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I'm about to pull the plug on your Subject 17. So either get me results or get another person in that Animus.
~ Rikkin to Warren Vidic.

Alan Rikkin is the secondary antagonist of the Assassin's Creed franchise.

He is the CEO of Abstergo Industries and a member of the Inner Sanctum of the Templar Order.

He was voiced and portrayed by Jeremy Irons, who also played Scar in The Lion King, Simon Gruber in Die Hard With a Vengeance, Profion in Dungeons & Dragons, Rodrigo Borgia in The Borgias, Humbert Humbert in the 1998 film adaptation of Lolita, John Tuld in Margin Call, and Ozymandias in Watchmen.

Biography[]

Origins[]

Alan Rikkin's past is largely unknown, most likely due to the Templar Order's secretive nature. He was born sometime around the 1950s, as evidenced by his physical appearance. He rose through the Templar's ranks during his life until becoming one of the leaders of the group and was a feared name to the Brotherhood of Assassins, the Templar Order's age-old enemies.

Among the things he learned of during his life was the existence of the First Civilization, the ancient species responsible for the creation of the Pieces of Eden artifacts, including the Apples of Eden. Sometime during the 70's, he married a currently-unknown woman, and they had a daughter named Sophia in 1980, born in the United Kingdom. Alan's wife was killed by an Assassin in 1984, leading to him desiring revenge against the Brotherhood.

He was present at a trailer park in 1986 when Templar agents in black vehicles arrived to kill Assassin Joseph Lynch; however, instead of killing him, they decided to hold him prisoner for what would eventually become the Animus project.

Sophia grew up to become a scientist for Abstergo, experimenting with the Animus. Alan Rikkin became the CEO of Abstergo Industries in January 2012, following the demise of his unnamed predecessor. He reported directly to the Elder Council of the Templar Order and was dubbed the leader of the Templars by the Assassin Brotherhood.

Subject 17[]

He oversaw the Animus Project supervised by Dr. Warren Vidic and Lucy Stillman, reviewing the data obtained from Subjects 12-16. By the start of Assassin's Creed, he was becoming frustrated that it was taking a few days for Desmond Miles – Subject 17 – to synchronize with the memory they needed to map the locations of the Pieces of Eden, one of which would replace the Apple needed to power the Eye-Abstergo satellite. Desmond was able to review e-mails between Warren Vidic and Rikkin, as Rikkin seemed to be losing patience with Vidic over his supposed inability to carry out their plan with Eye-Abstergo. This plan, however, was jeopardized by Desmond Miles escaping the Abstergo facility in Rome with help from Lucy at the start of Assassin's Creed II

Attention to Other Matters[]

By Assassin's Creed III, following Desmond's attack on the Rome facility on December 2012 to rescue the captured William Miles (which resulted in Desmond killing Daniel Cross and Vidic), the lack of an Apple of Eden forced Rikkin to put Eye-Abstergo on hold indefinitely.

He was also credited in the credits of the Liberation video-game made by Abstergo Entertainment as the CEO of the company.

He later made contact with Abstergo Entertainment CCO Olivier Garneau in 2013 during the time that they were using the Animus to learn about pirate-turned Assassin Edward Kenway. They spoke multiple times regarding the Observatory, a First Civilization temple that Edward had been to. In 2014, he sent a message to Melanie Lemay, who'd taken Olivier's place after he'd been killed by the Templars after discovering their sinister plans. He offered Melanie a raise for her performance and looked forward to working with her in the future.

Shortly after Templar agent Violet da Costa retrieved the Shroud of Eden from underneath Buckingham Palace in late 2015, he met with Alvaro Gramatica, who informed him of what he'd learned from it. The Phoenix Project, the Templars' plan to re-create and map perfect First Civilization DNA, is then pushed forward on Rikkin's orders, given that the Shroud's power would make this possible. Unbeknownst to Alan, Violet was planning to use the Shroud to give First Civilization survivor Juno a physical body so that she may take over the world herself.

Assassin's Creed (film)[]

In 2016, Alan Rikkin, seeking to acquire another Apple of Eden, takes part in an Animus experiment occurring in an Abstergo facility in Madrid, Spain, conducted by Sophia. Learning of the Spanish Assassin Aguilar de Nerha, who lived during the time of the Spanish Inquisition, and how he'd come to possess an Apple of Eden, Alan had his bloodline traced throughout history, using his wealth to arrange the plan. He and Sophia learn of Callum Lynch, the last-known descendant of Aguilar, and learned about how he'd been put on death row for first-degree murder. Knowing that they can't use Callum's dead body for the Animus, they devise a scheme to have his death faked and his real self to be brought to the Madrid lab, where other Animus users live.

Alan is present when Callum first enters the Animus and is satisfied with what he's seeing; however, Sophia orders him pulled from the machine after his vitals begin to spike, disappointing Alan. Alan confronts Sophia about this, telling her that the Elders of the Templar Order are going impatient with their lack of progress in finding a working Apple, but she defends her decision. Alan nonetheless holds confidence in her, jokingly-saying "2016, Sophia Rikkin finds the cure for violence". He meets with the Elders later, with his superior Ellen Kaye threatening to pull the funding on the Animus Project entirely if he didn't give them results. He defends himself and his accomplishments to her, saying that religion and politics have allowed the Order's control to become stronger and that it's about time they give science a try. He is given a 2-day deadline, at which point he'll have to present the Apple to the Templar Order; if he doesn't have it by then, the Elders will cut their losses and remove him from power.

For a second time, Callum is put into the Animus, with Alan watching, having returned from the meeting with the Elders. Callum becomes more in-sync with Aguilar at this point; however, when Aguilar pulls off a Leap of Faith, Callum's vitals spike yet again, forcing Sophia to remove him from the machine to save his life. Again, Alan tries to talk to Sophia about this, and again, she defends herself; as it turns out, for the Animus to work properly without the risk of killing Callum, he must go into it of his own free will. Sophia begins to question Alan's true intentions, but he proceeds to put her mind at ease.

Knowing what's at stake, Alan enters Callum's cell, telling him about the Templars' goals and authority, hoping to convince him to re-enter the Animus without being forced into it. He describes to him the evil of the Assassin Brotherhood, considering them to be nothing more than heartless killers, and tells him about his father Joseph, who is actually in the facility now, having been taken in 1986 after catching him with his wife's corpse; he reveals that his mother was also an Assassin. Alan walks Callum into a room with several other captured Animus subjects and orders the guards to remove them, save for Joseph. With the room empty, Alan gives Callum the Hidden Blade that belonged to Joseph, hoping that he'll be convinced to look at the evils the Assassins have committed and go back into the Animus. Callum confronts his father, who tries to justify his actions, saying that his mother wanted to die rather than be subjected to the Animus' torture; this does nothing to change Callum's mind, as he is convinced now more than ever that the Assassins must be wiped off the face of the planet.

Callum willingly returns to the Animus and manages to find out where Aguilar had put the Apple; in the hands of Christopher Columbus, who discovered North and South America. At that moment, the Animus subjects, led by Moussa, revolt against their captors, killing numerous guards and forcing Alan to order an evacuation. Callum, meanwhile, finds himself surrounded by Animus holograms of his Assassin ancestors; Sophia found herself distracted by one of the holograms, who looks exactly like her, hinting at her Assassin heritage. She is taken away to a helicopter with Alan, and they fly away while the Assassins manage to escape the facility.

In London the next day, Alan arrives at the Templar gathering, while Ellen Kaye congratulates Sophia for his work and promising a bright future for her; out of loyalty to him, Sophia allows him to take credit for finding the Apple. Alan presents the Apple taken from the grave of Christopher Columbus, telling them of his plan to use it to control every human mind on the planet, with the audience applauding him. However,

Jeremy Irons Assassin's Creed 2016

Rikkin's death.

his speech is cut short as Callum, dressed in Assassin robes, appears behind him and slits his throat with his Hidden Blade; in the ensuing chaos, which saw the Templars running away and screaming, Callum and the other Assassins present disappear. Sophia finds her father's body lying on the floor and sees that the Apple is gone and has been replaced with a literal apple from the Madrid facility cafeteria; she swears to take revenge on the Assassins for the death of her father.

Trivia[]

  • As shown in e-mails accessible in the original Assassin's Creed game Alan doesn't seem to have a lot of respect for Warren Vidic or Lucy Stillman, showing signs of being impatient towards them both. In other such e-mails that can be found on the Abstergo Industries website (made by Ubisoft, the creators of Assassin's Creed), Rikkin showed that he didn't know certain historical facts, believing Guy Fawkes to have been involved in the French Revolution; when corrected, he claimed "Don't contradict my dates like that again. We are making history here, the past is largely irrelevant."
    • Contrary to this, however, Rikkin's behavior in the Assassin's Creed movie is more calm, collected and intelligent, in addition to being cunning and manipulative. This was likely Jeremy Irons' idea of who the character should be.
    • Additionally, his early middle-aged self's appearance as shown in the series' first installment depicted him as a bald, corporate shark with undistinctive features. If events in 2016 film was any indication, it can be inferred that it was attributed to the attempt to reconnect with his daughter even while not above manipulating her and plagiarizing her speech.
  • The production team behind the Assassin's Creed movie posted a picture of Alan Rikkin's business card on Twitter. If one should call the numbers on the card, a voice message from Jeremy Irons in-character as Rikkin can be heard.
  • Coincidentally, Irons portrayed Alfred Pennyworth in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which also came out in 2016. However, Alfred was a neutral character, whereas Rikkin was a villain.
  • Interestingly, Jeremy Irons also portrayed another fictionalization of Rodrigo Borgia, who appeared in Assassin's Creed II and Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, in The Borgias.
  • Despite being the secondary antagonist of the franchise, he only appeared in the first game, and hasn’t been seen since the 2016 film, which will later be confirmed that his death is canon.
  • Rikkin shares some similarities with Ra's al Ghul from Batman Begins.
    • They both want to use the stolen artifacts to accomplish their goals.
    • Their plans failed and both of them were killed by the protagonists (Cal for Assassin's Creed and Batman for The Dark Knight).
    • Their daughters want revenge for their father's death (Sofia for Rikkin and Talia for Ra's).

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Achaemenid Empire / Greek City-States: Amorges | Gergis | The Immortals | Artazostre | Dimokrates | Gaspar | Harpagos | Pithias | Phila | Augos | Megakreon | Nestor | Sophos | Nestor | Pactyas | Nestor | Akantha | Bubares | Echion | Konon | Phratagounè | Timosa
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Templar Order
Founder
Alfred the Great

Knight Templars
Crusades: Hugues de Payens | Bernard de Clairvaux | Robert de Sable | Maria Thorpe | Tamir | Talal | Garnier de Naplouse | Abu'l Nuqoud | William of Montferrat | Majd Addin | Jubair al Hakim | Sibrand | Haras | Basilisk | Basilisk's champion | Master of the Tower | Apprentice of the Tower | Roland Napule | Armand Bouchart | Armand Bouchart's agent | Frederick the Red | Shahar | Shalim | Isaac Comnenus | Jacques de Molay | Jacques de Molay's advisor | Geoffroi de Charney | Geoffroy de Charny

Mongolian Templars
M[[ngol conquests: Möngke Khan | Asutai | Bayan

Egyptian Templars
Bahri dynasty: Leila

Italian Templars
Italian Renaissance: Rodrigo Borgia | Ludovico Orsi | Checco Orsi | Jacopo de' Pazzi | Uberto Alberti | Francesco de' Pazzi | Vieri de' Pazzi | Antonio Maffei | Stefano da Bagnone | Bernardo Baroncelli | Francesco Salviati | Emilio Barbarigo | Marco Barbarigo | Carlo Grimaldi | Silvio Barbarigo | Giovanni Andrea Lampugnani | Gerolamo Olgiati | Carlo Visconti | Girolamo Riario | Juan Borgia the Elder | Juan Borgia the Younger | Lucrezia Borgia | Cesare Borgia | Octavian de Valois | Micheletto Corella | Silvestro Sabbatini | Malfatto | Ristoro | Lia de Russo | Auguste Oberlin | Fiora Cavazza | Il Carnefice | Caha | Cahin | Faustina Collari | Nicolaus Copernicus | Verulo Gallo | Ilario Lombardi | Il Lupo | Charles de la Motte | Baltasar de Silva | Rocco Tiepolo | Pietro de Galencia | Matteo Favero | Vittorio | Dei Petrucci

Spanish Templars
Granada War: Tomás de Torquemada | Ojeda | Ramirez

Byzantine Templars
16th Century Ottoman Empire: Prince Ahmet | Manuel Palaiologos | Shahkulu | Leandros | Cyril of Rhodes | Damat Ali Pasha | Georgios Kostas | Lysistrata | Mirela Djuric | Odai Dunqas | Vali cel Tradat | Anacletos | Fabiola Cavazza | Cem | Dulcamara | Eveline Guerra | Kadir | Samila Khadim | Andreas Palaiologos | Hasan Pasha | Oksana Razin | Seraffo | Scevola Spina

Chinese Templars
Ming Dynasty: Zhang Yong | Qiu Ju | Wei Bin | Yu Dayong | Ma Yongcheng | Gao Feng
Republican era: Sun Yat-sen | Soong Ching-ling | Stirling Fessenden | Tatsumi | Joffre | Coxworth

Japanese Templars
Sengoku period: Francis Xavier | Alessandro Valignano | Uesugi Kenshin | Mochizuki Chiyome

Caribbean Templars
Golden Age of Piracy: Laureano de Torres y Ayala | Woodes Rogers | Benjamin Hornigold | Josiah Burgess | John Cockram | Julien du Casse | Kenneth Abraham | Jing Lang | Hilary Flint | Lucia Márquez | Christopher Condent | Francis Hume | Mancomb Seepgood | John Barnes | Alejandro Ortega de Márquez | Alphonse de Marigot Charlie Oliver | Cuali | Felicia Moreno | Renardo Aguilar | Sylvia Seabrooke | Vargas

Portuguese Templars
16th Century: Francisco
18th Century: Manuel Pinto da Fonseca | Duarte Jorge Correia Pinto | Lourenço de Noronha

Louisiana Templars
18th Century New Orleans: Madeleine de L'Isle | Rafael Joaquín de Ferrer | George Davidson | Diego Vázquez | Antonio de Ulloa

Colonial Templars/American Templars
American Revolution: Haytham Kenway | Charles Lee | Nicholas Biddle | Benjamin Church | Shay Cormac | Thomas Hickey | John Pitcairn | William Johnson | Man O' War captain | Jack Weeks | Christopher Gist | George Monro | Edmund Judge | Coyote Man | Matthew Davenport | George Dorrance | Johann de Kalb | Eleanor Mallow | Gillian McCarthy | Federico Perez | Johann Rall | Gerhard von Stantten | Jonathan Trumbull | Victor Wolcott
Early 19th Century: Solomon Bolden | Jan van der Graff
American Civil War: William M. Tweed | A. Oakey Hall | Charles W. Sandford | Cudgel Cormac | Peter B. Sweeny | Richard B. Connolly
Late 19th Century: Alice
20th & 21st Century: Albert Bolden | Nelson W. Aldrich | Henry Pomeroy Davison | Thomas Edison | Harvey Firestone | Henry Ford | John Pierpont Morgan | Charles Norton | Ransom Eli Olds | Benjamin Strong, Jr. | Frank A. Vanderlip | Paul Warburg | Harry Dexter White | Buzz Aldrin | John von Neumann | William King Harvey | Lyndon B. Johnson | John Roberts

British Templars
Hundred Years' War: John, Duke of Bedford
Renaissance: Margaret of York | Perkin Warbeck
Golden Age of Piracy: Samuel Parris | William Stoughton | Benjamin Pritchard | Aubrey Hague | Henry Spencer | Emmett Scott | Wilson
Georgian and Colonial Era: Reginald Birch | Edward Braddock | Lawrence Washington | Samuel Smith | Emmet Scott | James Wardrop | Mrs. Carroll | May Carroll | Peter Carroll | Matthew Hage | Frederick Weatherall | Crimson Rose
Victorian Era: Crawford Starrick | Lucy Thorne | James Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan | Philip Twopenny | John Cotton | Pearl Attaway | Malcolm Millner | John Elliotson | David Brewster | Rupert Ferris | Brinley Ellsworth | Reynolds | Cavanagh | Marchant | Robert Waugh | William Sleeman | Alexander Burnes | Walter Lavelle
Interwar Britain: Thaddeus Gift | Darius Gift | Ferris
21st Century: Graham Westerly

Parisian Templars
Hundred Years' War: Georges de la Trémoille | Jean d'Estivet | John II of Alençon | John II of Luxembourg | Philip III of Burgundy | Pierre Cauchon
Late-Renaissance: Alexandre de Hautecourt | François Ascair | La Morguy | Pierre de Lancre | Ermeline
French Revolution:
Radical faction: Francois-Thomas Germain | Charles Gabriel Sivert | Le Roi des Thunes | Frédéric Rouille | Marie Lévesque | Louis-Michel le Peletier | Aloys la Touche | Flavigny | Marcourt | Maximilien de Robespierre | Jean Gilbert | Denis Molinier | Duchesneau | Arpinon | Payen
Moderate faction: François de la Serre | Élise de la Serre | Chrétien Lafrenière | Comte de Choisy | Jean Burnel | Jean-Jacques Calvert | Le Fanu | Marquis de Kilmister | Magdelaine Lévesque | Marquis de Pimôdan | Julie de la Serre | Marquis de Simonon

Austrian Templars
19th Century: Julius Jacob von Haynau | Hennighan | Konstanze von Visler | Karl Mayr

Russian Templars
19th & 20th Century: Grigori Rasputin | Dolinsky | Yuri Dolinsky | Yakov Yurovsky | Yuri Petrovich Figatner

German Templars
18th Century: Johann Joachim Winckelmann
World War I: Erich Albert
World War II: Gero Kramer

21st Century Templars (Abstergo Industries, mainly)
Alan Rikkin | Warren Vidic | Daniel Cross | Juhani Otso Berg | Laetitia England | Simon Hathaway | Álvaro Gramática | Isabelle Ardant | Violet da Costa | Melanie Lemay | Dominika Wilk


Templar's Allies and Puppets
Xerxes I of Persia | Ptolemy XIII | Cleopatra | Al Mualim | Abbas Sofian | Richard I of England | Sixtus IV | Dante Moro | Paganino | Jiajing Emperor | Isabella I of Castile | Duncan Walpole | Laurens Prins | Vance Travers | El Tiburón | Jean-Jacques Blaise d'Abbadie | James Cook | Kanen'tó:kon | Jacques Roux | Maxwell Roth | Leon Trotsky


Others
Blume Corporation

Assassin Brotherhood & Their Allies
Colonial Assassins | Achilles Davenport | Hope Jensen | Adéwalé | Kesegowaase | Liam O'Brien | Louis-Joseph Gaultier, Chevalier de la Vérendrye | Le Chasseur | Basim Ibn Ishaq | Pierre Bellec

Bellatores Dei
Isidore Mercator | Ebels | Engelwin | Euphrasia | Gozllin


Girolamo Savonarola's forces
Girolamo Savonarola | Painter | Guard Captain | Nobleman | Priest | Merchant | Doctor | Farmer | Condottiero | Preacher

The Tyranny of King Washington
George Washington | Isreal Putnam | Benedict Arnold

Jack the Ripper
Jack the Ripper | John Billingsworth | Olwyn Owers

Mythological Creatures
Gorgon |Minotaur | Hecatoncheires | Sphinx | Cyclops | Cerberus | Living Mommies | Headless Horseman | Spring Heeled Jack
Miscellaneous
Gamilat | Isidora | Gennadios | Diovicos & Viridovix | Burgred of Mercia | Rued | Eadwyn | Patrick O'Hara | Enzio Capelli | Ivarr the Boneless | Ricsige of Northumbria | John Raymond | Modron | Charles the Fat | Ercole Massimo | Madame Lee | Peter Chamberlaine | Bartholomew Roberts | Pierre, Marquis de Fayet | Silas Thatcher | Philippe Rose | Fiend of Fleet Street

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