fisk proceeds to groom the FBI agent into being his personal hitman and decides to have him commit murders in a Daredevil costume that are meant to discredit Matt, the real Daredevil. To do this, Fisk coerces Melvin Potter into building a red Daredevil costume for Dex, and then sends Dex to attack the New York Bulletin, killing several of Karen's colleagues, wounding Matt, Foggy and Mitchell Ellison, and then shooting Jasper Evans dead before he can talk on the record about what Fisk paid him to do. Traumatized by the events of this, Karen decides to confront Fisk in his penthouse and tries to provoke him into attacking her by floating the details of how she murdered James Wesley in his face. Fisk vows revenge and orders a hit on Karen, with Dex once again donning his Daredevil armor and going after her in Matt's church, killing Father Lantom in the course of his attempt. In the season finale, Matt manipulates Dex into turning against Fisk by revealing to him that Fisk killed Julie Barnes, a woman Dex has been seeing. This prompts Dex to don his Daredevil armor once more and attack Fisk and Vanessa's wedding. Dex is ultimately defeated when Fisk breaks his back in the subsequent fight, and is then apprehended by Brett Mahoney while wearing the armor, which ends up helping exonerate Matt's reputation.
- Designated Survivor:
- The bombing of the Capitol in the series pilot first appears to be the work of an Al-Qaeda splinter faction. However, it later turns out to have been the work of a domestic conspiracy by ultra-right-wing fanatics who want to topple the US government and take over the country.
- In the Season 2 premiere, Ukrainian terrorists hijack a Russian airliner. An investigation reveals they were actually paid off by the Russian government to provide an excuse to invade Ukraine.
- In "Fallout", a dirty bomb is set off in a DC subway station, in an attack seemingly engineered by the government of East Han Chiu (a stand-in for North Korea). However, evidence is later discovered that it was actually the work of the Emirate of Kunami, which is hoping to start a war between the US and East Han Chiu that it can profit from by selling the latter black market weapons. Then the following episode "Overkill" ups the ante by revealing that the attack was actually organized by Kunami's ambassador to the US and a rebel leader, who were hoping America would invade and overthrow the emir.
- Doctor Who:
- "Frontier in Space": Ships from the Earth Empire are apparently being raided by the Draconian Empire, and vice versa; the attacks are actually being staged by a third alien power that hopes to provoke a war that will weaken both Empires and leave them vulnerable to invasion.
- "Aliens of London"/"World War Three": The Slitheen fake a crash landing of an alien spaceship, then plan to launch nuclear strikes on the rest of the world under the pretense of nonexistent alien threats before selling off the radioactive waste for profit on the black market.
- Foundation (2021):
- One of these was responsible for the centuries-long conflict between Anacreon and Thespis. Specifically, Cleon II had the Anacreon Grand Huntress murdered on the night of her wedding to the Thespian king and framed him for it, because a union between the two planets would threaten the Empire's power.
- In the Season 2 finale, it's revealed that Demerzel was the one who sent the Blind Angel assassins after Brother Day (Cleon XVII), never intending them to actually succeed and leaving a trail that points to Sareth, in order to sabotage her and Day's marriage, which would end the Genetic Dynasty that Demerzel is programmed to protect at all costs.
- Foyle's War: In "Trespass", a British government black ops unit blows up ships carrying Jewish refugees to Palestine, posing as an Arab terrorist organisation called the Friends of Arab Palestine.
- Funky Squad: In "The Wrong Side of the Tracks", corrupt property developer Miles Striklen stages an attack on one gang leader and makes it look like the work of a rival gang to deliberately stir up a gang war so he can buy up property in the disputed territory for a fraction of its value.
- Game of Thrones:
- Xaro Xhoan Daxos has several of his own guardsmen killed to conceal his involvement in stealing Dany's dragons.
- In the beginning, Theon's torture is conducted by men dressed like the Ironborn. They are actually Ramsay's men, and Ramsay kills four of them to gain Theon's trust.
- Gotham: Cobblepot is rather fond of this technique:
- Early on in the first season, he hires some goons to attack and rob one of mob boss Maroni's restaurants, staging it to look like rival mobster Falcone is retaliating for an early offense, during which Cobblepot "saves" some of Maroni's money from being stolen. This not only increases tensions between the two mob bosses, but also allows Cobblepot to get himself further into Maroni's good graces.
- In the penultimate episode, he tops himself, as he hires Falcone's best hitmen to take out Maroni, only to sabotage the attempt. This leads to Maroni going to war with Falcone, giving Cobblepot the opportunity to eliminate his rivals and take over Gotham's underworld.
- The Handmaid's Tale: The regime slaughtered Congress and blamed it on terrorists, which gave them the pretext to suspend the Constitution, then take over.
- In Volume 4 of Heroes, Homeland Security Black Ops leader and evil Jack Bauer Expy Danko attempts to stage a nuclear suicide bombing of D.C., with the intention of blaming the whole thing on Supers to create justification for his anti-Super crusade.
- Heroes Reborn (2015) opens with a peaceful summit on human-Evo relations being suicide bombed by what appears to be a group of Evo supremacists. It later turns out this was actually engineered by Erica Kravid, in order to turn the world against Evos and justify her measures to round them all up for experimentation.
- Homeland: An angry young Muslim man who'd been charged with (and cleared of) supporting terrorism is set up to look like a suicide bomber after he was released by some government officials who wanted to stop the President elect's reform.
- House of Cards (UK). The assassination of a journalist who finds out too much about Prime Minister Urquhart is blamed on the IRA. At one point an explosion is heard in London. The PM looks at his Psycho for Hire, Special Branch bodyguard Corder, who says, "It's not one of ours." The implication being that bombs are being set off to justify Urquhart's harsh policies.
- In Killjoys, a group of men posing as Scarbacks massacre a number of civilians and claim it was on orders of Alviz, who is forced to confess or have his entire order killed. The massacre was staged by the Company to justify stopping the planned emigration of Westerlings and bombing Old Town, as well as covering up one of the Nine assassinating another royal family.
- Last Resort features a textbook example in the pilot — whoever in the Government Conspiracy attempted to sink the Colorado pins the blame on Pakistan in order to justify going to war with them.
- The Last Ship:
- Late in Season 2, the HMS Achilles — the submarine used by Sean Ramsey — destroys the refugee fleet floating off of New Orleans as the Nathan James comes into port. Meanwhile, Ramsey's followers film the situation, then edit it for broadcast so that it looks like the James destroyed the other ships. This works to turn public opinion among the survivor population against the Navy and towards the Immunes.
- In the Season 5 premiere, agents of Gran Colombia assassinate the President of Panama right after he meets with Sasha's team. This allows them to frame the US, turning the rest of Latin America against them and serving as a justification for Colombia to launch an airstrike to destroy the newly rebuilt American fleet.
- In one Law & Order: Criminal Intent episode, part of the backstory involved the well-publicized death of an American woman at the hands of Israeli soldiers while protesting on the West Bank. It's later revealed that, far from being innocent, she was actively supporting Palestinian militants, who set her up to be killed to garner international sympathy. Although Israel is aware of this, they don't say anything and take the bad press because she was actually a spy for them, and they don't want it revealed that they have infiltrated the peace movement by using foreign nationals and were stupid enough to kill their own agent.
- Clearly this was based on the death of American activist Rachel Corrie, as similar allegations (at least regarding support for Palestinian militants) have been made about her.
- Leverage: In "The Rundown Job", an extremist attempts to demonstrate that the US is unprepared for bio-terrorist attack by launching his own bio-terrorist attack while posing as Muslim extremist.
- A group of English football (soccer) fans pull one of these to incite a riot with a rival group of fans in Life on Mars.
- The Lone Gunmen pilot (broadcast March 2001) had the heroes foil a plot to slam a 727 into the towers. Somebody obviously thought they could do better...
- Murder in the First: Someone murders gangster Sugar Cascade's sister, making it look to him like a Chinese gang was guilty. The head of the Chinese gang convinces him he wasn't behind it, however, and that someone tried to get them into a war with each other.
- Murdoch Mysteries: In "Kommando", Major Cole and his squad murder a British family and pass it off as the work of a Boer militia in order to provide a Pretext for War.
- The third season of Person of Interest centers around Vigilance, a grass-roots group fighting government oppression. In the season finale, leader Collier captures Finch, Greer, Control, and others for a trial broadcast online where he gets them to admit to creating the Machine and Samaritan. As a gunfight erupts, Collier snaps that it's too late for Greer as the world has seen the truth. At which point, a sneering Greer reveals that his Decima created Vigilance in the first place. All the equipment they used for the broadcast belongs to Decima-owned companies and thus the "trial" has been directed to a secret server and no one has seen it. After killing Collier, Greer sets off the bombing of a federal building that is blamed on Vigilance, thus forcing the government to give Samaritan their full support.
- The Professionals. In "Need to Know", Special Branch arrest a high-ranking MI5 executive who is spying for the Chinese. The KGB decide to snatch and interrogate him, figuring the Chinese will be blamed, and bring in a couple of Russian Asiatics for the job. Meanwhile CI5 is planning to snatch the Double Agent so he can get the Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique. In their case they arrest a Chinese drug pusher and coerce him to into coming on the operation, making sure the police guarding the prisoner all get a good look at his face.
- On a third season episode of Quantico, the team are hunting what they think are a team of Pakistani extremists planning to set off a dirty bomb in New York during a conference between India and Pakistan. However, after killing a few members, Alex finds one of them has a Hindu prayer bead on him. It turns out they're really from India and even led by an official who thinks his government is "too weak" to do what's needed. By making it look like Pakistan set off a mini-nuke in New York, he'll ensure the U.S. backs India in a war to wipe out their long-time enemy.
- Revolution: In the final portion of Season 2, this is the main threat that the heroes are trying to prevent — the Patriots attempting to assassinate the President of the Texas Republic and pinning the blame on the California Commonwealth, thus getting the two nations to wipe each other out and clearing the way for the Patriots to take over. After two failed attempts, they succeed, only to then be exposed by an Engineered Public Confession.
- The Rise of Phoenixes: The Crown Prince controls the remnants of Bloody Pagoda. He orders one of its members to attack Gu Yan's men, then uses that as an excuse to pretend he's wiped out Bloody Pagoda.
- Snowpiercer: Wilford's supporters do this in Season 2 to instigate a counter-revolution against the Tallies. After mutilating Lights' hand to make it permanently resemble the "W" salute symbol of Wilford's worshippers, they then slaughter the Breachmen (Wilford's strongest supporters on Snowpiercer) to make it look like retaliation from the Tallies. This causes tensions to boil over as the other passengers start rioting and attacking the Tallies.
- Stargate:
- Stargate SG-1: SG-1 themselves try this at one point, in an attempt to sabotage a diplomatic meeting between the System Lords Heru-ur and Apophis, who were negotiating an alliance. It works, and they successfully trick Apophis into thinking that Heru-ur has betrayed him... but it turns out that Apophis has more troops in hiding than anyone knew, and his massively superior forces easily obliterate Heru-ur's, rendering the whole operation moot. Now, instead of an alliance of two System Lords, who distrust one another, they have one System Lord, who has absorbed the other's forces and rules them unchallenged.
- During the attempted attack on Earth by Apophis and his son Klorel, Bra'tac's plan was for him and a few of his followers to pilot death gliders and use them to stage a (fruitless) attack against Apophis. Apophis would assume that Klorel, true to Goa'uld Chronic Backstabbing Disorder, is using this opportunity to remove his father and take his place, and, hopefully, retreat from Earth. Fortunately together with SG-1, they manage to come up with a better plan.
- In Stargate Atlantis, after an attempted attack on a Wraith hive ship Goes Horribly Wrong, John Shepherd and his team escape in a Wraith Dart. Shepherd shoots up another hive ship that is working with one he stole the dart from, baiting them into a Let's You and Him Fight that ends with the two hives blowing each other up.
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine did this in one of its most celebrated episodes, "In the Pale Moonlight". Sisko puts aside his principles to get the Romulans to join the war against the Dominion. First, a holographic recording is faked to make it appear that the Dominion were intending to attack the Romulans, and when this falls through, the Romulan ambassador is assassinated, his shuttle bombed, to make it appear that the Dominion didn't want the truth to be discovered. It is learned that Garak had, without Sisko's knowledge, set it up at a Xanatos Gambit, realizing the fake recording might not pass inspection, with the backup plan being to kill the Senator if he realized that.
- In another (two-part) episode, a Starfleet admiral brings down Earth's power grid and blames it on Changeling sabotage, so that the Federation will declare martial law (which he thinks is necessary to prepare for a Dominion invasion).
- The Founders of the Dominion also employ this trope by using shapeshifter infiltrators to manipulate the Klingon invasion of Cardassia, not to mention the withdrawal of the Klingon Empire from the Khitomer Accords, and the Second Federation-Klingon War that results, all in order to weaken the Alpha Quadrant powers for a Dominion invasion. Additionally, the aforementioned Starfleet admiral was motivated in his actions on Earth by a number of attacks launched by Changeling infiltrators. One such infiltrator brags to Sisko that they were able to bring about an attempted coup in the heart of the Federation with only four infiltrators. While appearing to him in the guise of a trusted friend, just to hammer the point home.
- Also used by the main cast in a captured Jem'Hadar warship to take out a Ketracel White facility.
- Star Trek: Enterprise did this one when the Romulans used a ship with a holographic display disguising itself as various species around human space to try getting them to fight each other. Brilliantly unsuccessfully, as it turns out, as the joint effort to find and defeat the ship forms the basis for The Federation and Starfleet.
- In Star Trek: Picard Season 3, Changelings intended on destroying the shuttle Ro Laren was flying in to give the USS Intrepid a reason to force the Intrepid to capture or destroy the Titan-A. However, Ro ends up being a Spanner in the Works, throwing herself at a nacelle to prevent the Intrepid from chasing, thus giving the crew of the Titan-A a fighting chance.
- Star Trek: Strange New Worlds starts off its second season with the Enterprise crew trying to stop a mining syndicate known as the Broken Circle from reigniting the Federation-Klingon War again by using a "false" Federation ship to attack a Klingon cruiser.
- Trotsky: The Tsarist government sends agents undercover among the demonstrators who will open fire and give their soldiers a reason to shoot back, rather than it being unprovoked. It doesn't work as Trotsky just has them disperse so that no violence will occur.
- In Turn, Capt. Simcoe poisons Maj. Hewlett's horse and then arranges for Richard Woodhull to be shot in order to convince Hewlett to give him more discretion in his search for those with rebel sympathies.
- The Twilight Zone (1959): In "He's Alive", the neo-Nazi Peter Vollmer has his lackey Nick Bloss murdered on the advice of Adolf Hitler and blames it on his enemies in order to attract more support to his growing organization.
- The Undeclared War: Russia Global Today, a news outlet in the UK working for the Russian government, sets up rival Labour Party and fascist demonstrations to cause a riot, with them reporting then creating further distrust and division. They later also frame the Conservative Party for rigging the UK's general election, which causes angry mass demonstrations by Labour supporters. It's shown to be the explicit Russian policy that they'll covertly subvert Britain from within so they'll be weakened when the war they believe will inevitably happen comes by such means.
- V (1983): The Visitors use a staged terrorist attack against a Visitor-run chemical processing plant as grounds to institute martial law throughout most of the world. V being loosely based on the rise of fascism in pre-WWII Germany, this incident was inspired by the Reichstag fire of 1933, supposedly set by Nazi operatives posing as Communists. They also claim a conspiracy by Earth scientists is the reason they must take control, to keep order.
- The Walking Dead (2010): It's hinted at in "Lockdown", and later confirmed in "Family", that whenever there's social unrest in the Commonwealth, Governor Milton has her troops lure hordes of walkers close to the city's walls, both in order to have an excuse to clamp down and to scare everyone back into submission. This ends up backfiring massively when the latest horde is revealed to contain variant walkers, which scale the walls and open the gates to let the rest of the horde in, quickly overwhelming the Commonwealth army.
- Whiskey Cavalier: The Villain of the Week of the episode "When In Rome", the leader of an Italian neo-fascist organization, is revealed to be planning to launch a chemical weapon attack in the heart of Rome. He intends to pin the blame for this on immigrants, swinging more of the country towards his way of thinking.
- Y: The Last Man (2021): In "Ready, Aim, Fire" we learn that Roxanne made the women in her group think men were shooting toward them by firing in the air, posing as their rescuer afterward and thus getting on their good side.
