The
''BioShock'' series is a collection of story-driven
first-person shooter
A first-person shooter (FPS) is a video game genre, video game centered on gun fighting and other weapon-based combat seen from a First person (video games), first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action directly through t ...
s in which the player explores dystopian settings created by
Ken Levine and his team at
Irrational Games
Irrational Games (known as 2K Boston between 2007 and 2009) was an American video game developer founded in 1997 by three former employees of Looking Glass Studios: Ken Levine, Jonathan Chey, and Robert Fermier. Take-Two Interactive acquired t ...
. The first two games, ''
BioShock
''BioShock'' is a 2007 first-person shooter video game developed by 2K Boston (later Irrational Games) and 2K Australia, and published by 2K. The first game in the ''BioShock'' series, it was released for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 ...
'' and its direct sequel, ''
BioShock 2
''BioShock 2'' is a first-person shooter video game developed by 2K Marin and published by 2K Games. It was released worldwide for PlayStation 3, Microsoft Windows, Windows, and Xbox 360 on February 9, 2010; Feral Interactive released an OS X v ...
'', take place in the underwater city of
Rapture
The Rapture is an Christian eschatology, eschatological position held by some Christians, particularly those of American evangelicalism, consisting of an end-time event when all dead Christian believers will be resurrected and, joined with Chr ...
in 1960 and 1968, which was influenced heavily by
Ayn Rand
Alice O'Connor (born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum; , 1905March 6, 1982), better known by her pen name Ayn Rand (), was a Russian-born American writer and philosopher. She is known for her fiction and for developing a philosophical system which s ...
's
Objectivism
Objectivism is a philosophical system named and developed by Russian-American writer and philosopher Ayn Rand. She described it as "the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive a ...
. The third installment, ''
BioShock Infinite
''BioShock Infinite'' is a first-person shooter video game developed by Irrational Games and published by 2K. The third installment of the ''BioShock'' series, ''Infinite'' was released worldwide for the PlayStation 3, Windows, Xbox 360, a ...
'', is set aboard the floating air-city of Columbia in 1912, designed around the concept of
American Exceptionalism
American exceptionalism is the belief that the United States is either distinctive, unique, or exemplary compared to other nations. Proponents argue that the Culture of the United States, values, Politics of the United States, political system ...
. Though ''Infinite'' is not a direct sequel to the previous games, the game is thematically linked; a short scene within the core ''Infinite'' game returns to Rapture, while the downloadable content ''
BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea'' tie in many of the plot elements between ''BioShock'' and ''BioShock Infinite''.
As a heavily plot-driven series of games, ''BioShock'' contains a long list of
non-playable character
A non-player character (NPC) is a character in a game that is not controlled by a player. The term originated in traditional tabletop role-playing games where it applies to characters controlled by the gamemaster (or referee) rather than by a ...
s (NPC) with which the player interacts and which drive the games' respective stories.
''BioShock''
Jack
Jack is the
silent protagonist
In video games, a silent protagonist is a player character who lacks any dialogue for the entire duration of a game, with the possible exception of occasional interjections or short phrases. In some games, especially visual novels, this may extend ...
of ''BioShock'', whom the player controls throughout the game. He is first seen aboard an airplane, which crashes near a lighthouse in the middle of the
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...
containing a
bathysphere
The ''Bathysphere'' () was a unique spherical deep sea, deep-sea submersible which was unpowered and lowered into the ocean on a cable, and was used to conduct a series of dives off the coast of Bermuda from 1930 to 1934. The ''Bathysphere'' wa ...
terminal providing entry to
Rapture
The Rapture is an Christian eschatology, eschatological position held by some Christians, particularly those of American evangelicalism, consisting of an end-time event when all dead Christian believers will be resurrected and, joined with Chr ...
. During his journey through Rapture, Jack encounters various gene-altering substances known as Plasmids and Tonics, which he uses to gain powerful abilities to defend himself. Jack experiences strange visions of his family while traveling, but eventually discovers that he is the illegitimate son of Andrew Ryan and singer Jasmine Jolene, "Andrew Ryan's Favorite Girl." After becoming pregnant, Jasmine sold her fertilized egg to Brigid Tenenbaum, an employee of businessman Frank Fontaine. Fontaine arranged for Jack to undergo genetic conditioning so that he would age rapidly and to follow any order that followed "would you kindly," a phrase that Atlas uses throughout the game to control the main character and his actions.
There are two endings for Jack depending on how many Little Sisters he saved and/or harvested throughout the game: one where he lives out the rest of his life with the Little Sisters he saved, who become his adopted daughters. But due to his rapid aging, he eventually lies on his death bed with all grown and married Little Sisters holding his hand, indicating that Jack died from his accelerated growth. The other ending shows him seizing control of Rapture and becoming just as power-hungry and destructive as Fontaine, hinting that all the ADAM he gathered has corrupted him into a Splicer. In the second part of the ''BioShock: Infinite'' DLC, ''Burial at Sea'', it is revealed that the former ending is canon.
Andrew Ryan
Andrew Ryan (born Andrei Rianofski) is a business magnate who seeks to avoid scrutiny from governments and other forms of oversight, ordered the secret construction of an underwater city, Rapture, where men and women like himself could be free to achieve greatness on their own terms. When Ryan's vision for a utopia in Rapture collapsed into dystopia, he hides himself away and uses armies of mutated humans known as Splicers to defend himself and fight against those resisting him, including the player-character Jack. Upon meeting Jack face-to-face Ryan orders the mind-controlled assassin to beat him to death with his golf club, dying on his own terms. He is voiced by
Armin Shimerman
Armin Shimerman (born November 5, 1949) is an American actor known for his role as Quark (Star Trek), Quark the Ferengi in the ''Star Trek'' franchise, appearing as the character in all seven seasons of ''Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'' (1993–199 ...
.
Atlas/Frank Fontaine
Frank Fontaine is the main antagonist in ''BioShock''. He is a criminal mastermind who becomes the arch-enemy of Andrew Ryan as he attempts to seize power over Rapture. He is responsible for igniting the civil war that plunged Rapture into social collapse, as well as Jack's kidnapping as a baby. To escape from Ryan's forces, Fontaine faked his death and later took up the identity of Atlas, posing as the champion of Rapture's lower classes. Ryan feared Atlas' power and initially imprisoned him and his followers in a makeshift prison 2000 fathoms beneath Rapture, but they were able to escape and in 1959 launched an all-out war against Ryan. Atlas serves as Jack's guide for most of the game, luring him towards Ryan under the guise of trying to save his fictitious wife and son that he claimed Ryan had taken hostage. He betrays Jack after the death of Ryan and becomes the game's final boss, using ADAM to attain physical perfection and becoming a blue-skinned humanoid with enhanced abilities. He is killed when a number of freed Little Sisters swarm him and stab him to death with their ADAM needles.
Fontaine, in his Atlas guise, also serves as the main antagonist in ''
Bioshock Infinite: Burial at Sea - Episode Two''. In this prequel to ''BioShock'', Atlas captures a Little Sister known as Sally. He forces Elizabeth, who in this reality is a nightclub performer, to find Ryan's chief physician, Dr. Yi Suchong. Elizabeth not only finds him, but also retrieves a canister of "Quantum Particles" that allow Atlas's main base of operations, "Fontaine Department Stores" to rise from its 2000-fathoms depth, promptly igniting the civil war that would destroy Rapture. Atlas then forces Elizabeth to retrieve his "Ace in the Hole", which turned out to be the phrase "Would you kindly...". After retrieving it, he orders his men to send Jack "home" before fatally striking Elizabeth on the head with a wrench, leaving her for dead.
Sander Cohen
One of the most prominent public figures in Rapture, Sander Cohen presents himself as a musician, filmmaker, artist, poet, and playwright based in Fort Frolic. As a result of Rapture's civil war and the chaotic months that followed, Cohen grew extremely paranoid and violently insane, becoming obsessed with inflicting pain upon others as a way of making sense of the violent world he now inhabited. The Splicers under his domination are often the subjects of Cohen's art "projects", such as being forcibly covered in plaster and paste and turned into statues.
He is voiced by
T. Ryder Smith.
Cohen also appears in the first chapter of ''Burial at Sea'', where he is confronted in his private club about information on Sally. Cohen is shown painting male and female models dressed as mythological deities, electrocuting those who fail to follow his directions properly while complaining that his art is not appreciated enough. After briefly discussing matters with the protagonists, Cohen instructs them to dance for him before shocking them into unconsciousness and placing them in a bathysphere to Sally's last known location.
Brigid Tenenbaum
Dr. Brigid Tenenbaum is a geneticist who helped originally develop ADAM. She was originally born near the city of Minsk,
Belarus
Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...
. into a Jewish family with a German father. At the age of 16, she was sent via train to the
Auschwitz concentration camp
Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) d ...
, where she was going to be experimented on by German doctors, notably
Josef Mengele
Josef Mengele (; 16 March 19117 February 1979) was a Nazi German (SS) officer and physician during World War II at the Russian front and then at Auschwitz during the Holocaust, often dubbed the "Angel of Death" (). He performed Nazi hum ...
. Before Tenenbaum was to be prepared for testing, she observed Mengele and started correcting him, impressing the doctors so much that they allowed her to participate in experiments on other prisoners. At this time Tenenbaum discovered her love for science and due to her participation in the tests, she survived the
Holocaust
The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...
.
Tenenbaum is a
high-functioning autistic
High-functioning autism (HFA) was historically an autism classification to describe a person who exhibited no intellectual disability but otherwise showed autistic traits, such as difficulty in social interaction and communication. The term was ...
. Her absolute adoration of science and lack of social skills caused her to completely ignore what happened around her, including the horrific experiments she did, which continued into her adult years.
After arriving in Rapture, she had a bit of a struggle to get the recognition she deserved among the best and brightest, until she discovered the Sea Slug, which contained a substance that could replace cells, which led to the discovery of the wonder-drug ADAM, which allowed the citizens of Rapture to manipulate their DNA. With the help of Frank Fontaine, who provided financing to develop the drug, Tenenbaum become known as a scientific genius in the city. Tenenbaum also discovered that by putting the slug into a host, it would produce up to thirty times as much ADAM and the only hosts that proved effective were young girls. While Tenenbaum was the "mother" of the Little Sisters, Dr. Yi Suchong was the creator of the Plasmids. Much like her younger self, Tenenbaum was blind to what she was doing, exploiting little girls for her own scientific purposes. When the Little Sisters were first created, she had no regard for them or their lives, seeing the removal of the slugs as no different from removing life support from a terminal patient. Soon before the Rapture Civil War, Tenenbaum's maternal instincts were awoken, causing her to leave her Mercury Suites apartment and life to reside in the sewers of the abandoned residential complex Olympus Heights. Here Tenenbaum began rescuing Little Sisters via a Plasmid she developed, as she felt that they were her responsibility and began to care a great deal about their safety, calling them "little ones"; in return, they call her "Mama Tenenbaum". Tenenbaum was able to survive the fall of Rapture and continued to save Little Sisters in her hiding place.
During the events of ''BioShock'', while in the Medical Pavilion, Jack approaches a lounge in the Surgery wing and sees a Big Daddy being killed by Splicers and thrown through a window. This Big Daddy was protecting a Little Sister, which now is left alone with the remaining Splicer. Just as the Splicer is about to strike the Little Sister, Tenenbaum emerges and shoots him. Tenenbaum warns Jack not to hurt her, while Atlas encourages him to harvest the Sister to get ADAM. When Tenenbaum questions Jack's morality, Atlas accuses her of hypocrisy, as she's the one that turned the girls into Little Sisters. While Atlas tries to convince Jack to kill the girl, Tenenbaum presents an alternative: a Plasmid that would safely remove the Sea Slug from the girls. The following events gives the player a choice of harvesting the Little Sisters or saving them with Tenenbaum's Plasmid. From this point on, Tenenbaum's perception of Jack is up to the player. If Jack saves the Sisters, Tenenbaum will show her gratitude to him by providing an ADAM gift for him after every third Sister he saves and an overall good attitude towards him. If Jack harvests the Sisters, he will not be granted gifts and she will repeatedly express her anger towards him. After the Andrew Ryan confrontation and reveal of Atlas' true identity in Hephaestus, Tenenbaum sends Little Sisters to save Jack from the hands of Fontaine by leading him into a vent, where Jack falls and blacks out. Jack wakes up in Tenenbaum's safehouse and finds that she has undone the "Would you kindly?" mind control conditioning that Atlas had exploited. Tenenbaum can be seen behind glass in an office in the safehouse, smoking and explaining to Jack what has occurred and what he should do next. After this, she serves as Jack's guide throughout the final third of the game and provides the narration during the final scene (which is affected by Jack's choice to save or harvest the Sisters). Sometime after the events of the first game, Tenenbaum leaves Rapture with an undisclosed amount of Little Sisters.
During the events of ''BioShock 2'', eight years later, she returns to Rapture to rescue the last of the Little Sisters and find the cure for Splicing. She contacts Subject Delta during the beginning and guides him through the first two levels before being replaced by Augustus Sinclair, as she needs to help others, such as Charles Milton Porter. She is voiced by
Anne Bobby
Anne Marie Bobby (born December 12, 1967) is an American actress, voice artist, playwright and author, best known for her role as Lori Winston, the heroine in Clive Barker's ''Nightbreed'' and Brigid Tenenbaum in the BioShock (series), ''BioShock' ...
.
Brigid Tenenbaum's personality and back story were largely developed by
Ken Levine, who wanted a believable and flawed human which was managed with the combinations of her medical condition, ethnic background, and overall circumstances.
Levine felt that her core characteristics - being a woman, autistic and Jewish - were not what defined her, but 'her absolute adoration of science' was what ultimately did.
Up until the development of ''BioShock 2'', her name was spelled "Bridgette" instead of "Brigid". Her in-game Audio Diary portrait for ''BioShock'' was based on a photo of actress
Geraldine Fitzgerald
Geraldine Mary Fitzgerald (November 24, 1913 – July 17, 2005) was an Irish actress. She received the Daytime Emmy Award as well as nominations for an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Tony Award. She was a member of the American T ...
.
Yi Suchong
Dr. Yi Suchong is a medical doctor and survivor of the Japanese occupation of China during World War II who came to Rapture and set up an independent research lab to help exploit the resources offered by Ryan for financial gain. Suchong saw the possibilities of Dr. Tenenbaum's discovery of ADAM, and devised the means of using ADAM to create plasmids and other technological wonders. He is also credited with creating the Big Daddies to help protect Tenenbaum's Little Sisters at Ryan's insistence. Though initially neutral in the feud between Ryan and Fontaine, Suchong became dissatisfied with Ryan's leadership and secretly offers his services to Fontaine. Suchong was part of Fontaine's project to create Jack, Fontaine's "ace in the hole". Suchong conditioned a rapidly growing Jack with psychological triggers, including the phrase "would you kindly" before Jack was smuggled back to the surface, but was not able to give this information to Fontaine. Within ''BioShock'', Suchong is already dead, though Jack discovers Suchong's name in various recordings. In ''Burial At Sea Episode Two'', which takes place a year before ''BioShock'', Suchong is still alive and shown to have been able to use tears in the fabric of reality to communicate with Jeremiah Fink in Columbia, the two sharing their research data for the betterment of both cities, though remaining cautious of the each other's motives. Elizabeth witnesses Suchong being killed by a Big Daddy after he strikes a Little Sister in its presence, and finds Suchong's notes about Jack, which she delivers to Atlas (Fontaine) for him to utilize the 'ace in the hole'. He is voiced by
James Yaegashi
James Yaegashi (born October 10, 1972) is a Japanese American actor based in New York.
Early life
James Yaegashi was born in Yokohama and raised in Yamagata to an American mother and a Japanese father. Upon graduating high school, he moved to Am ...
.
J.S. Steinman
Dr. J.S. Steinman is Jewish American
and one of Rapture's most accomplished plastic surgeons, establishing a lucrative practice based on his insistence that everyone in Rapture should be beautiful. After ADAM was introduced, Steinman started to become bored as ADAM provided almost no boundaries but he was restricted to the requests of the customers, who he came to regard as boring and bland. When overuse of ADAM started to take a toll on his mind, he started to mutilate his patients and, becoming insane, began having hallucinations of
Aphrodite
Aphrodite (, ) is an Greek mythology, ancient Greek goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, procreation, and as her syncretism, syncretised Roman counterpart , desire, Sexual intercourse, sex, fertility, prosperity, and ...
, the Greek goddess of beauty. He is eventually killed by Jack. He is voiced by
Peter Francis James
Peter Francis James (born September 16, 1956) is an American actor and voice-over artist, distinguished by his strong baritone.
Early life
James was born September 16, 1956, in Chicago, Illinois, to David James and Mary Galloway James. He has f ...
.
''BioShock 2''
Subject Delta
Subject Delta is the silent protagonist of ''BioShock 2''. Originally known as "Johnny Topside", he discovered Rapture and was arrested for illegally making contact with its inhabitants. After being sent to prison, Delta became the first successful Big Daddy subject bonded to a Little Sister, Eleanor Lamb. This bond was capable of killing Delta if it were to be broken, which is what happened on New Year's Eve 1958 when Dr. Sofia Lamb forced (via plasmid) Delta to commit suicide with the use of a pistol, reclaiming her daughter. Ten years later, in 1968, Delta is revived by the now adolescent Eleanor Lamb with the use of a vita-chamber reprogrammed to his DNA. Delta is required to find Eleanor, thus repairing the bond between the two. He is part of the Alpha series of Big Daddies.
Augustus Sinclair
Augustus Sinclair is Subject Delta's guide through Rapture. He was the creator of
Persephone
In ancient Greek mythology and Ancient Greek religion, religion, Persephone ( ; , classical pronunciation: ), also called Kore ( ; ) or Cora, is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter. She became the queen of the Greek underworld, underworld afte ...
, a private prison housing Andrew Ryan's enemies, doubling as the headquarters of his technology firm ''Sinclair Solutions''. During Rapture's height ''Sinclair Solutions'' was one of the city's most successful businesses, thanks to his strong links to Andrew Ryan. Towards the end of ''BioShock 2'',
Sofia Lamb captures Sinclair and transforms him into the last of the Alpha Series, Subject Omega, whom
Subject Delta must kill to gain access to the
submersible
A submersible is an underwater vehicle which needs to be transported and supported by a larger ship, watercraft or dock, platform. This distinguishes submersibles from submarines, which are self-supporting and capable of prolonged independent ope ...
to exit Rapture. He is voiced by Doug Boyd.
Eleanor Lamb
The daughter of Sofia Lamb, and a previous Little Sister. Roughly ten years after the 1958 New Year's Eve Riots, she contacts Subject Delta, beginning the events of ''BioShock 2''. Eleanor still remembers Delta as her "Father" after ten years and knows he is searching for her. Throughout the course of the game, she will leave him gifts and messages written on the walls of the city. In the story of ''BioShock 2'', her behavior is influenced by Delta's actions towards the Little Sisters and NPCs, culminating in her dawning a Big Sister Suit so she can fight alongside him. She is voiced by Sydney Unseth and
Sarah Bolger
Sarah Lee Bolger (born 28 February 1991) is an Irish actress. She starred in the films '' In America'' (2003), '' Stormbreaker'' (2006), ''The Spiderwick Chronicles'' (2008), '' The Moth Diaries'' (2011), '' The Lazarus Effect'' (2015), '' Emelie ...
.
Sofia Lamb
Dr. Sofia Lamb is the main antagonist of ''BioShock 2''. She has taken over Andrew Ryan's position as the leader of Rapture, albeit with a completely different ideological view revolving around
collectivism
In sociology, a social organization is a pattern of relationships between and among individuals and groups. Characteristics of social organization can include qualities such as sexual composition, spatiotemporal cohesion, leadership, struct ...
. Hoping to restore the city as a
utopia
A utopia ( ) typically describes an imagined community or society that possesses highly desirable or near-perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia (book), Utopia'', which describes a fictiona ...
centered around her daughter Eleanor, she uses her skills as a psychiatrist to brainwash most of the remaining Splicers in the city, forming a cult known as "The Family". She sends out members of The Family to prevent Subject Delta from reuniting with Eleanor, and even tries to smother her daughter to kill him. At the end of the game, she is either rescued or drowned by Eleanor, who has come to resent her abusive mother. She is voiced by
Fenella Woolgar
Fenella Woolgar (born 4 August 1969) is an English film, theatre, television and radio actress. She is known for her roles in films including '' Bright Young Things'', '' Swallows and Amazons'' and '' Victoria and Abdul'' and for TV shows incl ...
.
In 2013, Liz Lanier of ''
Game Informer
''Game Informer'' (''GI'' is an American monthly Video game journalism, video game magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of video games and video game console, game consoles. It debuted in August 1991, when the video game reta ...
'' included Lamb among top ten female villains in video games, stating that "an extremist obsessed with the "greater good," Lamb will sacrifice anything and anyone for her own agenda; whether that means brainwashing or murdering to create her utopia, she's down."
Subject Sigma
Previously known as Charles Milton Porter, Subject Sigma is the protagonist of ''
Minerva's Den''. When he was Charles Milton Porter, his partner Reed Wahl framed him as an associate of Fontaine to gain full control of their creation, the Thinker. Ryan had Porter arrested and converted him to an Alpha Series Big Daddy. With no Little Sister available to be bonded with him, he was sent into cold storage. Brigid Tenenbaum revived him in 1968 with no memory of his previous life and restores his free will. Tasked with bringing the Thinker's code to the surface, Sigma is rewarded by being restored to his original self and given back his memories. He is voiced by actor
Carl Lumbly
Carl Winston Lumbly (born August 14, 1951) is an American actor. He is best known for '' M.A.N.T.I.S.'' (1994–1997) and has also had television roles on '' Cagney & Lacey'' (1982–1988) and '' Alias'' (2001–2006).
He has also had roles in v ...
.
The Thinker
The Thinker is an early
supercomputer
A supercomputer is a type of computer with a high level of performance as compared to a general-purpose computer. The performance of a supercomputer is commonly measured in floating-point operations per second (FLOPS) instead of million instruc ...
that is able to control Rapture's security system and predict events at "the speed of thought". It is located in Rapture Central Computing, a location at the heart of ''
Minerva's Den''. Wahl misused the Thinker to enrich himself by predicting sport scores and stock prices, while Porter tried to use it to replicate the mind of his deceased wife Pearl. Reed's addiction to Plasmids fueled an unhealthy obsession with the Thinker, and he manipulated it to frame Porter as one of Fontaine's spies, leading to his downfall. But unbeknownst to Wahl, the Thinker replicated Porter's personality and helped free him from storage. It now seeks to aid its creator (now known as Subject Sigma) on his mission to bring him and itself out of the rapidly flooding facility.
Reed Wahl
Reed Wahl is the main antagonist of ''Minerva's Den''. Alongside Charles Porter, Wahl was responsible for creating the Thinker. Unlike his partner, who had no desire to profit from his creation, Wahl took advantage of the Thinker's capabilities by using it to manipulate the stock market and place huge sport bets. He also began to abuse plasmids, which warped his mind until he became convinced that the Thinker was capable of solving an unproven concept called the "Predictive Equation", the potential of which would solve countless mysteries of the universe. Wahl got Porter arrested by tricking Ryan into arresting him, and takes control of the Splicers in Rapture Central Computing, using them to protect the Thinker until Porter, turned into a Big Daddy after his arrest, kills him in battle towards the end of the DLC. He is voiced by
Keith Szarabajka
Keith Szarabajka (; ; born December 2, 1952) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Mickey Kostmayer on '' The Equalizer'', Daniel Holtz on ''Angel'', Gerard Stephens in '' The Dark Knight'' and Adam Engell in '' Argo''. He has ...
.
''BioShock Infinite''
Booker DeWitt
Booker Dewitt (
Troy Baker
Troy Edward Baker (born April 1, 1976) is an American voice actor and musician. He is known for his numerous roles in video games, including Yuri Lowell in ''Tales of Vesperia'' (2008), Joel Miller in ''The Last of Us'' franchise, Booker DeWi ...
,
Stephen Russell
Stephen L. Russell is an American actor, playwright, and theater director. He is best known for his video game voice roles as Garrett in the ''Thief'' series, Corvo Attano in ''Dishonored 2'', and various characters in '' Skyrim'' and the ''Fa ...
in the early demo), the player
protagonist
A protagonist () is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot, primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a ...
, is a disgraced former agent of the
Pinkerton National Detective Agency
Pinkerton is an American private investigation and security company established around 1850 in the United States by Scottish-born American cooper Allan Pinkerton and Chicago attorney Edward Rucker as the North-Western Police Agency, which l ...
. As a soldier in the
7th Cavalry Regiment
The 7th Cavalry Regiment is a United States Army cavalry regiment formed in 1866. Its official nickname is "Garryowen", after the Irish air " Garryowen" that was adopted as its march tune. The regiment participated in some of the largest ba ...
, he had performed brutal acts against
native American Indians at the
Battle of Wounded Knee to impress his fellow soldiers, and earned him the title "White
Injun" due to his tendency to scalp those he killed. These acts left him emotionally scarred, leading to excessive drinking and gambling. He was given an opportunity to be baptized and start anew, but declined. He was later dismissed for behavior beyond the acceptable bounds of the Pinkerton Agency, but considers his actions in quelling labor strikes as part of a
goon squad
A goon squad is a group of people, often composed of hired criminals, detectives, or mercenaries, formed to intimidate and assault a specific group of opponents, most often unionized workers.
Examples
In the United States, a goon squad is a gr ...
to be among his many sins. He continued to work as a private investigator from
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
, referring to himself as an "independent contractor". His gambling addiction ultimately catches Booker in a debt to unknown, dangerous individuals, leading to his journey to Columbia. Outwardly, he cares little for the extraordinary, provided that it does not interfere with his ability to do his job; internally, he is disturbed by both his role in the events at Wounded Knee and recurring visions of New York City under attack from the air. Booker is skeptical of faith, unwilling to accept the idea that he can be absolved of his sins by embracing religion, as he considers his sins to be so extreme as to demand a penance rather than forgiveness.
It is revealed in the game's climax that Booker is the father of Elizabeth (who was originally named Anna). Comstock, having gone sterile and desiring an heir, had the Luteces persuade Booker in 1893 to give her to them, in exchange for his debt being paid. Booker later regretted his decision, and attempted to stop Comstock and the Luteces as they left through a portal. In the struggle, Anna's finger was severed as the portal closed. The Luteces later contacted Booker and offered to bring him to Comstock's reality and stop him after he betrayed them. Booker accepted this, but the effects of inter-dimensional travel caused his memory to confuse finding Elizabeth with giving away Anna.
Elizabeth takes Booker to the river where the baptism was supposed to occur, adding that while he rejected it, another Booker in a different reality accepted it and became Comstock. She (and other Elizabeth's from different realities) concludes that the only way to prevent Comstock from being born is to "drown" Booker, which he accepts. He is then "drowned" in the river. In the post-credits scene, a Booker (it is unclear if this is the one played through the game or one from a different reality) awakens in his home in 1893. He goes into Anna's room, but what he finds is left unknown. It is revealed in ''
Burial at Sea
Burial at sea is the disposal of Cadaver, human remains in the ocean, normally from a ship, boat or aircraft. It is regularly performed by navies, and is done by private citizens in many countries.
Burial-at-sea services are conducted at many di ...
'' that another Comstock fled to
Rapture
The Rapture is an Christian eschatology, eschatological position held by some Christians, particularly those of American evangelicalism, consisting of an end-time event when all dead Christian believers will be resurrected and, joined with Chr ...
using Booker's identity, but is killed by Elizabeth. An imaginary version of Booker later speaks to Elizabeth in her head, guiding her through Rapture.
The character of Booker was well received. He was nominated for the Best Male Character by Cheat Code Central, awarded second place.
Troy Baker was also praised for his performance as Booker.
At the 2013 Spike
VGX, his role as Booker was nominated for Best Voice Actor; he ultimately won the award for his role as
Joel in ''
The Last of Us
''The Last of Us'' is a 2013 action-adventure game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. Players control Joel, a smuggler tasked with escorting a teenage girl, Ellie, across a post-apocalyptic United States ...
''.
Elizabeth
Elizabeth (
Courtnee Draper) is a young woman who has been held captive in Columbia for most of her life.
She is shown to be highly intelligent, having spent most of her life studying a wide variety of subjects from geography to medicine and physics, whilst acquiring more practical skills in the form of cryptography and lock-picking. She also has the ability to perceive and interact with the dimensional tears across Columbia. She wears a thimble in place of the tip of her little finger, which had been cut off, though she does not remember how this happened. In one point of the game, the Twins will let Booker choose what type of brooch necklace she should wear (a Bird or a Cage), which will not affect the story. It is later revealed that she is really Anna DeWitt, Booker's daughter, whom Comstock kidnapped across dimensions. Her finger was severed when the portal Comstock kidnapped her with closed on it and cut it off. She is the only main character alive at the end of the game (as all the other hypothetical Elizabeths and Annas vanished from existence). She reappears in the ''Burial at Sea'' DLC, having assumed a new identity as a singer known as the "Songbird of Rapture", hunting down the final Comstock who escaped Booker's sacrifice. After exacting revenge on this Comstock, she becomes overburdened with guilt over her mistreatment of a little sister, which compels her to return to Rapture at the cost of her powers. After being forced by Atlas to help him escape prison, Elizabeth returns to Columbia to find a Lutece particle to help raise the prison. Along the way, she discovers connections and resolutions to questions from Infinite. She is later ordered to retrieve Atlas' "Ace in the Hole". After reluctantly giving it to Atlas, she is then bludgeoned to death with a wrench. Before she dies, she is able to foresee the future where Jack saves the little sisters and they escape Rapture. This knowledge brings Elizabeth peace in her final moments.
The Songbird
Elizabeth's confinement within Columbia has been maintained by the Songbird, a large, robotic bird-like creature who had been both her friend, protector and her warden.
The Songbird was designed by its creator to feel betrayal should Elizabeth escape, and Elizabeth notes she "would rather be killed than be recaptured by it."
Similar to a Big Daddy (upon which the technology used in its creation may have been based) its eyes can also turn into three different colors: green, yellow and red
Zachary Hale Comstock
Father Zachary Hale Comstock (
Kiff VandenHeuvel
Kiff VandenHeuvel (born Christopher Jon VandenHeuvel,
April 24, 1970) is an American actor, director and teacher of both improvisational comedy and voiceover.
He is the host of the voiceover podcast, All Over Voiceover with Kiff VH. His film c ...
) is the main antagonist of ''BioShock Infinite''. He is revealed to be an alternate version of Booker DeWitt; whereas Booker refused the baptism after the Battle of Wounded Knee, this version accepted it, found faith in religion, and renamed himself as Comstock. Claiming to have received a vision of the future from an
archangel
Archangels () are the second lowest rank of angel in the Catholic hierarchy of angels, based on and put forward by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite in the 5th or 6th century in his book ''De Coelesti Hierarchia'' (''On the Celestial Hierarchy'') ...
,
Comstock became a religious fanatic who founded Columbia with the help of the Luteces, and is revered there as "The Prophet".
Initially, Comstock intended Columbia to promote
American exceptionalism
American exceptionalism is the belief that the United States is either distinctive, unique, or exemplary compared to other nations. Proponents argue that the Culture of the United States, values, Politics of the United States, political system ...
to the world, but tensions emerged with President
William McKinley
William McKinley (January 29, 1843September 14, 1901) was the 25th president of the United States, serving from 1897 until Assassination of William McKinley, his assassination in 1901. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Repub ...
. This boiled over in 1901, when Comstock ordered a violent attack on
Peking
Beijing, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's most populous national capital city as well as China's second largest city by urban area after Shanghai. It is l ...
during the
Boxer Rebellion
The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, was an anti-foreign, anti-imperialist, and anti-Christian uprising in North China between 1899 and 1901, towards the end of the Qing dynasty, by the Society of Righteous and Harmonious F ...
. The government demanded he return to the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
, but Comstock seceded Columbia, and became its de facto ruler.
Now in complete control of Columbia, Comstock created a religion that Ken Levine described as being a hybrid of
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...
and the worship of the
Founding Fathers
The Founding Fathers of the United States, often simply referred to as the Founding Fathers or the Founders, were a group of late-18th-century American revolutionary leaders who united the Thirteen Colonies, oversaw the War of Independence ...
as religious figures.
At the same time, he eschews figures like
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War ...
, considering him to be a "devil" that led America astray when he freed the African slaves; in one area of the game, the player encounters a cult-like group that reveres
John Wilkes Booth
John Wilkes Booth (May 10, 1838April 26, 1865) was an American stage actor who Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, assassinated United States president Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865. A member of the p ...
as a hero.
To maintain his leadership, Comstock has created a
cult of personality
A cult of personality, or a cult of the leader,Cas Mudde, Mudde, Cas and Kaltwasser, Cristóbal Rovira (2017) ''Populism: A Very Short Introduction''. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 63. is the result of an effort which is made to create ...
and police state within Columbia, which also protects his secrets by weaving them into the mythology he has created. Under his leadership, Columbia exists with
nativist and
ultra nationalistic attitudes, with minority groups subject to
seizure of assets,
false imprisonment
False imprisonment or unlawful imprisonment occurs when a person intentionally restricts another person's movement within any area without legal authority, justification, or the restrained person's permission.
Actual physical restraint is n ...
and
penal labor
Penal labour is a term for various kinds of forced labour that prisoners are required to perform, typically manual labour. The work may be light or hard, depending on the context. Forms of Sentence (law), sentence involving penal labour hav ...
,
torture
Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons including corporal punishment, punishment, forced confession, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimid ...
and
summary execution
In civil and military jurisprudence, summary execution is the putting to death of a person accused of a crime without the benefit of a free and fair trial. The term results from the legal concept of summary justice to punish a summary offense, a ...
without charge. Although Comstock's acknowledgement of these as crimes is never shown, he himself is revealed to be responsible for at least three murders and leading a violent purge of over forty dissidents.
Comstock claims that Elizabeth is his daughter, born miraculously to his late wife, Lady Comstock, after only seven days in the womb, and that she is "The Lamb" that will lead Columbia and attack the world (which he and his followers disdainfully refer to as "the
Sodom below") in the future. He apparently believes this will "prepare" the world for the "
coming of the Lord". It is later revealed that he had become sterile from the 'Tear' technology used by the Lutece twins, and he employed them to take Anna DeWitt, Booker's child, from another reality to become Elizabeth and his genetic heir to Columbia. He subsequently killed his wife and attempted to kill the Lutece twins to hide this conspiracy. He is killed in the garden room of his airship, ''The Hand of the Prophet'', after proudly declaring
"It is finished". Booker smashes his skull in on a baptismal font and drowns him in it.
An alternate version of Comstock (voiced by Troy Baker) also serves as the protagonist for the first part of the ''Burial at Sea'' DLC. After the baby Anna was killed when the dimensional portal (which in the main game only severed her finger) decapitated her, Comstock left his Columbia for Rapture to forget his grief and returned to being Booker DeWitt. There he unofficially adopted a Little Sister named Sally, and was later hired by a version of Elizabeth to find her. This was revealed to be a test to see if this version of Comstock had changed his ways, and when it became apparent that he had not, Elizabeth had the Big Daddy they were fighting impale Comstock from behind and kill him for good.
Comstock's name is possibly derived from
Anthony Comstock
Anthony Comstock (; March7, 1844 – September21, 1915) was an American anti-vice activist, United States Postal Inspector, and secretary of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice (NYSSV), who was dedicated to upholding Christian mo ...
, an early 20th century conservative politician known for his anti-obscenity
Comstock laws
The Comstock Act of 1873 is a series of current provisions in federal law that generally criminalize the involvement of the United States Postal Service, its officers, or a common carrier in conveying obscene matter, crime-inciting matter, or c ...
.
Daisy Fitzroy
Daisy Fitzroy (
Kimberly Brooks
Kimberly Brooks is an American voice actress. Brooks has voiced characters in video games since the mid-1990s. She has played the voice of Luna in the ''Scooby-Doo'' franchise as part of The Hex Girls, Ashley Williams in the ''Mass Effect'' s ...
) is the leader of the Vox Populi. A woman of African-American descent, she originally journeyed to Columbia to find a new life, and took a position as housekeeper in Comstock's mansion.
When Comstock murdered his wife to keep Elizabeth's parentage secret, he turned Fitzroy into a scapegoat for the crime and framed the Vox Populi, a group of dissidents, as having ordered the murder in order to create a common enemy to justify the establishment of a
police state
A police state describes a state whose government institutions exercise an extreme level of control over civil society and liberties. There is typically little or no distinction between the law and the exercise of political power by the exec ...
.
This inspired Fitzroy to develop a bitter hatred of the Founders and what they stand for, and she assumed control of the Vox Populi, transforming them into a violent band of extremists. Despite fighting against the injustices perpetrated by the Founders, Daisy and the Vox Populi are presented as being no better than the Founders, given the lengths they are willing to go to in order to overthrow Comstock, including murdering innocent civilians, using
child soldiers
Children in the military, including state armed forces, non-state armed groups, and other military organizations, may be trained for combat, assigned to support roles, such as cooks, porters/couriers, or messengers, or used for tactical adv ...
for
psychological warfare
Psychological warfare (PSYWAR), or the basic aspects of modern psychological operations (PsyOp), has been known by many other names or terms, including Military Information Support Operations ( MISO), Psy Ops, political warfare, "Hearts and Mi ...
,
and Fitzroy's propaganda which calls for the seizure of property and wealth belonging to the Founders and the deaths of their families. After staging a successful uprising at the factory of Jeremiah Fink (for which Elizabeth bore some responsibility), she shoots him and attempts to do the same to his son, forcing Elizabeth to stab her through the chest with a pair of shears. In Episode 2 of ''Burial at Sea'', it is revealed that these events were orchestrated by the Lutece twins; they convinced Daisy to take the child to help Elizabeth learn to make hard decisions after revealing that she would not have survived long after the rebellion anyway. Recordings left by Daisy explain that she was increasingly disturbed by the violence perpetuated by her followers, and was unsure as to whether or not she could truly build a better society for Columbia's downtrodden.
The Lutece Twins
Robert (
Oliver Vaquer
Oliver Vaquer is an American actor and podcaster.
Filmography Film
Television
Video games
References
External links
*
Living people
20th-century American male actors
21st-century American male actors
American male television act ...
) and Rosalind Lutece (
Jennifer Hale
Jennifer Hale is a Canadian voice actress. She is best known for her work in video game franchises such as ''Baldur's Gate'', ''Mass Effect'', '' Metal Gear Solid'', '' BioShock Infinite'', '' Metroid Prime'', '' Halo'', '' Overwatch'', and '' ...
) are two mysterious individuals that direct Booker to Columbia and appear throughout his travels. They appear to be near-identical fraternal twins, but it is later revealed that they are the same person from two different realities, differing by sex as well as core ideals. This causes them to disagree about certain theories, such as the effects of one person being introduced into a dimension other than their own. Rosalind is shown to be the one to have developed the technology that keeps Columbia afloat under Comstock's orders, and through that, made contact with Robert. Together they worked out how to communicate with and subsequently cross between dimensions to the extent where they can now do so at will.
Over the course of the story, it is revealed that Comstock attempted to murder the Lutece twins by sabotaging one of their devices to protect his secrets, but instead they ended up in a state of flux, existing along the entire "possibility space".
Lady Comstock
Lady Annabelle Comstock (
Laura Bailey
Laura Bailey (born May 28, 1981) is an American voice actress. She made her voice acting debut as Trunks (Dragon Ball), Kid Trunks in the Funimation dub of ''Dragon Ball Z'' and has since voiced List of Gunslinger Girl characters#First Generati ...
) is the wife of Zachary Hale Comstock and the adoptive mother of Elizabeth. Shortly after meeting Comstock, she became one of his most dedicated followers, but soon became disillusioned when Comstock resorted to increasingly violent tactics to impose his will on the city of Columbia.
She grew to resent Elizabeth, and as she grew evermore unstable, she was unable to keep the secret of Elizabeth's parentage and threatened to undermine Comstock's rule over Columbia. Comstock murdered her and blamed Daisy Fitzroy and the Vox Populi for her death, using the act to further establish control over the city by portraying his late wife as a saint to be worshipped by Columbia's citizens. Lady Comstock is eventually resurrected using Elizabeth's powers by Comstock, becoming the "Siren", a being of hate and rage who has the ability to raise the dead to do her bidding. She attempts to kill Elizabeth several times until she convinces her that they are both Comstock's victims, which convinces her to renounce her power and dissipate.
Jeremiah Fink
Jeremiah Fink (
Bill Lobley
Bill Lobley (born in Bronxville, New York) is an American comic actor known for his work in animation, commercials, and voiceovers for film, radio, and television; including Arcane, Adult Swim's ''Sealab 2021'' and '' Oh My God... Yes!'', Discove ...
) is an unscrupulous businessman who has a monopoly over manufacturing in Columbia, aided by usurping technology that he has observed through the tears, including that of the Songbird.
Fink is a key supporter of Comstock as he is willing to allow him to exploit Columbia's poor for cheap labor, as well as bring in black workers to provide unpaid labor
though he does not share Comstock's religious fervor and generally seems only interested in profit.
He has achieved a celebrity status within Columbia, and produces most of the propaganda and weapons used to enforce Comstock's rule over the city. He also guided Albert, his brother and a struggling composer, to take music heard through the tears and claim it as his own.
He is ultimately killed by Daisy Fitzroy when she instigates a revolt at his factory. In ''Burial at Sea'', it is shown that Fink and Suchong shared data and research through a tear linking Rapture and Columbia, Fink had also started underwater expeditions in the Atlantic ocean for ADAM slugs to create his own product Vigors, however unlike Rapture's addictive Plasmids, they don't cause deformities or make their consumer insane.
Cornelius Slate
Cornelius Slate (
Keith Szarabajka
Keith Szarabajka (; ; born December 2, 1952) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Mickey Kostmayer on '' The Equalizer'', Daniel Holtz on ''Angel'', Gerard Stephens in '' The Dark Knight'' and Adam Engell in '' Argo''. He has ...
) is a former soldier who dons a gold eyepatch over his missing left eye. He fought alongside Booker at the
Battle of Wounded Knee before becoming a follower of Comstock and going on to lead Columbia's forces to lay waste to
Peking
Beijing, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's most populous national capital city as well as China's second largest city by urban area after Shanghai. It is l ...
during the
Boxer Rebellion
The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, was an anti-foreign, anti-imperialist, and anti-Christian uprising in North China between 1899 and 1901, towards the end of the Qing dynasty, by the Society of Righteous and Harmonious F ...
. Slate becomes disillusioned with Comstock's rule when he discovers that Comstock has claimed both Slate's and Booker's achievements in battle as his own, and organizes a rebellion of other disgruntled veterans against the city.
After Booker defeats his followers, he demands that his old war buddy kill him rather than die at the hands of Comstock's "tin soldiers"; if Booker refuses, he is ultimately taken into custody and winds up reliant on a wheelchair, locked in a remote prison in a catatonic state (possibly by lobotomization). When Elizabeth opens a tear to another reality where Booker died fighting for the Vox Populi, it is revealed that Cornelius convinced him to join his rebellion, before being killed in a shootout with the Columbian army.
References
Further reading
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*
{{DISPLAYTITLE:Characters of the ''BioShock'' series
BioShock
''BioShock'' is a 2007 first-person shooter video game developed by 2K Boston (later Irrational Games) and 2K Australia, and published by 2K. The first game in the ''BioShock'' series, it was released for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 ...