JC Denton

JC Denton is a fictional character in the computer game Deus Ex. JC is a UNATCO employee.

JC was voiced by Jay Anthony Franke in both Deus Ex and Deus Ex: Invisible War.

Overview


JC is a 23-year-old (in the first game) clone of his brother (thus he is referred to as the "Secondary Unit" by Bob Page and Walton Simons) Paul Denton and a prototype created by shadowy organization Majestic 12 to test their nano-augmentation program. As a result of testing, Paul was found to have the right combination of biological and genetic factors to make him a good candidate for the nano-augmentation. To create more compatible test subjects, Majestic 12 produced clones of Paul, but most failed to accept the augmentations. His parents, however, were infertile after Paul's birth. They approached MJ12 looking for a method to have a new baby. MJ12 offered one, in the form of the implantation of an embryo. This procedure produced a clone of Paul, which would later become JC Denton. Paul and JC are, thus, identical twins born eleven years apart.

Later, as Paul reached adolescence, he became more independent and MJ12 decided to have him and his parents killed, while JC was sent to a Swiss school where he could be more closely supervised. Paul escaped this attack, and JC grew up unaware of his early childhood with Majestic 12. After graduation, JC joined UNATCO, a United Nations anti-terrorism organization.

JC has solid blue eyes (which are always obscured by sunglasses and are a result of nano-augmentation), though his hair and skin colour can be chosen by the player at the start of the game; changes made to JC's appearance affect those of Paul as well. Overheard conversations reveal that at least one Majestic 12 soldier believes that JC looks German.

JC's origins are muddled in the game. In Area 51, a datacube reveals JC's date of inception as March 17, 2054, with an "assigned birth date" of March 17, 2029. Since Deus Ex takes place in the 2050s, this would mean JC is physically no more than a few years old at most, and he was growth accelerated to his biological age. This leaves no room for most of his original backstory, unless the acceleration was somehow irregular or his memories are in fact false (which raises serious questions about his relationship with Paul). Another datacube contains an email about "creating genetically viable candidates for nano-augmentation through cloning", speculating that "in the future, this process could be streamlined through the application of accelerated growth and memory implantation", which lends some credence to this theory.

This leaves open the possibilities that JC and/or Paul are the result of such a process (and that all references to their past and their parents are forged) or that the datacube with JC's age (and the appearance of fully-grown clones in tubes) is simply an inconsistency introduced by development. Given the complexity of the plot of Deus Ex and its numerous twists, neither can be discounted.

J.C. Denton becomes central to the plot of Invisible War despite making an appearance only towards the end of the game.At the end of the first game,(as implied in Invisible War) J.C. merged with the A.I. Helios with the goal of creating the world's first benevolent dictator. Unfortunately, defects in J.C.'s nanite architecture resulted in an imperfect merge. J.C. would be forced into statis to wait for a cure, lest he die from the merge-and triggered the Great Collapse

J.C.'s goal was to bring about the world's first "post-human civilization". By giving all humans the mental and physical advantages of biomodification, J.C. hoped to eliminate the stratification of humanity encouraged by the Illuminati. Additionally, biomodification would allow all human minds to communicate with the Helios A.I., which has the processing power to gauge the desires of each individual human. It would instantly respond to these desires, and thus bring about an "instantaneous democracy". Unlike the Omar collective, J.C. intended for Helios to communicate, not to assimilate. However, because Helios would know each and every human thought, many of J.C.'s enemies (such as the Illuminati and Templars) feared the "Great Advance" would bring about universal slavery rather than universal democracy (the Illuminati believe that perfect slavery and perfect democracy are the exact same thing).

The merge with Helios gave J.C. total control over nanotechnology, transforming him into a walking universal constructor. He receives the power to do things such as to control the weather, to alter matter on an atomic level, allowing him to shape objects and buildings from the material he walks on.

J.C. behaves the same as every other human being in combat. He has more hit points than any other character in the game, making him harder to kill.

If Alex kills J.C., and sides with either the Templar or the Omar, the Helios A.I. will sacrifice itself to revive J.C. In one final attempt to prevent what J.C. and Helios perceive as the end of the world, J.C. will engage Alex and say "You want to plunge the world into chaos? Come and take it from me".