Illusive Man

Visual design

In designing the Illusive Man, the Mass Effect 2 art team made the early decision to use a catalog model as a reference for his face. Even though the Illusive Man was conceived as a smoker and a hard drinker in his fifties, the art team decided that he would not show any signs of aging due to in-universe medical advancements. His bright blue eyes were created to make him look slightly inhuman, although a later in-universe explanation would be given in the comic series Mass Effect: Evolution. For his suit, the art team intended to design a garment that, while futuristic, did not ground itself in any particular decade's fashion and combined "an impeccable futuristic style" and "the casual swagger of a charming billionaire". It was decided that the Illusive Man's suit should be open, to give the impression he could do whatever he pleased. Producer Adrien Cho described the Illusive Man's final appearance as "almost perfect" and "very symmetrical".

During the early stages of development on Mass Effect 3, the Illusive Man was envisioned as the final boss fight of the game, which would see him being turned into a Reaper-controlled creature. This idea was ultimately rejected for various reasons, one being that the game design team wanted to give the players "the satisfaction of fighting a character they know", with his final depiction implying that the Illusive Man's biggest weapon was his intelligence and not his strength. In an interview with Eurogamer, producer Michael Gamble said the decision to discard the Illusive Man's boss fight was to make Mass Effect 3 separate from other games with similar endings. Several iterations of the Illusive Man's face were created to establish the level of indoctrination, a process that turns organic individuals into brainwashed cyborgs that serve the Reapers, which the Illusive Man would be subject to. Some of those variations referenced the appearance of the main villain of the first Mass Effect video game, Saren Arterius.

For the Illusive Man's main setting, his chamber, the art team developed very few concept art pieces. This room was designed to be mostly empty to keep the Illusive Man's location unknown, with illustrations depicting the Illusive Man staring at a dying star to create the illusion that he was in control of his surroundings. The chamber was conceived to exclude any phones or monitors, instead having the Illusive Man surrounded by holograms meant to show his connection to a vast amount of information. Early concepts for this observation room in Mass Effect 3 featured the Sun visible in the background either in changing colors or in an eclipse. For its final look as presented in the game, the art team decided to make the dying star a hologram.

Narrative design and voice acting

The Illusive Man's narrative creation was the result of a mash-up of several ideas. The name "Illusive" came from a proposed name for Dragon Age: Origins' Eclipse game engine, which at one point was meant to be called "Illusive". This name was inspired by the use of the word "elusive" in a phrase by Obi-Wan Kenobi in The Phantom Menace, but with the letter "E" swapped for an "I" to evoke "illusion". As a character, he was created by combining CNN reporter Anderson Cooper's ability to be at multiple places without looking tired with the idea of a character that represented the worst of humanity. Another major influence in his characterization came from Graem Bauer, Jack Bauer's brother in 24, a clandestine figure who worked behind the scenes. Mass Effect 3's lead writer Mac Walters explained that the Illusive Man was conceived as a morally gray character that the player would not know much about. Walters noted that the narrative team made the decision not to reveal much about the Illusive Man's present, but remained open to exploring his past through additional content. Producer Adrien Cho described the Illusive Man as "a shadowy puppetmaster", regarding him as "a womanizer" who encompassed both the best and worst traits of humanity embodied in a single individual, serving as a foil to Commander Shepard.

For his appearance in the comic series Mass Effect: Evolution, Walters stated the writing team wanted to explore the Illusive Man's identity and background, expressing special interest in how he came to hold the influence he holds in Mass Effect 2 and the justifications behind his ideology. John Jackson Miller, who penned the script for Mass Effect: Evolution, Invasion, and Redemption, personally viewed him as a searcher who saw a "darker side to some of the great things humanity's discovered".

For the Illusive Man's voice acting in both Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3, BioWare cast American actor Martin Sheen. According to former Mass Effect lead producer Casey Hudson, Sheen was really invested in his role. Hudson further stated that during the recording, the development team had to explain to Sheen that he had to do multiple takes of each line so that they could fit in with the different conversation options that players have. The thought of someone talking back to the Illusive Man confounded Sheen, who stated that the player "wouldn't say that". In an interview with Joshua Lucht of Action News, Sheen said he would suck on a pen to simulate smoking when recording lines.

Throughout his appearances in the Mass Effect universe, the Illusive Man is depicted as a "human nationalist" and the leader of Cerberus, an anthropocentric organization dedicated to advancing humanity's role in the galaxy. Originally introduced in the tie-in novel Mass Effect: Ascension, the Illusive Man almost never physically communicates with his subbordinates, but rather via hologram in a separate chamber.

In Mass Effect video games

The Illusive Man made his first in-game appearance at the beginning of Mass Effect 2, following the killing of player character Commander Shepard by an unknown ship. The Illusive Man commands Cerberus to recall Shepard to life. He debriefs and tells Shepard about how human colonists had begun to be mysteriously abducted and instructs them to investigate the matter. The Illusive Man then tasks Shepard with building a team with whom to stop the colonist abductions. Over the course of the game, he tasks Shepard with completing a series of missions that reveal that the Collectors, a mysterious and reclusive race of insect-like humanoids, are behind the abductions and the attack that killed Shepard. Nearing the end of the game, the Illusive Man sends Shepard to the Collectors' base, where Shepard fights a Collector-created human Reaper. Once the mission is finished, the Illusive Man contacts Shepard, arguing that the technology encountered in the base could be used against the Reapers. It is then that the player has to decide whether to keep the base while killing the Collectors only or to destroy the base in its entirety, ultimately severing their connection with Cerberus.

The character returns in the sequel to Mass Effect 2, Mass Effect 3. The Illusive Man shows up at various points in the game, in which he argues that humanity should find a way of controlling the Reapers instead of destroying them. Throughout the game, the Illusive Man is portrayed as a firm believer that technological augmentation is the key to securing human dominance within the galaxy, and actively seeks to use the advanced technology of the Reapers to elevate humanity's position and power. This leads the Illusive Man to conduct experiments with Reaper nanotechnology, ultimately implanting himself with it and becoming indoctrinated. Toward the end of the game, the Illusive Man discloses to the Reapers the galaxy's ongoing efforts to locate the Catalyst, the final component necessary to complete the Crucible, a large-scale weapon theorized to be capable of destroying the Reapers. This allows the Reapers to take control of the Catalyst, which is revealed to be the Citadel, a massive space station and megastructure in the Mass Effect universe. During the final mission aboard the Citadel, the Illusive Man encounters Shepard as well as Admiral Anderson, who is fatally shot. The Illusive Man subsequently attempts to convince Shepard that the Crucible can be used to control the Reapers. Shepard can then either shoot the Illusive Man or convince him to shoot himself.

In other media

The Illusive Man features in several Mass Effect tie-in novels. He was first introduced in the already mentioned Mass Effect: Ascension, which follows his attempts to infiltrate the Ascension project, an ongoing human initiative to expand their capacity to use biotics, a form of telekinesis that allows people to manipulate objects using only their minds in the Mass Effect universe. The Illusive Man tasks his operative Paul Grayson with retrieving his adoptive daughter Gillian from the project so that Cerberus could personally train her, with Grayson ultimately betraying the Illusive Man to protect her. The Illusive Man returns in Mass Effect: Retribution, in which he orders the kidnapping of Grayson to perform experiments on him with the technology of the Reapers, causing Grayson to succumb to indoctrination, running rampant across the galaxy and prompting the Illusive Man to order his assassination. He also appears in Mass Effect: Deception, in which he orders the retrieval of Grayson's body and is targeted by a now adult Gillian.

The Illusive Man's also makes an appearance in multiple Mass Effect comics. His real in-universe name, Jack Harper, is revealed in the 2011 comic mini series Mass Effect: Evolution, which explores an early encounter with Saren Arterius while Harper was fighting as a mercenary in the First Contact War, a background conflict between humanity and the Turians in the Mass Effect universe. Mass Effect: Invasion sees the Illusive Man involved in a conflict with the leader of Omega, a massive space station built in the crust of a metallic asteroid that makes an appearance in Mass Effect 2 and the Mass Effect 3: Omega downloadable content. In the fourth section of the comic series Mass Effect: Homeworlds, the Illusive Man contacts Liara T'Soni to exchange information regarding the Reapers.

Donald Trump propaganda video

In April 2016, a propaganda video promoted on various social media channels attracted media attention for its appropriation of audio assets from Mass Effect 2, which included the voice performance of the Illusive Man by Martin Sheen, in an ostensible show of support for the 2016 presidential campaign of Donald Trump. The original video, which was uploaded on YouTube and had stylistic similarities to a promotional trailer for Mass Effect 2, was liked and shared on Donald Trump's Twitter and Instagram accounts shortly before it was taken down due to copyright infringement claims by publisher Electronic Arts, with an issued statement condemning the use of their intellectual property for political campaigns, though the video was still briefly visible on Trump's Twitter account before it was permanently removed. Former BioWare staff member Manveer Heir, who had worked on the video game series, expressed bemusement over the propaganda video and said that he "love[s] the idea that Trump may think he's the Illusive Man, who is verifiably the bad guy in the game". Sheen himself was a vocal critic of Trump throughout his tenure as US President.

Reception

The Illusive Man was received well, earning accolades for his appearance in Mass Effect 2. IGN named him the Best Character of 2010, calling him "[a]n enigma, a crusader, an agent of calm in a vortex of chaos". In GiantBomb's Game of the Year 2010 Awards, the Illusive Man earned "Character We'd Most Like To Party With", with the site describing him as someone who prioritizes results over ethical considerations and commending his "singular vision" and "strong personality". The Illusive Man has also been featured in several "best video game villain" lists, receiving praise for his uniqueness when compared to other video game antagonists and his manipulative tendencies. Martin Sheen's performance earned him a nomination for Best Male Performance at the 2010 Spike Video Game Awards. Seth Schiesel from the New York Times singled out Sheen's performance as an example of BioWare's superbly evocative and believable voice acting and direction, alluding to the perceived similarities between the Illusive Man and Sheen's character Captain Benjamin L. Willard from the film Apocalypse Now as "a wonderful, delicious riff".

The Illusive Man drew favorable attention for his manipulative tendencies, influence, and secrecy. Andy Burt of GamePro complimented Martin Sheen's performance and the Illusive Man's characterization, noting how his "business-like mannerisms" set him apart from other characters in the Mass Effect universe. Burt praised the Illusive Man's underlying sinister nature and manipulative tendencies when presenting himself as an ally, comparing him to "a mastermind right of a James Bond flick". Paz Boris of IGN Spain regarded the Illusive Man as the franchise's best developed antagonist, commending how the developers had the Illusive Man aid Shepard throughout the games, while not showing his true intentions until the very end. Boris also approved the decision to not have the Illusive Man as a boss battle in Mass Effect 3, as that would have undervalued the character's depth and already established attributes. In a magazine published in 2010, Game Informer Staff regarded the Illusive Man as one of the "30 characters who defined a decade". They stated that his influence and power over the galaxy made him a "very intriguing character", praising his moral ambiguity and how he was always "one step ahead" of Commander Shepard. When comparing Mass Effect to previous works that may have inspired the series, IGN's Christopher Monfette compared the character to the Smoking Man from The X-Files.

In an article written for The Escapist, Elijah Beahm regarded his backstory as Jack Harper in Mass Effect: Evolution positively, arguing that the comic captures the Illusive Man's most iconic traits. Beahm further described the Illusive Man as one of the few characters truly central to "the Mass Effect mythos".

Analysis

The role played by the Illusive Man in Mass Effect 3 and his relationship with Commander Shepard have been the subject of scholarly analysis. Sarah Stang discussed the Illusive Man's technological augmentations in a book published by Bloomsbury Publishing, arguing that his cybernetic implants function as a visual marker of moral corruption. Stang further argues that his augmented appearance positions him within a broader pattern in the Mass Effect trilogy in which visible cybernetic modification signals evil, similarly to how Shepard's physical appearance changes when the player makes renegade choices. Craig Hayden argued that the confrontation between Shepard and the Illusive Man in Mass Effect 3 represents two competing political models in tension: Shepard's inclusive, coalition-based approach against the Illusive Man's exclusionary approach. For Hayden, their conflict mirrors the trilogy's overarching tension between organic and machine life, and raises questions about whether the boundary conditions of identity are essential or contingent.