Alex Mason

"I don't know anything about any numbers!"

- Mason being tortured

Captain  Alex Mason is a Studies and Observation Group (SOG) operator and the main playable character in Call of Duty: Black Ops.

Early Military Career
Born and raised in Alaska, the geographical proximity of his home state to Communist Russia brought the threat of the Cold War that 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 WW2 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 20 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, close friend Woods is well aware of this, and knows exactly when and how to rein him in.

Black Ops
Finding himself in an obviously makeshift interrogation facility, Mason begins his recollections to his captors by recounting his actions prior and during the Bay of Pigs invasion, beginning the night before in a bar. Confronted by Cuban Government police, he and Woods resist their investigations and the situation rapidly escalates, resulting in them fighting their way through the streets and eventually escaping in a car. Returning to the interrogation room, Mason fast-forwards to the morning of the invasion, in which a small team including he and Woods is to assassinate Fidel Castro. Ziplining into his compound, they fight their way through to his personal quarters, killing Castro and his mistress. The successful team make their way, through dense fighting, to an airfield and a airplane that is to be their extraction. Manning the craft's gun, Mason defends the plane before taking it upon himself to jump off it so as to clear a path for the plane through vehicles blocking the runway using an anti-air gun. This act of heroism traps him in enemy territory and leads to his capture. Castro, still very much alive as a result of his using a body double, offers Mason as a gift to Dragovich. Mason breaks off his story there, and subsequently is pressed for information about his time in Vorkuta, a gulag that he is taken to following his being handed over to the Russians.

Mason, alongside his friend Reznov, execute their plan for escape. 'Ascending from darkness' after beating a guard to death and stealing his keys, the prisoners fight through the courtyard. Using a hulking prisoner called Sergei, they break into the armory, and using improvised artillery Mason takes down three guard towers. After entering a command room, Sergei is crushed by the weight of the closing door, by lifing it up enough for Mason to enter the room and shoot the guards. Breaking into the main armoury Mason aquires a minigun which he uses to devastate the prison's scrambling defenses. Unfortunatly, the enemy release tear gas, which suffocates Mason. Reznov stays with Mason, aftre commandeering two motorcycles, the friends escape the prison. They jump to an armed truck, with Mason defending against their pursuers. Leaping to a moving train, Mason makes good his escape, but Reznov stays behind to lead their pursuers in a different direction, where he is then is killed.

Mason is repatriated to the US, where he meets his CIA handler Jason Hudson and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, who escort him through the Pentagon to meet President Kennedy. Praising him as the 'best we've got,' the President assigns him to kill Dragovich, but not before Mason has a strange flash of a vision of him with a pistol pointed at the President.

Post - Black Ops
Apparently, despite closure to this episode of his past, Mason never recovered from the trauma, if not have worsen, after the Nova incident. Despite getting help from a staff psychiatrist and medication, Mason still suffers from what seems to be recurring migraines, and didn't advice given by his psychiatrist, such as taking leave from work and visiting his family (Mason has cut himself off from his family since they last sent him a letter in 1966).

By 1978 Mason was no longer working for CIA. A tip-off from someone known only as "X", told Mason that Clarke was intended to hide at his brother's place at Johannesberg in the event of World War 3, driven him into obsession once more. Knowing Mason was alreadly on the S.A.D. watchlist, Hudson explictly warned Mason not to chase after that lead. Subsequent event seems to indicate that not only Mason didn't heed his former handler's warning, he got Hudson and Weaver involved as well - now the higher-up have deemed Mason, as well as the other two, as "burnt" and marked them for termination. This is to be carried out under a CIA-MI6 joint operation "Charybdis", and by 10/26/1978, preparation was already underway.

Quotes

 * "I got you, Woods!" - Mason.
 * "UV-32's, assigned. 12mm Cannon, assigned." - Mason, checking the Helicopter controls in "Payback."
 * "Got it, gimme' the stick." - Mason awaiting control of the helicopter.
 * "Chain-load system on the 32's, nice." - Mason.
 * "Reznov! You nearly took a bullet!" - Mason, almost shooting Reznov when he jumped through a hole right in front of Mason in the tunnels in "Victor Charlie".
 * "Woods, you look like hammered shit!" - Mason to Woods.
 * "Dead." - Mason in "Victor Charlie" when Reznov asks him where Swift is.
 * "Clear. Let's fly this bird." - Mason says to Woods after they defeat the Russians guarding the Hind.
 * "Just be cool Woods, alright?" - Mason to Woods at the beginning of Operation 40.
 * "Fuck you!" Mason when asked his name while getting tortured.
 * "My name is Viktor Reznov, and I will have my revenge!" - Mason, said before killing Steiner.

Trivia

 * According to his dossier, Mason is 27 at the time of the game, is 5'11", 190lbs, has green eyes, and brown hair.
 * Mason is voiced by Sam Worthington.
 * Mason is one of the only playable characters to speak, and one of the few to do so under the player's control) like Jason Hudson, John "Soap" MacTavish, the Thermal Imaging TV Operator, Nichols (debatable), the characters in Finest Hour and "Stretch" Roger from Call of Duty 2: Big Red One (a playable crew member of a plane on the mission Liberators), Private First Class Joseph Allen (before Cliffhanger), and playable characters in Nazi Zombies: Tank Dempsey, Takeo Masaki, Edward Richtofen, Nikolai Belinski as well as the random Marines from Verrückt.
 * It was revealed in the Black Ops Single Player trailer that Mason's first name is Alex and that he holds the rank of Captain.
 * Mason is the third playable Captain in the Call of Duty series, the first being Captain MacTavish during Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and the second being Captain Price in the mission All Ghillied Up.
 * It is possible that we have seen Mason's father, due to the fact he was a WW2 veteran who received the Purple Heart for his actions on Makin Atoll.
 * It is revealed that Mason is a schizophrenic, and that Reznov (after Vorkuta) was just a figment of his imagination.
 * It is strongly implied that Mason acted as a sleeper agent to kill President Kennedy in the Call of Duty universe at the end of Black Ops.