Ganondork
goo
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2010
Many people who play Bioshock know a particular person; Frank Fontaine. Portrayed throughout the entire game as an intimidating and ruthless man, one smuggler says when being tortured by Andrew Ryan,
With that in mind, you can only imagine the fear that he strikes in the eyes of the people that he meets. And yet, despite all of this, Fontaine was a charismatic man who started from nothing. Fontaine spent most of his childhood living inside of a theatre; he slept on a bundle of rope that he could find. Despite this, he still managed to take advantage of the situation, learning how to act. Unlike the conventional actor, Fontaine used this for crime; he simply changed his identity every time he felt it was necessary. Frank was truly his first name, but he went by many last ones; Gorland, Wang, Barris, and Wiston.
Frank was also relatively successful with women; it was implied in the book, Rapture that he had intercourse with a wide assortment of women. Whether this was used to get the upper hand in his criminal activities or not is never said.
As should be clear, Fontaine was born on the surface, far from the depths of Rapture. And for good reason; not only was he born prior to the city's construction, but he also wasn't a large enough influence on society to be invited. In fact, the criminal shouldn't have even known about the presence of the underwater city.
Frank - using the name Gorland at the time - bought a bar as part of his criminal activities. A place for underground activities, naturally, Fontaine caught wind of the eccentric millionaire, Andrew Ryan, shelling out millions of dollars for construction purposes that seemed to be going to nowhere. Interested, Fontaine sniffed around - using an assortment of disguises and false identities - and finally found out what he wanted to know; Andrew Ryan was building an underwater city.
He wanted in the moment he knew all of the details. Frank knew a number of things.
Frank, seeing an opportunity, met with the captain. Once abroad, Frank and the captain talked for awhile - at least until they were far out into sea. Perfectly isolated, Frank knocked him out, and then threw him over the edge. Not only did Frank kill him, but he also stole his identity - and gained a precious asset when it came to entering Rapture.
After a small amount of time had passed since the death of Captain Fontaine, the newly named Frank Fontaine sent a letter to Andrew Ryan.
Unbeknownst to Andrew Ryan, this letter of intent had an ulterior motive that would ultimately spell the demise of the millionaire's dream city. This decision made by Ryan would be something that he would come to regret many years later. Like a parasite, the effects were not immediate, but in the end, it sucked the life out of Rapture.
Fontaine arrived in Rapture in a bathysphere like any other Rapture frontiersman, but his motives proved to be entirely different. He immediately bought large amounts of land - some that would later become Fontaine Futuristics, but most would become the new base for Fontaine Fisheries.
With this kept in mind, Fontaine was more focused on smuggling - an industry that became prevalent due to the banning of Bibles - than he was on Fontaine Fisheries. He gained a large group, known as the Smugglers, and brought in contraband daily. He grew rich and powerful quickly.
Using his charisma, Fontaine befriended two important people: Brigid Tenenbaum and Yi Suchong. Tenenbaum confided in her an astounding discovery; she had found a sea slug that contained a substance which could rebuild an entire arm on a man - and even more. ADAM, she called it.
Fontaine and Tenenbaum developed a sexual relationship after the discovering this miracle substance. It's not explained if it was continued after the single experience, but this only sealed the two's business in the ADAM industry. Coupled with Suchong's extensive knowledge of DNA, the trio began working on producing the substance that would later become the key part of Rapture's economy; ADAM.
They worked quickly, but quietly, their test subjects being humans - a common practice in Rapture - and released the underwater colony's new cash crops; Plasmids.
An immediate success, people were spending all of their salary on these products. It seemed that everyone wanted to feel the power that these products granted - from an enormous range of knowledge to large muscles that would put typical bodybuilders to shame. And yet those weren't the extent of their abilities; ADAM was scavenged so it could also be used to increase the attractiveness of the user - whether it be appearance, or increase the size of specific body parts.
Among one of the most important things about ADAM was it had to be gathered from sea slugs. Unfortunately, this was not a particularly easy feat, so Little Sisters were created to gather the remaining ADAM from the corpses of ADAM users. Little Sisters were girls with the sea slugs in their stomachs, allowing them to gather the substance. Boys, however, were unable to cope with the addition of the sea slug. Tenenbaum was the one who oversaw the Little Sisters.
The medical field too felt the effects of ADAM; difficult surgeries became simple procedures, alongside the creation of new surgeries. Plastic surgery was among one of the fields that used ADAM most - everyone wanted to look their best, and doctors like Steinman fit the bill.
Steinman, a crazed plastic surgeon that was obsessed with the pursuit of physical perfection was more than happy to provide any client with surgery - for a price, of course. With cocaine being legal in Rapture, the doctor believed that Aphrodite, the Greek Goddess of love and beauty was there, speaking to him. He felt it was his duty to fulfill her desire to make the world beautiful. He would later hold an important role in Frank Fontaine's life.
Andrew Ryan, jealous of Fontaine's success - while being equally wary of him - developed Tonics to get in on Fontaine's industry. A successful business decision, Tonics made some plastic surgery procedures unnecessary - a gain for the consumer, but a loss for the doctor.
While all of this was happening, Fontaine was in negotiation with Jasmin Jolene - Andrew Ryan's lover that worked at Eve's Garden, a strip club. She had become pregnant with Andrew's child, and she was hesitant to tell him. Fontaine offered to take the child from her, in exchange for money. She agreed.
The moment he was born, Jack Ryan's fate was already decided. He was experimented with, using ADAM. This accelerated his growth, and made him obedient as long as the term "Would you kindly?" was used before or after the command.
To Jasmin's dismay, Andrew found out that she had his child and gave it away - although he knew not to whom. Filled with anger, he grabbed her by the neck and choked her until her eyes popped out of her head. Jasmin died without even properly meeting her son.
Overuse of ADAM became commonplace; dangerous Plasmids reared their ugly head and people began to die. The desire for ADAM became too great - it was far beyond an ordinary addiction - and the Little Sisters were their primary target. Coupled with this, ADAM had an adverse effect on people.
The abusers of ADAM were dubbed one name, and one name only; Splicers. Most of them lacking motor skills, they used an assortment of melee weapons, guns, and Plasmids to kill one another for ADAM, or commit crimes. In order to protect their targets - the Little Sisters - Big Daddies were created.
The illegal distribution of the banned Plasmid, Teleport, only added to Rapture's police department's difficulty in capturing these ADAM abusers. Many of these specific Splicers - dubbed Houdini Splicers - allowed themselves to be captured, just so they could make a fool out of the police officers in the jail.
Many of these Splicers joined Fontaine, if they weren't loyal to him already. Usually the supplier of their Teleport Plasmid, the Splicers flocked around Frank. With a large Splicer army at his disposal, he was only a single revolution away from taking Rapture's power away from Andrew Ryan.
To Fontaine's misfortune, Rapture's founder was already aware of the Smuggler's illegal actions, as well as rallying the Splicers together. Ready with his own army, Andrew prepared to kill Frank once and for all; he had the evidence to kill him on the spot.
The battle was bloody, and Andrew emerged victorious. Many of Fontaine's Splicers were killed, although plenty escaped, and Fontaine was dead. The bodies were hung around Apollo Square; Fontaine's body was held above all the others. Or so Andrew believed.
A few weeks prior to the bloody shootout, Fontaine spoke with Steinman. He requested that one of his men have a surgery that makes him look exactly like Fontaine, and also change Frank's appearance. He warned Steinman that if Andrew somehow found out before the damage was done, Steinman would have to speak with an angered Fontaine.
Finally applying the acting skills that he hadn't used in so long, Frank Fontaine emerged a new man; a man by the name of Atlas. Prior to "Frank Fontaine's" death, he was the first to protest Ryan's nationalizing of Fontaine's Futuristics. When Fontaine was dead, he rallied the citizens in Fontaine's Home for the Poor, where he began talk of a Civil War.
The odds were in Atlas' favor; Andrew betrayed his own values and made Rapture a police state. He used this to further fuel the citizens' - and Splicers' - rage.
While all of this happened, Tenenbaum had a change of heart; she now hated what she had become, and her cruel treatment of the Little Sisters.
Suchong too changed. With Jack being completed - and off unknowingly doing Atlas' whims on the surface - he had time to work on perfecting the Big Daddy's obedience to their Little Sister. While experimenting with Subject Delta - formerly known as Johnny Topside prior to his transformation - he slapped a Little Sister who was bothering him while he spoke into an audio diary, and Delta reacted by taking his life.
Depending on one's perspective, the Civil War could be considered a success. With Rapture in disarray, and all but a few of its citizens Splicers, Andrew Ryan was forced into hiding. Atlas also hid, but he knew that the final part of his plan was coming; Jack Ryan.
Arriving in Rapture - as Atlas instructed - without any memory of the experiments that he was subjected to, Atlas guided him through the broken city with a single goal; kill Andrew Ryan. Navigating to Rapture Central Control, Jack meets his father, who recognizes him as his son.
He explains to Jack everything that happened to him, and uses the "Would you kindly?" command on him. Completely under his control, Andrew Ryan hands his son a golf club and says, "Would you kindly kill me?" Obediently, Jack begins to hit Andrew in the face with the club.
Andrew, having designed the Vita Chamber, he believed that if Jack killed him, he would be revived in that. To his misfortune, the Vita Chambers honed in on Jack instead of him due to the fact that were related, therefore having a similar criteria for the chamber.
Successfully killing his own father, Jack is left with the his father's words that he yelled in between hits. Words that show what Jack really is; another man's tool to use for his own personal gain. Before his death, Andrew Ryan yelled,
With Andrew Ryan dead, Atlas had no further use for disguises. He revealed himself to Jack as the infamous Frank Fontaine. He then initiated Code Yellow, an emergency protocol that slowly kill Jack. Tenenbaum found Jack, and brought him to the Little Sister's homes, where she freed him from his undying obedience. Unfortunately, he was doomed to die from Code Yellow unless he found another dose of Lot 192.
Finding the last dose of Lot 192, Jack was fully equipped to take on Frank. To Jack's bad luck, Fontaine had massive reserves of ADAM that he could use to heal himself in the event of being hurt, alongside use powerful Plasmids that he developed for himself. To remedy this issue, Tenenbaum gave Jack a needle like the ones Little Sisters use to take his ADAM from Frank.
The two were locked in combat for a very long time, Fontaine showering Jack with insults the entire time. However, in the end, it was Fontaine who was bested. Jack, who finished sucking out the last bit of Fontaine's ADAM, left his foster father reduced to being down on one knee. And then the Little Sisters came. They jumped on his back, sticking needle after needle into him, until finally, he fell, dead.
Despite Fontaine's tough outer core, Fontaine did show a small amount of emotion. And who better to show such emotions to than to the one that he raised four years prior? As Jack came to meet the antagonist, Fontaine showed his first true piece of emotion that he had ever shown to anyone.
And yet, in the end, it was his paranoia that spelled his demise. Used to having to kill all those that he comes in contact with, Fontaine no doubt expected to have to do the same to Jack. And yet, there's still the possibility that Jack may not have done that. Had he given Jack that choice, perhaps the two could have created a new Rapture.
So what are your thoughts on Fontaine? What did he do wrong? What did he do right? There are so many amazing feats that this man did, and yet he messed up once, and it costed him his life. He is among one of the most interesting characters in Bioshock in my opinion.
Fontaine Smuggler said:
Frank was also relatively successful with women; it was implied in the book, Rapture that he had intercourse with a wide assortment of women. Whether this was used to get the upper hand in his criminal activities or not is never said.
As should be clear, Fontaine was born on the surface, far from the depths of Rapture. And for good reason; not only was he born prior to the city's construction, but he also wasn't a large enough influence on society to be invited. In fact, the criminal shouldn't have even known about the presence of the underwater city.
Frank - using the name Gorland at the time - bought a bar as part of his criminal activities. A place for underground activities, naturally, Fontaine caught wind of the eccentric millionaire, Andrew Ryan, shelling out millions of dollars for construction purposes that seemed to be going to nowhere. Interested, Fontaine sniffed around - using an assortment of disguises and false identities - and finally found out what he wanted to know; Andrew Ryan was building an underwater city.
He wanted in the moment he knew all of the details. Frank knew a number of things.
- Frank was not high enough on the social - or economic - ladder to be invited to this restriction-free utopia
- Andrew Ryan was in contact with the captain of Fontaine Fisheries; Frank Fontaine. Fontaine was supplying the millionaire with fish for Rapture - oblivious to the purpose, though.
Frank, seeing an opportunity, met with the captain. Once abroad, Frank and the captain talked for awhile - at least until they were far out into sea. Perfectly isolated, Frank knocked him out, and then threw him over the edge. Not only did Frank kill him, but he also stole his identity - and gained a precious asset when it came to entering Rapture.
After a small amount of time had passed since the death of Captain Fontaine, the newly named Frank Fontaine sent a letter to Andrew Ryan.
Letter to Andrew Ryan said:
Fontaine arrived in Rapture in a bathysphere like any other Rapture frontiersman, but his motives proved to be entirely different. He immediately bought large amounts of land - some that would later become Fontaine Futuristics, but most would become the new base for Fontaine Fisheries.
With this kept in mind, Fontaine was more focused on smuggling - an industry that became prevalent due to the banning of Bibles - than he was on Fontaine Fisheries. He gained a large group, known as the Smugglers, and brought in contraband daily. He grew rich and powerful quickly.
Using his charisma, Fontaine befriended two important people: Brigid Tenenbaum and Yi Suchong. Tenenbaum confided in her an astounding discovery; she had found a sea slug that contained a substance which could rebuild an entire arm on a man - and even more. ADAM, she called it.
Fontaine and Tenenbaum developed a sexual relationship after the discovering this miracle substance. It's not explained if it was continued after the single experience, but this only sealed the two's business in the ADAM industry. Coupled with Suchong's extensive knowledge of DNA, the trio began working on producing the substance that would later become the key part of Rapture's economy; ADAM.
An immediate success, people were spending all of their salary on these products. It seemed that everyone wanted to feel the power that these products granted - from an enormous range of knowledge to large muscles that would put typical bodybuilders to shame. And yet those weren't the extent of their abilities; ADAM was scavenged so it could also be used to increase the attractiveness of the user - whether it be appearance, or increase the size of specific body parts.
Among one of the most important things about ADAM was it had to be gathered from sea slugs. Unfortunately, this was not a particularly easy feat, so Little Sisters were created to gather the remaining ADAM from the corpses of ADAM users. Little Sisters were girls with the sea slugs in their stomachs, allowing them to gather the substance. Boys, however, were unable to cope with the addition of the sea slug. Tenenbaum was the one who oversaw the Little Sisters.
The medical field too felt the effects of ADAM; difficult surgeries became simple procedures, alongside the creation of new surgeries. Plastic surgery was among one of the fields that used ADAM most - everyone wanted to look their best, and doctors like Steinman fit the bill.
Steinman, a crazed plastic surgeon that was obsessed with the pursuit of physical perfection was more than happy to provide any client with surgery - for a price, of course. With cocaine being legal in Rapture, the doctor believed that Aphrodite, the Greek Goddess of love and beauty was there, speaking to him. He felt it was his duty to fulfill her desire to make the world beautiful. He would later hold an important role in Frank Fontaine's life.
J.S. Steinman said:
Andrew Ryan, jealous of Fontaine's success - while being equally wary of him - developed Tonics to get in on Fontaine's industry. A successful business decision, Tonics made some plastic surgery procedures unnecessary - a gain for the consumer, but a loss for the doctor.
While all of this was happening, Fontaine was in negotiation with Jasmin Jolene - Andrew Ryan's lover that worked at Eve's Garden, a strip club. She had become pregnant with Andrew's child, and she was hesitant to tell him. Fontaine offered to take the child from her, in exchange for money. She agreed.
The moment he was born, Jack Ryan's fate was already decided. He was experimented with, using ADAM. This accelerated his growth, and made him obedient as long as the term "Would you kindly?" was used before or after the command.
To Jasmin's dismay, Andrew found out that she had his child and gave it away - although he knew not to whom. Filled with anger, he grabbed her by the neck and choked her until her eyes popped out of her head. Jasmin died without even properly meeting her son.
Overuse of ADAM became commonplace; dangerous Plasmids reared their ugly head and people began to die. The desire for ADAM became too great - it was far beyond an ordinary addiction - and the Little Sisters were their primary target. Coupled with this, ADAM had an adverse effect on people.
Atlas said:
The illegal distribution of the banned Plasmid, Teleport, only added to Rapture's police department's difficulty in capturing these ADAM abusers. Many of these specific Splicers - dubbed Houdini Splicers - allowed themselves to be captured, just so they could make a fool out of the police officers in the jail.
Many of these Splicers joined Fontaine, if they weren't loyal to him already. Usually the supplier of their Teleport Plasmid, the Splicers flocked around Frank. With a large Splicer army at his disposal, he was only a single revolution away from taking Rapture's power away from Andrew Ryan.
To Fontaine's misfortune, Rapture's founder was already aware of the Smuggler's illegal actions, as well as rallying the Splicers together. Ready with his own army, Andrew prepared to kill Frank once and for all; he had the evidence to kill him on the spot.
The battle was bloody, and Andrew emerged victorious. Many of Fontaine's Splicers were killed, although plenty escaped, and Fontaine was dead. The bodies were hung around Apollo Square; Fontaine's body was held above all the others. Or so Andrew believed.
A few weeks prior to the bloody shootout, Fontaine spoke with Steinman. He requested that one of his men have a surgery that makes him look exactly like Fontaine, and also change Frank's appearance. He warned Steinman that if Andrew somehow found out before the damage was done, Steinman would have to speak with an angered Fontaine.
Finally applying the acting skills that he hadn't used in so long, Frank Fontaine emerged a new man; a man by the name of Atlas. Prior to "Frank Fontaine's" death, he was the first to protest Ryan's nationalizing of Fontaine's Futuristics. When Fontaine was dead, he rallied the citizens in Fontaine's Home for the Poor, where he began talk of a Civil War.
The odds were in Atlas' favor; Andrew betrayed his own values and made Rapture a police state. He used this to further fuel the citizens' - and Splicers' - rage.
While all of this happened, Tenenbaum had a change of heart; she now hated what she had become, and her cruel treatment of the Little Sisters.
Brigid Tenenbaum said:
Suchong too changed. With Jack being completed - and off unknowingly doing Atlas' whims on the surface - he had time to work on perfecting the Big Daddy's obedience to their Little Sister. While experimenting with Subject Delta - formerly known as Johnny Topside prior to his transformation - he slapped a Little Sister who was bothering him while he spoke into an audio diary, and Delta reacted by taking his life.
Audio Diary said:
Depending on one's perspective, the Civil War could be considered a success. With Rapture in disarray, and all but a few of its citizens Splicers, Andrew Ryan was forced into hiding. Atlas also hid, but he knew that the final part of his plan was coming; Jack Ryan.
He explains to Jack everything that happened to him, and uses the "Would you kindly?" command on him. Completely under his control, Andrew Ryan hands his son a golf club and says, "Would you kindly kill me?" Obediently, Jack begins to hit Andrew in the face with the club.
Andrew, having designed the Vita Chamber, he believed that if Jack killed him, he would be revived in that. To his misfortune, the Vita Chambers honed in on Jack instead of him due to the fact that were related, therefore having a similar criteria for the chamber.
Successfully killing his own father, Jack is left with the his father's words that he yelled in between hits. Words that show what Jack really is; another man's tool to use for his own personal gain. Before his death, Andrew Ryan yelled,
Andrew Ryan said:
Finding the last dose of Lot 192, Jack was fully equipped to take on Frank. To Jack's bad luck, Fontaine had massive reserves of ADAM that he could use to heal himself in the event of being hurt, alongside use powerful Plasmids that he developed for himself. To remedy this issue, Tenenbaum gave Jack a needle like the ones Little Sisters use to take his ADAM from Frank.
The two were locked in combat for a very long time, Fontaine showering Jack with insults the entire time. However, in the end, it was Fontaine who was bested. Jack, who finished sucking out the last bit of Fontaine's ADAM, left his foster father reduced to being down on one knee. And then the Little Sisters came. They jumped on his back, sticking needle after needle into him, until finally, he fell, dead.
Despite Fontaine's tough outer core, Fontaine did show a small amount of emotion. And who better to show such emotions to than to the one that he raised four years prior? As Jack came to meet the antagonist, Fontaine showed his first true piece of emotion that he had ever shown to anyone.
Frank Fontaine said:
And yet, in the end, it was his paranoia that spelled his demise. Used to having to kill all those that he comes in contact with, Fontaine no doubt expected to have to do the same to Jack. And yet, there's still the possibility that Jack may not have done that. Had he given Jack that choice, perhaps the two could have created a new Rapture.
So what are your thoughts on Fontaine? What did he do wrong? What did he do right? There are so many amazing feats that this man did, and yet he messed up once, and it costed him his life. He is among one of the most interesting characters in Bioshock in my opinion.
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