Oz

"People saw what they wanted to see in Oz. Some saw a man with a wrench who could fix the faulty cooling system. Others saw a man with a mop who cleaned up coffee spills. If anyone had bothered to look deeper, they might have gotten a glimpse of the true Oz. The one he kept hidden. The one that witnessed hundreds die in combat. A monster that screamed into his face in the mirror. All Oz wanted was a simpler life. To stay off the grid. He even chose a low rank Atlas job to do it. Surely that would be enough, right?"

- Oz' biography.

Oz was one of the four main playable characters in Exo Zombies. He's also a special boss in the map Descent. He was portrayed by John Malkovich.

Biography
Oz was formerly a soldier working for the Sentinel Task Force, known among them as one of the best. He, along with several other Sentinel soldiers, were sent to New Baghdad to contain a prison riot, while also fighting off the Atlas Corporation. In the midst of the battle, Oz was caught in the radius of a Manticore bomb, and was one of the first to become infected. Atlas then captured him, and began experimenting on him.

Oz was special, compared to the other infected patients, the way that he was somehow able to revert to his human form, thanks to a special genetic mutation. After having reverted, Oz was brainwashed into believing he was an Atlas employee, who worked as a janitor at the Atlas Biogenesis Research & Development facility, run by Kahn. The brainwashing was not entirely successful, however, as Oz still retains some of his old memories, such as his hatred for Atlas, although he has a very hazy recollection of his life in Sentinel, only remembering having fought in some "wars".

On one night, while performing his "usual clean up duty", Oz spotted streaks of blood on the ground, along with several broken glass casings and some dead bodies. Afterwards, a zombie outbreak occurred in the facility, forcing him to evacuate. Unbeknownst to Oz and everyone in the facility, he was actually the cause of the outbreak, which was planned by Atlas. Oz arrived at the helicopter landing pad along with three other Atlas employees: Lilith Swann, Jim Decker, and Kahn. Unbeknownst to all of them at the time, the three Atlas employees also share the same special genetic mutation with Oz. The rescue Warbird was attacked by zombies and crashes down, forcing Oz and the others to team up to survive against the onslaught of zombies. In an attempt to escape, all four survivors retrieved a communication box from the Warbird, as well as their employee keycards, and used them to call in a second Warbird for extraction. However, as the Warbird approached the facility, it was shot down by an Atlas care package, leaving the four survivors stranded. They eventually made a last stand against the zombies, but were defeated. Atlas forces arrived and saved them in the nick of time, then transported them to a facility located near a Burger Town restaurant.

Some time later, they recovered and found themselves in the midst of another zombie infection. Not only did they have to fend off the undead, but they also had to rescue civilians trapped in the vicinity of Burger Town, at the request of a Warbird operator, callsign Eagle One. The four survivors eventually found a way to activate the Burger Town mascot, Bubby, which either came to life and aided them in battle, or just simply exploded. While doing this, they also unknowingly launched a missile. After doing this, they were stopped on the roof of the Burger Town restaurant and were taken captive by Sentinel forces. Their leader, Lennox, who also revealed himself as Eagle One, pointed a pistol at them and claimed one of the four must die. Oz is then executed in front of the other three, with Lennox justifying his actions due to Oz being the source of the infection. He then ordered his men to load all four of them onto their choppers. However, Atlas forces managed to somehow ambush them, and took Decker, Lilith and Kahn from them. Sentinel forces then tracked them down to an Atlas aircraft carrier out in the ocean. While being carried to the ship, Oz's body began to reanimate aboard a Sentinel Razorback.

After getting on board, Lennox found the three Atlas employees and woke them from stasis. While on the ship, they discovered several diagrams depicting Oz as "Patient Zero", prompting Lennox to tell the others the truth about Oz's background. Oz also somehow took over the A.I. system on the ship, often interacting with the crew. Lennox, however, claimed it to be an effect of the GS7 gas, a hallucinogen which he claimed to have found in Oz's body. They also found several data tablets, which contained the journal of the ship's former captain, who was killed in an act of mutiny. When they inserted these tablets into the vault at the Gun Deck, the A.I. of the ship would then proceed to read them out in Oz's voice. After collecting all the tablets and discovering the story, the crew then decided to sink the ship to the bottom of the ocean to prevent the infection. However, before they could be extracted in an emergency pod, they encountered Oz, having completely reanimated as a zombie. After him and the others talk, Oz walks towards them, but the floor beneath him collapses. However, he manages to jump into the air, and disappears.

After sinking the ship, Lennox, Lilith, Decker and Kahn use the emergency pod and head to the Atlas underwater facility known as Trident Retreat, which Oz already infiltrated and took down the Atlas employees in it. The infection begins to deteriorate Oz's mind, as he believes that all of them, including himself, has to die to stop the infection for good. He taunts his former allies, setting up one challenge after another, before finally confronting them in a monstrous mutated form. After a long ensuing battle, Oz was finally killed, and the remains of his corpse was burned by Lilith. However, unbeknownst to Lennox and the others, there are thousands of pods that contain clones of Oz beneath the facility. One of the Oz clones is then seen opening his eyes.

Battling Oz
Players must fight off Oz multiple times. Before each time, he will count down from ten to seven, then skip to three and continue counting down to one. A second later, he will teleport the players to a room that is otherwise inaccessible and attack the players. Each time he teleports the players, the fight is a little bit different.

After every defeat of Oz, a DNA Bomb will be activated, killing all zombies. Then orbital drops will spawn and contain credits. They will continue to spawn until An-G counts down from ten, which will teleport all players back to spawn.

First Battle
At round 13, when the players first battle Oz, he will teleport the players to a special room, inaccessible otherwise, and will be in a control room. The players' objective is to attack Oz with weapons, equipment and orbital drop rewards every time An-G opens the protective glass for the room he's in, until an explosion sound is heard and the room can be seen on fire. The players has to repeat this step three more times, as there are three control rooms which Oz will switch between when one is destroyed.

Oz will attack the players with all different types of zombies, as well as Remote Turrets, wall-mounted turrets, a grid that disables the players' exo suit when jumped into, walls of gas which can infect the players, or he will electrify part of the floor.

Second Battle
The second time the players faces Oz, he becomes a heavily mutated zombie, and will attack the players himself. Since he has a protective shield around his whole body, the players has to use the Decontamination Zone in the middle of the room to deactivate his shield for a short period of time. This will also stun him for a minute, giving the players time to attack him easily with melee attacks as well. Every time Oz's health bar loses a quarter, he teleports away, and sends in zombies to attack the players and will appear again after awhile. In subsequent attacks, he will also enable gas zones and EMP grids.

After every use of the Decontamination Zone, the players will have to turn all four Power Switches in the room back on in order to gain access to the Decontamination Zone again. It will also have to cool down.

Trivia

 * One of Oz's random dialogue references John Malkovich's actions in the film Red. Marvin Boggs, Malkovich's character, gives "the finger" to government space satelites. Oz sometimes will randomly say "You think the Atlas Comm sat can see me flippin' them the bird?"
 * His signature weapon was the CEL-3 Cauterizer.
 * Oz had a strong dislike for Lennox, and Lennox considers him his rival.
 * Oz's human form in Descent shows his right arm heavily deteriorated, and his skin also turning white-ish. However, his left arm in the Descent intro cutscene is the one that's deteriorated while the right arm is clear.
 * Oz's mouth won't move when he talks to the players in his control rooms.