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. He is voiced by Vince Valenzuela.

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.

Hatred for everything
Francis is notable for often contextually exclaiming how he hates something. Anything, really. Among the things Francis hates:
 * The Army
 * Aeroplanes
 * Ayn Rand
 * Barns
 * Birds
 * Boats
 * Boat People
 * Boat Lawyers
 * Caca
 * Camping
 * Canada
 * Churches
 * Cops
 * Doctors
 * Elevators
 * Electric Fences
 * Greece
 * Helicopters
 * Hospitals
 * Hotels
 * Jumping
 * Jungles
 * Latest issues
 * Lawyers
 * Malls
 * Mazes
 * Mondays
 * Parades
 * Sewers
 * Small towns
 * Stairs
 * Steampipes
 * Subways
 * Trains
 * Trainyards
 * Tunnels
 * Turnpikes
 * Vampires
 * Vans
 * Vomit
 * Walking
 * Water
 * Whispering
 * Woods

Despite stating that he hates the Army, he also is quoted saying sarcastically, "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!" This may hint that he has had a bad experience with the army in the past. 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.

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.
 * Originally, the developers had the idea to make Francis and Zoey show some sort of affection towards one another. However, this was found to be distracting, and was cut out of the game. Possibly because of this, Francis is often very friendly towards her.
 * The reason Francis calls the Infected "vampires" 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, or 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. 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, furthing this, Bill requests that he be shot should he turn, mimicking a scene from the movie.
 * Francis' facial appearance was modeled after Taylor Knox.
 * 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.
 * 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 an unused 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.
 * In the latest issue of PC Gamer, it is hinted that Francis hits his head during the crash and temporarily isn't himself in the campaign Crash Course, he will sometimes say he is confused at the start of the campaign.