Barney Calhoun

"Now... about that beer I owed ya!"

- Barney Calhoun

Barney Calhoun is one of the main characters of the Half-Life series. He was a security guard at Black Mesa before becoming a key Resistance leader. From Blue Shift, he turns from Half-Life’s generic security guard into a standalone character, is given a surname, and an expanded role.

Background


Barney Calhoun, an undecided major after two years at Martinson College, is employed as a mid-level security officer at the Black Mesa Research Facility, with Level 3 security clearance and is accommodated in the Area 8 Topside Dormitories. He is friends with Gordon Freeman and Isaac Kleiner, who are also employees of Black Mesa.

As a Black Mesa guard, he is tasked with duties including guarding assigned sections, performing general maintenance, and assisting the science team as and when he is required. His "Disaster Response Priority" is to protect the Black Mesa facility and its equipment in the event of an emergency, with secondary priority to safeguard members of the science team whilst his own personal safety is of relatively low importance.

Before May 12, 200-, Barney is performing a retinal scan and has his salary increased. His two-day Security Guard Training is scheduled.

On May 12 and May 13, at 08:00, Barney undergoes a two-day Security Guard Training under the Miller-based holographic instructor (May 12 is the Blue Shift Hazard Course).

On May 15, Barney is reassigned to a Blue Shift agreement.

The Blue Shift instruction manual features the sentence "Buy flowers for Lauren", suggesting that Calhoun has a wife or girlfriend.

Half-Life


Barney is seen at the very start of Gordon Freeman's tram ride to Sector C, knocking on a closed door. He is not seen for the remainder of the game.

Half-Life: Blue Shift
On May 16, 200-, at 8:42, Barney starts his tram ride from the Area 8 Topside Dormitories at Black Mesa. The letter regarding his Blue Shift reassignment states he is to be there at 08:00; therefore he is late.

After the Resonance Cascade occurs (at around 9:00), Barney becomes determined to escape from the Black Mesa facility. He locates and frees Dr. Stanley Rosenberg, who had been captured by the HECU troops. Rosenberg reveals Barney his plan of escaping by using an old teleport model. Calhoun helps Rosenberg to prepare everything for successful teleportation. He first travels to the borderworld Xen, where he activates a device needed for teleport's correct work. Barney then locates, charges and delivers a spare power battery to Doctor Rosenberg. At the end of the game Barney, along with Rosenberg and his two colleagues, Simmons and Walter, manages to escape from the Black Mesa Research Facility, and he is described as being "out of range" by the textual summary, as compared to Gordon Freeman, listed as "hired," and Adrian Shephard, listed as "detained".

Half-Life: Decay


In the ending sequence of Half-Life: Decay, the main protagonists, Gina Cross and Colette Green, are caught in a harmonic reflux. During that time, they hear Dr. Rosenberg saying "Calhoun, you must hurry! We can't keep the portal open much longer!". In the next frame, what appears to be Barney is briefly seen jumping into the portal teleporting him from Xen, as seen in the Blue Shift chapter Focal Point.

Background
After the Portal Storms, the Seven Hour War, and the subsequent Combine takeover, Barney was presumably relocated to City 17 where he signed up for Civil Protection. This would have been valuable to gain inside information and distribute warnings about upcoming raids or provide misleading intelligence to the Combine though it was likely quite risky to his own safety. At some point before or after his relocation, he also came back into contact with Isaac Kleiner and Eli Vance who had also apparently been relocated to City 17 prior to Half-Life 2 and participated in their Resistance movement.

On one memorable occasion, Barney was assisting with Kleiner's teleport experiments where Kleiner attempted to transport a cat as a test experiment and something traumatizing happened to it. Barney claims to have persistent nightmares about the cat and even mistakes a distant Strider roar as a meow late in Half-Life 2.

In-game


By a twist of fate, probably orchestrated by the G-Man, Gordon Freeman is released from stasis into the City 17 Trainstation where Barney happens to be having his shift of Civil Protection duty. A security camera rejects Gordon's identity and Barney is able to 'take him away for questioning'. He then contacts Isaac Kleiner, they have a brief chat about how Gordon could get to his lab safely, then Barney lets Gordon escape through a back way.

Sometime later, Barney and Gordon meet up at Kleiner's Lab. After another teleporter mishap that teleports Gordon to several different locations, Barney meets Gordon outside the lab and provides him with a crowbar, and directions to escape on foot to Eli's lab, via the Underground Railroad. Barney then goes back inside Kleiner's Lab, having to look after Kleiner.

Later on, when Gordon and Alyx arrive at Kleiner's Lab from Nova Prospekt, they receive a video transmission from Barney, who needs help fighting the Combine in the streets of City 17.

During the uprising, Barney comes to be the impromptu "field commander" of the Resistance forces and leads the push towards the Citadel in order to rescue Eli Vance. At some point, he is pinned down by Overwatch Snipers that Gordon, finally reaching him, takes down. Together they lead a team of Rebels into the Overwatch Nexus to disable the Suppression Device. Barney uses his Civil Protection status to unlock several barriers Gordon would normally not be able to pass. After Gordon sets off towards the Citadel again, Barney continues to oversee the later stages of the assault on the Overwatch Nexus, until encountering Dog and following him to Gordon's location. Barney is last seen at the foot of the Citadel, telling Gordon "And if you see Dr. Breen, tell him I said, Fuou!"

Half-Life 2: Episode One


Barney is encountered late in the game, where he is seen organizing a Resistance push on a train station to escape City 17 before the Citadel self destructs. His actions have taken its toll on him as he appears to not have shaved, his face being also quite dirty.

He, again, provides Gordon with a crowbar before setting off to round up survivors in that sector of the city. He then waits for Gordon and Alyx in the parking lot between the train station and the hospital. When the duo arrives, Gordon and Alyx help Barney escort several groups of Citizens through significant Combine resistance into the escape trains. He is last seen leaving on a train saying, "See ya when I see ya!", as Gordon and Alyx decide to take the next one to give him and the Citizens time to escape.

Half-Life 2: Episode Two
Barney does not appear, nor is even referred to, during the course of Episode Two. Given his place as a returning character of note in the series, and that he escaped City 17 ahead of Dr. Freeman, he is presumed to still be alive, but his location is unknown. It is also not known if he will make an appearance in Half-Life 2: Episode Three.

Gordon Freeman
Barney and Gordon have been friends since Black Mesa. Both would race to Dr. Kleiner's office when he would lock himself out. Barney would save Gordon from a miserable fate at Nova Prospekt, and send him on his way to the Kleiner's Lab. The two would later fight side by side in the fierce street fighting in City 17, and escorting people out of the city. Barney also comments Gordon's relationship with Alyx, calling Gordon a "lucky dog". He still owes Gordon a beer.

Alyx Vance
Alyx was just an infant at Black Mesa, and it is unknown if he met her during his tenure as a security guard. Nevertheless, Barney and Alyx would work together in the human resistance on the Combine-occupied Earth.

Isaac Kleiner
Barney essentially serves as Kleiner's bodyguard, keeping the Civil Protection away from the area of the secret lab. Before this, he almost certainly knew Dr. Kleiner at Black Mesa.

Behind the scenes



 * "Barney" is the diminutive of Bernard, Barnaby or Barnabas. "Calhoun" is a Scottish name, a variant of "Colquhoun", from a place name meaning "narrow corner" or "narrow wood" in Gaelic.


 * Although initially being the generic security guard from Half-Life, an entire class of throwaway characters on its own, he was retconned in Half-Life: Blue Shift and Half-Life 2 as a standalone character, playing increasingly prominent roles as the series has progressed. He is notable as one of only two playable characters in the series to be heard speaking, and being a generic model with a generic first name turned into a standalone character with a surname, the others being Gina Cross, Walter Bennet, and Otis Laurey.


 * At the time of Half-Life's release, the security guard seen knocking on a door at the start of the game is not referred to as Barney Calhoun. It was later retconned in Blue Shift. Barney's relationship with Gordon mentioned in Half-Life 2 and his episodes was also retconned, since good friends would have interacted during that scene in both games.


 * At the beginning of Blue Shift, the player may notice strange material in the Calhoun's locker: books titled "The Truth About Aliens" (by RH) and "Government Conspiracies" that show that Barney may be paranoid, or at least something of a conspiracy theorist. This could also be foreshadowing, since the game centers on aliens and government conspiracies. Also seen in Calhoun's locker are pictures of family members/friends, among them a young woman who might be Lauren (although the pictures are likely that of a relatives of of Gearbox employees). A box in his locker also reveals, when destroyed, a Chumtoad creature as a small Easter Egg.


 * In the original Kleiner's Lab introduction and teleportation scenes, Barney appears as even more pessimistic than in the final version, expressing even more doubts in very sarcastic and funny remarks each time Kleiner or Mossman say something positive.

Trivia

 * Characters from The Andy Griffith Show bear the names of Barney and Otis. It is probable, though yet to be verified, that the references are intentional. Also, the original Barney model bears a striking resemblance with Don Knotts, one of the actors of the show, who played the character named Barney Fife, which in the United States has long been a disparaging term for an inept and incompetent policeman.


 * At the start of Half-Life, Barney is seen by Gordon knocking on a door with his armor vest, helmet and flashlight already equipped. As this security guard was retconned as Barney Calhoun for Blue Shift, an inconsistency came, Barney obtaining his equipment in his locker only after entering the door.


 * In Blue Shift, Barney is never heard talking from the player's point of view, just as Freeman and Shephard are not heard speaking. However the chapter Captive Freight from shows an example of the character apparently speaking but being unheard by the player. When Rosenberg asks him how he knows his name, there is a slight pause, then Rosenberg confirms the name of the scientist who told it to Calhoun ("Oh, I see. Poor Harold."), as if he was answering him.


 * Unlike Gordon Freeman and Adrian Shephard, Barney lacks any form of power armor and is equipped only with a simple armored vest and helmet. Thus, instead of utilizing HEV recharging stations, he must restore his damaged armor by picking up "fresh" vests from fallen comrades along the way. It is notable that unlike Freeman and Shephard, he comes across only a few living security guards after the cascade. Moreover, he can communicate with only one of them, who is seen towards the end of the game and only lives long enough to tell Calhoun about recharging the power cell and then immediately dies.


 * Barney comes across Gordon three times in Blue Shift. He first sees him while he is riding his tram to Sector C, being actually a scene from the start of Half-Life from another point of view. Gordon can then be spotted through a security camera heading to the test chamber. Gordon is finally seen at the end of the game as two HECU soldiers are dragging him away, mirroring a scene from the Half-Life chapter Apprehension.


 * The "Now... about that beer I owed ya!" said by Barney at the start of Half-Life 2 is a nod to one of the random security guard sentences heard at the start of Half-Life, "Hey, catch me later, I'll buy you a beer."

List of appearances

 * Half-Life: Day One
 * Half-Life
 * Half-Life PlayStation 2 instruction manual
 * Half-Life: Blue Shift
 * Half-Life: Decay
 * Half-Life 2
 * Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar
 * Half-Life 2: Episode One