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Max Payne
Max Payne is the main protagonist of the series, a hard-boiled cop (later ex-cop in Max Payne 3).
Max was once a detective for the NYPD until returning home one day from work to find his wife and infant daughter murdered by drug addicts. Shortly after their funeral, he transferred to the DEA and began working with longtime friend Alex Balder on stopping the trafficking of "V" or Valkyr, the drug the killers were on.
Three years later, he had successfully infiltrated the Punchinello family's crime ring until his partner Alex is murdered and his cover blown. Framed for the crime, Max had to contend with the mafia and the police who believe him to be a criminal as Max's undercover status was wiped from the DEA database.?
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Max discovers that "V" was originally a military experiment designed to create better soldiers, but the drug made its subjects mentally unstable and the project was disbanded. Nicole Horne, CEO of Aesir Corporation and member of an influential group of people referred to as "The Inner Circle" took the "V" research and started selling it in secret as a street drug due to its tendency to quickly hook people. Max's wife Michelle accidentally received materials that incriminated Horne, so Horne had some V junkies dropped off at her home to silence her. Her death was no accident; it was murder.
Enraged, Max stormed the Aesir Corporation building, waging a one-man war against Aesir's highly-trained security staff. Horne nearly escaped via helicopter but Max shot the guy wires of the building's antenna which toppled over onto the helicopter, killing Horne and sending the wreckage of the copter plummeting to the streets below. Shortly after Max is arrested by the NYPD but is later cleared of all charges by Alfred Woden, another member of the Inner Circle.
Two years later, Max Payne finds himself back as a detective for the NYPD after quitting the DEA. Max and his new partner Valerie Winterson are soon involved in a series of brutal contract killings perpetrated by a group referred to as "The Cleaners". To Max's surprise he also encounters Mona Sax, a woman he ran into during his fight against the mob and Aesir Corporation two years earlier who was presumed dead. Mona is arrested for the Cleaner murders, despite her pleas to Max that she is innocent. Max decides to help Mona when the precinct he works at is attacked by Cleaners, looking for Mona who escapes in the chaos. Max meets up with Mona, and follow the Cleaners back to a construction site. Max and Mona are confronted by Winterson. Mona claims that she's there to kill her while Winterson says she's just here to arrest Mona. After a tense few moments, Max shoots Winterson when she's about to shoot Mona. Max tells Mona to run right before a mortally wounded Winterson shoots Max.?
Max wakes up in a hospital, and escapes another assassination attempt by Cleaners. He is eventually captured by them where it is revealed that the Cleaners work for Vladimir Lem, the head of the Russian mob and one of Max's friends. Vlad is a member of the "Inner Circle" and is using the Cleaners in a power struggle to gain control of the Circle. He tells Max that Mona is an assassin working for Alfred Woden, with orders to kill both him and Max. Lem then pulls a gun on Max and tells him that Winterson was his mistress before shooting Max and leaving him for dead in a burning building. Mona arrives in the nick of time and saves Max; both of them decide to go to Woden's estate and save him from Vlad.
After a ferocious gunfight at the estate, Mona knocks Max to the ground in an attempt to follow through on her orders to kill him but finds herself unable to do so.? Lem shoots Mona, realizing that she's in love with Max and won't kill him. Lem tells Max that it was Woden who mailed the incriminating evidence to the District Attorney regarding Nicole Horne and the V drug, the information that was mistakenly given to his wife Michelle that got her killed. During an altercation with Woden, Lem kills him and Max chases after him and kills him after a protracted gun battle. Max returns to Mona, who dies in his arms after kissing him.
Nine years later, Max has quit his job at the NYPD and spends his time drinking and abusing painkillers. He is forced to leave New Jersey after killing the son of a local mob boss in self defense, and accepts an offer made by Raul Passos to go into private security.
Max Payne is voiced by James McCaffrey?