Movie trope: The person who can get you a new identity

are you posting this on reddit cause you are in some sort of trouble? Cause I know a guy....

It used to be a lot easier before the '90s. There was a famous underground book that taught you how to create a new identity and it was popular with a bunch of niche crowds, like survivalists, in the '70s and '80s. I remember watching some youtube videos about it and sometimes it was just ordinary housewives who followed the instructions then disappeared in a new identity elsewhere.

Minority Report (2002) - Tom Cruise gets a new identity through uncomfortable surgery from a physician with questionable medical credentials in non-hygienic operating conditions

since the 80s-90s, the only common way to "create" a new identity was to search old papers or graveyards for a child that died. then you basically tricked the system bringing them back to life as you, collected birth cert, social security card, got id issued by dmv, etc none of the databases really talked to each other so if you could get a hospital to issue a birth cert, they didnt know the child died. same with dmv, when you came in with supporting documents, they didnt know the identity was deceased "making" identities was much more involved after they abandoned the laminated ids they made in-house. there was a time you could buy great fake id's on the dark net, but that time is mostly over from what i heard and now with REAL ID, you would need state specific card blanks and a printer that probably costs 10k, and im pretty sure the cards wont pass a scan unless you encode it to an existing real id, and the pic would be different.

Coneheads (1993) has a great scene about getting new identities. "The Guy" is played by Adam Sandler. It actually did work like that in the USA, You could pay someone for that before 9/11 2001. The person usually worked for the Government, or knew someone who did, that's how they had access to all the legal paperwork/documents. All cash transactions to make it difficult to trace. After the 9/11 attacks they changed a lot of laws/rules dealing with identification, Passports, etc. You can still do many of things now but it's more complicated and costly. Edit: more info

McLovin was the best lol

I just watched Eraser and Arnold doesn’t even need another person. Not only is he a super stealth also badass action super agent in the movie. He whips up new identities for those he’s hiding, along with faking their deaths. He just casually is swiping new credit cards based on her new identity to give Vanessa Williams when he stashes her away in hiding. Maybe not exactly what you asked but I love how he can just do that and also be the kickass action agent in the movie. 

William H Macy in The Running Man reboot is the most recent example that comes to mind.

In the Breaking Bad universe, Robert Forster plays Ed Galbraith who, for a tidy sum, gets you a brand new identity. He plays the same character in the fantastic Breaking Bad movie El Camino.

In John Wick's parallel universe, every city has a hotel with a shopping mall for weapons, tailored body armor, and identity paperwork for the bespoke gangsta.

It's called identity theft and it happens all the time. That and kids used to get fake IDs to buy booze and get into clubs all the time. Now. That's clearly not as involved but it's still an example of it. Someone looking to do something untoward wouldn't have to find someone to hire for it if they learned how to do it themselves. And there are ways. The book Ghost in the Wires an autobiography by Kevin Mitnick one of the most prolific hackers in the 80s when that sort of thing was being invented was on the run from the FBI for years and goes into how he developed identies in his book. He would start in cemeteries looking for people who were born around the same time as him and dies young, checking headstones. Then he'd basically just send in a request for a new social security card in their name. Maybe sign up for something in their name so he'd have some pieces of mail with the name on it or whatever the social security requirement was. Once he had a social security card and birth certificate he could get anything and everything he needed. Not fake documents but real documents from government agencies made for the person he assumed the identity of. Driver's licenses, could sign up for credit cards, everything he needed. If someone knew how to do this, then sure they could sell it as a service. But in reality it's just like the hitmen you see in movies. They get paid millions to take out worl leaders and billionaires ceos by anonymous clients through secretive organizations that no one knows exist. That doesn't exist in reality. Rich powerful people don't go around bumping each other off in the first place. There aren't that many of them. They'd literally run out. To whatever extent its true that people do get assassinated nowhere near enough to support giant yet invisible global organizations just to manage all the hitters running around. And probably the same for the agents you're asking about that support them. While being super secretive because what they do is illegal, how are they supposed to advertise their service so hitmen know they exist? And if they are that well known in the underground how does noone ever get caught and rat them out. And again there aren't a million hit men running around to support the business. These things do happen... on a very small scale, very very rarely. Mitnick, I believe the UHC shooter Luigi developed a false identity. How much I don't know maybe he just bought a fake ID. Almost all assassinations are carried out by random crazies that fixated on someone famous. Almost all of the actually organized ones are carried out by governments.

You're Nick Papagiorgio. You're from Yuma Arizona. You're into software.

There are still parts of the country that are not computerized or are not hooked into larger databases. There are hospitals that have gone under, schools that have closed, businesses that have gone under, etc. So you could still accomplish this to some degree I suspect by going to some outback rural area and finding out what the local birth certificates and documentation looked like and forging it. I would think getting a Social Security card would be the hardest part but if you get accomplished that then I think it’s much easier from that point forward. Some people don’t have Social Security numbers because this is an awfully big country and some people were born at home and at school at home, etc. So I guess I would research that and see how they establish a SSN later in life.

Twilight did it for Bella and her kid.

Ed Galbraith from Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul

Normally the type of person who needs such a thing already has what they need at the ready. Presumably from their organizational fixer. I remember way back when Adam Savage put out a video on YouTube about his go bag replica from The Bourne Identity, he said that he had spoken to a real former operative about the contents of their go bag. He couldn’t tell Adam everything that was in it, but in short it was everything that he needed to be anywhere in the world doing whatever he was required to do within 48 hours. So yes, apparently they do still exist.

Just be cautious of anyone that tries to set you up as Donald R. DeCicco like in The Coneheads.

Related trope: the mega competent underground cyberpunk hacker.  I love these, it's like competency p*** for the underworld 

The original Day of the Jackal (haven't seen the remake). The document forger, somewhat unwisely, tries to blackmail an assassin who has commissioned some fake ID. It does not go well for him.

I heard a podcast about a woman who stole the identity of missing people. Several in a row for some reason. I suspect criminals can do the same. Once you have a couple of documents confirming you're the person it's probably pretty easy to get the rest. The woman in the podcast was eventually caught; and the consequences seemed pretty harsh since lying on federal documents is taken pretty seriously so I wouldn't recommend this route.

Red uses these services a lot in The Blacklist. Not just for his own alternate identities, but for other people.

Safe House - Reuben Blades as Denzel's associate Minority Report - Tom Cruise gets eye transplant from Peter Stormare. The Bourne Legacy - Jeremy Renner makes new identity for Rachel Weisz

I knew a guy that had multiple US passports and posted about it just to give him a little kick in the balls. The U.S. implemented facial scanning and actually caught one dude, a politician I think. I thought it was pretty funny. Now he can only use one…sorry Paul or Danny or whoever you are, this guy probably doesn’t even know who he is anymore, lol. Where I lived in NJ there are a bunch of people with multiple ss numbers. They have multiple birth certificates. They got them from a doctor at the hospital. All you gotta do is a record of birth, then just apply for the ss number. NJ sold their DMV to a private company so I could have gotten a new license for $750 bucks in the 90s. They still sell them but I don’t know if the numbers are valid. The CEO shooter bought a NJ I’d.

Lol, this happens in so many movies.

You would like The Jackal with Bruce Willis

A dark example is **Seconds**.

I've always heard your friendly local mafia are the ones to ask, but I'm skeptical... I've always thought that if I was desperate, I'd just track down someone who looks like me and rob them.

Replacement Killers That person becomes part of the main cast

IRL it requires access to certain databases and someone to do the data entry. Theoretically.

Well, it's a lot easier in the movies than it is in real life, but it's hardly impossible to do it in the real world. At least in the US, it's a lot harder than it used to be: In the late 80's, they instituted a requirement that all dependents on your tax return needed an SSN. Not only did the number of dependents drop like a rock (mostly divorced parents each claiming the same child), but it meant that child deaths ended up getting reported to the SSA. If the SSA thinks you are dead, (it happens accidentally on a pretty regular basis), it's a real PITA to be re-alived, and would attract the exact sort of attention someone wanting a new ID is going to want to avoid. So, the old trick of assuming the ID of a dead child pretty much no longer works, unless you are older than 40 or so. (And, even then, it'll take some doing; it won't be a matter of a few hours after a visit to some dude in a dark alley, and you walk out with a complete pack of ID documents.) There are ways to do it, even today, without relying on that trick, but it'll be harder/more-expensive, and definitely no faster. (And will rely on you having at least a superficial resemblance to the person whose ID you are assuming.) The trope of a new ID being created from scratch? That's more of government-agency kind of thing, not a back-alley fixer that everyone knows. It wouldn't surprise me if there were underworld fixers that offer the service, but they'll hardly be so common, or be able to work so quickly. The idea that someone hunched behind a glowing screen can enter "the databases" and pound out a new ID in a few minutes is silly.

So being older my parents names me and I have a birth certificate in that name. Then they argued and I certificate No. 2. They finally agreed and I've got a certificate for the name I use. When I went to replace it, 2 and 3 don't exist and I should exist by a totally different name. Thst birth certificate is now in a sade as if anything happens to it I'm screwed but I've also a spare birth certificate thst is also me and I've done nothi g with it 🤔

PUSH plays with this trope . There is a person who can provide new identity documents , they just don't last very long . There are people who give you fake family members . Most incredible , to me , is the person who can make you forget your own identity . Prequels and sequels have become a blight upon movies . PUSH has neither but would benefit from either . It has a very rich environment for expansion .

Roofman is another recent movie where LaKeith Stanfield plays a shady guy who can hook you up with a new identity.

I automatically think of Tony Shaloub.

it's crazy that no one has mentioned Nate played by Jon Voigt in the movie Heat

Mira Sorvino in The Replacement Killers.

You've never heard of a teenager getting a fake ID? That's a lower level than what you are talking about of course but you have higher exposure than you think.