Manny Pardo

Manny Pardo
Position	Detective
Status	Dead (Atomic blast)
Eye colour	Green
Hair colour	Blonde
Levels
Cutscenes

"I was born with thick skin."

Manuel "Manny" Pardo, also known as The Cop or The Detective, is a playable character in Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number. Gameplay-wise, he is the first player character to not wear a mask while killing.

During his story-arc, Manny Pardo is investigating the crimes of the Miami Mutilator while fighting against thugs and Colombian criminals bringing violence to the city. He also serves as an antagonist to the Fans.

His community assets can be found here.

Personality

"Man, sometimes I hate this city."

Pardo is consistently portrayed as exhausted and cynical. His dialogue is oriented toward either world weary remarks about the depravity of the press and Miami or awkward attempts at charisma to ease a concerned character or present himself in a better light. He follows the news regularly and is a friend of Evan, a former member of the press. According to Evan, Pardo has a reputation of incompetence and misconduct at the MPD.

Pardo secretly desires fame and to be seen as an action star, and has a bench press and punching bag in his sparse apartment to build his strength, physique and endurance. He wears a leather Mark Gor jacket and is the only character who can execute enemies with guns. In "Homicide" he's shown to keep a loaded shotgun in his trunk. However, his extreme desire for fame has led him to commit many reprehensible misconducts such as singlehandedly sabotaging the Colombian operation and murdering Tony in cold blood despite Tony pleading with him. He even told his friend, Evan, to stop writing the story about the masked maniac and focus on the Miami Mutilator. Of course, his extreme obsession with fame has caused him to become twisted and led him to become the killer he was supposed to investigate: The Miami Mutilator.

Pardo also has a distinct off-putting void of attributes. He's the first Hotline Miami playable character to have a bland vehicle, and his dialogue consists largely of clichés awkwardly trying to emulate a charismatic personality, with the outro to First Trial having him awkwardly attempting to salvage his relationship with Evan, and several scenes featuring him trying to put concerned women at ease with unsuccessfully flirtatious remarks ("You too, sweetheart!", "I can see you got the good genes. You're very pretty."). His apartment features no possessions whatsoever other than a couch, a bed, a TV, a punching bag, a plant, a magazine stand, and a bench press. He overall comes off as very inhuman, and a not uncommon trait of psychopaths is mimicry of others emotions / personalities that they don’t fully understand themselves, which may be what leads to Pardo’s bizarre and uncomfortable presence, like talking to someone wearing a mask. His unnaturally bland lifestyle (such as his incredibly generic apartment) outside of his various misdeeds may also be him attempting to mimic what he views as “completely normal” with nothing to potentially draw unwanted attention, in another effort to blend in and hide his true self.

This is all, of course, without mentioning his near complete disregard for the lives of others, killing countless people both as an officer and off duty as a serial killer, without the slightest hint of remorse or any emotional impact on him at all.

Events of Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number

Late October 1991

Manny Pardo is first shown on October 25th, 1991 washing his hands in the bathroom of a small diner with a newspaper reporting on Jacket's trial. He returns to the meal he ordered, but just drinks his coffee and moves to leave, implying that the newspaper and bathroom is the real reason he was there (and possibly motivation for the subsequent level). The waitress asks why he's leaving so soon and comments that he looks terrible. Pardo says he's had a stressful day and that she wouldn't believe what "they" have him doing, and that he should get some sleep. He tries to put the waitress at ease by calling her sweetheart. He heads out to his purple sedan, which is abnormally typical and bland for a Hotline Miami character (in stark contrast to the Fans' Attack Van, Jacket's Acado GT, and Biker's sports bike).

He proceeds to a shopping center, removes a fully loaded shotgun from his trunk, and kills a gang loading goods into a car. As he exits, he finds that the police have arrived and have the building barricaded. Here Pardo reveals to the barricade and to the player that he's a police detective, and is immediately let go. He comments that it's a real bloodbath and that he hates this city sometimes.

Later, he investigates a crime scene of the now-serial Miami Mutilator, with the message "I'm innocent! They forced me to do it!" written in blood from the victim's slashed throat, which the crime scene investigator, Johnson, laughs at as a cliche. Pardo says he's creeped out by the "psycho" that did this, and comments that this will probably make the "goddamn vultures" at the press happy; a brief flash of a camera crew appears on the crime scene and fades away. However, the investigator insists the murders are too boring and typical for the press to notice.

November 1991

On November 5th, Evan calls a busy Pardo from the courthouse Jacket is being tried in for information about the Russian Mafia. Pardo is reluctant, but Evan says he "owes him one" (either for giving Pardo news coverage or withholding damning information of Pardo's misconduct). Pardo gives Evan the location of Petrov (First Trial), hoping to scare him off writing a book popularizing the 1989 killings and start a book on the Miami Mutilator, but Evan in his determination accidentally kills the Russian doorman and maims (or kills depending on the player's choice) several guards to get the interview.

Shockingly the two seem to have or at some point had a genuine friendship, and their meeting in a bar is the first instance of Modulogeek's "Around" in the game. Pardo tries to alleviate his debt to Evan by buying him a beer, but Evan insists they're still not even. Evan says he sometimes wonders why he hangs out with Pardo and asks him when he became such a douchebag. Pardo offers to drive Evan home but Evan refuses, leaving Pardo alone.

On November 11th, Evan reads a newspaper saying that the fifth victim of the Miami Mutilator has just been found, indicating that both the press and Evan are now taking interest. If Evan meets Biker in Hank's Bar as part of the Bar of Broken Heroes easter egg, Pardo is depicted alone in the bathroom staring at himself in the mirror.

On November 27th, Pardo opens the evidence locker to Evan, who inspects Jake's clothes. Depending on the outcome of Withdrawal, Evan either finds a floppy disk to which Pardo informs him contains a list of addresses, some being meeting places for the vigilantes and others being places they targeted. If the player did not complete the third floor of Withdrawal and pocket the floppy disk as Jake, Evan finds nothing, and Pardo apologizes that he couldn't be of more help, but insists they're even now, which Evan reluctantly admits. This scene is cut off by dream static, perhaps implying that the bonus scene Abyss is a dream Evan has.

December 1991

On December 7th, the Son reads a newspaper popularizing the full out drug war he started on November 18th.

By December 10th, the Fans have been featured on TV news and in the Miami newspaper, and Pardo visits Alex's house looking for an "Ash Davis." Notably Pardo enters the house of an undressed girl without her permission, eerily similar to the opening Midnight Animal sequence. He has a man tied up in his trunk wearing a green jacket, likely Ash's friend Jack from their December 2nd job (Moving Up), which left a witness to the Fans in Jack's sister (who probably called the cops), and a clue to the Ash' identity and address in Jack. Pardo plants Jack's wallet in Alex's apartment, possibly to frame her and Ash for Jack's murder. He again awkwardly tries to calm a girl by saying she's very pretty, telling Alex she "got the good genes" between her and her brother.

Later, an empty-trunk'd Pardo arrives at docks being used by the Colombian cartel to smuggle drugs into Miami (Dead Ahead). He assaults the ship, apparently killing nearly 100 Colombian mobsters single handedly, causing some to jump overboard in fear and get fished out by the police reinforcements, or possibly drown. He's chastised for recklessness.

He visits another Miami Mutilator scene, the victim is a "kid" (Jack) who is missing his wallet and has his entrails torn out, causing one investigator at the scene to vomit. The gutting was post-mortem, however, and the cause of death was strangulation, hinting that the gore is just for cosmetic, notoriety purposes. The message this time is "Please don't make me do it again," which still evokes a sarcastic remark as to how trite and overused that line is from Investigator Johnson. Pardo postulates that the Mutilator was upset that the papers didn't make a bigger deal out of him, and comments that scumbags crave attention. Johnson replies with "don't we all, huh?" and says that Pardo will probably be famous by the end of all this, asking if he can handle the pressure of all eyes being on him.

On December 14th, Manny Pardo attempts to visit the Son for unspecified reasons. The fact that the Son has recently acquired notoriety from the press is clearly a factor in the visit, but whether Pardo wants to kill the Son for personal fame or is working with the Son to kill the Colombian gang is left up in the air.

On December 20th, Manny Pardo arrives at the newly bought and newly trashed Russian mob headquarters, parks near the tarped-over corpse of the Son, and pulls rank on the SWAT commander to talk to the last surviving member of The Fans: Tony, who appears to be surrendering. Pardo sees that Tony is still wearing his mask, and deduces that Tony's still interested in acquiring fame, even if he is done fighting. Pardo shows Tony "what happens to thugs like [him]" and shoots him in the face. He tells the SWAT team member Tony came at him, and that it was "him or me," which is only true from a publicity perspective. However, given the SWAT chief's clearly irritated demeanor, it is likely he knew that Tony could have been taken alive until Pardo intervened, or that he even suspected that Pardo had shot an unarmed man who was surrendering.

Caught/His fate

Sometime later (most likely December 27th), Pardo is investigating yet another Miami Mutilator scene, featuring a balcony with dozens of cigarette buds on it, mirroring the end to the Hotline Miami's main campaign (Showdown). The corpse is nearly unrecognizably mutilated, and even though Johnson finds a shell casing (again indicating that the victim was killed quickly and *then* mutilated), he mentions that they'll have a hell of a time matching it to the body. The message is "You have to stop them! I don't want to take any more innocent lives!" and provokes no sarcastic comment from Johnson for the first time, who merely comments that the Mutilator must be completely out of his mind. Pardo mentions that the city seems to be full of whack jobs. With all other fame-garnering factions in Miami eliminated, the Miami Mutilator seems to be the only news story in town, and Pardo comments that the Chief will be on his ass due to the huge amount of publicity this will get. Pardo mentions that his job's on the line with this one, and goes home to get some sleep.

He arrives at his house, which is shockingly clear of possessions aside from a punching bag, bench press, TV, and newspaper open to a story on the violent anti-Russian-American Coalition riots, the one source of publicity he can do nothing to quell. He falls asleep and has a nightmare of ripping his apartment apart looking for his revolver. As he exits his house, he imagines that all his neighbors in the surrounding apartments are recipients of 50 Blessings mask packages. Arriving at the most recent Mutilator crime scene he tears through police tape and finds his gun with a Phantom who says he's his son. Pardo is confused, and Phantom "gives him a hug" by attempting to strangle Pardo.

Pardo shoves Phantom off him, shattering his ventriloquist dummy head like glass and transforming the crime scene into a movie set, indicating Pardo's desire for publicity for his crimes as the Miami Mutilator. A cart shows up to drive Pardo to his next scene, where the Miami Police Chief tells Pardo he's under arrest for being the Miami Mutilator. Pardo is still confused and tells the Chief he's innocent and that he'll have to be taken in by force. He then murders his way through the police station (a movie cliche after the events of Hotline Miami). As he approaches the exit, he finds it barricaded just like the shopping center's. He flashes his badge, but they open fire, killing him and causing him to wake up in his apartment in a cold sweat on the floor beside his bed.

The next day (likely December 28th) Pardo receives a call from the police station that they have a situation (likely riots in response to the dual assassination of the Russian and American presidents.) Pardo pretends to be sick (to which the caller replies that it is not the time to take a day off) and barricades himself in his apartment by dragging his couch in front of the door and fixing his revolver on the door, all while getting drunk. As he hunkers down, he and his apartment are obliterated by the nuclear bomb the Soviet Union dropped on Miami.

Playstyle

Manny's playstyle is defined by a focus on guns; as he can finish downed enemies with them. Manny's one handed guns (such as the Uzi) will use ammunition, alert nearby enemies (including the Silenced Pistol), and take longers to execute fallen foes; however when using two handed guns (such as the Mendoza) he will instead butt-stroke his targets; which do not alert nearby enemies, conserves ammunition and takes less time to execute downed foes. Manny's signature firearm is the Shotgun; when used by him it has the fastest fire rate and benefits from an additional "gun-flip" ability which removes the slight rotation delay when turning quickly; allowing a player to react to rear attack enemies quicker.

However Manny's melee weapon abilities are compromised, as he attacks slower with them, and his melee finishes have longer delays between each hit. Much like The Son he stomps downed enemies instead of head bashing them, which takes longer, and has the potential to ruin combos.

His gunplay focus, and compromised melee ability is played with in all his levels:

• In Homicide an achievement can be unlocked by not using any guns at all.
• Dead Ahead is filled with large large sight lines, lots of windows, and compact areas of easily alertable enemies. Necessitating use of the shotgun, FAMAE and Mendoza.
• Caught has a memorable opening where Manny has to fight his way to a gun whilst avoiding Inspectors

List of killed victims

This is a compiled list of how many kills Manny Pardo has performed in the series. Kills in Bold are kills presented in Manny's nightmare sequence in Caught, in which all kills seen in the nightmare sequence are most certainly not real:

• At least 7 "Miami Mutilator" victims (including Jack)
• Tony (with indirect assistance from The Son)
• Phantom
• 85 Colombians (including Thugs)
• 33 Police Officers (including Inspectors)
• 20 gang members
• 6 dogs (1 dog was "killed" in the nightmare sequence)

Overall, Manny Pardo has killed 118 enemies (153 if you count the enemies from Caught, who existed only in Pardo's nightmare).

Trivia

• If the first game's files are inspected, an animation of Pardo's signature shotgun flip can be found, but with Jacket's sprite as a placeholder. It's possible that Jacket may have had this ability in the first Hotline Miami until it was cut for unknown reasons.
• He is most likely based on a real serial killer and former police officer of the Miami-Dade county Police force named Manuel "Manny" Pardo Jr., who killed 9 people in 1986 on a personal vendetta against the drug trade and for his own personal interests. The real Manuel Pardo Jr. was executed by lethal injection in 2012.
• Pardo has an indefinite amount of knowledge on the 1989 masked killings, as he has access to the evidence locker on Jake in Withdrawal (and possible knowledge of the floppy's contents) and is shown to dream of 50 Blessings' packages being delivered to all his neighbors in Caught.
• A clue of Pardo's obsession with the press can be found on the epilogue of the chapter Homicide: when Pardo talks with the police officer about the victim of Miami Mutilator the screen flashes for a moment and a cameraman, a sound technician and a film director can be seen around Pardo before fading away.
• Manny Pardo is possibly based on James "Sonny" Crockett from the 1980s television show, Miami Vice, as both have a similar appearance and don't go "By the Book", both are also Detectives in a 1980s Miami setting. However unlike Sonny, Manny Pardo can be considered corrupt.
  • It is possible that Manny is working with the Russian Mafia, if so, it could be a nab at Sonny Crockett's most common outfits (White Pastel Suit, blue shirt) which most of the Russian Mafia are seen to wear.
• Manny Pardo is (visually) based on Kyle Reese from The Terminator and Brad Pitt's character in the movie Seven. Confirmed by Dennis Wedin himself on a YouTube comment.
• Manny Pardo, Richter and The Son are the only three characters in the game (excluding H.M. Hammarin, who is exclusive to the level editor) that encounter more enemy factions than any other character in the game, the three of them being able to fight three enemy factions.
  • Manny Pardo can fight the following factions: Gangs, Colombians and Police Officers.
• Due to his identity of as the Miami Mutilator (a result of his obsession with the media, and wanting attention in the wake of Jacket's spree killings) Manny Pardo and his relationship to the Phantom in his dream most likely represents the Hotline Miami clones and ripoffs created in the wake of it's critical and commercial success.
  • Furthermore in THE BAR OF BROKEN HEROES he stares at himself in the mirror as a result of a possible identity crisis. This can be applied to clone games as they lack their own identity - instead seeking to base it off a more successful games for attention and success much like how Manny uses the Miami Mutilator as a ploy to gain media attention.
  • As Richard typically represents repressed subconscious doubts, concerns and fears of the characters he appears to, Richard's confusion towards Manny in The Table Sequence may suggest that Manny is a psychopath as he does not have buried subconscious concerns with his role as the Miami Mutilator, but instead has concerns with getting Caught for his crimes. This can further be applied to the above theory as creators of clone games would generally be less concerned with ripping off a game, but more concerned about the creators or rightsholders for the game they ripped off coming after them legally.
  • As well Manny's strong focus on gunplay, and weak melee abilities is most likely a reference to criticisms of the focus on melee weapons in the original game. Ironically the shift in game design from melee to guns in the sequel was criticised by fans, and critics who expected the same melee-focused gameplay to return.
  • Based on the opening of Dead Ahead where Manny Pardo plants a wallet as evidence against Alex and Ash (and suggesting he is onto The Fans); it is possible to interpret Manny as a metaphor for Hotline Miami clone games advertising to fans of the series for attention and sales.