Frank Fontaine

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Frank Fontaine, along with Ryan is the antagonist of Bioshock, the arch-enemy of Andrew Ryan, and the leader of the opposition in the power struggle which led to Rapture's collapse. He speaks with a coarse, thick Bronx accent.

[edit] Background

WARNING Significant plot details follow.

Fontaine was originally the owner of Fontaine Fisheries, which became the front for his smuggling operations. A successful businessman of modest beginnings he also engaged in charity and eventually became a player in high technology, establishing Fontaine Futuristics. He is known to regulary disguise himself as various people to accomplish criminal activities that he would not normally get away with. One of these is mentioned by Fontaine himself after revealing himself "Hell, once I even played a Chinaman for six months!".

His role as the Irish-accented guide "Atlas" extends far back from the setting of the game. Apparently, he was an opposition to Ryan and his tyrannical hold on Rapture.

Fontaine was the initial investor in Bridgette Tenenbaum and Dr. Suchong's research into ADAM. His fishermen were the first to discover the sea slugs which naturally produce the substance. Their research led to the establishment of Fontaine Futuristics, the epicenter of biotechnology in Rapture.

Andrew Ryan at first observed Fontaine's rise to power as master of Fontaine Futuristics with pride, as the opportunity for determined men to better themselves in this manner was exactly what he built Rapture to make possible. However, when he discovered the criminal arm of his enterprises (which imported contraband items such as the Christian Bible), he began to see Fontaine as a threat, as such activity might reveal the location of Rapture to surface-dwellers. However, others would say that this distrust was more due to the fact that Fontaine was challenging his control of the city.

Facing growing pressure from Ryan, Fontaine engineered an elaborate scheme to take control of Rapture. After acquiring Jack, the illegitimate son of Ryan himself, he instructed Suchong to brainwash, train, and artificially age the child, creating an obedient assassin whom he sent to the surface as a sleeper agent.

After faking his own death in 1958, he reemerged under the alias of Atlas, a fisherman and proletariat hero, while setting the stage for the civil war which would tear Rapture apart. Later, as Jack's guide, "Atlas" uses the trigger phrase "would you kindly" to manipulate Jack into assassinating Ryan.

[edit] Game Role

After Ryan's death, Fontaine reveals that his ultimate goal is not simply to conquer Rapture, but to use it and the ADAM technology to extend his power to the surface and become an industry tycoon. He reveals himself to be a misanthropic con artist with no allegiance to the people of Rapture, who believed him to be an alternative to Ryan's hegemony, nor anything but sarcastic, feigned sympathy for Jack. He started splicing himself soon after, saying that he’s never tasted ADAM at all until now and soon he cannot get enough. His fast growing dependency on ADAM makes him strap himself into a machine that pumps all the ADAM (that the little sisters collected) into himself. He starts taunting Jack, proclaiming that no one can stop him as he is too powerful. As the game's final boss, he splices himself into a hulking, statuesque monster, who is finally overcome and killed by a swarm of Little Sisters who stab Fontaine multiple times with their needles.

[edit] Influences

Again, at the 2008 GDC Ken Levine stated that Fontaine's name is not a reference to the Fountainhead.

Frank Fontaine, like several of the main characters, exhibits influences from Ayn Rand. The alias Atlas is clearly a reference to Rand's magnum opus, Atlas Shrugged. According to Rand's philosophy, Objectivism, the goal of a human being is rational self-interest: living for one's own happiness, success, and creativity, with as little interference as possible.

Ironically, Fontaine - the engineer of Rapture's destruction - is the very type of man the city was designed to nurture. He came to Rapture with little or nothing, and built an empire by his own wits, a rags-to-riches story in the mold of Andrew Carnegie. In his rise to power, he also exposes Andrew Ryan to be, at his core, a tyrant: the very type of "king" which the red banner at Rapture's entrance claimed had no place there, winning considerable popular support by pointing out Ryan's hypocrisy. The flaws Ryan showed are however perhaps those that any human would have to protect an establishment from what they perceive as a threat, especially since Fontaine's sociopathic tendencies vindicate many, if not all of Ryan's fears.

Fontaine is manipulative, duping the public for his own gain and ultimately dooming them to mutation, insanity and death. These traits are contrary to Rand's ethos, and he casts doubt even upon Objectivism itself in his correct observation that not everyone in Rapture can become wealthy and famous. Fontaine's boss form is reminiscent of an Art Deco sculpture, such as Lee Lawrie's statue of Atlas or the many sculptures around Rapture.