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SpyTuxReveal 4280

Most commonly seen in James Bond films, this is where a spy is dressed in appropriate gear for, e.g., parachuting, scuba diving or jetpacking, which he is doing to infiltrate a party. Once on the ground, he unzips his clothes to reveal an immaculate tuxedo underneath. Based on a true story!

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-suits require additional training and certification to properly use.

A Sub-Trope of Dressed in Layers.

Examples of Spy Tux Reveal include:

Anime and Manga[]

Comic Books[]

  • Done, almost inevitably, in Spy Boy.

Fan Works[]

  • 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[]

  • Most famously, the introduction to Goldfinger
  • Used in True Lies, along with several other classic spy tropes.
  • 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.
    • Used in the second National Treasure: 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 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.

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[]

  • 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.
  • 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."
  • 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.
  • 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.

Video Games[]

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.
  • Used by Sylvester and Tweety, who unzipped their fur and feathers.
  • In an episode of Family Guy, 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.

Real Life[]