When a character's face opens up to show its endoskeleton, it can be for various things: If they're robots, then it could be for maintenance, like having to manually open up the face to fix a malfunction, or it is simply built like that on purpose without the need for maintenance. If they're living creatures, the faceplate is an organic armor that hides their softer tissue. But if they aren't a mechanism, then it can lead to a worst-case scenario, such as Facial Horror.
Compare Flower Mouth, where a character's mouth opens up like a flower, not just its entire face. Can be part of a Robotic Reveal. Related to Unusual Weapon Mounting if the faceplate conceals a weapon. See also Nested Mouths for a head encased in another head. Contrast Collapsible Helmet for retractable headgear that's not attached to the head. Frequently overlaps with Facial Façade.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Anime and Manga
- Ghost in the Shell (1995): Inverted during the opening credits, which show Motoko Kusanagi's cybernetic body being completed. The process starts with her brain being inserted into place and the outer sections of her robotic head closing up, and ends with her body being given skin and hair.
- A number of robots from the Brave Series (particularly the titular mechs of each show) had faceplates shown to cover actual mouths. Expect their faceplates to be broken in the final battle of each series.
- Gundam:
- Mobile Suit Gundam F91: The titular Gundam, when its Bio-Computer activates, opens up the faceplate to reveal a mouth-like heat sink that appears alongside three wing-like heat sinks on its shoulders.
- Mobile Suit Crossbone Gundam: Being a manga series sequel to F91, the titular Gundams can also do this, but their faceplates instead, open up horizontally, also revealing a heat sink, and with their open faceplate resembling a mouth with fangs.
- Mobile Fighter G Gundam: The Shining Gundam's faceplate opens vertically whenever it uses its Shining Finger Finishing Move.
Comic Books
- Guardians of the Galaxy (2013): After the Venom symbiote takes over Groot, his Venomized appearance sports a tripartite Flower Mouth around his neck that concept art reveals can close around his head to shield it.
Film — Animated
- BIONICLE: Mask of Light: The Rahkshi have reptilian faceplates that open into four slats when they scream to reveal the Kraata controlling the armour. The Kraata themselves have this. Notably, the toys couldn't do this, though the faceplates did imply it, but it's so iconic that all other media includes this trait, from the books to BIONICLE Heroes, which used a similar mould to the toys that could separate, and a simpler Kraata model.
Film — Live-Action
- A.I.: Artificial Intelligence opens with a "product demo" demonstrating a robotic woman's retractable face, which opens up to show various plates, and a square port for her memory and CPU.
- Ghost in the Shell (2017): The robot geishas in the opening scene retract their facial ceramics after they go haywire and attack the President of the African Federation.
- Men in Black features the Arquillians, hand-sized species that ride around in human robots while on Earth. By pressing a switch behind the ear, the face on the robot slides to the side, revealing the passenger.
- Pacific Rim: The Kaiju Raiju has an armored crocodilian head that can split apart into three. This hides its true head, which resembles a fleshy bioluminescent eel.
- Pacific Rim: Uprising: Raijin is a Tyrannosaurus-like Kaiju with massive plates around its skull modeled after a Venus flytrap. These plates act as an "outer head" to protect the red "inner head", helping the Kaiju close to defend itself and absorb kinetic energy from enemy hits.
- Predator: Badlands: Bone Bison have an impenetrable axe-shaped carapace that covers their unarmored body parts, such as the head. They can open and close it like a shell, particularly when they need to eat.
- A Quiet Place: The Death Angels are bestial spider-like aliens who have incredibly durable exoskeletons covering everything except their mouths. In place of eyes, the cranial parts of the armor peel apart for specialized auditory organs to detect sounds and movements of their prey. Doing so exposes their vulnerable endoskeleton, so the protagonists exploit their sensitive hearing by playing high-pitched frequencies, which disorients Death Angels so much that they can't retract their armor.
Live-Action TV
- The Orville: Kaylons are a robotic race with smooth blank faces with optic lights as eyes. However, the Kaylon with red optic lights can lift the plates around their eyes to unveil energy weapons.
- Ultraman: Gabora is a lizard-like monster with petal-like plates around its neck that can fold in to protect its head from attacks.
- The Hosts in Westworld have faces that open up like this.
Toys
- Transformers: Zigzagged with Optimus Prime. The original toyline and cartoon implied that his famous faceplate was part of his face. Meanwhile, The Transformers (Marvel) had it Depending on the Writer what was actually behind it, with some artists drawing him with a skeletal mouth (as if his mouthplate was part of his face and ripping it off was akin to ripping off his skin), while others drew a speaker-like grate instead. Many modern takes on Optimus Prime give him a retractable faceplate (this also allows Hasbro to sell toys of Optimus with both masked and unmasked variants).
Video Games
- Catherine: The outer shell of the Child With a Chainsaw's face is divided into parts that can open into a rather... not-so-pretty face.
- Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location: Invoked with the Funtime animatronics. They were all built with their faces separated into segments that can move separately from each other. These shifting face plates can also split open all at once, revealing the creepy robotic face beneath. While In-Universe, this was done so the robots could be opened up for maintenance, out of universe, it makes for a terrifying Nightmare Face.
- Halo 4: The grimacing insectile heads of Promethean Knights can open to reveal a Hard Light hologram skull underneath that roars at you, apparently just for the intimidation factor (even though they were built to fight a Horde of Alien Locusts that didn't feel fear). It might be a vestige of the humans who were forcibly digitized to create them.
- Live A Live: Cube is a Waddling Head robot who normally has a cute face. However, the animation for his Maser Cannon attack shows his face folding back to reveal a cannon inside.
- Monster Hunter Wilds: the Kranodath are small Monsters that would resemble Theropod Bird wyverns from previous generations if it weren't for their bizarre head ornamentation: their snout is hidden by extension of their skull that can be compared to the shells of a clam, and it closes them to form an effective battering ram.
- StarCraft II: Terran adjutants are robotic assistants with a human-like faceplate that can be retracted at will, revealing the robotic insides.
Western Animation
- Ben 10: XLR8's species, Kinecelerans, are Velociraptor-like super-fast aliens that possess armored helmets attached to their skulls and fitted with retractable masks to cover their faces when they're in movement.
- Infinity Train: Stewards are robots made of metallic cables and wires, with only a porcelain mask containing flaming eyes serving as their head. The face can flip open to reveal gears and various weapons like a flamethrower-like tube that's the source of its eye flames. When One-One repurposes a Steward, the mask and head now house a cockpit for him.
- Men in Black: The Series: The Arquillians and the Fmeks are both diminuative species that ride around in human robots. The face opens up to reveal the cockpit.
- Scream of the Shalka: As part of the reveal that the Master has an android body, when he shuts down his faceplate swings open.
- She-Ra and the Princesses of Power: The giant snakes of Beast Island have goofy-looking faces to suggest they're harmless... except this "head" is an outer casing, which opens to expose their real multi-eyed reptilian heads.