Samuel "Sam" Fisher is the protagonist of the Splinter Cell series of video games (developed by Ubisoft) and novels (endorsed by Tom Clancy). His full name is first seen in Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, the first game of the series, when he was using the computer in the V-22 Osprey to encrypt his call home. Fisher is voiced by veteran actor Michael Ironside in the video game.
Sam Fisher was a member of Third Echelon, a top-secret sub-branch within the National Security Agency (NSA). He is 177 cm (5 feet 10 inches) tall, weighs 78 kg (170 pounds), has greying brown hair and green eyes. He was the first person to be recruited for field operative of the "Splinter Cell" program for Third Echelon. Fisher is an expert in the art of stealth, trained in various techniques and tactics, and highly trained in fieldcraft. He is also an expert in the Israeli hand-to-hand combat system of Krav Maga. In Splinter Cell: Conviction, he utilized the Center Axis Relock, a modern gun-fighting technique used in close quarters combat. He prefers to work alone in the field.
and Sarah was killed by a "drunk driver" in September 2008. However, it was established that the death of his daughter was no accident. After learning this, Fisher attempts to uncover why his daughter was murdered, and what connections it has to Third Echelon, which has become bogged down with red tape to the point of ineffectiveness and corruption. It is soon revealed that Sarah is alive and would have been used as leverage to frame Sam for an unsuccessful coup against the U.S. President.
Sam's direct supervisor and handler was Colonel Irving Lambert, USA (Ret.) (deceased), who coordinated intelligence and objective updates with Fisher during his missions. In addition to being supported by Lambert, Sam was also accompanied and supported on operations by NSA employees Vernon 'Junior' WilkesAnna Grímsdóttir, Frances Coen and William Redding (introduced in Chaos Theory). One of his aides, Dermot Paul ("D.P.") Brunton (introduced in Pandora Tomorrow), became the head of SHADOWNET Operations, a black-ops group within Third Echelon which uses teams of operatives. (deceased),
Fisher has conducted operations in Canada, the Democratic Republic of Congo, China, Iceland, Israel, East Timor, Indonesia, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Iraq, North and South Korea, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Myanmar, Serbia, the Republic of Georgia, and France in order to complete his missions. He has also conducted operations inside the United States, places such as LAX International Airport in Los Angeles, California, New York City, New Orleans, Washington D.C., Ellsworth Federal Penitentiary in Kansas and the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.
Ubisoft's that during his career Fisher had served in lead character artist Martin Caya established in early interviews about the first game of the seriesAfghanistan, where he had an experience in which he was forced to hide under dead bodies in order to avoid being killed in the middle of an operation. Caya also established that Fisher had served in East Germany and in "other Soviet satellite countries leading up to the collapse of the USSR." The novel version of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell establishes that Sam hated his time in the CIA, and that he mostly had official cover (i.e. he was a "diplomatic aide"). The "Bank" mission in Chaos Theory established that Fisher served in Panama during Operation Just Cause when Redding reveals in the level's pre-mission briefing that Fisher was part of a CIA team that raided the same bank during the conflict searching for some of Noriega's drug money. The "Bank" mission also established that he served in Kuwait, where he said he spent the months leading up to the Gulf War "sleeping in a ditch on the road between Baghdad and Kuwait" shortly after the invasion ended in 1990. The end of the training mission in Tom Clancy's Splinter Cellstories from Kuwait". Wilkes makes a comment stating "I've heard crazy things about your work". established that he saw action during the Gulf War in 1991 and was active in Kuwait when Lambert tells Sam "I hope you don't mind I told him ['Junior' Wilkes] some of you.
It was revealed during the flashback level in the series' fifth installment, Splinter Cell: Conviction, that Sam served in southern Iraq during the Liberation of Kuwait campaign when he led a four-man SEAL squad on an operation, which during he and his team was ambushed by Iraqi forces while patrolling a highway along the Al Diwaniyah-Basra border during Operation Desert Storm. Although Sam survived, two of his teammates were killed, and he was subsequently captured. However, his teammate and second-in-command, Victor Coste (callsign "Husky"), who survived the ambush and was left for dead, rescued him after he fought his way through several Iraqi soldiers in order to reach Fisher, who was being tortured for information regarding their mission in the region.
The novel Splinter Cell: Checkmate revealed that Sam served in Senegal where his team was deployed to hunt down and assassinate a French black market arms dealer who had been arming both sides of a brush war between Senegal and Mauritania. Fisher’s team eventually tracked down the arms dealer in Dakar where they eliminated him after weeks of searching through the jungles along the Senegal-Mali border. Shortly after Fisher rescues Douglas Shetland from a hostage situation during the "East Timor" mission in the second game, Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, Shetland established that Fisher had served with the Navy SEALs when he asks Sam "Where are the rest of the SEALs?" to which Sam replies and establishing that he left the Navy in 1996 by saying "I came alone. Haven't been Navy for a decade." It's also been established in the original Splinter Cell in the interview with Sam found in the extra features that he was indeed with the Navy SEALs, when he says "I've had the good fortune in my life to work with some really talented and professional people. U.S. Navy SEALs, the folks at Third Echelon. All real pros.According to his DD214 from the website for Double Agent, Sam rose to the rank of Lieutenant Commander (O-4) The "Sam Fisher Interview" was an exclusive behind-the-scenes video with Sam going undercover as Ubisoft's "technical advisor" after the "Presidential Palace" level.
As a covert operative of the U.S. government, Fisher approaches his target objectives in a gruff, no-nonsense manner, but maintains a light-hearted relationship with his colleagues and even with his momentary hostages (even if he is going to kill them). Fisher has little patience for government bureaucracy or political maneuvering. A political realist, Fisher maintains a cynical, jaded and sarcastic sense of humor about the covert, illegal, and often morally ambiguous nature of his work. In
Pandora Tomorrow, when Lambert informs Fisher that "Nobody knows whether he's (
Norman Soth) a U.S. Agent or a terrorist" Fisher replies that "Those things aren't
mutually exclusive."
At the same time, he is highly loyal and a staunch believer in the ideals his work ultimately protects. He is quickly angered by the casual slaughter of civilians or unarmed military personnel by his enemies.
In the original
Splinter Cell, Fisher is a new member of Third Echelon, and thus his interactions with his commander Colonel Lambert are relatively straightforward and respectful. At the same time, Fisher does drop the occasional "smart" comment at particularly unusual or obtuse mission orders. For instance, during the final level in
Pandora Tomorrow, Sam is in an elevator that shuts down when his enemies cut the power.
Lambert informs him that the lights went out, and Sam retorts with a sarcastic, "Thanks, Lambert."
In
Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, Fisher is shown as rather ruthless towards his enemies, and he appears fairly disappointed when Lambert orders him to avoid enemy fatalities as part of his mission parameters. Frequently holding captured enemies at knife-point, his dialog with them is creative and highly intimidating, though often morbidly humorous to the audience. For example, in the "Penthouse" level in
Chaos Theory, Fisher captures a guard and says: "Pick a number between 1 and 10". When the guard guesses, Fisher says: "Huh. Lucky guess. You get to live. Now tell me something useful or we'll play another round".
However, it must be said that Sam is not a sadistic individual as he states in the
Chaos Theory trailer
"... I take the lives of a few to protect the lives of many. I commit acts of war to preserve the greater peace. I take no joy in killing, but make no mistake; I'll do what needs to be done. Because it's my job. It's my duty. My name is Sam Fisher, and I am a Splinter Cell."
It is stated in the manual to
Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory that Fisher's dark sense of humor during missions is his way of dealing with the tension that he feels during a stealth operation. The manual explains that Fisher is an extremely competent and experienced soldier and operative, he is also keenly aware of his own limitations and mortality, and thus he uses humor to help keep himself calm in the frequent dangerous situations he is often ordered into.
Throughout the games, Fisher attempts to uphold what he believes is "right". A notable instance occurs in
Chaos Theory during the war in the South Korean capital of Seoul where Lambert instructs Fisher to leave the unconscious bodies of downed pilots at the scene of the crash, which Fisher is about to demolish via airstrike. While the game allows the player to demolish the site, he or she can first pick up the pilots and carry them to safety. Lambert tells Fisher to stop because it may compromise the mission, but Fisher continues anyway. Lambert then reminds him that his valiant actions can not be officially recognized and that he will not receive a medal, to which Fisher replies, "Medals don't help me sleep at night, Lambert."
Another instance is when Fisher is ordered not to tamper with the corpse of tortured computer engineer Bruce Morgenholt, whose body could not be extracted. The player may choose to cut down the ropes binding the corpse, causing Lambert to admonish Fisher who replies by saying, "Just because he's dead doesn't mean I have to leave him here hanging like a piece of meat ... You can spare thirty seconds for some simple dignity."
Occasionally, Fisher demonstrates complete contempt for the mission objectives to the point where the player may decide to not comply with all the parameters. In one instance in
Pandora Tomorrow, Fisher is suddenly told to kill Dahlia Tal, a
Shin Bet double agent with whom he had been working. If the player kills her, Fisher angrily asks, "Tell me what I just did, Lambert", and "Killing unarmed women seems mighty close to terrorism." If the player does not, Lambert shouts at Fisher to which Fisher responds, "I'm going to need a little more warning to shoot unarmed women," and "You said jump, and I didn't. When I get back to the States, I'll sit facing the corner in a
cone hat." In either case, Fisher openly declares his moral disagreement with the order to shoot Tal.
Another time he shows contempt for the missions, is in the bath house level of
Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, when the player has the choice to shoot Shetland or not. The player can shoot Shetland, but if he holsters his weapon, then Shetland will attack, and Sam will be forced to kill him anyway. He holds loyalty in very high regards and maintained multiple times in the story that he felt Shetland was playing straight. "If Shetland's crooked I'll take him down myself", he mentions as the plot thickens. At the climax of Shetland's rogue-rant in the Japanese bathhouse he taunts Sam with lines like: "You've made yourself the instrument of a policy you don't believe in, Sam. Walk away", "Blood is thicker than water and you and I have bled a lot together. You're trading your honor for their agenda", and "You wouldn't shoot an old friend". Douglas' betrayal toward Sam by trying to shoot him despite having holstered his weapon makes Sam sarcastically remarks"You're right...I wouldn't shoot an old friend", as he was forced to stab him instead.
Another side of Fisher's personality is his occasional compassion for unlikely individuals. One example is during the "Kalinatek" level of the original
Splinter Cell, when he talks to a wounded technician who asks Fisher to carry him to the medical room. After he does so, the technician will talk with Fisher more before he dies.
Abilities
Athletic Skills
Fisher is extremely agile and athletic. He is capable of many different climbing and scaling abilities, such as step-jumping to climb raised walls, performing a split leg maneuver to keep himself supported for a long period of time, as well as being able to hold tight to ceiling pipes or even the undercarriage of a moving train. He is also strong enough to lift the body of a full grown man onto his back and carry it around, and can run somewhat faster than the average soldier.
Fisher uses very unorthodox climbing techniques (split jumps, half split jumps, drop kick attacks, Inverted Neck Break, difficult techniques to climb pipes, etc.). Speculation points to his having cross-trained with Israeli hostage-rescue rappelling and climbing sections, also known as "Terror Monkeys." These people are widely acknowledged experts in climbing in order to conduct assaults from above. In the novel, Fisher's acrobatic maneuvers extend to using not only walls, but also furniture and even human beings to push off from in order to escape. Strictly speaking these are not unarmed combat techniques - Many of these techniques are forms of parkour, for instance, in Conviction Sam can wallrun up to get to higher ledges and can perform a small variety of vaults. If you pay close attention to Sam as you make him jump out of a window or over a rail he will do a simple vault and go into a cat grab. As the player does so then he/she can make Sam shimmy to the sides, climb, or drop.
Stealth Tactics
As the nature of Fisher's job relies on stealth and non-detection, he is highly adept at blending into shadows and moving silently. He is able to sneak up on most opponents undetected and quickly subdue them using either lethal or non-lethal means.Close Combat
The first novel,Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, and the series' fifth game, Splinter Cell: Conviction, establish that Fisher "exclusively uses Krav Maga
for unarmed combat. Krav Maga
is a combat form that was developed by the Israeli Special Forces
. He has reached the advanced level of 3B under the tutelage of his instructor, Katia Loernstern (who later dies in the second novel, Splinter Cell: Operation Barracuda). This system is widely used by special operators, police, and similar personnel. It also bears mentioning that even though he is an American and he specifically states that he is not Jewish, he had an excellent working relationship with Israeli security services, and he seemed intimately familiar with Israeli weapons (including brand new ones). However in the first two games Fisher's hand-to-hand capabilities seemed limited in direct combat with opponents, (this was obviously for gameplay purposes) but becomes much more effective in hand-to-hand combat
and even gains the ability to use a knife
to deadly effect in Chaos Theory.Linguistics
Fisher possesses a command of a startling number of foreign languages and scripts including Russian, German, Korean, Arabic, Chinese, Persian and Spanish. This is stated and demonstrated explicitly in the novels. However, in Pandora Tomorrow there are two instances where Sam asks a guard how good their English is.Dexterity
Although Fisher usually fires right-handed, he is also able to shoot left-handed (Chaos Theory), in order to keep better cover without any apparent loss of accuracy. It is unknown whether he acquired or perfected this talent in the time between Pandora Tomorrow and Chaos Theory or he always had this ability without it being included in the first two games' controls, but the former seems unlikely.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Fisher_%28Splinter_Cell%29
