Illusive Man

The Illusive Man is the elusive, secretive, and well informed leader of Cerberus. 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.

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 extranet 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. He was responsible for breaking Cerberus away from the Alliance military, and building up Cord-Hislop Aerospace as a cover for the organization's shadow operations. 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." In terms of appearance, the Illusive Man is dressed in an impeccable futuristic-style suit, combined with the casual swagger of a charming billionaire; he also seems to possess unique patterns on his irises. It is currently unknown whether these grant him any additional abilities or are simply aesthetic.

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 &mdash; Charles Saracino &mdash; 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 &mdash; likely through unsavory means &mdash; 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 in order to spy on them.

His long-term plans are ultimately unknown, but he has many different projects all factoring into helping humanity achieve its rightful place. Currently, it seems that his main focus is on the Reapers after their discovery, realizing the vast threat they pose on humanity. He appears to dedicate all his vast resources to stop them by any means necessary.

Mass Effect: Evolution
Before becoming the Illusive Man, he was known as Jack Harper, a mercenary and part of a special group under the command of General Williams. During the First Contact War, he served on Shanxi, and in the later days of the war, was responsible for the capture of Desolas Arterius, a turian general along with Ben Hislop and Eva Coré. After heading back to General Williams' command compound, they analyzed turian troop movement patterns and determined that they were looking for something. Eva asks Williams for the APC out front, he tells him to take it, and Jack says they need one more thing, Desolas. After some interrogation with him, Jack discovered that he was there for an artifact, and now he wanted it. So they ambushed Desolas troops and captured them. After cuffing Desolas, Jack asks him why he is doing this and what he is looking for. Desolas just tells him to be careful what he is looking for, as he might just find it. After leaving Eva in charge of the prisoners with the orders to destroy the mountain if any try to follow him, or for that matter flinch, Jack and Ben head into the cave.

Moving through the cave and worrying about Eva, Ben and Jack eventually discover the artifact, along with some robed figures and after dealing with them, they tried to contact Eva, but found the artifact was putting up a lot of interference. They examine the bodies more closely, but Ben approached the artifact, which activated. Jack tries to pull Ben out, and while he succeeds, Ben is killed in the process and Jack is knocked out. After Jack regains conscious, he notices Eva coming towards him, covered in blood saying that when the light from the artifact activating distracted her, the turians ambushed and captured her. Jack asks what happened, but Desolas shows up and says that is what he would like to know. Jack falls unconscious again as Desolas orders his men to take the artifact aboard his ship.

Jack awakens sometime later aboard a turian ship, and after struggling with the guards and restraints, the turians tell him to calm down as they are there for his protection as much as theirs. Eva finally manages to get Jack to calm down as she is led into the room by Saren Arterius, who lets her comfort Jack. Eva tells Jack they are both prisoners, he's been in a coma for weeks, and that Ben is dead. Eva says it must have been something in the cave, and that Desolas took the body. Saren then cuts in saying that as far as they know, Jack is in perfect health, then after Jack demands to know who he is, Saren formally introduces himself and that he should be thankful that they didn't leave him to die. Eva then calls Saren out by saying that they are being taken to a prison camp on Palaven, the turian homeworld. However Saren says she is mistaken, about a lot of things. Outside a window, they see Arcturus Station, the capital of the Systems Alliance. Saren tells them the war is over and they are being taken home.

Aboard the station, they are welcomed by Williams, and after some words are exchanged Desolas is surprised that Williams would trade so many turian prisoners for Jack and Eva. Eva then tackles Desolas, despite Jack telling her not to, and is pulled off by Saren, who then comments to Desolas that his guards don't do much. Desolas says they have their uses, and then communicates to them in a weird language, which Jack understands. This doesn't escape Desolas' notice however and then turns to Williams saying that he should take the prisoners back by the treaty protocol, however Williams says they have been captive long enough and then tells him to leave. Jack is taken to a med bay where he is examined and has a conversation with Williams about what is really going on. Williams says that he can't order Jack to take on a mission like that because he is resigning, but tells Jack not to give up. He then gives Jack and Eva his personal ship to pursue Desolas and the artifact.

In the Hangar, Jack and Eva discuss what they will be doing, as they walk up the boarding ramp, Jack suddenly collapses. Eva rushes to Jack's side and says that she knew it was too early to leave as Jack needs more time to recover. Jack counters by saying that don't have time to waste as he's been having visions of destruction and they are linked to that artifact. Eva then asks where they are supposed to go, and Jack answers that they need to go to Illium. While they are heading down to the planet, Jack tells Eva that the artifact is here, he can feel it.

After landing on Illium and conversing with the locals, they take a cab to where it is likely hidden. On the way Eva questions why they brought it here, but Jack just ignores her and eventually finds what he is looking for. After landing at their destination, they leave the cab and start looking around. At that moment, Saren and Desolas' guards ambush them and Jack and Eva run for their lives. However they are eventually cornered and one of the guards grabs Jack by the neck and Eva turns and attempts to hit it on the head with the butt of her gun, but Jack tells her not to. The creature's hood falls and revels Ben, who isn't the same.

Jack tries to break free of Ben, but Saren catches up and tells Ben to release him and then Jack tells Eva to run. Eva tries to get away up a ladder, but the ladder is brought down by Ben, and she crashes into the rubble. Saren then pulls Jack and Eva aboard a ship and they leave Illium. While onboard, Jack is interrogated about his experiences with the artifact on Shanxi and the aftermath of it. Saren tells Jack that he is clearly different from Ben and he wants to know why. Ben then tells his story, and Jack just sits there and listens. After Ben is done, Saren then tells the three to prepare themselves as they are about to be the first humans to set foot on Palaven.

Upon landing on Palaven, Desolas speaks to the people and Jack notices that he does know how to put on a show. Eva however says that she is curious why he doesn’t lead them out in chains, but Jack says the Council wouldn't approve but he wouldn't be surprised if this was a power grab. Later in the evening, Jack and Eva are being led along behind the artifact and are talking about how long it is taking. Eva says that Jack was lucky he was in a coma when coming back from Shanxi, but Jack says he doesn't mind the wait as he wanted to get a closer look at Palaven for a time, and it is impressive, and so is Desolas. Eva then asks how they even know the artifact is in there, but Jack says he can hear it and Ben, who is behind them, says he can hear it as well. Jack then asks Ben what it is saying, and Ben just says that it commands them to follow and protect it, and to prepare for something. This conversation isn't lost on Desolas, who is walking just a little behind the three and orders Harper brought to him.

Later at Temple Palaven, Jack is watching the "meta-turians" raising the Monolith into the sky and then quotes Clarke's Third Law, which Desolas, who was standing behind him, quotes back word for word. Jack then turns to Desolas and says that he doesn't know what he is dealing with, but Desolas counters by asking if he does, then tells Jack that the artifact was here for a reason. He has been preparing the Temple for a while now and leads Jack into a backroom lab where they are studying the artifact. Jack however notices that it is only a surface analysis and asks why they just don't bring it back into the lab. Desolas says that he would like to but the now presented "Valluvian Priests" won't let him. Desolas says they can't tell him anything more about it, but Jack can and he noticed back on Arcturus Station that the relic had changed him. Jack then says, again, that Desolas doesn't know what he has, what he is dealing with, and that it is just too dangerous. Desolas then tells Jack that if he won't cooperate, then perhaps Eva will, but Jack says that she doesn't know anything and won't crack, and neither will he. Jack then pleads with Desolas to end the experiment being a man of science and the lack of results. The guards then lead Jack to an observation room.

Days later, Jack is still sitting in the room doing little but staring at the weird writings all over the walls. He then comes to a revelation and figures out what is going on. As he stands up, Desolas enters and says he discovered the same thing, but Jack then tells him there is something that he needs to know, the truth. Desolas however dismisses him and tells him to behold the future, a legion of perfect turians and destiny is at hand, and it begins now.

Jack tells Desolas that he can't do this, but his pleas fall on deaf ears and he orders Jack to be led away to a prison cell. While Jack is being led to his cell that he will share with Eva, she suddenly appears and floors one of the guards with a swift kick, knocking the gun out of his hand. She then deals with the other one and Jack lays out the first guard with a punch. He and Eva then head off to find Ben, but down the hallway find some "priests" clearing out a hallway. As they are observing them, Saren ambushes them. Jack then tries to persuade Saren what is really going on. He says that Desolas brought the artifact here for a reason and that he has been duped. He says that he has read the history of the temple on the wall, despite Saren saying that no one has been able to read them, to which Jack counters that he can, and so can the "priests". Then they look through the hole that the "priests" dug and find another Monolith inside the temple. Saren is in shock and Jack explains what will happen and how eventually the entire turian people will be converted. Saren tells Jack to shut up so he can think, then Ben shows up and explains that the artifact wants all to be like him. Saren then reaches for his communicator and after contacting Palaven Command, declares an unsecured bioweapon emergency.

Saren then goes to where Desolas is inspecting his no longer docile troops, and after seeing his brother getting thrown around, orders his guards to open fire. Jack joins the fight leading the way through the "meta-turians" for Ben and Eva. He then asks them to help, and Eva tells Jack to help her as this isn't their fight. Jack and Eva discuss what the prospects are for Ben, and while Eva is hopeful, Jack isn't so hopeful as he knows there is no place or any place far enough away to help him. Eva then says there is one thing they haven't tried and pulls her gun and shoots the Monolith. Ben, working on instructions from the Monolith, tackles Eva and knocks her into a wall.

Desolas then corners them both and after pulling a gun on Jack, tells him that he is going to do what he should have done a long time ago. However before Desolas can pull the trigger, Ben tackles Desolas, knocking him into the artifact, and knocking out everyone in the room. Jack regains conscious some time later, and picks up Eva and apologizes for his actions and that the artifact made him lose sight of what really mattered. As he carries Eva out, she tells him to leave her behind and save Ben, but Jack tells her that he is dead, sacrificing himself to prevent Desolas from making more victims. As he carries Eva out, he notices Saren also regaining conscious and tells him to warn his people and while he would like to stick around to see the results, he has to take care of his own.

Sometime later, while Jack is sitting in a chair watching the memorial service for Ben and Eva, he comments that Desolas was right and that the stars looked welcoming, warm, teeming with places to explore, full of knowledge, and riches to be had. He also recognizes that humanity will not always be welcome and starts recording a manifesto. A dark time is coming for humanity and humanity will be tested, and while they may not know who is doing the testing or why, humanity must meet the challenges as they have met every other one. They will succeed because to do anything else would be inhuman. He will watch the dark places and illuminate them and that there is technology and tools that they not only can, but must master in order to survive. This is not just to survive, but so they can better humanity. Eventually humanity will take its rightful place in the stars. As he ends the recording, Jack takes his place as the Illusive Man, the Leader of Cerberus.

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 word of what had really happened would eventually 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 authorized 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: 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 SSV 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. He had her teamed up with a drell named Feron, who was in fact an agent that Cerberus attempted to recruit many times, before he defected after hearing of the Broker's dealings with the Collectors. As the two were unsuccessful in preventing the Broker's top agent, Tazzik, from escaping Omega with Shepard's body, the Illusive Man ordered Miranda Lawson to observe, desiring to wait until Feron could determine what the Collectors wanted with Shepard. Ultimately, Liara and Feron were successful in retrieving Shepard's body, though the latter became a prisoner of the Broker.

Mass Effect 2
After the destruction of the SSV 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' resources into the Lazarus Project, headed by Miranda Lawson, entirely devoted to resurrecting Shepard. However, he refused a suggestion by Miranda 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 two years, 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 Normandy SR-2 and a full crew which includes Cerberus operatives Miranda Lawson and Jacob Taylor, along with former SSV Normandy crew members, Joker and Doctor Chakwas to work with Shepard.

After Shepard and the new team investigate Freedom's Progress, the latest site of human disappearances, they obtain evidence that the Collectors were responsible and are abducting entire human colonies for unknown reasons. The Illusive Man admits that even he has limited knowledge of the enigmatic species, and further investigation of the Collectors' activities will require a team of combat and scientific specialists from across the galaxy. The Illusive Man then provides Shepard a list of dossiers for the Commander to recruit into the team.

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 Shepard's fellow squad member from Mass Effect at Horizon. Shepard's timely arrival prevented the Collectors from taking the entire colony. This confirms the Illusive Man's suspicions that the Collectors are very focused on locating Shepard or any of the Commander's associates.

Eventually, the Illusive Man directs Shepard to the Collector ship that took out the original Normandy, supposedly disabled by a turian patrol. The Illusive Man intentionally allows Shepard to walk into a trap, to fool the Collectors into thinking that they have the upper hand, in order to gain information on how to pass through the Omega 4 Relay; Shepard was not happy at the apparent betrayal but the Illusive Man tells Shepard that he trusted the Commander could escape safely should any danger happen. After learning that a Reaper IFF is required for safe passage through the relay, the Illusive Man instructs Shepard to investigate a derelict Reaper &mdash; which was damaged from an ancient mass accelerator weapon &mdash; after a Cerberus team researching it had gone missing.

Near the end of the suicide mission at the Collectors' base, instead of letting Shepard rig and detonate the base, the Illusive Man suggests using a radiation pulse to wipe out all living Collectors and leave the base intact in order to use its technology against the Reapers. If Shepard destroys the base, the Illusive Man is furious with the Commander's idealism, saying he knew that Shepard would "choke on the hard decisions". He also asserts that the Collector technology could have been used to humanity's benefit, and to reason that Cerberus is humanity. He is rebuffed by Shepard, who wasn't looking for his approval and then chooses to leave Cerberus. The Illusive Man tries to dissuade the Commander, citing that it is because of him that Shepard is alive. Shepard can then rudely terminate the communication or promise to win the war with the Reapers without sacrificing humanity's soul. Alternatively, if Shepard accepts the Illusive Man's suggestion and kills only the Collectors, he considers it an excellent opportunity to advance the position of humanity. Shepard can either warn the Illusive Man about using the Collector technology for anything else other than fighting the Reapers, or to agree with his idea of advancing humanity using the technology. At the end of this meeting, the Illusive Man smiles deviously while looking at a hologram of his newly acquired prize: the Collector base.

Mass Effect: Retribution
Sometime after the battle with the Collectors, the Illusive Man sought to learn more about the Reapers in order to combat them. He required a test subject to experiment with salvaged reaper technology. The candidate he selected was Paul Grayson, who was captured by Kai Leng, a former N7 marine. The Illusive Man subjected his former operative to implantation with Reaper technology and would have him killed if Grayson got out of control. But before he could terminate Grayson, the turians launched a mass strike of all known Cerberus assets, facilities and agents into both Council and Terminus space, including the station where the experiment was being conducted. The Illusive Man was forced to flee, while Grayson was being overtaken by the Reapers (just as Saren Arterius was) and sent on a rampage. Seeing that Grayson had become a liability, the Illusive Man dispatched Leng to finish the job. Leng ultimately succeeded in his task, ending Grayson's life at the Jon Grissom Academy. Leng was forced to escape afterwards, leaving what remained of Grayson's corpse in Alliance hands. The Illusive Man was not concerned about that because he knew that men like David Anderson would be as pro-active as him in preparing for the Reapers' arrival. Also, unwilling to afford a war with Omega's queen, Aria T'Loak, the Illusive Man used her suspicions of Grayson's involvement in her daughter's death to secure an alliance with her.

Mass Effect 3
The Illusive Man will return in Mass Effect 3.

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 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 (as some other characters in the game resemble their voice actors as well).
 * Many characters outside Cerberus say not to trust the Illusive Man; humorously, his voice actor Martin Sheen says in the Mass Effect 2 Documentary DVD that he would not trust the Illusive Man.