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.

Francis, along with the other Left 4 Dead Survivors will appear in Left 4 Dead 2 in the campaign The Passing as they meet with the Left 4 Dead 2 Survivors, assuming that he is not the survivor who Valve announced dies before the events of the campaign. (However, it seems unlikely in canon due to Chet Faliszek's statement that Francis and Nick will have unique interactions.)

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."). 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.
 * 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.

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
 * 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.)
 * Churches
 * Cops
 * Different (As seen in a recent ad, it is a refrence to the franchise going to the Mac, along with other Valve games.)
 * 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
 * Prisons
 * Sewers
 * Small towns
 * Stairs
 * Steam pipes
 * Subways
 * 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. 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"