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Half-Life Ending Speech

Half-life ending speech lyrics.

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The G-Man is a key, yet mysterious and enigmatic character in the Half-Life series . Referred to as a "sinister interdimensional bureaucrat", [6] he is known to display peculiar behavior and capabilities beyond that of an ordinary human, and his identity and motives remain almost completely unexplained. He plays the role of a sponsor, [7] [8] overseer, and eventual employer, watching over Gordon Freeman and other characters as the series progresses.

• 1.1.1 Half-Life
• 1.1.2 Half-Life: Opposing Force
• 1.1.3 Half-Life: Blue Shift and Half-Life: Decay
• 1.1.4 Half-Life 2
• 1.1.5 Half-Life 2: Episode One
• 1.1.6 Half-Life 2: Episode Two
• 1.1.7 Half-Life: Alyx
• 1.2 Appearance and speech
• 1.3 Personality and skills
• 1.4 People aware of the G-Man
• 2.1 Briefcase
• 2.2 Other objects
• 3.1 Half-Life
• 3.2 Half-Life: Uplink
• 3.3 Half-Life: Opposing Force
• 3.4 Half-Life: Blue Shift
• 3.5 Half-Life: Decay
• 3.6 Half-Life 2
• 3.7 Half-Life 2: Episode One
• 3.8 Half-Life 2: Episode Two
• 3.9 Half-Life: Alyx
• 3.10.1 Half-Life 2
• 3.10.2 Half-Life 2: Episode Two
• 4.1 Retail Achievements
• 4.2 Cut Achievements
• 5 Behind the scenes
• 7.2.1 Half-Life and its expansions
• 7.2.2.1 Pre-release
• 7.2.2.2 Retail
• 7.2.3 Half-Life 2: Episode One
• 7.2.4 Half-Life 2: Episode Two
• 7.2.5.1 Pre-release
• 7.2.5.2 Retail
• 8.1 Main games
• 9 References

Biography [ edit ]

Appearances [ edit ], half-life [ edit ].

The G-Man is first seen during the Half-Life introduction sequence standing in an electric tram that's stopped on the track along the Sector C Line of the Black Mesa Research Facility . Briefly glimpsed by Gordon, to whom he is the classified administrative sponsor of, [7] [8] from a tram on an opposite track, the G-Man manages to arrive at the Sector C Test Labs and Control Facilities before him. Before the experiment begins, the G-Man can be seen engaging in a heated argument with a scientist in a locked, sound-proof room of the Research section of the Anomalous Materials Lab where only mumbling can be heard. Following the catastrophic Resonance Cascade which commences the game's action through Black Mesa, the G-Man can be seen quietly observing Gordon from several out-of-reach areas as the game progresses.

After Gordon defeats the Half-Life final boss, Nihilanth , the ruler of Xen , the G-Man brings the player to "safety" in an inexplicable, abstract sequence, appearing beside Gordon, having stripped him of his armaments , claiming that "most of them were government property". However, he allows Gordon to keep the HEV Suit , stating he believes Gordon has “earned it”. As he shows him various areas of Xen, the G-Man tells Gordon that he has been observing him very carefully and praises him for his actions in Xen, which is now in his "employers'" control. As he says this, dead HECU Marines, destroyed tanks and a downed jet can be seen around this area of Xen, suggesting that U.S. military forces participated in capturing Xen for the G-Man's "employers", although this may merely be part of G-Man's illusions.

Eventually, the scene changes into what appears to be a Black Mesa tram traveling through space at high speed. The G-Man then informs him that he has recommended Gordon's services to his "employers" and offers him a job. The player is given the "illusion of free choice" being reminded of this by the G-Man at the end of Half-Life 2 . Regardless of the decision made, there was ultimately only one inevitable outcome. [9]

Half-Life: Opposing Force [ edit ]

In Opposing Force , the G-Man plays a slightly more direct role in the story, alternately hindering and aiding the player, Corporal Adrian Shephard , as well as simply observing.

During the boot camp training chapter, the G-Man can be spotted at a window speaking to an officer and occasionally glancing at the player. Since Instructor Barnes mentions that Shephard's training has been mysteriously accelerated, the implication is that the G-Man had an interest in Shephard before the Black Mesa incident, for unknown reasons.

During the chapter Welcome to Black Mesa , Shephard is trapped on a small walkway, with deadly radioactive liquid rising steadily towards him. The G-Man opens a door, allowing him to escape and save his life. One chapter later, "We Are Pulling Out" , as Shephard attempts to evacuate Black Mesa with the rest of the marines, the G-Man closes a hangar door, forcing him to remain at the base. Later on in the chapter "The Package" , the G-Man is seen rearming the nuclear bomb that destroys Black Mesa, while Shephard had deactivated it moments prior.

After Shephard defeats the Gene Worm at the end of the game, the G-Man appears again. On this occasion, Shephard finds himself on board one of the HECU 's Osprey Heliplanes , facing the G-Man. The G-Man informs Shephard that, contrary to his employer's original wishes, Shephard is to be spared, but detained. The G-Man says that he has been impressed by Shephard's ability to "adapt and survive against all odds" in the Black Mesa facility, and comments that these are traits that remind him of himself. As the G-Man delivers this closing monologue, the plane carries them away from Black Mesa, shortly before a nuclear blast flashes outside confirming its destruction. The aircraft's location then suddenly switches to the skies of Xen , then finally to an emptiness similar to that encountered by the Black Mesa tram at the end of Half-Life . The G-Man then leaves Shephard via a portal in the cockpit, and the screen fades to the closing titles.

Half-Life: Blue Shift and Half-Life: Decay [ edit ]

In both Blue Shift and Decay , the main characters of each game, Barney Calhoun and Doctors Gina Cross and Colette Green , see the G-Man on one occasion near the beginning of each game, but he either doesn't seem to notice any of them, or he simply ignores them.

Half-Life 2 [ edit ]

Half-Life 2 begins with Gordon being greeted by the G-Man around 20 years after the Black Mesa Incident while seeing a dream-like montage of images such as the Black Mesa test chamber, and interior areas of the Citadel . In his speech, the G-Man hints that he put Gordon into stasis for his own safety, and that an opportunity has now arisen which will allow Gordon to begin his campaign against the Combine forces on Earth. He continuously refers to Gordon Freeman as "Mister Freeman" throughout the introductory sequence, forgoing Gordon's proper title of doctor. However, during the ending sequence, he refers to Gordon as "Doctor Freeman".

The G-Man is briefly visible at various other points during the events of the game, including along the different vehicle sequences, but these are only from a great distance or as seen on video terminals until the game's finale. After an uphill battle in the Citadel , Gordon causes critical damage to the structure's Dark Energy reactor, resulting in an explosion that might have caused his death, had the G-Man not seemingly stopped time in order to extract Gordon to safety to await further "employment offers" (while apparently leaving Alyx to perish in the explosion). The game ends with travel through the same emptiness that was the Half-Life ending, and with the G-Man stepping through some sort of doorway portal, though not before fixing his tie.

The G-Man, at this point, makes it clear that he will once again be placing Gordon in stasis while he entertains some "interesting offers" for Gordon's services, this time making no mention of his "employers," as he had in Half-Life , justifying that the current situation is "extraordinary" enough to contemplate taking up any of these offers. Before their final showdown, Doctor Breen also asks Gordon, "Did you realize your contract was open to the highest bidder?", probably a reference to the "contract" Gordon has with the G-Man.

Half-Life 2: Episode One [ edit ]

The G-Man is only seen once in Episode One . At the beginning of the game, which begins at the point when Half-Life 2 ends, he walks back into the black void that he left Gordon in and opens his mouth to say something but then notices a purple glowing Vortigaunt to his left. He appears to be slightly amused at the sight, but then notices another on his right, and the smile drops from his face. As more and more Vortigaunts appear, he begins to look irritated, and then, as he looks toward Gordon, he realizes what is happening. Irritation changes to anger. As two more Vortigaunts stand on either side of Gordon and grab his arms, the G-Man straightens his tie more violently than before and responds to their chant with a single sentence: "We'll see... about that !". Gordon is then immediately teleported away and found by Dog in a pile of rubble just outside the Citadel .

This incident shows the Vortigaunts have the ability to enter the G-Man's realm. This is also the first time any hindrance (definitive or temporary) is seen in the G-Man's plans.

Half-Life 2: Episode Two [ edit ]

The G-Man first appears to Gordon while a group of Vortigaunts is occupied healing the heavily wounded Alyx Vance. He explains that the reason for his absence is that the Vortigaunts have been preventing him from appearing to Gordon, thus he needed to wait for the Vortigaunts to be preoccupied so that he could contact him. Just like in Half-Life 2 , he appears in a surreal, dream-like sequence taking place in several locations: the rocket silo located at White Forest , the same corridor as the one seen in the message left by Judith Mossman , and what seems to be the entrance to the Anomalous Materials Test Labs in the Black Mesa Research Facility from Half-Life (it might also be another entrance, but this place being a striking Half-Life element, the differences seen are likely just aesthetic and related to the different game engine). He then explains that he was the one to "pluck" Alyx Vance from Black Mesa, despite objections from unidentified naysayers that she was "a mere child" and "of no practical use to anyone" (an image of Doctor Breen flashes in the background at this comment). He then instructs Gordon to safely escort Alyx to White Forest, as repayment for the G-Man's previous ensurance of his survival, stating he wished he could do more than simply monitor Gordon, but has agreed to "abide by certain restrictions." While Alyx is still unconscious, he then whispers into her ear to tell her father to "prepare for unforeseen consequences " when she sees him. During the sequence, he seems to be less rigid and more human-like and is not seen carrying his briefcase.

Eli is noticeably disturbed by the words, to the point where he almost collapses in shock. After making up an excuse for Alyx to leave the room, Eli reveals to Gordon that he is aware of their "mutual friend" as well. He explains that the G-Man delivered sample GG-3883 which ultimately caused the Black Mesa Incident, and whispered in his ear to "prepare for unforeseen consequences" shortly before the Resonance Cascade . Eli then begins to express hope that he and Gordon will be able to take some unknown action, but is interrupted by Alyx 's return. Shortly after, Eli tells Gordon he believes the message is a warning regarding the Borealis , and reiterates his belief that it should be destroyed lest the events of Black Mesa repeat themselves. Whatever Eli knew is left unsaid, as he is killed by a Combine Advisor before having the opportunity to elaborate further.

Half-Life: Alyx [ edit ]

Five years prior to the return of Gordon Freeman and during construction of the Citadel , the Combine manage to track an unknown figure of importance to an apartment building located in City 17 . The Combine haphazardly contain this individual by taking the whole building and constructing a Vault around it. The Vault itself is left hovering over the Quarantine Zone , powered by energy harvested from Vortigaunts held captive in substations. The Combine made plans to relocate the Vault but were having delays for unknown reasons. After discovering the Vault and believing the individual held inside to be Gordon, Eli and Alyx Vance set out to release him. Just before Alyx enters the Vault, Eli realizes that there's danger and attempts to warn Alyx, but is too late as the signal breaks up just as she proceeds. Despite the Combine's efforts to stop her, Alyx manages to infiltrate the Vault. Alyx opens the shielded cell, revealing the captive to be the G-Man. The G-Man makes an offer to Alyx, showing her a vision of the future where her father is killed by an Advisor at White Forest during the events of Episode Two . The G-Man lets Alyx intervene, saving Eli and killing the Advisor. He then tells her that she has proven herself “to be of extraordinary value” and would be a good replacement for another who has failed or refused to do his bidding, showing her a glimpse of Gordon.

Due to Alyx's actions, Eli's death in Episode Two is prevented. However, Alyx is now missing, having been taken by the G-Man and put into stasis to "await assignment." Realizing what has happened, Eli expresses his anger, vowing to kill the G-Man for this. As Eli hands Gordon his crowbar , the G-Man himself can be seen watching the scene unfold before turning and walking away, vanishing in the process.

Appearance and speech [ edit ]

Physically, the G-Man appears to be a middle-aged Caucasian male with a tall, thin physique, pale skin, a prominent widow's peak, black hair shaped in a military-style crew cut, and pale green eyes. Throughout the entire Half-Life series, he is seen dressed in a gray/blue suit with a purple tie, except in the High Definition Pack where his tie is striped red and black. He is almost always seen carrying a briefcase.

The G-Man speaks in a slow, raspy yet commanding manner, with a certain accentuated low-key moroseness to his tone, bordering on the cryptic. He also has an odd habit of placing unusual stress on syllables, stressing the wrong parts of words, making unneeded pauses, and awkwardly changing the pitch of his voice. He also has a tendency to elongate consonants, especially the "S". His speech is rhotic and sometimes keeps the wine-whine distinction.

Personality and skills [ edit ]

The G-Man can best be described as an enigma. In the Half-Life Audio Script , he is referred to as follows: "The cryptical bureaucrat, mystery man with a briefcase. He appears in the shadows, disappears when you chase him down dead-end corridors. He leads you into danger and guides you to safety, as the whim strikes him. His motives remain mysterious, but at the end of the game, when you have extinguished an alien civilization, he offers you a job with whoever it is he works for." [10]

The G-Man possesses a calm, almost disinterested demeanor, particularly apparent in the ruined and alien-infested Black Mesa facility. He can often be seen calmly straightening his tie or brushing his suit lapels with his hands, regardless of whatever chaos may be going on around him. He also has a bit of a dry sense of humor.

He has stepped in directly and rescued Adrian Shephard and Alyx Vance before the destruction of Black Mesa, suggesting that he is capable of mercy, though it is more likely that he merely did this for his own interests.

The G-Man thus far seems to be a master of manipulation, having created pawns of Gordon, Alyx, and Adrian thus far and perhaps countless others. It is also implied that he orchestrated the Black Mesa Incident, suggesting that Dr. Breen may also have been under his influence. He is also shown to be capable of forgiveness and not one to hold a grudge. Even when the Vortigaunts interfere, he later seems confident of his planning once again when he appears in Episode Two ; the mild level of ire he earlier displayed when the Vortigaunts abducted Gordon is gone, implying the Vortigaunts actions have not significantly derailed whatever he has planned and has let the earlier transgression go. The G-Man even shows a hint of amusement at the notion that Gordon and the Vortigaunts are now allies.

The G-Man shows respect for people who can survive against incredible odds, citing that such people remind him of himself. His message to Eli mentioning "unforeseen consequences" and the subsequent revelation about the threat to humanity posed by the Combine acquiring the technology on board the Borealis could imply that the G-Man might secretly be sympathetic to humanity and its fight for survival.

He also appears quite technically skilled and is capable of operating a very wide range of machinery and technology, ranging from simple cell phones and sealed steel doors to complex nuclear weapons (although for the latter there are instructions inside the cap) and experimental teleports and portals. [11]

Throughout the entire Half-Life series, the G-Man has a tendency to appear in an out-of-the-way or hard-to-reach location and then walk away and vanish without a trace once the player arrives. He is seen twice using portals, [12] perhaps explaining his ability to appear and disappear apparently randomly. The G-Man also seems to be able to manipulate time to a degree, as he momentarily stops the dark fusion reactor's explosion at the end of Half-Life 2 .

In most games featuring the G-Man, there are several sequences when the G-Man is talking at close range to the player, and various areas can be seen in the background, including areas from Black Mesa or even areas the player will visit later into the game. In these sequences, the G-Man talks to the player and can be seen quickly appearing in different portions of the screen, in dream-like sequences. He also appears on TV screens and "Breen Casts" dotted around the environment; G-Man also seems to have technopathic or telepathic abilities of some sort, as the player will occasionally see his face on things such as unplugged televisions.

In Half-Life: Alyx , the G-Man is shown to be aware of future events, capable of time travel, and of changing established events in the timeline. However, he can only do so following the interest of his employers and under their authorization. He also has the ability to multiply images of himself.

People aware of the G-Man [ edit ]

The G-Man is seen talking to various people, and yet at times, it seems that only the player is able to see him. However, a few characters other than Gordon Freeman seem to be aware of his existence or have interacted with him. Besides the many unnamed security, military, and science personnel in Black Mesa seen interacting with the G-Man, the characters include:

• Gordon Freeman : Interacts with the G-Man throughout the games.
• Adrian Shephard : He has many encounters with the G-Man during Opposing Force , from the training chapter to the ending sequence, mirroring that of the original game.
• Barney Calhoun : Saw the G-Man at Black Mesa.
• Colette Green : Saw the G-Man at Black Mesa.
• Gina Cross : Saw the G-Man at Black Mesa.
• Nihilanth : While Gordon Freeman was searching Xen for the Nihilanth, the creature could be heard transmitting various telepathic messages to him, including "You are man... he is not man... for you he waits, for you...". This seems to indicate that the Nihilanth was quite aware of the G-Man and forebodes Gordon's eventual "employment" by him, almost ironically "warning" Gordon.
• Wallace Breen : As seen from one of breencasts at Nova Prospekt , in which he says "I have good reason to believe that in the intervening years, he was in a state that precluded further development of covert skills", indicating he might be aware of Gordon being located in stasis between the events of HL1 and HL2, and as seen by various statements given by Breen at the end of Half-Life 2 as well, such as Gordon having "proven himself a fine pawn for those who control him" and his "contract is open to the highest bidder", it would appear that he was well aware of the G-Man's influence over Gordon. However, when Alyx questions this, he whispers that Gordon does not want to discuss this in front of his friends, suggesting that, at this point, Alyx is not yet aware of the G-Man's existence.
• The Vortigaunts : In Episode One , Vortigaunts are seen entering the G-Man's realm and liberating Gordon from his control, leading to an irritated "We'll see... about that!" from the G-Man. They also appear to be able to hold him back or force him away, since the G-Man later tells Gordon that he "had to wait until your friends were otherwise occupied" before being able to speak to him. G-Man does not seem to hold a grudge against Gordon or the Vortigaunts for this delay in his plans, even showing a hint of amusement at the notion of them being allies now.
• Eli Vance : In Episode Two , Eli is visibly disturbed after Alyx delivers G-Man's message. Being much warier of him compared to other characters, Eli tells Gordon that the crystal sample for the test that would produce the Resonance Cascade was delivered by the G-Man, further referring to the character as "our mutual friend". He was about to issue a proposal to Gordon regarding the G-Man in some way, but he is interrupted before Gordon is told. In the post-credits scene of Half-Life: Alyx , Eli wakes up Gordon and expresses the urge to kill the G-Man while appearing to look in his direction, handing Gordon his famous crowbar and saying the line "Come on Gordon, we've got work to do."
• Joe : In the Half-Life 2 chapter Route Kanal , when Gordon drops down into a boxcar, the G-Man can be seen on a television screen being powered by a Vortigaunt. Both Joe, the Rebel, and the Vortigaunt are watching the television before Gordon arrives, and it can therefore be presumed that they are aware of the G-Man's existence. Moreover, before Gordon leaves the car, the Vortigaunt says, cryptically, "We serve the same mystery," again hinting at his awareness of the G-Man.
• Odessa Cubbage : The G-Man can be witnessed speaking with the Colonel in the Half-Life 2 chapter Highway 17 , by using Combine Binoculars . However, Odessa Cubbage never mentions him. His outpost is warned to expect a Combine Gunship by the time Gordon reaches the outpost, though, suggesting that G-Man may have warned Cubbage.
• The Scientist : This unnamed collaborator with the Combine expresses familiarity with the events of Black Mesa and the G-Man's role during it.
• Alyx Vance : When she is wounded in Episode Two , the G-Man gives her a subliminal message to be delivered to her father. It is, however, unknown if she is actually aware of his existence. As an infant, she was also apparently directly rescued from the destruction of Black Mesa by the G-Man, which she does not seem to remember. During the events of Alyx , set five years prior to Gordon's return, Alyx enters a Vault to free who she believes is Gordon being held prisoner within. Upon opening the cell, the prisoner is revealed to actually be the G-Man. He shows her a vision of the future where her father is killed and lets her intervene, changing his fate. After Eli is saved, Alyx is taken by the G-Man and put into stasis to "await assignment" much like Gordon once was.
• Combine Advisors : While not directly stated, it is likely the Advisors were aware of the G-Man and his capabilities, keeping him contained in a highly secured Vault for that purpose. The Scientist's conversation with an Advisor also hints at their knowledge of the G-Man.

Objects [ edit ]

Briefcase [ edit ].

With the exception of the opening sequence in Episode One and the Episode Two sequence, the G-Man is always seen carrying a briefcase, and its contents have often been debated. In the original Half-Life , using the noclip cheat, or with the aid of a model/texture viewer, it is possible to see its contents. However, since the contents of the briefcase are never seen during the game, they may constitute nothing more than an Easter egg. These contents appear to be as follows: Three pencils, one sheet of paper, a handgun in a holster, and an identity card. The inside of the briefcase is blank in all other versions.

In one of Marc Laidlaw's story drafts, the G-Man makes his employment offer to Gordon by opening his briefcase to reveal a dimensional portal.

In Half-Life: Alyx , the G-Man presents his briefcase to Alyx Vance as an offer "you don't know you want". Upon touching it, she sees the future where her father Eli is killed.

Texture of the briefcase contents.

The Black Mesa logo as seen on the briefcase.

Other objects [ edit ]

Near the dam where a Gargantua is restrained in the Opposing Force chapter Foxtrot Uniform , the G-Man is seen for a moment talking on a cellphone before disappearing into a portal .

Cellphone model.

List of exact in-game locations [ edit ]

The G-Man is notable for appearing several times in each game, often in out-of-the-way locations. It may be difficult for a first-time player to see him, and it is almost universally impossible to go directly to where he is standing. When it is possible, he always disappears from that place before the player is able to reach it. If fired upon, he is always unharmed and never reacts to the shot. In the Half-Life chapter Lambda Core , it is learned that the G-Man is able to suddenly disappear by using portals.

This list does not include the introduction and ending sequences in which he speaks to the player character directly.

• Black Mesa Inbound ( c0a0d ): When the tram Gordon is riding pauses briefly, the G-Man can be seen standing with a scientist in another tram frozen on the track.
• Anomalous Materials ( c1a0 ): The G-Man can be seen standing in an inaccessible room arguing with a scientist, where only a looping sound of mumbling can be heard (the words will still be impossible to hear even when noclipping inside the room).
• Unforeseen Consequences ( c1a1b ): In his first appearance following the Resonance Cascade, he can be seen watching Gordon from a catwalk. When Gordon arrives at the same spot, it is revealed that the G-Man disappeared at an apparent dead end, where a Zombie is eating a dead scientist.
• Office Complex ( c1a2b ): As Gordon battles his way out of the office complex, the G-Man can be seen behind a locked door, watching. As usual, he straightens his tie, brushes his suit with his hand, and walks off along a balcony over a corpse-filled cafeteria visited before by the player (he appears only when the player visits the map for the second time, after going through cold storage rooms).
• We've Got Hostiles ( c1a3d ): Immediately before Gordon's first encounter with the HECU Marines, the G-Man is seen on a high catwalk, apparently heading towards the soldiers. However, when Gordon arrives at the same spot, the Marines have only just arrived, whilst a nearby scientist does not mention having seen him.
• Power Up ( c2a1 ): When Gordon arrives at Sector E Track Control , he sees the G-Man watching him from a control room. By the time Gordon gets there, though, the control room is boarded up from the outside, and a wounded security guard there indicates no sign of having seen him.
• Apprehension ( c2a3b ): In a large room filled with industrial pistons, the G-Man can be seen at the far end of the room. He leaves in a direction which leads to several hostile aliens and soldiers.
• Lambda Core ( c3a2c ): In the deserted Lambda Complex , Gordon watches through a window into a deserted room filled with Headcrabs . The G-Man, standing on a raised floor, briefly looks at Gordon before stepping into a glowing portal. This is the first time the player sees the G-Man using portals, explaining how he has been able to so quickly get around the complex and disappear (especially into the aforementioned dead ends) before the player was ever able to reach him.

In Black Mesa Inbound .

In Anomalous Materials .

In Unforeseen Consequences .

In Office Complex .

In We've Got Hostiles .

In Power Up .

In Apprehension .

In Lambda Core .

Half-Life: Uplink [ edit ]

Uplink ( hldemo1 ): At the very end of the demo, Gordon arrives in a large room filled with computers. A Gargantua breaks in and begins killing the hiding personnel. As the monster wreaks havoc, the G-Man calmly watches from a corridor, straightens his tie, and, as the Gargantua approaches Gordon, slowly strolls away.

In Uplink .

• Boot Camp ( ofboot1 ): The G-Man and a soldier can be seen standing in a room in the Tactical Operations Command building.
• Welcome to Black Mesa ( of1a1 ): In a relatively undamaged area of Black Mesa, Shephard sees through a door the G-Man arguing with a security guard before walking away (using the same animation as in his Anomalous Materials appearance). After G-Man has left, the security guard won't come to the door to open it, and Shephard proceeds to upper levels.
• Welcome to Black Mesa ( of1a3 ): Shephard finds himself trapped in a room that is rapidly filling up with toxic waste. The G-Man can be seen through a window, opening a door after a moment of hesitation, which allows Shephard to escape. Even though Shephard is only meters behind him, the G-Man is nowhere to be found in the next room, which is filled with toxic waste and Xen creatures.
• "We Are Pulling Out" ( of1a6 ): Shephard races towards a transport aircraft as the marines evacuate Black Mesa. As he is sprinting down a corridor towards the plane, the G-Man calmly appears at the end of the corridor and closes a heavy door, trapping Shephard inside. He brushes his suit and strolls away as the evacuation plane takes off.
• Pit Worm's Nest ( of4a4 ): When Shephard finds himself in a large garbage compactor, the G-Man can be seen quietly observing him from an observation window. After a short time, he opens the door and leaves.
• Foxtrot Uniform ( of5a4 ): After a battle with Race X aliens, Shephard arrives at the damaged Hydro-Electric Dam where HECU soldiers are firing at a trapped Gargantua . Standing in the intake tower where Gordon climbs into in Half-Life is the G-Man, who finishes a conversation on a cellphone and steps into a portal, where Sprites can also be seen rushing into.
• "The Package" ( of6a4 ): Shephard arrives in an underground car park and deactivates a nuclear bomb. After a security guard lets him through a locked door, Shephard sees the G-Man rearming the bomb. If the player attempts to backtrack to the bomb in order to deactivate it again, he will discover that the previously open chain link fence leading there is now locked, making it impossible.

In Boot Camp .

In Welcome to Black Mesa (1).

Ditto, from inside.

In Welcome to Black Mesa (2).

In "We Are Pulling Out" .

In Pit Worm's Nest .

In Foxtrot Uniform .

In "The Package" .

Half-Life: Blue Shift [ edit ]

Insecurity ( ba_maint ): Seen riding on a tram as Calhoun watches from a maintenance area between Sector C and Sector G . He does not seem to notice Barney and is not seen later in the game. Strangely, the scientist seen before mentions that no trams in that area are in operation at the time.

In Insecurity .

Half-Life: Decay [ edit ]

Dual Access ( dy_accident1 ): Riding up in a glass-walled elevator after participating in a security registration scan in Sector C, Gina Cross and Colette Green can see the G-Man pass, riding downward in an adjacent elevator.

In Dual Access .

• Point Insertion ( d1_trainstation_01 ): Vaguely seen in a large rectangular monitor that flickers his image along with other Breencasts right before Barney is met. This instance only occurs in the Xbox console port.
• "A Red Letter Day" ( d1_trainstation_05 ): If the player flips through the main monitor in Kleiner's Lab a few times, eventually it will come across the G-Man staring at the other side of a fence, before walking away. The location can be accessed by noclipping. There, it appears that the G-Man can be killed and that the area is a remainder of a small portion of the start of the trainstation found in d1_trainstation_01 in the playable leak, where the incoming train stops.
• Route Kanal ( d1_canals_01 ): In Joe 's boxcar, a TV temporarily shows the G-Man, with a Vortigaunt watching and supplying television power. The G-Man appears to be in the same "studio" where Dr. Breen delivers his televised messages to City 17 , complete with the Combine's logo. When Gordon falls into the boxcar and gets noticed, the Vortigaunt stops the transmission.
• Water Hazard ( d1_canals_06 ): He is seen standing on Station 7 's walkway. As Gordon approaches, he disappears inside the barn, although it is filled with Zombies.
• Water Hazard ( d1_canals_06 ): Vaguely seen in a large rectangular monitor that flickers his image along with other Breencasts. This image based on G-Man's model was taken from Half-Life 2 leak textures files originally in the E3 2003 video " Psyche ". [13]
• Water Hazard ( d1_canals_12 ): Seen overlooking a ledge as Gordon's Airboat passes under.
• Water Hazard ( d1_canals_13 ): Before Black Mesa East, the G-Man can be spotted on a concrete ledge near the gate controls. However, once Gordon turns the wheel to raise the gate blocking his progress, the G-Man is nowhere to be found. Coincidentally, there is a sign pointing to where the G-Man stood which states "Observation".
• Black Mesa East ( d1_eli_01 ): Not the G-Man himself, but an image of his face can be seen at the yellow end of one of the units manned by the Vortigaunt in Eli Vance's lab. Taking a screenshot or using the element's model texture and editing it is required to properly see the face. His face is only in the blue channel of the texture. This was revealed by Dhabih Eng on Twitter in 2019. [14]
• "We Don't Go To Ravenholm..." ( d1_town_05 ): After leaving Ravenholm, he can barely be seen walking off into a tunnel behind a few train cars, right behind Shorepoint Base .
• Highway 17 ( d2_coast_03 ): Looking through the Combine Binoculars in the second house the player comes to after the Shorepoint tunnel, Gordon can spot the G-Man conversing with Colonel Odessa Cubbage at New Little Odessa. When the player arrives at the base, the G-Man is nowhere to be found.
• Nova Prospekt ( d2_prison_02 ): Seen walking up to and peering through a door window into a Lambda cache while adjusting his tie as Gordon flips through the monitors near the beginning of the chapter.
• Anticitizen One ( d3_c17_02 ): After Dog is taken away by a Dropship, Combine Walls start moving towards Gordon and some very discordant music starts playing at the same time in the ruined tenement building nearby. Gordon proceeds to the building and arrives in the same corridor featured at the very start of the map d1_trainstation_03 . Instead of the door leading outside is rubble where can be seen the source of the music: an unplugged television, showing an image of the G-Man standing in a wooden boat with a Crow on his shoulder. The television will shut off right after the G-Man straightens his tie, and the screen will break by itself when the player gets closer, although carrying it with the Gravity Gun will not break it. If the player manually grabs it without the gravity gun, the television will force itself towards the player until released. Later, one of the Rebels' random sentences, "I can't get this tune out of my head!", seems to reference the strange tune heard on the television, since after talking the Rebel whistles similar notes. The sound file of this tune, "radio1.mp3", is located in "sound/music" in the Half-Life 2 sound files. Apparently consisting of loops of two different tracks, bundled with interferences and garbled human voices, it can also be heard in the film 28 Days Later (at 00:26).
• Anticitizen One ( d3_c17_03 ): Similar to the giant rectangular monitor seen in the Canals, the G-Man's image flickers on and off with Doctor Breen's image in the Trainstation Plaza Breencast, before the monitor is toppled by Resistance members, who show no sign of seeing him.

In "A Red Letter Day" .

In Route Kanal .

In Water Hazard (1).

In Water Hazard (2).

Ditto (detail of the image).

In Water Hazard (3).

In Water Hazard (4).

In Black Mesa East .

In "We Don't Go To Ravenholm..." .

In Highway 17 .

Ditto, closeup.

In Nova Prospekt .

In Anticitizen One .

Ditto, viewed by noclipping.

In Anticitizen One (2).

There are no G-Man sightings in Episode One apart from his appearance in the introductory scene. This is because he lost track of Gordon [15] and the events of the game are not part of his plan, as suggested by the apparent Vortigaunt intervention in the opening sequence, and the G-Man's notable level of annoyance in the turn of events.

• Freeman Pontifex ( ep2_outland_06 ): The G-Man can be seen watching Gordon for the first time since the Vortigaunt intervention in Episode One , watching from a bridge before the player goes down to fetch the Muscle Car. He then walks towards a gate and disappears behind a wall.
• Under the Radar ( ep2_outland_10 ): Seen briefly near the White Forest Inn , at the spot where the Muscle Car gets blocked, before walking inside the building.
• Our Mutual Fiend ( ep2_outland_11b ): The G-Man flickers ominously on the screen which previously showed Dr. Mossman's recording, right before Alyx relays the message to Eli. It should be noted that Alyx is watching the screen as the G-Man appears, implying that it might be the G-Man's reminder/trigger to relay his message.

In Freeman Pontifex .

In Under the Radar .

In Our Mutual Fiend .

Texture (a screenshot of his model, reversed in-game) used for the previous appearance.

• Entanglement ( a1_intro_world_2 ): After Alyx escapes her transport with the help of Russell , she begins her travel on foot to his lab . Along the way, she passes a large billboard on the side of the road advertising Occular Recalculation Procedures Inc. . The massive pair of disembodied eyes shown in the advertisement is actually that of the G-Man's. The advertisement itself bears similarity to the billboard for fictional oculist Doctor T. J. Eckleburg described in the novel The Great Gatsby .
• The Quarantine Zone ( a2_hideout ) (mural): While traveling through the Quarantine Zone , Alyx comes across the hideout of Gary , a lone Vortigaunt who has been cut off from the Vortessence due to an invasive procedure performed by the Combine. Now lacking in his perception of time, he has shrouded his hideout in painted murals showing events of both the past and future. Among these paintings is a depiction of the G-Man which is intentionally placed in an obscured and out of the way position, much like the G-Man's typical presence.
• Point Extraction ( a5_ending ): After the climactic ending where Alyx accepts the G-Man's offer, the game features an interactive post-credits scene where Gordon regains consciousness in the hangar where the Episode Two ending occurred, except now Eli is alive while Alyx has disappeared. As Eli curses the G-Man for capturing his daughter, the G-Man himself can be seen watching the scene unfold from a nearby walkway. He then turns around and vanishes as he walks away.

The oculist advertisement billboard.

Ditto, the original texture.

A painting by Gary shows the G-Man looming overhead.

The G-Man stands overlooking the hangar just out of sight of Eli.

The G-Man fades out as he walks away.

Cut locations [ edit ]

A handful of G-Man appearances are known to have been planned but were cut from the final products.

• Point Insertion ( d1_trainstation_03 ): The version of that map found in the WC map pack folder " d1_trainstation " features the G-Man riding in front of a tram that flies above the street, mirroring his first appearance in Half-Life . [13]
• "We Don't Go To Ravenholm..." ( d1_town_01 ): The G-Man was originally to be seen in Ravenholm itself, as he can be glimpsed in the map d1_town_01 , one of the original BSPs found in the playable Half-Life 2 leak maps folder. At the start of the map located inside a wooden building, the player has to face a Headcrab and Zombies, to be killed with the propeller trap. After breaking planks barring the way, the player, still in the wooden building, faces a fence and another building beyond it. There the G-Man can be seen through a window before disappearing very quickly.
• "We Don't Go To Ravenholm..." ( d1_town_05 ): The G-Man was to be seen in Ravenholm a second time in d1_town_05 (the equivalent of d1_town_03 in the final game), another map of the original BSPs found in the playable Half-Life 2 leak maps folder. There he can be seen again through a window, but he never leaves and cannot be killed. In his dimly lit room can be found a chair, a carpet, a Classic Headcrab (not attacking), and the shotgun with an ammo box (although the room cannot be accessed) on a bed (whose model is missing).

In Point Insertion .

In "We Don't Go To Ravenholm..." (1).

In "We Don't Go To Ravenholm..." (2).

• Riding Shotgun ( ep2_outland_08 ): A removed G-Man appearance would have involved him standing on top of the blocked-off tunnel next to the helicopter fight arena, briefly watching over Gordon before walking away and disappearing.

Related Achievements [ edit ]

Retail achievements [ edit ].

Cut Achievements [ edit ]

Two Orange Box Achievements related to the G-Man were cut from Half-Life 2 and Episode Two .

Behind the scenes [ edit ]

• Originally, all Black Mesa employees in Half-Life were to be hostile to the player. After several tests, allied NPCs showed their usefulness and testers grew fond of their (occasionally bumbling) behaviors. The Black Mesa security guards, as well as large parts of the story, and the main character itself, were rethought. Then, the team came to think about characters that were neither allies nor enemies to the player, leading to the creation of the G-Man. [1]
• The idea behind the G-Man was proposed to Marc Laidlaw by Ken Birdwell , who was thinking about the different functionaries that would exist in an institution like Black Mesa , especially the administrators above the scientists, i.e. the tax guys and the government guys who are checking over the books and representing some other interests; people whose actual nature and function are not clearly determined. The G-Man was developed on that concept. [2]
• " G-Man " is an American slang term for "Government Man," often FBI agents or other obtrusive bureaucrats. However, the G-Man in Half-Life is never identified or referred to by name in any of the games, his name being merely a code name / nickname. [1] That name actually stems from his Half-Life model and entity name, reused in every subsequent games, and is not a fan-created name at all. It has been confirmed and referred to as such in documentaries featuring Valve employees, or the voice actor credits for Half-Life 2 or Raising the Bar . Furthermore, in the manual for Opposing Force , Shephard makes mention of him as "a G-man", although this seems to be as the generic slang term. Also, the pre-release Half-Life model featured the United States Department of Defense logo on the briefcase. Another explanation of the G-Man's nature is given in the comment section of the file "npc_gman.cpp" in the Source SDK file "sourcesdk.gcf", the following is written: "// Purpose: The G-Man, misunderstood servant of the people." In an interview with series writer Marc Laidlaw and in the official Half-Life audio script, the G-Man is referred to as the "Administrator", suggesting he is the one overseeing experiments. [10] [18] This title was later retconned to refer to Wallace Breen .
• The G-Man was to make a cameo in the cancelled Team Fortress 2: Brotherhood of Arms . [19]
• Frank Sheldon, an Alexander Technique practitioner and the person whom G-Man's Half-Life 2 model is based on, was originally slated to be the model for Dr. Breen . It was chosen for G-Man's appearance after Bill Van Buren presented a hastily Photoshopped image of Sheldon, with chopped-off hair and a scaled down face shape. [1]
• Doug Wood , who designed the facial expressions of the Half-Life 2 G-Man model, wanted the player to never quite know what side the G-Man was on by giving him ambiguous facial expressions. For example, Wood would have the G-Man express an apologetic look toward Gordon as he 'regretted' to put the latter in this situation, but then have him give a slight smirk or smile at the end to keep the player guessing about his sincerity. [1]
• The Half-Life 2 model originally had darker eyes and a blue tie instead of purple. [20]
• The Half-Life 2 introductions went through two different versions before the final one. One version, proposed June 2, 2000 to the development team by Marc Laidlaw, has Gordon waking up in the midst of beautiful rolling hills, with a bright blue sky, singing birds, and a modern city below. Then the G-Man appears and the landscape starts to change to become the Combine-controlled City 17, with a wasteland around it, while G-Man does not talk much, preferring to show Gordon images instead of explaining in details. Then, Gordon climbs into a train and it starts moving, and he encounters Samuel . The second one is shorter but the G-Man is more specific, mentioning for example the time lapse between Half-Life and Half-Life 2 , which is said to be 10 years, changed to 20 when Episode One was released. Then Gordon was to abruptly wake up on the train, and also encounter Samuel. [1]
• The G-Man is featured in a surreal scene in the WC map pack map ickypop in which he is held in mid-air by a Crow while a flying Ichthyosaur excretes gibs and crashes beyond the horizon. [13]
• In the Episode Two trailer, [21] the G-Man is shown standing over Alyx, apparently talking to Gordon and telling him that he is "not supposed to be here" and that he should "forget about all this." This dialog can be found in its entirety in the Half-Life 2 leak sound files, as "Cleverly done, Mr. Freeman, but you're not supposed to be here. As a matter of fact, you're not. Get back where you belong, and forget all about this, until we meet again.".
• The G-Man character seems to be inspired by The Cigarette Smoking Man (played by William B. Davis ) from the television show The X-Files . The show is known as one of the inspirations for Half-Life . In the French localization of Half-Life , the voice for the G-Man is performed by Jacques Brunet, the same actor who performs the French dub for the Cigarette Smoking Man in The X-Files . [22]
• In the cancelled add-on Half-Life: Hostile Takeover , the G-Man was planned to have a group of humans working for him directly and sharing his "MiB" aesthetic. The player character was supposed to be one of these lesser G-men.
• In The Final Hours of Half-Life: Alyx , G-Man's voice actor Michael Shapiro shares hints of the backstory he created for the character over the years, saying that he "wasn't allowed to get into mischief [as a child]", had parents who loved him, and learned how to "avoid getting caught for the trouble he created". While this shouldn't be considered canonical information, it informs how the character is portrayed.
• Almost all the lines for the G-Man dialogue in Half-Life: Alyx were performed in one take.

Trivia [ edit ]

• In Day One , if the G-Man is attacked enough times, he will clutch his suitcase to his chest and run away, as seen here .
• The G-Man's "prepare for unforeseen consequences" message is a reference to the third chapter of Half-Life , Unforeseen Consequences , in which Gordon Freeman regains consciousness after the Resonance Cascade occurs.
• The official Half-Life 2: Episode One website states that "In Half-Life , the G-Man made you. In Half-Life 2 , he used you to defeat Dr. Breen and start the Resistance. In Episode One , he's lost control."
• Half-Life: Alyx is the first instance of a dialogue between a playable character (Alyx Vance) and the G-Man. [23]
• A ghostly apparition of the G-Man can appear as an Easter egg in the official Counter-Strike map Vegas .
• One of the possible names a bot can be called in Team Fortress 2 is "The G-Man".

Gallery [ edit ]

Models [ edit ].

Hi-res render of the G-Man's first known model, with a DoD logo on the briefcase.

More recent model, still with a DoD logo on the briefcase.

Early face texture.

Early suit texture.

Half-Life model.

High Definition version.

Alternate High Definition version. [i]

PlayStation 2 version.

Multiplayer model.

Ditto, reskinned with team colors and logos in the unreleased Deathmatch Classic addon ThreeWave CTF .

Ditto, blue team version.

Early Half-Life 2 model.

Half-Life 2 leak model.

Half-Life 2 model, with brighter eyes and purple tie.

Half-Life: Alyx model.

Screenshots [ edit ]

Half-life and its expansions [ edit ].

The G-Man talking to Gordon Freeman on Xen, with Boids in the back.

The G-Man addressing Gordon on a battlefield.

The G-Man offering Gordon a choice.

The G-Man briefly stops talking to Adrian Shephard when Black Mesa is destroyed.

The G-Man talking to Adrian Shephard in an Osprey Heliplane.

The G-Man leaving Shephard through a portal.

Unused Steam trading card artwork.

Pre-release [ edit ]

Ghostly Half-Life 2 leak texture based on the early G-Man model, used in the E3 2003 video " Psyche " and the ending sequences of the WC map pack maps e3_end and hazard01 . It was reused for the Breencasts screen when flickering between Breen and the G-Man.

Half-Life 2 leak texture of the same G-Man model among numbers, also used in "Psyche".

Half-Life 2 leak texture based on G-Man's model, also used in "Psyche".

Appearance in the WC map pack map ickypop .

The G-Man in the E3 2003 demonstration "G-Man".

A secret G-Man image hidden in the game files for the Half-Life 2 ARG .

Retail [ edit ]

The G-Man on an alternate cover of Half-Life 2 .

Full cover art.

The G-Man addressing Gordon while projecting the test chamber behind him.

The G-Man disappearing after his monologue.

The G-Man stopping time and emerging out of thin air.

The G-Man addressing Alyx.

The G-Man teleporting Gordon away from the explosion.

Ditto, with green flashes behind him.

Ditto, in a star field.

The G-Man putting Gordon back into stasis.

The G-Man leaves.

Steam emoticon of the G-Man.

Official wallpaper.

Clean artwork.

The G-Man being halted by Vortigaunts at the start of Episode One .

The G-Man during his Episode Two monologue.

The G-Man during his Episode Two monologue, with Alyx and the Vortigaunts.

Ditto, here in Black Mesa.

Concept art for the Episode Two monologue.

Ditto, here with the White Forest rocket.

Addressing Alyx, Episode Two trailer version.

The G-Man as he appears Half-Life: Alyx .

Model sheet for facial expressions.

The G-Man as he appears in an unused animation test.

Concept art for an unused ending sequence.

The G-Man awaits in the Vault.

Alyx accidentally sets the G-Man free.

The G-Man changes the environment around him and Alyx.

The G-Man summons a vision of Xen around himself and Alyx.

Ditto, splitting himself into various versions.

The G-Man holds a crowbar as he discusses Gordon's insubordination.

Showing an image of Gordon to Alyx.

The G-Man makes his offer to Alyx.

Other [ edit ]

Frank Sheldon performing facial expressions.

Sheldon during a 2010 scan for a Source 2 version of the model.

The resulting model.

The G-Man in the closing screen of The Final Hours of Half-Life: Alyx .

Animated Steam sticker featuring the G-Man, titled "G-man" [ sic ].

Steam 20th Anniversary artwork parodying the " Grant Gustin Next To Oliver Queen's Grave " meme.

List of appearances [ edit ]

Main games [ edit ].

• Half-Life: Opposing Force
• Half-Life: Blue Shift
• Half-Life: Decay
• Half-Life 2
• Half-Life 2: Episode One
• Half-Life 2: Episode Two
• Half-Life: Alyx
• Half-Life: Day One (First appearance)
• Half-Life: Uplink (Non- canonical appearance)
• Deathmatch Classic (Non- canonical appearance)
• ThreeWave CTF (Non- canonical appearance)
• Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar
• Source Particle Benchmark (Game files only) (Non- canonical appearance)
• The Final Hours of Portal 2

References [ edit ]

• ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar
• ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Interview with Marc Laidlaw on Computer and Video Games (December 23, 2006) ( archived )
• ↑ Half-Life Multiplayer Content on Blue's News (January 28, 1999)

• ↑ GMAN: Reference Shoot for Half Life Alyx Ending on Vimeo
• ↑ Half-Life 2: Episode One : The story so far on Episode One' s official website ( archived )
• ↑ 7.0 7.1 Interview with Marc Laidlaw on PC Gamer Online ( archived )
• ↑ 8.0 8.1 Half-Life 2 Xbox Prima Guide
• ↑ The Marc Laidlaw Vault on Steam Users' Forums ( archived )
• ↑ 10.0 10.1 Half-Life Audio Script
• ↑ Half-Life: Opposing Force
• ↑ The Half-Life chapter Lambda Core , and the Opposing Force chapter Foxtrot Uniform
• ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 WC map pack
• ↑ Half-Life 2: Episode Two commentary
• ↑ ValveTestApp854 Achievements on eXophase.com (ValveTestApp854 is the internal Steam app for Episode Two )
• ↑ Leaked Postal III build, hl2_english.txt
• ↑ Interview with Marc Laidlaw on PC Gamer Online ( archived )
• ↑ Team Fortress II: Brotherhood of Arms promotional article
• ↑ Half-Life 2 leak

• ↑ Half-Life 2: Raising The Bar , Yahn Bernier : " The original concept for Half-Life came from folks here thinking about Stephen King's short story The Mist, along with a healthy dose of X-Files style conspiracy thrown in. "
• ↑ Half-Life 2: Episode One' s official website ( archived )

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Half-Life 2

Den of Geek

Half-Life: The Origin and Return of the G-Man

Michael Shapiro sheds light on the creation of one of the greatest and creepiest video game characters ever made. These are the musings of Half-Life's G-Man.

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This article is part of our History of PC Gaming series. Read all of the articles here .

When famed PC game studio Valve set out to work on the first Half-Life in 1996, the team that would change the first-person shooter genre forever was mostly made up of amateur modders who’d cut their teeth on the Quake engine. The studio itself was self-funded by former Microsoft Windows designers Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington, a gamble that as you know paid off tremendously.

Many stories have already been written about Valve’s ascension from indie PC developer to the AAA juggernaut that created Steam. Noclip’s documentary about how the Half-Life games influenced so many other developers, early esports pros, modders, and fans is a particularly thrilling chronicle of Valve’s story.

But one part of Half-Life ‘s history that is sometimes overlooked is the role played by the performers who brought the series’ most iconic characters to life. In terms of the original Half-Life , no actor is more important than Michael Shapiro, the video game veteran who gave the enigmatic G-Man his inimitable and instantly recognizable voice. It’s Shapiro who conceived of the breathless intonation and otherworldy stutter that’s defined gaming’s creepiest character for over two decades.

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The G-Man is more than just the mysterious god-like being manipulating the games’ events from behind the scenes, he’s the narrative bridge that transports protagonist Gordon Freeman from one game to the next. At the end of the first Half-Life , Dr. Freeman, a physicist with a gift for smashing up alien invaders with his trusty crowbar, is forced to accept a “job offer” from this strange “government” man. The only other option is death. With a smile, the G-Man puts the good doctor in stasis inside of a black void until he’s needed again. Gordon wakes up several years later in Half-Life 2 inside City 17 for reasons that soon become clear: the physicist must quell an alien invasion of Earth before humanity is lost.

After all these years, the G-Man’s motivations are still unclear. He knows more than everyone else in the story, an omniscient presence who’s always watching, but whose side is he on in the war between humanity and the alien empire known as the Combine? In the games, the G-Man says he’s operating on behalf of his “employers,” an unseen third party pulling the strings from the shadows (or another dimension). So is the G-Man another puppet or an agent of chaos? The series’ main villain?

Shapiro relishes the questions surrounding his most famous video game role. Talking on the phone at the time of the release of Half-Life: Alyx , the first new Half-Life game in 13 years (that’s a whole other story), Shapiro can barely contain his excitement for the new game and it’s clear that he loves this role and the franchise deeply. He’ll even tease you with some secrets about the G-Man if you ask nicely.

“There’s a good deal more about him and his circumstances that I know than I can share right now,” Shapiro says. “I don’t think I’d call him a bad guy, but I would call him a kind of anti-hero maybe in the sense that he’s somebody that we never stopped enjoying or even in a sense rooting for and yet, you can’t quite trust him and that’s a pleasurable kind of on the edge of what you can be sure about. He’s never going to do something uninteresting.”

Despite being set in between Half-Life and Half-Life 2 , Alyx features a startling appearance from the G-Man that may or may not set up the future of the series . No, Half-Life 3 isn’t finally confirmed , but Shapiro is optimistic.

“When I think about what’s going to happen next and also what has come before in the character’s story, I can understand why he has that command and that allure and that sense of mystery because there is a lot more to him than we know. Yet.”

Shapiro can’t give us the goods about Half-Life ‘s future, so he takes us on a trip through memory lane instead, explaining how he got involved with Valve and how he came up with the sound of the G-Man.

“I don’t remember auditioning for Half-Life , but I remember the experience of seeing the character of G-Man,” Shapiro says of meeting him for the first time. “The very first impulse creatively for finding a character is derived from the visuals, from the renderings that they’ve got. I remember getting a little bit of the background and seeing the character and he looked a little different than he does now.”

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The polygon-heavy graphics of the 1998 original arguably gave us the most frightening version of the character to date: a lanky man clad in a blue suit, with a head that’s too perfectly squared (not entirely his fault) and a mad smile on his deathly pale face. His appearance has changed over the years as computer graphics have continued to improve. Shapiro says the look of the G-Man of Half-Life: Alyx is a far cry from how he looked in the ’90s.

“Now it’s the new G-Man with the trimmer haircut and by far some nicer skin tones. It’s like he’s getting under the sun a little bit more.”

By the time, Shapiro was brought in to record at Valve’s first studio space in Kirkland, he’d already worked on several PC games created in the Washington area, a hot spot for software companies to this day. He’d voiced several characters for Sierra, the studio that would eventually publish the first Half-Life , as well as McZee, the “wacko blue-skinned, crazy enthusiastic, bubbly, high energy guy” who taught kids how to make movies in Microsoft’s 3D Movie Maker .

While Shapiro has worked on several film and TV projects throughout his career, most of his credits are in video games. Sitting down in the recording booth and collaborating with developers is a process he really enjoys, especially as the voice acting and the game design begin to meld together.

“I worked on a lot of games over the years and even the process of creating them is a little bit mysterious. Sometimes they’ll bring a voice actor in relatively late in the process. Sometimes in a situation like [ Half-Life ], because it’s iterative, you record and you lay down the lines exactly as scripted and then sometimes inside the moment you’ll say, ‘Listen, I’d love to have another pass at that.’ Or they’ll say, ‘Is there anything else that you can imagine the character saying? Would G-Man put it differently?’ And then they’ll take that away and they’ll share it with animators and I suppose what they’re doing is trying it out on people who haven’t played it yet.”

For the first Half-Life , Shapiro actually voiced several characters, including a mix of scientists, HECU soldiers, security guards, and Nihilanth, the giant fetus-like final boss who rules an alien dimension called Xen (he also voiced the somewhat dopey Black Mesa security guard Barney Calhoun in later games). But he established a special relationship with the G-Man from the start.

“The experience of being G-Man is a really delicious acting project. It’s based in the text and in the history and in the relationship with other characters,” Shapiro says.

The actor describes how he gets into character as if he were putting himself in a trance: “I’m behind a microphone and I’ve got some lines and we run them, so I know them well enough to close my eyes and just speak them without reading it off the page. That’s when it comes alive. And when I close my eyes, I’m seeing the tram and I’m seeing the cascade resonance and I’m seeing the events over the course of the life of these stories. And that information comes from the designers, it comes from the directors and writers when I’m in-studio with them. Something really special about working with Valve is the story and the moments where you’re finding the character.”

It didn’t take long for Shapiro to find the G-Man’s voice during those early recording sessions. “I think it was something I felt pretty quickly, pretty early on,” the actor explains. “He’s a very clear person and personality and persona and that’s true vocally and it’s true in the spirit and in the way he manipulates those around him. For me, it is very hand in hand with the voice.”

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More Half-Life Games Could Be Coming from Valve

Half-Life ‘s soundtrack, which was composed by former Valve senior audio designer Kelly Bailey, was another source of inspiration for Shapiro. It makes perfect sense considering the score is one of the eeriest and most unconventional pieces of video game music to date, a mix of up-tempo synth beats for high-energy action sequences and grotesque sounds that complement the alien setting of the final act.

“A lot of G-Man’s speech is about the music underlying it and the tempo and the lyricism of the language,” he says. “I don’t mean to get too precious with it, it’s just music is a big part of what I do in addition to gaming and acting. So it’s always an access point for me and G-Man’s sort of stutter-step kind of phrasing and vocally his placement is a really rich kind of place.”

To get the vocal work just right, one of Shapiro’s biggest considerations is his proximity to the mic itself. “In particular with that character, I’ll just eat the mic because I feel like he knows so much about what’s really going on that I want to be able to portray that vocally. The closer you get to the microphone, the more intimate you are with the diaphragm on the microphone. The more nuance and flavor and texture you’re able to impart,” Shapiro says. “Is G-Man working for somebody or is everybody working for G-Man? It’s really hard to say what in the universe is going on, but he knows at any given moment exactly what’s going on and that kind of intimacy with the true nature of what underlies everything in the story, that’s what I’m after vocally.”

Surprisingly, the larger story isn’t as big of a concern to Shapiro as what’s happening in the specific scene he’s recording. It might account for the way the G-Man literally steals the scene whenever he’s on screen.

“As an actor in it, I have a certain amount of information,” he says. “The story within the scene is what’s most critical to me. And honestly, sometimes knowing the overarching narrative, the big story, isn’t something that I want to hear right away because I’m most informed by and really get so much engagement in the moment of knowing what’s happening between two characters, between five characters.”

Before the release of the Alyx VR game, fans had been begging Valve to make another Half-Life game for more than a decade. After production went dark on the never-released Half-Life 2: Episode 3 expansion, it seemed that the series was doomed to end on a cliffhanger as Valve moved on to other ventures, such as Steam, its VR headsets, and working on more lucrative esports titles like Counter-Strike (which itself was born as a Half-Life mod) and Dota 2 .

When Valve announced in November 2019 that it was preparing to ship a new installment in the Half-Life series, most fans had long given up on the franchise’s future. But they all came running back, including Shapiro, who vividly remembers stepping back into his G-Man role after so long.

“We were recording at a studio in New York City in preparation for Half-Life: Alyx and my face was down or my eyes were closed probably and I finish and I opened up my eyes and on the other side of the glass — I can’t hear anything — everybody in the room is jumping up and down and waving their arms around because it’s working,” he says of the moment when it all clicked again. “What’s been neat is how easily we slipped right back into that again a couple decades later. It’s been a time since we first recorded those lines back in Kirkland.”

Shapiro never truly stopped celebrating the mystery of the G-Man in the interim. The character is a big presence on his Twitter page. “It’s me, but I’m taking the voice of G-Man from time to time.” Just a month after the Alyx announcement, Shapiro released his first message as the G-Man in more than a decade:

And the fandom never forgot about the G-Man either. Over the years, some Half-Life devotees have even reached out to Shapiro on Twitter with a…peculiar request: “I have had many people say I’m going to propose to my wife, would you ask her to marry me? Which is kind of an interesting idea.”

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Now that Shapiro has returned to his most famous character, fans can begin to obsess over the G-Man and the Half-Life franchise all over again. For the actor, who’s also been working on a new podcast and another project that’s “a real blast from the past that people are going to be excited in a way they don’t even know,” the G-Man’s return in Alyx has been like visiting with an old friend.

“It felt so easy and so comfortable to step back into his shoes. To take that briefcase into hand once again was a disturbingly satisfying experience.”

John Saavedra | @johnsjr9

John Saavedra is the Co-Editor-in-Chief of Den of Geek. He lives in New York City with his two cats.

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Half-Life 2 2004

G-Man: Time, Dr. Freeman? Is it really that time again? It seems as if you only just arrived. You've done a great deal in a small time span. You've done so well, in fact, that I've received some interesting offers for your services.

G-Man: Ordinarily, I wouldn't contemplate them... but these *are* extraordinary times.

G-Man: Rather than offer you the illusion of free choice, I will take the liberty of choosing for you... if and when your time comes round again. I do apologize for what must seem to you an arbitrary imposition, Dr. Freeman. I trust it will all make sense to you in the course of... well... I'm really not at liberty to say. In the meantime... this is where I get off.

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Presidential debate fact check: What Trump, Biden got right (and wrong)

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump both strayed repeatedly from the truth as they squared off in the first presidential debate of the 2024 election season.

Here are the claims the USA TODAY Fact Check Team dug into.

Biden claim: We lowered the cost of an insulin shot from $400 to $15

“We brought down the price of prescription drugs, which is a major issue for many people, to $15 for – for an insulin shot, as opposed to $400.”

This is false. The Inflation Reduction Act that Biden signed into law in August 2022 capped the out-of-pocket cost of insulin at $35 a month for all seniors on Medicare, according to the White House . Several pharmaceutical companies , including Eli Lilly , followed suit and limited the monthly cost of the drug to $35 per month as well. But there is no evidence Biden limited the cost of insulin beyond this.

The price of insulin was also never set at $400, though many paid about this much. The price a person pays for insulin depends on a variety of factors, including what type of insulin they are using, insurance status and whether they're eligible for a rebate from the drugmaker, according to NBC News . While estimates vary, one government study published in December 2022 reported that in 2019 , the average insulin user with private insurance spent $456 on insulin annually, while those with Medicare spent $449 a year and those without health insurance paid $996, comparatively. 

-Brad Sylvester

Biden claim: He is endorsed by Border Patrol agents

“The border patrolmen endorsed me, endorsed my position.”

This is partly false.

The National Border Patrol Council – the labor union that represents more than 18,000 U.S. Border Patrol agents – posted to X, formerly Twitter , minutes after Biden made the claim and said, “To be clear, we never have and never will endorse Biden.”

But the union, which endorsed Trump in 2020, supported the proposed bipartisan border agreement that Biden backed and Trump opposed, NBC News reported in February.

– Joedy McCreary

Biden claim: Illegal border crossings dropped 40% after his June directive

“I've changed (the law) in a way that now you're in a situation where there are 40% fewer people coming across the border illegally.”

Biden took executive action on June 4 that authorized the U.S. to turn away migrants who enter the country illegally when crossing levels are high. The policy is triggered anytime unlawful crossings hit an average of 2,500 people a day in a given week.

In remarks posted on June 26 , Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas said Border Patrol encounters along the U.S.-Mexico border had dropped by over 40% since Biden took action.

However, immigration experts have cautioned that it’s difficult to point to any one reason for a drop in crossings at the border, PolitiFact noted in its fact check on this claim .

Immigration rights organizations have sued the Biden administration over the new asylum restrictions at the border.

–Andre Byik

Trump claim: Everybody wanted Roe v. Wade overturned

“I put three great Supreme Court justices on the court, and they happened to vote in favor of killing Roe v. Wade and moving it back to the states. This is something that everybody wanted.”

This is not an accurate summary of public opinion on the question. Numerous polls show most Americans were not in favor of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade in June 2022 . For example, a poll conducted by Pew Research Center in July 2022 found that 57% of respondents said they disapproved of the overturning of the landmark decision. Another PBS NewsHour/NPR/Marist poll conducted in May 2022 (before the case was decided) found that 64% of respondents were opposed to reversing Roe v. Wade.

There is little evidence opinions have changed much since the decision. A Marquette Law School poll conducted in February 2024 found that 67% of adults opposed the ruling, while a Gallup poll from June 2023 found that 60% of respondents said overturning Roe v. Wade was a “bad thing.” 

- Brad Sylvester

Biden claim: Historians voted Trump ‘worst’ president in history

“(Trump) was the worst in all of American history. … He can argue (the historians) are wrong, but that’s what they voted.”

Biden was presumably referring to the 2024 Presidential Greatness Project Expert Survey , which is a joint project from University of Houston professor Brandon Rottinghaus and Coastal Carolina University professor Justin Vaughn .

The survey respondents in late 2023 voted Trump the lowest in “overall presidential greatness,” behind James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson and Franklin Pierce. Abraham Lincoln was rated highest. Joe Biden ranked at No. 14.

Respondents included scholars who had recently published peer-reviewed academic research in related scholarly journals or academic presses and current and recent members of the Presidents & Executive Politics Section of the American Political Science Association, which the survey described as “the foremost organization of social science experts in presidential politics.”

Out of 525 respondents invited to participate, the survey received 154 usable responses, yielding a 29% response rate.

– Andre Byik

Trump claim: I brought in National Guard during 2020 Minnesota unrest

“If I didn’t bring in the National Guard, that city (Minneapolis) would have been destroyed.”

It was Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, who activated the state’s National Guard to respond to unrest following the death of George Floyd, according to a press release issued by Walz’s office on May 28, 2020.

Walz said at the time that he was responding to “local leaders’ request for Minnesota National Guard assistance to protect peaceful demonstrators, neighbors and small businesses in Minnesota.”

CNN reporter Daniel Dale also looked into the claim back in 2020, detailing the timeline of events provided to the network by Walz’s press secretary, Teddy Tschann. In a statement to CNN, Tschann said Walz activated the National Guard at the request of the mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul, before the governor spoke with the White House.

“Did President Trump ‘call out’ the Guard? No,” Tschann said in the statement, according to CNN.

On May 30, 2020, the Minnesota National Guard posted on Twitter, now X, that Walz had “ announced the full mobilization ” of the Guard for the first time since World War II.

Biden claim: Trump praised Hitler, saying he did 'some good things'

"This is a guy who says Hitler has done some good things"

Biden's quote of Trump is a reference to comments the former president allegedly made while talking with his White House Chief of Staff, John Kelly, in 2018 during a trip to Paris, according to excerpts from an upcoming book by Wall Street Journal reporter Michael Bender.

“Well, Hitler did a lot of good things,” Trump reportedly told Kelly, according to a CNN report .

Trump later denied that he made the comments and denied that the conversation took place. Liz Harrington, a Trump spokesperson, told CNN the claim is "totally false."

"President Trump never said this," Harrington said. "It is made up fake news, probably by a general who was incompetent and was fired."

Trump has previously faced criticism for saying immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country” and describing his political opponents as "vermin," reminding many of language used by authoritarian leaders .

- Chris Mueller

Trump claim: Record ‘approval rating’ from VA

“I had the highest approval rating in the history of the VA.”

This is both false and a mischaracterization of what the quarterly customer experience surveys from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs measure.

The Veteran Signals surveys track the proportion of servicemembers who express having trust in the VA. It's not a presidential approval rating.

It has topped 80% twice: It was at 80% in 2020 during Trump’s administration , and it reached a high of 80.4% in May under Biden.

Trump made a similar version of the claim during a May rally in Wisconsin , according to a report from Wisconsin Watch.

Trump claim: More illicit drugs coming into US under Biden

“The number of drugs coming across our border now is the largest we’ve ever had by far.”

This is false. When measured by weight, drug seizures are trending down.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Border Patrol and Office of Field Operations seized nearly 549,000 pounds of illicit drugs in 2023 , according to federal data. That’s down 16% from 2022, when 656,000 pounds of substances were confiscated. More than 900,000 pounds were seized in 2021, according to federal data.

Most of the drugs involved were marijuana (150,000 pounds) and methamphetamine (140,000 pounds).

Fentanyl seizures were up, however, with the 27,000 pounds in 2023 accounting for nearly twice the 14,700 pounds confiscated in 2022.

Trump claim: Biden indicted me because I’m his political opponent

“He [Biden] indicted me because I'm his opponent.”

This is false. Trump was indicted and convicted in New York for falsifying business records related to a $130,000 hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election. But there is no evidence Biden or his administration had anything to do with these charges. Since the charges were brought by the state of New York , Biden and the federal government are not party to the indictment and have no say in the charges, as USA TODAY previously reported .

“When you’re dealing with state prosecutions, it’s district attorneys elected by the voters of their jurisdiction,” said Allan Lichtman , a professor of history at American University. “That has nothing to do with the federal government.”

The idea of Biden interfering in Trump's prosecution is further weakened by the fact that the agency under his purview declined to file charges. The Justice Department had the authority to pursue a case against Trump over the hush money circumstances but chose not to do so.

In Trump's two federal cases, things are a bit different. The charges he faces cover the  hoarding of hundreds of classified documents  in Florida and a  conspiracy to steal the 2020 election  from Biden in Washington.

There is no law that prohibits a president from involving himself in a federal case, experts acknowledged. But they also said Biden has kept himself separate from the prosecution of Trump .

Additionally, Biden publicly vowed not to speak to Attorney General Merrick Garland about any specific case. And a key reason for the November 2022 appointment of Jack Smith as special counsel for the federal cases against Trump was to add a layer of separation between the investigation and the Biden Administration.

- Brad Sylvester and Joedy McCreary

Trump claim: Food prices have 'doubled and tripled and quadrupled' under Biden

"You look at the cost of food where it's doubled and tripled and quadrupled."

The cost of food has gone up under Biden, but not to the extent Trump claimed. 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's all-food consumer price index shows food prices rose by 25% from 2019 to 2023. 

The COVID-19 pandemic caused changes in consumer behavior and led to supply chain disruptions, driving large increases in some foods. In 2022, food costs increased faster than any year since 1979, "partly due to a highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreak that affected egg and poultry prices," according to the department's report.

But grocery prices have stabilized over the last year , increasing by just 1.2% in the past 12 months, according to the Consumer Price Index report from March 2024.

Trump claim: No sex with porn star

“I didn’t have sex with a porn star.”

This is disputed.

On May 30, a New York state jury found Trump guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records tied to a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels. Daniels testified at trial that she had sex with Trump in July 2006 following a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe.

Trump has denied the sex happened.

The trial focused on a $130,000 payment that was arranged by Trump’s then-personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, ahead of the 2016 presidential election, the Associated Press reported.

Trump claim: Biden called African Americans ‘super predators’

"He did a crime bill. 1994. Where you called them super predators. African Americans. Super predators. And they've never forgotten it. They've never forgotten it."

While Biden once warned of “predators” in 1993 while advocating for a 1994 crime bill he sponsored as a senator, he never referred to African Americans as “super predators.” Rather, it was then-first lady Hillary Clinton who linked that term to the 1994 crime bill, as USA TODAY previously reported

While campaigning for her husband in 1996, Clinton praised the 1994 crime bill for curbing gangs, saying, "We need to take these people on, they are often connected to big drug cartels, they are not just gangs of kids anymore. They are often the kinds of kids that are called super predators. No conscious, no empathy,"

Notably, she did not connect this comment to Black people. 

Trump claim: Unprecedented numbers of murders by immigrants under Biden

“People are coming in and they’re killing our citizens at a level that we’ve never seen.”

While Trump has made a version of this claim before, there is no data that points to a wave of homicides being led by people living illegally in the U.S.

A review of 2024 crime data by NBC News suggests the opposite might be true. Overall crime levels have fallen in cities where a Texas program has transported migrants from the border, the network reported in February.

Crime is down year over year in Philadelphia , Chicago , Denver , New York and Los Angeles, according to the report. Washington experienced an increase, but officials do not attribute that spike to migrants, NBC News reported.

Trump previously made a version of the claim during a speech in Eagle Pass, Texas .

Research suggests immigrants actually commit fewer crimes than people born in the U.S.

Trump claim: The US southern border is the most dangerous place in the world

“ We have a border that's the most dangerous place anywhere in the world ”

This is false. While deaths, disappearances and violence do occur at the U.S. southern border, there is no evidence to suggest it is the most dangerous place in the world.

Statistics on border deaths vary. Customs and Border Protection data shows 171 people died at the border in fiscal year 2022, some in CBP custody and others while attempting to cross the border. The International Organization for Migration , a U.N.-related organization , documented 686 deaths and disappearances of migrants on the US-Mexico border in 2022.

Places all over the world and even in the U.S. have more frequent deaths. For example, there were more than 700 murders in Chicago in 2022 , according to the Chicago Police Department. Chicago is 228 square miles , while the U.S.-Mexico border is 1,951 miles long.

Trump claim: Corporate tax cut from 39% to 21%

“The corporate tax was cut down to 21% from 39% plus beyond that.”

Trump was off with one of his numbers. 

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 did lower the corporate tax rate to 21% . But it started at 35%, not the 39% that Trump claimed.

It is unclear exactly what Trump meant with his reference to “plus beyond that.” He promised business leaders that he would lower the corporate tax rate to 20% , The New York Times reported June 13.

Biden claim: Trump told Americans to inject bleach to treat COVID-19

"He said it’s not that serious, just inject a little bleach in your arm, you’ll be all right."

Biden is referring to comments Trump made during a press conference early in the pandemic when he suggested disinfectants might be a possible treatment for COVID-19. But he overstates what Trump said.

Trump's statement came after Bill Bryan, an undersecretary of science and technology at the Department of Homeland Security, discussed a new study that found sunlight and household disinfectants effectively killed the virus on surfaces or in the air.

"And then I saw the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in one minute, and is there a way we could do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning," Trump said.

Trump, though, never directly instructed people to inject bleach or any other disinfectant. Some states issued warnings following Trump's comment, as did Lysol, which told people not to inject or ingest its products as a coronavirus treatment.

Biden claim: No American troops died anywhere in the world during his presidency

“The truth is, I’m the only president this century that doesn’t have any - this decade - that doesn’t have any troops dying anywhere in the world, like (former President Donald Trump) did.”

Biden’s comment came following a reference to hostilities in Afghanistan during Trump’s term in office.

But the notion that no troops have died in the world during Biden’s time in office is wrong.

Thirteen U.S. service members were killed in a suicide bombing attack near the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul in August 2021, when Biden was president, as thousands tried to flee the Taliban’s takeover of the country, USA TODAY previously reported.

Among the deaths were 11 Marines, one Navy hospital corpsman and one Army soldier.

Biden remarked on the deaths at the time, calling them “tragic.”

More recently, three U.S. Army Reserve soldiers were killed in January at a base in Jordan in what was described as a drone attack by Iran-backed militants.

Debate background: Hunter Biden's ongoing legal troubles sure to hang over campaign

In early June, a jury found Hunter Biden – Joe Biden's son – guilty of three federal gun charges, making him the first child of a sitting president to be convicted at trial. The situation has been politically charged as it coincides with the elder Biden's ongoing campaign for reelection. 

Republican lawmakers have investigated Hunter Biden's foreign business deals , repeatedly alleging that Joe Biden was involved in influence peddling during his time as vice president. The White House has denied that allegation , calling it baseless innuendo.

Joe Biden, who earlier said he wouldn't pardon his son , released a statement shortly after the jury's verdict was announced reiterating that position.

“I will accept the outcome of this case and will continue to respect the judicial process as Hunter considers an appeal,” he said. “Jill and I will always be there for Hunter and the rest of our family with our love and support. Nothing will ever change that.”

Hunter Biden is expected to stand trial again in September in California, where he faces tax charges.

But even before his legal troubles, the president's son has been a frequent target for misinformation. Here are some of the claims we've already debunked:

• Fact check roundup: After Hunter Biden's guilty verdict, a look back at viral falsehoods
• Claim: Video shows Hunter Biden on the day cocaine was discovered in the White House (False)
• Claim: Hunter Biden’s prison term has been announced (False)
• Claim: Kodak Black and Hunter Biden faced the same charge, but only Black was sentenced to prison (False)
• Claim: Hunter Biden was seen nude on hotel surveillance, chasing and dragging woman (False)
• Claim: Image shows Trump statement on Hunter Biden conviction (Altered)

Debate background: Vast differences between Biden, Trump on gender identity, LGBTQ+ issues

With Pride Month winding down, LGBTQ+ issues – specifically, those related to gender identity – remain pivotal for voters in both parties.

The candidates have taken widely different positions on those issues, with President Joe Biden – hailed as the most LGBTQ-friendly president in U.S. history – marking his first day in office with an executive order on LGBTQ rights .

His administration is challenging Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors, with the Supreme Court agreeing to hear the case . He also unveiled in April a set of sweeping changes to Title IX rules that protect LGBTQ+ students from discrimination based on their gender identity, but a federal judge blocked their enforcement in four states .

Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump vowed in May to roll back transgender student protections “on Day 1” of his presidency by reversing an executive order issued by Biden in 2021. Trump also vowed in February 2023 to punish medical professionals and facilities that provide gender-affirming care to transgender minors and said he would support banning transgender women from women’s sports .

Here are some of the false claims related to LGBTQ+ issues that we’ve debunked:

• Claim: NFL coach Mike Tomlin directed team not to participate in Pride Month activities (False)
• Claim: Biden replaced Easter Sunday with Transgender Day of Visibility (False)
• Claim: Joe Biden said he supports allowing kids to have ‘transgender surgery’ at town hall event (False)
• Claim: A Michigan bill would make using a person’s wrong gender pronouns a felony (False)
• Claim: UN chief says Christians who don’t accept pedophilia will be excluded from society (False)
• Claim: Video shows Disney executive announcing company's new pediatric transgender clinics (False)

Debate background: Israel’s war against Hamas sparks unrest in US as peace deal remains elusive

The Hamas attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip in response, plunged President Joe Biden into the second major international conflict of his term. He has been forced to balance America’s military support for Israel with calls from the left to broker a ceasefire deal as casualties mount in the Palestinian territory.

Biden said in May that it is “ time for this war to end and for the day after to begin ,” laying out a proposal that called for Israel to cease military operations in the Gaza Strip and Hamas to release hostages in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

But a peace deal has proved elusive , leading to unrest on college campuses across the country after pro-Palestinian demonstrators set up protest camps. Former President Donald Trump cheered police crackdowns on demonstrators, calling them “ a beautiful thing to watch .” But he’s also called on Israel to finish its war, saying the violence is hurting its standing among the international community.

“Israel has to be very careful, because you're losing a lot of the world, you’re losing a lot of support, you have to finish up, you have to get the job done,” Trump told Israeli outlet Israel Hayom in an interview posted in March. "And you have to get on to peace, to get on to a normal life for Israel, and for everybody else.”

These are some claims related to the Israel-Hamas war that we’ve already addressed:

• Claim: Video shows American actress Candice King condemning Rafah “massacre” (False)
• Claim: Indonesia announced it will send troops to protect Palestinians from Israel (False)
• Claim: Image shows ‘mass exodus’ at Ben Gurion Airport amid Israel-Hamas war (False)
• Claim: Israel defense minister announced Israel has “abolished all the rules of war” (False)
• Claim: Video shows a child’s injuries being faked in Israel-Hamas conflict (False)

Debate background: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine puts spotlight on US involvement in foreign wars

Russia’s war against Ukraine entered its third year in February, and the conflict has had political implications in the U.S., where pushes to approve war aid for Ukraine have been met with contentious debate over the extent of American involvement in foreign wars, the Associated Press reported.

President Joe Biden has remained committed to supporting Ukraine and its effort to join NATO, signing a 10-year bilateral security agreement with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on June 13.

“Our goal is to strengthen Ukraine’s credible defense and deterrence capabilities for the long term,” Biden said at a press conference about the agreement. “A lasting peace for Ukraine must be underwritten by Ukraine’s own ability to defend itself now and to deter future aggression anytime … in the future.”

Former President Donald Trump has said he could end the war within 24 hours of returning to the Oval Office, but he’s offered few details about his plan. The Washington Post reported Trump’s plan could include pressuring Ukraine to give up territory, which Ukraine has opposed.

Here are some fact-checks about claims related to the war in Ukraine:

• Fact check roundup: What's true and false two years after Russia's invasion of Ukraine
• Claim: Video shows Russian military activity 66 miles off Florida coast (False)
• Claim: Italy's Meloni said Russia will be forced to surrender in Ukraine summit speech (False)
• Claim: Image shows Ukrainian girls “recruited into the military” (False)

Debate background: Fight over immigration reform plays out during presidential campaign

Immigration has become one of the most heated topics of the 2024 election, as President Joe Biden grapples with high levels of crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border and former President Donald Trump vows to deport millions of migrants if re-elected.

The situation at the Southwest border – where U.S. Customs and Border Protection recorded nearly 2.5 million migrant encounters in fiscal 2023 – prompted Biden to take executive action earlier this month to implement new restrictions on asylum access .

The action came after Republican lawmakers in February blocked an immigration bill blocked by Biden that would have revamped the country’s immigration and border policies.

Biden blamed the legislation’s failure to gain traction in Congress on opposition from Trump.

“Now, all indications are this bill won't even move forward to the Senate floor,” Biden said at the time . “Why? A simple reason. Donald Trump. Because Donald Trump thinks it's bad for him politically.”

Meanwhile, Trump has pledged to reinstate policies from his first term in office and limit asylum access if elected in November. He also wants to institute a merit-based immigration system and deputize the National Guard and local law enforcement “to assist with rapidly removing illegal alien gang members and criminals,” according to his campaign website.

Here are some immigration-related claims we previously debunked:

• Claim: Nearly 11,000 “illegals” were processed in Eagle Pass, Texas, in one day in mid-March 2024 (False)
• Claim: Nikki Haley opposed a wall on the US border (False)
• Claim: The Texas National Guard has deployed tanks to the border with Mexico (False)
• Claim: Putin said in Carlson interview that Russians find it ‘amusing’ US protects foreign borders, but not its own (False)
• Claim: Video shows US trucker convoy traveling to southern border to stop migrant “invasion” (False)

Debate background: Biden and Trump face age-related concerns, though both insist they're fit to serve

At 81 years old, Joe Biden is currently the oldest U.S. president ever elected . His age has been a concern for voters and a frequent target for critics, including Donald Trump, who often suggests Biden's age makes him unfit to be president. 

Trump is 78 years old , three years younger than Biden, but he has also faced criticism related to his age and mental acuity, including when he confused Joe Biden for Barack Obama in multiple campaign speeches. 

Either man would be the oldest person to take the oath of office if sworn in next January.

In February, Justice Department special counsel Robert Hur released a report indicating Biden wouldn't face charges for his handling of classified documents that included multiple comments about Biden's age and memory, describing him as an elderly man with "diminished capacities," including memory loss. However, Biden and his administration pushed back , with Biden saying his "memory is fine" during a televised speech.

While Trump's doctor said multiple times he was healthy during his presidency, there were – and still are –  reports of him slurring words during his speeches. Late in his term, Trump was recorded slowly descending a ramp after a speech at at U.S. Military Academy at West Point, during which he used both hands to drink a glass of water. Trump dismissed concerns raised about his age after that incident, claiming the ramp was long, steep and "very slippery."

Here are a few of the age-related claims we've already addressed:

• Claim: Image shows Trump needed help to walk across stage (False)
• Claim: Biden demanded he 'not have to stand' during debate with Trump (False)
• Claim: Video shows Biden tried to sit in a nonexistent chair at D-Day ceremony in France (False)
• Claim: Biden agreed to resign if he fails a cognitive test (False)
• Claim: Joe Biden was declared 'mentally unfit' to stand trial (False)

Debate background: Election integrity remains key issue – even without evidence of widespread voter fraud

Throughout the campaign one question has persisted: Will the candidates and their supporters trust – and abide by – the results of the election?

Most recently, former President Donald Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee led by his daughter-in-law said they will mobilize 100,000 people in battleground states to ensure “transparency and fairness.” The move has drawn criticism from opponents who say it has the potential to lead to voter intimidation .

State-level recounts, reviews and audits of the 2022 midterm elections found no indication of systemic problems with voter fraud. That’s significant because baseless allegations from Trump and his allies have penetrated the Republican Party and eroded confidence in the process.

Claims questioning the integrity of the election frequently center around a handful of predictable themes that include assertions of widespread voter fraud and election “hacking .”

USA TODAY has debunked several false claims about the integrity of the elections:

• Fact check roundup: False claims about election fraud, candidates swirl amid 2022 midterms
• Claim: 105% of Michigan’s population is registered to vote (False)
• Claim: A software company's contract allows officials to override election results (False)
• Claim: Malware, remote access caused printer problems; 200,000 'ejected' ballots in Arizona (False)
• Claim: A chart shows election fraud in the Michigan AG’s race (False)
• Claim: Blackout in live stream in Nevada points to election theft (False)
• Claim: Fraud due to Texas voting machine adding voters as polls close (False)
• Claim: Photo showing ballots from 2022 midterms in the trash is evidence of fraud (False)
• Claim: Democrats used 47 million mail-in ballots to steal every election (False)
• Claim: Joe Biden did not legally win the presidential election (False)

Debate background: Trump’s conviction, pending trials loom over debate, election

The first former U.S. president convicted of a felony will take the debate stage as an ex-president for the first time in an attempt to convince voters to give him his old job back.

Former President Donald Trump’s felony conviction and his three pending criminal trials continue to loom large over both the race and the debate – his first of the presidential election cycle – with President Joe Biden.

Trump was convicted of 34 counts of falsifying business records related to hush-money payments intended to silence two women , including adult film actress Stormy Daniels, before the 2016 election. Days before the debate, the judge in that case lifted the gag order restrictions that protected the witnesses and jurors. He is scheduled to be sentenced July 11 – days before the start of the Republican National Convention , during which he is expected to formally receive the party’s nomination.

Trump also faces charges for allegedly mishandling classified documents and allegedly conspiring to steal the 2020 presidential election , including his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection . Trump and several allies were indicted in August by a Georgia grand jury that accused them of trying to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state, where Trump lost to President Joe Biden by about 12,000 votes.

Trump’s legal problems have been the subject of an array of false or misleading claims on social media:

• Fact check roundup: Donald Trump guilty verdict spurs false claims
• Claim: The jury in Trump's hush money trial did not need a unanimous verdict to convict (False)
• Claim: Trump ‘blew off his post-sentencing probation report ’ (False)
• Claim: Justice Juan Merchan was ‘fired’ after jury in Trump hush-money trial illegally leaked verdict (False)
• Claim: Texas Constitution prohibits Trump from running for president (False)
• Claim: Post implies Biden can pardon Trump (Missing context)

More from the Fact-Check Team: How we pick and research claims | Email newsletter | Facebook page

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Julian Assange leaves jail on his way to enter plea deal with the U.S.

WASHINGTON — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was released from a British prison and on his way to a remote Pacific island on Tuesday where he will plead guilty to a conspiracy charge as part of a plea deal with the U.S. Justice Department, according to  court documents .

The agreement will free Assange and end the yearslong legal battle over the publication of a trove of classified documents.

Assange was charged by criminal information — which typically signifies a plea deal — with conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense information, the court documents said.

Wikileaks posted footage to X of Assange boarding a plane at Stanstead Airport near London at 5 p.m. (12 p.m. ET) on Monday.

A letter from Justice Department official Matthew McKenzie said Assange would appear in court in the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S.-controlled territory north of Guam, at 9 a.m. local time Wednesday (7 p.m. ET Tuesday) to plead guilty.

A plane believed to be carrying Assange landed early Tuesday in the Thai capital Bangkok to refuel. He will later arrive for what could be a final court hearing after spending five years in a British jail.

The islands are 3,400 miles north of Australia, Assange's country of citizenship, where the Justice Department expects he will return following the proceedings.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that "the case has dragged on for too long, there is nothing to be gained by his continued incarceration and we want him brought home to Australia."

Assange's mother, Christine Assange, said in a statement widely reported by Australian media: "I am grateful that my son’s ordeal is finally coming to an end. This shows the importance and power of quiet diplomacy."

His wife, Stella Assange, is currently in Australia with the couple's two children, aged 5 and 7, waiting for his arrival, she told BBC Radio 4. "He will be a free man once it is signed off by a judge," she said, adding that she wasn't sure the deal would happen until the last 24 hours.

She said she was "elated."

Stella Assange, a lawyer, also told the Reuters news agency that she would seek a pardon on her husband's behalf. She said that accepting a guilty plea on an espionage charge created a "very serious concern" for journalists across the world.

U.S. charges against Assange stem from one of the largest publications of classified information in American history, which took place during President Barack Obama's first term.

Starting in late 2009, according to the government, Assange conspired with Chelsea Manning , a military intelligence analyst, to use his WikiLeaks website to disclose tens of thousands of activity reports about the war in Afghanistan, hundreds of thousands of reports about the war in Iraq, hundreds of thousands of State Department cables and assessment briefs of detainees at the U.S. detention camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

Court documents revealing Assange's plea deal were filed Monday evening in U.S. District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands. Assange was expected to appear in that court and to be sentenced to 62 months, with credit for time served in British prison, meaning he would be free to return to Australia, where he was born.

“This was an independent decision made by the Department of Justice and there was no White House involvement in the plea deal decision,” National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement Monday evening.

Assange has been held in the high-security Belmarsh Prison in east London for five years, and he previously spent seven years in self-exile at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London — where he reportedly fathered two children — until his asylum was withdrawn and he was forcibly carried out of the embassy and arrested in April 2019.

A superseding indictment was returned more than five years ago, in May 2019, and a second superseding indictment was returned in June 2020 .

Assange has been fighting extradition for more than a decade: first in connection with a sex crimes case in Sweden that was eventually dropped, then in connection with the case against him in the United States.

In March, the High Court in London gave him permission for a full hearing on his appeal as he sought assurances that he could rely upon the First Amendment at a trial in the U.S. In May, two judges on the High Court said he could have a full hearing on whether he would be discriminated against in the U.S. because he is a foreign national. A hearing on the issue of Assange's free speech rights had been scheduled for July 9-10 .

WikiLeaks also published hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee that upended the 2016 presidential race. Russian intelligence officers were subsequently indicted in connection with the hacking in 2018 in a case brought by then-special counsel Robert Mueller.

At a joint news conference with then-President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin days later, Trump contradicted the indictment and the intelligence community, saying Putin was " extremely strong and powerful in his denial " that Russians interfered in the 2016 election to help him win.

Manning was sentenced to 35 years in a military prison, but Obama commuted her sentence in the final days of his presidency in 2017. Manning was subsequently held in contempt of court for nearly a year after she refused to answer questions for a grand jury; she was then released after an attempted suicide .

If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text   988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or chat live at  988lifeline.org . You can also visit  SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources  for additional support.

Michael Kosnar and Ryan J. Reilly reported from Washington, and Patrick Smith from London.

Michael Kosnar is a Justice Department producer for the NBC News Washington Bureau.

Ryan J. Reilly is a justice reporter for NBC News.

Patrick Smith is a London-based editor and reporter for NBC News Digital.

Dutch volleyball player who raped 12-year-old British girl qualifies for Paris Olympics

Steven van de Velde was told by a UK judge in 2016 that his ‘hopes of representing your country now lie as a shattered dream’

A Dutch beach volleyball player who raped a 12-year-old British girl has qualified for next month’s Paris Olympics , despite being told by a judge that his hopes of representing the Netherlands was a “shattered dream”.

Steven van de Velde was sentenced in March 2016 to four years in prison after admitting three counts of rape against a child he had met on Facebook. He had flown from the Netherlands to the UK in August 2014, when he was 19, to meet his victim. 

Judge Francis Sheridan told him: “Prior to coming to this country you were training as a potential Olympian. Your hopes of representing your country now lie as a shattered dream.”

Except Van de Velde, who was released after serving just 12 months at a Dutch prison, has since been allowed to rehabilitate his Olympic career, this month sealing his spot in the national pair at the Paris Games alongside Matthew Immers.

On sentencing at Aylesbury Crown Court after being extradited from his homeland, his own defence lawyer, Linda Strudwick, said of the verdict: “The headlines say it all: ‘A sex monster.’ It’s plainly a career end for him.” 

It has proved anything but, with Van de Velde, now 29, re-establishing his credentials in beach volleyball to such an extent that he and Immer are the 11th-ranked team in the world heading to Paris next month.

Van de Velde’s comeback presents a major moral conundrum for the International Olympic Committee. Every Paris Olympian is required to sign an Athletes’ Rights and Responsibilities Declaration, with point seven demanding: “Act as a role model.”

Having travelled from Amsterdam to Milton Keynes to have sex with a girl he knew was just 12, Van de Velde was condemned in the strongest terms in 2016 by the judge. The court heard that he had gone to the home of the victim, with whom he had communicated on social networks before arranging to visit, while her mother was out and had taken her virginity.

“Your actions have wrecked your life and you could, had you never come to England and committed these offences, have been a leader in your sport,” Judge Sheridan said. “A young, naive, foolish child had formed the view that you loved her. In reality, you only knew her on the internet, had never met her before and were fully aware of the age difference.”

Upon his release in 2017 after only a quarter of his sentence, Van de Velde, who had wept in court on hearing about the girl’s subsequent self-harm and overdose, said: “I do want to correct all the nonsense that has been written about me when I was locked up. I did not read any of it, on purpose, but I understand that it was quite bad, that I have been branded as a sex monster, as a paedophile. That I am not, really not. 

“Everyone can have their opinion about me, but it is only fair if they also know my side of the story.”

These remarks drew a withering response from the National Society for Protection of Cruelty to Children, who said: “Van de Velde’s lack of remorse and self-pity is breathtaking, and we can only begin to imagine how distressed his victim must feel if she sees his comments.

“Grooming can leave a child feeling ashamed or even guilty, because they believe they have somehow willingly participated when, in fact, an adult has preyed upon them in order to sexually exploit them.”

The Dutch Olympic committee has yet to comment on Van de Velde’s qualification for Paris, with The Australian reporting that the country’s volleyball federation is still to ratify its final athlete selections. The IOC has been contacted for a response.

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