Francis

"He needed to feel huge, fit believably into the world and read well as a silhouette."

- Jeremy Bennett, Valve. "Good thing I'm indestructible."

- Francis

Francis is one of the four playable Survivors in Left 4 Dead. He is a large, tough biker with tattoos covering his arms and neck. His tattoos identify him as a member of "Hell's Legion", a name possibly inspired by the real-world Hell's Angels Motorcycle Club. Since his character model has changed, it has been speculated that Francis' new face was modeled after the head developer of the game, Mike Booth, and that he has the Lambda symbol from the Half-Life series cut into his hair. In official media he can usually be seen wielding either the Pump Shotgun or the Auto Shotgun.

Francis, along with Zoey and Louis appears in Left 4 Dead 2 in the campaign The Passing as they meet with the Left 4 Dead 2 Survivors. Nick and Francis seem to banter toward each other a lot due to their brash natures, although Rochelle also seems to find a sort of odd attraction to him.

Relationships with other Survivors
Of the four Survivors, Francis is the most cocky and insulting.


 * Bill: Francis and Bill seem to tease each other a lot. On some occasions he flat out insults him ("We got a helpless old man with us!") and often makes sarcastic retorts to his comments ("Don't let that stop you from smearing it all over yourself."). Francis also shows that he would rather live and let Bill die such as when he says ("Bill let me see your health pack. I just want to look at it.") Bill is quick to let Francis know that the feeling is mutual, and dislikes his pessimistic and rude attitude. The arguing and teasing is likely just joking around between the two; if Bill dies, Francis is quite shaken up. It is not known whether it is because he cares for Bill or if he is disturbed that The Infected killed a veteran survivor of several wars. There is a noticeable change in tone when he talks about losing a guy (Bill) in The Passing and hated the idea of lowering the bridge when Bill was the one who gave his life to raise it, hinting a large amount of respect for him.
 * Louis: Francis doesn't seem to talk to Louis much, but when he does, it's mostly insults. Francis dislikes his optimistic outlook on The Infection and perhaps the way Louis sees Francis himself. When Francis does insult, Louis either doesn't get the sarcasm, or breaks from his kindly attitude to give Francis a word. ("Francis, you can take your mustache, your vest, and your chaps, and go find yourself a parade!") They are known to bicker about whether the Infected are zombies or vampires, as well. If it comes to Louis's death, Francis is quite shaken and while he does make a joke about his profession, ("The manager's down for the count") he also says that he started to grow on him. ("Shit! I was just starting to like that guy" and "No...he didn't deserve this") However, when Louis is incapacitated outside the safe room, he shows that he isn't above abandoning Louis, if it were a unanimous decision.
 * Zoey: In beta-testing, Zoey and Francis were to share some sort of affection towards each other, but this was cut. Nonetheless, Francis seems to like Zoey more than the other survivors, and shows extreme sadness if she dies. Zoey isn't as keen to Francis as she was originally intended to be, but they get along quite well. In Crash Course, Francis becomes fairly annoyed at Zoey for shooting the helicopter pilot, and throughout The Alleys makes fun of her. Despite this, they still crack jokes together, and Francis eventually warms up.
 * Coach: Francis doesn't have much interaction with Coach. But he does at first believe Coach to be Rochelle's father. This amuses Rochelle, but insults Coach somewhat since he is only 15 years older than Rochelle.
 * Ellis: Francis and Ellis seem to get along well. They both have a mutual belief that the presence of zombies means that there must also be vampires, werewolves, mummies, and aliens around. Their only conflict comes over Jimmy Gibbs Jr. who Francis believes either to be a man or dog who sold tacos. Ellis will get angry with Francis over this.
 * Nick: Nick and Francis seem to completely hate each other. At the start of The Riverbank, if Francis is present, Nick refers to him as a "greasy monkey" while Francis refers to him as "suit" or "Colonel Sanders". He occasionally compares Nick to a witch because of his complaining throughout the campaign.  Despite their distaste for one another, Francis wishes Nick good luck and calls him a brother upon Nick's departure ("Nick! Good luck, my brother"). This is probably because Francis and Nick likely share a common affiliation to a gang or group as Nick's ring and Francis' right shoulder tattoo share the same symbol. It's hinted that they knew each other in certain dialogue too.
 * Rochelle: Through the events of The Passing Francis becomes infatuated with Rochelle even to go as far as call her his "lovely little angel" and sob at her departure. He might also cry out "I love you, Ro!" as they drive away. He compliments her taste in music when commenting on her shirt, referring to Depeche Mode as "classy". Though this is more than likely all just to get her attention as he mispronounces "Depeche" in the name Depeche Mode, pronouncing as "depeck".

Hatred for everything
Francis is notable for often contextually exclaiming how he hates something. Anything, really. Why Francis hates almost everything is unknown, but it can be assumed that it has something to do with his past of being an outlaw. Among the things Francis hates:
 * Airplanes
 * The Army (Though at the end of Blood Harvest when the APC arrives he quickly changes his opinion.)
 * Ayn Rand
 * Barns
 * Birds
 * Boats
 * Boat People
 * Boat Lawyers
 * Bridges
 * Camping
 * Canada (Zoey or Louis will always respond "Canada, Francis! We’re in Pennsylvania" This was a nod to the previous debate about where the game takes place.)
 * Car Alarms
 * Churches
 * Cold
 * Cops
 * Different (As seen in a recent ad, it is a reference to the franchise going to the Mac, as well as the Mac's "Think Different" slogan.)
 * Doctors
 * Elevators
 * Electric Fences (Cut)
 * Ellis' Hat
 * Flying
 * Good Byes
 * Greece
 * Helicopters
 * Hospitals
 * Hotels
 * Jumping
 * Jungles
 * Latest issues
 * Lawyers
 * Malls
 * Mazes (Cut)
 * Mondays (Unless it's lasagna Mondays - a nod to Garfield)
 * Mounts
 * Parades
 * Prisons
 * Sewers
 * Small towns
 * Snow
 * Stairs
 * Steam pipes
 * Tanks
 * Subways
 * The South
 * Trains
 * Train yards
 * Tunnels
 * Turnpikes
 * Vampires
 * Vans
 * Vomit (Boomer Bile)
 * Walking
 * Water
 * Whispering
 * Woods

Despite stating that he hates the Army, he also is quoted saying, "I LOVE the Goddamn army!" when the rescue vehicle arrives on Blood Harvest. On rare occasions, he will say "I forgive you army, I love you guys!" Also, when asked by Bill if there's anything he doesn't hate, he replies, "You know what I don't hate? I don't hate vests." In Crash Course, Francis states he loves lasagna and when Zoey walks past the steam pipe and sarcastically moans "I loove steam" he mutters "Yeah... Steam is okay". This is a reference of Valve's gaming software, also called Steam. In the same level, the crash leaves him so dazed that he blurts out "I love helicopters!", raising genuine concern for his mental health before he snaps out of it. From the tone of his voice, his statement that he loves helicopters may also be sarcasm that the other survivors don't pick up on. During The Passing, Francis also states "I love that car!", referring to Jimmy Gibbs Jr.'s stock car. Also notice that despite the fact that he hates the cops, he often claims he's one when attempting to call a Rescue Vehicle or the Church Guy (who said he didn't sound like one).

Valve supplied audio for the upcoming mod Dead Before Dawn in which Francis says "I hate malls!" as well as audio for the custom campaign Night Terror where Francis says "I hate jungles!".

Quotes and Captions
"See: Francis/Quotes and Captions"