Richard Trager

"Hey, you're that little shit priest's guy aren't you? His... witness or whatever. You must be exhausted. Lets take a break, huh, buddy? The old two martini lunch, have a little confab."

- Richard Trager Richard Trager is a psychopathic villain in the horror game Outlast and is one of the major enemies Miles Upshur encounters in the game. He tricks Miles into coming to him and then captures him for torture.

Background


Trager was originally an executive for Murkoff Psychiatric Systems and seemingly knew Jeremy Blaire, a highly ranked official in the company. During an interview with Billy Hope, Billy says that he discovered the fact that his mother was suing Murkoff and the Asylum through "the blood dreams of Doctor Trager." However, this was long before the Asylum broke into chaos and thus, before Trager was anything less than an executive. Once the security breach occurred, Trager either became maniacal or was able to reveal his evil side and took the title of "Doctor." Within the Male Ward, he set up an organized torture operation, capturing random patients and even executives who had been experimented on. This torture followed a specific order as seen in a message of blood written on a wall by a victim, "Fingers first, then balls, then tongue."

Appearance
Trager is similarly changed like the Variants but does not have any visible deformitites. His skin seems dry and rough and he has become rather skeletal yet leanly muscular. He wears a tattered doctor's mask, a cloth around his waist that only covers the front and some sort of device on his left arm made from a drip filled with blood. He also has a strange monocle-esque set of glasses and is almost completely bald, save for a small amount of gray hair on the back of his head.

Personality
Trager is heavily psychotic, but retains a great deal of intelligence. The only thing that makes him insane is his deep desire to hurt and kill people, making him a sadist and murderer. He is intelligent enough to simply open most doors, organize torture and speak coherently.

He speaks in a very calm manner, even when hunting Miles in the halls, using the nickname, "Buddy" frequently in reference to Miles. He speaks in a friendly tone and has a snarky, sarcastic way of speaking, even taunting Miles by showing him the exit and offering a stroll in the mountain air, even though Miles is totally restrained. This is later shown again when he states to a yelling patient that they weren't using their tongue anyway and quietly says that the trith is he was just tired of licking his own stamps.

He has high disrespect for Father Martin and his religious beliefs and refers to him as a "little shit" and says that he hopes Miles hasn't been confused by all his "holier-than-thou bible thumping." and says, "No offense to the man, but I sometimes worry he might be just a little bit crazy." while holding a blade to Miles' throat.

Outlast
Trager is first encountered when Miles is fleeing from a group of Variants and comes to dead end room with a dumb waiter at the far side of it. A voice comes through a radio near the waiter and tells Miles to get in the waiter to survive and escape from his pursuers. Miles does so and is lifted up to the kitchen where he finds Trager, who then hits him twice to stun him and places him in a wheelchair with arm and leg restraints. He talks to Miles in a very calm way while doing this and sarcastically offers to take him out on a stroll in the Courtyard.

He takes Miles up several floors in an elevator and wheels him through several hallways with previously tortured victims. They enter a room where Trager proceeds to talk about money and Father Martin,  nonchalantly examining several blades to decided which one is best suited for Miles' torture.

He decides upon a pair of gigantic scissor-like tool which he uses to cut off Miles' right index finger and left ring finger, slapping him in the process. He leaves Miles to bleed but Miles is able to escape his restraints before vomiting on the floor and grabbing his camera.

Miles leaves to find a former executive on a hospital bed who states that Trager was an executive like him and says that Trager "got the treatment. He's too alive. Filled with Wernicke's nightmares." He starts to yell and as Miles hides, the victim is murdered by Trager who soon realizes that Miles has escaped, exploding in a fit of verbal rage upon finding out.

Miles sneaks his way around the area, carefully making his way past Trager and is able to to find an elevator that requires a key. Sneaking past Trager once more, he is able to find the key but as soon as he does, Trager stabs a nearby door repeatedly and kicks it down. Miles finally makes it back to the elevator and seemingly escapes.

Trager is not finished however and breaks into the elevator while it is moving down in an attempt to kill him. Miles resists him and pushes him back out of the elevator and then in his struggle to reach Miles, Trager foolishly allows himself to be caught between the elevator and floor, which crushes him to death. Miles exits through a ceiling grate in the elevator and leaves Trager's body to rot.

Outlast: Whistleblower
Trager's body is briefly seen during Waylon's final escape from the Asylum. As the Murkoff Tactical group storms the building, Waylon watches from behind a locked gate as the soldiers investigate his body, now pulled from the elevator. They question what kind of "sick fuck" would do this to someone. Ironically, Trager was the villain and brought his own death upon himself. Trager is never seen again.

Abilities
Trager does not seem to have any extraordinary abilties though he does possess significant intelligence when compared with that of the patients. He is able to track Miles very well through vision, hearing and common sense. He speaks coherently and intelligently and will calmly open most doors. He wields a pair of giant scissors which he can use to easily impale and behead Miles as well as weaken doors with.

He seems to have a degree of enhanced strength as he is able to incapacitate Miles with two simple punches as well as bash down wooden doors. Though this strength seems to be ineffective when Miles is predicting an attack so this is questionable, though it could simply be due to Miles' anger and adrenaline. It is possible he may have somehow become a Variant since he seems to have been slightly augmented physcially and driven mad by some outside source.

Trivia

 * The last name 'Trager' could be a reference to the Trager Approach.
 * Richard's email address is r.trager@murkoffcorp.lu, as revealed in a document that Miles can acquire.
 * It is possible to stop Trager from murdering the Variant by distracting him. If done so, Trager will chase Miles instead of impaling the patient with his shears, however, this will prevent the player from acquiring the "Dr. Rick Trager" note.
 * Trager's walking animation is bugged, causing him to move faster than his legs should carry him. This makes him appear to nearly float as he walks throughout the Male Ward.
 * There's a bug in which Trager will not appear to see Miles if the player activates a checkpoint, and returns to where Trager is.
 * In the game's configuration and on the soundtrack, Richard is dubbed as "Surgeon".