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"This is no war ordinary humans can win! This is the future - death's an inconvenience now, nothing more. We are all dead men walking!"
―Hargreave arguing with Prophet


Jacob Hargreave is the founder of CryNet Systems, and the creator of the Nanosuit. He is the main antagonist of Crysis 2.

Background[]

Born to middle class parents in New York City in 1896, Hargreave enjoyed a relatively gentle early life later blighted by his father's bankruptcy. His strong entrepreneurial spirit enabled him to support his family and ultimately made him one of the richest, most powerful men on the planet. Experience has taught him that success invariably lies in seizing latent opportunities for the future before others spot them. His deep distrust of government and governmental power, common to many self-made Americans of the time, has only been intensified by his extreme longevity.

In 1919, Hargreave went on a private expedition to investigate the site of the Tunguska event in 1908 with his colleagues Karl Rasch and Walter Gould. The events transpired in Tunguska led to the discovery of the Ceph and through unknown circumstances left the expedition except for Hargreave, Rasch, and Gould dead. Hargreave was able to carry the other two across the Siberian wastes in an apparently superhuman demonstration of strength and endurance before being rescued by members of the British expeditionary force operating from Vladivostok.[1] Hargreave also comes into possession of alien technology and knowledge of the threat the Ceph pose to human civilization.

Hargreave is only alive as of 2023 because of his efforts in Tunguska where he stole and later reverse-engineered advanced Ceph technology and along with Karl Rasch established the Hargreave-Rasch Biomedical Research Centre. Later in his life (presumably after World War II) he established CryNet as a subsidiary of Hargreave-Rasch. He managed to continue his life through the use of the stolen Ceph technology and actually resides in a stasis tube as he is too old to be mobile. Despite his immobility and vegetative state, Hargreave is able to communicate with others through a proxy screen, which portrays a younger version of himself, sitting on an armchair.

He soon devoted his life to making anti-alien technology by reverse engineering the Ceph tech he found a century ago in Tunguska. His research and development eventually culminated in the Nanosuit 1.0 which he considered a prototype and penultimate design for his grand masterpiece (the Nanosuit 2.0). As he required to test the Nanosuit's ability to combat and circumvent the currently dormant Ceph threat, Hargreave thus orchestrated the events in Lingshan in 2020. He was in command of Prophet and presumably guided him around the island. During the war, it was realised that the Nanosuit 1.0 was actually more potent than first thought, as it developed a symbiotic bond with its user and even managed to communicate with the nanosystems possessed by the Ceph. Sometime between 2020 and 2023 he and his subsidiary CryNet developed the Nanosuit 2.0. He considered this suit to be his ultimate masterpiece as it had everything in the Nanosuit 1.0 plus more. He developed a final upgrade for his Nanosuit 2.0, an injection called the "Final Fixing Protocol", this made the nanites of the Nanosuit 2.0 upgrade to its theroetically highest and most adaptive level, thus allowing Alcatraz/Prophet to single-handedly bring about the utter destruction of the Ceph in New York City through reversing the function of the Ceph bioweapon aboard the hovering Lithoship.

The Nanosuit Project[]

Hargreave is the creator of the original Nanosuit, of which he deployed 19 Nanosuits. Out of this, 15 Nanosuit 1.0's were issued to members of Raptor, Eagle, and Hawk team. The other 4 Nanosuits are seen in Crysis 2 on the "Masks Off" level. These suits however consisted of 1 Nanosuit protoype, 1 Nanosuit 1.0 and 2 Nanosuit 1.5's for Marine and C.E.L.L forces.

Hargreave created the war at Lingshan Islands as an experiment to see what the Nanosuit 1.0 was capable of against the Ceph and it was also to see how the aliens would react to fighting against their own technology which had actually been improved on by Hargreave. The results at Lingshan were much better than he had originally planned, the Nanosuit 1.0 excelled against both hostile Human and Alien forces and even managed to adapt to the lethal environment generated by the Ice Sphere. His 'test' allowed him to see the achievements and flaws of the Nanosuit 1.0, with the Nanosuit 1.0 as his staple design he decided to improve on it. This led him to the creation of the Nanosuit 2.0 or N2; The N2 had all the features of the original Nanosuit 1.0 plus more advanced technology he had developed. Hargreave considers the Nanosuit 2.0 his sole masterpiece and he believes that it is and will be humanity's best hope against the Ceph.

During Crysis 2, he tries to rip the Nanosuit 2 off Alcatraz without success; it is revealed later that he wanted to wear it to annihilate the Ceph, which could mean that Hargreave created his whole corporation and the Nanosuit project for the sole purpose of turning himself into the post-human savior of humanity, which would be an achievement at both the levels of long-term planning and egocentrism.

Crysis 2[]

Hargreave had a fallout with Prophet following his return from Lingshan, who had learned of Hargreave's machination of the events at Lingshan. As a result, Prophet stole the Nanosuit 2.0, forcing Hargreave into having C.E.L.L. hunt down Prophet and bring the suit back intact in a Ceph infested New York City. Hargreave eventually learned that Prophet had died and the suit was passed on to Alcatraz, whose suit Hargreave remotely rebooted following his botched capture by C.E.L.L. before properly introducing himself. Hargreave allied with Alcatraz in guiding him to test whether the Nanosuit's systems can interface with the aliens' technology. The experiment fails due to the Nanosuit not being powerful enough to endure the insertion. Hargreave loses contact with Alcatraz after the latter is swept away by a flood caused by the US Marines in an effort to drown the Ceph despite Hargreave trying to extract Alcatraz by helicopter.

Hargreave later reconnected with Alcatraz and reveals that the Nanosuit is busy analyzing the alien tissue samples that Alcatraz had previously recovered and is rewriting its own code to interface with alien technology. He told Alcatraz and his marine allies to take a detour to the Hargreave-Rasch building where Alcatraz is told to find a stabilizing agent in the bio-lab to facilitate the Nanosuit's analyzing process; however, this was hindered by C.E.L.L. under Commander Dominic Lockhart, who was hellbent in eliminating Alcatraz. Hargreave was outraged by Lockhart's tenacity and disobedience from standing down, but failed to convince the C.E.L.L. Commander that harming Alcatraz and the Nanosuit would compromise humanity's only hope against the Ceph. Hargreave then learned from Lockhart that CryNet's Board of Directors had decided to side with Lockhart. Seeing that the cause is lost, Hargreave tells Alcatraz to regroup with the marines at Grand Central to help evacuate civilians while he deals with Lockhart.

After Alcatraz and the marines had evacuated Grand Central Terminal, Hargreave contacted Alcatraz at Time Square where another alien spire had risen from the ground, urging him to enter the spire, as the Nanosuit had finished processing the alien spores, allowing it to interface with and re-purpose the spores to be lethal to the Ceph. Thereafter, Alcatraz infiltrated Roosevelt Island, where Hargreave resided in The Prism while being placed under house arrest by Lockhart. Hargreave, having his leadership undermined by Lockhart, helped in guiding Alcatraz through the island's defenses and finally ordered him to kill Lockhart.

After Alcatraz killed Lockhart, Hargreave granted Alcatraz access into The Prism, but instead lured him into an EMP trap; Hargreave had wanted the Nanosuit for himself, seeing himself as the "competent human being" to wipe out the Ceph, and attempted to remove the Nanosuit from Alcatraz's body. However, the Nanosuit rejects its removal since it had already completely assimilated with its wearer. Upon learning this, Hargreave gave the order to his men to kill Alcatraz in order to get the suit, only for Alcatraz to be rescued by Tara Strickland. A freed Alcatraz attempts to capture Hargreave in his office, who reveals to Alcatraz the reality of his vegetative state. Hargreave gives Alcatraz a last Nanosuit upgrade, the "Tunguska Iteration", before the Ceph invade the island. Hargreave triggers a countdown timer for the self-destruct system of the complex, and convinces the remaining C.E.L.L. forces to aid Alcatraz's exfiltration. Hargreave decides to resign himself to his fate on the island as he makes a final contact with Alcatraz before the island explodes.

Personality[]

Charming, charismatic, and quite possibly genuinely concerned for those he considers his responsibility, Hargreave is nonetheless equally capable of ruthless sacrifice gambits when he considers them necessary. He harbours an extremely deep hatred for the Ceph, and greatly mistrusts the government.

He is a very intelligent man and a talented, implacable strategist, but also a fearless man of action under the necessary circumstances; such as proving being able to save his friends in Tunguska in a superhuman demonstration of strength and power of will, and wanting to rip the Nanosuit 2 off of Alcatraz to be able to fight and vanquish the Ceph by himself despite his more than a century old body, which is an obvious proof of his courage and determination.

Quotes[]

"I don't believe we've been introduced. Jack Hargreave, at your service."
―Hargreave's introduction to Alcatraz.[[Seat of Power|[src]]]


"Cleaning up - it's ingenious, isn't it. Think of the Argentine Cattle Crisis two years ago. Or the British BSE outbreak in the last century. The issue was not slaughtering the animals, that was easily done. The problem was disposal. What do you do with the millions of rotting corpses? Well, there you see the answer the Ceph have evolved. They wipe us out, they break us down, they reduce the environmental impact almost to zero. Exemplary."
―Observing Ceph Ticks harvesting deceased and infected people in a quarantined building.[[Seat of Power|[src]]]


"Better men than you have tried, son. Better men than you, and things so far beyond men you can't even begin to imagine them. Alcatraz - kill him!"
―While taunting Commander Lockhart.[[Eye of the Storm|[src]]]


"Perhaps I was economical with the truth, yes - but what choice did I have? What choice do you have now? The Ceph are coming Prophet. Soon. You think we'll defeat them with ordinary human soldiers? This isn't a war ordinary humans can win! This is the future - death's an inconvenience now, nothing more. We are all dead men walking!"
―Said to Prophet during a flashback.[[Masks Off|[src]]]


"So - here you are. Theseus, at last. Welcome. Scant reward for so much effort, eh. Crack the labyrinth, and you would at least expect to see the Minotaur before it kills you. Ah well, it seems only fair. Come, then. Masks off. I am here. Shocked? I would be. I'd revel in it, if I were you: that sudden jump of the pulse, the cram of flight or fight chemicals into the belly. So sweet while it lasts. But it's been so very long since I felt any of it. A century or more since my pleasures were anything but cerebral. I took the path Karl Rasch refused, the cold road to immortality. I'd hope to wear Prophet's suit myself. Take on the weapons he brought us, wear his armor. Enter the labyrinth and confront the minotaur. But now... You. You will have to finish what Prophet began."
―Upon discovering Hargreave's comatose body in his office.[[Masks Off|[src]]]


"That's right, Nathan! The owners are back! Waking the systems, firing up the boiler. Back to spring-clean the old family residence, and not much liking what they've found festering behind the fridge. Can you blame them, really?"
―In response for keeping his secret on the Ceph's presence in New York.[[Masks Off|[src]]]


"Ah - the angels of death at last: my escort to human frailty! Took ya long enough!"
―When the Ceph appears at The Prism.[[Masks Off|[src]]]


"Will there been an afterlife, I wonder? Choirs of angels? Or a fiery pit? One unlearns these falsehoods over time, but the child who learnt to fear hell is never really gone. To tell the truth, I think I had enough of afterlives as it is - this one has been pretty purgatorial. Almost fifty years floating in supercooled jelly like some medical specimen, thoughts creeping like rats through cramped silicon corridors of machines trapped behind video screens and camera systems. Never sleeping, never resting, never ceasing to think about the world I no longer belong to. No, if this is a taste of the afterlife, I think simple oblivion will do nicely."
―Hargreave's last transmission and farewell to Alcatraz.[[Masks Off|[src]]]


Trivia[]

  • Hargreave keeps 3 Ceph Scout heads as trophies in his office at The Prism.
  • When he speaks via transmission, he looks older than he does while talking to Alcatraz via proxy.
  • Jacob Hargreave is voiced by Alister Cameron.
  • He shares similarities with Mr. House from Fallout: New Vegas. They both used technologies to extend their lives, they never talk directly to the player, they rather use a screen, their bodies are stored into similar "tubes" and they are both fairly intelligent. They also both have a master plan to save the world from apocalypse.

Gallery[]

References[]

Characters in Crysis 2
C.E.L.L. Dominic H. Lockhart · Tara Strickland · C. Abao · Mitchell Reeves
1919 Expedition Jacob Hargreave · Walter Gould · Karl Ernst Rasch
United States Military Alcatraz · Sherman Barclay · Chino
Other Nathan Gould · Edward Newton · Prophet
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