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Doctor Eli Vance is a fictional character from the computer games Half-Life (1998) and Half-Life 2 (2004) by Valve Software. Vance, a brilliant physicist and researcher, is an African-American man apparently in his late fifties or early sixties with short grey hair, a beard and moustache. He wears a high-end prosthetic to replace his left leg beneath the knee, which was lost when he was attacked by a bullsquid while helping Dr. Isaac Kleiner climb over a wall into a Combine city. He is presumably a graduate of Harvard University; his shirt has "Harvard" partially obscured on it but clearly shows the university's shield.
He is the father of Alyx Vance. His late wife, Azian, also lived on the premises of Black Mesa, but died in the aftermath of the resonance cascade.
According to in-game dialogue from Half-Life 2, Dr. Vance was the first human being to make peaceful contact with the Vortigaunt species, quickly persuading the alien race to ally with humanity against the Combine invasion of Earth.
Appearance and role
Half-Life
At the time of Half-Life, Vance was employed at the Black Mesa Research Facility, working in the Sector C Anomalous Materials laboratories, and possibly also in the Lambda Complex teleportation labs. As a full-time employee of Black Mesa, he lived in the facility itself with his wife Azian and their young daughter Alyx. Although he was never named during the game or featured as a full character, he is seen on two occasions in the game. He is first seen when Gordon is making his way into the test chamber – Dr. Vance and another scientist voice their concerns that their computer equipment is being damaged due to the heightened strains of the morning's experiment. When the experiment goes wrong, a resonance cascade rips through Black Mesa, causing heavy structural damage and opening cross-dimensional seams, filling the facility with bizarre creatures from Xen. When player character Gordon Freeman retraces his steps through Sector C, he encounters Vance and the scientist he had been with earlier, who is now badly injured. Vance informs Gordon that the telephone network has broken, and sends Gordon up to the surface to seek help. His last act in Half-Life is to operate the retinal scanner that starts Gordon on his long quest through the facility.Half-Life 2
The survivors of the Black Mesa Incident, Eli, Alyx (now a young woman), Dr. Isaac Kleiner, and Barney Calhoun, form the core of a resistance movement against the Combine who have taken over Earth after a conflict dubbed the Seven Hour War. The Vances have established a makeshift laboratory, dubbed "Black Mesa East," on the outskirts of City 17. There, Dr. Judith Mossman assists them in their continuing research in the field of teleportation. Kleiner and Vance briefly establish a working teleport system between their two labs; the system fails on its second attempt due to outside influence, forcing Gordon to travel over land to reach Black Mesa East.When Freeman does arrive at Vance's lab, his arrival triggers an invasion by Combine forces, who had been chasing him throughout. The soldiers capture Vance and take him to Nova Prospekt, a Combine-run prison near City 17.
Gordon and Alyx storm Nova Prospekt, fighting off hordes of Combine forces to locate Eli and Mossman. During the final siege, however, Mossman teleports herself and Eli into the Citadel, a monolithic structure that serves as the Combine's base.
While infiltrating the Citadel, Gordon and Alyx are captured; Dr. Breen addresses both Vances and Freeman in his office with Dr. Mossman at his side. The game does not make it clear if Mossman was a double agent the entire time, or turned on Breen when he stated that he would teleport Eli to a hostile dimension. Mossman, apparently having feelings for Eli, would have then realized her mistake. This is one theory though, as the game does not make it clear. Mossman stays with Eli to protect him while Alyx and Gordon pursue the fleeing Breen; from the couple's attitudes towards each other, it appears that Eli and Judith may start a relationship.
Half-Life 2: Episode One
Eli appears again in Episode One, having escaped the Citadel along with Mossman in one of Dr. Breen's escape pods, eventually making their way to a Vortigaunt camp outside the city. He is seen at the beginning of the game in a monitor transmission with Dr. Kleiner, telling Alyx and Gordon to get out of City 17 before the Citadel's reactor core explodes.Half-Life 2: Episode Two
Eli Vance makes a voice-over in the Episode Two teaser trailer that comes with Episode One. He says "We're done running. This is our chance to take back our world. We're not going to lose it a second time."Notes
Eli's voice is provided by actor Robert Guillaume. While it was believed that that Eli's face and body were modeled after Bill Cobbs, this is coincidential: Eli is actually based on Larry "The Count" Heard, a local man holding a sign indicating that he was looking for work. Valve found him on the corner of Highway 520 and 148th Street in Redmond and hired him as a model. *
References
Half-Life characters | Fictional scientists | Fictional African-Americans
"Doctor Eli Vance"