16 Movie Villains Who Use A Secret Identity To Hide In Plain Sight

The Villain: Keyser Söze, a famously brutal criminal mastermind. 

His Alter Ego: Verbal Kint, a small-time con artist with cerebral palsy. 

The Reveal: Throughout the film, Verbal is a meek tagalong to the crimes of far superior criminals. Along the way, there are near-encounters with, and rumors of, a crime lord named Keyser Söze, but he doesn't reveal himself. A customs agent is trying to sniff out the truth about Söze once and for all, using the meek but talkative Verbal as his guide through a labyrinthine plot that led to an explosion of a ship that claimed over two dozen lives. Kujan suspects Dean Keaton (Gabriel Byrne), a career crook and friend of Verbal, of being Keyser all along.

The waning moments of Verbal's extemperaneous narrative about the film's plot are intercut with the equally important goings-on at the hospital, where the sole survivor of the ship explosion is speaking to a sketch artist about the identity we've all been waiting for. The famous reveal, that "Verbal Kint" was just Söze all along, comes just at the end. In a coffee mug-shattering moment of realization, Kujan figures out that Verbal is - to put it mildly - an unreliable narrator. As Kujan rushes outside to see if he can still catch a glimpse of the man who up until moments earlier was just a helpless, hobbled tertiary accomplice, the audience watches as Verbal quits limping and seemingly morphs into a more confident man.

The Villain: Ra's al Ghul, the leader of the League of Shadows. 

His Alter Ego: Henri Ducard, a regular member of the League of Shadows and friend to Bruce Wayne during his time there. 

The Reveal: After training with the League of Shadows, Bruce discovers their plan to destroy Gotham City, believing it's too corrupt to be saved. Bruce dramatically breaks free from the League, with his actions during his escape burning down their temple and killing the stand-in Ra's al Ghul (Ken Watanabe). But Bruce makes sure to save the life of his friend, Henri Ducard. Later, after Bruce starts fighting crime in Gotham City, Ducard reappears during Bruce's birthday party. Bruce's blood runs cold when a partygoer introducees him to a member of the League of Shadows she believes to be named Ra's al Ghul. Ducard appears behind Bruce and reveals that it's been him all along. The deception was simply a way to get closer to Bruce during the training; once it failed, there was no reason not to come clean and go after Gotham with his full might.

The Villain: Baron Von Rotten, an evil toon who took the life of Eddie Valiant's brother.

His Alter Ego: Judge Doom, the human Judge of Toontown, CEO of Cloverleaf Industries, and the man who wants to destroy Toontown to build a freeway. 

The Reveal: During his final showdown against Roger Rabbit and Eddie, Judge Doom is crushed by a steamroller. But, instead of dying, Doom stands up, perfectly flattened, finally revealing that he, too, is a toon. Alongside his new villainous toon appearance, Doom reveals to Eddie that he's the very toon - squeaky voice and all - that took the life of his brother years earlier. Sadly for him, though, being a toon leads to his demise, as he's subsequently eviscerated by "The Dip," the very substance he created to eliminate other toons.

The Villain: Ray Finkle, a scorned professional football player. 

His Alter Ego: Lois Einhorn, a Miami police lieutenant. 

The Reveal: Ace Ventura is a pet detective hired by the Miami Dolphins to track down their missing dolphin mascot. Along the way, he discovers a connection to Ray Finkle, a former Dolphins kicker who blames his old teammate, Dan Marino, for messing up his career. Ventura takes this information to an adversarial police acquaintance, Lois Einhorn, but he keeps his own investigation going, too. He heads to the mental hospital where Finkle was once a patient, discovering evidence that Finkle may have had sex reassignment surgery to impersonate a deceased hiker named Lois Einhorn, and that he has been incognito as Lt. Einhorn this whole time. And it was all leading up to finally getting revenge on Marino. Ventura presents this information in the film's climactic scene in front of Marino himself and virtually the entire police department.

The Villain: Turbo, a racing game character gone insane. 

His Alter Ego: King Candy, the ruler of Sugar Rush.  

The Reveal: Turbo used to be the hottest video game character in the arcade, but after a new arcade cabinet stole his thunder, he decided to leave his game and take over that one - ultimately resulting in both games being shut off. Later, Ralph makes his way into a new racing game called Sugar Rush, which exists in a realm led by the Candy King. Eventually, though, it's revealed through a glitch that Candy King is really Turbo, and he hacked into Sugar Rush to make himself into its ruler.

The Villain: Talia al Ghul, daughter of the leader of the League of Shadows, Ra's al Ghul. 

Her Alter Ego: Miranda Tate, a Gotham businesswoman and philanthropist - and Bruce Wayne's newest flame.

The Reveal: After Bane takes over Gotham, Miranda is one of those stuck within its borders. She tries to assist the cops still working to free the city, but eventually becomes a captive of a League of Shadows member named Barsad. Eventually, Batman returns to rescue Gotham - and thus has his sights set on Bane. As Batman questions Bane about the location of his nuke, Tate stabs Batman in the back and reveals herself to really be Talia al Ghul. As it turns out, Talia spent her early life in prison with Bane. After escaping, she, alongside Bane, trained under Ra's with the League of Shadows. After his demise, she took it upon herself to infiltrate Gotham and destroy the city - hence the convenient secret identity as a businesswoman who works her way onto the board of Wayne Enterprises.