Frank Fontaine

Frank Fontaine is an antagonist in Bioshock, the arch-enemy of Andrew Ryan, and the leader of the opposition in the power struggle which led to Rapture's collapse.

Background
Fontaine was originally the owner of Fontaine Fisheries, which became the front for his smuggling operations. A successful businessman of modest beginnings, called a "diamond in the rough" by some inhabitants of Rapture, he also engaged in charity and eventually became a player in high technology, establishing Fontaine Futuristics.

Fontaine was the initial investor in Bridgette Tenenbaum and Dr. Suchong's research into ADAM. His fishermen were the first to discover the sea slugs which naturally produce the substance. Their research led to the establishment of Fontaine Futuristics, the epicenter of biotechnology in Rapture.

Andrew Ryan began to see Fontaine as a threat, purportedly because the criminal arm of his enterprises (which imported contraband items such as the Christian Bible) might reveal the location of Rapture to surface-dwellers, but tacitly because of the rising power of Fontaine Futuristics.

Facing growing pressure from Ryan, Fontaine engineered an elaborate scheme to take control of Rapture. After acquiring Jack, the illegitimate son of Ryan himself, he instructed Suchong to brainwash, train, and artificially age the child, creating an obedient assassin whom he sent to the surface as a sleeper agent.

After faking his own death in 1958, he reemerged under the alias of Atlas, a fisherman and proletariat hero, while setting the stage for the civil war which would tear Rapture apart. Later, as Jack's guide, "Atlas" uses the trigger phrase "would you kindly" to manipulate Jack into assassinating Ryan.

Game Role
After Ryan's death, Fontaine reveals that his ultimate goal is not simply to conquer Rapture, but to use it and the ADAM technology to extend his power to the surface and become an industry tycoon. He reveals himself to be a misanthropic con artist with no allegiance to the people of Rapture, who believed him to be an alternative to Ryan's hegemony, nor anything but sarcastic, feigned sympathy for Jack. As the game's final boss, he splices himself into a hulking, statuesque monster, who is finally overcome by a swarm of Little Sisters.

Influences
Frank Fontaine, like several of the main characters, exhibits influences from Ayn Rand. His name can be taken as a reference to The Fountainhead, one of Rand's most important novels, and the alias Atlas is clearly a reference to Rand's magnum opus, Atlas Shrugged. According to Rand's philosophy, Objectivism, the goal of a human being is rational self-interest: living for one's own happiness, success, and creativity, with as little interference as possible.

Ironically, Fontaine - the engineer of Rapture's destruction - is the very type of man the city was designed to nurture. He came to Rapture with little or nothing, and built an empire by his own wits, a rags-to-riches story in the mold of Andrew Carnegie. In his rise to power, he also exposes Andrew Ryan as a tyrant: the very type of "king" which the red banner at Rapture's entrance claimed had no place there, winning considerable popular support by pointing out Ryan's hypocrisy. Fontaine may thus be seen as a Randian hero, and more representative of Ryan's beliefs than even Ryan himself.

However, he is also manipulative, duping the public for his own gain and ultimately dooming them to mutation, insanity and death. These traits are contrary to Rand's ethos, and he casts doubt even upon Objectivism itself in his correct observation that not everyone in Rapture can become wealthy and famous. Fontaine's boss form is reminiscent of an Art Deco sculpture, such as Lee Lawrie's statue of Atlas or the many sculptures around Rapture. The ultimate incarnation of Ryan's (and therefore Rand's) philosophy is revealed to be a monster..