Difference between revisions of "Samuel Hayden"

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Dr. Samuel Hayden

Hayden before his transformation into a cyborg

Dr. Samuel Hayden is a character in the 2016 Doom and Doom Eternal, a high-ranking UAC official who oversaw the Argent energy research projects at the UAC Mars Base. After an unknown incident during construction of the facility's Argent Tower which caused him to develop brain cancer, he was forced to replace almost the entirety of his body with cybernetics. He was first officially shown by id Software in the game's official launch trailer^[1] greeting the Doom marine after he awakens from an apparent slumber. In exclusive footage released by video card manufacturer NVIDIA to demonstrate the performance potentials of the then-new Vulkan graphics API in id Tech 6, he can be heard acting as an advisor to the marine, speaking about Olivia Pierce, to whom he is now an enemy. He states that he had hoped she would "rise above their influence," referring to the demons from Hell which she instead unleashed.^[2]

Hayden is adamant in defending his original research projects into Hell and its Argent energy reserves, stating that it was all in mankind's best interest, and that the sacrifices made would have been worth the cost, if his other staff had been able to resist the corrupting influences of the demonic dimension. While he seems friendly, and is certainly opposed to the demonic takeover of humanity, whether or not he can be fully trusted is less clear cut.

Samuel Hayden's voice acting is performed by Darin De Paul.

Plot

Doom (2016)

Background

Samuel Hayden received his first degree, a Masters in Theoretical Physics, at Oxford University. Rising to prominence as a renowned scientist, he created his own foundation to fund up-and-coming young scientists and educational programs in schools. After being appointed the General Director of the Global Science Council, he was offered leadership of the UAC mere months later. After the discovery of the Argent Fracture on Mars, he put plans for the Argent Tower into immediate production.

During the construction of the tower, he was diagnosed with terminal stage 4 brain cancer, and put all of his efforts toward devising a scheme for his personal immortality. The end result of this effort was the transference of his brain into a ten-foot-tall, powerful cyborg body powered initially by Argent caches and eventually by an Argent accumulator. As of the time of the invasion of the UAC Mars Base, Samuel is over 130 years old, and is expected to live indefinitely.

Though spared from death by his actions, Samuel was demoted to Project Director of the Argent facilities due to his new appearance and nature being too controversial for him to act as the public face of a global mega-corporation. After development of the Global Energy Distribution Matrix and a globally live-streamed event showing Samuel throwing the switch to send the first Argent energy packet to Earth, however, it became clear to everyone that he, as the only one who could "turn on the power," would wield enormous influence regardless of his official position.

Recruitment of the protagonist

Hayden meets initial resistance from the Doom marine when trying to recruit him to fight against Olivia and stop her planned opening of the portal to Hell in his preferred manner, with the soldier violently destroying every device he tries to use for communication. Dr. Hayden ends up forcing the marine's hand by cutting off his access to the satellite communications array and offering him the information he seeks in exchange for his cooperation. Once actively allied, Hayden has VEGA give the marine access to all of the facility's Argent energy capsules.

Argent Tower and fallout

Dr. Hayden in his office

Samuel is met in person after the destruction of the Argent Energy Tower (an action for which he reprimands the Slayer) and the marine's return from the Kadingir Sanctum in Hell. He has the marine take the monorail to the Advanced Research Complex to visit his office. When the marine touches the door panel, however, he receives an unexpected electric jolt and finds that an interdimensional travel device called a tether, used extensively by the UAC to bring objects and demons back from Hell, has been forcefully installed into the Praetor suit. Samuel dubiously apologizes, stating that he did not believe the upgrade would have been willingly accepted despite its necessity.

Samuel discusses the destruction of the tower, referring to the way in which the marine permanently disabled it against his wishes as regrettable. He also speaks about the ongoing demonic invasion of the facility through the still-open Hell portal, and the need to pursue a new way into Hell in order to locate the Crucible, a device that can control the source of Argent energy known as "the Well," and stop Olivia's plans from continuing any further. He states that the marine needs to proceed on to the Lazarus Labs to find a relic from Hell called the Helix Stone, and notes that, given his propensity for firearms, he should also be able to find a powerful weapon there.

End-game

At the end of the game, after defeating the Spider Mastermind, Samuel Hayden activates the dimensional tether and pulls the Doom Slayer back into the UAC facility. He proceeds to tell the captive marine that they have won, but at a cost of the entire UAC operation. He then reveals he has been watching, and has determined their motivations differ, in that the Doom Slayer believes Hell must be destroyed entirely, and while Samuel admits the possibility that this is true, he believes humanity needs Argent energy to prevent the energy crisis from worsening. He then steals the Crucible by somehow pulling it through the air into his hand, stating that with it, he can continue his work. The Crucible then turns into a red energy blade enscribed with runes, and Hayden states that while he cannot kill the marine, he would neither allow him to stand in his way, and uses the dimensional tether to teleport the Doom Slayer to an unknown location before the end credits start to roll.

Doom VFR

In Doom VFR, Dr. Hayden, occurring in voice only, finally intervenes in Dr. Peters' activities after Peters succeeds in closing the Hell portal that has mysteriously formed atop the Argent Transfer Station. Stating that Dr. Peters has "caused quite a few problems," Hayden initiates an "Omega Subroutine" which seems to ultimately terminate Peters' machine consciousness. In a final chilling line, he bids Dr. Peters goodbye. While ultimately vague, this seems to suggest that Hayden was behind the opening of this Hell portal, and that it was somehow involved in his plans for moving forward from the events at the conclusion of the Doom Slayer's campaign.

Doom Eternal

Hayden in Doom Eternal's E3 2019 story trailer

At some point between Doom (2016) and Doom Eternal, Samuel Hayden returned to Earth to find that the loss of Argent energy had plunged the planet into crisis. He appeared before the Allied Nations Council and recounted what had happened on Mars, presenting the demonic Crucible - now the only remaining source of Argent energy - and explaining that it might be possible to harness its power to synthesize a synthetic form of Argent. When Hell began its invasion of Earth, Hayden was asked to lead the newly-formed Armored Response Coalition and agreed to repurpose the UAC facilities under his control to manufacture weapons, mechs and other technologies to be used against the demons. Although Hayden's tactics and use of the Crucible slowed Hell's advance, the ARC found themselves overwhelmed; a final assault by Hayden, codenamed "Operation Hellbreaker", almost led to his destruction. His damaged torso was retrieved by ARC personnel and stored in the ARC Complex where it was maintained by a crew of scientists.

During Doom Eternal, the Doom Slayer travels to the ARC Complex to retrieve Hayden's body after learning from VEGA that he can assist in locating Deag Grav; having recovered the Crucible that was also stored in the complex, the Slayer ignores the ARC Intern's advice to carefully extract Hayden's torso from its enclosure and pulls it out in one go, before unceremoniously tossing the body into a slipgate when a marauder arrives. Once back on the Fortress of Doom, Hayden transferred his consciousness into the fortress' mainframe, allowing him to provide voice-over information to the Slayer during his journey.

Doom Eternal also introduces an ambiguity to Hayden's true identity, going out of its way to give the Seraphim the line, "Take it, it will give you strength... help you on your journey," a throwback to one of Samuel's lines in Doom (2016). In addition, the same voice actor, Darin De Paul, performs both characters.

Hayden also displays a great deal of unjustified knowledge about the Night Sentinels, the Maykrs, and Urdak, the latter being a heavenly dimension that Hayden himself stated no mortal or demon had ever set foot within (and thus he could not possibly have known about it by any normal means, let alone exhibit the familiarity with the realm that he displays). Furthermore, in the ARC Complex, one of the scientists states that Hayden's cortex is alien in design, a bizarre finding considering Hayden is supposedly of human origin. His mind is then uploaded into the Fortress of Doom's systems, which VEGA describes as having architecture "similar to his own"; as the Fortress was designed by the Maykrs and the Argenta, there is no explanation for how Hayden's supposedly human-made body could interface with it so easily.

The Ancient Gods, Part One confirms that he was in fact the Seraphim, having used a cloned human body to disguise himself at the Father's command in order to guide the foreseen development of Argent energy in a way that would give humanity a chance to oppose the power of Hell. A further transfer of consciousness into a mechanical body allowed him to sidestep the ancient laws prohibiting him from entering Hell, allowing him to recover the Slayer's sarcophagus.

Expanded universe

Samuel Hayden appears in the Assault on Armaros Station role-playing campaign as an adversary for the demon players. After attempting to destroy the demons with the experimental Argent Hammer weapon, he attempts to flee the station and teleport to safety while being protected by the Doom Slayer. The players must try to bring him down before he can escape. If they succeed, he ends up in the state in which he is later found by the Slayer in the course of Doom Eternal.

Character origins

The original plans for Doom 3 called for a character named General Hayden to function as a secondary villain, initially appearing to be the cause of the invasion and taking the place of Dr. Malcolm Betruger in several of the game's scenes, only for Betruger to be later revealed as the true mastermind. While dropped from the game, with his roles dispersed between those of Betruger and Sergeant Kelly, he was retained and revived in the Doom 3 novels.

Trivia

• When meeting him in his office, his right hand has blood spatters across it, implying he had to kill something, but his office is completely clean and white.
• If the player attempts to fire at Hayden as he is walking into his office, a green force field will briefly appear protecting Hayden from all damage, and Hayden will remark "Save your ammunition". The player's weapon will automatically be holstered afterward.
• Adding on to Samuel's dubious nature is that a good portion of his mind and the entirety of his physique aren't natural; in addition to his cybernetic body, his Codex entries state that he has replaced or hyper-accelerated several parts of his brain not related to his personality to grant himself super-intelligence.
• He keeps statues of the Night Sentinels and Praetor suit in his office.
• During the final time the Doom Slayer is returned to Mars via the tethering device, Hayden's voice can be heard to speak the words, "come back to me."
• Fans have noted that a combination of his first initial and last name as "S.Hayden" can be pronounced similar to "Satan". While it may be a coincidence, the mysterious nature of the accident that gave him cancer and his insistence that humanity needs Hell to survive might suggest the possibility that he was never entirely human. Perhaps lending weight are possible meanings hidden in his name: "Samuel", meaning "name of God" or "God has heard," and "Hayden", one derivation of which is from the Old High German heiden, meaning, "heathen."
• "Doctor Samuel Hayden" is a collection of three words of six letters each, forming the Number of the Beast, 666.
• Phrases "You can't just shoot a hole into the surface of Mars" and "The longer the Icon of Sin is on Earth, the stronger it will become" have become Internet memes.

References

1. ↑ Bethesda Softworks (5 May 2016). "DOOM — Launch Trailer." YouTube. Retrieved 11 May 2016.
2. ↑ NVIDIA (11 May 2016). "Exclusive DOOM 1080p 60FPS Gameplay with Vulkan API on GeForce GTX." YouTube. Retrieved 11 May 2016.