Alex Mason

''This article is for the playable character in Call of Duty: Black Ops. For the squad commander in Call of Duty: World at War: Final Fronts, see Sgt. Mason.'' "I keep hearing the fucking numbers!"

- Mason being tortured

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, his close friend Woods is well aware of this, and knows exactly when and how to rein him in.

Service in Afghanistan

 * The information presented in the following section only appears in Call of Duty: Black Ops (Nintendo DS)

Alex Mason was dreaming Reznov was there most of the time he needed him, but actually he was alone.

Operation Zapata
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".

Imprisonment at Vorkuta
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 contained the programming, but still brainwashed. 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 kill Steiner, Kravchenko, and Dragovich out of revenge. By Mason's account, it was 6-7 weeks after his arrival of Vorkuta then he was thrown into the labor force proper, there it didn't take long for him to clash with prisoners loyal to Reznov. The fights got both Mason and Reznov spent 1 month solitary confinement, and both became fast friends after that. Sometime later, Mason and Reznov plot their escape from Vorkuta. On October 6, 1963, the breakout succeeds and Mason escapes back to the U.S.; Mason at that moment was unaware he was ever brainwashed.

Operation Flashpoint
Upon his return to the U.S., Mason is made a member of the CIA's Studies and Observation Group, which also includes his former teammates Woods and Bowman. On November 10, 1963, 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 recalls experiencing everything as though it was a dream; when speaking with Kennedy, Mason hallucinates taking a pistol and pointing it at Kennedy.

On November 17, 1963, Mason and the S.O.G. 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 wouldn't have left anything recognizable. Operation 40 assumes Dragovich is dead, but this is later proven to be far from the truth.

Vietnam, Laos and Kravchenko
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 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.

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 biological 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.

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 throat 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. In his dying breath, Kravchenko pulls the pins on his grenades, before Woods throws Kravchenko and himself out of the office window, leaving Mason the only survivor of his SOG team, the imaginary Reznov notwithstanding.

Hunting Steiner with "Reznov"
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, stowing away in an empty crate being handled on 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 Hip, 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 2 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 execute 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
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 capital cities of every state in the U.S. In addition, the President was prepared to launch a full 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, and finally understanding the meaning of the numbers broadcasts. After being subdued by Hudson, Mason 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
According to the unlocked Intel, Mason never fully recovered from the brainwashing, making the CIA suspicious of his future actions. 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.

Quotes

 * "I got you, Woods!" - Mason piloting the Hind in Payback.
 * "Where am I? Where's Reznov?" - Mason's first words in Black Ops.
 * "7, 15, 1, 2, 19, 7, 25, 6" - A sequence of random numbers, heard in the startup clip (being spoken by an unidentified woman) and heard multiple times by Mason throughout the campaign missions.
 * "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.
 * "20 degrees below zero, fuckin' ice cube was in his element" - Mason referring to Jason Hudson
 * "Chain-load system on the 32's." - 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.
 * "Just be cool Woods. Wait." - Mason to Woods at the beginning of Operation 40.
 * "Fuck you!"- Mason when asked his name while getting tortured.
 * "Kiss my ass"- Mason when asked were he was born while being tortured.
 * "My name is Viktor Reznov, and I will have my revenge!" - Mason, said before killing Steiner.
 * "I swear to God that Woods was crying but he never let us see no tears." - Mason commenting on Wood's reaction to the death of a U.S. Marine.
 * "I keep hearing the fucking numbers!"- Mason while being interrogated.
 * "Oh the pain!, Oh my God!"- Mason while searching for Reznov in Revelations.
 * "You fucking son-of-a-bitch!! I'll kill you all!" - After the Spetsnaz operative beats Bowman to death with a pipe.
 * "Payback ya sons of bitches!" - Mason after destroying the third Hind on Payback.
 * "For Bowman." - Mason after killing the Russian who clubbed Bowman to death in Payback.
 * "Today's the day we succeed." - Mason in Operation 40 in response to Woods about killing Castro.
 * "I trusted him!" - Mason in response to Hudson after being told that Reznov brainwashed him to kill Steiner, Kravchenko and Dragovich.
 * "Reznov! Where are you?.... Urrghh, Reznov! - Mason in pain searching for Reznov in Revelations.
 * "It is simple, I'm gonna kill you!" - Mason about to kill Dragovich in Redemption.
 * "6.5 millimeter" - Mason, during the JFK archival footage at the end of the campaign, showing JFK and Jackie arriving at the airport. The quote is referring to the 6.5mm round used in the Carcano rifle that fired the fatal shot to the President's head.
 * "Step 8 Reznov! Freedom!" - Mason in the train at the end of the level Vorkuta

Trivia

 * His name is similar to the Red Faction series protagonist Alec Mason, only a letter different.
 * According to his dossier, Mason is 27 at the time of Operation 40 and 34 by the end of the game, he is 5'11", 190lbs, has green eyes, and has brown hair.
 * Mason is voiced by Sam Worthington and bears some resemblance to him. In addition to this, Mason's voicework will occasionally be heard with a noticeable Australian accent; most likely because of Worthington's background.
 * Mason is the second in the series who speaks as a playable character - previously, the first ever was Alexei Ivanovich Voronin and "Soap" MacTavish, Captain Price,Viktor Reznov and Dimitri Petrenko were silent when controlled by players but had lines as NPCs.
 * Mason is the third playable Captain in the Call of Duty series, the first being Captain MacTavish during the events on Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare although he was only a Sergeant in this game, being promoted to Captain shortly before the events of Modern Warfare 2, the second being Captain Price but being a Lieutenant at the time of the mission, the forth being Reznov in Project Nova, and the last Mosely in WMD.
 * It is possible that we have seen Mason's father in Call of Duty: World at War, due to the fact he was a World War II veteran who received the Purple Heart for his actions on Makin Atoll.
 * It is strongly implied that Mason assassinated President John F. Kennedy. During his interrogation, Hudson informs Mason that there were long periods of time after his escape from Vorkuta that he went rogue and could not be accounted for. Also, while Mason is stumbling around after his interrogation, he mentions "Kennedy...John...Fitzgerald! " and "Proceed...to...target! Oswald...compromised!" suggesting that he worked with Lee Harvey Oswald, JFK's suspected killer, and possibly that Oswald himself was also a sleeper agent like Mason; when Mason confronts Dragovich at the numbers station, Dragovich's response to Mason's accusation that he tried to make Mason kill Kennedy also implies Mason was responsible. At the end of the mission, footage of Kennedy's arrival in Dallas, Texas prior to the assassination shows Mason was in the crowd of onlookers who watched Kennedy disembark from Air Force One. Although it might still be possible that Mason had hesitated (due to his high resistance) and Oswald had beaten him to the target, or possibly Mason knew what was going to happen and was there attempting to guard Kennedy.
 * Accessing the CIA terminal database accounts of several supervisor-level personnels, you'd discover that Alex Mason's regaining operational status was done, despite reservations from assessments and test as well as a widespread beliefs among the CIA staff, by the decision of President Kennedy, who handpicked Mason for Operation Flashpoint. That's why Mason got the "special treatment" - summoned to the Pentagon to meet the President.
 * In the report filed by Ryan Jackson, Mas was recommended to have his field operative status to be immediately and permanently revoked, due to his year-long imprisonment in Vorkuta, and worse, his account of befriending Reznov draws suspicion of KGB setup,
 * The exact reason why Dragovich failed but Reznov was successful in implanting orders into Mason was unknown, but if goes by what the story revealed, Mason was atypically resistive towards what Dragovich and Steiner threw at him, and that failed, but Mason's mind still in the "input ready" state; his friendship with Reznov left him open to suggestion, and that's why Reznov's "instructions" were successful. After Hudson catches up to him, Mason desperately yells that he "trusted him [Reznov]", and Hudson states that his trust was the reason why Reznov's brainwashing worked.
 * During the entire game when playing as Mason the final picture of the cutscene will be Mason's face with a black background and Numbers flying across the screen from right to left, Reznov's mission "Project Nova" also has this but with Reznov's face, but in the final level Mason's CIA picture will come up similar to Hudson. Probably to show Mason's no longer a sleeper agent for Dragovich or Reznov just a bit mentally unstable.
 * As the target of Operation Charybdis, Mason was set to be tracked down and be terminated. From the dossier file in Ryan Jackson's account, it is shown that a female CIA double agent named Kristina would be recruited to help. Informant X once sent Grigori Weaver a message saying that his sister survived the purges of Stalin but died in childbirth. The child survived and is named Kristina. Kristina is a high ranking, but disgruntled, GRU agent who's current GRU assignment was to locate, seduce and detain Mason for the Soviets. In short, it means that Weaver's niece is going to seduce his best friend so Mason can be contained and terminated. This possibly implies that Weaver's position might be able to tip the odds to the trio's favor.
 * His login for the terminal is "AMASON" and his password is "PASSWORD."
 * He appears to be the only prisoner that escaped from Vorkuta alive.
 * Like many characters with a designated weapon in Call of Duty series, Mason's favorite weapon seems to be a shotgun and the Python as he was more than once loaded up with a shotgun-based weapon.
 * In U.S.D.D., he seems like he wears white shirt and watch like Jason Hudson wears. But on the scene where it shows his face when he passes the metal detector, he's wearing a black suit.
 * Also in U.S.D.D. you will notice that Mason doesn't have any sleeves covering his arms when shaking hands with Robert McNamara, but when he passes the metal detectors, the has long sleeves covering his arms.
 * He has been stepped on nine times by Kravchenko. One time in ending of "Operation 40" and "Crash Site" (becomes two), and seven times at end of "Payback."
 * He and C. Miller are the only playable characters who combat as POW (only one mission).
 * Mason can be compared with Dimitri Petrenko as they have both been captured at least once, physically injured many times and both cheated death. He can also be compared to John "Soap" MacTavish for these same reasons.
 * Humorously, he risks his lives to save his interrogators (Weaver and Hudson) when at the same time the Interrogators asked why he saved them.
 * Mason humorously nicknames Jason Hudson 'Ice Cube' several times in the campaign,referring to his calm and methodical method of working.
 * It appears that Mason was suicidal after his escape from Vorkuta, as one of his emails from Alicia says that if he ever threatens suicide again, he will not regain his operational field agent status. However, she also says that Mason cannot blackmail her for medicine, so it is possible that he was trying to blackmail Alicia into giving him more medicine, and that he is not really suicidal.
 * Also, the above hints that he may have become addicted to medicinal drugs after his escape from Vorkuta, although this is never proven
 * Oddly, Hudson claims at the beginning that Mason was born in Fairbanks, Alaska, but Mason's dossier states that he was born in Anchorage, Alaska.