Barney Calhoun

This subject is from the Black Mesa Incident era.This subject is from the Combine era.This is a featured article.

## Functions / Belongings

### Rank / Occupation

* Level 3 Black Mesa security guard (BS)
* Metrocop (early HL2)
* Resistance leader
* Field commander (HL2)

### Weapons

* Glock 17 (HL1)
* Various (BS)
* MP7 (Briefly in HL2)
* OSIPR (HL2 / Ep1)
* MP5K (cut)

### Equipment

* Flashlight (SB/BM)
* Helmet (SB/BM/HL2)
* Kevlar vest (SB/BM)
* Civil Protection uniform (HL2)

## Physical description

### Eye color

* Brown (HL1)
* Teal and Brown (Sectoral Heterochromia) (HL2)

## Chronological and political information

### Era

* Black Mesa Incident
* The Uprising
* The Mafia
* The Revival

### Affiliation

* Black Mesa Security Force
* Civil Protection (mole)
* Lambda Resistance
* The Mafia
* The Revival

## Game information

### Voiced by

* Michael Shapiro (OG)
* Kevin Sisk (SB/BM)

### Modeled over

Scott Lynch (Chief Operating Officer for Valve) (HL2)

### Designed by

* Chuck Jones (original design)
* Marc Laidlaw

### Entity name

* npc\_barney\_02

> Now... about that beer I owed ya!
>
> Barney Calhoun, Half-Life 2

**Barney Calhoun** is the tritagonist of the *Half-Life* series. He was a security guard at Black Mesa before becoming a key Resistance leader. From *Half-Life: Blue Shift* and onwards, he turns from the *Half-Life* generic security guard into a standalone character, is given a surname, and an expanded role.

## Biography

### Background

 File:Barney first.jpg
Barney Calhoun, an undecided major after two years at Martinson College, is employed as a high-level security officer at the Black Mesa Research Facility, with Level 3 security clearance and is accommodated in the Area 8 Topside Dormitories. He is friends with Gordon Freeman and Isaac Kleiner, who are also employees of Black Mesa.

As a Black Mesa security guard, he is tasked with duties including guarding assigned sections, performing general maintenance, and assisting the science team when required. His "Disaster Response Priority" is to protect the Black Mesa facility and its equipment in the event of an emergency, with secondary priority to safeguard members of the science team whilst his own personal safety is of relatively low importance.

O

### Appearances

#### *Half-Life*

 File:Bennett rosenberg talking.jpg
Barney is seen at the very start of Gordon Freeman's tram ride to Sector C, knocking on the Area 3 Security Facilities door. He is not seen for the remainder of the game.

Although not seen, Calhoun is also present when Gordon is knocked unconscious by HECU troops during the Apprehension chapter.

#### *Half-Life: Blue Shift*

On May 16, 200-, at 8:42, Barney starts his tram ride from the Area 8 Topside Dormitories at Black Mesa, to start his second Blue Shift day at Area 3 Medium Security Facilities in Sector C. He arrives there sometime before 9:00.

After the Resonance Cascade occurs (at around 9:00), Barney becomes determined to escape from the Black Mesa facility. He locates and frees Dr. Rosenberg, who had been captured by the HECU troops. Rosenberg reveals to Barney his plan of escaping by using an old teleport model. Calhoun helps Rosenberg to prepare everything for successful teleportation. He first travels to the border world Xen, where he activates a device needed for teleport's correct work. Barney then locates, charges and delivers a spare power battery to Doctor Rosenberg. At the end of the game Barney, along with Rosenberg and his two colleagues, Simmons and Walter, manages to escape from the Black Mesa Research Facility, and he is described as being "out of range" by the textual summary, as compared to Gordon Freeman, listed as "hired," and Adrian Shephard, listed as "detained".

#### *Half-Life: Decay*

 File:Calhoun Decay.JPG
In the ending sequence of *Half-Life: Decay*, the main protagonists, Gina Cross and Colette Green, are caught in a harmonic reflux. During that time, they hear Dr. Rosenberg saying "Calhoun, you must hurry! We can't keep the portal open much longer!". In the next frame, what appears to be Barney is briefly seen jumping into the portal teleporting him from Xen, as seen in the *Blue Shift* chapter *Focal Point*.

#### *Half-Life 2*

##### Background

After the Portal Storms, the Seven Hour War, and the subsequent Combine takeover, Barney was presumably relocated to City 17 where he signed up for Civil Protection. This would have been valuable to gain inside information and distribute warnings about upcoming raids or provide misleading intelligence to the Combine though it was likely quite risky to his own safety. At some point before or after his relocation, he also came back into contact with Isaac Kleiner and Eli Vance who had also apparently been relocated to City 17 prior to *Half-Life 2* and participated in their Resistance movement.

On one memorable occasion, Barney was assisting with Kleiner's teleport experiments where Kleiner attempted to transport a cat as a test experiment and something traumatizing happened to it. Barney claims to have persistent nightmares about the cat and even mistakes a distant Strider roar as a meow late in *Half-Life 2*.

##### In-game

 File:Barney meetup.jpg
By a twist of fate, probably orchestrated by the G-Man, Gordon Freeman is released from stasis into the City 17 Trainstation where Barney happens to be having his shift of Civil Protection duty. A security camera rejects Gordon's identity and Barney is able to 'take him away for questioning', saving him from boarding the train to Nova Prospekt and meeting a horrible fate in the depths of the complex. He then contacts Isaac Kleiner, they have a brief chat about how Gordon could get to his lab safely, then Barney lets Gordon escape through a back way.

Sometime later, Barney and Gordon meet up at Kleiner's Lab. After another teleporter mishap that teleports Gordon to several different locations, Barney meets Gordon outside the lab and provides him with a crowbar, and directions to escape on foot to Eli's lab, via the Underground Railroad. Barney then goes back inside Kleiner's Lab, having to look after Kleiner.

Later on, when Gordon and Alyx arrive at Kleiner's Lab from Nova Prospekt, they receive a video transmission from Barney, who needs help fighting the Combine in the streets of City 17.

During the uprising, Barney comes to be the impromptu "field commander" of the Resistance forces and leads the push towards the Citadel in order to rescue Eli Vance. At some point, he is pinned down by Overwatch Snipers that Gordon, finally reaching him, takes down. Together they lead a team of Rebels into the Overwatch Nexus to disable the Suppression Device. Barney uses his Civil Protection status to unlock several barriers Gordon would normally not be able to pass. After Gordon sets off towards the Citadel again, Barney continues to oversee the later stages of the assault on the Overwatch Nexus, until encountering Dog and following him to Gordon's location. Barney is last seen at the foot of the Citadel, telling Gordon "And if you see Dr. Breen, tell him I said, FUCK YOU!". The swear can be heard completely in the audio file but is covered in-game by sound effects (the subtitle is censored as well).

#### *Half-Life 2: Episode One*

 File:Barney Ep1 crowbar.jpg
Barney is encountered late in the game, where he is seen organizing a Resistance push on a train station to escape City 17 before the Citadel self-destructs. His actions have taken its toll on him as he seems very tired, appears to not have shaved, his face being also quite dirty.

He, again, provides Gordon with a crowbar before setting off to round up Citizens in that sector of the city. He then waits for Gordon and Alyx in the parking lot between the train station and the hospital. When the duo arrives, Gordon and Alyx help Barney escort several groups of Citizens through significant Combine resistance into the escape trains. He is last seen leaving on a train saying, "See ya when I see ya!", as Gordon and Alyx decide to take the next one to give him and the Citizens time to escape.

#### *Half-Life 2: Episode Two*

Barney does not appear, nor is even referred to, during the course of *Episode Two*. Given his place as a returning character of note in the series, and that he escaped City 17 ahead of Freeman, he is presumed to still be alive, but his location is unknown.

However, when coming back into White Forest after the Strider battle, he can be heard saying "Good job, Gordon", but is not among the Rebels cheering in the garage. The subtitle appears with Barney's midnight green subtitle color, and uses the *Episode One* subtitle file, as it cannot be found in the *Episode Two* file. Marc Laidlaw stated that it was an accident.

## Relationships

### Gordon Freeman

Barney and Gordon have been friends since Black Mesa. They both would race into Dr. Kleiner's office via the air ducts when he would lock himself out. Barney would save Gordon from a miserable fate at Nova Prospekt, and send him on his way to Kleiner's Lab. The two would later fight side by side in the fierce street fighting in City 17 escorting people out of the city. Barney also comments Gordon's relationship with Alyx, calling Gordon a "lucky dog". He still owes Gordon a beer.

### Alyx Vance

Alyx was just an infant at Black Mesa, and it is unknown if he met her during his tenure as a security guard. Nevertheless, he considers her a worthy ally in the human resistance on the Combine-occupied Earth.

### Isaac Kleiner

Barney essentially serves as Kleiner's bodyguard, keeping the Civil Protection away from the area of the secret lab. Before this, as stated above, he would race Gordon to get to Isaac's office when the latter would lock himself out.

## Behind the scenes

 File:Barneymodel.jpg
* "Barney" is the diminutive of Bernard, Barnaby or Barnabas. "Calhoun" is a Scottish name, a variant of "Colquhoun", from a place name meaning "narrow corner" or "narrow wood" in Gaelic.

* Although initially being the generic security guard from *Half-Life*, an entire class of throwaway characters on its own, he was retconned in *Half-Life: Blue Shift* and *Half-Life 2* as a standalone character, playing increasingly prominent roles as the series has progressed.

* At the beginning of *Blue Shift*, the player may notice strange material in the Calhoun's locker: books titled "The Truth About Aliens" (by RH) (Gordon Freeman also has a copy of this book in his bedroom, as seen in *Decay*) and "Government Conspiracies", hinting that Barney was interested in these subjects. This could also be foreshadowing since the game centers on aliens and government conspiracies. A box in his locker also reveals, when destroyed, a Chumtoad creature as a small Easter egg.

* In the original Kleiner's Lab introduction and teleportation scenes, Barney appears as even more pessimistic than in the final version, expressing even more doubts in very sarcastic and funny remarks each time Kleiner or Mossman say something positive.

* In *Blue Shift*, Barney is always referred to as "Calhoun" or "Mr. Calhoun". His first name is only given in the instruction manual.
* Barney's name is a reference to the The Andy Griffith Show, and so is Otis' name.

 File:Barney helmet hl2 beta.jpg
* In the playable *Half-Life 2* Beta files can be found the model of a slightly damaged security guard helmet, named "BarneyHelmet". Appearing as a Metrocop helmet separated into two parts in the retail files and used upon first meeting Barney in the City 17 Trainstation, it was either used as a place-holder early in development or suggests Barney was to have kept his old helmet, as it appears rather worn out, and it would have been seen at some point during the game as an Easter egg. It is also seen in the Half-Life: 2 beta map dsp\_test.

* Barney sees Gordon three times in *Blue Shift*. He first sees him while he is riding his tram to Sector C, a scene from the start of *Half-Life* from another point of view. Gordon can then be spotted through a security camera heading to the test chamber. The third time is at the end of the game as two HECU soldiers are dragging him away, mirroring a scene from the *Half-Life* chapter *Apprehension*.

* Barney's line "Now... about that beer I owed ya!", said at the start of *Half-Life 2*, is a nod to one of the random security guard sentences heard at the start of *Half-Life*, "Hey, catch me later, I'll buy you a beer."

## Trivia

* Barney is the only known security guard of Black Mesa to survive the Black Mesa Incident.
* Like other important characters, such as Alyx Vance and Father Grigori, Barney regenerates health extremely rapidly. However, it is still possible for him to die during combat, and at several points the player is required to protect him from taking too much damage. His death will result in a black screen fade and failure message before the game reloads. It takes five simultaneous Overwatch Sniper Rifle shots to kill him, indicating that he can absorb an extremely high amount of damage. Barney can often successfully defeat several enemies at once without the player's assistance, but he is vulnerable to multiple enemies mobbing him at close range, or to individual Combine Soldiers equipped with shotguns. He will yell at Gordon if he is under fire, usually yelling at Gordon to "open fire!"

* At the start of *Half-Life*, Barney is seen by Gordon knocking on a door with his armor vest, helmet, flashlight and a handgun already equipped. As this security guard was retconned as Barney Calhoun for *Blue Shift*, an inconsistency appeared, with Barney obtaining his equipment in his locker only after entering the door.

* In *Blue Shift*, Barney is never heard talking from the player's point of view, just as Freeman and Shephard are never heard speaking. However, the chapter *Captive Freight* shows an example of the character apparently speaking but being unheard by the player. When Rosenberg asks him how he knows his name, there is a slight pause, then Rosenberg confirms the name of the scientist who told it to Calhoun ("*Oh, I see. Poor Harold.*"), as if he was answering him.
* In *Half Life 2*, Barney's voice line "If you see Dr. Breen, tell him I said fuck you!" is the only instance of the word "fuck" being used in the *Half Life* series (even though it is censored by the sound of falling debris).

* Barney has a fear of Headcrabs (referencing his time in Black Mesa and Xen as many Headcrabs would jump at Barney when rounding corners and air vents in Blue Shift) seen and heard in the chapter *"A Red Letter Day"*, he has a strong dislike for Kleiner's pet, Lamarr and called her "pest".

* Unlike the HEV users and Adrian Shephard, Barney lacks any form of power armor and is equipped only with a simple armor vest and helmet. Thus, instead of utilizing HEV recharging stations, he must restore his damaged armor by picking up "fresh" vests from fallen comrades along the way. Unlike Freeman and Shephard, he comes across only a few living security guards after the cascade. Moreover, he can communicate with only one of them, who is seen towards the end of the game & only lives long enough to tell Calhoun about recharging the power cell and then immediately dies.
	+ If a security guard is spawned using the console, some quotes like "How's it going, Calhoun?" may be heard.

* At the end of the *Half-Life 2* chapter *Entanglement*, Barney is seen on a monitor holding an MP7. This is the only time he is seen wielding this weapon in *Half-Life 2* and its Episodes, as he is only seen using an AR2 when in combat.

* Barney appears in the *Doom* mod *Massmouth*, equipped with a Desert Eagle as a weapon. Used shortly before his first encounter is the line: "Hey you wouldn't happen to have a quarter, would you?" from Half-Life: Opposing Force. Unlike Otis, he makes several appearances on that level.

* It is possible to "kill" Barney in *Half-Life* by using cheats and shooting him, though Barney will return fire at the player. If Barney is killed, his flash-light will hang in the air. Killing Barney won't affect the storyline, however, as this cannot be achieved by default.

* In Blue Shift, by enabling third-person the player model is shown to be Gordon, not Barney.

## Cryptic Bullshit

A young man sits in a Research Facility, roughly 10 years before the events of canon. He seems to be in his early 20s, with dark hair and brown/blue eyes. He's waiting for someone. Most likely another guard, or one of the less snobby scientists. The Administrator approaches him and asks if he'd like to help advance medical science. He's told that he could help save millions of lives. He agrees.

## Gallery

### *Half-Life: Blue Shift*

Barney files.jpgBarney's letter of reassignment and Security Shift Schedule.Barney letter.jpgBarney schedule.jpgThe Security Shift Schedule, including Barney's Blue Shift in Sector C.Ba security10009.jpgBarney watches Gordon on his way to Sector C.Gina Cross sample cart BS.jpgGina Cross seen delivering the crystal sample as seen through a security camera at the start of *Blue Shift*.Insecurity2.jpgGordon Freeman passing by, through a security camera, at the start of *Blue Shift*.Locker calhoun.pngBarney's locker door.Ba security20010.jpgThe contents of Calhoun's locker showing family, friends pictures, two books titled *The Truth About Aliens* and *Government Conspiracies* and a small cardboard box, mirroring Gordon Freeman's locker contents in *Half-Life*.Ba security20011.jpgThe box revealing a Chumtoad when destroyed.Ba outro gordon.jpgGordon Freeman as seen by Barney Calhoun at the end of *Blue Shift*.Outofrange.svgThe "Out of range" message, closing *Blue Shift*.Blue Shift box.jpg*Blue Shift* box art.Blue Shift cover2.jpgAlternate *Blue Shift* box art.Blue shift wallpaper.jpgWallpaper based on the original cover art.
### *Half-Life 2* and its Episodes

Scott Lynch.jpgScott Lynch's picture used as Barney's face texture.Mikeshapiroraising.pngBarney's voice actor, Michael Shapiro.Ghost02.pngGhostly Beta texture based on the early *Half-Life 2* Barney model, in the way of G-Man's picture, used in the E3 2003 video "Psyche".HL2 Beta Barney.pngEarly *Half-Life 2* model, with the early Metrocop skin.Barney hl2.jpg*Half-Life 2* model.Barney ep1.jpg*Episode One* model.D1 trainstation 010003.jpgBarney revealing himself at the start of *Half-Life 2*.D1 trainstation 010004.jpgOld friends reunite.D1 trainstation 050010.jpgAlyx, Kleiner and Barney in Kleiner's Lab.D1 trainstation 00050011.jpgAlyx and Barney watching monitors in Kleiner's Lab.D1 trainstation 050006.jpgBarney watching monitors in Kleiner's Lab.D1 trainstation 05000700.jpgAlyx and Barney at Kleiner's Lab.D1 trainstation 050021.jpgBarney at Kleiner's Lab.Barney Lamarr Suit.jpgBarney about to release the HEV Suit for Gordon in Kleiner's Lab, and get attacked by Lamarr.Barney keyboard.jpgBarney operating Combine computers during the battle for the Overwatch Nexus.Barney sniper1.jpgBarney being pinned down by Overwatch Snipers.Barney sniper2.jpgDitto.Barney sniper3.jpgBarney reminding Gordon to take down the snipers.Ep1 c17 05000600.jpgBarney smiling at Gordon near the Technical Trainstation.Ep1 c17 060000.JPGBarney and Alyx discussing their escape plan in the Technical Trainstation.Ep1 c17 060003.JPGBarney leaving the Technical Trainstation to an unknown destination.Ep1 c17 060012122.jpgDitto.Ep1 trainstation barney.jpgDitto.
## List of appearances

* *Half-Life: Day One* (First appearance) (Retcon)
* *Half-Life* (Retcon)
* *Half-Life: Blue Shift* (First identified as Barney Calhoun)
* *Half-Life: Decay*
* *Half-Life 2*
* *Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar*
* *Half-Life 2: Episode One*
* *Half-Life 2: Episode Two* (Commentary only)

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 *Half-Life: Blue Shift* instruction manual
2. ↑ *Half-Life 2* credits
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 *Half-Life: Blue Shift*
4. ↑ *Half-Life 2*
5. ↑ *Half-Life 2: Episode One*
6. ↑ Marc Laidlaw on Barney's appearance in *Episode Two*
7. ↑ Barney on Behind the Name
8. ↑ Calhoun on Behind the Name

## See also

* *Half-Life* series retcons

de:Barney Calhoun
es:Barney Calhoun
fr:Barney\_Calhoun
pl:Barney\_Calhoun
ru:Барни Калхаун