Max Payne (born 30 November 1965) was an American agent in the DEA who became involved in the 2001 Valkyr case after the death of his wife and infant daughter from Valkyr addicts, ultimately resulting in Payne destroying both the Punchinello crime family and the Aesir Corporation, stopping the distribution of Valkyr and avenging his family. He was cleared of all charges and was reinstated into the NYPD, having left it after his family's deaths.
In 2003, in the cleaner case, Payne and his assassin lover, Mona Sax, took on the Cleaners and the Lem crime family amidst a civil war within the secret Inner Circle, resulting in both Sax and Vladimir Lem's deaths. Payne was forced into retirement soon afterward.
He was recruited in 2011 by his old friend Raul Passos to become a bodyguard in São Paulo for the Branco political family, though he ultimately stopped Victor Branco and his cronies from continuing their organ harvesting trade. Payne then left São Paulo, finally at peace with his family's death and the bloodshed he was accustomed to.