KMC Forums - Maverick of the NYPD, Max Payne

To honor the release of the upcoming movie of the same name, here is the respect thread on Max Payne.

Someone should have told the bad guys never cross a man with nothing to lose.

Especially if that man is one Max Payne.

For Max Payne, the title character was modeled after Sam Lake, the writer of Max Payne. It is often joked that Max had a constipated expression with his uncomfortable half grin/sneer; this joke is even mentioned in the sequel. For Max Payne 2, however, Lake declined the honor, and after extensive casting, Remedy chose the actor Timothy Gibbs to be the model for Max Payne. The voice of Max Payne was played by actor James McCaffrey in both games.

Events in Max Payne

The story begins with Max Payne returning home to find several drug junkies high on a new drug called Valkyr. He also finds that the junkies, who promptly attack him and are quickly dispatched, have killed his wife and newborn daughter. After his wife's funeral, he transfers to the DEA.

Three years later, he is an undercover operative investigating the Punchinello Mafia family , who is responsible for the trafficking of Valkyr. B.B. Hensley, a colleague in the DEA, gives Max a message asking him to meet Alex Balder, another DEA agent and a good friend of Max's, in the subway. When Max arrives at the subway, Alex is shot by an unknown assassin. As a result, the police consider Max the prime suspect in Alex�s death. Additionally, the Punchinello family finds out that he is a cop and wants him dead.

Max seeks Jack Lupino, who oversees Valkyr distribution for the Punchinello family. After killing him, he meets Mona Sax, who laces his drink with a sedative and leaves him to be found by the Mafia, who proceed to interrogate him.

Max escapes the Mafia and gains access to a shipment of guns belonging to the Russian mob after killing one of their traitors. Max uses these weapons to infiltrate the house of Don Punchinello, the head of the Mafia. Max discovers that the Don is only a puppet in the Valkyr market when the Don is killed by agents of Nicole Horne, CEO of Aesir Corp, in front of Max. Horne herself then injects Max with an overdose of Valkyr and leaves him for dead.

When he awakens, he pursues his only lead, the phrase �Cold Steel�, heard just before he passed out. It leads him to a foundry with an old military bunker under it. He discovers that Valkyr was the result of a military project to improve its soldiers� stamina; the project was halted shortly after it began. He also discovers that his wife accidentally found out about the project while working at the District Attorney�s office, so Nicole Horne let Valkyr junkies loose in Max's house.

After leaving the bunker, Max gets a call from B.B., who asks Max to meet with him at a garage lot. There, Max realizes that B.B. was the one that shot Alex, framing Max for his murder. A brief gun fight ensues in which B.B. is killed. Max then gets a phone call from a man named Alfred Woden, asking him to come to the Asgard building. Alfred is part of a secret society called the "Inner Circle". Woden informs Max about who Nicole Horne is and says the Inner Circle cannot pursue Horne because "their hands are tied." They ask Max to kill Nicole Horne in exchange for ensuring that any criminal charges against him are dropped. After the meeting, the room is stormed by Horne's agents. They kill every person in the room except for Max, who manages to escape, and Woden, who pretends to be shot.

Max enters the Aesir Corp. main office, where Horne is located. As he makes his way past security guards and mercenaries, he runs into Mona Sax again. She is shot by mercenaries after refusing to shoot Max. Max confronts Nicole and states that this whole thing started after Max's wife found out about the Valkyr project. Horne runs to the roof of the building, boarding a helicopter. Racing up to the roof, Max shoots the guy wires of the building's antenna; the Antenna snaps off the roof and comes crashing down on the helicopter.

The NYPD arrive at the scene, arresting Max. As Max is being led out of the building by the SWAT team, he sees Alfred Woden. Knowing that Woden will ensure his safe passage through the judicial system, Max smiles genuinely.

Events in Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne

Two years after the events of the first game, Max is a NYPD detective. While investigating a series of murders by a group of hitmen known as The Cleaners, Max comes face-to-face with Mona Sax, who was thought to have been killed in the first game. When he returns to the station, he hears his new partner, Valerie Winterson, talking on the phone about Mona. Soon after, the station is attacked by unknown assassins looking for Mona. After fighting off the assassins, Max begins hunting down the people responsible for the attack.

The search leads him to a construction site, where he and Mona defend themselves against these same hitmen. After the hitmen stop coming, Detective Winterson arrives and holds Mona at gunpoint. Mona claims that Winterson is there to kill her, and after several moments of consideration, Max shoots Winterson, allowing Mona to escape. Before she dies, Winterson shoots Max, putting him in the hospital.

After Max leaves the hospital, he finds Mona, and together, they begin looking for answers. Max gets answers after he is captured by Vladimir Lem, head of the Russian mob. Max learns that The Cleaners work for Lem, removing competition to his various businesses. He then learns that Lem is part of the Inner Circle with Alfred Woden, who ensured that the charges against Max were dropped at the end of the last game. Lem wants to kill Woden and gain control of the Inner Circle. He also learns that Mona is a hired gun for Woden, with orders to kill Lem and Max. Finally, he learns that Detective Winterson was Lem's mistress, for which Max is shot and left for dead in a burning building. Mona rescues Max, and together, they go to Woden's mansion to try to save him from Lem.

At the mansion, Mona knocks Max to the ground in an attempt to follow her orders to kill him, but discovers that her feelings for him keep her from doing so. Lem appears and shoots Mona. Woden then appears and lunges at Lem, resulting in Woden's death. Max and Lem then begin to fight, while the mansion begins to burn around them. Eventually, Lem is killed as the floor under him collapses. Max returns to Mona's side as the police arrive, where she dies in his arms. If the game is completed at its highest difficulty, Mona survives.

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Chuck Norris learned his trademark move, along with his sense of duty and justice, from Jesus after watching Him roundhouse kick a money changer out of the temple.