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“ | It is the way of men to make monsters... and it is the nature of monsters to destroy their makers. | „ |
Harlan Wade is the overarching antagonist of the F.E.A.R. series, manifesting as a supernatural creature known as the Creep. He is the father of Alma Wade, and is responsible for what she has become, causing her to become the main antagonist of the series. He was a scientist who has worked at Armacham Technology Corporation for decades. He pioneered Project Origin and was also the one that initiated the shutdown of that very same project.
Harlan is voiced by Grant Goodeve, who also voices Wolf O'Donnell in Star Fox Assault, and the Engineer from Team Fortress 2.
Biography[]
In 1979, Harlan's wife gave birth to a daughter, Alma Wade. Almost immediately, Alma began to show signs of being mentally unstable, including suffering fits of hysteria, delusions and vivid nightmares. Harlan mentioned the problem to his coworker at ATC, Marshall Disler, who theorized that Alma may be telepathic. Upon learning this, Harlan allowed ATC to begin experimentation on Alma. Some of the tests were more mundane, such as testing to see what abilities she naturally had. Others, such as electroshock, were far more horrific. Alma became so frightened of her father that she cowered from him whenever he grew angry, suggesting that he may have also abused her.
When Alma began to use her powers to fight back against the people experimenting on her, Harlan ignored her desires and pushed on with the experimentation. Eventually, Harlan came to the understanding that Alma was becoming too dangerous to control, leading to the founding of Project Origin. Harlan and his coworkers used Alma's DNA to create a prototype fetus, whom they hoped would grow into a powerful telepathic commander in psychic warfare. However, Harlan was not satisfied with this. He argued that the prototype would be much more likely to be telepathic if it were also to be carried in the womb of a telepath. ATC agreed, but Alma was still only 7 years old, not yet old enough to carry a child.
It is unclear who came up with the idea of putting Alma into an induced coma until she reached puberty, but Harlan can be heard arguing against it in F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin, until the person is able to convince him. Harlan allowed ATC to lock Alma away in an induced coma, which she remained in until she reached 14 years of age. Alma was then removed by Harlan and his fellow scientists and was impregnated with the first prototype. She was removed again when she was 15, to give birth to the baby through induced labor. During the birth, Alma awoke and began to scream, much to everyones' shock. Despite this, Harlan ignored her screams and pleas and removed the child from the room as soon as it was born, leaving the other scientists to put her back into the coma again. When the first prototype proved to be unsatisfactory, Harlan had Alma impregnated a second time.
10 years later, when the second prototype suddenly went rogue, Harlan was the one who personally cut off Alma's life support, leaving her to die over the course of 6 days. For years afterwards, Harlan would rue his decision to allow Alma to be tortured and killed, which would eventually lead to his death at Alma's hands by the time he released her. Knowing exactly what she would do to him, he lets her out and she liquidizes him.
However, this was not to be the last of Harlan, as his daughter's intense fear and hatred of him caused his very own demonic spirit to manifest as the Creep, now intent on taking back Alma's power for himself as well as stealing it from his two grandsons, the Point Man and Paxton Fettel.
Towards the end of F.E.A.R. 3, the player witnesses ghostly flashbacks of the Harlan's abusive nature to his children.