- For the Alan Wake game, see: Alan Wake (Game)
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My name is Alan Wake. I'm a writer. - ― Alan Wake, Episode 1: Nightmare
Alan Wake is the main protagonist in the Alan Wake franchise. He was a bestselling author who had been struggling to write anything for two years due to a case of writer's block. His wife, Alice Wake, brought him to Bright Falls to try and recover his creative/writing flow, which lead to the events of the game. He is the protagonist of the game Alan Wake, the DLC's and the stand-alone Alan Wake title, Alan Wake's American Nightmare.
Personality
Alan Wake is a tired writer in search of a vacation, a place where he could forget everything. Whilst he was once much happier in his life and marriage, his rise to fame coupled with a developing writer's block has made him rather short tempered. At times he can still be caring and sympathetic, but this is rare as he becomes more frustrated with his life and work. Sadly, the continuous pursuit by fans and paparazzi have made him somewhat cynical to people, which is why he usually spends most of his time with his wife, Alice. Emil Hartman says that Alan's history of substance abuse combined with his insomnia makes him especially prone to anger.
He is also very strong-willed and brave, although at times blurs the lines between courage and stubbornness. This is in part fueled by his intense love for Alice, making him willing to take on the seemingly invincible Dark Presence in the hope of saving her. Though it is unknown how he met Alice, it is quickly established that he cares for her deeply, and often refers to her as his 'muse'. During the first Alan Wake DLC, The Signal, Alan has memories of Alice which seem to make him happy, most of which are sexual and intimate. Their marriage has recently become turbulent in some ways, due to Alan's insomnia and alcohol fueled behavioral issues, but overall the two love each other very deeply.
Alan also practices at a shooting range, and has a good knowledge of hunting rifles, shotguns, and pistols. In the novel, it is explained that he spent time at the shooting range to get research done for his Alex Casey crime series.Sarah Breaker comments that even though he is a good shot, he needs to get his knowledge of how guns function down. It should also be noted that he is a quick-thinker, using his knowledge to get past environmental puzzles and to evade numerous Taken at once. He can adapt to a wide array of weaponry quickly and with good result.
Remedy Games has called Alan "kind of a dick". They note that, as before stated, he hates most people, and has many problems with his marriage. But they say that this is good because it separates him from most golden-hearted characters and "space marine" G.I. Joes. This adds a layer of realism and depth to him, making him a more relatable character with moral failings of his own as opposed to a larger-than-life hero with high moral standards.
Background
As a child, Alan had a fear of darkness. Alan was afraid of monsters in the dark, and would fight sleep to the bitter end out of fear. His mother gave him an old, used broken-off light-switch dubbed The Clicker. Every time he would flip the switch on it, a supposed magical light would turn on and the supposed monsters would vanish. Over time, he conquered his fear of darkness.
He never really knew his father and he would sit alone at playgrounds as a child, and pretend he didn't miss him. His mother had to raise him almost all of his life. At some point he met Barry Wheeler and they became close and true friends.
Soon after, Alan became interested in writing. He became an avid reader of Stephen King and other horror writers, and then started writing his own stories using vivid imagination. Alan's first story, The Errand Boy, was published at a young age and he became famous after writing his next series of novels; a set of crime and suspense novels focused on a cynical Max Payne-like cop named "Alex Casey". With his lifelong friend Barry as his agent, Alan rose to becoming famous. But as he wrote more and more books, he gained a constant following of annoying fans and interfering paparazzi. He grew a temper and then came under significant heat after he punched a journalist who wouldn't leave him alone.
Later, Alan married a photographer named Alice. They lived together in a New York City apartment together at least as far back as three years prior to the Bright Falls incident. But as he finished his Alex Casey series, he began to suffer once more from writer's block and insomnia. There was trouble in their marriage, and Alan kept on coming home drunk from parties. The two got into many fights, with Alan constantly frustrated at his inability to write anything at all.
In The Writer, Emil Hartman mentions that Alan has had a history of substance abuse, although this fact is open to speculation, as some dialogue in The Writer may be distorted lies created by the insane Alan Wake.
Bright Falls (mini-series)
Alan is only seen a few times in the Bright Falls mini-series. He is first seen indirectly in Oh Deer on a cardboard cutout, placed inside the Oh Deer Diner. The second time is in Time Flies, when Rose Marigold watches an interview of him as he promotes his latest book, "The Sudden Stop". The third encounter is in Local Flavor when he is seen on the news after he had hit a reporter after he wouldn't leave Alan alone. The final appearance was in the final episode, Clearcut. Here, he was seen driving to Bright Falls with his wife, Alice. He asked a deputy what had happened, then drove off in the distance.
The live-action version of Alan.
Alan's appearance is modeled after Ilkka Villi, a Finnish professional actor and writer, who also portrayed the live-action model for Alan Wake.
Alan Wake
The writer is first seen on a ferry with his wife Alice heading into the town of Bright Falls. Alan then goes into a local diner, where he is quickly recognized by several of the townsfolk (including number one fanRose Marigold). After talking with a few townsfolk, he is handed the keys to his cabin on Cauldron Lake, Bird Leg Cabin. The woman who hands it to him is dressed in a black funeral dress, giving Alan a sense of unease. Unbeknownst to Alan, the lady is really Barbara Jagger, the game's main antagonist.
Alan drives to Cauldron Lake with Alice, arriving at Bird Leg Cabin. The couple are awed by the beauty of the scenery surrounding the lake, along with how gorgeous the house is. Alan settles in and contemplates on how great the cabin will be for his vacation. But when he goes inside after looking around the island, Alice reveals a surprise to him. A typewriter with pages in the study of the cabin. Alice tells him that she thinks that the change of scenery and a psychiatrist named Emil Hartman might help him write again. Alan is furious and storms out of the cabin with a flashlight. But as soon as he walks out, the lights in the cabin go out and he hears his wife screaming from inside. Alan runs in and catches a glimpse of Alice drowning in the lake. Alan dives in to save her.
But as soon as Alan dives in, he blacks out and awakes a week later in the wreckage of a car. Alan sets out to find help and figure out what has happened to him and the previous week which he cannot remember. To Alan's surprise, he finds pages with writing on them throughout the woods. The pages are from a book titled Departure, a book that Alan never got down to writing. The writing tells of future happenings, and Alan realizes that everything the pages say comes true.
Along the way, he comes into contact with Carl Stucky, a logger who rents cabins and has been possessed by the darkness. Stucky is now a Taken who attacks Alan with a large axe. Alan picks up a revolver and a flashlight and defends himself from Stucky who manages to escape before Alan can take him down. As Alan runs through the woods, he is attacked by numerous Taken armed with knives, axes, shovels, and miscellaneous weapons. Alan manages to use his knowledge of guns obtained from writing his crime series and his time at a shooting range to take them down. Eventually, the writer kills Stucky and makes it to a gas station where he is picked up by the local sheriff. To Alan's surprise, there never was a cabin on Cauldron Lake. When Alan visits it, the cabin is missing.
Alan learns that Alice has been kidnapped by a man named Ben Mott, who is holding Alice for ransom. The ransom is every manuscript page, and if Wake does not turn them in Alice will suffer bad. But Alan does not have the full manuscript, and Mott tells Wake that he has two days to complete the manuscript. With the help of literary agent and best friend Barry Wheeler, Alan sets out to find the pages and write the endings. But then, Alan and Barry get a call from Rose Marigold, who tells the two that she has all the manuscript pages. She invites Alan and Barry to her home in the trailer park so they can pick up the pages. Barry tells her yes, but little do they know, Rose has been possessed by the Dark Presence. When Alan goes to her house, he and Barry are drugged by Rose and they fall asleep. While asleep, Alan has a strange vision where he is told by a man in a large diving suit to "turn the light on." When Alan awakes, Barbara is standing over him and she tells him, "Back to work boy." Alan runs for a lamp switch and turns it on, making Barbara vanish. Alan investigates the house and finds Barry passed out on the couch and Rose rocking slowly on the floor, possessed.
When Alan runs outside, he finds numerous police cars surrounding the perimeter. An FBI agent named Robert Nightingale appears and holds a gun on him, threatening to shoot Alan if he moves. Seeing as how Alan only has one day left to complete the manuscript, he runs for the fence, dodging bullets shot by Nightingale and the other policemen. Alan runs through the forest, pursued by policemen and Nightingale. Eventually, Wake learns that Nightingale has found numerous manuscript pages and is blaming Wake for all the bad things happening in the town. Alan later meets up with the kidnapper on the top of Mirror's Peak the next night after having escaped from the police, But finds the kidnapper, Mott, on his knees, whimpering to himself. Wake realizes that Mott never had Alice, he had just been saying that to get to him. Suddenly, the Dark Presence asserts itself and a tornado sucks the kidnapper into the sky, tearing him in half. The tornado tries doing the same to Wake, but Alan manages to light a flare and escape by falling into the lake below. Cauldron Lake. But before Wake can drown, a hand pulls him out.
When Alan wakes up, he is at Cauldron Lake Lodge, a mental institution that is owned by Dr. Emil Hartman, a therapist who works on helping artist regain their creative flow. Hartman tells Alan that Alice drowned in the lake days ago, and everything Wake has been seeing is delusions and fantasies created by his mind to help cope with Alice's death. Wake does not believe him. On the same day, Wake talks with the Anderson Brothers. The brothers tell him that they have hidden a message for him down by their farm on an old record, but they are too drugged by Hartman to remember. That night, the Andersons start a ruckus which allows Alan to sneak into Hartman's office. The writer finds Barry locked in one of the rooms, and he learns that Barry was being held captive by Hartman after Barry managed to talk his way out of the police station. The two find all the manuscript pages Alan had collected on Hartman's desk. Barry and Alan escape from the lodge after the Dark Presence attacks it and kills Hartman and many of the staff. Alan tells Barry that the kidnapper never had Alice. Instead, Barbara Jagger has captured her and placed her in a spot under the lake. After fighting with many Taken, Barry and Alan make it to the Anderson Farm.
When they get to the house, Alan finds a secret message hidden in one of the Andersons old songs, "The Poet and the Muse". The message tells him to find Cynthia Weaver, the Lady of the Light, who will help him "reshape destiny." Alan and Barry decide to head out in the morning. But before going to bed, Barry arrives with two bottles of moonshine created by the Andersons. The secret ingredient to the moonshine is unfiltered water from Cauldron Lake, and when Alan drinks it and gets drunk, he passes out and has a vision. Alan suddenly remembers everything that happened to him over the missing weekend.
The night that Alice fell into the lake, Alan dived in after her to save her. Barbara Jagger snatched Alice while she was in the water and held her under the lake before Alan could find her. Alan, stricken with guilt, began to cry on the docks behind the house. Barbara appeared and told Alan that maybe Alice didn't drown, maybe Alice was upstairs in the study. When Alan ran up to find her though, Barbara tells Alan that Alice did drown, and it is all Alan's fault. Alan collapsed with guilt and began to cry. Barbara then told Alan that Cauldron Lake is a special place, and if Alan wrote her a story, she could bring Alice back. Alan then began to write Departure, with Barbara as the editor. Jagger made it so that in the story, the Dark Presence grew larger and killed everyone in the town. Alan wrote the story, but realized Barbara's plan, and wrote it so that Thomas Zane would arrive later on and stop him from finishing Departure. Zane arrived and awoke Alan from Barbara's hypnosis, and gave Alan time to escape the house and get in a car before Barbara could come back. Zane then took the manuscript pages and escaped from the house. Alan drove that whole night and crashed into the forest. In the present, Alan wakes up after remembering all this. But just as he wakes up, Agent Nightingale points a gun in his face and arrests him and Barry.
The writer is held captive by Nightingale at the sheriff's station with Barry, but the Dark Presence attacks the whole town. Nightingale is taken away by a tornado and Sheriff Breaker releases Alan and Barry. Together, Alan and Breaker fight through the entire town to find Cynthia Weaver. Barry joins up with them and the group escape on a helicopter and head toward the Bright Falls Dam where Weaver lives. When they arrive, Cynthia Weaver tells Alan that they are all characters in a story Thomas Zane once wrote. Zane has written a way for Alan to defeat Barbara Jagger, and the weapon to do-so lies in the Well-Lit Room. When Alan arrives there with the group, he finds a box that contains a manuscript page written by Thomas Zane. Alan is shocked to find that the page is a scene from his own childhood. When Alan was a kid, he was afraid of the dark, afraid of "monsters". So, his mother gave him an old, used up light switch called "The Clicker." His mother told him that when Alan pressed the button, the monsters would go away. At a later age in his life, Alan gave Alice the Clicker to use as a joke for whenever the darkness came (Alice is afraid of the dark.) When he is done reading the page, Alan sees that inside the box is the clicker. Alan takes it and leaves the Well-Lit room alone to end the Dark Presence and save Alice.
Alan fights his way all across the town, fighting and escaping from an army of Taken and Poltergeists sent by the Dark Presence to stop him. When Alan arrives at Cauldron Lake, he dives in to save Alice. But as soon as he does so, he blacks out again. When he awakes, he is at the bottom of the lake. The Dark Presence tries stopping him from finding the Clicker by using hallucinations and tricks to get Alan to give up. But Alan finds the Clicker and uses it to drive the Darkness and hallucinations away. Alan is visited by Thomas Zane in a diver's suit, who tells Alan that Barbara Jagger has no heart, he must "fill it's heart with light." Before Alan leaves to find Jagger, Zane introduces Alan to Mr. Scratch. Mr. Scratch is a clone of Alan Wake who will return to the world while Alan writes the ending to the book. Zane leaves and Alan finds Bird Leg Cabin under the lake.
When Alan walks into the cabin, he sees Barbara Jagger. Alan walks toward her and sees there is a hole where her hearts should be. Alan charges at her and sticks his hand into her chest and clicks the Clicker. Light goes out Barbara's mouth and eyes and she evaporates. Now alone, Alan walks to the study and realizes how he is going to write the ending to Departure. There has to be a balance of good and evil. If something is good, there has to be something equally evil happen and vice-versa. Alan writes the ending.
In the last moments of the game, we see Alan sitting alone in the study, typing the last page of Departure. He looks up from the typewriter and says to himself, "It's not a lake. It's an ocean." Alan ends the book. And we can hear Alice saying "Alan, Wake Up!" to Alan.
The Signal (DLC)
This episode takes place while Alan is having a strange déjà vu style dream. In the dream, Alan re-enters Bright Falls, but everything is more distorted. He walks into the Oh Deer Diner, where the same exact dialogue, people, and events take place, but everything is more distorted and see-through. Alan moves to the back of the diner and heads into the restroom, where Thomas Zane suddenly appears on the mirror. Zane tells him that he is "going deeper", and he will help Alan in any way he can. Alan does not know what this means, but he accepts a flashlight and revolver that Zane supplies him with. Zane then introduces Alan to his enemy; another Alan Wake who is changing the nightmare so that Alan is killed. TV Wake taunts the real Alan through various television sets.
When Alan moves out of the restroom, the diner is suddenly taken over by The Dark Presence. Taken break in through the doors and windows and begin to attack Alan, who fights them off to the best of his abilities. Alan flees the diner and sees a light flowing through the woods, and he suspects this is Zane. Alan follows the light, which leads him to a house where he battles with more Taken soldiers. When the house is clear, he is approached by strange floating word-like fragments that hang in the air and say things like PHONE and AMMO. When he shines his flashlight on the words, the object the word is describing comes to life. So, Alan shines his light on the "PHONE" word and he gets a cellphone and a call from Zane. Zane tells Alan that he needs to follow a signal on the cellphone to get where he needs to go. Alan does so and fights his way across the possessed town of Bright Falls. But TV Alan does not make it easy for him, as Alan faces droves of Taken, Poltergeists, and Birds. Along the way, he meets Barry Wheeler, who is now his imaginary friend. Barry appears to Alan throughout the dream to impart knowledge and help make sense of the dream world Alan finds himself in.
At the end of the journey, Alan finally finds Zane at a boatyard warehouse and the two talk with each other. Zane tells Alan that the Darkness is not causing the dream; he is. Alan is trapped inside of his own mind, and he is still at the bottom of Cauldron Lake. Alan however, refuses to believe this. When this happens though, Zane disappears and TV Alan begins to attack by having waves of Poltergeists come together and attack Alan. The writer fights with them using light, and manages to take out every one of them. Alan moves on into the open, where he finds a single damaged TV floating slowly across the ground, with the screen showing TV Alan screaming "Why, why couldn't I make him stop!" When Alan approaches the TV, it suddenly comes to life and Alan is hit by a psychic attack and he collapses holding his head. All the while, TV Alan screams out "It was my brain, my brain!"
Dazed and tired, Alan suddenly wakes up out of his dream. He is laying on the floor of Bird Leg Cabin, surrounded by scattered manuscript pages. Alan has been looking for a loophole to get out of the cabin. Alan then screams to himself in horror "No way out, no way out...I've got to get out of here!" "How do I get out of here!?"
The Writer (DLC)
Alan wakes up being confronted by imaginary Barry, who during this, shape shifted between Barry and Dr. Hartman. Barry manages to make Alan aware of the changes around him. The gate in front of Alan is locked, so he finds another way around, which eventually leads him to the Cauldron Lake Lodge front gates. Alan and Barry spot Zane's light, and Barry tells Alan that he has stopped sinking. Alan goes towards the light, but soon finds himself in a conflict with the Taken in a concert style battle. Alan manages to defeat them and walks inside the lodge. The furniture in the room begins to float above the room, but Tom just destroys the items with his light. Alan talks to Zane, who tells him to reach the lighthouse.
Alan ends up in a house, similar to the one in his dream in Nightmare. The house begins to turn, but he manages to escape it. He then stops as a tornado appears, and the only way to get around it is to use the words floating around it. After a little while, he comes to some sewer pipes. After he makes his way through, he enters an area that acts just like a Ferris wheel, taking him through memories of his time in Bright Falls and his past. He eventually makes it to an elevator, which leads him back to Stucky's gas station. He reaches a dead end, and the only way to cross is to start a generator and point his light towards the "wire" words. After he does so, he manages to move the crane so he can get across the gap. He then reaches a bridge, where Zane tells him that Cynthia was needed to guard the page in the Well-Lit room and that Mr. Scratch is NOT Alan. Once Alan reaches the end of the bridge, Tom helps him by making a tree bridge for him.
After a short journey, he comes to a confrontation room, where he see's himself, wearing a TV for a head, being confronted by Dr. Hartman. In this, Alan seems to take Hartman's help. Shortly after, a tape recording is played of Alice, telling Alan that she hopes to never see him again after what happened. Once Alan leaves the room and meets with Zane again, Alan tells Zane that he knows none of this is real and that it ain't fooling him. Tom helps Alan with one more page, which helps Alan make is way to the lighthouse, and eventually Bird Leg Cabin, where he battles Dr. Hartman, Tor, Odin and Barry, all imaginary people, but they have been turned against Alan. Alan manages to defeat them, and then enters the cabin, where he walks upstairs. He spots himself on the ground, acting insane. Alan touches the Alan on the ground, and just like that, Alan's mind is clear. Alan understands that there's only one way he can escape... to write a sequel to Departure: "Return".
Alan Wake's American Nightmare
Alan's new look in American Nightmare.
Since the events in Bright Falls, Mr. Scratch was sent up to reality by Thomas Zane to replace Alan while he combats the Darkness as the "champion of light." However, the people in Bright Falls created rumors and stories around the events surrounding Alan and his wife. These stories came true, but they corrupted only Mr. Scratch since he was in reality and is Alan's double. Mr. Scratch then is bent on Darkness and pursuing what the stories were made out to be, an evil, sadistic Alan Wake killer set out to kill his wife.
During this time, Barry Wheeler handled Alan's work while becoming a producer himself for Odin and Tor, returning the Old Gods of Asgard back in business. Barry also still keeps in touch with Sheriff Sarah Breaker. Barry, and possibly Sarah, is the only one who is determined that Alan is not dead.
During this, Alice accepted his death but is still in mourning. Her photography became more personal and more popular, gaining success. Eventually, she met and befriended Serena Valdivia, a curator for NSVA Film Festival. Eventually, Alice recovered old footage from times when she was with Alan and put them into an edited film titled Sunrise and submitted it to the film festival.
As for Alan, he has resided in the Dark Place for two years. In that time, Alan discovered that Bright Falls was only one of many places in the world where reality's border is thin between that and of the Dark Place. Such a place is where fiction and reality can come true. He is not strong enough to completely escape the Dark Place, but he has enough strength to send a signal, to be out in reality for one night. Since then he learned that his double, Mr. Scratch, is after his wife.
In American Nightmare, Alan is hunting down his evil doppelgänger, Mr. Scratch. Using an old episode he wrote for the television show Night Springs, he set his next manuscript, Return, in a town in Arizona where the border of reality wears thin. Alan then escapes for a short time to rescue his wife from Mr. Scratch.
Soon after realizing this attempt, Mr. Scratch then follows Alan. Mr. Scratch then emerges Alan out of the Dark Place and in "Night Springs" by a small lake in Arizona.
Alan then emerges out of the small lake from Bird Leg Cabin and recovers his flashlight. After combating several Taken, he discovers a point of entry for the Taken in the oil derrick and recalls a manuscript that can rewrite reality and close the portal.
Taking refuge at the Desert Shore Motel, he finds Emma Sloan who has the manuscript page and reveals Scratch was there earlier about Michael Farabee and the Oil Derrick. Alan then searches for the needed tools and equipment needed to rewrite reality. Along Alan's journey, Mr. Scratch is one step ahead and leaves behind sadistic videos of him brutally murdering people and threatening everyone Alan ever loved, beginning with a video of him interrogating and killing Michael Farabee.
After acquiring the equipment, Alan destroys the oil derrick and with it the portal. Alan then investigates the nearby Diner for the motel keys which holds a clue to his next location. Alan discovers wreckage in the Diner along with the keys and a briefcase to the Mount Redtooth National Observatory. Upon returning to the Motel, Emma is murdered by the Taken. Alan then find Michael Farabee in one of the rooms along with the keys to the Observatory.
Alan then enters the Observatory and meets with Dr. Rachel Meadows who reveals that Scratch was there earlier for the astronomical event that occurred. After assisting with several technical difficulties, Alan receives the signal being outputted in the sky. It appears to only be in "Night Springs" as the stars are arranging into the manuscript Alan needs to rewrite reality and take down Mr. Scratch. The manuscript page leads Alan to the Drive-In Theater.
Alan arrives to the Drive-In to find Serena Valdivia touched by the Darkness. She reveals that Mr. Scratch was there again and that he turned off the power and prepared for the showdown with Wake. After Alan returned power and released Serena, she revealed that she is friends with Alice and that there is a film dedicated to Alan here at the Drive-In. During this showdown, Mr. Scratch reveals that he wants to create infinite Darkness in the world to release the Dark Place. When Alan attempts to rewrite reality, it is incomplete and Scratch sends him back on a time loop from when Alan emerged by the lake.
Alan then has to return to everything he did that night at the Motel, Observatory, and Drive-In. However, all three women have recollections on what happened and attempt to assist before Alan arrives there. Alan eventually becomes closer to Mr. Scratch despite Emma still being killed and the manuscript still incomplete. Mr. Scratch reveals he wants to become everything that Alan is and more, that he has more confidence and strength that Alan never had. Mr. Scratch wants to become the loving husband Alice never had and much more. But Mr. Scratch represents everything negative about Alan including greed and self-egocentricism. Eventually, Mr. Scratch will destroy everything Alan loved, cared, and worked for. Mr. Scratch then sends Alan back a second time to the lake.
This time, all three women have a cumulative memory on what has happened in the time loop. Both Emma and Rachel set up everything needed for Alan to initiate and succeed so that he can stop Mr. Scratch and end the time loop. When Alan arrives to Rachel, the manuscript is complete this time, revealing he needs to play Alice's film, Sunrise. Mr. Scratch is attempting to loop time in the night so that the sun never comes up and he can become powerful enough to open the Dark Place. There is not enough light now to stop Mr. Scratch except for the sunlight captured in Alice's film. Alan combats Mr. Scratch for a final time and reveals that the people around Bright Falls corrupted him and turned him into the monster now. As Alan enters the projection booth, he plays Alice's film upon Mr. Scratch. The sunlight captured in the film is enough to destroy him from reality.
The episode ends with the film 'Sunrise' playing to Alan's own ending in which he and Alice reunite. The Night Springs narrator reveals that it is unknown if these events happened, or if they are mere fiction created by the Dark Place.
From the start of Alan Wake: American Nightmare and at the very end, it is revealed that the episode is playing on the television in the motel room of Barry Wheeler while on tour with Old Gods of Asgard. Barry apparently hears the signal Alan sends out while sleeping, and wakes up questioning if Alan was there.
Alan Wake 2
Alan will return in sequel. Sam Lake has stated "...going into the sequel, there needs to be further journey and story arc for him to escape. [from The Dark Place]"
Fans
It is clearly shown that Alan Wake has many fans in the world of literary fiction. He has also been known to find himself in the public spotlight quite often. In the Bright Falls episode, Local Flavor, Alan is seen pushing through the media to try and escape them, after he hit a news reporter, making him clearly popular enough for constant media attention.
Once he arrives in Bright Falls people immediately begin to recognize him. First, Pat Maine, the local radio host asks him for an interview on the ferry into Bright Falls. Soon after, he is met by Rose Marigold at the Oh Deer Diner. Sarah Breaker also told that her dad is also a bit of a fan of his too, and that she herself have read a couple of his books.
Works/Stories
Errand Boy
It was Alan's first published story (in a magazine called "Dark Visions"), which eventually accrued him some notoriety.
A large excerpt from Errand Boy was famously featured in Clay Steward's book, "The Alan Wake Files". Clay presumably added it in his book to give some background to the very man he was attempting to figure more about: Alan Wake.
Alex Casey
The first 5 books of the Alex Casey series
Alex Casey was an action thriller series written by Alan. Casey was a hardened New York cop. Six books were made in the series:
- Book 1: Alex Casey
- Book 2: What I Can't Forget
- Book 3: Return to Sender
- Book 4: The Things That I Want
- Book 5: The Fall of Casey
- Book 6: The Sudden Stop
Alan ended the series by killing off the main character (in The Sudden Stop) as he wanted to move onto other things, and try out new ideas, but that soon ended when he began to suffer from writer's block. This is mentioned in the Signal DLC during a memory of a photo shoot of his advertising " The Sudden Stop" when Alice comments " You kill him (Alex Casey) off in this book, you need to look like a murderer." Alan, "The Sudden Stop" Sam Lake and Poets of the Fall appeared on the Harry Garret Show; Alan was promoting his new book. In the "Bright Falls Book Store", The Sudden Stop is awarded "The Book of the Month."
Departure
Departure was supposed to be Alan's next book, but never got round to writing it due to his writers block. However, in the game, the manuscript Alan wrote (but cannot remember doing so) was also named Departure, which told of the events Alan went through during his time in Bright Falls, what he was going through and what he would go through. Alan completes Departure at the close of Alan Wake.
Return
Return is the sequel to Departure. Like Departure, Alan wrote Return, where it inevitably came to life. He progressed through the events of the manuscript through Alan Wake's American Nightmare. Here he faced his arch-nemesis Mr. Scratch and attempted to get back to Alice.
Trivia
- Alan Wake is voiced by Matthew Porretta and modeled by Ilkka Villi.
- Alan is 33 as of American Nightmare.
- Like other Remedy names, clues to the game may be found in the protagonist's name. In this case, Alan's first name initial coupled with his last name spells "A. Wake", symbolizing his battle with the night. Also, various times throughout the game, His wife, Alice, says, "Alan, wake up," alluding to his name.
- One of the books in the Alex Casey series that Alan wrote is titled "The Things that I want". This is the name of a level in the Remedy game series, Max Payne. Another is titled "The Fall of Alex Casey", just like the subtitle for Max Payne 2. On some of the TVs in that game, a 'Return to Sender marathon' of the fictional show 'Address Unknown' is played, giving another book title. Max muses that "when entertainment turns to a surreal reflection of your life, you're a lucky man if you can laugh at the joke." He refers to the coincidental parallels between fiction and his life as opposed to the rewriting of events that the manuscript pages of Alan Wake describe.
- The idea behind Wake ending the Alex Casey series by killing off the main character is most likely influenced by the Stephen King book Misery, where the main character Paul Sheldon, also a writer, ends his series of books by the same method, and for the same reasons.
- When Alan sees himself on TV and in two of them he sees something on the wall and goes up to it in Episode 3 and Episode 4. He was actually being watched by the two stuffed Ravens above the door. Explaining that he saw something watching him when he was writing Departure.
- It may be known that Mr. Scratch may be himself but as a different person. As Alan Wake confronts Thomas Zane he tells Alan that the clone of himself is called Mr. Scratch and that Mr. Scratch will be returning to his friends, Barry Wheeler and Sarah Breaker.
- Alan's signature weapon is the revolver.
- Mr. Scratch is a doppelgänger of Alan Wake supposedly created by Thomas Zane.
- When introducing himself in Episode 1: Nightmare, he says "My name is Alan Wake, and I'm a writer". The exact same thing is said in Alan Wake's American Nightmare as the first line to the first page you see in the game.
- There are several avatar outfits of his clothes.
Unanswered questions
- Will Alan ever leave The Dark Place?
- In "Season 2" of the Alan Wake series, will Alan get a new set of clothes? If so, what will it look like?
- In "Season 2" of the Alan Wake series, will Alan be more of a mentor to another protagonist? If so, will that person be made up of complete fiction, created by Alan? Or will the new protagonist be real, written into the setting where Alan's new Manuscript takes place?
- Is everything in Alan's head?
Speculation on Wake's fate
- Zane said that Wake's friends will meet Mr. Scratch when he is gone. This could mean that if he somehow failed, Mr. Scratch will replace him.
- It is possible that Alan Wake has realized that the fight isn't over yet, given his line "It's not a lake, it's an ocean.", implying that the problem is much more serious and dangerous than originally speculated. Alan may have chose to stay in the cabin to either: a.) lengthen Departure to end it the right way or b.) to write a sequel to Departure with the same goal. Mr. Scratch, being some form of doppelganger of Alan is being sent back to the others for unknown purposes, seemingly under the control of Thomas Zane. It is possible that Thomas Zane is now Alan's editor while Rose Marigold has taken the role of the Lady of the Light and Agent Nightingale has apparently been chosen as the next face the darkness will wear, given his appearance in the final cutscene, being quite pale and shrouded in darkness.
- Wake could have sacrificed himself for Alice and now will eternally write the darkness back into the lake.
- It could also be possible that Alan realized that the Dark Place is the ocean which combines different realities. In one reality, Alice was saved. While in another reality, Alan has his problems in the Dark Place writing under the assistance of Barbara Jagger, and in the third reality he starts his adventure all over again ( "Alan wake up" ). All realities start at the point Alan arrives in Bright Falls. They split up the moment Alan follows Alice. While one Alan is going insane, the other Alan is trying to save Alice while getting influenced by the TV showing of the first Alan, and in the third reality, Mr. Scratch is in the world while Alice is saved.
- Following the discovery of the page written by Thomas Zane in the Well-Lit Room detailing Alan's childhood, is it possible that Alan Wake was created by Zane in the hope that he will one day come to Bright Falls and destroy the Dark Presence?
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