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"Mature Content Warning!" |
| “ | Gentlemen. | „ |
| ~ Spy's most famous quote. |
| “ | This Spy has already breached our defenses...You've seen what he's done to our colleagues! And worst of all: He could be any one of us. | „ |
| ~ the BLU Spy on his RED counterpart. |
| “ | We have seventy hours to live. For most men, no time at all. We are not most men. We are mercenaries. We have the resources. The will. To make these hours count! The clock is ticking, gentlemen. Let's begin. | „ |
| ~ Spy's speech to his teammates in Expiration Day. |
The Spy is one of the nine playable classes of the 2007 first-person-shooter videogame Team Fortress 2 and one of the protagonists of the supplementary animated shorts and comics.
He is a mysterious, professional and elegant mercenary from France who eliminates his enemies through trickery, gadgets and stealth. He is the Scout's biological father, as well as both the latter and the Sniper's arch-frenemy.
He was voiced by Dennis Bateman.
What Makes Him Magnificent?[]
- He manages to kill his enemies one by one on the battlefield (even ones far stronger than himself) thanks to cunning, improvisation, stealth, and various gadgets, including:
- A Disguise Kit he uses to perfectly impersonate others, with his acting skills being so great that, in Meet the Spy, he was able to fool a fellow Spy while, in The Naked and the Dead, the TFC Sniper admitted he only saw through Spy's TFC Engineer disguise because he had mechanically enhanced eyes.
- An Invisibility cloak.
- Electro Sappers he uses to sabotage and deactivate the enemy Engineer's machinery.
- Dead Ringers he uses to fake his own death.
- Various minuscule objects (from a miniature butterfly knife and cyanide to commit suicide to miniature food and utensils) that he hides in his fake teeth (note that, out of the gadgets listed here, this last one is the only one that Spy only uses in the comics and cannot be used in-game).
- In spite of what many of the other classes say, he's not actually a coward, as his sneaky tactics are merely pragmatic and strategic, he has taken on foes directly various times (like the enemy Sniper and Medic in Meet the Spy and Johnny Murders) and, when face to face with true death, Spy always remained dignified.
- He is very elegant and professional, remaining collected most of the time and sporting all types of luxury, from fancy, expensive clothing, to good wine, to even a personal concvertable car and private jet.
- The fact he's able to afford all of those speaks volumes to how successful and competent he is at his job as a hitman.
- He is very level-headed and often has to be the voice of reason to his much more eccentric teammates (especially Scout and Soldier), which, in turn, leads to many humorous moments as Spy is baffled or annoyed at his colleagues' stupidity.
- He is so down-to-Earth and competent, matter of fact, that he's probably one of the few people Miss Pauling sees as a true equal and colleague rather than a pawn.
- Dennis Bateman provides a vocal performance that ranges from charismatic and suave to hilariously hammy.
- Has a genuine romantic relationship with Scout's mother and, although he at first abandoned his son, Scout, out of fear, Spy later joined Team Fortress to work alongside him and even mentored him more than once.
- For all his abrasiveness and sarcasm towards Scout (which is very much mutual), Spy actually cares for him deep down, outright admitting to be proud of him while disguised as Tom Jones.
- In Meet the Spy, the RED Spy singlehandedly wipes out the BLU Team and steals their Intel by breaching their defenses, sneaking on them one by one, impersonating Medic and, later Scout, and using the BLU Team's impulsiveness to enter the room with the briefcase.
- Although the BLU Spy in the video was outwitted by the RED one, he still provided a lot of iconic quotes (especially the famous "Gentlemen." line) and an hilarious moment of giving "Scout" what's basically a very sophisticated "yo mama" joke with photographic evidence.
- In Expiration Date, when Medic mistakenly diagnoses the Mercs of having only 72 hours left to leave, he used 2 of those last hours to organise an initiative for his Teammates to share and achieve their dying wish, even giving a very moving, motivational speech (even if it was all made null by Scout's prank).
- In the same short, Spy helps Scout achieve his dying wish of going on a date with Miss Pauling (after having Scout publicly declare Spy was better than him) and trains Scout for hours, even if, in fact, he was sneakily trying (and succeeded) to get Scout to organize the date on his own.
- In A Smissmas Story, when Old Nick attacks the Mall Spy, Soldier and Scout are doing community service at to kidnap and enslave the children there, Spy gives one of the kids a sharp icesicle and instructs him on how to stab Old Nick with it and kill him. While Scout, Soldier and the kid battle Old Nick, Spy goes to get some news anchors so the Mercs' heroism would be broadcast and they'd be pardoned. At the end of the comic, he wishes the kid a merry Smissmas.
- In-game, if the player wishes to, the Spy will forgo his animosity against the enemy team and join them in various group dances.
- When Gray Mann kills Blutarch and Redmond and attacks Mann Co. with his robot army, the BLU and RED Spy make a truce with the respective enemy team to defeat the machines.
- When Gray Mann outwits Saxton Hale, takes over Mann Co. and fires all the mercenaries, Spy tries to leave the country and disappear and advises Scout to do the same.
- For the sake of Scout's mother, he helps Scout retrieve his savings from the Teufort bank (which was actually Tom Jones memorabilia, to Spy's annoyance).
- When the town of Teufort arrested him and Scout and prepared to hang them (for crimes the Mayor had commited), Spy knew it was all a Kangaroo court show trial and, instead of pointlessly trying to win his and Scout's freedom legally, he planned to use a miniature knife in his fake teeth to kill his way out of court, but was stopped by Soldier's stupidity.
- He snuck into an Australian military base and peacefully negotiated with the Australian Navy to get a submarine so the team could go to the sunken land of New Zealand and sieze the Australium there.
- When he and the rest of the team (including Zhanna and Miss Pauling) were captured by the Team Fortress Classic mercenaries working under Gray Mann, he tried to escape torture by killing himself and taking a consenting Miss Pauling with him with cyanide that was in one of his fake teeth, stopping only when the TFC Spy, disguised as Heavy, barged in.
- When Zhanna punched the TFC Demo to the ground, Spy used the chains his feet were bound with to strangle him to death.
- In spite of everything Spy and the others endured because of him, he gave a dying Gray Mann the benefit of the doubt and listened to his last message.
- He had some morbidly heartwarming scenes where he helped Miss Pauling get better at "saying horrible things to dying men".
- When Scout was about to die after attempting to take on a robot horde single-handedly, Spy finally told Scout he was his father and that he was always proud of him, but, to make Scout die happy, he disguised himself as Scout's idol, singer Tom Jones, when confessing it and, when Scout temporarily died, Spy held him in his arms with a defeated expression.
- After one of Scout's kids Tanya is sad about her crown being broken, he cheered her up by giving her his mask so she can be a assassin princess.
What Makes Him a Baddie?[]
- He's a professional hitman who has killed countless people during his career.
- He often cruelly mocks his enemies after killing them.
- His battles alongside the other TF2 Mercs often result in property damage in the town of Teufort, incuding him and Scout accidentally blowing up a Mall Santa training facility in A Smissmas Story.
- He and the other mercenaries often kill the Administrator's messengers.
- In Expiration Date, he briefly considered killing Scout, his own son.
- During his trial, he tried to kill his way out of court with a small knife hidden in his fake teeth.
- Although he later redeemed himself under this aspect by working alongside Scout and mentoring him, he still abandoned his son when he was born, admitting it was because he was unprepared and afraid.
Trivia[]
- Ironically, Dennis Bateman also voices Pyro, who's arguably the most mentally challenged class in the game and is also hated and feared by the Spy.
- To add to the irony, Spy and Pyro are both the only classes whose real name is completely unknown and who wear a mask at all times.
- Spy, Medic and Engineer are, so far, the only two Magnificent Baddies from the Team Fortress games, even if some other characters have high potential to qualify.
- Ironically, Spy and Engineer are archenemies due to Spy's sapper being lethal for Engineer's machine-based strategy.
- They're also three of the four MBs to come from a Valve game, the other being GLaDOS.