Sam Fisher (Splinter Cell): Difference between revisions

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Samuel Leo Fisher, known simply as Sam Fisher, is the main character in the Splinter Cell series of video games and novels based on the world endorsed—but not authored—by Tom Clancy. Fisher is voiced by actor Michael Ironside.

Introduction

Template:Spoiler Sam Fisher is a veteran of the CIA Directorate of Operations and of U.S. Navy SEAL Team 3. He is 5 feet 10 inches tall (178 cm), weighs 170 pounds (77 kg) [1], has black hair and green eyes, and is usually rough-shaven. He is an operative of Third Echelon, a clandestine division of the National Security Agency. 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 works alone in the field -- in espionage parlance, as a singleton. Fisher resides in a townhouse in Towson, Maryland, when not on the job. Fisher studies the military hand-to-hand combat system Krav Maga.

While Fisher was working on an American Air Force 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 Regan went back to using her maiden name, and had Sarah's changed as well. She died from ovarian cancer in 1989. Sarah had at some point gone back to using her true surname, a choice her father disagreed with. She was killed by a drunk driver in 2007.

His direct supervisor is Colonel Irving Lambert, USA, Ret. Lambert is accompanied and supported on missions by NSA employees Anna Grimsdóttír, Vernon Wilkes Jr (now deceased) and later Frances Coen, who was Wilkes' temporary replacement and was replaced by former Marine, 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 to travel all around the world to complete his missions. He has traveled to the Democratic Republic of Congo, China, Iceland, Israel, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, Ukraine, North and South Korea, and Europe. Places he has visited inside the United States include Los Angeles, New York, and CIA headquarters. He also has gone inside submarines, missile silos, underwater bases, oil rigs, and airports. Fisher is able to use parts of the environment that normal people would not even notice such as pipes, zip lines, and air vents.

Background

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, most likely during the First Gulf War, 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 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 since Lambert told Wilkes that 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"). Splinter Cell: Essentials establishes that Fisher saved Douglas Shetland's life in Colombia when he was the commanding officer of Fisher's SEAL team. 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). Sam also performed operations in ex-Yugoslavia during the NATO strikes.

Fisher is considered to be "non-existent", as much of his actual history is known by only a select few. This creates problems for recording certain facts; the game manual for Chaos Theory gives Fisher's birth year as 1957.

Personality

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. 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. At the same time, he is highly loyal and a staunch believer in the American ideals his work ultimately protects; he will follow orders even if he finds them disagreeable or inconvenient to his mission, and he is quickly angered by the casual slaughter of Americans or U.S. 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.

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 dialogue with them is creative and highly intimidating, though often morbidly humorous to the audience.

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. 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."

Another instance is when Fisher is ordered to not tamper with the corpse of a tortured computer engineer whose body cannot 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 [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." 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." In either case, Fisher openly declares his moral disagreement with the order to shoot Tal.

In the Xbox 360 and PC versions of Double Agent, Sam displays moral contempt at having to "clean up the place" when Emile Dufraisne and Carson Moss order Sam to kill an entire mercenary crew of oil smugglers transporting their oil in a supertanker. He calls Lambert for advice on what to do and Lambert tells him to do what Emile and Carson ordered him to do so he doesn't blow his cover. This shows that while Sam is rather ruthless, he does not enjoy killing people, but does it when his mission requires it.

Tactics and Equipment

Skills

Fisher is extremely athletic, especially for a person of his age. 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 tight 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. Nonetheless, Fisher's age is apparently catching up to him, as in Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory he can regularly be heard making various grunts and groans of exertion during a mission. Though throughout the series he can be heard making such noises when hefting dead/unconscious bodies, hoisting himself up, and whatnot, it seems to be more prevalent during his foray into his fifties.

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. However in the actual 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.

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 seems to prefer his right hand because he always 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.

Weapons

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.

• Knife

The player first got the chance to wield Fisher's knife in Chaos Theory. In the first novel, it is described as a USMC Ka-bar with a hilt covered in compressed leather of standard design. In the third novel, Sam uses a Fairbairn-Sykes dagger, given to him by Frank Bunch, a close friend of Sam's father. However, in the game, some close-ups of the hilt suggest that it is custom made. The knife appears to be double-edged, with a blade roughly 5 inches long. It has a central groove called a "fuller" in order to reduce weight, often mistakenly called a "blood groove". With the exception of size, the knife is almost identical to the Gerber Guardian Back Up. Fisher carries it horizontally at the back of his belt, allowing him to draw it easily and quickly in either forward or reverse grips. However, in Splinter Cell: Double Agent, the knife is described as, quote:

"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 being a deadly weapon (Fisher always aims for the heart, throat, or axillary artery, and thus a single strike with the weapon always results in the immediate takedown of the target), Fisher also makes use of it as a multipurpose tool in the field. Fisher can use the knife to interrogate suspects, cut tent-fabric, chainlink fences, wires, and plastic sheeting, break locks, disable small machinery (such as gas powered generators), defuse bombs, pry hidden microphones from walls, and tap into phone lines and camera feeds.

• SC Pistol (modified FN Five-seveN)

The pistol in the game is a 20-round, semi-automatic weapon with an attached suppressor that uses the NATO 5.7 mm ammunition (Fabrique National Five-seveN).

5.7 mm ammo is touted by FN to be able to penetrate NATO kevlar vests and helmets, but in the games the ability to penetrate armor is limited, taking at least three to five shots to the torso to down a foe, which is probably due to the subsonic ammunition used because the 5.7 mm round uses a high speed and velocity to penetrate armor. A suppressor silences the report of the pistol by slowly allowing gases from the barrel to expand and escape, resulting in a soft "pfft" noise. In addition, subsonic rounds are used in conjunction with suppressors to quiet the report further by eliminating the supersonic crack of a bullet travelling at a speed faster than that of sound. Subsonic ammo also helps by avoiding damage to the suppressor.

The pistol is much more silent than the SC-20K. In Pandora Tomorrow, the pistol is equipped with a laser aiming module. In the series' third installment, Chaos Theory, the pistol is equipped with an Optically Channeled Potentiator (OCP) prototype, a device that can be used to temporarily disrupt electronic devices, such as light fixtures and security cameras. Oddly enough, as with the SC-20K, the spent shells were no longer visible in Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory or Splinter Cell: Double Agent.

• SC-20K (modified FN F2000 Tactical)

This is a 30-round, selective fire 5.56 x 45 mm NATO bullpup assault rifle with a suppressor, a 1.5x reflex sight or a 2/4/6x scope in the first 2 games, and an underslung grenade launcher used to launch various less-than-lethal devices. It's most likely a variation of the F2000 Assault Rifle.

The SC-20K was modified for use in Chaos Theory. The fixed buttstock was replaced by a collapsible buttstock. Also, the 1.5x reflex sight replaced the stronger 6x full scope, but in compensation the SC-20K gained the ability to mount additional undermount modular configurations. It has been designed with a bullpup configuration, allowing for maximum power with a minimum weight and size. In the field, Fisher can carry a maximum of two undermount modules at once. These modules are:

Launcher: A Splinter Cell's standard loadout (as seen in Splinter Cell and Pandora Tomorrow), the attached 40mm grenade launcher, is able to fire ring airfoil rounds, sticky shockers, sticky cameras, gas grenades and other such less-than-lethal devices. The ring airfoil round is a small ring that can knock out enemies silently but the drawback is its parabolic trajectory. The sticky shocker is a LTL device that shocks enemies into unconsciousness. They are launched at a flat trajectory and causes some noise. Sticky cameras are reusable devices that allow you to observe areas without being detected. They can also make noises that can attract the enemy or can self-destruct which will release a non-lethal gas. The latest incarnation of the sticky camera can also create a small, lethal explosion. If enemies detect the sticky camera then they will open fire on it which will either release the gas or explode, depending on the version of the camera. The launcher can also launch grenades, including gas grenades that release a non-lethal gas that will knock out anybody in the vicinity of the gas.

Foregrip: A foregrip used to steady firing and counter the effects of recoil, resulting in far more accurate fire when shooting in fully automatic mode.

Shotgun: An undermount 12-gauge triple ought buckshot shotgun attachment. Useful for close quarters combat. Extremely lethal against enemy personnel, but also very loud.

Sniper: A huge modification that chambers the SC-20K for a 20 mm APDS (Armor-Piercing Discarding Sabot) round that can rip straight through armor and cover alike. This version has a full 4x scope and modified barrel, increasing range and accuracy, though it is rather loud and unwieldy. This weapon has the highest penetration power in Sam's arsenal, and is the one weapon he carries capable of destroying certain forms of enemy armor (such as North Korean UAVs).

The SC-20K was again modified for use in Double Agent. The F2000 designed was retained, but the buttstock was greatly stripped down, along with the fore-end of the weapon. The scope was replaced with a Picatinny rail that later had a reflex sight attached to it.

Clothing

Remaining unseen is a very important factor for Fisher on his missions, thus wearing the right clothing is necessary. Mostly he wears a wet suit. This suit fits tightly around his body, making it almost impossible to hear it move. Though mostly wearing the black suit, Fisher sometimes changes his suit to fit the appropriate conditions. This suit also comes with some covers that peel off, like in current gen version of Double Agent, where he pulls off the white cover to reveal the black suit underneath. Sam also has a pair of black combat boots and a weapons belt, along with a bullet resistant vest.

Goggles

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 ironically fictional web journal) that the goggles did not actually glow, and were simply portrayed that way onscreen to provide visual interest and the location of the character in the dark. This is proven in the first multiplayer 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.

In the first two games of the series, Fisher's goggles have both thermal and night vision capabilities. 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 colored night vision.

The goggles were used as a parody item in Rayman Raving Rabbids, where some of the antagonist rabbids bear the same style of headwear.

Trivia

• His full name, Samuel Leo Fisher, is seen when he was using the computer in the Osprey to encrypt his call home in Splinter Cell.
• While earlier in the series it was determined that Sam's daughter was unaware of his real job, on the Xbox 360/PC version of Splinter Cell: Double Agent, players can move around the Osprey in the first mission and access an email that references her knowledge of him "saving the world." She found out about his job when he saved her from terrorists in the Splinter Cell novel.

Featured in

Games

• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell (2002/2003)
• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (2004)
• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory (2005)
• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Essentials (2006)
• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent (2006)
• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction (TBA)

Novels

• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell (2004) — by David Michaels
• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Operation Barracuda (2005) — by David Michaels
• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Checkmate (2006) — by David Michaels