History Characters / MaxPayne

* ChronicHeroSyndrome: When pointed towards a case or a conspiracy, Max will ''always'' put his life on line and follow it through to the bitter end to ensure that JusticeWillPrevail, no matter how hopeless his odds are and how much he is going to regret it afterwards.

* WifeBasherBasher: Due to his trauma regarding his women being killed, Max's first reaction to a woman being abused is to gun down the offender. It bites him in the ass when he kills [=DeMarco] Jr..

[[folder:Rodrigo]]
!!Rodrigo Branco

Max's new boss in São Paulo. He is an industrialist who is paranoid about kidnapping attempts.

* GenreSavvy: He cleary states that he doesn't go to deep in his investigations because he knows that it will end with his wife, children and himself being killed while the bad guys walk away unpunished. Max's wife investigating Nicole Horne in the first game lead to a pretty similar outcome.

* GoodSmokingEvilSmoking: He's practically the game's most avid cigarette smoker (which is impressive considering how hard Max has fallen into depression and chainsmoking left and right), but he's also pretty much the only moral cop in São Paulo.

* NonActionGuy: Da Silva {{invoke|dTrope}}s this despite being a fully trained police officer in order to avoid the bad guys pulling a HeKnowsTooMuch on him by keeping his hands clean. [[spoiler:It works, big time. Unlike the corrupt pricks in the UFE and Victor he has done his homework and wisely ingratiates himself as the only honest cop in town to the person who almost single handedly wiped out a good chunk of the Italian mafia, a top-tier international conspiracy, its death squads, the Russian Mafia, a ruthlessly efficient death squad, the last remnants of the previously mentioned conspiracy's death squad, a Panamanian terrorist operation and has been blasting through easily the worst favela gang in São Paulo as well as a paramilitary death squad.]]

* SmugSnake: See TemptingFate.
* TheSociopath: [[spoiler: He's a ruthless bastard who was more than happy to kill his family to get their fortune. He also planned to use their deaths to get him sympathy for the election.]]

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: He's an arrogant and smug bastard, but he actually wants to help bring justice to crime and turns out to be Max' most dependable ally. [[spoiler:And the only one that remains throughout the last few chapters, due to Giovanna being pregnant and Raul wisely deciding to drop out of the plot after rescuing Max and getting to be a father.]]

* SympathyForTheDevil: Despite his numerous attempts to kill him and Passos, Max feels a hint of sympathy for him when seeing his grief.

The Don of the [=DeMarco=} Crime Family based in New Jersey. After Max kills his only son in a drunken dispute in a bar in Hoboken, an enraged Anthony promptly sets out to have Max murdered by sending dozens of armed thugs against him.

During a drunken dispute in a bar in Hoboken, Max kills Anthony [=DeMarco=]'s only son. [=DeMarco=] promptly sets out to waste Max, sending dozens of armed thugs against him in a berserker rage.

* TheDon: By the time of 2012, he apparently runs New York's mafia families.

* KarmaHoudini: Tears up Hoboken in his vengeance, defiles a local graveyard and effectively forces Max and Passos's hands on a permanent exile from the state of New York. Only old age or the consequences of his criminal work can claim him after that, though Max does admit internally that Anthony's death was likely at least some subversion of being a total houdini.

* RevengeMyopia: He wants to kill Max and Raul for killing his son, even though it was his son that started the fight.

* BadBoss: Does things like shoot underlings because he wants to see what their brains look like splattered on the wall. As a result his men are terrified of him.

* TheDreaded: His goons are horrified of him and speak of him only in hushed tone, and for a good reason too. Punchinello even wrote a threatening letter to try and rein him in, to no avail.

* TalkativeLoon: He's fully insane and very eager to share his revelations.

* {{Hypocrite}}: She;s unsympathetic to criminals, saying there is no excuse for their actions. When she is revealed to be one, she doesn't take ''any'' responsibility for her actions.

* HeKnowsTooMuch: Alex was assassinated before he could connect Lupino with Aesir.

* PetTheDog: Well he does offer Max a Cuban cigar.

* DefiantToTheEnd: His last act is to lunge at Vlad and strangle him, giving Max enough time to attack Vlad. Though considering that his days were numbered because of cancer, it's easy to see why he wasn't afraid to die.
* DirtyOldMan: A regular visitor of prostitute Candy Dawn. It comes back to bite him as she videotapes his visits and sells it as blackmail material. Both Nicole Horne and Max get hold of a copy.

* NiceGuy: Outside of his strict leadership, Bravura is a noble, well-intentioned man who cares greatly for the well-being of other officers. In spite of the events of the first game, he shows genuine concern for Max's mental health in the sequel, asking him to come to AA and offering to get him therapy.

* FoeRomanceSubtext: Winterson is hinted to harbor some attraction to Max Payne, but nothing came of it. Once she [[spoiler:became infatuated with Vlad, she began actively trying to frame Max for the Cleaner killings, along with Mona.]]

* {{Hypocrite}}: Is unsympathetic to criminals, saying there is no excuse for their actions. When she is revealed to be one, she doesn't take ''any'' responsibility for her actions.

* NeverMyFault: Winterson seems almost incapable of taking any responsibility for her failings. She morally judges everyone else as harshly as possible throughout the game, constantly pointing out Max's violations of police protocol and "unprofessional" behaviour. At the same time she blames everyone else for failure to apprehend criminals and protests that she has done nothing wrong whenever she is confronted. [[spoiler: At no point does she ever seem to express guilt over jumping in bed (quite literally) with Vlad, or trying to kill people for him. Instead she blames everyone but herself.]]

* DeathSeeker: There are a few instances, especially in the 3rd game, that Max hopes to die in a lot of the situations he ends up in.

* GoingColdTurkey: At the beginning of the first game he quits smoking. In the third game he has started smoking again on top of his alcohol and pain-killer addiction, but in the middle of the third game he decides to kick the bottle, and by the end of the game it seems that he has successfully quit drinking.

* JusticeWillPrevail: Max treats the idea that his RoaringRampageOfRevenge can be considered "justice" or "heroic" [[HeroicSelfDeprecation with bitter scorn]]. Regardless, he has a very clear idea about what is right and wrong, and, when push comes to shove, an unwavering dedication to always do what is right despite how high the odds are stacked against him. It is arguably the main part of what keeps him from becoming a NominalHero. The 1st game mocks this notion when Max discovers the truth behind his family tragedy, and that after discovering that his rampage may be justified on a moral scale he immediately condemns himself for thinking it.

* KnightInSourArmor: Some of the most sour to be found but he presses on in spite of it.

* {{Foil}}: To Max. They have the same basic background -- both are former policemen from the US north -- but otherwise couldn't be any more different, as Anders is a happy, well-adjusted man with a loving family who came to Brazil on charity business and has no desire to involve himself in any action or heroics. He exists to further accentuate how messed up and broken Max's life turned out to be.

* TooDumbToLive: His smug overconfidence ultimately gets him killed. On the [[spoiler:Imperial Palace Hotel rooftops, Max is holding a detonator to demolish the condemned hotel]], but Neves [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim keeps pressing Max's berserk buttons]] until Max has had enough and executes the demolition sequence. Neves survives this foolishness but soon after, gets himself done in when [[spoiler:has Max at the mercy of his HandCannon after Max trips and falls due to one of the bombs going off. He continues to gloat but Raul sneaks in and gives him a BoomHeadshot]].

* TooDumbToLive: His smug overconfidence ultimately gets him killed. On the Imperial Palace Hotel rooftops, Max is holding a detonator to demolish the condemned hotel, but Neves [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim keeps pressing Max's berserk buttons]] until Max has had enough and executes the demolition sequence. Neves survives this foolishness but soon after, gets himself done in when [[spoiler:has Max at the mercy of his HandCannon after Max trips and falls due to one of the bombs going off. He continues to gloat but Raul sneaks in and gives him a BoomHeadshot]].

* BeyondTheImpossible: As far as the series is concerned, Max starts out a relatively fit guy for his age which goes away later in the series, but otherwise an average beat cop gone undercover with some SuperReflexes and a cynical dose [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge of unstoppable anger]] he's ready to distribute to every single armed criminal or punk pointing a gun his way. He proceeds to [[OneManArmy singlehandedly]] ''annihilate'' two separate [[TheMafia mafias]] and give utter hell to a third, take down a major rogue [[TheConspiracy government group]] with a little outside aid, cut out a nasty set of [[CorruptCop dirty cops]] in the NYPD, and then near-literally stumble into destroying an [[spoiler:organ-harvesting operation among the rich and corrupt]] in Brazil while also wiping out dozens of platoon's worth of thugs, mercenaries, syndicates, you name it. Most of the game's casts are absolutely [[ThisCannotBe baffled]] or LockedOutOfTheLoop, and only three characters even remotely comprehend or grasp just how ''good'' Max is at destroying everything in his path, for good or bad; two of them end up sitting back and pointing him in the right direction to do it since he's a man with nothing to lose at both points and they're absolutely right to do so, while the third is [[DatingCatwoman his only real equal in badassery]].

* BeyondTheImpossible: As far as the series is concerned, Max starts out a relatively fit guy for his age, but otherwise an average beat cop gone undercover with some SuperReflexes and a cynical dose [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge of unstoppable anger]] he's ready to distribute to every single armed criminal or punk pointing a gun his way. He proceeds to [[OneManArmy singlehandedly]] ''annihilate'' two separate [[TheMafia mafias]] and give utter hell to a third, take down a major rogue [[TheConspiracy government group]] with a little outside aid, cut out a nasty set of [[CorruptCop dirty cops]] in the NYPD, and then near-literally stumble into destroying an [[spoiler:organ-harvesting operation among the rich and corrupt]] in Brazil while also wiping out dozens of platoon's worth of thugs, mercenaries, syndicates, you name it. Most of the game's casts are absolutely [[ThisCannotBe baffled]] or LockedOutOfTheLoop, and only three characters even remotely comprehend or grasp just how ''good'' Max is at destroying everything in his path, for good or bad; two of them end up sitting back and pointing him in the right direction to do it since he's a man with nothing to lose at both points and they're absolutely right to do so, while the third is [[DatingCatwoman his only real equal in badassery]].

[[folder:Max]]

A russian gangster and the captain of the cargo ship ''Charon'', Dime is a former associate of Vlad who's decided to throw his lot in with Punchinello.

** In ''3'', a glorified Mook pistol-whips a female bar patron. Without missing a beat, the until-then calm Max grabs his service pistol and blows him away. This seemingly heroic action comes back to bite him in the ass, since [[spoiler: it marks him for death in New Jersey given he just shot Tony DeMarco, the son of the DeMarco crime family's Don]].

Max's neighbour in Hoboken after his retirement from the police. He died during the mafia attack in a suicide explosion, taking several of mafia goons with him.

* ConspiracyTheorist: Appears to have been one before his death.
* MadBomber: A very rare benevolent example. He saves Max's life by blowing away a gangster who had Max at gunpoint with a shotgun, then blows himself up, killing several more gangsters as well.
* OneSceneWonder: Has only one scene in the game, but makes a hell of an impression in it.

* StringTheory: His apartment is a messy hole, filled with makeshift explosives, his own rambling notes and writings on the walls. Somewhat disturbingly, he has a separate board with newspaper clippings on it specifically about Max and his past.