Isaac Clarke
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- "I knew these people. I can't believe they are all dead."
- —Isaac's mission log commentary.[1]
Isaac Clarke, the protagonist/player character of Dead Space, is a systems engineer working for the Concordance Extraction Corporation (C.E.C). Just prior to the events of Dead Space he was assigned to respond to a distress call from the USG Ishimura, the first of the massive planet cracking starships.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early Life
Isaac was born in northeastern America, the son of renowned ship designer Paul Clarke, who left for space when Isaac was still a child. In her husband's absence, his mother Octavia turned to the Church of Unitology. Isaac took after his father and obtained education in electrical and mechanical engineering and was selected to a prominent engineering academy. However, he was unable to afford the tuition because his mother had purchased a Vested-level title in the Unitologist Church. Nonetheless, Isaac graduated with high honors from a lesser college and became a systems engineer like his father. After several years when it became apparent to his superiors that Isaac possessed the ability for original engineering solutions, he was promoted to a position closer to the major shipping lines. Isaac has been attempting to reunite with his father for some time, who had mysteriously gone missing; his personnel files classified by high levels of the government. Isaac previously lived with his girlfriend Nicole, but his career had begun to stagnate about the same time as her assignment - and promotion - to the USG Ishimura two years prior to its communication blackout.
[edit] Events of Dead Space
Engineer Isaac Clarke was one of the five crew members stationed aboard the USG Kellion when it was dispatched to repair the communications array of the USG Ishimura. While Isaac volunteered for the mission due to his resourceful engineering specialties, his ulterior motives for taking part in the hasty operation were to track down his past girlfriend and possibly fiancée, Nicole, who was serving on the Ishimura since her promotion to senior medical officer two years prior. Soon after emerging from hyperspace near the Ishimura's last known position above colony world Aegis 7, the Kellion was struck by a piece of floating debris and forced to crash land in the Ishimura's hangar bay. Shortly after disembarking from the damaged Kellion and noticing that the ship seemed deserted, the party was set upon by unknown assailants; they appeared to be horribly mutated members of the Ishimura's crew, exhibiting murderous rage. The wake of the attack left Computer Specialist Kendra Daniels and the team's commander Captain Zach Hammond shaken with the other crew members killed by Necromorphs, Isaac separated from the rest of the group and the Kellion destroyed.
Still in touch with Kendra and Hammond via comlink and hololink, Isaac aided in the Ishimura's repair through orders involving numerous tasks across the ship. Despite being opposed at every turn by a severe Necromorphic infestation, and later the deranged Unitologist zealot Dr. Challus Mercer, a C.Q.D beacon was eventually placed on an asteroid chunk undergoing ore extraction and purged from the mining hold. The signal attracted the attention of a military vessel, the USM Valor. However, the crew of the Valor was slaughtered by a Necromorph shortly thereafter when they retrieved an Ishimura escape pod which contained a Slasher, trapped and jettisoned from the ship's bridge by Hammond.
With its crew dead, the Valor was left to drift out of control and subsequently sideswiped the Ishimura amidships. A successful attempt to retrieve the Valor's singularity core nonetheless resulted in Hammond's death at the hands of a Enhanced Brute. Returning to the Ishimura, Isaac is contacted by Dr. Terrence Kyne, a scientist who plans to return the Red Marker to colony world Aegis 7 via the remaining shuttle. After Isaac repairs the shuttle with the Valor's singularity core and restores its navigation discs, Kyne is shot and killed by the duplicitous Kendra Daniels. She departs with the marker, revealing herself to be a covert government agent, and that the entire conflict on Aegis 7 was due to C.E.C. interference with the Marker.
Left for dead on the Ishimura, Isaac is saved by Nicole. She appears and compels him to take the Marker back to Aegis 7, recalling the shuttle in the process and forcing Kendra to evacuate. Once on the colony world, Isaac finds the colony to be in a shape of abandoned disarray: covered in gore and the same alien markings found on the Red Marker.
Pulling the Marker through the Necromorph-infested colony, Isaac finally succeeds in returning it to its pedestal. This results in a massive, blinding pulse of unknown energy that disables the gravity tethers holding the cracked chunk of Aegis 7. However, Kendra Daniels appears and removes the Marker from the pedestal, intending to load it into the shuttle and return to Earth. Before leaving Isaac to his fate Kendra insists that he has gone insane, and forces him to watch Nicole's last hololog to the end. After professing her love for Isaac, it is revealed Nicole commits suicide in the wake of the spreading Necromorph massacre. It seems that the Marker itself caused Isaac to hallucinate Nicole's voice and appearance during his horrifying journey through the bowels of the ill-fated Ishimura. Despondent yet determined, Isaac returns to the shuttle pad in time to see a tentacle brutally kill Kendra. Seconds after the tentacle discards her body, the ground shakes and the smoky air fills with an ear-splitting roar as the "Hive Mind" rears up from the planetcrack crater. Finally revealed after having previously been kept at bay by the Marker, the Hive viciously attacks Isaac. He nonetheless manages to defeat the beast by destroying its 'lungs' and 'hearts' just in time to escape the colony as the tectonic load crashes down, obliterating it and, presumably, the Red Marker.
After his narrow escape, Isaac is left alone on the shuttle to lament his experience. While removing his helmet, Nicole's final message begins playing on the main holoconsole. In his heartbroken state, Isaac stops the video before it finishes. Deactivating all holographic displays, he stares disconsolately into space. A sudden, soft movement to his right catches his eye, and he spins around to face a stow-away Necromorph that unnervingly resembles Nicole - and lunges at him while the screen goes red and alien language is shown while a high pitched scream is heard as the game cuts to the ending credits. However, as he will return in the sequel, it is likely this was either another illusion, either created by his mind or the Marker, or that he survives, killing his attacker.
[edit] Trivia
- The name "Isaac Clarke" is an homage to world renowned science fiction authors Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke.
- Although the player can clearly see Isaac's slightly battered face at the end of the game, Isaac's visage can be glimpsed during the game's intro sequence. After the Kellion crash lands inside the Ishimura, the player can rotate the camera view around as Kendra and Hammond argue. Though at this point Isaac's face is not intended to be seen, his face is still fluidly animated like all other characters.
- Nicole is not the only person Isaac knew serving aboard the USG Ishimura. A comment in Isaac's "diary" (accessed via the Objectives tab in the menu) that appears while he's on the Mining Deck implies familiarity with some of the mining crew or even implies that he was a crew member on the Ishimura at one time.
- It is revealed in the Dead Space: Extraction (Comics) that Isaac strongly dislikes Unitologists.
- In Dead Space 2, Isaac is most likely at the Sprawl for medical help because of the effects of the Red Marker.
- Isaac Clarke is the only character to hardly ever speak, sans for grunts, screams and a distorted "Come on!" just before escaping in the shuttle after defeating the Hive Mind.
- It is revealed in the January 2010 issue of Game Informer Magazine that Isaac Clarke will have spoken dialogue in Dead Space 2.
- It has also been noted that Isaac will have a more "expert consultant" role on the Sprawl during the outbreak on the ship. This is very similar to Aliens, in which Ellen Ripley is asked to go with the marines, for she had experience dealing with the aliens.
- Isaac has a Unknown RIG in Dead Space 2. It looks like a battered style of his old suit in Dead Space.
- Isaac more than likely has developed a very severe case of post traumatic stress disorder in his journey through the ill fated USG Ishimura , which could have an effect on the storyline of Dead Space 2.
[edit] Gallery
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[edit] Appearances
[edit] Sources
- ↑ Chapter 7: Into the Void: Mission Log Commentary
