- "Tank Dempsey: American hero. Hand him a loaded weapon, a good woman, and something to shoot at and he is happy. Enrage him and he will rip your guts out and use them as a bandolier.
Dempsey was selected for this mission after he showed his true grit during the Battle of Peleliu. Remarkable though it may seem, his unit was captured during the early raids before the main invasion, and he spent 2 weeks in a rat infested bamboo cage submerged in malarial water. Well that did not stop The Tank. After he gnawed his way through the cage, he then gnawed his way through his captors armed only with a Bobby pin and his Medal of Honor which he keeps secreted in various body cavities.
Now you know there is no before the war for Dempsey, and there is no after. There is only the legend of Tank Dempsey, and how he will win the war for the rest of us." - — Dempsey's biography added with Map Pack 2 in Call of Duty: World at War.
Corporal "Tank" Dempsey, also referred to as Ultimis Dempsey, was an American Marine who fought in the United States Marine Corps, and is a playable main character in the Zombies game mode, as well as a major character in the Aether Story. His player indicator color in Call of Duty: World at War and Call of Duty: Black Ops is white (shared with John F. Kennedy and Sarah Michelle Gellar), but is randomized in his appearances since and including Moon.
Ultimis Dempsey was initially introduced in the World at War map Shi No Numa. He continues to appear as a playable character in all subsequent Zombies maps (except for "Five" and Call of the Dead, the latter of which he appears in a non-playable capacity). Following Moon, Ultimis Dempsey does not appear for a large number of maps while a new, alternate timeline version of him (dubbed Primis Dempsey) is introduced in Origins and is playable from Origins throughout a majority of Call of Duty: Black Ops III maps. However, a version of Ultimis Dempsey appears in Der Eisendrache.
Ultimis Dempsey returns as a playable character in the Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 maps Classified and Alpha Omega, the latter of which also features Primis Dempsey as an alternate playable character. Both versions appear in a non-playable role in Tag der Toten. Additionally, Ultimis Dempsey is an unlockable character in the Blackout gamemode.
Overview[]
Ultimis[]
Searching for Peter McCain[]
On August 31st, 1945, United States Marine Corporal "Tank" Dempsey was sent to lead a squad consisting of himself, John "Banana", Smokey, and Paxton "Gunner" Ridge to an Asylum Facility at the Wittenau Sanatorium located in Berlin, Germany run by Group 935 to extract an American spy named Peter McCain.
Getting captured by Group 935[]
Arriving on September 6th, 1945, and with no sign of Peter, the group are confronted by massive hordes of Zombies. Dempsey ends up as one of only two survivors of the zombie outbreak at the Asylum. He is then captured by the Germans and is sent to be experimented on by Group 935.
Arriving at the Siberian Facility[]
On September 17th, 1945, Dempsey arrived at Group 935's Siberian Facility as a replacement of one of the three main test subjects experimented on by Dr. Edward Richtofen, a Mexican man named Pablo Marinus. Alongside fellow test subjects, a Soviet soldier named Nikolai Belinski and a Japanese soldier named Takeo Masaki, each are exposed to serums and Element 115, causing memory loss, and in Dempsey's case, loss of intellect, as Richtofen stated "his intellect seems low, but his will is strong." Seeking to create the Agarthan Device as a back-up plan to reach Agartha, Richtofen creates the Elemental Shard using his soul, as well as the soul of the three test-subjects (including Dempsey); permanently binding them to the Aether itself.
On September 27th, 1945, Dempsey, along with the other test subjects, are put to sleep until further need to reawaken them.
Working with Richtofen[]
On October 14th, 1945, Dempsey along with the other test subjects are reawakened by Edward Richtofen. With no memory of who they are or who Richtofen is, Dempsey, along with Nikolai and Takeo, agree to help him. The four would become known as Ultimis.
On October 21st, 1945, Dempsey along with the rest of the Ultimis crew venture off to Group 935's Rising Sun facility in Japan to obtain Richtofen's diary. Unknown to Dempsey, along with Nikolai and Takeo, the plans Richtofen detailed in his diary are to take control of the Zombies and destroy the crew along with Samantha Maxis, who is the current controller of the Zombies, once he obtains the power from the M.P.D.
On October 28th, 1945, Ultimis then returned to Der Riese. Following Richtofen's orders, they planned to use the teleporter to teleport to the moon and confront Samantha. Unfortunately, the Wunderwaffe DG-2 overloaded the teleporter and sent them through time, which caused Richtofen to drop his diary.
From Der Riese, Ultimis teleported through time and space and ended up at the Kino Facility on October 28th, 1963, another station once ran by Group 935, which was located at an abandoned theater in Germany. Unbeknownst to them, they begin to receive help at this point from Dr. Monty, a Keeper, who added changes in the background across time with things such as chalk drawings of weapons on the walls, helping Group 935 come up the idea to make Perk-a-Colas, etc.
Helping Gersh[]
Ultimis located a Lunar Lander and flew to the Ascension Facility in Soviet territory, which is where Richtofen finds out his diary is located. Ultimis then arrived at the Soviet Cosmodrome on November 6th, 1963 and following Richtofen's orders, freed Anton Gersh, a scientist who worked for the Ascension Group from the Casimir Mechanism, after Samantha corrupted Yuri Zavoyski, another scientist of the Ascension Group, and obeyed her wish by tricking Gersh into activating the Gersh Device. The rift created by it absorbed him and allowed Samantha to travel through. Richtofen recovered his diary, and learned that they need the Vril Device from the Siberian Facility for his plan. Maintaining his ethereal form, Gersh sent Ultimis into a rift to their next destination before beginning his travels across space and time.
Retrieving the Vril Device[]
The group then teleports to Group 935's Siberian Facility on March 17th, 2011, where George Romero is filming a zombie movie with four well-known actors. Samantha, in her pursuit of Ultimis, unleashes an undead outbreak. The celebrities find the group trapped in a small room. The film's stars fight the undead horde, ultimately recovering the Vril Device for Richtofen.
Retrieving the Focusing Stone[]
Ultimis then teleports to the exotic jungle where Richtofen once teleported to in one of his experiments, now known as Shangri-La, in an effort to acquire the next artifact Richtofen stated he required to defeat Samantha: the Focusing Stone. Ultimis soon arrived at Shangri-La on April 25th, 1956. Ultimis discovered explorers Brock and Gary, who are trying to find Agartha. During an eclipse, they're unwittingly trapped in a time loop. With the help of Brock and Gary, the group assist Richtofen in acquiring the Focusing Stone.
Completing Richtofen's Grand Scheme[]
Having everything necessary to complete his plan, Richtofen teleported the group to Hangar 18 in Area 51 on October 13th, 2025. Overrun by zombies, Ultimis quickly ran to the teleporter in the hangar, which teleported them to Griffin Station on the Moon. Using the Vril Device and the Focusing Stone, Richtofen had completed his Grand Scheme and swaps bodies with Samantha on the Moon, giving him full control of the zombies and the Aether. Dempsey, along with Nikolai and Takeo then realized Richtofen's scheme for unlimited power and attempted to stop him by contacting Ludvig Maxis, who was present at Griffin Station on the Moon. Instead of helping the trio, however, Maxis manipulated them by claiming that Richtofen's link could be destroyed by launching three missiles to sever the link from Agartha and the Moon. The trio went forward with the plan to fire the missiles, only for the Earth's ozone layer to become polluted, and for the explosion as a result of the missiles to create more zombies and further chaos.
Teleporting to the Pentagon[]
Sometime after the destruction of the Earth, Dempsey along with the rest of the Ultimis crew end up time traveling from the Moon in 2025 and back to the Pentagon in the 1960s as revealed in Classified. The four were discovered by Schuster and Cornelius Pernell, who recognized Dempsey and Richtofen, the latter being brain dead due to Samantha's soul no longer inhabiting his body. Dempsey and the others are then held captive in Hanger 04 on Groom Lake for potential Element 115 experiments from the US Government. Dempsey is alive but traumatized by the fact that Richtofen used him and the others and the destruction of the Earth as heard while in Groom Lake. Later, Dempsey is seen along with Nikolai, Takeo, and Richtofen in a cell in Hanger 4.
Getting recruited by Primis[]
When Takeo expresses confusion on how they are back on the Earth despite blowing it up Dempsey simply puts it as “More time travel bullshit.” Dempsey is also confused on how Richtofen got his body back despite witnessing him switch souls with Samantha. Moments later, the Primis crew teleport in the cell, being led by Primis Nikolai. After uniting the team as one and telling the Ultimis crew that they must leave quickly, Primis Nikolai says that a war must be fought with Dempsey saying “War? What kind of war?” Primis Nikolai replies by saying “A war unlike anything you have seen before. The Great War.”
Retrieving the Elemental Shard[]
After recruiting Ultimis at the Pentagon, Primis (alongside Ultimis) teleported to the Broken Arrow facility known as "Camp Edward" in order to retrieve the Elemental Shard - an especially powerful piece of Element 115. However, they were refused access to the A.P.D, which contained the shard, by the intelligence program Rushmore, who was assigned to protect the facility from intruders. However, after performing various tasks to gain Rushmore's trust, Primis was finally granted access to the A.P.D. However, the crew would soon realize that the undead was not the only threat within the facility, as they were now tasked with defeating the electrical entity known as the Avogadro. After defeating the Avogadro and sending it to the Hanford site in Washington, Rushmore allowed the crew to take the Elemental Shard. Not long after gaining the Elemental Shard, Samantha Maxis and the child version of Richtofen were teleported from the House within Agartha to Camp Edward by her father, Ludvig, who was killed by Dr. Monty in the process. Grieving the loss of her father, Samantha unleashed a pulse of energy, destroying Camp Edward in the process.
Resolving the Paradox[]
Some time after their mission to Camp Edward, Primis, Ultimis, and the children found themselves within a forest. There, they decided to start a campfire and take a rest before they went to go fight the Great War. The crew celebrated with alcohol and food, with Primis Nikolai constantly begging the question of where the crew wished to go after the war ended. Ultimis Dempsey responded to Nikolai's question by stating that he was unsure what he'd do after the Great War ended, but that whatever he would do, he would "always be kicking ass". Not long after, Dempsey, along with his comrades, were killed by a secret poison that was laced by Nikolai in the alcohol that they had been drinking.
Deceptio Fracture[]
When Primis Richtofen killed his Ultimis self and triggered a fracture across multiple timelines, in one of them (known as the Deceptio Fracture), Ultimis Dempsey remained cryogenically frozen, and was slated to be delivered to the Moon. However, Primis put a stop to the plan, and Primis Dempsey made the choice of shutting off the cryogenic life support, effectively killing this version of Ultimis Dempsey. His soul was absorbed by Richtofen using the Summoning Key, and later sent to Agartha, where Doctor Monty would turn the soul into a child.
When the Shadowman invaded Agartha, the Summoning Key absorbed child Dempsey, and the other children in the House, and flew away from the Apothicons.
In the broken cycle, Ultimis Dempsey's soul was never sent to the House, and remained inside the Summoning Key until Primis Nikolai destroyed it using the Agarthan Device.
Personality[]
- Primis Dempsey: "Don't you go shootin' off wildly now, Tank."
- Ultimis Dempsey: "Now does that sound like somethin' I would do? *laugh*"
- — Conversation between Primis and Ultimis Dempsey in Blackout
Ultimis Dempsey is a stereotypical United States Marine who is brash and self-satisfied. He thought highly of himself and his country, such as having a preference of using American made weapons. His narcissistic attitude, along with his tendency to break the fourth wall, was often used as comedic relief. He had a trend of using derogatory terms to refer to the Zombies such as "freakbags" and "maggot-sack".
He was also adamant on trying to figure out how he knew Richtofen before the events of Shi No Numa, as he was always suspicious of him. He despised Richtofen, liked Takeo and had mutual feelings towards Nikolai.
Appearances[]
Black Ops only
Cameo as portrait
Heard only
Appears in intro cutscene, dies in ending cutscene.
Appears in end cutscene.
Appears as a child in the intro cutscene.
Both Primis & Ultimis versions playable.
Appears in intro and outro, also heard in-game
Gallery[]
Call of Duty: World at War[]
Call of Duty: Black Ops[]
Call of Duty: Black Ops Zombies (Mobile)[]
Call of Duty: Black Ops III[]
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4[]
Trivia[]
- Dempsey's favorite Perk-a-Cola is Juggernog and his least favorite is Quick Revive.
- Dempsey thinks Stamin-Up is sour.
- Dempsey says Double Tap "tastes chewy."
- Dempsey has a strong dislike for fish, as mentioned when he is disgusted each time after drinking a Quick Revive soda.
- In Kino Der Toten, he says that it tastes like "fermented herring dipped in cat piss."
- Ultimis Dempsey hates Ultimis Richtofen, who in turn hates him as well.
- In Alpha Omega, Ultimis Dempsey dislikes Primis Richtofen due to the misconception that he is exactly like his Ultimis counterpart.
- Ultimis Dempsey seems to disrespect Ultimis Nikolai Belinski.
- In the Stand-in Easter egg, Dempsey and Nikolai appear to be drunk together, demonstrating how Dempsey does not actually hate him.
- Ultimis Dempsey treats Ultimis Takeo Masaki with much respect, but Takeo does not seem to return the same feeling, until Shangri-La where he begins to subtly reciprocate, and shows it more openly on Moon.
- Dempsey often calls the Wunderwaffe DG-2 the “Wonder Waffle", which has sparked a trend among the community, who often do the same.
- On several occasions, Ultimis Dempsey will break the 4th wall in his voice lines, commanding the player to get more ammo and even criticizing Treyarch themselves for having electricity in an ancient temple.
- Rarely, while using the Pack-a-Punch machine, Dempsey will sing the jingle for Juggernog.
- By the time of Kino der Toten, Dempsey has grown a small beard, and by the time of Ascension, he is covered in dirt and blood. This blood is gone in Shangri-La and returns in Moon.
- In a file on the computer terminal, it says that part of Ultimis Richtofen's super-soldier experiments were the Ultimis versions of Dempsey, Nikolai, and Takeo.
- Ultimis Dempsey has a five-year-old daughter.
- Ultimis Dempsey was briefly mentioned by Richtofen on Green Run, along with Nikolai.
- In a wisp found in Revelations, Dr. Monty refers to Tank as "Thomas" and "Ringo", jokingly citing them as his first names. This is a reference to Thomas the Tank Engine from the long-running children's TV show Thomas & Friends, and the show's first narrator, Ringo Starr.
- According to Monty, Dempsey holds the universe record of most one armed pushups; even in the universe where everyone only has one arm.
- It is also revealed that Dempsey once made a bet that he could eat fifty hard boiled eggs in fifteen minutes for fifteen dollars. He regretted it almost immediately after winning and feared for his life.
- Monty reveals that once Dempsey had gotten his testicles painfully stuck in bedsprings and lived to tell the tale.
- Further more, Dempsey is able to throw a grenade farther than a professional baseball player.
- Despite being in the Marines, he's often referred to as a soldier.
- His favorite weapons are the BAR, M16, and any type of heavy weaponry ranging from heavy machine guns to Wonder Weapons.
References[]
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