Splinter Cell

Splinter Cell is a series of video games and novels from American author Tom Clancy. The main character, Sam Fisher is a highly trained agent of a black-ops division of the NSA, named "Third Echelon".

Splinter cell

Main article: Third Echelon

A "splinter cell" is an agent of Third Echelon of the National Security Agency (NSA) that is sent out into the world to exercise the use of a "fifth freedom"; the freedom to do whatever is necessary to preserve national security and peace for the United States. They are elite intelligence-gathering forces consisting of a lone field operative supported by a remote team. The driving concept behind the development of this type of force is complete deniability–if the field operative is captured or killed, the United States government will deny knowledge of his actions or existence, "splintering" him off from the government.

The first "splinter cell" was Sam Fisher.

Video games

The series of video games are third-person stealth shooters developed and published by Ubisoft.

• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell — (2002) Xbox, PlayStation 2, GameCube, PC, Macintosh, Game Boy Advance
  • Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Team Action Stealth — (2003) N-Gage
• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow — (2004) Xbox, PS2, GameCube, PC, Game Boy Advance
• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory — (2005) Xbox, PS2, GameCube, PC, N-Gage

A fourth Splinter Cell game is currently being developed by Ubisoft for a planned release in early 2006.

Novels

Although the series was created by Tom Clancy, the novels are written under a pseudonym, David Michaels. The first novel was written by American author Raymond Benson also known for being the author of several official James Bond novels.

1. Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell (2004)
2. Untitled (November 2005)

Movie

The existence of a movie in pre-production has been confirmed both by news sources and by the inclusion of a teaser trailer in the Limited Edition version of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. Paramount Pictures has acquired the rights for the film and has purportedly hired Peter Berg, director of 2004's Friday Night Lights, for the project.

The screenplay is believed to be in the hands of J.T. Petty, the writer for the three Splinter Cell games, and John J. McLaughlin, the screenwriter for the 2005 film Man of the House.

Others known to be involved with the movie are executive producers Michael Ovitz, Michael Clancy, and Yves Guillemot.

External links

• Splinter Cell (2006) at the Internet Movie Database
• Splinter Cell, Official site
• Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, Official site
• Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, Official site
• About.com's page on the Splinter Cell movie.