Francis

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

- Jeremy Bennett, Valve.

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.

Official description
Cocky, loud, and pretty sure he's indestructible, Francis acts like the zombie apocalypse is the world's biggest bar fight. When the virus hit, everybody else stockpiled food and looked for a place to hide. Francis found a gun and had some fun. No cops, no laws, no order—if it wasn't for all the zombies, he could almost get used to life like this.

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.") 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, as when Bill dies, Francis is quite shaken up.
 * 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. When it comes to Louis's death, Francis isn't particularly fazed, rather making a joke about his profession. ("The manager's down for the count"). However, when Louis is incapacitated outside the safe room, he shows that he does somewhat care for Louis's well-being, but seems to care more about his image in the eyes of the other survivors.
 * 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 when 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.

Hatred for everything
Francis is notable for often contextually exclaiming how he hates something. Anything, really. 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
 * 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. He also confuses Riverside with Canada.)
 * Churches
 * Cops
 * Doctors
 * Elevators
 * Electric Fences
 * Flying
 * Greece
 * Helicopters
 * Hospitals
 * Hotels
 * Jumping
 * Jungles
 * Latest issues
 * Lawyers
 * Malls
 * Mazes
 * Mondays (Unless it's lasagna Mondays - a nod to Garfield)
 * Parades
 * Sewers
 * Small towns
 * Stairs
 * Steam pipes
 * Subways
 * Trains
 * Train yards
 * Tunnels
 * Turnpikes
 * Vampires
 * Vans
 * Vomit
 * 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.

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"

Trivia

 * Francis has the Lambda logo from the Half-Life series cut into his hair as an Easter egg which appears in almost every game that Valve has developed.
 * Francis often refers to the infected as "Vampires", this could be due to the fact that the infected aren't necessarily traditional "dead" zombies, but rather, infected humans. It has been speculated that this may be due to the confusion about the creatures in the film, I Am Legend. People thought the Hemocites were zombies when in the book they are confirmed to be vampires, it could also be a reference to the movie "From Dusk Till Dawn", a movie about a bikers/truckers in a bar fending off vampires, furthering this, Bill requests that he be shot should he turn, mimicking a scene from the movie, or it might be a reference to that fact that almost every chapter in Left 4 Dead is at night, or rather, early morning (Blood Harvest), so they are always traveling in the dark.
 * A majority of Left 4 Dead fans have come to believe that Francis is a prominent "Skinhead" and/or more than likely a "Biker" due to his personality and attire. This is confirmed by the fact that Francis sound files are stored in a "Biker" folder and that it states he is in his description.
 * In the game and most pictures, Francis is seen equipped with a shotgun of some sort. But, in the concept art below, he is holding a weapon that looks quite similar to an MP5 sub-machine gun or a G3.
 * In Left 4 Dead 2's Parish campaign, a section of grafiti can be found in the safe room at the end of the first chapter which states: "God I hate zombies". While it is open to speculation that Francis has traveled this far south, it is still a humorous easter egg.
 * Unlike his "tough-guy" attitude, when Francis is knocked down, he will sometimes scream like a girl, probably to show that his toughness is an act or for some comic relief. His macho attitude also breaks when one of his friends dies. Although he fights with Bill constantly throughout the game, he seems genuinely upset to see him die, (as does Bill when Francis dies). Also, sometimes when he dies, he will whisper "Mamaaaaa...".
 * Francis isn't wearing his driving gloves in any of the campaign movie posters, not even the newest ones, "The Last Stand" and "Crash Course".
 * The quote "Groovy", which Francis says occasionally when picking up an auto shotgun, is a reference to the cult horror film Evil Dead II.
 * In early beta, Francis was portrayed as being somewhat overweight. On top of this, there is a rarely used voice file for Louis where he states "Go on! Do it one more time fat man!" Upon being repeatedly shot by Francis. The sound file is "manager_friendlyfirefrancis07".
 * One of Francis' arm tattoos appears to show The Star of Chaos, a recurring symbol in the Warhammer franchise.
 * On Francis' left forearm he has a steel cross tattoo, showing he might be a skinhead.
 * In Crash Course, Francis hits his head during the crash and temporarily isn't himself ("I love helicopters). He will sometimes admit he is confused at the start of the campaign, although this is entirely random, and temporary, he breaks back in to his normal attitude thereafter.
 * If Francis sometimes talks to one of the radios (or church safe house door) he says something about being the police to get some sort of power, claiming people will do anything a cop tells them. This has humorous results in Blood Harvest when he tries to pressure the army into rescuing them by claiming to be cops, and the soldier actually believes him and promises to rush to save them.
 * It is likely Francis is associated with a group or gang that Nick is also a member of. This is hinted as the tattoos Francis has on his shoulders bares a striking resemblance to the ring Nick wears on his right hand.
 * In Left 4 Dead 2, the band 'Midnight Riders' all seem to resemble Francis.