Jonathan Irons



"Democracy? Democracy? Democracy is not what these people need – hell, it’s not even what they want. America has been trying to install democracies in nations for a century, and it hasn’t worked one time. These countries don’t have the most basic building blocks to support a democracy. Little things like we ought to be tolerant of those who disagree with us. We ought to be tolerant of those who worship a different god than us. That a journalist ought to be able to disagree with the President! And you think you could just march into countries based on some fundamentalist religious principles, drop a few bombs, topple a dictator, and start a democracy?! Give me a break. People don’t want freedom. They want boundaries, rules. Protection. From invaders and from themselves. People need a leader who could give them both the support and the constraints to keep chaos at bay. You give them that, and they’ll follow. And that’s where I come in."

- Jonathan Irons, in the Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Reveal Trailer

Jonathan Irons is the founder and president of the private military corporation, Atlas Corporation, in Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. He starts off as a supporting character for the player, but is then revealed to be the main antagonist throughout the rest of the campaign.

Early life
Little is known about his early life. At some point, Jonathan Irons founded the Atlas Corporation which would become one of the largest PMCs in the world. Irons would also get married and have a son named Will, who contrary to Irons' pessimistic views about the U.S. government, disappointed Irons by joining the United States Marine Corps. Will joked about this by claiming that he enlisted in the Marines in order to stay away from his father.

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
After finishing a funeral service for his son Private Will Irons who was killed during an U.S. operation to counter a massive North Korean raid on Seoul, Jonathan Irons offers Will's close friend Jack Mitchell to join the Atlas Corporation, the world's most powerful private military contractor, of which Jonathan is CEO. As a reward, Mitchell is given by Irons an advanced prosthetic arm to replace his lost one.

Meanwhile, a terrorist group calling itself the KVA led by a luddite terrorist named "Hades" begins staging numerous terrorist attacks, with the world turning to Atlas to stop them. Mitchell, a notorious Atlas member named Gideon and other Atlas soldiers rescue the Nigerian prime minister and later capture a KVA technologist in Lagos during a technology summit. However, the KVA's attacks soon become more sophisticated, and Mitchell and his team fail to prevent the KVA forcing a nuclear reactor meltdown in Seattle.

The KVA launch similar attacks against nuclear power plants worldwide, irradiating numerous cities, killing thousands of people, and putting national governments and militaries in turmoil. Atlas emerges as the dominant military force in the world, aiding civilians affected by the attacks, and holding back the KVA's rampage.

Four years later in 2059, Mitchell and Gideon search an abandoned Detroit downtown to find Dr. Pierre Danois, the KVA's second in command. After having the doctor interrogated by Ilona, an ex-Spetsnaz turned Atlas, they are able to track Hades down to Santorini, Greece, where KVA leaders are having a conference. The mission is a success as Mitchell manages to kill Hades, finally "ending" the war. Before succumbing to his death, Hades utters "Irons knows", giving Mitchell a data chip with his last breath.

After Hades' death, Irons and Atlas receive international recognition and respect, with many even questioning if Irons would become a politician.

However, Ilona analyzes the data chip given by Hades, only to find the technologist they captured in Nigeria was killed by Irons after the latter learned of the KVA global attack, proving that Irons deliberately allowed the attacks to occur to improve Atlas' reputation. Irons attempts to have Mitchell and Ilona arrested, but they escaped Atlas' headquarters in New Baghdad, guided by a mysterious man, while Gideon reluctantly stays by Irons' side. The mysterious man happens to be Cormack, who reveals that he is part of the Sentinel Task Force, an international effort to prevent Atlas' rise to power.

In 2060, Mitchell, now a Sentinel, infiltrates Irons' private residence in Bangkok. He and Cormack discover that Danois is now collaborating with Irons on "Manticore", a biological weapon. They set up a tracker on the plane carrying the bioweapon bound for Argentina. Sentinel later intercepts the plane, which crashes in Antarctica and defeat the Atlas soldiers after discovering Irons' intentions for the bioweapon. The team successfully retrieves the WMD, and they are able to take one sample of it. After analyzing the sample, they discover that Manticore is a weapon designed to attack and infect those who are not genetically encoded with Atlas' DNA implants, preventing the harm of their own operatives. The Sentinels, now with Gideon, infiltrate and destroy an Atlas bioweapons laboratory in Bulgaria, eliminating much of the Manticore samples.

With his plot revealed, Irons releases his ultimatum to remove all politicians, whom he thinks are the problem of the world, at the United Nations assembly and Irons declares war on the world. The Sentinels discover that Irons is planning a pre-emptive strike on the United States and try to stop Atlas' attack on San Francisco. Atlas destroys the Golden Gate Bridge, trapping the U.S. Third Fleet in the Bay area, and attempt to destroy the fleet in a single strike. The Sentinels used a railgun aboard an aircraft carrier to destroy the Atlas cargo ships that were attacking them. With the ultimatum and the attack on U.S. soil, the world declares war against Atlas and Irons retreats to his headquarters in New Baghdad.

Seven months later, the Sentinels and the United States military launch a attack on New Baghdad to stop Irons and bring him to justice. However, Atlas releases Manticore, killing most of the attacking troops except for Mitchell, Ilona, and Gideon, as well as Cormack, who was outside the blast radius. The four are brought to an Atlas prison camp, which also runs Manticore experiments on its inmates. The Sentinels escape but Cormack succumbs to an gunshot injury caused by Irons, who also damages Mitchell's prosthetic left arm as revenge, rendering it useless. As they escape the facility, they discovered that Irons already has enough Manticore to attack every military base in the world, and will be launching a missile shortly.

Death
With the fate of the world is at stake, the Sentinels launch a final attack on Atlas' HQ. Mitchell and Gideon successfully destroyed the missile. They find Irons as the other Sentinels prepare to bombard the building. Irons disables their exoskeletal armor, forcing Mitchell to release the exoskeleton to chase Irons. An explosion throws Irons off the building, hanging on Mitchell's left prosthetic arm. Despite begging Mitchell to save him, reminding him that he gave him his hand and a second chance, Mitchell severs his prosthetic arm with his knife, causing Irons to fall to his death.

Personality
After the death of his son Will Irons, Jonathan Irons had become obsessed with power and vengeance against anyone who he blames or anyone who stands in his way, including the governments that hired his company. Irons' menacing nature is further seen when he executed a man and let thousands of people to die for personal gain and in order to improve Atlas' public image. He defended these acts by stating that he sacrificed those innocent people. Even in his last moments, Irons felt no remorse for the innocent deaths and died a power-hungry madman who believed he could solve the world's problems, and that he could save mankind from inevitable destruction.

Trivia

 * Irons is the third Call of Duty villian to be American, after Roarke and General Shepherd.
 * Irons has many similarities with General Shepherd. Both were initially allies of the character, but had ulterior motives and later turned agaist the main character. Also, both excused their actions as making the world stronger. Ironically, Irons wanted to destory the United States while Shepherd's goal was to make the US the world's greatest superpower.

Quotes
"Ideas don't determine who's right. Power determines who's right. And I have the power. So I'm right."

- In the Campaign Story Trailer.

"ATLAS is an internationally registered private company. We don't need Congress."

- Irons replying to Kingpin's objection.

"ON MY AUTHORITY!"

- Irons upon rejecting Kingpin's reasoning.

"Politicians don't know how to solve problems. But I do."

- In the Gameplay Launch trailer.

"What you're seeing is Advanced Warfare. ATLAS has the single largest standing military on the world but we answer to no country."

- Jonathan showing the Atlas HQ to Jack Mitchell.IronsATLAS.ogg

"Unlike the government we don't keep secrets of our capabilities. We don't sell policy, we sell power. We are a super power for hire!"

- Jonathan IronsIronsPowerforHire.ogg

Jonathan Irons