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This article's content is marked as Mature Gordon Freeman contains mature content that may include coarse language, sexual references, and/or graphic violent images which may be disturbing to some. Mature articles are recommended for those who are 18 years of age and older. If you are 18 years or older or are comfortable with graphic material, you are free to view this page. Otherwise, you should close this page and view another page. |
| “ | Man of few words, aren't you? | „ |
| ~ Alyx Vance speaking to Gordon Freeman. |
| “ | Gordon doesn't need to hear all this, he's a highly trained professional! | „ |
| ~ A scientist explaining to another Gordon's familiarity with the Anti-Mass Spectrometer. |
Gordon Freeman is the main protagonist of Valve's Half-Life franchise.
A Seattle native and MIT graduate with a PhD in Theoretical Physics, Gordon Freeman became an unlikely one-man army after a failed experiment at the Black Mesa Research Facility triggered a world-wide alien invasion. Trapped at the epicenter, Freeman fought his way through hordes of alien lifeforms and the U.S. military to reach the Lambda Complex, where he was teleported to Xen, the alien borderworld. There, he defeated the Nihilanth, the leader of the invasion. Following this, Freeman was forcibly recruited by the mysterious G-Man, who placed him into stasis until he saw fit to awaken him.
Twenty years later, Gordon is reawakened in a world conquered by the Combine, a trans-dimensional alien empire. With the help of allies, both new and old, who have formed a resistance, Gordon battles to sever the Combine's earthly forces from their homeworld. The key to fully driving the Combine off Earth lies in finding and destroying the Borealis, an Aperture Science vessel that could provide the Combine with dangerous new technology.
Biography[]
Half-Life[]
Early Life[]
As a native of Seattle, Washington, Freeman was a child prodigy when it came to areas like quantum physics and relativity. His earliest heroes included the likes of Einstein, Hawking, and Feynman. At the young of age 6, he even created his own butane-powered tennis ball cannon.
In the late 1990s, Gordon visited the University of Innsbruck and observed a series of seminal teleportation experiments conducted by the Institute for Experimental Physics. After witnessing these experiments, Freeman developed an obsession for the practical application of teleportation. He eventually attended MIT where Isaac Kleiner became his mentor. In 1999, at the age of 17, he graduated with a doctorate (PhD) from MIT with a thesis paper about the teleportation of matter through dense elements.
Working At Black Mesa[]
Gordon was disappointed with the slow pace and poor funding of academic research, and thus looked for a job inside the private sector. With Kleiner leading research project at the Black Mesa Research Facility, located in New Mexico. He was looking for a few bright associates to help him with his work, with Gordon being the first choice. A certain Judith Mossman also applied for the position, though. Considering the source and amount of funds available to the Black Mesa labs, Gordon was strongly suspicious that he would be involved in some kind of weapons research, but in the hopes that he would be able to help with practical civilian applications, he accepted his old mentor's job offer.
At the start of Half-Life on May 16th, 2009, the day of the Black Mesa Incident, Gordon Freeman is 27 years old with no dependents. He works in the Anomalous Materials where he holds a Level 3 Research associate position. He lives in the Level 3 dormitories in the Black Mesa South Wing, alone in room 309. His administrative sponsor is unknown to him, but it is later revealed to be the G-Man.
In the Anomalous Materials laboratory, he does nuclear, subatomic, and quantum research. Despite being a child prodigy with a PhD from the prestigious MIT, the laboratory work that Freeman actually does in the labs require little to no intellectual expertise at all. It is also frequently implied that Gordon would compete with Barney Calhoun in multiple "vent-races" to retrieve Kleiners keys whenever he locked himself out of his office.
In his locker, there is a picture of Gordon's niece, two science-fiction books, Gordon's diploma, a thermos, a cup, two sticky notes, a blue shit, and an HEV suit battery.
Black Mesa Incident[]
On May 16, 2009, at 7:30 AM in the morning, Freeman is being instructed by Gina Cross's holographic recording tapes for HEV suit training. This is commonly known as the Hazard Course. At 8:47 AM, he starts his tram ride from Level 3 Dormitories at Black Mesa to the Anomalous Materials lab. Running 30 minutes late, Gordon and his team perform an experiment on sample GG-3883 in the Sector C anti-mass spectrometer. The experiment goes wrong (partially due to outside manipulation), and triggers a Resonance Cascade. Due to this, the space-time continuum is ruptured, allowing alien lifeforms to enter the Black Mesa facility. The vast majority of these lifeforms are hostile, immediately trying to kill any humans they find.
After waking up from the resonance cascade, Gordon finds himself being hunted by two separate groups: the invading aliens and the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit, a military cleanup crew that has been sent to cover up the incident, by slaughtering aliens and surviving personnel alike. Against all odds, the relatively untrained theoretical physicist manages to not only survive the cascade (largely due to his HEV suit that he carries throughout his journey), but also impressing the few remaining scientists and security guards that survived the initial chaos. His heroic actions eventually lead to him becoming the HECU's top priority target.
After numerous near-death situations, and after fighting through hordes of aliens and dozens of HECU squads, Freeman is eventually transported by the remaining Lambda Team scientists to Xen, the alien homeworld through which the aliens came from, he eventually eliminates the leader of their invasion force, the Nihilanth. After surviving his final battle in Xen, Freeman is confronted by the infamous G-Man, who had been watching Gordon from a distance throughout the entire incident, potentially even manipulating his fate. The G-Man shows Gordon several locations throughout both Earth and Xen, before finally offering Gordon one last choice: either agree to work for him and his mysterious "employers," or be left for dead on Xen without any weapons and surrounded by hostile alien lifeforms ready to kill him. Unsurprisingly, Gordon accepts the G-Man's offer, ending the events of the first Half-Life game.
Half-Life 2[]
Gordon is awakened in Circa 2029 by the G-Man, who had apparently put him in some kind of altered state after he accepted his offer. The G-Man speaks to Gordon while inexplicable and psychedelic images flash around the two with the G-Man's face extremely close to Gordon's, flashing images of both places Gordon has already visited and will eventually visit over the course of his journey. The G-Man's speech is as cryptic as ever, the most notable line being "the right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world." It is heavily implied that Gordon's biological and physical features did not change in any notable way during this time, as is referenced by multiple people who worked with him while he was still a Research Associate at Black Mesa.
Freeman wakes up on a train with two citizens supposedly being "relocated" to City-17, and as a citizen himself (wearing the same blue jumpsuit that the citizens traditionally wear in City-17). One Citizen makes a remark about how he didn't notice Freeman getting on the train, which implies that he was teleported onto the train in the middle of it's journey. Freeman quickly learns that the Earth has been conquered and subjugated by the trans-dimensional Combine empire. He eventually meets up with Barney and Alyx, eventually joining the resistance against the Combine.
Over the next few days, Gordon battles the forces of the Combine in order to liberate humanity from it's tyrannical grasp. Although he was already famous for his role in the Black Mesa Incident, Freeman develops a reputation as a messiah-type figure among the surviving humans on Earth, who refer to him as "The One Free Man." Only two days after his arrival, he is designated Anticitizen One by the Combine. Having already killed several civil protection troops after awaking, this title represents the individual that poses the greatest threat to the empire. After killing countless squads of Combine soldiers and leading the assault against the Combine stronghold of Nova Prospekt, Gordon sparks a large-scale rebellion against the Combine's rule on earth, where he becomes the most notorious combatant against their tyranny.
Gordon eventually leads an assault on the City-17 citadel, one of the foremost footholds on Earth for the Combine. He eventually destroys the teleport core of the Citadel by detonating the dark fusion reactor, which renders the citadel inoperable. Although he was caught in the reactors explosion along with Alyx, Gordon is rescued by the G-Man right before certain death, who tells Freeman he's been impressed by his work. Rather than offering Gordon "the illusion of free choice", the G-Man is taking the liberty of choosing for him, and deposits Freeman back in stasis until his services are needed again.
Half-Life 2: Episode One[]
The G-Man appears once again to Gordon in the citadel. This time, however, he is interrupted by a large group of purple-glowing Vortigaunts who take Alyx and Gordon away while blocking the G-Mans path. The G-Man is angry about this recent development, but let's it slide for now as he's powerless against the Vortigaunts.
Gordon eventually regains consciousness a few hours later under a pile of rubble and is rescued by Alyx and Dog. The group quickly learns that the only way to escape the Citadel's explosion, which would obliterate virtually all of City-17 and then some, is to contain the core of the citadel, stalling the structure long enough for an escape. Gordon and Alyx proceed further into the citadel to achieve this goal, only to find that the remaining combine soldiers inside the citadel were attempting to deliberately set it off in order to send a distress signal to the Combine Overworld since the destruction of the teleporter core.
Apparently, this is considered an acceptable outcome by the Combine due to the damage the citadel has already taken, and also due to the fact that the Battle of City 17 had gone increasingly in the resistance's favor (they practically had control over the entire city at this point). Gordon and Alyx manage to escape the citadel while also averting it's destruction for a few hours. They also escape with a copy of the distress message, meeting up with Barney and the remaining City 17 resistance survivors.
The group eventually escapes City 17 via an evacuation train as the Citadel's dark fusion reactor finally goes off. The Combine's message is successfully transmitted as several advisor pods escape from the citadel, traveling at great speeds. Gordon and Alyx are still close enough to the city to be hit by the shock-wave as the citadel is finally destroyed.
Half-Life 2: Episode Two[]
The train that Gordon and Alyx escaped on in Episode One was apparently caught in the shock-wave and derailed. Gordon and Alyx crawl out of the train and begin heading to White Forest, a resistance base where Eli Vance, Isaac Kleiner, and Arne Magnusson have set up shop. Unfortunately, there are many obstacles along this route.
Just as Alyx and Gordon were about to head into an abandoned mine shaft, a Hunter attacks and severely wounds Alyx, who is only saved due to the Intervention of multiple Vortigaunt allies. Alyx is saved through the use of a larval extract that Gordon retrieves from an Antlion hive. The G-Man briefly appears to Gordon as Alyx is being saved to remind him that Alyx is also under his watch, requesting that he safely escort her to White Forest as repayment for his own survival. Once Alyx recovers, the pair make their way to White Forest.
The journey is far from easy, as Gordon is forced to traverse through a zombie-infested mining settlement that was used as a rebel outpost in order to retrieve a car used to allow them to travel much faster. On the road, the pair encounters a radio tower that is used to send a warning about Combine forces to White Forest that they saw traveling north to White Forest. As they are about to leave the area, they are ambushed by several Hunters. They also encounter a Combine Advisor in incubation who would've killed both of them if it wasn't for it's life support being destroyed. After this, they are chased by a Combine Hunter-Chopper into another resistance outpost. Gordon than proceeds to kill a Combine Autogun that was blocking the path of several rebels from moving deeper into the Outlands. The rebels repair their car and they head to the White Forest Inn, where they again survive an ambush where they are both surrounded and outnumbered.
After the two finally arrive at White Forest, Dr. Kleiner receives the data packet that Alyx and Gordon found. Gordon than helps defend the White Forest base from an unexpected infiltration. The data received reveals the existence of the Borealis, an Aperture Science vessel long thought to have been lost to time. It is theorized to contain some sort of advanced teleportation technology. The resistance is ultimately divided on what to do with it, with Kleiner wanting to use it against the Combine, and Eli wanting it destroyed.
After Gordon defends White Forest from an assault from both Hunters and Striders in order to protect the Rocket Launch. Dr Magnusson is able to use the Data Alyx and Gordon retrieved in order to shut down the Combine super-portal before it could open fully, thus preventing a second Combine invasion in which humanity would've almost certainly lost. As Gordon and Alyx depart for the Borealis, two Combine Advisors rip through the base and kill Eli. Although Dog shows up to rescue Alyx and Gordon from the same fate. The screen fades as Alyx is seen weeping over her Father's corpse, the future of Gordon uncertain.
Half-Life: Alyx[]
Description[]
Gordon Freeman is a 27-year-old American MIT graduate with a PhD in theoretical physics, constantly tasked with defending the human race from interdimensional evil. He is often seen wearing glasses and a Hazardous Environment Protection Suit, which provides protection against bullets, explosives, and radioactivity, as well as wielding his signature red-and-white crowbar. Gordon is a silent protagonist throughout the entire series, with his only vocalizations being heavy breathing, occasional pained grunts, and his suit's AI warnings that alert the player to ammo, health, and hazards. His suit grants him almost superhuman abilities, often making him humanity's last hope in times of crisis.
Equipment[]
- The Hazardous Environment Suit: The Hazardous Environment, or HEV, suit is a multi-functional protective suit designed to enhance safety in hazardous environments. It is almost always worn by Freeman, providing him with essential protection in situations that would otherwise be insurmountable without the armor.
- Long Jump Module: The Long Jump Module is a device used by Freeman to navigate Xen, it grants him superhuman agility, allowing him to leap great distances that would otherwise be impossible to reach.
- Crowbar: Gordon's iconic crowbar is the first weapon acquired in both the training mode and the campaign. He uses it to break boxes or other destructible obstacles without wasting ammunition.
- Glock 17: This pistol carries 17 bullets per magazine, with Gordon able to carry up to 250 bullets in reserve. It shares ammunition with the MP5 and is commonly used by Black Mesa security guards and Black Ops Female Assassins, who wield it with a silencer.
- Colt Python: This revolver holds six rounds in a single speedloader, with 36 rounds in reserve. The Colt Python fires highly accurate and powerful shots, making it a devastating weapon.
- MP5: The MP5 Submachine Gun carries 50 rounds per magazine and shares its reserve ammunition with the Glock 17. It fires at a rapid pace with its standard fire mode and can launch grenades from its under-barrel grenade launcher using the secondary fire mode. The grenade launcher draws from a reserve of 10 grenades.
- SPAS-12: This shotgun's primary fire releases multiple pellets, dealing significant damage at close range. The alternate fire releases twice as many pellets, inflicting greater damage at the cost of slower recovery time and consuming two shells per shot.
- Black Mesa Crossbow: The Black Mesa Crossbow is a tranquilizer gun that serves as Gordon's sniper weapon. Its primary fire launches tranquilizer darts and includes an attached scope for precision targeting.
- Hivehand: This biological weapon, used by Alien Grunts, releases hornets when triggered. The hornets home in on targets to inflict damage. It can also fire hornets at a rapid pace, though these do not track targets.
- Armbrust Rocket Launcher: This launcher fires a rocket that begins moving forward after a brief delay and explodes upon contact with any object. By default, the rocket has laser guidance, allowing it to follow the laser's endpoint. The guidance system can be toggled off using the alternate fire mode.
- Tau Cannon: An experimental weapon that fires beams of tau particles with its primary fire. The alternate fire allows Gordon to charge the weapon, unleashing a powerful shot capable of killing most enemies in a single hit. Overcharging the weapon for too long causes it to release stored energy, severely injuring Gordon.
- Gluon Gun: Developed in the Lambda Complex, this experimental weapon is carried on the back. Its primary fire releases a spiral of energy capable of damaging most enemies.
- MK2 Grenades: These grenades detonate five seconds after the pin is pulled.
- Laser Tripmines: These mines can be attached to the ground, walls, or ceiling. Once armed, they explode when the laser beam is disrupted.
- Satchel Charge: Remote-detonated explosives that can be triggered at the user's discretion.
- Gravity Gun: Another iconic weapon of Gordon's, initially designed for handling hazardous materials but repurposed for heavy lifting. The primary trigger discharges energy to punt small objects or push debris. The secondary trigger allows Gordon to lift objects, which can be gently placed down or thrown with the primary trigger. The secondary trigger can also attract distant items, such as boxes or oil drums.
- USP Match: This pistol carries 18 rounds per magazine with a reserve of 150 bullets. Unlike the Black Mesa pistol variant, it does not share ammunition with the MP7 and lacks a secondary fire mode.
- MP7: Carries 45 rounds in each cartridge and 270 in reserve. This automatic submachine gun can fire bullets in a rapid pace and with the secondary fire, it can release a grenade from it's grenade launcher, which carries 3 grenades inside.
- Resistance Crossbow: Constructed by the Resistance during the Combine Era, this crossbow uses heated rebar as ammunition. Its primary fire launches rebar at high speeds, capable of pinning enemies to surfaces. Gordon can use the scope to zoom in for precision shots.
- AR2: A Combine weapon resembling modern rifles. Its primary fire releases energy projectiles in rapid succession, while its secondary fire launches a ball of dark energy that atomizes any creature it touches, including Combine Hunters.
- AT4: This rocket launcher fires a rocket that explodes on impact. Its blast is powerful enough to destroy a Combine Gunship with three hits and a Combine Dropship container with four hits. The launcher includes a laser guidance system, allowing Gordon to steer the rocket to avoid enemy fire.
Appearances[]
Games[]
- Half-Life (1998)
- Half-Life: Source (2004)
- Half Life 2 (2004)
- Half-Life 2: Episode One (2006)
- Half-Life 2: Episode Two (2007)
- Half-Life 2: Lost Coast (2005)
- Half-Life: Alyx (2020)
Gallery[]
Images[]
Trivia[]
- On the back of Gordon’s HEV suit Mark IV is the Valve logo, however this can only be seen by using console commands such as third person or noclip.
- Gordon’s last name comes from that of famous physicist Freeman Dyson.
- Gordon's original player model in Half-Life actually had a ponytail, which explains Gordon's slicked back hair on the official art. In subsequent sequels (and in the fan-made Half-Life remake Black Mesa), the pony tail was removed.
- The only times Gordon Freeman is seen as a non-player character in the series are in Half-Life: Opposing Force, Half-Life: Blue Shift and Half-Life: Alyx (although here he briefly becomes playable at the end).
- The only vocal sounds he makes are heavy breathing and pained grunts when on fire or sustaining heavy fall damage. Though it is worth to mention that he can communicate with scientists and security guards in the first game, and that in the manual of the Playstation 2, it is confirmed that he had a phone conversation.
External Links[]
- Gordon Freeman on the Near Pure Good Wiki
- Gordon Freeman on the Half-Life Wiki
- Gordon Freeman on the Combine Overwiki
- Gordon Freeman on Wikipedia
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