Talk:Andrew Ryan

Is Andrew Ryan really a ex-Soviet? I thought the reason he started Rapture was because the US Gov't wanted to turn his park into a national forest?

I think so too...


 * Response by Chasmyr:

Andrew Ryan is an ex soviet. Go to the BioShock home page and read the section called characters, you'll find that he came to the US during WWII. You're also right about the forst thing, but I can't verify that it was American soil that the forest was on because I haven't looked into it. He tells you about it in Arcadia, you can read the diary log about it (yes the game keeps a log of all com messages and audio diaries you've had).\


 * Response by --Klivian 13:17, 4 September 2007 (UTC)

Also, in the Working Late Again audio diary, he refers to himself as Andrei, the Russian version of Andrew. Okay I'm new so I may not be the best at discusing but Andrew Ryan I have to say dose bare a strange reseblense to Orson Welles and even sounds like him a bit.

I'm rather confused. The article says he left the Soviet Union in 1919, two years before the end of the Russian Civil War and the creation of the USSR. That's kind of impossible.

Voice Actor
Who is the voice actor for Andrew Ryan? And I think we should start listing these for current articles.

Is It just me or does Andrew ryan resemble Enoch Powell (old conservative politician).

Andrew Ryan has a striking resemblance to Vincent Price.

A number of points on Ryan
Yes, Ryan is supposed to be a former citizen of the Soviet Union, having fled for the United States in 1919 (he says as much in one of the public address announcements, when he describes his history). "Ryan" is thus not likely to be his original last name. He later became disenchanted with the US Government as well (including the forest incident as one example). The name "Andrew Ryan" is a play on Ayn Rand, the author and philosopher whose work inspired much of the story of Bioshock. Rand also came to the United States as a refugee from the Soviet Union in real life, changed her name, and was also later a critic of a number of political policies and social trends in the mid-20th century United States as well. Much of the philosophy Ryan expounds is based on Rand's philosophy of Objectivism.

The voice actor for Ryan is Armin Shimerman, a very talented Hollywood character actor probably best known for his work in several Star Trek series and the Buffy The Vampire Slayer TV show.

Ryan's appearance rather reminded me of Howard Hughes, maybe around the late 1940s or early 1950s: the very model of a brilliant and visionary, but extremely unbalanced, titan of industry and science (who also was known for many dalliances with young and famous women, fought multiple conflicts with the US government, fled the United States, and died in deluded, self-imposed exile). Ken Levine explicitly described Ryan as "Howard Hughes and Ayn Rand together". The similarity with Orson Welles also recalls Welles' writing and portrayal of Charles Foster Kane in Citizen Kane, a thin guise of the real-life publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst.

76.90.93.198 12:16, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

is he really dead?
seeing as it is possible to turn on the vita chamber after he dies, wouldn't that revive him? Or do you have to die while it was turned on for it to revive you, this was never really explained, so can we be certain that he really IS dead?

Since Ryan died while the chamber was off, I would say, yes.

i like to think that after Jack gets the Key to the City, he would use the Vita-CHamber to revive Ryan. he would then keep him tied up in a wheelchair and feed him through a tube against his will. Jack would mash up Ryans food and change his diapers every day. and at every possible opportunity remind Ryan how he has enough of a burden feeding ≈20 children/holding the world hostage with a soviet nuke. but even though Ryan does not contribute in any way what so ever, so he would be forced to sit in agony as he is a parasite but can do nothing about it.

–any comments?

why are his audio diaries just hanging around?
seriously, they are never placed in a particular spot, they're just around. during Rapture's prime, would Ryan just wander the various districts, reciting his philosophies into his recorder, then like, look around to see no one is looking, then toss the cassette behind a trash can or in the shelf of an empty market stall, sorry for this abhorrent run on sentence.

There are likely two different reasons: If 2K left all of his diaries stashed in a closet in Rapture Central Control, it would be sort of anticlimactic, and you would barely get to know him in the first half of the game. OR, the place where he kept his diaries was ransacked and therefore his diaries became scattered all over Rapture. I rather believe it's the former, to preserve game atmosphere.

Another possibility on Ryan's motivations for death?
Is it possible that Ryan chose to die at the hands of Jack, believing other assassins would be sent? Since Jack cleared the path to Ryan's office, the door would seem to be open for Fontaine to send splicers after Ryan. Perhaps, knowing this, Ryan chose to die in a calculated attempt to free Jack, or set him against Atlas/Fontaine?

Ryan and Atlas
The article states that, "Although Frank Fontaine set Jack on his journey to kill Ryan using the would you kindly trigger phrase, Ryan knew exactly what was occurring."

With this I tend to disagree. I feel as if Ryan did not figure out what was going on until Jack was halfway to knocking out the power on his mag locks on his office door. Ryan informs Jack over the radio that there is a feeling of nostalgia that Jack is experiencing (this one of the earlier indications of Ryan becoming aware that Jack is his son). Even moments before his death Ryan states, "You hear me, Atlas?! Andrew Ryan offers you nothing but ashes!" I do not think that Ryan ever figured out that Atlas and Fontaine were the same person. I know, he knew Fontaine had purchased Jack's embryo, and that Atlas had control over Jack. But I do not think Ryan ever realized they were the same person.

Any thoughts?

--Atlas the Fisherman 22:04, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

Sources for some of the paragraphs.
What is the source for all that stuff in his article about him being the "youngest billionaire in the country," and when he was born, etc...?