Diane McClintock

Diane McClintock
Died	1959
Place of Death	Atlas' HQ, Hestia Chambers, Apollo Square, Rapture
Affiliation	Andrew Ryan (formerly) Atlas
Physical Description
Gender	Female
Hair Color	Blonde
Appearances
Appears in	BioShock BioShock: Rapture
Voice Actor	Miriam Shor

“I thought Andrew Ryan was a great man. I was a fool.”

― Diane McClintock

Diane McClintock was Andrew Ryan's love interest before the period of the Civil War in Rapture.

History

Born to a blue-collar family in New York City, Diane McClintock came to Rapture as Andrew Ryan's "personal assistant". Being intimately involved with the most powerful man in Rapture gave her a somewhat distorted view of life in the city. In the beginning, she fully supported Andrew Ryan and his beliefs. She became so enamored with him that she even began talking about carrying his child, an idea that Ryan briefly considered.

Diane was present at the Kashmir Restaurant on New Year's Eve for a masquerade ball, a party she had planned to attend with Ryan before he blew her off. When the restaurant was attacked Diane suffered injuries to her face that left her disfigured. After the riots, she went to the Medical Pavilion to undergo some form of facial reconstruction. She was seen to by Dr. Steinman, who was very attentive to her during this period and showed great interest in her case. However, despite the work Steinman performed, her face was not left in the same condition it was prior to the events of the New Year's Eve ball.

While in the Medical Pavilion, McClintock heard rumors of what was happening between Atlas and Ryan, as well as the subsequent social decline of Rapture. She did not really believe these rumors until visiting Apollo Square. Only then did she realize the extent to which Rapture's citizens were suffering from the effects of fear-induced splicing caused by the growing civil conflict. In fact, she was initially furious at the supporters of Atlas for "ruining" her body, but when she ventured to Apollo Square hoping to confront those responsible for her injuries, she was appalled by Ryan's brutal handling of the city's masses, ordering his guards to fight splicing with splicing, and virtually turning the square into a prison camp.

Witnessing the severity of Ryan's methods had a profound effect on Diane. She became disillusioned with her former lover and was taken in by the supporters of Atlas.

As the war escalated, McClintock gained the trust of Atlas' followers and found herself becoming so actively involved in Atlas' revolution that she was eventually introduced to the rebel leader himself. McClintock partook in raids and other missions for Atlas' rebellion and she seemed to have become enamored with him, calling herself a fool for ever thinking of Ryan as "a great man" and later expressing excitement to inform Atlas about the fruits of her missions.

While Atlas sat in his office recording a diary, The Longest Con, in his normal "Fontaine" voice, Diane unexpectedly walked in. He quickly stammered back into an Irish accent, and while it is unknown if she discovered his true identity, was curious about the Bronx accent, or even heard it at all, for Frank Fontaine it was a risk he could not take. Her body still lies on his desk.

BioShock

Main article: BioShock

Diane McClintock's corpse can be found slammed onto a desk in Atlas' headquarters, a few feet away from Fontaine's audio log that recorded Diane walking in on him as his true persona and his possible subsequent murder of her as a result.

BioShock 2

Main article: BioShock 2

Diane is mentioned in the Audio Diary Generation by Andrew Ryan in BioShock 2. It was revealed that she had urged Ryan to take breaks to prevent him from overworking and to spend time with her. It was also revealed that Diane had at least once spoke of possibly bearing Ryan's child. This made Ryan think that maybe he should put some thought into his legacy.

BioShock 2 Multiplayer

Main article: BioShock 2 Multiplayer

Some quotes by Diane are seen in the multiplayer loading screens.

• "We didn't start this thing....Ryan did."
• "I saw a woman climb over the fence trying to escape… One of Ryan's guards pointed at her, and she lit on fire… just like that. What's happening here?"

Personality

Despite her connection to Ryan, McClintock is portrayed as something of an "everyman" character, representing the common citizens of Rapture during its decline and fall. Initially she was enthralled by Ryan, but the pursuit of his ideology and work caused him to repeatedly ignore her needs. She was injured in terrorist attacks by Atlas' revolutionaries during the riots, and her face was never the same again. Ryan stopped thinking about her entirely, neglecting to visit her in the hospital and breaking off relations with her altogether (when he gained a single-minded focus on saving Rapture by defeating Atlas).

Initially embittered by the early attacks from the revolutionaries, McClintock and other average citizens became increasingly horrified at the authoritarian measures that Ryan imposed on the city. As the civil war escalated, some became so dissatisfied with his control that they ceased to support him or even sided with the rebels, unaware that were being been duped by the demagogue Atlas.

Roped in by Atlas' act, McClintock became an active revolutionary and even joined other guerrilla bands to attack Big Daddies and Little Sisters, only to then be betrayed and killed by Atlas/Fontaine, who, in truth, had no concern for the welfare of the people of Rapture. McClintock's audio diaries thus present the story of how the common folk of Rapture became the violent, feuding Splicers fighting in the streets by the time Jack arrives in the city.

Audio Diaries

BioShock

• Welcome to Rapture
  • New Year's Eve Alone
• Medical Pavilion
  • Released Today
• Arcadia
  • Heroes and Criminals
• Fort Frolic
  • Stood Up Again
• Apollo Square
  • What's Happening Here?
  • Atlas Lives
  • Meeting Atlas
  • Today's Raid

Behind the Scenes

• It is possible that Diane's last name "McClintock" is a reference to renowned cytogeneticist Barbara McClintock, who contributed considerable understanding to the concept of genetic recombination during cell division, among other topics (her work eventually netted her a Nobel Prize).
• McClintock's corpse uses a variation of the Baby Jane Splicer model.
• Even though Diane's hair is blonde in her in-game picture, her character model's hair is colored black.

A Mugshot of Tanya Williams, the image inspiration for Diane McClintock.

• Diane McClintock's Audio Diary portrait is based on the mugshot of Tanya Williams, a woman working at the Melody Lane club in San Francisco, arrested in 1942 for "indecent entertainment." The developers had found images of a 1940s San Francisco mugshot book on eBay in 2005 including a "woman who just had like this look of contempt". The same photograph for Williams was also modified for the original concept art for the Lady Smith Splicer.
• In the novel BioShock: Rapture, Diane quickly realizes the truth when she walks in on Atlas/Fontaine talking in his real accent, while in BioShock it is left ambiguous whether she figured out his real identity or not.
• Ken Levine stated that Diane McClintock's storyline is intended to show the point of view of the Civil War from Atlas' side, while Bill McDonagh's storyline shows it from Andrew Ryan's side.
• It was hinted on Twitter by Ken Levine that Diane would make an appearance in Burial at Sea, however she is not seen or mentioned in the DLC's two episodes.