| “ | I'm the captain now! | ” |
Olson is the main antagonist in The Dark Pictures Anthology's first installment, Man of Medan. He, along with his henchman Danny and younger brother Junior, is a pirate fisherman who kidnaps the protagonists in order to rob them. He was voiced and motion captured by Kwasi Songui and was modelled on Winston Thomas.
Appearance[]
Olson is a man with a dark complexion. He has dark brown eyes (the left eye is blind), very shaved black hair (appears almost bald) with a big scar running from the center of his head to the middle of his forehead and a trimmed beard. Olson also has creases near the nose.
Olson wears a blue ripped sleeveless shirt with a garnet collar and dons green cargo shorts with a bunch of pockets. Olson also walks barefoot.
During storms and attacks on the protagonists, Olson, like the other pirates, wears a dark green raincoat. As the game progresses, Olson's clothes become slightly dirty and wet as he moves around the ship. Also, the top of his shirt can be covered in blood.
Personality[]
Olson comes off as demanding and very aggressive. After taking over the Duke of Milan, he proclaims himself the new captain and demands total obedience. Olson is violent and ready to hurt the protagonists if they provoke him or do not follow his orders (beats Conrad for his evening taunting and hits Fliss if she tries to call for help), and sometimes even threatens to kill them (tries to shoot Conrad when he sails away on a boat and threatens to shoot Julia when Alex blackmails Olson with Danny). At the same time, Olson can show his merciful side as during a storm, he can save Fliss when she is about to fall overboard.
Olson is very greedy and always covets as much wealth as possible. Upon learning about the Manchurian Gold, he sets out to find it and treats the protagonists like prisoners, for which he was criticized by Junior and Danny as the pirates only had to rob the group. Even when Olson is exposed to Manchurian Gold, which is actually a chemical, he is still eager to find the treasure and becomes paranoid, thinking that gold is being hidden from him and the group wants it for themselves.
On the Ourang Medan, beginning to see hallucinations, Olson falls into a panic attack and begins to truly believe that the ship is haunted and that the spirits of the dead have come for him. At the same time, he continues to think of himself as the captain and feels power over the protagonists as without the distributor cap they won't escape anywhere. Also, Olson is shown to be more prone to violence as when encountering the protagonists, he always deliberately tries to kill them in a violent way.
Biography[]
Olson was one of the pirates to board the Duke of Milan in the stormy night of June 20, 2019. Having found the coordination of a gold, the pirates drove to the abandoned SS Ourang Medan, only to find out the threat lying within. Subsequently, Olson gradually became insane because of the ship's atmosphere, which culminated with his death, becoming another victim of the SS Ourang Medan.
Man of Medan[]
| Chapter Appearances | |||
| Chinese Market | Absent | ||
| The Duke | Absent | Finding Friends | Absent |
| Wreck | Absent | Ritual | Absent |
| Dive | Absent | Pressure | Absent |
| Uninvited Guests | Debut | Plunged | Appears |
| Ghost Story | Absent | Glamor Girl | Absent |
| Intrusion | Appears | Revenge | Appears |
| Storm | Appears | Open Deck | Absent |
| Abandoned Ship | Appears | Distress Signal | Absent |
| Trapped | Voice | Depths | Appears |
| An Escape | Appears | Junior | Appears |
| Danny | Absent | Olson | Appears |
| Caskets | Cameo | Flooded | Appears (Death) |
| Echo | Absent | Matters of the Heart | Appears (Death) |
| The End | Determinant | ||
Main Story[]
Act 1[]
While riding a speedboat, the pirates encounter the Duke of Milan and accidentally brushes the dive buoy, damaging the boat. Olson complains to Fliss and Conrad, to which the latter taunts them by throwing money in the water, causing the embittered trio to sail away.
At night, Olson and the other pirates sneak onto the Duke of Milan and take the protagonists hostage, in particular Olson ambushes Fliss. Locking the group in the main bedroom, Olson sits at the helm. After a while, he takes Fliss and threatens to force her to cooperate when Conrad, who was also brought in by the pirates, intercedes on her behalf. Olson begins to beat Conrad, but under persuasion from Fliss and Danny, he calms down and continues to talk with Fliss. When Conrad is attempting to escape, Olson plays a major role in the suppression of the protagonists' rebellion. Regardless of the outcome of the escape attempt, when the protagonists are taken back to the cabin, Danny finds a document about Manchurian Gold on the shelf and reports it to Olson.
When the storm begins to approach, Olson takes Fliss out on deck and orders her to find out how long it will last. As the storm intensifies, Olson leads the boat to the coordinates of the Manchurian Gold and becomes one of those who sees the SS Ourang Medan.
Act 2[]
Thinking that there is Manchurian Gold on the ship, the pirates board and take the protagonists with them. The trio locks the group in one of the rooms, after which Olson and Danny leave to inspect the cargo hold. When the protagonists manage to escape, Olson takes a sledgehammer with him and goes off to look for them. He finds Alex and Julia on the bridge at Cargo Hold 1 and breaks the bridge, causing the couple to fall into the water. As the two get out of the water and begin to run away, Olson follows them and possibly catches and kills one of the protagonists.
Act 3[]
After the two protagonists go down for the generator and try to find their way out of the engine room, they see Olson interrogating Danny about the gold. Danny denies it, after which he stabs him in the stomach or stays motionless (depending on whether Alex drowned Danny or not), but either way Olson puts his body on the table. He notices the protagonists and starts chasing them, but loses sight of the two.
If Alex is dead, went down for the generator, or is the only one left in the radio room, those who survived the confrontation with Junior in Cargo Hold 3 (the two protagonists and Junior himself) will notice Olson running on the balcony and follow him. Meanwhile, Olson makes it to Cargo Hold 2, where he encounters a third protagonist who has come down after the others. Depending on decisions made and whoever opened the bulkhead door, Olson will die by being split in half, electrocution, or a heart attack.
If Alex is left with someone in the radio room, Olson will wander around the lower deck and, after encountering the protagonists, start running away from them. Olson stumbles upon a kitchen, where he dies of a heart attack caused by the Manchurian Gold, with the distributor cap in his hand.
Possible Deaths[]
| Chapter | Mechanism of Kill | Caused by | Conditions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flooded | Split in half by cargo door | Alex |
|
| Brad | |||
| Fliss | |||
| Julia | |||
| Electrocution | Any protagonists | The diving protagonist opened the bulkhead door; Olson kills them; The other protagonist does not flee. | |
| The diving protagonist opened the bulkhead door; Olson does not kill them; The protagonists choose to help OR the protagonists choose to attack and complete the QTE. | |||
| Heart attack | Manchurian Gold | Olson opened the bulkhead door; The protagonist didn't pull the lever (Curator's Cut). | |
| The diving protagonist opened the bulkhead door; Olson kills them and the other protagonist flees. | |||
| Same condition; Olson does not kill them and the protagonists do not help or attack him. | |||
| Matters of the Heart | Always happens. |
Killed Victims[]
| Chapter | Character | Mechanism of Kill | Condition |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intrusion | Conrad | Shot in the chest | Conrad passed Keep Calm segment; Conrad chose to escape on the speedboat; Conrad completed QTEs to escape; Conrad failed QTE to dodge the shot (Theatrical Cut). |
| Alex offered to escape on the speedboat; Alex chose to protect Julia or did nothing (Curator's Cut). | |||
| Revenge | Alex | Throat slit | Alex took the kitchen knife; Conrad didn't escape and is alive; Alex failed to escape from Olson. |
| Head bashed in | Alex didn't take the knife OR Alex gave the knife to Conrad; Conrad didn't escape and is alive; Alex failed to escape from Olson. | ||
| Julia | Stabbed in the back | Alex took the kitchen knife; Conrad didn't escape and is alive; Julia failed to escape from Olson. | |
| Neck snapped | Alex didn't take the knife OR Alex gave the knife to Conrad; Conrad didn't escape and is alive; Julia failed to escape from Olson. | ||
| Flooded | Alex | Choked | Olson opened the bulkhead door; The diving protagonist doesn't pull the lever (Curator's Cut). |
| Assist - Split in half by cargo door | Same condition; Alex fails QTEs to escape from under the cargo door (Theatrical Cut). | ||
| Head smashed with sledgehammer | Alex opened the bulkhead door; The other protagonist grabs the distributor cap; Both protagonists fail QTEs. | ||
| Brad | Choked | Olson opened the bulkhead door; The diving protagonist doesn't pull the lever (Curator's Cut). | |
| Assist - Split in half by cargo door | Same condition; Brad fails QTEs to escape from under the cargo door (Theatrical Cut). | ||
| Head smashed with sledgehammer | Brad opened the bulkhead door; The other protagonist grabs the distributor cap; Both protagonists fail QTEs. | ||
| Conrad | Choked | Olson opened the bulkhead door; The diving protagonist doesn't pull the lever (Curator's Cut). | |
| Assist - Split in half by cargo door | Same condition; Conrad fails QTEs to escape from under the cargo door (Theatrical Cut). | ||
| Fliss | Choked | Olson opened the bulkhead door; The diving protagonist doesn't pull the lever (Curator's Cut). | |
| Assist - Split in half by cargo door | Olson opened the bulkhead door; Fliss fails QTEs to escape from under the cargo door (Theatrical Cut). | ||
| Head smashed with sledgehammer | Fliss opened the bulkhead door; The other protagonist grabs the distributor cap; Both protagonists fail QTEs. | ||
| Julia | Choked | Olson opened the bulkhead door; The diving protagonist doesn't pull the lever (Curator's Cut). | |
| Assist - Split in half by cargo door | Olson opened the bulkhead door; Julia fails QTEs to escape from under the cargo door (Theatrical Cut). | ||
| Head smashed with sledgehammer | Julia opened the bulkhead door; the other protagonist grabs the distributor cap; Both protagonists fail QTEs. |
Trivia[]
Pictures[]
- Olson appears in 3 pictures: Know the Ropes, Cut and Run, and In the Offing.
Facts[]
- Born in French Polynesia like Fliss, Danny, and Junior, Olson can speak both English and French fluently.
- Olson has the most forms as a hallucination: Alex's double, drowned, bloody and anomalous.
Other[]
- Olson shares the same face model as:
- André Tanguy from Shattered State.
- Older Vincent Barnes from Little Hope.
- Balathu from House of Ashes.
- One of Olson's lines: "I'm the captain now!" is a reference to the 2013 film Captain Phillips.
Quotes[]
| “ | Hey, we got damage here. You see this? Look at our boat! | ” |
| “ | Think about what you're doing, boy. | ” |
| “ | I'm the captain now! | ” |
| “ | Which one of you is gonna tell me about this... "Manchurian Gold"? | ” |
| “ | What's the problem with sharing all that gold huh? There must be plenty of that to go around! More than enough! And we're all in this together! Tryin' to cut me outta the deal? | ” |
Gallery
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| Protagonists |
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| Antagonists | |||||||
| Supporting Characters | |||||||