Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell is a series of award-winning and critically acclaimed stealth video games created and published by Ubisoft and endorsed by American author Tom Clancy. The series centers around Splinter Cell agent Sam Fisher, a highly-trained field operative of Third Echelon, a top-secret NSA initiative. Sam Fisher is in the Splinter Cell Program, a covert operations program created a black-ops project and training program created by Third Echelon. The Splinter Cell Program produced and deployed units of highly-trained forward operators as the ultimate intelligence gathering force, with the support of a cutting edge technological team to retrieve information through traditional espionage techniques, but with 21st century military technology.
The success of the Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell video game series spawned a novel series in 2004 authored under the pseudonym "David Michaels". Splinter Cell, as a brand, is owned by Tom Clancy's company, Rubicon, and is licensed to Ubisoft to make the video game series. The characters of the game, as well as Third Echelon itself, were created by Ubisoft writer JT Petty.
Games
- Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell (2002)
- Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Mission Pack (2003)
- Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (2004)
- Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory (2005)
- Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Essentials (2006)
- Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent (Version 1) (2006)
- Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent (Version 2) (2006)
- Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction (2010)
- Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist (2013)
- Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Omega Protocol (Cancelled)
- Splinter Cell Remake (TBA)
Handheld
- Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Team Stealth Action (2003)
- Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (GBA) (2004)
- Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory (N-Gage/DS) (2005)
- Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction (DS) (2008, Cancelled)
- Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell 3D (2011)
Mobile
- Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell (Mobile) (2002)
- Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Extended Ops (2003)
- Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (Mobile) (2004)
- Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory (Mobile) (2005)
- Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent (Mobile) (2006)
- Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction (Mobile) (2010)
- Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction (iOS/Android) (2010)
- Splinter Cell: Blacklist Spider-Bot (2013)
Novels
There are nine novels set in the Splinter Cell universe. All of the novels are written under the pseudonym "David Michaels" by various authors except for the latest ones which is by Peter Telep and James Swallow.
- Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell (2004)
- Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Operation Barracuda (2005)
- Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Checkmate (2006)
- Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Fallout (2007)
- Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction (2009)
- Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Endgame (2009)
- Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist Aftermath (2013)
- Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Firewall (2022)
- Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Dragonfire (2023)
Graphic novels
- Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (2004)
- Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Digging in the Ashes (2010)
- Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Echoes (2013)
Short stories
- The End Begins: Splinter Cell (2008): Takes place in 2015 and follows Splinter Cell Leon Coltrane on a mission to Russia.
The Movie
The existence of a Splinter Cell The Movie in pre-production was confirmed both by both news sources and by the inclusion of a teaser trailer in Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. Originally, Peter Berg, director of Friday Night Lights, was slated to direct/produce and Splinter Cell series scriptwriter JT Petty was slated to write, along with John J. McLaughlin.
JT Petty and Peter Berg left the project in summer 2005 and the project shifted from Paramount Pictures to DreamWorks. Not long after, however, Viacom, the parent company of Paramount Pictures, purchased DreamWorks. In 2012 it was announced that Tom Hardy would be playing Sam Fisher and that Doug Liman would be directing. Subsequent reports indicate that they are working on the script. The film was slated to be released in 2015 by Ubisoft Motion Pictures but nothing else has been announced as of mid 2018.
Connections to other franchises
- There is a brief crossover with Sam Fisher in Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory and the PS2/GameCube version of Ghost Recon 2.
- Third Echelon is briefly mentioned in Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2.
- Sam Fisher mentioned in Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 from briefs Bishop's team during the operation Act 2: Old Vegas as first agent who has gone dark. This is an allusion to the hidden Sam Fisher, where the storyline proceeds after the events of Splinter Cell: Essentials in conjunction with Double Agent.
- Third Echelon confirmed the location of Artemis Global Security's Board of Directors in H.A.W.X.
- Anna Grímsdóttir and various Splinter Cell operatives, such as Thomas Voeckler, appear in the EndWar spin-off novels.
- In September 2013, there was a crossover between Splinter Cell and Ghost Recon Phantoms, with Fisher's iconic gear appearing in the game.[1]
- On April 10th 2018, there was a crossover between Splinter Cell and Ghost Recon Wildlands, with Fisher's iconic gear appearing in the game and a DLC mission with Michael Ironside returning as Sam Fisher.
- Sam Fisher plays a role in Ghost Recon Breakpoint's second chapter, Deep State.
- Sam Fisher's Multi-Vision Goggles in Assassin's Creed Odyssey, accompanied by Leila Hassan's phrase: "Looks Third Echelon. Or is it Fourth?".
- Far Cry New Dawn notes – The suit, the broken Paladin, and nine Fisher notes after the nuclear apocalypse from Far Cry 5. The contents of these notes are closely related to the plot from Ghost Recon: Wildlands, which says that there is a possibility of missing nuclear weapons, while in the universe of Far Cry 5 they explode.
- A teddy bear behind a ventilation grate with Multi-Vision Goggles in The Division 2 DLC.