From SRP author Mark Posey:
There’s an art to disappearing without actually going anywhere. I don’t mean vanishing in a puff of smoke or jumping out of a helicopter into the Thames. I mean walking through a crowd, switching a few details, and becoming someone else entirely before anyone realizes you were ever there.
It’s the kind of skill most of us will (thankfully) never need—but that every good spy, assassin, or fugitive in fiction seems to have mastered. And it’s the reason scenes like Salt’s mid-chase makeover are so delicious to watch.
The Angelina Jolie Masterclass
In Salt (2010), Evelyn Salt is being hunted through downtown D.C. She slips into a shopping area, keeps moving, swaps jackets, changes her hair, and walks out a different person. No smoke bombs. No face-morphing tech. Just confidence, momentum, and a killer sense of pacing.
Writers love that kind of sequence because it shows intelligence at work. The audience gets to see the plan unfold in real time. And Jolie sells it—no panicky glances, no “I’m hiding!” body language. She moves like she belongs, and that’s what sells the trick.
The Mall Date That Wasn’t
Fast-forward to Captain America: The Winter Soldier, where Natasha Romanoff drags Steve Rogers through a mall to dodge surveillance. She doesn’t pull a gun. She doesn’t sprint. She just acts normal—ball cap, casual posture, public kiss. Instant invisibility.
That’s the real secret of blending in: don’t act like you’re hiding. The moment you start looking over your shoulder, you might as well be wearing a sign that says “Hi, I’m suspicious. Please follow me.”
The Spy Next Door
TV nailed this decades ago. Alias turned Sydney Bristow into a human chameleon, changing hair color, accent, and walk mid-mission. The Americans took it further—Elizabeth Jennings could transform from Russian agent to PTA mom in a single episode, armed with nothing more than a new haircut and a borrowed cardigan.
The trick? Commit to the disguise. You’re not pretending; you are that person for as long as you need to be.
And Then There’s Lisbeth
In The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Lisbeth Salander doesn’t need wigs or lipstick. Her camouflage is bureaucracy—paperwork, digital trails, and the thousand tiny ways modern life hides us in plain sight. She changes bank accounts and IDs the way other people change outfits.
Disappearance, she proves, can be intellectual as well as physical.
Why It Works in Thrillers
Scenes like these work because they’re smart. They show competence, planning, and nerve—the holy trinity of any good thriller protagonist. Whether it’s Jolie walking coolly through a crowd or Bourne orchestrating chaos at Waterloo Station, the thrill isn’t just in the chase. It’s in watching someone outthink the system.
And since Thomas Billings is about to have the Establishment breathing down his neck in Fall From Grace, let’s just say he might be taking notes from all of the above. Crowded streets of London. Eyes everywhere. And not a gadget in sight.
Because sometimes, the best way to disappear isn’t to run—it’s to walk right through the middle of it all.
–Mark
