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Sam Fisher |
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| Samuel Fisher | |
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| Game series | Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell |
| First game | Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell |
| Voiced by | Michael Ironside (English) Tesshō Genda (Japanese) Daniel Beretta (French) Martin Kessler (German) Luca Ward (Italian) |
Samuel "Sam" Fisher is the fictional main character in the Splinter Cell series of video games and novels. He is voiced in the video games by actor Michael Ironside.
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Sam Fisher is a veteran of the CIA Directorate of Operations, of the U.S. Navy SEAL Team 3, as well as former Delta Force Operater, and of the Naval Special Warfare Development Group. He is 5'10" tall (178 cm), weighs 170 pounds, (77 kg)citation needed and has green eyes. He was an operative of Third Echelon, a clandestine division of the National Security Agency, up to the conclusion of Splinter Cell Double Agent. Fisher is extremely agile and an expert in the art of stealth. Fisher was the first person to be recruited as a field operative of the "Splinter Cell" program for Third Echelon. He prefers to work alone in the field. Fisher resides in Towson, Maryland, when not on the job. Fisher is a student of the Isreali military hand-to-hand combat system of Krav Maga.
While Fisher was working on an American base in Germany during the 1980s, he met and later married Regan Burns in 1984. They had one daughter together, Sarah (born June 16, 1985). Fisher and Regan later divorced and she had Sarah's surname changed. Regan died from ovarian cancer in 1989, and Sarah was killed by a drunk driver in September 2007.
Sam's direct supervisor is Colonel Irving Lambert, USA (ret.) Lambert is accompanied and supported on missions by NSA employees William Redding. One of his aides, D.P. Brunton, became the head of SHADOWNET Operations, a sister group of Third Echelon, which uses teams of operatives.
Fisher has conducted operations in Canada, the Democratic Republic of Congo, China, Iceland, Israel, East Timor, Indonesia, Japan, Kyrgyztan, Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Iran, North and South Korea, Mexico, Panama, Colombia, Peru, Myanmar, Serbia, Georgia, and France in order to complete his missions. Places he has conducted operations inside the United States include LAX International Airport in Los Angeles, California, New York City, New Orleans, Ellsworth Prison and the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.
Lead character artist Martin Caya established in early interviews about the game that during his career Fisher had served in Afghanistan, where he had an experience in which he was forced to hide under dead bodies in order to avoid being killed. Caya also established that Fisher had served in East Germany and in "other Soviet satellite countries leading up to the collapse of the USSR."
The novel establishes that he hated his time in the CIA, and that he mostly had official cover (i.e. he was a "diplomatic aide"). The "Bank" mission in Chaos Theory established that he served in Kuwait, where he said he spent most of 1989 lying in a ditch on the road between Baghdad and Kuwait. The "Bank" mission also established that he served in Panama when the U.S overthrew Manuel Noriega (see Operation Just Cause) and raided the same bank during the conflict. The end of the training mission in the first Splinter Cell game established that he served in the First Gulf War when Lambert tells Vernon Wilkes that Sam served in that war.
In the beginning of the second game, a conversation between Fisher and Douglas Shetland established Fisher had served with the Navy SEALs, and that he left the Navy in 1996 ("I haven't been Navy for a decade"). It also been established in the first game, Splinter Cell, in the interview with Sam found in the extra features, he says he was with both Navy SEALS and Third Echelon, ("They're all good people"). Other than for anti-terrorist operations, which are the purview of SEAL Team 6 (now known as DEVGRU), only SEAL Team 3 has a Middle Eastern Area of Responsibility (AOR).
As a covert agent of the government, Fisher approaches his target objectives in a gruff, no-nonsense manner, but maintains a light-hearted relationship with his colleagues and even with his momentary hostages (even if he is going to kill them) . Fisher has little patience for government bureaucracy or political maneuvering. A political realist, Fisher maintains a cynical, jaded and sarcastic sense of humor about the covert, illegal, and often morally ambiguous nature of his work. In Pandora Tomorrow, when Lambert informs Fisher that "Nobody knows whether [Norman Soth]'s a US Agent or a terrorist" Fisher replies that "Those things aren't mutually exclusive."
At the same time, he is highly loyal and a staunch believer in the ideals his work ultimately protects. He is quickly angered by the casual slaughter of civilians or unarmed military personnel by his enemies.
In the original Splinter Cell, Fisher is a new member of Third Echelon, and thus his interactions with his commander Colonel Lambert are relatively straightforward and respectful. At the same time, Fisher does drop the occasional "smart" comment at particularly unusual or obtuse mission orders. For instance, during the final level in Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow, Sam is in an elevator that shuts down when his enemies cut the power. Lambert informs him that the lights went out, and Sam retorts with a sarcastic, "Thanks, Lambert."
In Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, Fisher is shown as rather ruthless towards his enemies, and he appears fairly disappointed when Lambert orders him to avoid enemy fatalities as part of his mission parameters. Frequently holding captured enemies at knife-point, his dialog with them is creative and highly intimidating, though often morbidly humorous to the audience. For example, in the "Penthouse" level in Chaos Theory, Fisher captures a guard and says: "Pick a number between 1 and 10". When the guard guesses, Fisher says: "Huh. Lucky guess. You get to live. Now tell me something useful or we'll play another round". He also references Robert DeNiro's role as Tuttle in the movie Brazil.
However it must be said that Sam is not a sadistic individual as he states in the Chaos Theory trailer "I take no joy in killing, but make no mistake - I do what needs to be done. Because it's my job, it's my duty. My name is Sam Fisher and I am a Splinter Cell."
It is stated in the manual to Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory that Fisher's dark sense of humor during missions is his way of dealing with the tension that he feels during a stealth operation. The manual explains that while Fisher is a very competent and experienced soldier and operative, he is also keenly aware of his own limitations and mortality, and thus he uses humor to help keep himself calm in the dangerous situations he is often ordered into.
Throughout the games, Fisher attempts to uphold what he believes is "right". A notable instance occurs during Chaos Theory where Lambert instructs Fisher to leave the unconscious bodies of downed pilots at the scene of the crash, which Fisher is about to demolish via airstrike. While the game allows the player to demolish the site, he or she can first pick up the pilots and carry them to safety. Lambert tells Fisher to stop because it may compromise the mission, but Fisher continues anyway. Lambert then reminds him that his valiant actions can not be officially recognized and that he will not receive a medal, to which Fisher replies, "Medals don't help me sleep at night, Lambert."
Another instance is when Fisher is ordered to not tamper with the corpse of tortured computer engineer Bruce Morgenholt, whose body could not be extracted. The player may choose to cut down the ropes binding the corpse, causing Lambert to admonish Fisher who replies by saying, "Just because he's dead doesn't mean I have to leave him there hanging like a piece of meat....You can spare thirty seconds for some simple dignity." If the player proceeds to shoot the corpse, Fisher explains that he is "making sure he [the engineer] is not suffering."
Occasionally, Fisher demonstrates complete contempt for the mission objectives to the point where the player may decide to not comply with all the parameters. In one instance, Fisher is suddenly told to kill Dahlia Tal, a Shin Bet double agent with whom he had been working. If the player kills her Fisher angrily asks, "Tell me what I just did, Lambert", and "Killing unarmed women seems mighty close to terrorism." If the player does not, Lambert shouts at Fisher to which Fisher responds, "I'm going to need a little more warning to shoot unarmed women," and "When I return to the States, I'll wear a dunce cap in a corner." In either case, Fisher openly declares his moral disagreement with the order to shoot Tal.
Another time he shows contempt for the missions, is in the bath house level of Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, when the player has the choice to shoot Shetland or not. The player can shoot Shetland, but if he holsters his weapon, then Shetland will attack, and Sam will be forced to kill him anyway. He holds loyalty in very high regards and maintained multiple times in the story that he felt Shetland was playing straight. "If Shetland's crooked I'll take him down myself", he mentions as the plot thickens. At the climax of Shetland's rogue-rant in the Japanese bathhouse he taunts Sam with lines like: "You've made yourself the instrument of a policy you don't believe in, Sam. Walk away", "Blood is thicker than water and you and I have bled a lot together. You're trading your honor for their agenda", and "You wouldn't shoot an old friend". Doug's betrayal toward Sam by trying to shoot him despite holstering his weapon makes Sam sarcastically remark that he "wouldn't shoot an old friend", since Sam was forced to stab him instead.
Another side of Fisher's personality is his occasional contempt for unlikely individuals. One example is in the first Splinter Cell game on the Kalinatek level. Sam can talk to a wounded mercanary who asks Fisher to carry him to the medical room. After he does so, the mercanary will talk with Fisher more. But Sam is talking in a softer tone to the mercanary, almost like he feels sorry for him.
One criticism of the Splinter Cell franchise has always been that Fisher is underdeveloped as a character. In response to this criticism, the makers of the franchise, Ubisoft, are in the midst of an overhaul of the franchise. The intention of Splinter Cell: Conviction is to open up Sam Fisher as a character and reveal much more of his personality. It is now in the series that Sam is officially no longer a soldier of sorts. He is now a man driven by the roots of his moral fiber. His return to the U.S. in Splinter Cell: Conviction is prompted solely by his desire to help Anna Grimmsdottir.
Sam Fisher is extremely athletic. He is capable of many different climbing and scaling abilities, such as step-jumping to climb raised walls, performing a split leg maneuver to keep himself supported for a long period of time, as well as being able to hold on tightly to ceiling pipes or even the undercarriage of a moving train. He is also strong enough to lift the body of a full grown man onto his back and carry it around, and can run somewhat faster than the average soldier. He utilizes some aspects of the French gymnastic art of parkour while surmounting obstacles, albeit in a slightly slower and stealthier way. As the nature of Fisher's job relies on stealth and non-detection, he is highly adept at blending into shadows and moving silently. He is able to sneak up on most opponents undetected and quickly subdue them using either lethal or non-lethal means.
The novel establishes that he "exclusively uses Krav Maga" for unarmed combat. Krav Maga is a combat form that was developed by the Israeli Special Forces. He has reached the advanced level of 3B under the tutelage of his instructor, Katia Loernstern. It is also possible that Sam has also been highly trained in the SEALS CQB and the US Marine Martial Arts program, as the novel Splinter Cell: Checkmate states that Lambert and Fisher first met during a training program where the best of the best from the SEALS, Rangers, Delta Force and Force Recon all trained together to create the best special forces operators in the intelligence community. In the first two games, Fisher's hand to hand capabilities seemed limited in direct combat with opponents, although he becomes much more effective in hand-to-hand combat and even gains the ability to use a knife to deadly effect in Chaos Theory. The newest official trailer of Conviction shows Sam fighting as he has never before. While this has caused concern that it is changing the very format of the series it would accommodate Sam's touted martial art skills. The new moves displayed are more akin to a those seen in fighting games. However, developers have stated that they will add more depth. The first moves shown were more based in wrestling.
Fisher possesses a command of a startling number of foreign languages and scripts including Russian, Korean, Arabic, Chinese, Persian and Spanish. This is stated and demonstrated explicitly in the books and is evidenced in the games by Fisher's ability to interrogate guards and understand conversations between guards, regardless of the country he is operating in. While certainly possible, it is highly improbable that all guards encountered in all Splinter Cell games speak passable English, especially amongst each other. It is meant for the players to know that the native language is being spoken but is 'dubbed' for the consumers to understand - almost like having an automatic interpreter. However, in Pandora Tomorrow there are two instances where Sam asks a guard how good their English is, but this may be a joke showing the player his more cynical side.
Fisher is also ambidextrous, as he can switch which hand he fires his rifle and pistol with in Chaos Theory in order to keep better cover without any apparent loss of accuracy. However, he draws his weapons right-handed, and in the first two games he could only use his right hand to shoot with. It is unknown whether he acquired or perfected this talent in the time between Pandora Tomorrow and Chaos Theory or he always had this ability without it being included in the first two games' controls, but the former seems unlikely. He also holds his knife right-handed, and in Splinter Cell and Pandora Tomorrow Fisher knocks out guards by striking their head with his right hand or elbow.
It has been said in GameInformer in a Splinter Cell: Conviction article, that Sam is "so adept at being a spy that his senses have been honed to an almost superhuman level". In Conviction, Sam's hero instinct will demonstrate this. It is a possibility that Sam always had this instinct in the previous games but in the form of a certain sound. It is shown in Double Agent that Fisher can fly a helicopter.
Through the games, Fisher primarily uses two firearms, the SC Pistol and SC-20K Assault Rifle. In Chaos Theory, Fisher added a knife to his arsenal of weapons.
"SC 'Protector' double-edged combat knife. Overall length 7 1/2 inches with a 3 and 3/8 inch, black oxidized high carbon stainless steel blade to prevent reflections and a black polymer rubber handle."
In addition to the SC-20K and SC-Pistol, Sam uses several other weapons and gadgets such as the M67 Fragmentation Grenades, rapid-release smoke grenades, EMP grenades to disable surrounding electronics, stun grenades, a laser microphone (which was separate from the goggles in the first and second games, and the next generation version of the fourth), a fingerprint scanner, and a retinal scanner. Depending on whether or not he killed a certain target, Sam is able to carry a standard 9 mm handgun on the prison level of the Xbox, Wii, PS2, and GameCube versions of Splinter Cell: Double Agent. Also in Double Agent, Sam uses a SC303 Launcher, which is basically a 7 round FN 303 less-lethal launcher. It shoots rubber bullets and tranquilizer darts. In certain missions, he carries a syringe filled with adrenaline, which can bring someone back from the brink of death. He has been known to use a V-22 Osprey for insertion and extraction in certain missions.
Remaining unseen is a very important factor for Fisher on his missions, thus wearing the right clothing is necessary. Mostly he wears a specialized bodysuit that fits tightly around his body, making it almost impossible to hear it move. The fabric is interwoven with Kevlar, allowing it to stop bullets from long range. The cloth and equipment are black, but at times other versions of the suit will even appear to be a blue green color in very bright light. Though mostly wearing his signature black suit, Fisher sometimes changes his suit to fit the appropriate conditions, such as jungle camouflage, a grey snowsuit in the Nadezdha Nuclear Plant mission in the first game, shorts with a short-sleeved shirt in hot environments, or multiple suit layers of a different color. Sam also has a pair of black combat boots, a weapons belt, and a radio on his back that emits light only visible to the player. When extensive swimming will be required, Sam uses a compact rebreather.
In the novel Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, Fisher explains that his suit contains a thermoregulation system to maintain its temperature, photosensitive threads that detect snipers' lasers, and bladders of water to keep him from becoming dehydrated, in addition to the features seen in the games.
Despite its utility, Fisher dislikes the suit's appearance. In the novel, he says, "My only beef with the uniform is that it's so tight fitting and neat that it makes me look like a comic book superhero. Even my special headpiece looks like a mask when I have the goggles down."
In Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction, Fisher wears civilian clothing so that he can blend in with the population.
Fisher's green, three-lensed goggles have become one of the trademarks of the Splinter Cell series. While fans of the series regularly point out that they would give Fisher's position away, it was revealed in "The Real Sam Fisher blog" (Fisher's fictional web journal stating that he's merely the man the games are based on) that the goggles did not actually glow, and were simply portrayed that way on screen to provide visual interest and the location of the character in the dark. This is proven in the first multi-player outing of Pandora Tomorrow where ARGUS mercenaries viewing SHADOWNET devices similar to Fisher's will not notice any illumination. If the player were to look at Sam's reflection in mirrors or reflective surfaces during single player mode in Chaos Theory, he or she would notice that the glowing of all aforementioned gear is nonexistent. Fisher's glowing goggles, radio, and OPSAT merely show the current location of his head, body, and arms respectively in the darkness for the benefit of the player. It has never been explained what the function of the third lens in the center is for; however, it is possible that it is either an infrared emitter (providing light only the goggles can see) or is some sort of sensor for the EEV or the other vision modes.
In the first two games of the series, Fisher's goggles have both thermal and night vision capabilities. In reality, this would have required separate sets of goggles because of the complicated circuitry involved. However, game developers decided to combine them into one device, as switching goggles would have made gameplay very cumbersome. In Pandora Tomorrow, the goggles also have limited zoom capability. Starting with Chaos Theory, the goggles have an integrated laser microphone and a third view mode highlighting electromagnetic radiation emitted from nearby power lines, generators, and electrical equipment. Double Agent rewards players who complete side objectives with upgraded goggles that have "enhanced" night vision which shows the full color spectrum, making it seem less obvious that the player is using the night vision (with the exception of some blurring when moving).
The goggles were used as a parody item in Asterix & Obelix XXL 2: Mission Las Vegum and Rayman Raving Rabbids, where a parody character called Sam Shieffer and some of the antagonist rabbids, respectively, bear the same style of headwear. The goggles are also an accessory used in Madness Interactive. The heat vision can be used to see if there is a person behind a thin wall. Finally, the first downloadable content pack for Crackdown includes an agent with the aforementioned goggles. In "Worms 4 Mayhem" players have the option of fitting their custom worm squad with nightvision goggles that are actually Sam's trident goggles. Also, in BIONICLE, Piraka Reidak's eyes not only look like his goggles, but are also used in the same way. Recently, the popular online community Gaia Online created their own goggles called Stealth Evo Nightvision characters can use in their gear, along with certain outfit purchases can make one look similar to Sam Fisher though in a more cartoony Avatar form.
Unlike most present-day video games, Splinter Cell uses motion capture technology for all of its NPCs' animations, but not Sam Fisher; a few of his more complicated moves, such as the split jump, are animated by hand. The creators felt this would give Sam a more "fluid" range of motion. The cooperative Third Echelon player agents (Agents One and Two in the co-op story mode of Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory) are given the same direction as well.
Listed are the various locations Sam visits in the game series and does not include the locations featured in the novel series or in the upcoming film.
United States
Mexico
Panama
Peru
France
Georgia
Iceland
Russia
East Timor
Japan
North Korea
South Korea
People's Republic of China
Myanmar
Indonesia
Azerbaijan
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Israel
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