Alma Wade
From F.E.A.R.
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"We all fall down." -- Alma Wade in F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin.
Alma Wade is the main antagonist throughout the F.E.A.R. series. She is a powerful psychic who seeks revenge against Armacham Technology Corporation because of what they did to her as part of Project Origin. Alma is named after the character 'Alma Mobley' in Peter Straub's novel Ghost Story[1]. Her voice and movements in F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin were provided by Alesia Glidewell. [2] Her voice actress in F.E.A.R. and its expansions is unknown.
Contents |
Both Timelines
Alma Interviews
The Alma Interviews center on a particular interview with Alma conducted by an Armacham scientist, Dr. Green, who initially tries to develop a report on Alma but gives up when she is clearly unreceptive to Dr. Green's questions. As the interview wears on, Dr. Green is slowly driven insane by Alma's psychic powers and by the end of the interview she is seen cowering in fear and muttering incoherently, the psychic horror taken toll on her sanity.
F.E.A.R. First Encounter Assault Recon
"I know who you are." -- Alma Wade in Armacham HQ.
The identity and mystery of Alma Wade is the very core of the game, first appearing in the introduction, Alma's presence is felt constantly throughout the game, with hints and glimpses of her life made throughout the game's use of visions and info the Point Man gathers through both Paxton Fettel and some laptops scattered throughout the game. She appears as a little eight year old girl wearing a red dress and has a disturbingly blank, mask-like face almost completely obscured by long dark hair. Right from her first appearance, it is never quite clear if Alma is real, or only exists in the minds of the people seeing her. Bloody footprints can be found in some places where she walks, and she is briefly visible on a CCTV monitor in the South River Wastewater Treatment Plant, in the same room where Bill Moody was interrogated.
Alma was a severely troubled child, gifted with tremendous psychic powers, who suffered nightmares and apparently was attuned to the negative emotions of the people around her. At the age of only three, Armacham Technology Corporation inducted Alma into Project Paragon, where they tested her for every known psychic ability. Alma passed all tests, and, should she appear not to have any psychic ability, Harlan Wade would work tirelessly with her until she was able to focus her powers and complete the objective. When Alma was five, she began to fail all her tests, and it was discovered that she was purposefully failing them. Sometime later, she started a fire in one of the labs. Armacham scientists began to have vivid nightmares, sudden mood changes, and delusions. It was concluded that Alma was psychically attacking them. Soon after, Armacham made plans to keep Alma alive, but to also stop her from being able to harm their employees. In her seventh year, she was recruited into Armacham Technology Corporation's Project Origin with the aim of creating psychics from a psychic for-bearer and to keep Alma from using her psychic powers against Armacham's scientists. Two days before her eighth birthday, she was put into an induced coma and locked in The Vault, a spherical structure located deep inside the secret Origin Facility, blocking her psychic abilities. During the project, Alma was impregnated twice with clone embryos. She gave birth to the First Prototype, when she was only 15 years old, and then a second, Paxton Fettel, when she was 16. Alma caused a "synchronicity event", in which she merged her mind with Paxton, when he was 10, prompting ATC to shut down Project Origin completely and to "pull the plug" on Alma. Life support was removed from The Vault and according to Harlan Wade, she died six days later. Alma was 26 at the time of her death.
Alma is seen repeatedly in F.E.A.R., often only out of the corner of the Point Man's eye, standing in the shadows or darting quickly out of sight. Her appearances are usually preceded by a static radio transmission, logged as "Unknown Origin". As her appearances are almost always accompanied by scenes of extreme violence, this rapidly becomes extremely unnerving. Sometimes all that is heard is her soft, giggling laugh, or indistinct words whispered as though in the Point Man's ear. In the final part of the game, after she is released from The Vault by Harlan Wade her appearance changes to that of a naked, emaciated young woman. Soon after, Alma takes him into a hallucination, but instead it shows a memory that reveals her to be Harlan Wade's daughter and also reveals that the Point Man is in fact Alma's son. In the memory Alma is reaching out to him, demanding to "Give me back my baby!!", only to encounter stern resistance from her father. After that, the Point Man was walking down a hallway on his way out of the building when Alma, again, whispers to the Point Man saying "I know who you are." and also, "My baby". The Point man, after all the horror he went through, exits the building, only to get hit by the explosion from the Origin facility. The Point Man is rescued by a chopper. Though her body is destroyed in the explosion, Alma manifests her appearance on the side of the chopper the Point Man is riding in, causing it to crash and leaving the Point Man's fate unknown.
Vivendi Timeline
F.E.A.R. Extraction Point
Extraction Point begins with a recap of the epilogue of F.E.A.R. with Alma's older self causing the UH-60 Blackhawk Helicopter that the Point Man, Douglas Holiday and Jin Sun-Kwon are in to crash. Alma is then seen standing over the body of Paxton Fettel.
As the Point Man attempts to reunite with Holiday and Jin he sees a vision of Alma shifting between her older and younger form while approaching him in a hallway. When the vision ends the Point Man hears Alma whisper "kill them, kill them all." When the Point Man gets outside of a the ruined apartment block, Jin and Holiday discuss the deserted city. Holiday notes that cities don't evacuate this quick causing Jin to theorise that Alma must have created a temporal and spatial anomaly.
After Jin is captured by Replica Forces when they are reactivated by Fettel, the Point Man enters a chapel where Alma's younger self appears to him asking him to protect her. Fettel then enters the chapel commenting that the Point Man has become prey and that he'll leave the two alone. When Fettel leaves, Alma's older self appears, setting the chapel on fire and attacking the Point Man with Nightmares. The Point Man escapes as the chapel is destroyed in the inferno.
When the Point Man is moving through the warehouse district, after Jin escapes from the Replicas, Alma's younger self is seen, scuttling out from under a rising garage door after Fettel attacks the Point Man with Nightmares and blocks his path with a explosion. The Point Man also finds a voicemail that when activated is Alma whispering "I'm waiting for you." After the Point Man and Holiday reunite, Fettel appears before them remarking that "this is not what she wants." Later Holiday is attacked and killed by a group of Alma's Apparitions.
As the Point Man continues towards the extraction point at the Auburn Memorial Hospital he encounters a dead end and Alma's younger self. Alma's younger self tells the Point Man to follow her, and the walls around the Point Man are pulled away into darkness. He falls down in to a ring of fire as Nightmares attack him; when the world reverts to normal, the door at the dead end has been unlocked allowing him to continue.
When the Point Man enters the Subway System, the lights in the tunnel begin to blow and Alma's older self appears moving towards him before disappearing. Later after Replica forces close the subway gates to try and trap him, Alma's younger self appears and shows the Point Man a way out through the ventilation system. When he enters the vents he sees Alma's younger self scurrying across his path, the vents seem to expand, and he has to pass through a number of black portals. After passing through the portals he sees a vision of a group of Replicas being killed by Alma's younger self. Later, after leaving the ventilation system, he sees Alma's older self before and after encountering a group of Shades in a blood covered room.
While traveling along the subway tracks, the Point Man is pinned down by fire from Replicas. Alma's younger self appears and liquefies the Replicas, before telling him that he's safe now, and Alma's younger self appears again shortly after watching him. Continuing through the subway, the Point Man sees a vision of Fettel confronting Jin. Fettel claims that he won't hurt Jin, but he can't speak for Alma. Later while trying to link up with Delta Force operatives, the Point Man is attacked by Alma's older self while he climbs a ladder. After Jin contacts the Point Man, he comes to a dead end; upon turning, he sees Alma run across his path. After Jin contacts him again to tell him she believes she will die before he can get to her at the Hospital, Alma's younger self appears to him, telling him to hurry.
After the Point Man finds Jin dead, he enters the hospital. In the Pharmacy section of the hospital, he sees Alma's older self and later sees her again entering an elevator with the door closing behind her. He finds another elevator; when he unlocks the doors he again see Alma's older self enter it, this time only on the security monitor. As he gets into the elevator, the lights flicker and then go out as the elevator shakes violently. When the lights come back on the elevator is stuck at the mortuary. The Point Man goes to find a way to reactivate the elevator and sees Alma's older self standing in a pool of blood. He then enters the ventilation system; looking through a grate, he sees Alma's older self walking down a hallway leaving bloody footsteps before she vanishes.
Continuing through the mortuary the Point Man comes to a room where one of the morgue's refrigerator doors is open; the drawer rolls out with Alma's older self on it, as Alma moves to sit up, he is pulled into a hallucination where he is attacked by Nightmares in a burning ring of fire. He falls down through eight rings of fire before he lands in a pool of blood. Swimming down through the blood, he finds himself in a insane asylum. Moving through the insane asylum, he hears Alma whisper "I'm waiting for you." He also see Alice Wade, Harlan Wade, Bill Moody and Charles Habegger trapped in cells. When he enters an open cell, the door closes behind him and the walls start to close in as Alma's older self watches. Just when it appears he will be crushed the world flashes back to normal and he is able to walk out of the cell.
After fighting past more Nightmares, the Point Man comes to Ward E where he sees both Alma's older self and younger self walk towards each other. As they move closer together the walls pull back into the darkness and a white glow appears between the two, everything flashes white and the Point Man finds himself back inside Auburn Memorial Hospital with the blood stains having disappeared from the area. He is also able to make contact with F.E.A.R. coordinator Rowdy Betters for the first time since the Origin Facility Explosion.
F.E.A.R. Perseus Mandate
Alma first appears to Lieutenant Steve Chen in Perseus Mandate while the Sergeant works to recover information from the Armacham Technology Corporation Global Data and Security Center. Chen reports seeing an unaccompanied minor in the building describing her as approximately eight wearing a red dress, when Captain David Raynes questions what Chen is talking about Alma disappears.
Later as the Sergeant is moving through some vents he hears a large amount of fire, dropping out of the vents he follows a trail of Nightcrawler bodies to a pair sof blood stained door when the Sergeant opens them he finds Alma's younger self in a burning room holding two Nightcrawler Light Soldiers up by their throats, the Nightcrawlers explode and the Sergeant is thrown backwards through the window behind him.
Alma isn't encountered again until after the Origin Facility Explosion, she appears as her older self in Old Underground Metro Area just before Chen is killed by a Scarecrow. When the Sergeant catches up to Gavin Morrison he reveals that Alma was not only the primary genetic donor for Project Origin but also for Project Perseus, and that the Nightcrawlers are trying to recover a sample of her DNA from the Armacham Technology Corporation Cloning Facility. As Morrison and the Sergeant make their way through the tunnels to the Cloning Facility, Paxton Fettel shows them a vision of Alma's younger self killing three scientists, claiming that Alma had been dead for three years when she first came for him, and that she destroyed the scientists with the raw edge of her pain. Just after the vision, Alma's older self appears throwing a Replica Armored Truck into the air, which lands on Morrison, killing him.
While moving through the Cloning Facility, the Sergeant comes across a observation gallery; looking into the room below he can see three Nightcrawler Heavy Soldiers cataloging information; however, suddenly Alma's younger self appears and picks off the Nightcrawlers one by one. Deeper inside the Cloning Facility, he comes across a room littered with corpses; when he enters, Alma's older self appears and the corpses begin to rise off the ground, the room flashes white and Alma and the corpses disappear. After reaching the Second Vault the Sergeant see the Nightcrawler Commander recover Alma's DNA. However, he is able to chase the Commander down, kill him and recover Alma's DNA.
Monolith Timeline
DC Digital Comic
The comic takes place directly after the helicopter crash at the ending of the first F.E.A.R. and Jin Sun-Kwon is shown alive but Point Man and Douglas Holiday are absent. After noticing some bloody footprints leading away from the crash, Jin sees that the pilot Bremmer is still alive only to have his flesh melted off. Jin looks out the window only to see the younger form of Alma smiling and her eyes glowing red. She quickly fades away after discovery.
F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin
In F.E.A.R. 2, Alma's presence is felt much more than in the original FEAR, mostly due to the psychic connection she bears with Michael Becket, due to his unknowing part in the Harbinger program. This connection grows more and more over the course of the game, in parallel with Becket's telesthetic signal.
She is responsible for the deaths of most of the Dark Signal squad, killing Fox and Griffin with large tentacles that appear to be the roots of trees - likely from her memories of being on a swing before being shut away in that dark, forcefield-protected sphere they call The Vault. She also appears to take over Keegan's mind, causing him to follow and try to help her. He is fought as the final boss of the game, in a hallucination - looking like he has suffered charring to his entire body and lacking eyes. He fights with Becket, upset that Alma has chosen Becket over himself.
Alma's younger form is not seen throughout most of the game, save for a few scenes at the beginning and certain flashbacks during the game. Her main form is the same as that seen at the end of FEAR, her psychic manifestation of her real body, emaciated and naked, with dead eyes. She does lack the visual disturbances around her body, however.
Early on it is made apparent that Alma has some type of interest in Becket, and to some extent his well-being. This is confirmed from Dr. York's surgical notes, in which he states that Becket nearly died twice during the operating procedure, only to have him stabilize without any direct aid by their part. Upon recovery, Alma is seen watching over him, intrigued but at the same time unsure as to why he can sense her presence. She is then seen leading him deeper into the facility, occasionally pausing to make certain he is following her. Once inside the T.A.C., Becket becomes fully attuned to Alma, and as a result their psychic bond intensifies. When several ATC Black Ops soldiers try to attack him during the attunement process, she grows enraged and kills them. In several other instances, when Becket's life is is grave danger, she protects him, but at the same time she also seems content to just leave him be, allowing Replica or ATC forces a chance to "try" to kill Becket.
Eventually, Alma begins developing romantic feelings for him - indicated by changing her appearance to a healthy, voluptuous woman - but because her emotions are stunted, she becomes obsessed with Becket. Unable to control her desires, Alma impulsively throws herself at him, though in doing so she inadvertently puts Becket's life at risk, due to her volatile psychic nature and unstable emotional feedback. Fortunately, he was able to drive her away before Alma ended his life.
About midway into the game, she comes into physical contact with Becket yet again. Like before, Becket pushes her away, and Alma, angered by his response, cries out: "Why!? WHY!!?" and promptly hurls him against the wall with her mind. Instead of finishing him off, she seems to react with confusion and even fright, possibly due to the fact that Becket regards her as more of a threat than anything else. Her form then changes to a healthy, voluptuous version of herself, albeit still naked. After regarding him for some tense moments, Alma disappears. She comes into contact with Becket several more times over the course of the game, in which he is forced to throw her off. Interestingly, she never pursues him right away, even though she could easily overpower him with little difficulty. At one point however, as Becket steps off the final tram in 'Mission: Approach' Alma runs at him, desperately clinging to him. Even when Becket resists her, she lunges at him again and again until he finally manages to board an elevator, losing her interest for the time being.
By the end of the game, her intentions for Becket become clear: after he is strapped into the Telesthetic Amplifier on Still Island, Alma appears before him. The Amplifier begins to activate, and his mind is locked into a hallucination, where he is forced to fight Sgt. Keegan's phantoms. Whether or not this was Alma's way of imprisoning Becket, or perhaps Keegan's own nightmare world, remains to be known. During the hallucination-battle, Alma is heard vocalizing her ecstasy, and in some instances, when her psychic link is broken, she can be seen raping Becket in the chamber, sometimes even physically struggling with him in order to drive his mind back. At the height of the climax, Becket kills Keegan and switches off the teleshetic device, in which Alma screams as she fades away into particulate matter.
Alma appears to him again, standing amidst a blasted landcape, heavily pregnant with Becket's child. She places his hand on her belly as emphasis to this fact. A small voice is heard to whisper "Mommy".
Notes
- Much mystery surrounds the identity of Alma's voice actress in the F.E.A.R. series, as the games are not in the habit of crediting voice actors by the names of the characters they play.
References
- ↑ http://www.projectorigincommunity.com/Askthedevs3
- ↑ http://www.alesiaglidewell.com/index.php Offical Alesia Glidewell Site
| Armacham Technology Corporation projects | ||
| Projects | ||
| Project Harbinger • Project Icarus • Project Origin • Project Paragon • Project Perseus • Project Pythagoras | ||
| Products | ||
| Abominations • Alma Wade • Dark Signal • Paxton Fettel • Point Man • Replica Forces | ||
| Facilities | ||
| Harbinger Facility • Origin Facility • Perseus Compound • Still Island • Valkyrie Tower • The Vault • Wade Elementary School | ||
