Isaac Clarke
Isaac Clarke, the protagonist of Dead Space, is a systems engineer who works for the Concordance Extraction Corporation (C.E.C). At the time of events on the Ishimura , he is 43 years old. He is assigned to respond to the distress signal from the USG Ishimura, the first of the planet cracking line of ships.
Isaac was born in Northeastern America. Isaac’s father, Paul Clarke, was a renowned ship designer who left for space when Isaac was only a child. Losing her husband made his mother, Octavia Clarke, into a devout Unitologist. His mother gave all her money to the church rather than finance her son’s education. He went to a lesser-known college than the one he strived for, due to financial issues, but graduated with high honors and took after his father and became a system engineer. He enlisted in the service and was praised for his skill. Isaac attempted to reunite with his father, but he’d gone missing and his personnel files were classified. He lived with Nicole Brennan, his girlfriend, but his career stagnated about the same time she was promoted to the Ishimura.
SPOILERS ALERT!!!!!
Isaac Clarke was one of the five crew members aboard USG Kellion when it was assigned to repair the communications aboard the USG Ishimura. Upon finding the Ishimura the Kellion was struck by a meteorite and forced to crash land in the Ishimura. Shortly after abandoning their shuttle the group was ambushed by Necromorphs. Only Kendra Daniells, Zach Hammond, and Isaac survived, while both of the pilots were killed. The attack separated Isaac from the others.
Isaac aided Kendra and Hammond as they repaired the Ishimura, slowed by the onslaught of the Necromorphs. The group sent out an S.O.S beacon , which attracted a military vessel, the USM Valor. However, the Valor was soon attacked by a Necromorph that had been on board an escape pod the Valor had taken on. The Valor then crashes into the Ishimura. While attempting to get to the Valor’s singularity core Hammond was overwhelmed and killed by an Super Brute. Isaac came into contact with Dr. Terrence Kyne, a scientist who planned to return the Red Marker to Aegis-7 using a shuttle. Isaac retrieved the power core and used it to repair the shuttle. Before takeoff Kyne was killed as Kendra shoots him in the chest. Kendra revealed herself to be a covert agent for the government; and that the entire conflict on Aegis 7 was due to C.E.C. interference with the Marker.
Isaac, left for dead on the Ishimura, was saved by Nicole who compelled him to take the Marker back to the planet. Isaac arrived on Aegis 7 and managed to pull the Marker through Necromorph-infested chambers, finally succeeding in returning the Marker to it’s pedestal. The gravity tethers holding a large chunk of Aegis 7 that was removed became unstable. Isaac ran back to the shuttle, hoping to escape the destruction. Kendra removed the marker, planning to bring it back to Earth. She urged Isaac to watch the final half of Nicole’s message, which showed her suicide. It is then revealed that the Marker was compelling Isaac to return itself to the planet , by making Isaac hallucinate , in the form of his dead girlfriend , since it was someone close to him and that he could trust.
As Kendra attempted to leave with the Marker she was killed by the Hive Mind, the core Necromorph that controls all others and had been sealed off by the marker. It attacked Isaac but he was able to successfully fight it off. Isaac quickly escaped the planet in his shuttle as the chunk of Aegis 7 entered the atmosphere. Aegis 7 was destroyed in a blinding flash. Finally alone, Isaac removed his helmet, and Nicole’s message began to play on its own on the console in front of him. Isaac turned it off just after it began. He deactivated the ship’s holograms and simply stared out into space. Something caught his attention to his right, and he turned to face a Necromorph that resembled Nicole. The final scene is the Necromorph’s attack growl – followed by a quick cut to the credits. The ending is left ambiguous with Isaac and Nicole’s fate never fully explored , ominously announcing a sequel.
Although the player can see Clarke’s face at the end of the game, the player has the option of seeing it at the beginning of the game. This can be done just as the Kellion crash lands into the Ishimura. If the player rotates the controller/mouse as Kendra and Hammond are conversing, the player can see Clarke’s face for a few seconds.
The name Isaac Clarke is derived from the names Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke, two science fiction authors.
From a comment in his “diary” (the Objectives tab in the menu) while he’s in the Mining Deck of the Ishimura, Nicole is not the only person he knew that was on the ship. Those others are some of the crew in the mining deck.
Kendra Daniels
Kendra Daniels is a technology specialist, and one of the five crew members of the USG Kellion who crash land on the USG Ishimura.She appears to be in her twenties. Shortly after the crash, the crew are attacked by the Necromorphs, and Kendra is seperated from the rest of the survivors, escaping certain death at the hands of the creatures by barricading herself in the Ishimura’s computer core. From there, Kendra keeps in contact with Isaac Clarke and Zach Hammond through their RIG links, using her considerable computer skills to assist the other crewmembers in their tasks around the ship, including by overriding secured doors through much of the ship, as well as help uncover the mystery behind the vessel’s infestation. She frequently expresses distrust of Hammond, ‘suspecting’ he knows more about the Marker then he lets on, and is generally much more panicked and frantic than both Hammond and Isaac, often urging them to abort the mission and focus on escape. Later on in the game, the Marker’s influence begins to take its toll on Kendra, causing hallucinations. She says that she keeps seeing her brother, even though “it’s not possible”, hinting that he is dead (or simply assigned somewhere other than the Ishimura).
Towards the end of the game, Kendra reveals herself to be a covert agent, who was specially selected by ‘higher ups’ to be onboard the USG Kellion mission. Kendra eventually shoots and kills Dr. Kyne in order to secure a shuttle carrying the Marker. It is during her escape does she reveal the true origin of the Marker and its purpose. This is short lived however, since Nicole Brennan (in fact an hallucination created by the Marker) orders Isaac to recall the shuttle. Isaac and “Nicole” follow Kendra to the colony where they manage to place the Marker back on to the pedestal. Kendra shows up and reveals to Isaac that Nicole is dead, and he too has been having hallucinations generated by the Marker. She then attempts to take the Marker back to the shuttle for transport to government custody. Before she could depart, The Hive Mind crushes and smears Kendra across the floor and walls of the colony’s shuttlepad, leaving her in a pile of body parts.
She may have some history with Isaac Clarke, if not just recently, as she comfortably refers to him by his first name , Isaac , while referring to Zach Hammond as Hammond.
There is no backstory revealed about Kendra upon Hammond’s request, as it is revealed that she was simply inserted into the team upon persistent recommendations by a higher-up in the CEC, but she may have been working for the Earth Defense Force.
Kendra, in fact, wears a RIG under her jacket. It can be seen briefly during her confrontation with Isaac at the Marker’s pedestal.Also , Kendra’s actions near the end of the game mimic that of Atlas in Bioshock.
Zach Hammond
The senior security officer on board the Kellion who travels with both Isaac and Kendra to the Ishimura. Hammond’s initial desire to complete the original mission and not immediately abort puts him at odds with Kendra, who finds this suspicious. Throughout the game he works to fulfill their original mission, but as time goes on, he becomes more disillusioned and focuses instead on getting himself and the rest of the surviving team off the ship. In a log after clearing the game it is revealed he asked for the information for both Isaac and Kendra, though the reason for this inquiry is not revealed.
Dr. Challus Mercer:
A doctor aboard the USG Ishimura and a devout Unitologist. In the wake of the calamity that has gripped the Ishimura, Mercer has become a religious fanatic, and attempted to convince the crew of the Ishimura to commit mass suicide. Mercer often works to bar the progress of Isaac and even attempts to kill him outright. Mercer sends a ‘prototype,’ regenerating Necromorph after Isaac several times through the course of the game until Isaac finally manages to kill it. To Mercer, everything that has happened is God’s will, and Isaac should die and allow their ‘children’ to take over. Near the end of the game, Mercer willingly sacrifices himself to a Necromorph, believing in his religion and its requirements that he die before he reaches the next level of evolution as a Necromorph himself.
Dr. Terrence Kyne:
he Chief Science Officer of the Ishimura who appears later in the game and asks for help from the surviving members of the Kellion team. He seems to be a bit eccentric, perhaps deranged, but offers to aid Isaac in stopping the nightmare that has gripped the Aegis System and the Ishimura. Kyne attempted to relieve Captain Mathius of duty during the crisis on the ship but instead seems to have been complicit in the captain’s death either in whole or in part. He regularly interacts with his dead wife, an apparition caused by the Marker that can’t be seen by the player.
Nicole Brennan:
Isaac’s ex-girlfriend and a medical specialist assigned to the Ishimura. She sent him a video asking for help and is one of the reasons he came to the Ishimura. He both sees and hears her as he moves through the ship and she repeatedly asks Isaac to “make us(/them) whole again,” however, something isn’t right about her.
It is not confirmed, but very likely, that Nicole is also seen in the animated prequel Dead Space: Downfall when main character Alissa Vincent asks a woman resembling Nicole if she has a boyfriend and if she wants to see him again , to which the woman answers “yes”.
It is still discussed by the Dead Space community what exactly Nicole’s fate was. Some argue that she is still alive, and that her suicide attempt was stopped before she could carry it out. If Nicole had committed suicide successfully, who opened the locked door? Isaac possibly hallucinated the lock. Why did the Necromorphs attack a hallucination only Isaac could see? The Red Marker could have used Necromorphs hallucinations to feign attack to encourage the thoughts Isaac had about Nicole being real. Another theory is that the entire confrontation with Kendra on Aegis 7 was a hallucination, along with the full video of Nicole’s message. While these theories are plausible the theory that she dies is supported by an in game easter egg where if you take all of the first letters of each chapter and put them together it spells out NICOLE IS DEAD :
New Arrivals
Intensive Care
Course Correction
Obliteration Imminent
Lethal Devotion
Environmental Hazard
Into the Void
Search and Rescue
Dead on Arrival
End of Days
Alternate Solutions
Dead Space
Jacob Temple:
Jacob is an engineer on the USG Ishimura who is, like Isaac, trying to find his own girlfriend, Dr. Elizabeth Cross. The player often finds audio logs left behind by him as he progresses throughout the game. They find each other in the crew quarters but their reunion is cut short by Doctor Mercer. Temple never makes direct contact with the player. Isaac comes across Several of Jacob’s audio recordings throughout the game, especially in chapter three, where Isaac must travel down to engineering.
Captain Benjamin Matthius:
The captain of the Ishimura. Matthius was revealed to be a Unitologist who is strong in the belief the Marker belongs to the church. His fate is shown in a video log found on the fourth Level. He redirected the ship to collect the Maker and was experiencing dementia like so many of the exposed. He is relieved of duty by Dr. Kyne. He was killed when Dr. Kyne accidentally stabbed him in the eye with a hypodermic needle. He is later resurrected into a Enhanced Slasher by an Infector, and is the first one you fight in the game.
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