It should be noted that accomplishing this trope requires a particular type of SCUBA outfit, known appropriately as a "dry-suit" as opposed to the more familiar "wet-suit." Dry-suit use requires additional training and certification to properly use.
A Sub-Trope of Dressed in Layers. May precede a Black-Tie Infiltration.
Examples:
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Advertising
- Done in one ad in a campaign for Jersey Mike's subs, as Danny DeVito, in casual clothes, invites himself into the kitchen area of a Jersey Mike's, dragging a theater chair behind him. He sets up the chair opposite the grill and rips off his clothes, revealing a tux underneath. While he's intently watching the grilling (using opera glasses, no less!) the counter clerk calls his name. And he rips off his tux to reveal his original casual clothes to go pick up his order.
Anime
- Najica Blitz Tactics does this in the first episode. Rule of Sexy dictates that this has to be done with cleavage showing first, and it does.
Fanfiction
- Eiga Sentai Scanranger had an episode where the characters spoof various superspies... It also doesn't help that the writer's idea of parodying these movies was having his poor man's Bond take off his tuxedo to reveal a wetsuit underneath instead of the other way around...
Film — Live-Action
- Goldfinger is the Trope Codifier. The movie opens with James Bond planting a bomb in a drug lord's warehouse, then head for a restaurant while shedding his wetsuit to reveal a white tuxedo underneath.
- Along with several other classic spy tropes, True Lies parodied the Goldfinger example.
- XXX used it satirically in the beginning, when the "old school" spy pulled that trick, but inadvertently walked into a rave party, where he stood out like a sore thumb and quickly got shot in the back — thus demonstrating the need for "a new kind of agent".
- The hero in National Treasure does it, after dressing up like a janitor to sneak into the gala. It's used again in the sequel, when the hero does it to get into the president's birthday party (after sneaking in through the river).
- Seen at the beginning of Iron Man 2. Tony has the tux under his Powered Armour of course.
- There are other, non-tux variations of this. The movie Men at Work (1990) has the two leads strip off their sanitation worker coveralls to reveal their surfing outfits for a little recreation in a similar manner to this idea.
- Played for laughs in Penn & Teller Get Killed. They're practicing an underwater magic trick in the harbor, when they get called up for an update on the case, strip out of their scuba gear, and were both wearing full suits underneath, for no apparent reason.
- The Dark Knight Rises has the Classy Cat-Burglar Selina Kyle do a female version where she takes off pieces of the maid uniform she wore to infiltrate the party to reveal a flattering Little Black Dress, going from blending in with the wait staff to blending in with the socialites.
Literature
- Spoofed in Subversive Activity, where the British secret agent strips off his diving suit to reveal immaculate evening dress... but this is 1875, and instead of a wetsuit it's one of those clunky old diving suits with the metal fishbowl helmets.
Live-Action TV
- In Home Improvement, Tim goes to make up with Jill while wearing a mechanic's jumpsuit (he was "working in the garage"). After they reconcile, he comments that he's still capable of surprises, and out comes the tux. Lampshaded when he quips "Bond, James Bond."
- Mystery Science Theater 3000 addresses some of the Fridge Logic of the classic version of this trope during the Mighty Jack episode, when the Mads reveal their new invention: the "Formal Flipper", dress shoes (or high-heels) with swim fins attached.
- The scuba gear variant was tested on MythBusters. Jamie was able to swim a fair distance, take the suit off on arrival, and have his tux look perfect.
- Played with in The Thin Blue Line. Sergeant Patricia Dawkins falls for a radical environmentalist, only to find he's an MI 5 Agent Provocateur when he comes out of Inspector Fowler's office wearing a James Bond tuxedo.
- Played with at the 2011 Tony Awards
, where Neil Patrick Harris pulls off a tux to reveal a sequined purple leisure suit and then pulls that off to reveal another tuxedo.
- Done by Peter Tork in the pilot episode of The Monkees, as we see him walking onto the shore of a beach, taking off a drysuit to reveal an immaculate white tuxedo, for no more reason than Rule of Funny.
- In one of the more light-hearted moments in A Spy Among Friends, a World War II flashback sees Ian Fleming overseeing a practice session for this at a swimming pool; in the pool is a diver, who on emerging from the pool takes off his diving suit to reveal that he's wearing a dinner jacket underneath. Truth in Television, as British intelligence really used this during the war (see below under Real Life for more information).
Video Games
- New Game Plus allows Solid Snake and Naked Snake to perform this in Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater respectively.
- In Team Fortress 2, the Spy can take off his disguise as a member of the other team to reveal a tuxedo. Granted, to anyone not on the opposing team the "disguise" clearly consists of nothing but a cheap paper mask of one of the 9 classes, so in this case it's not hard to see how he avoids rumpling his suit.
- Used in the first level of the James Bond game NightFire.
- In Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, when the Allied Spy, which is amphibious, moves from sea to land, he removes his wetsuit to reveal a tuxedo. When he moves from land to sea, he removes his tuxedo to reveal a wetsuit...
Western Animation
- Both Ron and Rufus get to do this after the diving scene in the Kim Possible movie So The Drama. Kim also reveals an evening dress, but it's not shown whether she was wearing it under her scuba suit or whether she changed (the fact that Ron averts his gaze as Kim removes the scuba suit suggests the latter).
- Used by Sylvester and Tweety, who unzipped their fur and feathers.
- In Family Guy episode "Oceans Three And A Half", Peter, Cleveland, Quagmire and Joe do this in an attempt to steal a bunch of money from Mr. Pewterschmidt.
- Dexter of Dexter's Laboratory did this during an episode parodying James Bond.
- Sam And Max naturally do this in their own James Bond parody.
- Special Agent Oso has also done this since its also a preschool spin on the James Bond series.
- Totally Spies!: In "Evil Promotion Much?", Jerry wears a wetsuit identical to his standard tuxedo as part of a ploy to trick the villains into thinking he drowned, and he unzips it to reveal his tux underneath.
Real Life
- The Secret Intelligence Service did this for real during World War II; a Dutch agent by the name of Peter Tazelaar was put ashore near a seafront casino in occupied Holland wearing full evening dress (sprinkled with brandy to give the impression of him being a drunken reveller) underneath a rubber diving suit. After discaring his diving gear, he was able to mingle with the party-goers at the casino, get past the German guards and pick up a radio that had previously been parachuted in. His superior officer, Nicholas Elliott, was a close friend of Ian Fleming.
