Illusive Man

The Illusive Man is the elusive and secretive leader of Cerberus. His face is impeccably symmetrical and his nose perfectly proportioned, possibly from cosmetic surgery. He has close-cropped silver-grey hair with "steely blue" eyes which appear to be prosthetic. The Illusive Man's real name and his life before Cerberus are both long forgotten. For years, the Illusive Man has been using Cerberus and his immense network of contacts to achieve his goal - that of making humanity ascendant above all other races. He is described as having the best and worst traits of humanity rolled into one man. He drinks and smokes constantly and is overall an intelligent individual. The Illusive Man is voiced by Martin Sheen.

Background
The Illusive Man was a normal civilian with a job and a family until the discovery of alien life. Not long after the Battle of Shanxi, an e-mail circulated throughout the internet calling for humanity to take its rightful place and assert its power to its new alien contacts. Alliance intelligence could not locate the originator of the e-mail, but referred to him as an "illusive man" in press releases to try and dismiss the human-centric diatribe. The name stuck, and the Illusive Man founded Cerberus, a human-centric splinter group. His long-term plans are ultimately unknown, but he has many different projects all factoring into helping humanity achieve its "rightful" place. He was responsible for breaking Cerberus away from the Alliance military, and building up Cord-Hislop Aerospace as a cover for the shadow operation. His justification is that "if humanity is to survive, sacrifices must be made for the greater good. The Alliance doesn't understand this. Cerberus does."

Projects
The Illusive Man believes that the political party Terra Firma has a part to play in humanity's ascension and even used an assassination in order to put the right man -- Charles Saracino -- in power. The Illusive Man's belief that biotics are the future of humanity led him to order the sabotage and detonation of Eldfell-Ashland Energy starships over human colonies, to ensure biotic children would be born. Somehow -- likely through unsavory means -- the Illusive Man claimed one of these biotic children as a baby and gave her to Paul Grayson to raise as his own daughter. A decade later he planted Cerberus operatives into the Ascension Project to take advantage of the Alliance's more sophisticated biotic research.

He also has an interest in the quarians and their Migrant Fleet. The Illusive Man does not trust an alien species that effectively has the largest armada of ships in the galaxy. However, he is also greatly impressed by the quarians' technological expertise, namely their creation of the geth and their continued survival despite the odds stacked against them. This curiosity has led him to seek the transmission codes for the Migrant Fleet to spy on them.

Mass Effect: Ascension
After the attack on the Citadel, the Illusive Man became suspicious about the claim it was a geth armada, knowing that no ordinary geth attack could have been so successful. He knew that eventually word of what had really happened would filter back to him, but in the meantime he had greater concerns. Though he acknowledged Commander Shepard's role in creating humanity's new place in the galaxy, the Illusive Man also knew the suspicion and mistrust of the other races would soon close off the political channels that Shepard had opened, and decided to push ahead with his work in the Ascension Project. He also ordered Pel to go to Omega to get the Migrant Fleet codes, but Pel betrayed him and tried to sell Gillian Grayson to the Collectors.

When Paul Grayson reported to the Illusive Man, he gently confronted Paul about his addiction to red sand, but agreed Gillian needed to be pursued and authorised an attack on the Migrant Fleet itself. When the strike team, including Paul and the quarian Golo, failed to report back, the Illusive Man assumed they had died in the attempt as his vast web of informants did not stretch to the Migrant Fleet. He was surprised, therefore, to get a communique from Paul, and even more surprised when Paul calmly announced he was leaving Cerberus forever. He held the threat of revelation over the Illusive Man's head, and used it to get an assurance that Kahlee Sanders would be left alone. The Illusive Man was forced to agree for the sake of Cerberus' other projects.

Mass Effect: Retribution
Illusive Man will appear in Mass Effect: Retribution.

Mass Effect: Redemption
The Illusive Man eventually learned the truth about the Reapers and the threat they posed to the galaxy as a whole. He knew that the galaxy's best hope was Commander Shepard. If the galaxy's hero was lost, then the rest of humanity may well follow. Therefore, he takes steps to ensure that Cerberus doesn't lose Shepard.

Unfortunately, the Normandy was attacked by an unknown ship and Shepard was presumed dead. The Commander's body was retrieved by agents of the Shadow Broker, who was going to deliver the body to the Collectors. Therefore, the Illusive Man forms an alliance with Liara T'Soni, one of Shepard's alien associates, to find the body before the transaction could be completed and to discover the Collectors' intentions for it.

Mass Effect 2
In Mass Effect 2, after the destruction of the Normandy by the Collectors, the Illusive Man used his contacts and influence to obtain Commander Shepard's badly damaged corpse. Over the course of two years, the Illusive Man devoted a substantial amount of Cerberus's resources into the Lazarus Project, headed by Miranda Lawson, and entirely devoted to resurrecting Shepard. However, he refused to implant a control chip in the Commander's brain, fearing that it may affect Shepard's personality. When Shepard is finally reconstituted and reawakened after the two years has passed, the Illusive Man explains during their first meeting that the fate of the galaxy, but specifically humanity, is just as precarious as it was when Shepard died; the Council is still in denial over the existence of the Reapers and have been ignoring the recent phenomenon across various colonies in the Terminus Systems where entire populations of human colonists have vanished without a trace. The Illusive Man postulates that the disappearance of humans must be tied in some way to the threat of the Reapers, but with the vast amount of ignorance and political red tape that has been hampering the Council and Alliance, only Cerberus can provide Shepard with the resources necessary to confront both threats. Shepard agrees to work with Cerberus for the time being and the Illusive Man provides Shepard with the newly built SSV Normandy SR-2 and a full crew which includes Cerberus operatives Lawson and Jacob Taylor, plus Joker, and Dr. Chakwas who were also recruited to work with Shepard.

After Shepard and his team investigate Freedom's Progress, the latest site of human disappearances, they obtained evidence that the Collectors were responsible and are abducting entire live human populations for unknown reasons. The Illusive Man admits that even he only has limited knowledge of the secretive species, and further investigation of the Collectors' activities will require a team of combat and scientific specialists from across the galaxy. With direction from the Illusive Man, Shepard recruits Garrus Vakarian (aka Archangel), Jack (aka Subject Zero), Professor Mordin Solus, Thane Krios, Grunt, Samara, Tali'Zorah nar Rayya and Zaeed Massani.

Unwilling to wait until another human colony is attacked, the Illusive Man leaked information of the Alliance setting up defense turrets, and the location of the surviving human squad member from Mass Effect on Horizon. Shepard's timely arrival prevented the Collectors from taking the entire colony. This confirms the Illusive Man's suspicions that the Collectors were very focused on taking Shepard out.

Eventually, the Illusive Man directed Shepard to the Collector ship that took out the original Normandy, supposedly disabled by the turians. He intentionally allowed Shepard to walk into a trap, to fool the Collectors into thinking that they had the upper hand, in order to gain information on how to pass through the Omega 4 Relay. Learning that Reaper IFF (identify friend/foe) is required for safe passage through the relay, the Illusive Man advised Shepard to check out a derelict Reaper, which was damaged from an ancient mass accelerator weapon, which a Cerberus team had been investigating had gone missing.

When Shepard reached the Collectors' base, learning that the Collectors were creating a Human-Reaper out of thousands of humans, the Illusive Man suggested using a radiation pulse to wipe out the Collectors in order to use the base's technology against the Reapers.

If Shepard destroys the base, the Illusive Man is furious with the Commander's idealism, saying that the technology could've advanced humanity's position against anything, justifying that Cerberus is humanity. He is rebuffed by Shepard, who wasn't looking for approval. Shepard then chooses to leave Cerberus and face the Reapers alone. The Illusive Man tried to dissuade the Commander, citing that it is because of him that Shepard is alive. This qualifies as the Paragon ending.

If Shepard kills only the Collectors, the Illusive Man considers it an excellent opportunity to advance the position of humanity. However, Shepard can warn him that if he uses the Collector technology for anything else other than fighting the Reapers, then the galaxy will suffer. Another option is that Shepard can agree with the Illusive Man's idea of advancing humanity using the technology. The Illusive Man is last seen looking greedily at a hologram of his prize: the Collecter base (If Shepard did not survive, then several salvage ships will also be seen heading for the base, presumably all fitted with copies of the Reaper IFF). This qualifies as the Renegade ending.

Illusive Man's Appearance
The Illusive Man's suit was designed to capture an impeccable futuristic style, combined with the casual swagger of a charming billionaire. He also seems to possess unique patterns on his irises, probably a feature of surgery. It is unknown if it grants him any additional abilities or just serves as aesthetics. It is worth noting that, if Shepard chooses the Renegade path his eyes strongly resemble those of the Illusive Man, only with a red tint.

When Shepard speaks with Illusive Man, he is situated in front of a large star that dominates the screen behind him. The star is a fiery mixture of red and blue star-activity throughout the game, visible during the mission summaries. If Shepard makes the final Paragon decision by destroying the Collector base, the star appears completely blue in the final debriefing. It becomes completely red if Shepard makes the Renegade decision by preserving the base for Cerberus.

Trivia

 * The "Illusive Man" may be inspired by the Upright Man and his successor, the Virtuous Man in Raymond Feist's Midkemia. They also run organized crime syndicates. He's also comparable to the G-Man from the Half-Life series, both in appearance and role (they both play the role of an overseer and employer, both observing the player as the games progress and pulling strings to control the outcome of specific events). He may also take inspiration from the Cigarette Smoking Man from the television series The X-Files or the various representatives of Star Trek's Section 31.
 * He is sometimes erroneously referred to as the Elusive Man; however, "illusive" refers to that which is transitory, unreal, or deceptive (such as an illusion).
 * Unsurprisingly, the Illusive Man bears a strong physical resemblance to his voice actor Martin Sheen.