Alex Mason

"The Russians fucked you up... I know you... you’re not a traitor."

- Jason Hudson to Alex Mason Captain Alex Mason is a CIA agent and retired Marine Force Recon Captain. He is the main protagonist and the primary playable character in Call of Duty: Black Ops and a playable character, protagonist, and NPC in Call of Duty: Black Ops II.

Early life and military career
Mason was born on June 3, 1933 and raised in Fairbanks, Alaska; the geographical proximity of his home state to Communist Russia brought the threat of the Cold War much closer to his doorstep than most Americans. This was a key contributor to his fervent anti-Communist ideals and eventually led to his enlistment in the USMC. He spent his youth hunting elk and grizzlies in the Alaskan wilderness with his father (a WWII veteran and recipient of the Purple Heart for wounds received during action at the Makin Atoll); as such, he is adept in cold weather environments and is an excellent sniper; at the age of 23 he became the youngest Wimbledon Cup winner in the history of the marksmanship competition.

He was recruited to SAD/SOG at the age of 25 after an exemplary term of service with the Marines. Having served with distinction since joining the Agency, Mason has a long standing friendship with many of his fellow Agency colleagues and shows a particular kinship with operative, Frank Woods. Always itching for action, Mason's tendency towards impulsiveness is the one trait that may not have been completely "trained out of him." However, his close friend Woods is well aware of this, and knows exactly when and how to rein him in.

Service in the Korean War
In the early 1950s, Mason served as a United States Marine in Korea. Shortly after his service there, he joined the CIA.

Bay of Pigs Invasion
"You ready to make history?"

- Woods to Mason before killing Castro's double.

In 1961, Mason is a member of a CIA task force known as Operation 40. Mason and fellow Operation 40 members Joseph Bowman,  and Frank Woods,  infiltrate Cuba prior to the Bay of Pigs invasion to carry out Operation Zapata, the assassination of Fidel Castro. Using the distraction caused by the Bay of Pigs invasion, Mason, Bowman, and Woods raid a compound where Castro is reportedly living. Mason and Woods encounter Castro with a mistress in his bedroom; Mason shoots and kills Castro.

During their escape, Cuban military forces rapidly turn the tables on the U.S.-supported Cuban rebels and swarm the airfield where Op 40's escape plane is located. While Mason, Bowman, and Woods make it to the plane, Mason bails out just before takeoff to clear the runway of Cuban military vehicles. Mason is subdued and captured by Cuban troops. Regaining consciousness, Mason watches as Fidel Castro, alive and well (the "Castro" Mason shot was a double), turns him over to Soviet General Nikita Dragovich as a "gift of their new alliance" and Dragovich says he has plans for him.

Imprisonment at Vorkuta
"I'd given up hope of ever gettin' out. But Viktor Reznov found a way."

- Mason to his interrogators.

Mason is transported to a Soviet labor camp at Vorkuta, Russia. There, Dragovich had Friedrich Steiner brainwash Mason; Mason is implanted with the knowledge to interpret the outgoing broadcasts from Dragovich's numbers station, and is also programmed to become a Soviet sleeper agent with the primary purpose of assassinating U.S. President John F. Kennedy. However, Mason's willpower resisted the programming, but they eventually succeeded. Then, Viktor Reznov, a former hero of the Red Army from Call of Duty: World at War who was betrayed by Dragovich and his underling Colonel Lev Kravchenko, successfully sabotages Mason's brainwash, programming him to also kill Steiner, Kravchenko, and Dragovich out of revenge, and because russians are just that way.

By Mason's account, it was six to seven weeks after his arrival at Vorkuta that he was then thrown into the labor force. There it did not take long for him to clash with prisoners loyal to Reznov. The fights got both Mason and Reznov each one month of solitary confinement, in which they both became fast friends. Sometime later, Mason and Reznov plot their escape from Vorkuta. On October 6, 1963, the Vorkuta prisoners initiate a riot and charge out of the mines and the breakout begins. Mason escapes back to the U.S. while Reznov dies helping him escape; Mason at that moment was unaware he was ever brainwashed.

Family Obligations
The information stated below is referenced from files found in Alex Mason's CIA account.

A few years after Alex came back from Vorkuta to join the SOG, his mother fell ill and his father called him and his siblings to her death bed. Mason failed to arrive, leaving a bad impression on his father, Dot, and his sister, Marion. The two sent a few more letters to Alex but he failed to reply to any of those. From then, his father considered that his son should have died in Vorkuta, but Marion had informed Mason that he could stay with her at Renier if he needed to, and that her children still loved their "hero," uncle Alex.

Operation Flashpoint
"It's Weaver. He's burnt."

- Mason informing Woods of Weaver's compromise.

Upon his return to the USA, Mason is escorted by his new handler Jason Hudson and U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara to the Pentagon, where he is given direct orders from President Kennedy to begin Operation Flashpoint: Mason and his team must locate and kill Dragovich and sabotage the Soviet space program. Throughout the meeting, Mason hears the numbers, causing him to experience everything as though it was a dream; when speaking with Kennedy, Mason hallucinates taking a pistol and pointing it at Kennedy, meaning he was at least partially under Dragovich's control, although resisting it.

On November 17, 1963, Mason and the CIA infiltrate a Soviet Cosmodrome in Baikonur, Kazakhstan per Operation Flashpoint. The Soviets were already aware of this attack by capturing of Grigori Weaver, a CIA double agent who was compromised by Kravchenko. Mason and his team are able to rescue Weaver and fight their way to the control bunker for the Soyuz 2 rocket, but are unable to abort the launch.

Mason uses a Valkyrie Rocket to destroy Soyuz 2 in mid-air, then the Operation 40 squad begins a sweep of the facility to eliminate the surviving members of the Ascension group, a group of former Nazi scientists who had been collaborating with the Soviets, and to hunt down Dragovich. They corner Dragovich in his limousine and destroy it, but rather than verify Dragovich's death, Mason decides to move on after being told by Woods that the explosion would not have left anything recognizable. Woods and Mason assume Dragovich is dead, but this is later proven to be far from the truth.

November 22, 1963
Five days after Flashpoint, on November 22, 1963, JFK was assassinated. It is suggested that Mason may have assassinated him or was involved in the assassination while under the Soviet brainwashing. It is first hinted in the level Revelations, when Mason shouts, "Proceed...to...target. Oswald...compromised". This is probably referring to the man who was found guilty of shooting President Kennedy: Lee Harvey Oswald. It is also seen at the end of the game, when Mason has Dragovich pinned down. Mason yells at Dragovich "You tried to make me kill my own President!" to which Dragovich replies in a mocking tone: "TRIED?" Lastly, there is a black and white photo of Mason in Dallas at the same time Kennedy was assassinated.

Imprisonment in Cuba
It is known that Mason, along with Sgt. Michael Shaw, were captured while on a secret mission in Cuba in 1967. A rescue team, led by Sgt. Thomas Hayes, was sent to rescue them on November 10, 1967, but due to bad intel, they were only able to escape with Shaw. Mason eventually escaped, but it is never explained in game how.

Vietnam, Laos and Kravchenko
"Woods! You look like hammered shit!"

- Mason to Woods, joking about his appearance.



Almost five years later, in 1968, Mason joined the SOG unit led by Frank Woods and was sent to Vietnam for the purpose of searching for covert Russian operations in Vietnam and Laos. After landing at Khe Sanh to meet up with Woods and the rest of his old unit, the hill of Khe Sanh comes under attack by NVA forces. Mason, Woods, and Special Agent Hudson repel the beginning of the attack before the SOG leaves for its mission.

In Hue City, they attempt to pick up a Soviet defector with vital information of Soviet involvement in the war. Inside a safe room, Mason believes he is reunited with Reznov, "the defector", although "Reznov" is a figment of his imagination and the real one died after Mason got on the train from Vorkuta. After collecting the intel, the team leaves Hue city.

While heading north into Communist territory, Mason's helicopter is shot down but, spurred on by a hallucinated image of Reznov, he escapes the wreckage. Mason and the rest of the team silently enter a village where they sabotage Vietcong equipment. Afterwards, Mason clears out a "rat tunnel" and retrieve a Soviet operations book from Kravchenko's office. The tunnel begins to collapse and Mason barely escapes with his life.

The intel leads them to a Soviet cargo plane downed in Laos which was believed to be carrying some sort of chemical weapon. Mason remembers stories Reznov had told him about a nerve gas called Nova 6, originally developed by Nazi scientist Friedrich Steiner, but commandeered by General Dragovich and reproduced by Daniel Clarke. After combat up the river to the crash site, the SOG team is set upon by both VC and Spetsnaz before making their way into the plane. There, they find the Soviets have already retrieved the cargo and were waiting for them to arrive in the valley below. After an explosive fight, the plane wreckage tumbles down a cliff and the team is taken prisoner by the Spetsnaz for the second time.

At a VC compound, Mason, Woods, and Bowman are forced to play Russian Roulette. Bowman defiantly insults his captors, prompting their Russian contact to club him to death with a pipe. Woods plays, choosing an empty chamber, whispering to Mason that the next one is loaded. Mason shoots the VC leader in the chest and takes his pistol, fighting out of the compound and killing the Russian. Woods and Mason commandeer a Hind and fly it to Kravchenko's compound, where they battle to his office along with Reznov and attack him. Mason is overpowered and Kravchenko begins to repeatedly kick him in the face, before being stabbed by Woods. Kravchenko pulls the pins on his grenades, before Woods throws Kravchenko and himself out of the office window. Mason watches the ensuing explosion and believes himself to be the only survivor. In reality, the two survived, but Kravchenko brought Woods to a Vietcong prison camp, which he escapes from in 1972.

Hunting Steiner
"How many times?! Steiner was at Rebirth Island! We had to kill Steiner!"

- Mason to his interrogators.

A letter in Kravchenko's office shows Steiner is overseeing Nova 6 operations on Rebirth Island in the Aral Sea. Mason infiltrates the island with imaginary Reznov at his side, flying into a port in Mo'ynoq using a requisitioned light aircraft and stowing away in an empty crate being handled into the island. When the crane carrying the crate sets it down, they exit the crate and proceed with making their way to the labs, Mason kills a worker with his own Tomahawk and proceeds to hide in the shadow with Reznov to avoid a spotlight from an Mi-8 Gunship, the pair move on until they see an armed soldier patrolling the area, Mason kills him with the Tomahawk after a brief struggle and takes his weapon.

After proceeding some more, the two attempt to climb up the lab building via ladder, during which Mason dispatches of an enemy that looks down the ladder by pulling him down and taking his KS-23. They attempt to access the labs through the rooftops, when suddenly an explosion in the distance occurs, with the base going to full-alert. Mason tells Reznov that it is the CIA assaulting the island to take Steiner alive, the two pick up their pace to get to Steiner first, going down an elevator shaft, and breach the laboratories from there, carving through troops and scientists alike to get to Steiner. They eventually clear the facility out, and enter Steiner's lab.

Steiner is contacting Hudson, desperately asking them to hurry up and extract him from the island, as Dragovich's men are executing personnel on the island. Mason then confronts Steiner, who is shocked that Mason has managed to reach him. Reznov than begins to beat and executes Steiner. Hudson and Weaver manage to make it to the lab, and try entering the lab from a window by shooting it, but it is bulletproof, forcing the pair to break it with a crate, but by the time they enter the lab, they are too late, as Mason witnesses Reznov shoot Steiner.

After witnessing the events from Hudson's perspective, it is finally revealed that Reznov is a figment of Mason's imagination, and he is the one actually executing Steiner. As stated above, they break the bulletproof glass and enter the room too late, as Mason shoots Steiner in the head, and then he shoots Weaver in the arm when Weaver tries to apprehend him. Hudson then tackles and disarms Mason, Mason punches Hudson in the face, forcing Hudson to pistol-whip Mason, rendering him unconscious. With Steiner dead, they leave the island with Mason as their only link to the numbers, leading to his interrogation.

Interrogation and Redemption
"I remember...Ahhhh! Vorkuta..."

- Alex Mason

Following his apprehension by Hudson and Weaver at Rebirth Island, Mason is interrogated ruthlessly. With Steiner's death, Mason is their only link to the numbers station and the impending Nova 6 attack by sleeper agents in the state capitals of every state in the U.S. In addition, the President was prepared to launch an all-out nuclear strike against the Soviet Union in retaliation. If the numbers station could not be located and neutralized before Dragovich sent the signal to attack, World War III would break out.



After forcing Mason to relive his experiences leading up to the present date, Hudson had yet to learn anything from Mason. With DEFCON 2 declared, Hudson reveals himself to Mason out of desperation and removes his restraints. Mason knocks Hudson out and makes his way through the interrogation facility, remembering his brainwashing at Vorkuta, realizing that all of his encounters with Reznov after Vorkuta were imagined, as Reznov had actually died during the breakout. Mason also remembers how to translate the numbers broadcasts. After being subdued by Hudson, Mason translates the number sequences and explains that the numbers station is on the Soviet cargo ship Rusalka, which Mason had originally seen during his first meeting with Dragovich in 1961.

Mason, Hudson, and Weaver raid the Rusalka, located in waters southwest of Cuba. In the cargo ship's hold, they discover an antenna with a tether leading into the depths of the ocean. While a U.S. Navy fleet is en route to destroy the Rusalka, Mason insists on entering the submerged numbers station to kill Dragovich once and for all. After fighting through the numbers station as it comes under fire, Mason finds the console controlling the numbers broadcasts and attempts to deactivate it, but is knocked away by Dragovich. Hudson comes to Mason's aid, distracting Dragovich and allowing Mason to pull him down. Mason strangles Dragovich, then escapes the imploding numbers station with Hudson. With the station destroyed and Dragovich dead, the crisis is averted.

Operation Charybdis
Mason never fully recovered from his brainwashing, as he still hears Reznov's voice after killing Dragovich, making the CIA suspicious of Mason's actions (and presumably his connection to the JFK assassination). Weaver and Hudson became targets of suspicion as well for their association with Mason and their supposed complicity in gathering top secret information for Mason. Sometime in 1978, Mason's decision to chase an as of yet unknown lead led the CIA to deem him "burnt" and a threat to national security, along with Hudson and Weaver, who had escaped to South Africa with him. As of October 28, 1978, the CIA was making plans to form a joint task force with MI-6 in order to find and eliminate Mason, Hudson, and Weaver in what they dubbed Operation Charybdis.

1980s
By 1986, Mason had retired from CIA duty and lived in Alaska with his son, David. He was approached by Jason Hudson and Lieutenant Colonel Oliver L. North, who informed him of Woods' disappearance in Angola. While hesitant at first, Mason decided to go in and save his old friend, thinking that he would do the same if Mason were in trouble. On July 2 1986, Mason and Hudson participated in the Angola Civil War, joining forces with the FNLA. Mason then received intel on Woods' location from Jonas Savimbi, who warned him of the dangers he could face. Later, they arrived on a transport barge on the Cubango River, and after fighting off the MPLA forces, found Woods barely alive in a container full of dead decaying bodies. A Hind then attacked the barge, and was destroyed by Mason using a Valkyrie Rocket launcher. The barge sank, but Mason and Hudson managed to get into shore along with Woods. After sneaking through a base full of Cuban soldiers, Mason attempted to reach the radio station in order to call Savimbi for extraction. Instead, he encountered Raul Menendez who smashed the radio before Mason could give his orders. Mason tried to take Menendez hostage against the Cubans but Menendez then pulled the pin on a grenade and almost stabbed Mason in a struggle. Mason managed to shoot Menendez in his face and escape, but was then chased by Cuban soldiers. After holding off the enemy forces, Mason and Hudson managed to carry Woods to the beach, where they were rescued by Savimbi.

Two months later, Mason re-enlisted with the CIA and went on a mission in Afghanistan to retrieve intel on Menendez' location. He, along with Woods, Hudson and the Chinese soldiers led by Tian Zhao, helped the Mujahideen and their leader, Mullah Rahmaan, fend off the Russian forces. After several Russian tanks and helos were destroyed, Mason was called back to the base. He then witnessed the final Russian attack, led by a colossal tank. As they charged head-on to meet the Russian, Mason's horse was hit, and he barely avoided being crushed by the giant tank. Woods pulled him up and helped him jump on the tank. As Mason was about to throw a Mortar in the tank, Kravchenko jumped out and punched him. The numbers inside his head were re-triggered, and Mason heard the voice of Reznov inside his head telling him: "Kravchenko must die". After a brief struggle, Kravchenko was brought back to the Mujahideen base for further interrogation. As Woods continued to interrogate him, the numbers continued to appear, forcing Mason to kill Kravchenko. Should the player manage to resist, he would learn that Menendez had people working as CIA moles. Woods then executed Kravchenko with a bullet to the head. If the player gives in, Mason would shoot Kravchenko the same way and they wouldn't learn about the mole. Either way, the Mujahideen would betray them, and Mason, Woods, Hudson and Zhao would be left to dead in the desert. After a period of time passed, Mason saw what appeared to be Reznov riding on a horse approaching him. Reznov dismounted and gave him a drink.

Having received intel from Kravchenko, the CIA agents headed off to Nicaragua to find Menendez. They cut a deal with then-president of Panama, Manuel Noriega, and enlisted his help in capturing Menendez. However, Noriega secretly betrayed them, and freed Menendez after he was captured. Menendez, however, gave Noriega a beating and went after his sister, Josefina. At the same time, Mason, Woods and Hudson fought through the Menendez Cartel's base. While taking out Menendez' men in the basement, Mason also found a CIA memo, proof that Menendez indeed had a mole inside CIA. Mason and Woods arrived at Josefina's room at the same time as Menendez. An enraged Woods attempted to kill Menendez, but Mason tried to stop him. In the end, Woods threw a grenade which bounced into the room and killed Josefina. Menendez was reported to have been killed also, but in reality he escaped with Noriega's help.

On December 19th 1989, Mason and Woods met up at Mark McKnight's house to discuss the plans for the invasion of Panama on the day after. The plan was to capture Noriega, aka Objective False Profit, and destroy his reputations. The day after, the three of them participated in the invasion, with McKnight providing sniper support for Mason and Woods. Throughout the fight, Mason tried to contact Hudson through comms, though he failed. After having destroyed Noriega's jet, Mason finally received intel from Hudson, who revealed Noriega's location. He and Woods reached the hotel where Noriega was located and captured him, however Hudson then told them Noriega was to be escorted to a checkpoint, where he would provide intel on a Nexus target. They succeeded, but they did not know that it was all part of Menendez' plan. After splitting up with Woods, Mason was captured by Noriega's men, who then put a bag over his head. Woods, having received intel from Hudson that Nexus target was Raul Menendez, proceeded to shoot the bagged target. Only after that did he realize that the man he shot was none other than Mason. Woods was then shot in both legs by the real Menendez, who proceeded to knock him out. Both Mason and Woods was taken to Hudson, who was tied up along with Mason's son, David. Hudson was then violently killed in front of Woods, who was allowed to live along with David. After telling David that he would suffer with him, Menendez left, at which point David woke up out of his trance and noticed his father's corpse lying next to him.

Final Fate
"Turns out you're a lousy shot."

- Mason to Frank Woods

Mason's fate is determined by the player. If the player shoots Mason in an area other than the head or torso he will survive the shot. In the ending cutscene (if he survives), Mason, at age 92 visits Woods in his retirement home. Later, David visits Woods and has a family reunion with his father. If the player decides to shoot Mason in the head or torso, he will die and in the final cutscene, David and Woods will visit his grave.