“Snake” Plissken is the baddest hardboiled badass in the world. He is a former war hero, a highly trained special forces soldier (possibly the best), and has an astounding ability to survive the worst situations. He can go where armies would fear to thread - and he’ll do the job, too. He is also a highly experienced renegade and criminal.

Plissken has a particularly forceful personality and killer aura. In many situations, peoples simply do not dare to attack him or assume his mix of arrogance and fearlessness conceals some kind of trap or trick. After the Escape from New York incident, he is a legend in his own time, particularly among the dregs of society, and can pull astounding feats of intimidation.

History

S. Plissken used to be an American, twice decorated war hero on an alternate, near-future Earth. He used to belong to the special forces unit called Black Light and also got medallions from campaigns in Leningrad and Siberia. He is also reputed to have survived Cleveland, escaping certain death through undisclosed means (what happened in Cleveland is unknown, but it was apparently particularly horrible). He is the youngest one ever to have been decorated by the President, and presumably quit the Army after losing an eye.

All around him, however, America was becoming a highly regulated land, slowly eroding liberties in the name of security and morality. Plissken, a fierce amoral individualist, gradually grew disgusted with the colours he risked his time many times to defend, and over time evolved from a socially misfit vet to an outright criminal.

Snake robbed the federal reserve and became a well known pistolero, dueling for money. In 1997 he was finally captured and sentenced to life. However, the government simply had to come to him to solve an unprecedented crisis - the President’s plane had been downed above Manhattan Island. Manhattan had long since been walled off and converted into a free prison for the worst criminal scum of the US - including a large number of very dangerous and quite armed psychopaths and assorted malcontents. With a timed-release virus in his bloodstream, Snake was sent in and ordered to save the President so he could receive the antidote. The mission succeeded ; much to his disgust a lot of media circus ensued, and he became a legend and media sensation.

However, the president didn’t keep any loyalty toward his saviour and tried to turn the tables on him, prompting Plissken to sabotage a peace conference in retaliation before disappearing. Once underground he became a nomad and a rebel, doing black ops for various accounts and generally wandering around doing illegal things. Meanwhile, the laws became even more extreme and allowed no guns, no foul language, no smoking, no drinking, no drugs, and no sex outside marriage. Anyone breaking the laws was killed or sentenced to life in either New York or Los Angeles - which had been severed from the mainland by a cataclysmic earthquake and was now an island too. During the 15 years that followed his escape from New York, Snake committed 27 “moral crimes” in the puritanical US of A. He eventually got captured again and spent several years in a special prison.

However, when the control device for America’s newest weapon, a global EMP satellite, was stolen and given to Guervo Jones, an anarchistic leader in LA, Snake was again sent on a mission. This time he was infected with a new virus and had 24 hours before he would die unless he received the antidote which he would get upon returning from the mission.

Description

He looks like the archetypal shadowrunner (hell, he *set* the look). He’s got greasy shoulder-length black hair, a black patch over his eyes, and a full three days worth of stubble ; in short he looks downright squalid. The patch over his missing left eye makes him appear even more grim as does the constant hostile facial expression. While not body-built, he’s quite muscular, and wears a cobra tatoo over his belly. He’s 1,76m (yeah, everyone thought he was taller…) and 79kg. Snake Plissken wears black leather that looks a bit like a snake’s skin, and a big black leather duster. He has two shiny guns on low-slung thigh holsters, just like an Old West gunfighter.

Personality

Snake Plissken is extremely dangerous, because he does not respect either law or morals. Nothing is sacred or even important to him, and he thus cannot be corrupted or accurately gauged. He doesn’t give a damn about who lives and who dies ; in short, he’s a sociopath. He follows his own obscure code of honour, has only room for his own survival (some would say he always cheat, in fact), and kills without inhibition. Still, he tends not to kill peoples he considers worthy, and is likely to be vaguely grateful for any help (of course, he will never ask for help). He’s stern, and short in speech.

He also has an unbelievable amount of nerve and cool. Plissken may get angry, but he simply does not appear to know fear.

DC Universe History

Plissken his very much set in his own universe ; however, if Borsten’s time platform could snatch Snake’s old west equivalent - Johnah Hex…