Mercenaries in popular culture


Like piracy, the mercenary ethos resonates with idealized adventure, mystery, and danger, and appears frequently in popular culture. Many are called adventurers, filibusters, soldiers of fortune, gunslingers, gunrunners, ronin, and knights errant.

Books

Mercenaries have featured in a number of science fiction novels. The well-known author Jerry Pournelle has written several books about science-fiction mercenaries known as Falkenberg's Legion. Also, author David Drake has written a number of books about the fictional hovercraft armored regiment Hammer's Slammers. Both series of books are brutal in their portrayal of complex low-intensity warfare despite technological advances. Gordon R. Dickson's Dorsai!, part of his Childe Cycle, includes the planet Dorsai with a society structured like that of Switzerland. Like the old style Swiss mercenaries who hired themselves out to the Italian states, Dorsai hire themselves out to other planets. A series by Mercedes Lackey concerning mercenaries is the Vows and Honor Trilogy. Barry Sadler formerly of the U.S. Army Special Forces and singer of "Ballad of the Green Beret" wrote a series called Casca series about Casca Rufio Longinius, a soldier in the Roman legions who is cursed by Christ on Golgotha for driving a spear into him.
There have been a number of books based on the fictional universe developed for the board game BattleTech and in which mercenaries feature: Robert Thurston, The Legend of the Jade Phoenix; Loren L. Coleman, Patriots and Tyrants and Storms of Fate. The mercenary industry in the BattleTech universe is also depicted as a booming profession, with mercenaries being accredited for work through an interstellar body called the Mercenary Review and Bonding Commission.
Also George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire an epic fantasy series, feature mercenary characters known as "sellswords", who are generally seen as greedy, unscrupulous and cowardly by the society. Similarly, Glen Cook's The Black Company series focuses on the adventures of an elite mercenary unit.
The South African mercenary, Christian Rindert is a principal character in Hugh Paxton's 2006 novel Homunculus published by Macmillan in paperback which features mercenary operations and the testing of horrific new bio-weapons during the civil war in Sierra Leone.
In the Ashes series by William W. Johnstone, the main character of Ben Raines is mentioned as having worked as a mercenary-for-hire in several African armed conflicts after leaving the U.S. military. During his service time, he was a member of the 'Hell-Hounds', a military unit that is said to be the closest version to a mercenary group that the U.S. has ever fielded in battle.
Mercenaries or "Mercs" are a recurring characters in "The Chronicles of Riddick" Universe. In this setting, Mercs are often found filling the roles of Bounty Hunters who take out contracts to capture the universe's most dangerous criminals and turn them over to brutal Triple Max Prisons. These Mercs often work alone or in small groups, however they are known to sign on to larger crews depending on their contract. Mercs are contracted through an umbrella organisation known as "The Guild" which legalizes and loosely monitors their activities, however, many Mercs are partial to the practices of kidnapping for profit and stealing prisoners, often using extreme violence. There are vary few limits to which these Mercs will go to accomplish a mission, such as posing as police officers and infiltrating occupied planets just to capture one rogue convict. The recent Xbox 360 game The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena features a large group of "Rogue Mercs" arguably space pirates, who raid passing vessels and transform the occupants into mindless "Ghost Drones" which become a commodity to sell to the warring factions of the galaxy. Bounty Hunter Mercs are sometimes known as "Fake Badges".

Magazines and comics

A magazine ostensibly written for mercenary soldiers is Soldier of Fortune. The popularity of SOF led to a several similar magazines with titles such as Survive, Gung Ho!, New Breed, Eagle, Combat Illustrated, Special Weapons and Tactics, Combat and Survival, and Combat Ready that have mostly ceased publication.
Captain Easy Soldier of Fortune was an American comic from the 1930s to the 1980s.
The manga Hellsing features a band of mercenaries known as The Wild Geese, led by Pip Bernadotte. It is unclear whether the mercenaries are intended to be representing the same group as in the Daniel Carney novel, though this is possible. It is also likely that the group takes its name from The Wild Geese, the Irish who left Ireland following the Treaty of Limerick, since it was the Wild Geese serving France who finally broke the back of the English army at the Battle of Fontenoy in 1745.
The manga Dragon Ball features the Ginyu Force, elite mercenaries hired by Freeza.
The manga Berserk promeniently features a group of mercenaries, the Band of the Hawk. The main character, Guts, is also raised by mercenaries.
The manga Inuyasha features The Band of Seven, a band of seven mercenaries that loved to kill and were so strong that warlords feared their strength even as allies, before they were hunted down and beheaded. They were revived ten years later as spectres guarding the main antagonist Naraku in exchange for eternal life from Shikon Jewel shards.
Full Metal Panic! and its various sequels focus largely on a mercenary organization known as Mithril.
The manga and anime series Black Lagoon focuses on a group of mercenaries known as The Lagoon Company and pirates in present-day Southeast Asia.
The Marvel Universe features many mercenary characters as heroes or villains most notably Deadpool. Others include Moon Knight, Taskmaster, Agent X, Luke Cage, Silver Sable and Bullseye. Mercenaries can make convenient enemies for superheroes because, plot-wise, they require no further motivation than to have been hired by another enemy.
The webcomic Schlock Mercenary follows the galactic adventures of a 31st-century mercenary company.
Slade Wilson, AKA Deathstroke is a mercenary in the DC Universe, and is an enemy of Batman and the Teen Titans. He appears in various media such as Teen Titans, Arrow, ', ', Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, ' and ', among others.
Similarly, Floyd Lawton is a mercenary sniper and killer in the DC Universe, enemy of Batman, Green Arrow and other characters; ha appears also in animated shows and videogames based on DC chars, as Justice League, Arrow, ', Injustice 2, ', Suicide Squad and others

Theatre

The song "Mercenary Song" off the album Train A Comin' by Steve Earle is about a pair of mercenaries.
The song "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner" by Warren Zevon recounts the exploits of a Norwegian mercenary in the Congo. Similarly his track "Jungle Work!" does the same, citing "le mercenaire" directly in the lyrics.
The Song "the Hero" by the death metal band Amon Amarth is about a mercenary.
Also their 2016 released album "Jomsviking" is about a historic company of Viking mercenaries.
The song "Straw Dogs" by The Stiff Little Fingers is about mercenaries.
John Cale recorded a song titled "Mercenaries" on his album Sabotage/Live in 1979.
British death metal band Bolt Thrower released an album entitled Mercenary in 1998.
British heavy metal band Iron Maiden has a song titled "The Mercenary", on their album Brave New World. The song's lyrics appear to be inspired by the film Predator.
Irish band Thin Lizzy included a song titled "Soldier Of Fortune" on their album Bad Reputation 1977.
The soldier of fortune that appears in the lyrics is Costas Georgiou also called Col. Callan who was executed after the Luanda Trial in 1976.
American singer-songwriter Harry Chapin recorded a song entitled "Mercenaries", which first appeared on his 1977 album Dance Band on the Titanic. A live version of the track appears on 1998's The Bottom Line Encore Collection.

Board and card games

In , 'Mercenary' is one of several 'creature types' game cards can possess. The type was introduced in Ice Age, but became widely used in Mercadian Masques, in 1999. The Mercadian Masque mercenary cards were colored, representing entropy, darkness, or selfishness. Many of these cards could expedite bringing smaller Mercenaries into play.
In Warhammer, Dogs of War is a mercenary army that can act independently, but it is also possible for other armies to field Dogs of War units. These units include the Regiments of Renown.
The board game BattleTech has several mercenary units, some very powerful and well-equipped.

Computer and video games

The computer game series Jagged Alliance focuses on a team of mercenaries doing several missions in fictional underdeveloped nations. In 2005, LucasArts released a game for PlayStation 2 and Xbox titled ', where the player controls one of three mercenaries in North Korea, and is able to accept mercenary contracts from the Allied Nations, South Korea, China, and the Russian Mafia. The game Army of Two and ' focuses on a pair of Mercenaries. More recently, the game Far Cry 2 allows the player to take control of one of 9 mercenaries in a fictional African conflict; this portrayal of mercenary ethos is thought to be particularly realistic. Borderlands is a first-person role-playing shooter from Gearbox Software that puts players into the shoes of one of four playable mercenary characters as they traverse the hostile planet of Pandora in search of a mysterious "Vault," said to contain priceless unknown riches. Also the game ' puts the player in command of a group of mercenaries. The classes in the multiplayer first-person shooter Team Fortress 2 are stated to be mercenaries hired by RED and BLU.
Mercenaries from the board game BattleTech were featured in several of the spin-off MechWarrior computer games.
Many video games feature mercenary characters or organizations, either in a modern setting such as ', ', the Far Cry series, the Metal Gear Solid series; or in a fantasy/sci-fi setting, such as Mass Effect, MAG, ', Haze, Final Fantasy VIIs Cloud Strife; or a full organization like SeeD from Final Fantasy VIII, the Star Fox team, or the mercenaries from ', who form a separate faction in the game. The latter is presented mainly as independent groups of loosely affiliated private military forces, and although most are professional soldiers, they are ill-equipped and inexperienced with many of the "special" dangers posed in Chernobyl's contaminated zone. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Mercenaries can be completely routed and almost entirely driven from the region by the last installation of the series. The faction itself is unique because its members utilize small numbers of modern and sophisticated NATO-type weaponry in contrast with the outdated Warsaw Pact equipment still used by most other groups. Due to a general lack of fresh ammunition and supplies, however, the Mercenaries apparently found their own small arms increasingly difficult to maintain while attempting to support a permanent presence in the Zone. By the end of the storyline, many have simply started using the Soviet-era weapons utilized by rival factions.
In Red Faction, "mercs" are used by the corporation ULTOR to kill rioting miners before the Earth Defense Forces arrive. Players may also participate as mercenary pilots in Air Combat, Ace Combat 2 and Ace Combat Zero, and the game Strike Commander features a player-run mercenary air force. Armored Core features a mercenary organization consisting of pilots of huge Mecha. In the Total War series, battalions of mercenaries can be hired at inns or in the field. In two Fire Emblem games, ' and ', the protagonist Ike is the leader of a mercenary group employed by other kingdoms in heroic causes; additionally, in most other games in the series, the "mercenary" is a basic sword-wielding character class. Along with these, the Beowulf archetype in the series applies to characters who only join the player's army if paid a large amount of G. In the Treasures of Aht Urgan expansion for Final Fantasy XI, players are recruited into the "Salaheem's Sentinels" mercenary company, for which they can take on various missions called "Assaults" for various rewards. This is likewise for Dante, the protagonist of Devil May Cry.
In a recent release, Age of Empires III and ' allows a feature that mercenaries from foreign countries may be hired. In the Halo universe, the Kig-Yar species are employed as mercenaries and privateers and are commonly deployed as scouts, snipers, or special infantry. Blizzard Entertainment's award-winning game Diablo II features several mercenaries for hire in each Act to fight for the player. The same applies to ', Blizzard's expansion to their strategy game Warcraft III, where players can hire mercenary heroes for a slightly higher cost than regular heroes from a special building called the tavern, and as well in the StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty campaign where you can hire mercenaries based on normal units with higher attributes in the cantina in the Hyperion. Numerous mercenary characters are found in Resident Evil, groups that provide such services as mercenaries include the U.B.C.S. or characters like Hunk, Jack Krauser, etc. In the Xbox 360 game Chromehounds, a mercenary organization called Rafzakael guides the player throughout the story mode and the online mode. A highly known series regarding the government hiring mercenaries in order to fight a threat is the Soldier of Fortune games; it regards a Capitol Hill conspiracy about Specialized mercenaries hired by G8 and the United Nations. In, Cuban and Central American Mercenaries are used by narco-terrorist Raul Menendez to attack China and NATO, alongside hacked drones. They carry advanced weaponry, including the IWI X95, XM8 rifle, Saiga-12, QBB-95 and the A-91, as well as UAV technology and active camouflage.
In ', Sam Fisher has several run ins with a notoriously ruthless private military company known as "Black Arrow". Although nominally based in Panama City, the corporation conducts business on the global scale and is implied to rely mainly on American operatives. Due to controversy over previous dealings, Black Arrow is eventually expelled from the United States and works on improving its business in third-world conflict zones such as Uganda, the Comoros Islands, Haiti, and Suriname.
Several different mercenary groups appear in the 2008 video game Fallout 3; most are presented as antagonists to the player.
In the DC Comics video game ', a specialized team of highly trained mercenaries are featured, contracted from a clandestine private security agency known as "Tyger". Made up of former military and police operators, Tyger is implied by viral marketing sources to be one of the best mercenary units "in the world". When the denizens of Gotham City are rounded up and carted off to rot in a walled-off prison district known as 'Arkham City', Hugo Strange arms the perimeter of the new project with Tyger troops to prevent inmates from escaping. Dressed from head to toe in starched black uniforms, berets, and flak jackets, the mercenaries are equipped with high-powered assault rifles and night vision goggles to go about their tasks. Some personnel also make overhead passes in armored helicopters to monitor the situation on the ground, although their main purpose seems to be to eventually take down Batman, the protagonist, himself.
Early on in the game, players are given an option to hack Tyger's radio frequencies, giving them insight into the organization and its goals in and around Arkham.
In the game Mount & Blade and its sequel ', the player character can hire mercenary units at taverns in all cities. They cost more than normal units recruited from villages both in the initial cost and their upkeep, they are however stronger than the lowest tier of units recruited from villages which need to gain experience to advance in rank and therefore in ability and equipment.
In ', "Wolfpack" is a featured mercenary group employed by Umbrella Corporation. They are dispatched into Raccoon City to run various missions on behalf of Umbrella's interests ranging from destruction of physical evidences to assassination of incriminating eyewitnesses.
In ', a bankrupt PMC known as Peacekeepers International become a rogue group that supplies weapons to the Mendoza Cartel.
Once again, Deathstroke is featured in many DC Comics games.
The popular video game "Grand Theft Auto V" features the company "Merryweather Security", as a satire on the corruptness of the real world company "Academi"

A toast

A mercenary toast: "Vive la mort, vive la guerre, vive le sacré mercenaire" was used in the novel and film The Dogs of War. It is also mentioned in a couple of books. There is a similar toast to the French Foreign Legion which pre-dates the film "Vive la mort, vive la guerre, vive la Légion Etrangère".