Marine (Doom)

Marine
Doom character
235px The Marine in The Ultimate Doom
First game	Doom (1993)
Created by	id Software
Designed by	Tom Hall, Adrian Carmack
Voiced by	Mike Dopud (grunts/screams)

The Marine, also known as the Doom marine or Doomguy, is the unnamed character controlled by the player in the Doom series of science fiction horror video games created by id Software, and its sequels and spin-off media. He is a space marine dressed in green combat armor who never speaks onscreen. He has little defined personality, as he is supposed to represent the player themselves.

Incarnations

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Classic Doom series

The Marine is never referred to by name. The original game's co-designer John Romero said this was to increase player immersion. Romero said, "There was never a name for the DOOM marine because it's supposed to be YOU."

On the box art for the original Doom, the Marine is portrayed as a muscular man wearing green armor and a light grey space helmet that conceals his facial features. He is firing a chaingun and fighting a Baron of Hell. The introduction screen of Doom shows him holding a machine gun and clutching a shotgun in his left hand. The player's in-game avatar, as seen in multiplayer mode and in the ending of Doom II: Hell on Earth, is based on this depiction. In multiplayer mode, the character wears green, red, brown and indigo. The Marine's face is seen in the game's HUD, where he is shown with light brown hair, a buzz cut, and blue eyes. The Marine appears without his helmet in the cover art of Doom II and in the ending to The Ultimate Doom episode IV, "Thy Flesh Consumed", where his armor and pants are a darker shade of green.

In Doom, Doom II, and Final Doom, the Marine expresses little emotion at the horror unfolding around him, maintaining a stern and alert glare, his eyes constantly darting left and right. When he takes damage, his reaction is a mixture of pain and anger. He grins upon picking up a new weapon, and his most emotional face is seen when he has 20 hit points or more taken away during a single attack, showing a shocked face.

Other versions

• Tom Hall's original design draft, "The Doom Bible", describes a planned non-playable character named Buddy Dacote. "Dacote" is an acronym for "Dies at conclusion of this episode", and Buddy was supposed to be killed by one of the bosses at the end of the planned third episode. In the finished product, this nearly happens to the Marine in the final level of the first episode, but he continues his adventure.
• In the Doom novels, the main character is referred to as "Flynn 'Fly' Taggart".
• The Marine in Doom 64 is a less muscular figure, with slightly modified black armor, a black helmet with an antenna and a blue visor. His face is never seen, but he is implied to be the same Marine from the previous games.
• In Wolfenstein RPG, it is implied that the Marine is the descendant of William "B.J." Blazkowicz. In a reference to the Marine's confrontation with the Cyberdemon, when Blazkowicz defeats the "Harbinger of Doom", the creature states that he will return in the future to confront his descendants. The Doom II RPG includes the character Stan Blazkowicz, who is the descendant of B.J. However, he is not the same character as the identical Marine in Doom RPG. According to the Doom II RPG comic and game, there were no known survivors of the Mars Incident.

Doom 3

In Doom 3, the Marine's appearance is similar to that of his classic Doom incarnation, but his facial features are not concealed and his muscular build is less exaggerated. He has black hair. The Marine in Doom 3 had recently arrived on Mars and is the newest member of the Marine detachment sent to the planet; his past remains a mystery. He is a corporal and was sent to replace one of the marines that have mysteriously disappeared.

During the game the player can talk to several people, several of whom, such as Sergeant Kelly, give the player some briefing regarding his mission. The player character is addressed as "marine" and remains silent. In Doom 3, the Marine is portrayed as tough and fearless in the game's cut scenes; he generally glares at the creatures he sees, though when he discovers the towering Cyberdemon just before the final battle of the game, he steps back and though his voice is not heard, one can lipread that he swears.

Novels

In the Doom 3 novels, the Marine's name is John Kane. His past is similar to the character in the original Doom, having been demoted after disobeying command to save some of his fellow marines. He is a combat veteran of wars raging on Earth for its remaining resources, including one between the United States and Russia. After arriving on Mars, finally resigns to his fate as a "glorified security guard". While there he befriends fellow marines such as Maria Moraetes—a marine with a similar fate.

During the Hellish invasion, John Kane is forced to take command of several of the surviving marines despite his stripped ranking. He battles the demons singlehandedly or with a few other marines. Kane is depicted as compassionate to his fellow survivors, working to save the child Theo, and to save the damned in Hell. After volunteering to enter Hell to retrieve the soul cube, Campbell is shown as very impressed by him. He and Maria start to feel romantic ties to each other. During the end of Doom 3: Maelstrom Kane's leg is blown off and he is admired as the "man who saved Mars City."

Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil

In Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil, the protagonist is a different marine, also nameless. He is a combat engineer who is trained to operate a remote manipulation device known as the Grabber. He wears blue armor, has a shaved head, and appears to be older than his Doom 3 counterpart, based on his heavily-weathered facial features. This Marine is part of a detachment of Space Marines under the command of Dr. Elizabeth McNeil, sent to investigate the Mars UAC facility in the aftermath of the demon invasion. While investigating the Martian ruins, the Marine finds and touches the Heart of Hell artifact, which releases a wave of energy that disintegrates the rest of his squad and opens another portal to Hell underneath the UAC base. This Marine is more of an anti-hero, as he seems to derive pleasure from using the Heart of Hell artifact, which kills almost everyone at the base.

Film

Main article: Doom (film)

In the film adaptation, John "Reaper" Grimm (Karl Urban) is the son of UAC scientists who were killed in an accident during the early excavation of a Martian dig site. Reaper abandoned his scientific heritage and joined the military to forget about this personal tragedy, eventually becoming a member of the elite Rapid Response Tactical Squad. Grimm, his commanding officer Sarge and the other members of the RRTS are dispatched to the UAC Mars facility to investigate the disappearance of several scientists, where they confront humans who have mutated into "demons" after being injected with an artificial "24th chromosome". Near the end of the film, Grimm is fatally wounded and injected with the chromosome by his sister to save his life. Instead of becoming a monster, Grimm is granted superhuman strength, reflexes, and regenerative abilities. These new abilities allow him to single-handedly mow down a small horde of demons, zombies. After killing the now-mutating Sarge, Grimm leaves the base with his nearly-unconscious sister in his arms.

Guest appearances

File:DukeNukem3d-DoomedSpaceMarine.png

The "doomed space marine" cameo in Duke Nukem 3D.

The Marine's corpse appears in a secret area in Duke Nukem 3D; he is seen halfway through his Classic Doom death animation clutching his throat and gurgling, surrounded by various Satanic iconography. Upon seeing him, Duke Nukem says, "That's one doomed space marine". A similar scene occurs in Duke Nukem Forever.

In the Saturn version of Quake, the Marine briefly appears at the end of the bonus feature "Dank & Scuz". He is voiced by David Locke.

In the Windows version of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, the Marine is a secret skater, added by developer Gearbox Software, who ported the Windows version. This was included because Activision, publisher of the Tony Hawk series and Doom 3, wanted to promote the latter, which was still in development. The Marine replaces Darth Maul, who is featured in the sixth generation console versions of this game.

In Quake III Arena, the Marine appears in three levels under the name "Doom". He is described as 6' (1.83 m) tall and weighing 180 lbs. (81 kg), according to the character description from the game. The character "Phobos" is also a Doom Marine, though his skin is darker and his armor is orange rather than green. The third Doom Marine in the game, "Crash", is mentioned as being Doom's female training instructor before arriving at the Arena.

In Rage, after the first cut scene, the player enters a dune buggy with a bobble head of the Marine on the dashboard. The Easter egg in the game's Gearhead vault level is the first room from the Doom game, where the player can pick up a Doom Marine bobblehead.

Reception

In 2009, GameDaily included the Marine on its list of "ten game heroes who fail at the simple stuff" for his inability to look up and down in the original series. UGO Networks ranked him fourth on its 2012's list of best silent protagonists in video games, noting his courage to continue in silence even when he faces the Hell's army. In 2013, Complex ranked Doomguy at number 16 on its list of the greatest soldiers in video games for being "the original video game space marine" and "one of the classic silent protagonists". Both CraveOnline and VGRC ranked him the fifth most "badass" male character in the video game's history.

See also

• The Postal Dude

External links

• Doom's protagonist article at the Doom Wiki