Zeke Dunbar

"Look, I'm being serious man, now DARPA is the mother-load of black-ops crap. If she's in with those clowns, you better watch out, son." - Zeke Dunbar

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, and Santa Claus shot JFK, now where are those drinks?" - Cole MacGrath

Zeke Jedediah Dunbar

	
		
		
	
	
In-Game Information
Gender
Male

Zeke Jedediah Dunbar is Cole MacGrath's best friend, and his most trustworthy ally in post-quarantine Empire City, as well as the anti-hero of InFamous. Zeke is somewhat sterotypically overweight, often talks about greasy pizza and meat, although Trish, Cole, and Zeke himself seem to not notice. Zeke is also fond of conspiracy theories, and after the explosion, his main concern is in figuring out which one was responsible.

InFAMOUS

Concept art of Zeke.

He lets Cole stay at his place in the Neon District, even if Cole reaches Infamous-level Karma. He was quite fond of "the Voice of Survival", a pirate broadcaster who hacked into the television signals of Empire City to spread a message imploring the citizens not to trust the government, and to do whatever it takes to survive. Zeke's high opinion of the Voice changed when he began focusing his broadcasts on painting Cole as a terrorist. Zeke's jealousy of Cole's newfound superpowers leads him to take dangerous risks, such as trying to sneak into a stronghold of the Dust Men singlehandedly in order to gather information and prove that he can be of real help. While initially hateful of law enforcement his tone later changes during the quarantine when he realizes that any police officer willing to stay in the city dispite the quarantine is the real deal, implying this hatred stemmed from his conspiracy theories, as a result he volunteered at the local prison where help was desperately needed, however during the vital mission Alden in Chains Zeke leaves a vital post by Alden's cell which allows the Dust Men to rescue Alden and kill every cop in the prison. Later, Cole asked Zeke to accompany him to the Dust Men's base to steal the Ray Sphere. As Cole fights the dust men at the top of Alden's tower, Zeke attempts to free the Ray Sphere while Kessler's helicopter circles them. Once Zeke retrieves the Ray Sphere, he is caught between a manic Alden and Kessler, and in a moment of fear realizes that the Ray Sphere can grant him powers like it did for Cole. He attempts to activate it, choosing to kill thousands, but something goes wrong and nothing happens. Kessler is the first to grasp the situation and takes advantage of Zeke's desire, saying that he knows why the Sphere failed and that if Zeke brings it to him, he can grant Zeke the power that he lusts for. With Cole watching in horror, Zeke agrees and leaves with Kessler in his helicopter. After Kessler kills Trish, Zeke tries to get back in touch with Cole, but is verbally rejected. Cole instead blames Zeke for being indirectly responsible for Trish's death, since he could have helped to destroy the Ray Sphere and ceased Kessler's interest in Cole and states that if the two of them ever meet again "It's going to get ugly". Zeke later returns to Cole's aid in his battle against Kessler, but Kessler simply throws him into a parking lot. He emerges alive at the end of the battle, standing beside Cole over Kessler's corpse as Cole learns the truth: that Kessler, the future version of Cole, orchestrated the entire ordeal, including Zeke's betrayal. Zeke is portrayed as having a limited amount of knowledge in engineering, designing home-made batteries that appears to work, yet Cole mentions they tend to explode when you try and use them.

If the player has good Karma at the end of the game, Cole indicates he doesn't know what to think of Zeke. This comes from the betrayal and the fact it may have been inevitable that Kessler would try to kill Trish and may have very well succeeded.

InFAMOUS 2

Zeke's new look shown in the Game Informer issue

Zeke is confirmed to appear in inFamous 2. Game director Nate Fox stated that he will be having a slightly different role, and that he will be a more of a contributing partner in Cole's endeavors, such as aiding Cole in the field and building items for him. Zeke's newfound desire to be useful may be related to the fact that he betrayed Cole in the last game, only to switch sides again in the final scenario. "They still have issues to work out, as all friends do"

It's confirmed that Zeke built the melee weapon Cole will use in the new game.

Zeke has been shown climbing a building with the aid of Cole and running on the rooftops with him in the graphic comic cutscene shown in Comic-Con. It suggests that he might be able to climb buildings in game by the time of InFAMOUS 2.

Background

Not much else is known about Zeke, apart from the fact that his living space ("Zeke's Roof") is full of posters warning of Peak Oil and he is something of a conspiracy theorist and/or survivalist. He is distrustful of the police and the government, but eventually he decides to help the Empire City Police Force, citing that he may distrust them due to corruption. When Cole questions him on why he is helping them, Zeke replies that any policeman remaining on duty in Empire City, despite the extreme danger presented by the gangs and Conduits, is the real thing.("Any cop left in this shithole must be the real thing.") He has several "Prison Tattoo" magazines strewn around his place. In concept art, he sports a similar tattoo down his right arm, which is visible at his wrist. Whether he is an ex-con or simply has an interest in prison and gang culture is unknown.

Zeke is quite handy with a handgun and he has also shown to have some mechanical engineering skill as he rigged up a few lines of metal walkways with electricity to provide unlimited power for Cole in the mission Alden in Chains. His engineering skills appear limited, however, as his "homemade batteries" explode when used. This did not stop him from selling them for a weapon. His middle name, "Jedediah", is in honour of his grandfather, and he had a cousin named Smitty who was mauled to death by a dog and, as per his wishes, had an open-casket funeral regardless of his unfortunate appearance. He has a past with Dwight, greatly disliking him after an incident in which Dwight stole Zeke's car and sold it for parts, though he was willing to pretend to be concerned for him while attempting to hook up with Dwight's sister.

Alternate Timeline

In Kessler's timeline, it is revealed that Zeke was Cole's best man when he married Trish. It isn't revealed what happened to him afterward, but it is likely that he too died by the hands of the Beast.

Trivia

Zeke's portrait in the Uncharted 2 multiplayer

• Zeke uses a broad slang language when he talks, which has, on at least one occasion, confused Cole.
• There was a debate between the story developers whether or not to have Zeke kill Trish. Basically, Kessler would tell Zeke to kill Trish to get superpowers. They scrapped the idea because, "while Zeke may be a selfish idiot, he's not a murderer."
• There was also a discussion on whether or not Cole would kill Zeke in retribution for Trish's death, but this was scrapped also.
• Zeke is a downloadable skin in Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, available in the PlayStation Heroes Skin Pack.
• Although Zeke is never seen after Cole's fight with Kessler, his pad is still accessible and usable for a Medic Drop.
• The Ray Sphere not activating when Zeke made the attempt indicates that Zeke is not a Conduit like Cole.
• Zeke is shown to run in a style similar to Murray, a character in another popular Sucker Punch series, Sly Cooper. This may be a subtle hint to the future of the Sly Cooper series, or just a simple nod.
• Zeke may be Ambidextrous like Cole. In InFamous he is always seen using his gun in his left hand. In Previews for InFamous 2, however, he is seen with a clean gun in his right hand. This may or may not be a simple design error.
• He has shown a few times that he is quite handy with gadgets, such as setting up an eletrified fence for Cole (Although he establishes that he made the fence in the prision, even though the electrified fence is there since Cole can reach the prison, but it's most likely a detail that the developers left out) or making batteries he sells to other inhabitants of the quarantined city, despite the fact that Cole stated they tend to explode. In inFamous 2, these abilities are stated to be further displayed so he can be more help to Cole during the game, being the one who had invented the Amp Weapon Cole will be using.
• He has had some experience in parkour, having tried some during a visit with Cole to New Marais.
• In InFamous 1 he can be seen with a silver skull-shaped ring on his left ring finger.
• Zeke's eyes are never seen except for the "Ever Been Called a Terrorist" cutscene when Zeke leans down his glasses for giving Cole weird looks along with the citizens for his action of unknowingly activating the ray sphere causing the blast. As during gameplay his eyes were never seen, being always hidden behind sunglasses. The only few other occasions where Zeke's eyes were seen are in InFamous: Post Blast, where they could be seen through Zeke's glasses.