Atlas

From BioShock Wiki

Atlas is a citizen of Rapture, who speaks with a thick Irish accent, and, like many aspects of the game, an Ayn Rand reference (Atlas Shrugged). He is trying to escape the city and finds out Jack survived a plane crash. He helps Jack by giving him advice via a shortwave radio, in hopes that he will help rescue his wife, Moira and infant son, Patrick who are lost in Rapture. Atlas states that he had come to Rapture in search for a better life for them but now feels as if God is now punishing him for bringing them down to Rapture.

Atlas serves as Jack's guide for the first two thirds of the events in BioShock, proving to be a useful ally in the otherwise totally alien city of Rapture. He introduces Jack to Rapture, ADAM and the events which occurred after New Year's Eve 1959. Initially Atlas informs Jack that his goal is simply to escape the city with his family, and he helps Jack on the condition that he aid him in this goal. However, as the game progresses, Atlas' name crops up more and more in the audio diaries and even on posters, leaving Jack to wonder at Atlas' own past and possible hidden agenda.

Shortly into the game, in an attempt to reach his "family" hidden in a submarine, they are ostensibly killed by Andrew Ryan. After this, Atlas' goal becomes revenge—the assassination of Andrew Ryan, to which end he enlists Jack's help. Eventually, it is revealed that Atlas is actually an alias for Frank Fontaine, a smuggler and mobster who rose to become powerful enough in Rapture's society to challenge Andrew Ryan's claim as ruler of the city, mostly through his control of the supply of ADAM. Fontaine has been commanding the player using the programmed trigger phrase "Would you kindly..."—due to Fontaine's conditioning, the player must obey any request made of him using the phrase. As Ryan explains, Jack realizes that the seemingly benign Atlas has been using the phrase during the game as an imperative command. It is only with the help of Bridgette Tenenbaum and the antidote previously made by Dr. Yi Suchong that Jack overcomes the hold Fontaine has over him.

Atlas was a name first undertaken when Frank Fontaine was listed as dead in 1958, supposedly killed in a shootout at Fontaine Fisheries with Security Chief Sullivan's security force. Fontaine refers to Atlas as "the longest con", assuming the title as a working class hero to the people for over two years. As Atlas, Fontaine lead the longest surviving rebellion in Rapture, who became the greatest enemy of Andrew Ryan. Among the soldiers in Atlas' force were Diane McClintock, Ryan's former mistress, who later discovered Atlas was Fontaine and was killed for it, and a man named Johnny, who Jack sees being killed by a spider splicer immediately after arriving.

Atlas is voiced by Karl Hanover[1].

The name "Atlas" is, like Andrew Ryan, a symbol of Ayn Rand, a Russian philosopher whose 'Objectivism' is essentially the same as the philosophy on which Ryan founded Rapture. Rand's last book was entitled, 'Atlas Shrugged'.

[edit] Trivia

• The posters inscribed, "Who is Atlas?" is a reference to the line, "Who is John Galt?" from Ayn Rand's novel, 'Atlas Shrugged'.