This article contains spoilers. Read at your own risk! It might spoil your gaming experience when first playing the related games.

"The biggest embarrassment has been Black Mesa facility, but I think that's finally taken care of itself... quite so." ―The G-Man[src]

The Mark IV Thermonuclear Device, nicknamed "The Package", is a thermonuclear warhead stolen by the Black Ops, and used to destroy the Black Mesa Research Facility.

Contents show]

Overview

The bomb is first introduced in Opposing Force's fifth chapter, Friendly Fire, where it can be seen in the back of a truck, guarded by two Black Ops assassins, and near the rocket from which it was removed, in an Ordinance Storage Facility connected to Sector E Materials Transport.

Later in the game, in the thirteenth chapter, "The Package", Shephard discovers two other Black Ops assassins setting up the bomb in an underground parking lot under the large Ordinance Storage Facility and connected to Sector E Materials Transport. After killing the assassins, he deactivates it. Afterwards, he proceeds to a nearby room with a view on the truck, and witnesses the G-Man reactivating it. He cannot return to the truck, making the destruction of Black Mesa inevitable.

The bomb explodes when Shephard is detained by the G-Man aboard an Osprey at the end of the game, when a white flash covers the screen while the G-Man makes a slight pause in his monologue.

Instructions

The following instructions are written inside the bomb's lid:

MANUAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR A: MARK IV THERMONUCLEAR DEVICE This device carries a GRADE C plutonium control detonator.

With this device an approximate safe distance of

55 kilometers is recommended.

STEP1: Indispose the gravatronic rev limiter to 11. STEP2: Rotate red knob to the on position. STEP3: Press button labeled B.



Behind the scenes

Although subsequent games tend to disregard the Gearbox expansions' storyline, series' writer Marc Laidlaw has confirmed that the destruction of the Black Mesa Research Facility at the end of Opposing Force is canon.[1]

Trivia

In the chapter Friendly Fire , the bomb only appears as a rough brush, while it is a detailed model in the chapter "The Package" .

, the bomb only appears as a rough brush, while it is a detailed model in the chapter . The warhead's lid has a set of instructions, one of them humorously reads: "Indispose the gravatronic rev limiter to 11." This being a reference to the film 'Spinal Tap' and the famous amp scene, the joke here being that a nuclear bomb's damage lever doesn't end at 10, it unnecessarily goes one higher.

The events that lead up to Adrian Shephard attempting to deactivate the bomb is very similar to the 1999 film Fight Club , with both protagonists frantically fighting through an underground parking garage, finding the bomb located in the back of a truck and successfully deactivating it, only for both the respective protagonists actions being rendered null and void in the final seconds. Additionally, both the game and film were made in the same year of 1999. Tyler Durden and the G-Man even share similar characteristics of being unpredictable enigmas.

similar to the 1999 film , with both protagonists frantically fighting through an underground parking garage, finding the bomb located in the back of a truck and successfully deactivating it, only for both the respective protagonists actions being rendered null and void in the final seconds. Additionally, both the game and film were made in the same year of 1999. Tyler Durden and the G-Man even share similar characteristics of being unpredictable enigmas. The device resembles the American W88 thermonuclear warhead; with the exception of the side mounted control panel which could be a custom modification by the Black Mesa Research Facility on a pre-existing warhead. This control panel could however be apart of an original warhead design, hence the name sharing no connection to any other similarly styled U.S. warhead.

Gallery

Add an image

List of appearances