Fontaine Futuristics (Business)

"There is something more powerful than each of us, a combination of our efforts, a Great Chain of industry that unites us. But it is only when we struggle in our own interest that the chain pulls society in the right direction..." - Andrew Ryan This article falls within the scope of the BioShock Wiki:Businesses Project. This project is dedicated to improving the articles about Rapture and Columbia's many businesses. Would you kindly help the BioShock Wiki by volunteering on the project page?

Logo that appears on the monitor above the key slot in Rapture Central Control.

“When you're down in the mouth, and life's a pain/weatherman says 'heavy rain'/A little boost is all you need/Average Joe to Hercules/A Stronger Arm, A Sharper Brain, That's Why The Future Is Fontaine!”

― Fontaine Futuristics advertising jingle

Fontaine Futuristics was a business run and owned by Frank Fontaine, and one of the largest companies dealing with genetic enhancements and electronic systems in Rapture. It was the heart of biotechnology in the city, but also oversaw various other business endeavors owned by Fontaine. It was nationalized by Andrew Ryan after Fontaine's "death," much to the chagrin of council member Bill McDonagh, and inciting civil unrest. It was also one of the factors leading to the Rapture Civil War.

Under Frank Fontaine

Official logo, seen inside the lobby as well as on the outside of the Fontaine Futuristics headquarters.

Fontaine funded Brigid Tenenbaum's research of ADAM after her discovery of ADAM being produced by a sea slug. With the profit generated by his illegal smuggling operation using Fontaine Fisheries as a front, he created Fontaine Futuristics to carry on her work, with the addition of the genius biologist Yi Suchong. To this was added several other operations such as the Little Sister's Orphanages, used to acquire girls to produce more ADAM, but also the facilities to make them Little Sisters. The genetic research department of the company was once based in Point Prometheus which encompassed other laboratories working similar fields of research, and this allowed the creation of the first Plasmids and Gene Tonics for consumer use. The company's headquarters were built on the edge of the ocean trench from which the slugs came, enabling an early monopoly on the supply of ADAM. Eventually, Fontaine Futuristics contracted Sinclair Solutions to rent out test subjects from Persephone, which was located in the ocean trench near the headquarters.

Work continued under Fontaine until his death during the shootout between Ryan Security and the smugglers in Neptune's Bounty. The Rapture Central Council voted on giving stewardship of Fontaine's assets to Ryan Industries, much to the outcry of a part of the population.

Fontaine achieved vertical integration in the Plasmid business, by owning every step of the process:

• Fontaine Fisheries where the slugs were found, but also a front to the smuggling operation financing the research.
• The Little Sister's Orphanages to acquire girls and generate more ADAM by conversion into Little Sisters.
• Little Wonders Educational Facility to physically and mentally convert the girls into Little Sisters capable of generating ADAM.
• Fontaine Futuristics Genetic Research Dept. — ADAM research, and creation of Plasmids and Gene Tonics, which Fontaine profited from.
• Fontaine Futuristics - For public demonstration, marketing studies, advanced ADAM research and Big Daddy bonding procedures.
• Fontaine's Department Store - A large department store, selling products from Fontaine's businesses such as: Plasmids, Bathyspheres, housewares, clothes, books, personal bathyspheres. Included were several recreational businesses and others not connected to Fontaine Futuristics.

However, Fontaine was not able to achieve a horizontal ADAM monopoly due to competition in Plasmid and Gene Tonic production by Ryan Industries and Sinclair Solutions.

Products and Services

• Accu-Vox Audio Diaries
• Various kitchen and cleaning appliances
  • Blenders
  • Dishwashers
  • Dryers
  • Mixers
  • Ovens
  • Radar Range
  • Refrigerators
  • Toasters
  • Fontaine-Vac
  • Waffle irons
  • Washing machines
• Private Bathyspheres, and the speed control systems for the public bathyspheres.
• Various creams, pills, injections, and cosmetics, as seen on a billboard.[1]
• Fontaine Press was a publishing house owned and operated by Frank Fontaine.
• Gene Tonics
• Little Sisters
• Medical care and blood drives (in exchange for money) at Fontaine Clinics.
• Oxygen services
• Plasmids
• Power to the People vending machines
• Smuggled goods and contraband

Employees

• Antoine?
• Brigid Tenenbaum
• Garris Fisher?
• Gilbert Alexander
• Lance?
• Louie McGraff
• Naz?
• Peach Wilkins
• Reggie
• Sammy G.
• Yi Suchong

Employees at Fontaine's Department Store

• Bert Unger
• Florence Baxter
• Kay Flannigan
• Ray Lardner
• Samantha Kemp

Under Ryan Industries

When Andrew Ryan took control of the business, he converted Fontaine's own department store into a prison for followers of Fontaine and employees opposing the nationalization as well as troublemakers and even unstable Splicers. Both Yi Suchong and Brigid Tenenbaum were offered jobs at Ryan Industries to continue their work, though the latter eventually disappeared and covertly started working to revert Little Sisters back into normal human beings. Fontaine had obtained many little girls to secretly create Little Sisters using those voluntarily given to him through the Little Sister's Orphanage program, but that activity was exposed and ended after his demise. Kidnapping of little girls for the same use then started. With Tenenbaum's disappearance, Yi Suchong continued creating Little Sisters. There appears to have been budgeting constraints under Andrew Ryan, as Suchong described him as a cheap son of a bitch compared to Fontaine.

Unlike Fontaine, Ryan saw no need to hide from the citizens of Rapture the Little Sisters he had inherited. He brought them into the public eye by creating the Gatherer's Garden vending machines to replace the Gene Bank in selling Plasmids and Gene Tonics. These vending machines featured large figurines of smiling Little Sisters on either side. He also brought up the Little Wonders Educational Facilities as educational schools for behaving girls, while those hid processing centers for Little Sisters. Later, Ryan changed their role in Rapture's society, actually sending them out into the streets to gather additional ADAM from corpses as the growing tension began to cause an increase in violence and death in the city. The number of people dying on the streets greatly increased when the Civil War began. In response to the disquiet the Little Sisters caused among the citizens, Ryan created several public address announcements suggesting that the Little Sisters were performing a noble service and helped in re-establishing Rapture to a stable state.

Before their introduction to the streets, Ryan had commissioned in advance both Dr. Suchong and electronics expert Dr. Alexander to create protectors for the little girls, since they were vulnerable to attacks by Splicers when searching the city for ADAM. This resulted in the creation of the Alpha Series, protectors tasked to guard a single little sister with their lives. These protectors ultimately proved a failure by the start of 1959 due to a number of issues. With no other option, the conversion of Big Daddies, genetically enhanced workers in diving suites originally created by Suchong for Rapture's underwater work and maintenance, into Protectors bonded to Little Sisters was decided as the solution. This was mainly due to the fact that a large population of Rosie and Bouncer Big Daddies already existed, the only thing left was to find a way to bond them the little girls. An answer through the Protectors' need of ADAM to survive was found by Suchong in an accident that cost him his life, and thus the new protectors were introduced to the raging streets of Rapture then in the early stages of its civil war, completing a cycle vital for both sides of the conflict.

The headquarters of the company were eventually condemned sometimes after the end of the Protector program with most of its genetic research laboratories and facilities operated from Point Prometheus. Fontaine Futuristics definitely ceased activity after the death of Andrew Ryan, only to be reopened by Alexander when ADAM production became to low for the needs of its surviving inhabitants and to fuel the city's new leader Utopian plans, psychiatrist Dr. Sofia Lamb.

Behind the Scenes

A close up of the Bathysphere lever.

• The company is also called Fontaine Corporation on bathyspheres' speed lever.