Frank Fontaine

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Fontaine positioned himself as an ideological contrast to Andrew Ryan, described by director Ken Levine as a "predatory nihilist" lacking ideals, whereas Ryan held strong objectivist beliefs. Inspired partly by the 1957 film Syriana, Fontaine exploited disadvantaged individuals through charitable initiatives like Fontaine's Home for the Poor and the Little Sisters Orphanage, only to cynically use them for his own ends. This anathema to Ryan's worldview led to a business rivalry that ended with Ryan using government power to seize Fontaine's operations. The character's development was also influenced by Keyser Söze from the 1995 film The Usual Suspects, particularly regarding hidden identities and bulletin board scenes. In the game's climax, Fontaine transforms into a grotesque, metal-skinned figure through excessive ADAM injection, visually alluding to classical sculptures of Atlas. Levine later admitted regret over this boss fight design in a 2016 interview with Glixel.

In Their Own Story

The narrative arc begins when Jack arrives in Rapture via a bathysphere from a lighthouse after a plane crash. Upon contact via radio, the voice calling himself Atlas guides Jack through the underwater city, providing objectives and motivation. Throughout the game, Atlas uses the phrase "Would you kindly" to command Jack's actions, unaware that this is a form of mental conditioning installed during Jack's infancy. Later in the narrative, Atlas discloses his true identity as Frank Fontaine, revealing he manipulated Jack to act against Andrew Ryan. This revelation recontextualizes every prior instruction given to the player. The story culminates in a confrontation where the player must defeat the transformed Fontaine. Beyond the first game, Fontaine appears through audio diaries in BioShock 2 and plays a prominent role as the antagonist in BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea, a prequel setting up the events of the original title.

Reader's Guide

To understand Frank Fontaine's mechanics and narrative role, players must recognize the dual nature of his voice acting. Karl Hanover performed with a native Dublin accent for Atlas, inspired by Gabriel Byrne in Miller's Crossing, while using a regional American accent for Fontaine, modeled after J. E. Freeman's character Eddie Dane from the same film. The script provided to Hanover was approximately 40 pages long, containing only random lines without context or other characters' dialogue. He recorded his lines over four to five eight-hour days in a booth overseen by Levine. Crucially, Hanover was never told that "Would you kindly" was a plot device; he performed it nonchalantly based on direction, which Levine later called a clever creative decision. For the final boss fight, developers chose Atlas as the antagonist because they lacked a better idea for the game's conclusion. The character's role in exploring player agency is significant, though his visual design and gameplay mechanics in the final battle received criticism.

Did You Know?

• Karl Hanover was initially asked to perform as an alcoholic Australian man but was chosen for his authentic Irish delivery, leading the team to rewrite Atlas as an Irishman.
• The phrase "Would you kindly" was inspired by promotional materials asking hypothetical questions like "Would you kill people, even innocent people, to survive?"
• Ken Levine originally considered Morgan Freeman for the voice role but abandoned the idea due to budgetary concerns; Greg Baldwin also recorded lines before Hanover took over.
• The character's final form as a nude, metal-skinned man was intended to allude to classical sculptural depictions of Atlas, though Levine later expressed regret over this design choice.