Players of the modernized Hitman series appreciate IO Interactive's take on more interactive, open-world missions to test the mettle of master assassin Agent 47. In the new games, Agent 47 seems to always come up with crazy new methods of silencing his marks. However, what exactly happened to Agent 47 before he took on this grand tour to rediscover his place in the world? The International Contract Agency's star assassin has one of the wildest origin stories out there. Essentially, Agent 47 belongs to a now-defunct cloning program.
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While Hitman 3 completes Agent 47's World of Assassination trilogy, just what exactly happened to him before that? Or rather, just how did Agent 47 end up living life as a master assassin? As it turns out, Agent 47's clone origins is a wild story.
10 Dissecting A Barcode
Agent 47's barcode is perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of his character design. As fans might remember, the "47" in his name corresponds to the last two digits of his barcode. However, the entirety of Agent 47's signature barcode reveals some insights towards the more intricate natures of the Clone Program. Agent 47's full barcode is 640509-040147, with the "640509" corresponding to his date of creation – September 5, 1964, in Romania. However, the other numbers have interesting implications as well.
In the second group, "040147" specifies that Agent 47 serves as the 47th clone of the first iteration of the Series IV clones. The lack of other "older" clones seems to imply that Agent 47 serves as Ort-Meyer's first legitimate success in the program.
9 A Fascination With Genetics
Agent 47's Clone Program came to fruition courtesy of Dr. Otto Wolfgang Ort-Meyer and his comrades in the French Foreign Legion back in the 1950s. After their service, Ort-Meyer pursued his dreams in genetics while his four other comrades became infamous terrorists and crime lords of their own.
In the case of Ort-Meyer, the doctor decided to disguise his genetic experiments by establishing a mental institution in Romania. This institution is the same asylum that Agent 47 breaks out of in the first game.
Additionally, to fund his research, Ort-Meyer's friends donated money in exchange for organs harvested from clone bodies. As a result, Ort-Meyer's comrades look much younger than their actual ages.
8 Breeding Perfect Assassins
It appears Ort-Meyer's fascination with genetics stems from a desire to create "perfect assassins." In order to do so, Ort-Meyer's clone assassins will not only need to be in peak human condition but also possess unnerving loyalty and devotion to clients. Unfortunately, Ort-Meyer has become largely unsuccessful with his attempts with his clone program.
Ort-Meyer's specialization in genetics almost crosses the threshold towards obsession. Prior to Agent 47's creation, Ort-Meyer attempted to publicize his cloning developments, only for the scientific community to discredit his work for his "radical" ideas.
7 Enter Agent 17
Despite Agent 47's popularity as the "first" of Ort-Meyer's clones to fit his description of a "perfect" assassin, the game's protagonist isn't certainly the first to be functional. In fact, Agent 47 seems to have a lot of interactions with other clones during his childhood. Sadly, by the time of Agent 47's escape, most of them succumbed to illnesses or proved incapable of conducting assassinations. However, Agent 47's isn't exactly the "first" success of the program, either.
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In Silent Assassin, Agent 47 meets Agent 17. As it turns out, the latter serves as Ort-Meyer's first cloned assassin. This factoid explains their shared appearances, save for the orange tie and the black sunglasses. Unfortunately, while Agent 17 possesses remarkable assassination skills, he lacks Agent 47's enhanced physiology and independent thought.
6 A Problem With Emotions
Ort-Meyer has always had difficulty ensuring the supreme loyalty of his agents. He showed interest in Agent 47 as he's the first to develop emotions and independent thought among clones. Of course, this always meant the possibility of Agent 47 defying Ort-Meyer's orders.
To counteract such threats, Ort-Meyer frequently did mind-wiping and mind-alteration experiments to Agent 47, especially when he started to see ways of escaping the Asylum. Moreover, Ort-Meyer and his scientists frequently administered serums to "eliminate" emotions among other clones. Sadly, this resulted in others dying from dehydration and starvation, or suffering from manic-depressive symptoms.
5 The Explosive Chip Conundrum
Another interesting point in the Hitman series is the mention of an explosive kill chip installed within the clones. In the story, Agent 47 and Series 6 once forced a surgeon to remove these chips from their bodies, opening a window for them to escape. In hindsight, such a chip makes sense as a form of insurance for Ort-Meyer and his expensive project.
However, this explosive chip wasn't mentioned again in subsequent titles. If Ort-Meyer retrieved Agent 47 after his wild trip with Series 6, then surely he must have checked if Agent 47's chip was removed. Why leave Agent 47 without this insurance if Ort-Meyer was planning to let him escape to test his real-world readiness?
4 One Clone Not Enough For Five Clients
In the last mission of Codename 47, Dr. Ort-Meyer revealed to Agent 47 that he actually orchestrated the events leading to his escape from the Asylum and recruitment in the ICA. Moreover, Ort-Meyer told Agent 47 that he masterminded the assassinations of his associates to prevent them from using the super-assassin for their own needs.
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Ironically, after Ort-Meyer's death, multiple clients within the ICA will specifically request Agent 47 to carry out their dirty work. This will all accumulate until Agent 47 himself decides to cut ties with the organization.
3 Clone 48: Perfectly Obedient
Ort-Meyer reveals that he has been observing Agent 47's activities since his escape from the Asylum. In fact, Agent 47's recruitment and participation within the ICA served as a performance test for the assassin's adaptability. However, Ort-Meyer added that while Agent 47 passed this test with flying colors, he too had to die for his free will. Apparently, Ort-Meyer endeavored to "perfect" his cloning formula to create Agent 47's "upgrade" – the Clone 48s.
Unlike Agent 47, these Clone 48s possessed faster reflexes, increased damage resistance, higher pain tolerance, and improved accuracy. In an effort to kill Agent 47, Ort-Meyer unleashed a dozen or so Clone 48s to assail Agent 47. However, Agent 47's superior training with the ICA proved helpful in seeing through their puppet-like movements and eliminating them.
2 A Grand Total Of 81
Despite the rare appearance of other clones in Hitman games, there's been quite a lot of clones running around prior to Agent 47's prominence in the ICA. It's been mentioned at some point that, alongside Agent 47, Ort-Meyer created a grand total of 81 clones. Sadly, most of them became incapable of conducting assassinations on their own, and others successfully escaped Ort-Meyer's control. Outside Agent 47, other notable clones among this number include Agent 17 and Series 6.
It's unclear whether Ort-Meyer would consider the Clone 48s as a part of this number. It's also mentioned that Ort-Meyer created five more Agent 47 clones sometime during or after the latter's creation, again with their fates unknown.
1 Not The Only Program
While Agent 47 arguably holds the title as the most popular clone in the Hitman franchise, his originating Clone Project isn't the only one in existence. In fact, it's been revealed that the enigmatic Alpha Zerox has a cloning program of its own. Players will remember Alpha Zerox's clone products in the form of The Franchise's Mark Parchezzi III and Mark Purayah II.
Unlike Agent 47, the two Marks seem to be albino clones. However, they have similarities with Agent 47 in terms of their genetics. The Marks have a better mental and physical capacity than most humans, courtesy of their enhanced focus and hypersensitivity coupled with their determined and adaptive nature.
Likewise, Hitman: Absolution also revolves around Victoria, a young female clone from a special clone program approved by the ICA. Unlike other clones, Victoria can only tap into her enhanced abilities when in possession of a special reagent via her necklace.