- "A war is coming, I've seen it in my dreams. Fires sweeping over the earth, bodies in the street, cities turned to dust. Retaliation."
- —Paxton Fettel
Footage of the Origin Facility Explosion.
The Origin Facility Explosion is a devastating event witnessed by all the main characters in the F.E.A.R. series. It is also the start of the war between Armacham's privately hired mercenaries and the U.S. Military.
Both Timelines[]
F.E.A.R. First Encounter Assault Recon[]
The Origin Facility Explosion is caused by the F.E.A.R. Point Man damaging the Origin Facility's reactor cells, setting off a chain reaction. The Point Man manages to escape the facility, but is knocked unconscious by the resulting shockwave. When he regains consciousness, he has been brought aboard a UH-60 Blackhawk Helicopter by Jin Sun-Kwon and Douglas Holiday. Sun-Kwon informs him that they haven't been able to contact anyone since the explosion, while Holiday tells him that they do not know the extent of the damage yet. A giant mushroom cloud is visible over the Auburn District, which shows that the extent is at a cataclysmic level.
Monolith Timeline[]
F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin[]
An image comparing the explosion shown in F.E.A.R. to the one seen in F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin.
In F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin, the Origin Facility Explosion destroys the city of Fairport and releases a wave of paranormal activity, resulting in most citizens becoming Specters, while a few instead become Remnants. The player is able to see the Ground Zero area in F.E.A.R. 2. While moving through the destroyed streets, the player can see the frozen in time ashes of the people closest to the explosion that crumble and blow away when touched. The Origin Facility and the entire surrounding area is now a vast crater.
The explosion's effects seem markedly more severe than they appeared at the end of the original game; a truly colossal mushroom cloud towers over the entire city for the whole game, appearing to still be slowly expanding with the stem disappearing into a thick cloud, leaving no idea just how high it extends above the cloud line. However, several areas that are located outside the district, such as Wade Elementary School and Still Island, are far enough away that a blue sky can be seen. According to news sources, the national guard is in the process of moving into the city at the time of F.E.A.R. 2's events.
The Origin explosion through Fettel's eyes in F.E.A.R. 2: Reborn.
F.E.A.R. 2: Reborn[]
The explosion is also seen in the start of the F.E.A.R. 2: Reborn DLC, seen through the eyes of Paxton Fettel.
F.E.A.R. 3[]
The Origin Explosion is seen in the opening cinematic through the Point Man's eyes. Paxton Fettel comments that the blast "must have fried their brains," suggesting that the explosion and accompanying paranormal phenomena created the Cultists and Cannibals.
Vivendi Timeline[]
F.E.A.R. Extraction Point[]
In F.E.A.R. Extraction Point, the explosion is once again seen in the beginning of the game, recapping the events of F.E.A.R. The city has also been overcome with paranormal activity and is mostly deserted. Whether this is because of the explosion, Alma Wade, or if some of the city was evacuated in time, is unknown. The most likely reason the population is gone is because of the crisis at Armacham Technology Corporation Headquarters. If the player listens closely to radio reports, they say that gunshots can be heard from Armacham Headquarters, and one report heard in a breakroom mentions that police are urging citizens to stay inside their homes. In fact, one civilian can be encountered alive and unharmed who was hiding from the Replica forces.
F.E.A.R. Perseus Mandate[]
The blast unfolds as the Sergeant watches.
In F.E.A.R. Perseus Mandate, the explosion is seen after the Second F.E.A.R. Team apprehends Gavin Morrison, only to be distracted by the Origin Facility Explosion. Morrison escapes as the shockwave gets closer, and Steve Chen and the Sergeant pursue him, only to be buried in the Old Underground Metro Area. After the Sergeant emerges from the Old Underground Metro Area and connected Subway, he can find a traumatized civilian who was about to be executed by a squad of Replica soldiers that were deactivated when Paxton Fettel was killed. However, the man does not open his eyes or speak, he only repeatedly rocks himself back and forth. As the Sergeant moves through the city, he also sees that it has been deserted and is now rife with paranormal activity.
Cause[]
While the blast looks similar to a nuclear weapons strike, the explosion was actually caused by the Point Man shooting the cooling pistons within the lower levels of the Origin Facility, which overheated, causing them to explode. This is supported by the fact that there seems to be no EMP or radioactivity following the explosion. Furthermore, in reality any explosion of sufficient strength and heat can create a mushroom cloud, regardless of whether the explosion was nuclear or not, examples of this in real life can be seen in the detonations of MOAB-bomb type munitions and other similar extremely high-yield non-nuclear bombs. However, given the strength of the explosion, the detonation of the Origin Facility's power reactors would likely not be enough to produce such a high-yield blast, for they were reactors to generate power, not bombs specifically designed to explode in such a manner. Therefore it is likely that the psychic power of Alma had level of influence on the explosion, considering that her corpse and psychic form were both at the epicenter of the blast, it is quite possible that Alma was able to somehow infuse her rage and hatred into the blast, generating the massive non-nuclear explosion that we see in-game.
The official website for F.E.A.R. Online however confirms that the explosion was nuclear in nature[1], although given the dubiously canon nature of that entry in the franchise, it would be for the best to take the previous explanation and speculation established the by the first game as the more canon of the two.
Trivia[]
- In F.E.A.R. 2, when visiting Ground Zero, the depth of the crater can be measured with a rangefinder, such as with the Andra SR5 Missile Launcher, Type-12 Energy Weapon Prototype, or the Raab KM50 Sniper Rifle's scopes. The crater is at least 600 meters in depth.
- In Extraction Point and Perseus Mandate, the city is not as heavily destroyed and seems to have suffered more damage from the conflict and secondary effects of the Facility Detonation instead (such as the crashing of the cargo plane and the outburst of paranormal activity).
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ http://fearonline.aeriagames.com/overview/story F.E.A.R. Online (Dead Source, needs new link)