Booker DeWitt

"One thing I've learned; if you don't draw first, you don't get to draw at all."

- Booker DeWitt, to Elizabeth

Booker DeWitt is the protagonist of BioShock Infinite, whom the player controls throughout the game. He is a private investigator and, prior to his reluctant arrival in Columbia, was a former Pinkerton agent. Booker is offered a deal to wipe away his gambling debts if he goes to Columbia and retrieves a girl imprisoned there. Through the story, DeWitt reveals his past experiences, and shows his ability to make decisions independent of the player. Unlike the other BioShock protagonist characters, DeWitt has his own identity. Booker also appears to be strong, as he is able to throw many of his enemies away like ragdolls when he is using his skyhook melees.

Background
Booker DeWitt was born on April 19, 1874. At the age of sixteen, he was part of the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army, and was present at the Battle of Wounded Knee. Due to his gruesome actions at Wounded Knee, other members of his regiment gave him the nickname "The White Injun," because of his taking trophies from his victims (as Native Americans were infamous for).

After the Battle of Wounded Knee, Booker attended a river baptism, led by Preacher Witting, to be reborn a new man and absolve his past. However, Booker rejected his baptism before it could be completed.

Between 1891 and 1892, Booker was married. By 1892, when he was eighteen, his wife had become pregnant with their child. However, Booker's wife died while giving birth to their daughter, Annabelle. Mixed with the scars of Wounded Knee, the grief of his wife's death, and the stress of becoming a single father, Booker slipped into alcoholism and gambling. Booker later became a Pinkerton Agent, but was discharged due to his use of extreme methods on the job. As a member of the Pinkertons, DeWitt had been tasked with breaking up union strike efforts. Following his discharge from the Pinkerton Agency, he became a private investigator, but his alcoholism and gambling addiction remained. Eventually, Booker became indebted to individuals that, he claimed, one would not want to owe money to.

At some point, Booker met a mysterious man, who offered him a deal made by Father Comstock&mdash;Comstock offered to wipe Booker's debt away in exhange for Anna. On October 8th, 1893, Booker reluctantly handed her over to the man, but regretted his choice immediately, and went after him. Booker found the man with Comstock in alleyway, near a strange portal with a woman inside, about to pass Anna through. Booker grabbed Comstock as he stepped through, and tried to wrestle Anna from his grasp. However, Comstock was able to shake Booker off and order the portal closed. It shut as Annabelle reached out to Booker, severing her pinkie finger in the process.

Filled with regret, Booker fell even further into alcoholism and his gambling habits worsened. He eventually branded his hand with Annabelle's initials, "AD" as a reminder of his failure.

Nearly twenty years later, Booker re-encounters the mysterious man, who offers him an opportunity to get Annabelle back; he must simply step through the portal that appears in his office. Traveling through the portal leaves Booker dazed and confused&mdash;due to the fact that he has entered a new reality&mdash;and begins creating new, different memories from the old. Memories of losing his daughter turn into understanding of a job that requires him to enter Columbia and retrieve a girl named Elizabeth. With the demand, "Bring us the girl, and wipe away the debt," still in his head from twenty years ago, Booker remembers this as what the job entails, rather then his actual past. The man and the woman from twenty years ago then take Booker to a rowboat, and discuss how Booker's altered memories confirm the man's theory about the loss memory upon trans-dimensional travel, claiming he has "lived [through] it." Booker awakens just as the boat arrives on a small island, off the Coast of Maine, where there is a lighthouse.

Reaching Columbia
""Bring us the girl, and wipe away the debt;" that was the deal. The details elude me now, but the details wouldn't change a goddamn thing."

- Booker DeWitt

Booker arrives in Columbia in a shuttle, which rises to the flying city from the lighthouse. Arriving in the Welcome Center, a shrine to Zachary Hale Comstock and his late wife, Lady Comstock, he finds that he must be baptized before being allowed to enter the city. When the baptizing priest becomes overzealous and Booker is knocked unconscious from lack of oxygen, he dreams of opening the door to his New York office to find the city burning around him.

Awaking outside the Welcome Center and shaking off the experience, Booker explores Columbia and its annual Raffle & Fair. Booker's main objective is to find the girl, Elizabeth, in her tower on Monument Island. During his travels, he is contacted and guided by Rosalind Lutece and her "twin" brother, Robert, quantum-physicists responsible for the flotation of Columbia.

Booker discovers that Comstock is the leader of Columbia's political and religious parties, namely the Founders. He also learns that Comstock has warned the people of Columbia of the coming of a "False Shepherd," that will guide away the "Lamb of Columbia." The Shepherd, Comstock claims, can be identified by an AD branded on the back of his hand, as Booker has.

Meeting Elizabeth
Booker reaches Monument Island and enters to discover a vast laboratory with an apartment at its center, where the girl has been imprisoned and observed there all her life. Through an observation room window, he sees transforms her painting of the Eiffel Tower into an actual Paris street, circa 1983. Booker then accidentally falls through Elizabeth's ceiling into her library; she at first fears and attacks him, but is then relieved by his presence, likely due to the fact that she has never seen another human up close. Booker then helps Elizabeth escape her tower, but not before they are chased and attacked by a giant bird creature.

With Elizabeth intent on enjoying her freedom, Booker convinces her to come with him by saying that he will take her on The First Lady airship to Paris; his actual plan is to take her to New York and complete his job. Along the way, Elizabeth explains her ability to manipulate tears, saying they are windows to other realities. While Booker is initially shocked and somewhat fearful of the tears, he becomes more comfortable with them when it is revealed they can be used to his and Elizabeth's benefit in combat.

She is also inquisitive about Booker's life, asking him in Soldier's Field if "there [is] a woman in [his] life." Booker responds that his wife, Anna, died during childbirth--when Elizabeth happily concludes that he has children, he corrects her, saying he does not.

The Hall of Heroes
Upon reaching the rail line to the Aerodrome, Booker and Elizabeth find that it is closed down, and they will need to power it using some other electrical source. Traveling to the Hall of Heroes to find the Shock Jockey vigor, they come upon an old war comrade of Booker's named Cornelius Slate; disillusioned by Comstock's lies about his presence at Wounded Knee and his undercutting of true soldiers' efforts, Slate has taken over the Hall, and Booker and Elizabeth must fight their way inside to retrieve the Shock Jockey.

Inside, Slate reveals to Elizabeth that Booker was present at the Battle of Wounded Knee, and that unlike Comstock, Booker is a true soldier. Not wanting to remember or find glory in his regrettable past, Booker attempts to distance himself from Slate's comments, assuring Elizabeth that nothing Slate praises is truly good. They then battle their way through the Hall's exhibits on Wounded Knee and the Boxer Rebellion, with Slate sending teams of his soldiers after Booker so that they may "die a soldier's death."

When Booker finally confronts Slate, who himself holds the Shock Jockey vigor, the man asks that Booker kill him. If Booker chooses to spare him, Slate raises against him, claiming Booker is nothing more than one of Comstock's "tin men." If Booker chooses to kill him, Slate happily remarks that Booker hasn't changed at all since their days in the army. This comment leaves Booker shaken, which Elizabeth notices and comments on.

When the two reach the Aerodrome, they are attacked at the ticket booth by Founder assassins, whom Booker quickly deals with. Elizabeth reacts with anger, calling Booker a "monster," at which Booker is taken aback. Surprised by Elizabeth's innocence in the face of combat, as opposed to his own battle-hardened disposition, he asks how she was expecting to escape without casualties. Elizabeth eventually comes over to his way of thinking, though reluctantly, and they share a tender moment as she patches his injured hand.

When they take control of The First Lady, Elizabeth discovers Booker's plan to bring her to New York and begins to cry. Unsure what to do, Booker goes to comfort her, only to have him strike him with a wrench, knocking him unconscious. Elizabeth then leaves Booker and the ship to the Vox Populi, a Populist, anti-Founder movement headed by Daisy Fitzroy. Fitzroy offers to return control of the ship to Booker if he procures munitions from Finkton for their cause.

Fink Manufacturing
Booker finds Elizabeth on the docks at Fink Manufacturing, only to have her flee, opening tears behind her to impede Booker's advance. Her efforts draw the attention of Founder forces, who Booker fights in order to rescue her. In the struggle, Booker is thrown from a building dock by a handyman, and nearly falls to his death. However, he is saved when Elizabeth opens a tear, creating a cargo blimp to catch him. Booker immediately suggests a partnership, which Elizabeth initially rejects, calling him a "liar...and a thug." However, she soon she admits that he is the only way for her to reach Paris, and agrees to accompany him despite her anger.

As they venture through Fink Manufacturing, Booker and Elizabeth realize that their tasks cannot be completed in their present reality, due to insurmountable obstacles--the death of the gunsmith who was set to make the munitions, for instance. However, they find they can enter different realities in which these obstacles do not exist through use of the tears. Their travels through the tears eventually find them in a universe where the Vox Populi have begun their revolution, and Booker is a martyr of the Vox cause. Fitzroy, confused by Booker's presence, sends Vox soldiers after him, claiming that he is an imposter.

Booker and Elizabeth make it to Fitzroy just as she murders Jeremiah Fink, then turns on a nearby child. At her insistence, Booker boosts Elizabeth into a nearby vent, then distracts Fitzroy by criticizing her violent methods. As Fitzroy fanatically responds, saying that the children of the Founders must die for any gains to be made, Elizabeth stabs her in the back.

When Elizabeth, struck with horror at what she has done, flees to The First Lady, Booker attempts to comfort her before going to the ship controls. When Elizabeth emerges, in a new dress and with her hair cut, Booker notes that they have a choice to make: New York, or Paris. However, before a decision can be made, Songbird appears and puts down their ship.

Emporia
After the ship's crash landing, Elizabeth and Booker emerges to find the Lutece twins, who reveal that a special flute can control the Songbird. Booker and Elizabeth then set course for Comstock House. Along the way, they are nearly intercepted by Songbird, and just manage to hide. Afterward, Elizabeth makes a request of Booker: taking his hand and putting it on her neck, she asks him to promise that, "if it comes to it, you will not let him take me back." Upset by this request and refusing to accept the possibility of that happening, Booker presses Elizabeth for answers, wanting to know what happened to her in the tower. She does not say what will happen if Songbird takes her back, only noting that it is a fate unto death.

Upon reaching Comstock House, the two discover that the gate can only be opened by someone with the appropriate fingerprints. Realizing that Lady Comstock is preserved in the nearby Memorial Gardens, Elizabeth takes off to procure her hand with Booker in pursuit.

Booker at first tries to talk Elizabeth down, trying to draw on any familial love that Elizabeth might have for Lady Comstock. Elizabeth, however, feels only rage and betrayal, particularly after finding a diary by Lady Comstock which suggests she had Elizabeth locked in the tower. Booker eventually relents, says that he will cut off Lady Comstock's to keep Elizabeth from having to do so. However, when he attempts to open the casket, Comstock springs a trap, siphoning away some of Elizabeth's power and using it to revive a foul and ghostly version of Lady Comstock called the Siren. Booker and Elizabeth then follow the Siren around Emporia, to various tears that she wishes them to see.

Through the tears, Booker and Elizabeth discover that Elizabeth is not the child of the Comstocks, but rather a child stolen from another reality. Years ago, Rosalind and Robert Lutece made a machine to open tears to other worlds, which Comstock utilized to become a true Prophet through the use of science. However, the machine caused him to age and become sterile. It is revealed that Elizabeth was simply taken from another universe to serve as Comstock's heir. Lady Comstock rejected this notion, hating the child and believing her to be the bastard daughter of her husband and Rosalind Lutece. When he began to fear that Lady Comstock would reveal the truth of Elizabeth's origins, Comstock murdered his wife and framed it on her servant, Daisy Fitzroy. He also had the Luteces twins killed when he discovered they were attempting to return Elizabeth to her original reality.

Comstock House
After confronting the Siren, Booker and Elizabeth head to Comstock House, but are attacked by Songbird before they can reach it. Booker is thrown through a nearby building, and briefly lapses into unconsciousness before Songbird comes to finish him off. Too injured to move, Booker is only saved by Elizabeth's intervention, when she offers her freedom in exchange for Booker's life. Booker then pursues Songbird, desperate to save Elizabeth from whatever fate awaits her.

At some point during his approach to Comstock House, Booker is transported through time and reality, until he lands in a world where significantly more time has passed since Elizabeth's capture. In Comstock House, Booker finds several voxophones and tears, suggesting that Elizabeth was exposed to experimentation, torture, and mental conditioning for six months when Booker did not come for her--Booker responds with astonishment, unaware how this situation could be possible.

When Booker finds Elizabeth, she has aged many years, and has become the indoctrinated heir to prophecy that Comstock wished. Booker weakly objects, saying that he was always going to come for her. In turn, she shows Booker New York burning, as it was in his dream, revealing that she has "drown[ed] in flame the mountains of man." Regretting what has become of her, she gives Booker a card to give to her young self, and opens up a tear to send Booker back to the right reality.

Arriving in the Comstock House laboratory, Booker follows Elizabeth's screams until he finds her being operated on by Comstock's scientists. Filled with rage, Booker shuts down the siphons cancelling out Elizabeth's power, and which point she uses a tear to kill them. Booker then carefully releases her from her restraints and spinal tap, apologizing that he took as long as he did. When Elizabeth says she intends to kill Comstock, Booker refuses to let her, saying he plans to do it, for what Comstock has done to her.

Comstock and Songbird
Booker and Elizabeth pursue Comstock to his ship, The Hand of the Prophet. When they arrive, Comstock attempts to shake Elizabeth's faith in Booker, saying that everything that has happened to her was Booker's doing. A struggle begins between Comstock and Elizabeth, as Comstock demands that Booker tell Elizabeth what happened to her missing pinkie. In a rage, Booker pries Comstock from Elizabeth and smashes his head into a baptismal font, murdering him. In doing so, Booker reveals he does have someone knowledge of what happened to Elizabeth's finger--saying, "You [Comstock] cut off her finger, and then you gave it to me!"--and Elizabeth demands to know what he means. Booker, equally confused by his own outburst, tells her that it means nothing.

Booker and Elizabeth soon discover that the only way to leave Columbia for good is through a tear out of the city, but this ability is prohibited by the Siphon still in the remains of Monument Island. Elizabeth realizes that the card given to Booker by her alternate self is a set of instructions on how to control the Songbird--a drawing of a cage symbolizing the musical notes C, A, G, E--and she gives the appropriate instrument to Booker to control the creature. Using Songbird, Booker destroys the Siphon.

Revelation
Elizabeth then transports herself, Booker, and Songbird to Rapture where Songbird dies in the waters. Elizabeth reveals to Booker that with the Siphon gone, she can see and open tears to infinite worlds around them, these ones branching from Booker's choices. She also reveals that Comstock is not truly dead, because in other worlds, he is still alive.

On a quest to stop him for good, Elizabeth and Booker go through tears, which reveal Booker's true history. Booker, reluctant and anxious, asks Elizabeth to leave with him on several occasions, telling her to open a tear to Paris for them. Elizabeth, however, is intent on revealing the truth to him.

Booker relives the loss of his daughter, and realizes that Robert and Rosalind Lutece were the mysterious man and woman who took her away twenty years ago, and later brought him to the lighthouse. With his memories returning, Booker realizes with horror that Elizabeth is actually Annabelle.

Blaming Comstock for everything that happened, Booker tells Elizabeth that they need to go back to when Comstock was an infant, and smother him in the crib. It isn't until Anna brings Booker back to his baptism that he realizes what has occurred; while he rejected the baptism in his reality, he accepted it in another--in that reality, Booker DeWitt was reborn as Zachary Comstock.

Multiple alternate versions of Elizabeth and Anna appear to reveal this truth to Booker. Booker then realizes that the only way to erase the atrocities committed by Comstock, and the harm visited upon Elizabeth, is for him to die before he can choose or reject his baptism. Several of the Elizabeths and Annas then drown Booker, preventing him from becoming Comstock. All realities where Comstock existed are erased therefore&mdash;Columbia was never built, and Anna was never taken by Comstock. The older versions of hers then vanish, along with their realities, until only one remains. It is uncertain whether or not this Elizabeth disappears.

Epilogue
"Anna. Anna!? Anna? Is that you?"

- Booker DeWitt

Booker awakens in his residence, on October 8, 1893&mdash;the same day he lost Anna&mdash;and opens the door to her room, where he sees her crib before it cuts to black.

Voxophones

 * Shanty Town
 * Drawing Dead


 * Fink Manufacturing
 * All Debts Paid
 * Apology

Behind the Scenes
195 POUNDS OF WEIGHT A WHITE MAN WITH GREEN EYES BEARS A SCAR OVER THE RIGHT EYE"
 * In the tradition of BioShock protagonists' having a distinct mark or tattoo, the back of Booker's 228px-Kit-bi04.jpg hand bears the brand "AD."
 * These initials were branded there by Booker himself as a reminder of his daughter Anna DeWitt (A.D.).
 * Wanted posters, first shown on the cover of EGM, list some of his specific features:"A MALE OF 37 YEARS 6 FEET OF HEIGHT

- EGM Wanted Poster


 * The scene depicting Booker with his belongings very much resembles Jack opening his suitcase in Bioshock.
 * Before Troy Baker was hired to be the voice of Booker DeWitt, Irrational Games had Stephen Russel (the voice of Garrett in the Thief games) voice the part.
 * Booker DeWitt is said to have been a Pinkerton agent before the events of Columbia. The Pinkerton National Detective Agency (now Pinkerton Government Services, Inc.) was founded in 1850 by Allan Pinkerton; throughout its history its services have ranged from security personnel and private investigations to private military contracting work.
 * Booker's Pinkerton badge number is 727, as seen in the menu loading screen.
 * Booker served in the United States Army; he owns a box engraved with his name saying that he served in the 7th Cavalry Regiment.
 * During his time in the Army, he held the rank of Corporal.
 * Originally, the early version of Booker's arms were seen covered by sleeves from a pin striped coat. This version remained in most of the early gameplay footage, even after the artwork debut of his appearance from the EGM cover, which had him appear with rolled shirt sleeves. It wasn't until the 2012 Beasts of America trailer that Booker was finally given rolled sleeves to match his artwork appearance, along with his hand brand.
 * Booker's contract as a Pinkerton agent expires upon his death as shown in the loading menu.
 * Although it is never confirmed in-game, it is implied that Booker himself may be part Native American. In one voxophone recording, Comstock says that one of his commanding Officers suggested the DeWitt family tree "shelters a few teepees," while another voxophone reveals that DeWitt is capable of speaking the Sioux language.
 * If the player decides not to draw Booker's weapon or does nothing at the ticket booth in Battleship Bay, the man behind the counter will stab Booker in his right hand. For the rest of the game, Booker will sport a hand-wrap with a small blood stain on his right hand. However, during certain animations, such as acquiring a new Vigor, his hand is shown without the wrap or the stab wound.
 * On the cover of the game, in most promotional material, and in any depiction of Booker throughout the game (barring his own actual character model, ostensibly), Booker is shown with a medical bandage wrapped around his hand and wrist.
 * The aforementioned bandage is different in appearance to the cloth handkerchief that Elizabeth wraps Booker's hand with in-game, should the player make the appropriate contextual decision.
 * The bandage can be best viewed when using any of the "Decoy" tears that Elizabeth can activate (there is one to the left of the bank entrance in Emporia).


 * On Monument Island, shortly after seeing Elizabeth's first tear when watching her through the one-way glass, Booker says, "This job's getting worse all the time." This is likely a reference to Lando Calrissian's famous line in the Star Wars trilogy, "This deal is getting worse all the time."
 * This is supported by the fact that while in the tear, a movie theatre is shown to be playing "The Revenge of the Jedi," a working title for the 1983 film, "Return of the Jedi."
 * Some have theorized that Booker is actually an alternate universe version of Jack from the first BioShock, due to the "Man and a Lighthouse" theory presented at the end of BioShock Infinite. The same could also be said for Subject Delta from Bioshock 2. Some also interpret Elizabeth to be the Columbia universe version of Little Sisters/Eleanor Lamb, with Songbird serving as Infinite's version of a Big Daddy.
 * Fans have also theorized that the plot of BioShock Infinite is actually Booker's 123rd attempt at rescuing Elizabeth. The code for entering Columbia is 1-2-2, possibly signifying that he has done this 122 times before.
 * There are also 122 tally marks on the Luteces' chalkboard before the coin flip, and they add another one after the coin flip has been performed. The tally marks are all marked under "heads" rather than "tails," which is likely because they are simply recording the same coin flip in 123 different universes.
 * It is likely the surname 'DeWitt' is a reference to the theoretical physicist Bryce DeWitt who pioneered the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics.
 * Booker's name, "DeWitt" means, in french, "from eight". "De" being "from" and "Witt" souding the same way as "huit", meaning "eight". When flipping the number eight horizontally, it reveals the symbol representing an infinite number.