Gordon Freeman

Gordon Freeman, Ph.D., is the fictitious silent protagonist of the Half-Life series of first-person shooter computer games. He is a theoretical physicist who is forced to defend himself and his fellow beings against hostile aliens and other enemies following an experiment gone wrong. In the process, he becomes an almost-mythical resistance hero, eventually becoming one of the leaders of an uprising against alien invaders.

Character
Facts known about Freeman include that he is 27 years old at the time of Half-Life, has no dependents, and is a graduate of MIT, having earned a Ph.D. in theoretical physics. His thesis 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" (Basically, it's about the teleportation of matter through extremely dense elements). A native of Seattle, Washington, Freeman harbored an early interest in theoretical physics, such as quantum mechanics and relativity. His earliest heroes were Einstein, Hawking and Feynman. After observing a series of teleportation experiments conducted by the Institute for Experimental Physics in Innsbruck, Austria, applications of teleportation became Freeman's obsession.



Eventually, he became disappointed with the slow pace of teleportation research in academia and began to search for a job outside the education sector. By coincidence, Freeman's MIT mentor Dr. Isaac Kleiner had taken charge of a top-secret research project at a top secret, integrated research facility known as the Black Mesa Research Facility and was looking for some associates. Freeman was an obvious choice. He accepted the job offer, hoping that at least part of the immense funding would go towards civilian applications of astrophysics and quantum computing.

At the start of the first game, Freeman is employed at, and lives in, the Black Mesa Research Facility, located somewhere in New Mexico. He is assigned to the Anomalous Materials department, located deep inside the facility, doing nuclear and subatomic research. Quite humorously, while having obtained a Ph.D from the prestigious MIT, the laboratory work that the player actually does as Freeman (pressing a button and pushing a cart) does not require any intellectual expertise at all. Barney Calhoun pokes fun at this in the beginning portion of Half-Life 2, when Freeman performs similar "technical" assistance (pushing a switch and attaching a fallen plug back into a socket). In Half-Life, a picture of a baby could be found in Freeman's locker. Although this was officially explained as being an Easter egg placed by the level designer, Marc Laidlaw offered the idea that it could be an infant relative of Gordon's, such as a niece or nephew. Others suggest that it depicts a young Alyx Vance since it is similar to a picture of her found in Half-Life 2. However, this was never detailed or referenced anywhere else in the series.

According to dialogue by Alyx in Half-Life 2: Episode One, Dr. Freeman and Calhoun would compete with each other to be the first to retrieve Dr. Kleiner's keys whenever he locked them in his office in Black Mesa (apparently a fairly regular occurrence) without resorting to conventional means. This is reputedly where Freeman learned to make use of ventilation shafts to infiltrate buildings. It could also be a sly reference to the numerous ventilation shafts crawled through by Gordon and Barney in Half-Life and Blue Shift respectively.

Freeman is bespectacled, of good build, wears a goatee, and is quite athletic. Although seeming to be an expert with weapons and explosives, Freeman had actually not handled any weapons until some cursory training at the Black Mesa Research Facility's Hazard Course (aside from the butane-powered tennis ball cannon he constructed at age 6). What separates Gordon Freeman from other games' heroes is that he is a scientist – a rather unlikely kind of hero when compared to more traditional video-game characters such as Duke Nukem, or soldier types in many other games, such as Doomguy or the Master Chief.

According to Valve's documentary book on the game, Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar, the name Gordon Freeman is an homage to Freeman Dyson.

Half-Life


On May 16, 200- [sic], Freeman and his team perform an experiment that goes horribly wrong (possibly intentionally, due to outside manipulation). As a result, the space-time continuum is ruptured, allowing alien lifeforms to enter the Black Mesa facility. They immediately begin killing any humans they can find. Freeman finds himself hunted by two groups: the invading aliens and the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit, a military cleanup team that has been sent to contain the situation, silencing aliens and surviving personnel alike. 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 numerous challenges, and after eliminating countless aliens and soldiers, Freeman is eventually transported by a few surviving Lambda Team scientists to the alien home world of Xen, where he manages to eliminate the alien "leader," Nihilanth. Upon recovering from his final encounter, Freeman is finally confronted by the mysterious G-Man, who has been observing Freeman from a distance throughout the entire game and perhaps even manipulating his fate. The G-Man shows Freeman several locations throughout Earth and Xen, before finally offering Freeman a choice: either agree to work for the G-Man and his mysterious "employers," or be left to die on Xen without any weapons and surrounded by hostile lifeforms. Half-Life 2 assumes that Gordon chooses to accept G-Man's offer of employment.

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." It is implied by Eli Vance that Freeman didn't physically change during his stasis, a fact that was to be more implicit, as seen in the game's beta version. Freeman then wakes up on a train with two citizens being "relocated" to City 17. Freeman quickly learns that Earth has been conquered and occupied by the trans-dimensional Combine empire. 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 foothold 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.

''Half-Life 2: Lost Coast
At some point, Gordon is dispatched by resistance leaders to clear a Combine staging area being used to shell a nearby town. Gordon starts off the map appearing at a dock and talking to an old man who explains what is needed of him. Gordon proceeds to fight his way through a mountain pathway to engage Combine forces on the town. After considerable fighting, Freeman makes it to a church where the artillery platform is located. After destroying the mechanism, he is ambushed by multiple Combine soldiers and a drop ship. After clearing the area, he rides an elevator back down to the dock where he started. The old man congratulates him and the mission ends.

While it is unclear when exactly this takes place, the actual purpose of the short episode was used to demonstrate an HD lighting upgrade released for the Source engine.

Half-Life 2: Episode One
Half-Life 2: Episode One rejoins Freeman and Alyx Vance as they embark on the flight from City 17, doomed by the destruction of the Citadel's dark fusion reactor at the end of Half-Life 2. 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. It is later revealed that the only way to flee the Citadel's explosion, which would level much of City 17, is to contain the Citadel's core, stalling the structure's destruction enough for an 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. In order to generate enough energy to send the message, the local Combine are willing to overload the Citadel's reactor, going so far as to completely destroy the Citadel if necessary. 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. Evidently, the Combine message is successfully transmitted while several Combine pods fly away from the Citadel at great speed. The train carrying Freeman and Alyx is still close by and is hit by a shockwave as the Citadel is seemingly destroyed. Their subsequent fate is be revealed in Episode Two.

Half-Life 2: Episode Two
Episode Two begins almost directly where the previous episode ended. The train Gordon and Alyx were escaping on was caught in the shock wave of the exploding citadel and destroyed. Gordon and Alyx crawl out and make their way to the White Forest, encountering many obstacles en route.

Early in the journey, Alyx is mortally wounded by a Hunter, and only survives through the aid of several Vortigaunt allies who require Gordon to descend into an Antlion hive to retrieve a larval extract with miraculous properties to revive her. The G-Man briefly reappears to Gordon and expresses some intereset in Alyx. From there, Gordon and Alyx make their way to White Forest, a Resistance base where Eli Vance, Dr. Kleiner, and Dr. Arne Magnusson are waiting for them. While Gordon is enlisted to help defend the base, Alyx gives Kleiner the data packet she retrieved from the City 17 Citadel before it's destruction. The data reveals the existence of the Borealis, an Aperture Science vessel thought to have been lost containing a superweapon that Dr. Kleiner insists should be used against the combine while Eli insists upon its destruction.

Dr. Magnusson also uses the data in his satellite, using the old Black Mesa Array to tap into the Combine portal arrays and stop the Combine superportal from opening and allowing a second Combine invasion. As Gordon and Alyx prepare to depart for the Borealis, two Combine Advisors break through and kill Eli while Dog rescues Alyx and Gordon. The episode ends with Alyx weeping over her father's body, with the possibility that the Combine have now learned everything about the Resistance through Eli.

Episode Three will detail Alyx and Gordon's attempt to rescue Judith Mossman, possibly involving the Borealis and the Combine Homeworld.

Other appearances in Half-Life series


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 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.

In these appearances, Gordon maintains his silence, even though he is not the protagonist.

References in popular culture

 * In Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, a character in the game remarks to protagonist Sam Fisher that "crowbars are for geeky video-game characters", poking fun at the fact that Gordon Freeman is a scientist by profession.
 * 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 the "Stark Towers" level of the computer game The Punisher, a scientist refers to another scientist as "Doctor Freeman" and asks what a noise he heard was, to which Doctor Freeman replies (paraphrased) "maybe the quantum physics department finally opened that extradimensional portal!", with the other scientist replying "Extradimensional aliens! Wonder what they look like?", a reference to the opening scene of Half-Life.
 * In The Ship, a game developed using the same game engine as Half-Life 2, the description of the crowbar weapons states it is suitable for any "free man".
 * In TimeSplitters Future Perfect, during the level "breaking and entering", Cortez, the protagonist of the story, changes into a lab coat along with a name tag that reads "Dr. Freeman", he is also told, "remember, your name is Gordon, now lead on doctor."
 * 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; one of the protagonists takes the alias of "Gordon Freeman" while there is an SAS soldier called "Shepard". At one point the male protagonist is equipped with a crowbar and the main action takes place in a largely underground hydroelectric power station with the Gaelic name "Dubh Ardrain" which can be translated as "Black Mesa".
 * In Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, a lone crowbar can be seen on one of the tables located in the interior of Area 69, an underground army base in a desert.
 * In S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, the player may find the body of a scientist named "Gordon" whose PDA makes mentions of Black Mesa and a crowbar.
 * In the movie 28-Weeks-Later, in the beginning Don fights off the zombies with a crowbar
 * In the Bungie game Halo 3 on the desert map Sandtrap there is a lone crowbar inside the Forerunner "Temple" next to a small portable computer.
 * In the 2004 film The Manchurian Candidate, near the start of the film a woman states the last name Freeman.
 * In the Gary'smod based webcomic "Concerned", the main character is named "Gordon Frohman". Other characters often confuse Mr. Freeman whith Mr. Frohman, much to his annoyance.

Trivia

 * Among other names, Gordon Freeman was originally intended to be called Ivan the spacebiker, and Dyson Poincare.


 * There is an on going war between Gordon Freeman and the Master Chief from the Bungie game Halo, the two fight via photoshoped pictures made by fans of eather Half-Life 2 or Halo.

External link

 * Story overview of Half-Life