Gordon Freeman

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article describes a work or element of fiction in a primarily in-universe style. Please help rewrite it to explain the fiction more clearly and provide non-fictional perspective. (February 2009)

Gordon Freeman
Gordon Freeman in Half-Life 2 concept art
Game series	Half-Life series
First game	Half-Life

Gordon Freeman is a fictional character, the main protagonist of the Half-Life video game series. He is a physicist who finds himself thrust into a battle for survival against hostile alien forces. Throughout the series, Gordon must prevail in hostile situations despite overwhelming odds, usually without backup. As a means of immersing the player in the role, the character never speaks, and there are no cut-scenes or mission briefings — all action is viewed through Gordon's eyes, with the player retaining control of Gordon's actions at nearly all times. Gordon is ranked number 14 on UGO's "Top 100 Heroes of All Time".^[1]

The character is introduced as a theoretical physicist working at the fictional Black Mesa Research Facility and involved in an experiment which accidentally opens an interdimensional portal, releasing confused, hostile beings into the complex. In the first Half-Life, the player, as Gordon, fights through the facility alongside fellow employees, engaging the aliens as well as a black ops military unit sent in to contain the situation. In its sequel, Half-Life 2, Gordon is introduced to a dystopian world years after the Black Mesa incident, along with an interdimensional imperial force known as the Combine that took advantage of the interdimensional portals and has established itself as the ruling force on Earth. Gordon joins the human resistance fighters and aids them in their struggle against their oppressors.

[edit] Character overview

Aside from his Hazard Suit, Gordon Freeman's noticeable physical characteristics include thick, black glasses and a trimmed beard. When shown outside of the suit, he has an athletic, wiry build. According to Valve's documentary book on the game, Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar, the name Gordon Freeman is in homage to Freeman Dyson. The book also reveals that the texture for Gordon's head was "too big of a job for just one person", so Valve designers combined references from four people. An earlier model of Gordon, known as "Ivan the Space Biker," had a full beard that was subsequently trimmed. The book also contains concept images depicting various iterations of Gordon's design.

Freeman's acceptance letter from Black Mesa.

Gordon is a native of Seattle who exhibited an early interest in theoretical physics, especially quantum mechanics and the theory of general relativity. His childhood heroes were Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking, and Richard Feynman.^[2] After observing a series of teleportation experiments conducted by the Institute for Experimental Physics in Innsbruck, Austria, the transmission of matter became Gordon's obsession. Gordon has no known dependents.^[3] He graduated from MIT with a Ph.D. degree in Theoretical Physics. His doctoral thesis on the teleportation of matter through extremely dense elements was titled Observation of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Entanglement on Supraquantum Structures by Induction Through Nonlinear Transuranic Crystal of Extremely Long Wavelength (ELW) Pulse from Mode-Locked Source Array.^[4]

Gordon's research into teleportation eventually leads him to the Black Mesa Research Facility,^[3] working on a top secret research project headed by his mentor at MIT, Dr. Isaac Kleiner. He takes up residence at Black Mesa, conducting nuclear and subatomic research in its Anomalous Materials department. Despite his education as a theoretical physicist, the work Freeman is involved with at Black Mesa is of a more experimental nature.

The games often make light of the fact that the tasks Gordon performs amount to little more than manual labor, despite him being a theoretical physicist. Gordon's assigned job at the start of Half-Life consists of little more than pressing a button and pushing a cart. Barney Calhoun wryly notes this irony at the beginning of Half-Life 2, when Freeman performs similar "technical" assistance by flipping a switch and returning a plug to its socket ("Good work, Gordon. Throwing that switch and all. I can see your MIT education really pays for itself.").

[edit] Appearances and role

[edit] Half-Life

At the beginning of the first game, Gordon Freeman and his research team perform an experiment that inadvertently creates a resonance cascade effect that tears dimensional rifts in the space-time continuum. Intelligent and confused alien life forms from the Xen dimension come pouring through multiple breaches scattered about the Black Mesa facility, attacking anything in sight. As scientific, military and civilian personnel fall under the alien onslaught, Freeman finds himself targeted not only by the xenomorphic incursion, but also the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit, a military cleanup team sent to contain the situation. Against all odds, the untrained theoretical physicist somehow manages to survive the chaos, impressing the few surviving scientists and security guards with his heroic acts, while quickly becoming the HECU's top priority target.

After conquering numerous challenges and eliminating countless aliens and soldiers, Freeman is eventually transported by a few surviving Lambda Team scientists to the alien home world Xen. After the successful elimination of the alien leader Nihilanth, Freeman is confronted by the mysterious G-Man, who has been remotely observing Freeman throughout the entire Black Mesa incident, and perhaps is even manipulating his fate. The enigmatic G-Man shows Freeman several locations throughout Earth and Xen and offers Freeman a Hobson's choice: either agree to work for him and his mysterious "employers", or be left to die on Xen surrounded by hostile lifeforms without weapons to defend himself. Though Half-Life 2 ostensibly indicates that Gordon accepted the offer, it is suggested at the end of the game that this is merely the illusion of free choice, thus regardless of the player's decision the result is the same.

[edit] Half-Life 2

Half-Life 2 begins with the G-Man speaking to Gordon. Like the ending of the original game, the scene is somewhat inexplicable and psychedelic, with the G-Man's face in extreme close-up fading in and out of visibility over backgrounds representing scenes from the original Half-Life as well as scenes he will visit in the course of Half-Life 2. The G-Man delivers a typically cryptic speech, commenting that "the right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world," and concludes by telling Freeman to "wake up, and smell the ashes." According to the Half-Life 2: Episode One story page, the G-Man kept Freeman "in stasis far from Earth, thought, and time itself" for nearly two decades.^[5] It is implied by Eli Vance that Freeman didn't physically age at all during his stasis,^[6] a fact that was made more explicit in the game's beta version.^[7] Freeman then wakes up on a train with two citizens being "relocated" to City 17. One of the passengers even states that he doesn't remember Gordon ever entering the tram. Freeman quickly learns that Earth has been conquered and occupied by the trans-dimensional Combine empire, with a military force powerful enough to have subdued the entirety of Earth's nations within a period of 7 hours. He soon meets up with Barney Calhoun and Alyx Vance, and joins the resistance against the Combine.

During the course of the second game, Freeman battles the forces of the Combine in order to free humanity from its grasp. Already famous for his role in the Black Mesa Incident, Gordon quickly develops a legendary reputation among Earth's surviving human populace, who begin to look up to him and refer to him by such messianic titles as "The One Free Man". After slaying scores of Combine soldiers and leading an assault against the Combine stronghold of Nova Prospekt, Gordon eventually sparks a full-scale rebellion against the Combine domination, in which he becomes a combatant. Gordon infiltrates one of the Combine's footholds on Earth, the City 17 Citadel, and destroys it by detonating its Dark Energy Reactor. Although caught in the reactor's explosion along with Alyx Vance, Gordon is rescued by the G-Man, who tells Freeman that he "is impressed with his work and has received several tempting offers for his 'services'." The G-Man finally informs Freeman that, rather than offering him "the illusion of free choice," the G-Man has taken the liberty of choosing for him, and deposits Freeman back in stasis until he is needed once again. Thus, Half-Life 2 "concludes" just as cryptically as its predecessor did, with perhaps even more questions unanswered.

[edit] Episode One

Half-Life 2: Episode One rejoins Freeman and Alyx Vance, who are rescued from impending death by the vortigaunts. At the beginning of the game, the G-Man appears once more to Gordon, but this time, he is interrupted by the appearance of a group of chanting, purple-glowing vortigaunts, who take Gordon away while blocking the G-Man's path. The G-Man appears most displeased by this development, and responds by scowling and darkly stating, "We'll see... about that!"

Gordon regains consciousness under a pile of rubble and is found by Alyx and Dog. Their proximity to the Citadel coupled with its imminent explosion, which would level much of City 17, requires them to go back inside and stabilize the core, stalling the structure's destruction long enough for both themselves and much of the human population to escape. Gordon and Alyx succeed in doing so, but learn that the local Combine forces are attempting to send a distress message for offworld assistance, using the Citadel's destruction to power the transmission. The Combine consider this a positive, as the subsequent explosion would destroy all of City 17 and much of the surrounding countryside, which has been all but lost to human resistance forces. With a copy of the distress message, Gordon and Alyx escape the Citadel and meet up with Barney and other survivors. The pair escape City 17 via an evacuation train as the Citadel goes critical, sending out the Combine message. The resulting shockwave derails their train.

[edit] Episode Two

Gordon wakes up in the wrecked train and is freed by Alyx, who had earlier escaped the wreckage. A massive superportal is forming over what was once City 17, which will allow the Combine to invade in earnest once it is fully formed. The data they carry is the key to destroying it. Gordon and Alyx make their way to White Forest, an old soviet missile base turned into a rebel stronghold, where the data can be sent to an orbiting satellite via a rocket, which will allow the resistance to collapse the portal. Alyx is critically wounded by a Hunter along the way. The vortigaunts are able to heal her, but doing so requires Gordon to assist one of the vortigaunts to acquire some antlion larval extract.

After the extract has been retrieved, the vortigaunts begin the healing ritual. Now that the vortigaunts are finally pre-occupied, the G-Man is able to speak to Gordon. During this conversation, the G-Man reveals to Gordon that he saved Alyx from the Black Mesa incident. He then leans close to Alyx's unconscious form and asks her to relay a message to her father, Eli: "Prepare for unforeseen consequences."

After the ritual is complete and Alyx has recovered, she and Gordon set out for White Forest, attempting to outrun a small Combine army also headed there. They acquire a working car to expedite the journey, though numerous encounters with Hunters, Combine soldiers, and even a Combine Advisor slow their approach. When Gordon and Alyx reach White Forest, they are reunited with Dr. Kleiner and Dr. Vance, and are formally introduced to Dr. Arne Magnusson, the "owner" of the rocket necessary to stop the formation of the superportal.

After Gordon seals the silo from a Combine attack, Gordon, Alyx, Dr. Kleiner, and Dr. Vance watch the transmission from Dr. Mossman seen in Episode One, acquired with the stolen Combine data. It reveals that she has located the Borealis, an Aperture Science research vessel which contains something supposedly capable of causing a cataclysm as grave as the Black Mesa incident. The G-Man compels Alyx to deliver his message, and once Eli sends her away he reveals that he too knows of the G-Man.

With the Combine now sending Striders to shoot the rocket down, Magnusson enlists Gordon's aid in stopping through the use of his special explosive charges known as Magnusson Devices and Gordon's Gravity Gun. After repelling the attack, the rocket is launched and the portal is destroyed. As Gordon and Alyx prepare to leave for the Borealis in an old helicopter, two Advisors fly in through a window. Alyx and Gordon are restrained by one Advisor and forced to watch helplessly while the other violently kills Eli by puncturing the back of his skull with its tongue-like appendage. Shortly after, Dog bursts in and injures the Advisor restraining Alyx and Gordon, causing both Advisors to flee. The game ends with Alyx mourning over Eli's body.

[edit] Other appearances in Half-Life series

Freeman can briefly be seen, in his HEV suit, carried away by HECU soldiers in Half-Life: Blue Shift.

Two expansions for Half-Life all more or less take place during the same time as Half-Life itself, and as such Gordon is seen at some points of the games. In these appearances, Gordon maintains his silence, even though he is not the protagonist.

• In Half-Life: Opposing Force, Adrian Shephard only encounters Gordon once when he witnesses Gordon teleport to Xen in the Lambda Complex. Attempts to follow him through the same portal will result in a "temporal paradox" which sends Shephard falling through Xen's void and ends the game.
• Gordon is seen three times by Barney Calhoun during the course of Half-Life: Blue Shift. Barney first sees Gordon passing by in a tram at the beginning of the game, later heading towards the HEV storage area through a surveillance camera, and lastly being dragged to a trash compactor by a pair of HECU marines.

[edit] HEV suit

Gordon's HEV suit, in Half-Life as the Mark IV (left) and Half-Life 2 as the Mark V (right).

In the Half-Life series, Gordon wears a special full-body hazmat suit known as the Hazardous Environment Suit, or HEV suit for short. It is what allows Gordon, an ordinary human being, to survive the dangers and injuries he deals with over the course of his adventures. The HEV suit is designed to protect the user from radiation, energy discharges, and blunt trauma during the handling of hazardous materials. HEV energy chargers in Half-Life have the trademark (TM) symbol added after the HEV letters, which suggests that the chargers, HEV suit, or both, are produced by a non-government company. An Easter egg in Half-Life 2, however, reveals an old cover of an HEV charger lacking the trademark logo^[8], though this is likely just an oversight.

The suit's main feature is its "high impact reactive armor," an electrically powered armor system that, when charged, absorbs two-thirds of the damage that Gordon would ordinarily suffer. A fully-charged suit can survive several dozen hits from small arms and even weather a direct hit from a rocket propelled grenade. The suit can be charged by various means. The suit has its own oxygen supply, and injectors which can deliver various drugs such as morphine and an antidote to neurotoxins. It comes with a built-in flashlight, a radio, various tracking devices, and a Geiger counter. The suit contains an on-board computer system that constantly monitors the user's health and vital signs, and reacts to any changes in the user's condition. The HEV suit projects a heads-up display (HUD) which displays Gordon's health, suit charge, and remaining ammunition. It also has a weapons management system and projects a crosshair for better aiming.

A stained glass image from an early demonstration of Half-Life 2 at E3. This scene may be found during a Video Stress Test in Counter-Strike: Source, and is likely an Easter egg rather than a part of the Half-Life game world.

In Half-Life, Gordon wears the Mark IV suit. This version comes equipped with an optional long-jump module so Gordon can leap great distances. It is charged using power modules throughout Black Mesa. In Half-Life 2 Gordon receives the upgraded Mark V suit, which lacks the long-jump module but gains several new abilities. It features a visual zooming capability, limited enhanced running (sprint) capability, an injector to administer anti-venom, an optional ammo and health counter on the crosshair and the capability to use Combine power nodes to charge the suit. The Mark V initially used a single power source for flashlight, sprinting, and oxygen supply, which could make the gameplay frustratingly difficult in parts, so as of Half-Life 2: Episode Two the flashlight was given a separate power source.

The HEV suit is not exclusive to Freeman. Others can be seen worn by slain Black Mesa research members on Xen. Two additional (empty) HEV storage units are seen near the start of the game in Sector C, which are said to have been used by the main protagonists of Decay, Gina Cross and Colette Green. The suits also evidently come in different colors. Although many, including Gordon's and ones belonging to the corpses seen on Xen, are orange, Gina wears a tan suit, while Colette wears a maroon suit.

The symbol on Gordon's HEV suit is the lower case Greek letter Lambda, λ. This symbol is used by scientists to denote the decay constant of radioactive elements (related to the half-life of an element). As well as appearing on Gordon's suit, the symbol replaces the letter "a" in the game title, Hλlf-Life, and is the name of the complex in the Black Mesa Research Facility where teleportation experiments are conducted. The Lambda symbol is also seen in Half-Life 2 as a marking of the human resistance, seen close to hidden supplies and on the arm bands of better equipped resistance fighters.

[edit] In popular culture

This "In popular culture" section may contain too many minor or trivial references. Please reorganize this content to explain the subject's impact on popular culture rather than simply listing appearances, and remove trivia references. (March 2009)

• In the novel A Big Boy did it and Ran Away by Christopher Brookmyre, the author makes frequent references to various video games including Half-Life; the main action takes place in a largely underground hydroelectric power station with the Scots Gaelic name "Dubh Ardrain" which can be translated as "Black Mesa" (dubh - black,^[9] ardrain - high part^[10]). At one point the male protagonist is equipped with a crowbar, one of the antagonists takes the alias of "Gordon Freeman" and an SAS soldier called "Adrian Shephard" is a minor character.
• In Call of Duty: United Offensive, near the start of the second mission, two American soldiers are shown running side-by-side. On the left, Pvt. Gordon, and on the right, Pvt. Freeman.
• In Dead Space (video game), if the player finds the text log of reported dead miners near the captain's seat, the name G. Freeman is on the list.
• In Destroy All Humans!, one of the scientists says "I mustn't be late, They're waiting for me in the test chamber", but then quickly corrects himself "Oh, wait, wrong game." Also later on in one mission where you must capture a majestic agent the mission briefing says "to capture a g-man and take him to your ship"
• In Destroy All Humans! 2, if the player reads the mind of a Russian man in Tunguska, he will make a comment about how the city of Tunguska is being renamed as City 17.
• In Far Cry Instincts, before the second Fat Boy fight in a near by shack there is a game magazine with a parody reference.
• In The Punisher, a scientist refers to another scientist as "Doctor Freeman" and asks what a noise he heard was, to which Doctor Freeman replies "maybe the quantum physics department finally opened that extradimensional portal!". The reply is "Extradimensional aliens! Wonder what they look like?", a reference to the opening scene of Half-Life.
• In The Simpsons Game while in the Game Engine level, in the level choosing area, there is a game poster that says Zero Life. Professor Frink replaces Gordon Freeman on the cover.
• In S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, the player may find inside a tunnel located in the Wild Territory a body marked "Freeman". When it is searched, Gordon's Personal Digital Assistant is found, it is learned Gordon hates his bosses and had to trade his crowbar for a can of meat.
• In TimeSplitters Future Perfect, during the level "You Genius, U-Genix", Cortez, the protagonist of the story, changes into a lab coat along with a name tag that reads "Dr. Freeman" and is told that his name is Gordon.
• In TimeSplitters 2, one of the "Challenge" Missions, Half-Death, has a plot that refers to the Black Mesa incident.
• Hardcore Techno/Gabber music producer DJ Hellfish, has a track called "Non-Standard Procedure" which samples some of the voices from the start of the first Half-Life game.
• In 1998 video game SiN, in the secret level Military Base a rusty plate with Black Mesa inscription can be found under the flag pole, which may indirectly refer to the competition of these two games.
• In Andy McDermotts novel "The Tomb Of Hercules" while Eddie Chase has infiltrated the underwater base, two men come in, one is unarmed and the is referenced as having thick, black glasses and he is wielding a crowbar. He is also called Gordon by the unarmed man.

[edit] Games referencing crowbar

• In Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, a crowbar can be found in one of the research labs in the underground military base, Area 69, which slightly resembles Black Mesa.
• In The Ship, a game developed using the same game engine as Half-Life 2, the weapon description for the crowbar states it is suitable for any "free man".
• In Penumbra: Overture, the player finds a journal of a lost miner, whose friend's first name is Gordon. He is said to be using some kind of new suit for hazardous areas (as this place is a frozen lake, underground). Later, the player finds a hand sticking out of this frozen lake, grasping a red, rusted crowbar.
• In Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, during the 'Battery' mission, the protagonist Sam Fisher says that he forgot to bring a crowbar to open the missile control casing, to which Anna Grimsdottir comments that "crowbars are for geeky video-game characters".

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Story overview of Half-Life

v • d • e The Half-Life series and related topics Main series Half-Life (Opposing Force · Blue Shift · Decay) Half-Life 2 (Episode One · Episode Two · Episode Three) Portal series Portal (Still Alive) · Portal 2 Other releases Codename: Gordon · Half-Life 2: Deathmatch · Half-Life 2: Lost Coast · Half-Life 2: Survivor · The Orange Box Playable characters Gordon Freeman · Adrian Shephard · Barney Calhoun · Gina Cross · Colette Green · Chell Supporting characters Alyx Vance · Arne Magnusson · Dog · Eli Vance · Father Grigori · G-Man · Isaac Kleiner · Judith Mossman · Odessa Cubbage · Richard Keller · Doctor Rosenberg · Wallace Breen Information and fiction Combine · Gravity gun · Headcrab · Vortigaunt · Creatures · Locations Related articles Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar · Concerned · Half-Life: Escape from City-17