Andrei Rianofski (Russian: Андрей Раяновский), better known as Andrew Ryan, is the secondary antagonist of the 2007 science fiction video game Bioshock, the first installment in the Bioshock video game series.
Originally a Russian immigrant who became a wealthy tycoon in America, Andrew Ryan is the founder and governor of Rapture, a secret underwater city he built with the intention of creating a free market paradise where the best of humanity could escape from post-World War II society, make groundbreaking advances in business, science, art and technology and thrive without government, religious or moral interference.
Once Rapture fell on hard times and Ryan's leadership is challenged by his business competitor and archenemy Frank Fontaine, as well as political rivals such as Sofia Lamb and Irish freedom fighter "Atlas", Ryan started betraying his own ideology to combat much of the dissent in Rapture. By 1960, Ryan had corrupted himself to the point that he was little more than an egomaniacal dictator obsessed with suppressing anyone he perceived as a threat to his city.
He was voiced by Armin Shimerman
Bioshock[]
After arranging for Jack's arrival in Rapture, Frank Fontaine (as Atlas) sent Jack to kill Ryan, using the "would you kindly" trigger phrase to control him. Ryan initially assumed Jack to be an agent sent by the Russian K.G.B. or the American C.I.A., but after Jack safely escaped Arcadia, Ryan soon made the connection between Jack and Atlas and began to put the clues together regarding Jack's origin. Discovering that Fontaine was using his own son against him, Ryan decided to activate Rapture's self-destruct mechanism as a last ditch attempt to take out Fontaine.
He was soon confronted by Jack himself, who found Ryan playing golf in his office. Meeting his son face-to-face, Ryan reveals the truth to Jack about his past and how he is being controlled by the phrase "would you kindly" and how it was controlling Jack. After proclaiming the difference between a man and a slave to be "a man chooses, while a slave obeys", Ryan gave Jack the golf club and orders his son to kill him, dying as he declares his philosophy once more. With Ryan dead, Jack claims the genetic key to Rapture's systems from Ryan's corpse. With the Vita-Chamber in Ryan's office deactivated, Ryan is officially dead and cannot be resurrected.
Bioshock 2[]
Though long dead, Andrew Ryan's presence looms over BioShock 2, which takes place eight years following the first game and sees his old political rival Sofia Lamb rising to power in wake of the power vacuum created by his and Fontaine's deaths.
Trivia[]
- He was placed on Game Informer's "30 Characters Who Defined a Decade" list.
- Andrew Ryan has been referenced in other media, such as in other popular video game franchises like Fallout, World of Warcraft, and Borderlands.
- Andrew Ryan is one of the only three characters in the original BioShock with a unique model of his own, the other two being Sander Cohen and spliced Frank Fontaine.