The main protagonist of the Splinter Cell series and his family.
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Sam Fisher
Samuel Leo "Sam" Fisher
Sam as of Blacklist.
Voiced by: Michael Ironside (pre-Blacklist games, Ghost Recon Wildlands and Breakpoint), Eric Johnson (Blacklist), Jeff Teravainen (Rainbow Six Siege)
Dubbed by: Daniel Beretta (European French, Splinter Cell to Ghost Recon Breakpoint), Éric Peter (European French, Rainbow Six Siege)
Appears in: Splinter Cell | Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow | Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory | Splinter Cell: Double Agent | Splinter Cell: Essentials | Splinter Cell: Conviction | Splinter Cell: Blacklist | Ghost Recon Wildlands | Ghost Recon Breakpoint | Rainbow Six Siege
The main character of the Splinter Cell franchise, Sam is a former navy SEAL who is recruited by his best friend Irving Lambert in 2004 to be the first Third Echelon agent. Over the next several years he stops multiple world crisis, prevents the outbreak of World War III, and shuts down numerous terrorist groups before going on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against elements of the U.S. government that betrayed him. As of Blacklist, he is put in charge of Fourth Echelon.
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Ascended Fanon: It was pointed out by a Redditor in August 2020 that the ''Rainbow Six: Siege'' development team at Ubisoft inadvertently canonized an anonymous Wikipedia vandal's edit to the Sam Fisher article from January 2006
when they used Wikipedia as a source and put Fisher's name as "Samuel Leo Fisher" in his ''Siege'' character profile. Before, it had been merely unsubstantiated fanon and concept artwork from 2005 and 2006 created for Double Agent confirms Sam didn't have a middle name in 2006.[1]◊[2]◊[3]◊ - 10-Minute Retirement: Pulled this twice. He left government service after the JBA operation and the Third Echelon conspiracy, but got pulled back in kicking and screaming both times.
- Bash Brothers: With Victor Coste.
- Berserk Button: Two of them.
- Harming his daughter. Or lying about harming her.
- Harming innocent people, especially via torture. If you're a Punch-Clock Villain, he'll generally leave you alone, but you're dead meat if he catches you torturing someone.
- Chest of Medals: While not shown onscreen, the amount of medals he accumulated in his military career is impressive enough that some thugs break into his house to try and steal them. This, of course, turns out to be a spectacularly bad idea, as Sam quickly demonstrates the reason he earned those medals.
- Combat Pragmatist: Especially in Conviction.
- Cool Old Guy: Jokes about his age start showing up as early as Chaos Theory, either from him or from Grim.
- Da Chief: Graduates to this in Blacklist, especially toward Briggs, though he shares the position with Grim.
- Deadpan Snarker: Especially to interrogation targets.
- Double Agent: During Double Agent.
- Elites Are More Glamorous: Sam used to be a Navy SEAL.
- Experienced Protagonist: Already a SEAL with years of experience before being recruited to Third Echelon. Sam is certainly no stranger to kicking ass.
- Expy: Many fans have noted that Sam Fisher has a lot in common with another Tom Clancy character, John Clark. Both are ex-Navy SEALs who went on to become intelligence operatives, both are willing to resort to killing and torture to get the job done, and they even have similar personalities and dark senses of humor. Chaos Theory had him compared to Batman given his sneaking and striking from the dark. Conviction with its heavy emphasis on a rogue agent doing whatever it takes to stop the terrorist plot and protect his daughter closely mirrors Jack Bauer and even has shades of the Punisher.
- He is also a notable Expy of Gabriel Logan. Top agents for who they worked for, use dark tactical gear and take down their employers once they find out about their corruption. In-genre, they were both at different times considered the main rival to Solid Snake.
- Good Is Not Soft: He's fighting for the "good guys", but won't hesitate to put a gun on some people's head or a knife under their throat, or kill if need be.
- Gun Kata: In Conviction and Blacklist, some of Fisher's takedown animations while the pistol is equipped involves this.
- Heroic Ambidexterity: In Chaos Theory and Double Agent, Fisher can switch his pistol and rifle to his left hand if needed for shooting around corners. For some reason, he loses this ability in the next game.
- Heroic BSoD: A few, the first major one being after learning his daughter Sarah has died, and the second coming when he learns she is alive, but his best friend Lambert had faked her death to protect her from a plot to threaten her by a mole inside Third Echelon and allow Sam to willingly to accept extremely dangerous assignments since he would no longer have anything to live for.
- He Who Fights Monsters: Hints of it in Conviction but then come Blacklist, with Victor Coste being put in a coma, it's taken up to eleven. As a result, he Took a Level in Jerkass. Grim calls him out for it, pointing out he's alienating the team, and near the end he improves.
- Iconic Outfit: His green three-eyed headset and dark spy suits.
- Impossibly Cool Clothes: No better way to qualify his dark spy suits and green three-eyed goggles.
- Informed Ability: Sam is stated to be a Krav Maga practitioner. Up until Conviction, his hand to hand combat moves don't even remotely resemble Krav Maga. Then again, the novels are of questionable canonicity, so this can be excused.
- Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Sam is a big fan of this, especially in Conviction.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: As surly as they come, but not without his principles. A major element of his character is that Sam is a secret agent not only because he's good at it, but because he knows it's the right thing to do, and that wasting his talents elsewhere would be letting the bad guys get away.
- Last of His Kind: In the crossover DLC for Ghost Recon Wildlands, he sadly notes he's the last of the old-style infiltration specialists, because the bandana-wearing Army infiltration guy retired.
- Master of Unlocking: He can pick locks expertly, or just forego this and break the lock with his knife instead.
- Although he appears to have lost the ability to pick locks since Double Agent.
- Ninja: Lambert calls him this in the first game. A mook mistakes him for one in Hokkaido in Chaos Theory.
- Older Than They Look: Fisher is 63 years old in Rainbow Six: Siege.
- Old Soldier: He's 62 in Ghost Recon: Wildlands and still kicking ass with the only apparent change that he's finally gone completely gray. In fact, it seems like he becomes more badass as he grows older.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Sam loses all traces of his trademark Gallows Humour when Vic is put into a coma in Blacklist. This signals the start of his He Who Fights Monsters tendencies.
- In Conviction, he rarely bothers with non-lethal attacks whereas previous games had him resorting to killing only if absolutely necessary. It's a mark of him no longer caring about how many people he has to kill so long as he reunites with Sarah. Also, points for outright threatening to murder Grim if she's lying.
- One-Man Army: Sam can efficiently dispatch anyone that gets in his way, whether in the light or dark.
- Papa Wolf: Will do anything to protect his daughter.
- Perma-Stubble: Very noticeable in all incarnations.
- Player Character: The protagonist in all games.
- Pragmatic Hero: The essence of Sam's playstyle until Conviction when he becomes more action-orientated.
- Punch-Clock Hero: Occasional comments throughout the series touch on the fact that he has a life back home in America and one of the sections in Conviction has Sam deal with a pair of home intruders.
- Retired Badass: When he was initially picked to be a Splinter Cell, he was a retired Navy SEAL. By the time of Conviction, he's also out of Third Echelon.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Most of Conviction. Blacklist takes it up to eleven due to Victor Coste being injured in the Guam attack.
- Rogue Agent: In Conviction.
- Shoot Your Mate: In Essentials, one of the missions involves shooting Lambert and completion of the mission requires it. The Xbox 360/PC version of Double Agent allows for the choice of shooting either Jamie or Lambert. In Conviction, it is revealed that he was ordered by Third Echelon to shoot Lambert.
- Stealth Expert: One of the greatest in video games, if not the greatest, rivaled only by Solid Snake, Garrett, Corvo Attano and maybe Adam Jensen.
- Stranger in a Familiar Land: The reason he continues to work as a Stealth Expert in Blacklist despite his disillusionment after Conviction, first as a member of Paladin Nine Security, and then as the commander of Fourth Echelon, is because he is too bored with civilian life to leave the military behind.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: With Grim in Conviction. Sam does not want to work with her, but grudgingly does so because she has information regarding his daughter. In Blacklist Sam initially refuses to work with Grim, but the President overrides his refusal. This causes Sam to put aside his grudge with Grim and form a polite working relationship with her (although there is still an air of tension between them).
- Took a Level in Jerkass: During Blacklist he's on a near fanatical Roaring Rampage of Revenge and even scolds Briggs for rescuing him from Sadiq when there was an opportunity to shoot him. Grim eventually snaps him out of it however.
- Took a Level in Badass: With each successive Splinter Cell game, Sam gets faster, more agile, and more proficient at killing.
- Unstoppable Rage: Near the end of Conviction Sam learns that Lambert was responsible for faking Sarah's death in order to stop her from being used as leverage against Sam. This causes Sam to become so enraged that any enemy mooks who stand in his way can be killed with a single button press due to Sam having unlimited Mark and Execute points.
- Would Hit a Girl: While he holds back at first, when he learns that Grim was in on his daughter's faked death, he lets loose.
Sarah Fisher
Sarah Fisher (formerly Sarah Burns)
Voiced by: Victoria Sanchez (young adult), Teale Bishopric (young child)
Appears in: Splinter Cell | Splinter Cell: Double Agent | Splinter Cell: Essentials | Splinter Cell: Conviction | Splinter Cell: Blacklist
The daughter of Sam, she serves as a Morality Pet to him. However, she is killed shortly before the fourth game when a car hits her. Conviction reveals that not only was her death not an accident at all, but it was faked by Third Echelon on the order of Lambert himself for the dual purpose of protecting her from being threatened by a mole inside Third Echelon and allowing Sam to take on the mission for the fourth game. Sam and Sarah are reunited by the end of the game.
- Character Death: She dies in a hit-and-run by a drunk driver shortly before Double Agent. While this was the original intention of the writers of that game, the below only occurred after Conviction was re-written by new writers.
- Death Faked for You: Said hit-and-run is revealed to be faked by Lambert in order to keep her safe and remove her as a potential source of leverage on Sam. Sarah and Sam are reunited in Conviction.
- The Heart: In Conviction, to a degree. Even when she isn't seen or heard until a ways into the game, she is the reason Sam keeps contact and some semblance of trust in Grim, keeping the team together to save the President.
- It Runs in the Family: In various gaiden materials set after the events of Blacklist and a recent novel released in 2021, it is revealed that Sarah joined Fourth Echelon as a field agent and went through the NSA's selection program.
- Morality Pet
Regan Burns
Regan Burns (formerly Regan Fisher)
Appears in: Splinter Cell: Operation Barracuda (mentioned) | Splinter Cell: Conviction (mentioned)
The late ex-wife of Sam Fisher and the mother of Sarah. She worked as a cryptanalyst for the NSA during the 1980s, then passed away in either 2000 or 2001.
- Amicable Exes: The novel Operation Barracuda explains that, although they didn't talk much, Sam and Regan remained fairly cordial with each other over the years between the separation and Regan's death, mostly because of Sarah, and retained some affection for each other.
- The Ghost: She's been mentioned a few times in the games and some tie-in novels, but she has never appeared in person (for the likely reason that she died before the events of the first game even took place).
- Long-Distance Relationship: Sam and Regan had a small and quiet wedding at a US military base in Germany, but Sam was Married to the Job, always being on operation abroad, and they separated after three years.
- Missing Mom: She died of ovarian cancer when Sarah was fifteen years old (circa 2000/2001).
- Office Romance: She worked as a cryptanalyst for the NSA during the 1980s and met Sam in the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic while he was working in the CIA in Eastern Europe under the cover of being deployed as a diplomatic aide. They had a "stormy" affair and Regan got pregnant.
