Preston Marlowe

Private Preston Marlowe is the protagonist and main character the player takes control of in the singleplayer campaigns of Battlefield: Bad Company and Battlefield: Bad Company 2. He is a member of the 222nd Army Battalion's B-Company, known as "Bad Company" among many soldiers in the US Army. In Battlefield: Bad Company, Marlowe is always portrayed with an M416, whereas in Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Marlowe is seen carrying an XM8 Prototype with a 4X Rifle Scope. He comes from a line of war veterans, as his father was a helicopter pilot in the Vietnam War, and his grandfather fought in the European theater in World War II.

His status at the end of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is unknown, due to the Russian territory expanding into the United States at the end of the game.

Preston Marlowe is voiced by David Menkin.

Biography
thumb|250px|Preston's video blog, where there is much irony with the story of Battlefield: Bad Company

Before "Bad Company"
Before his life in the army as a soldier of the 222nd Army Battalion, Preston grew up always wanting to be a soldier due to his family's heritage. Once he enlisted, he was shipped to Europe where he was stationed in Łódź, Poland.

Expecting to get right in to the action on the front lines, Marlowe became very disappointed as his unit did not receive orders and he was forced to pass time by playing cards and watching the war on the news. He feels due to his boredom that someone on the base will do something stupid, just to make the place more interesting, and he feels he will be that person.

Rumors start to spread about the 222nd's B-Company. Nicknamed "Bad Company" by the grunts, the unit is said to be a conglomerate of all the misfit soldiers that can't fit in another unit due to their actions. Preston likens the Company to be somewhere between a special needs class and death row since the unit is considered expendable by the Army and is meant to keep the Russian Army occupied while the real Army prepares. However, Preston is envious of the Company as they actually are fighting rather than he, as he is stuck at base.

Transfer to "Bad Company"
Eventually, Preston gets to know some of the helicopter pilots. Due to his father being a pilot in Vietnam, one of the pilots kept trying to get Preston to try flying their UH-60 Black Hawk. He eventually takes the Black Hawk for a spin, noting it does not handle like his father's Bell helicopter that he had previously flown. Upon landing the helicopter, he ends up hitting a General's limousine with the rotor. It cracks the vehicle's windshield and lacerates the vehicle's hood, as he landed too close to the right side of the helipad. Preston is taken into custody by the military police for his infraction. Feeling he would get off with a warning, Preston is instead transferred to B-Company for his insubordination, put on a Black Hawk, and sent to the front lines with the rest of his new unit.

Welcome to Bad Company
Preston arrives on the Eastern Front at a forward base occupied by the 222nd Army Battalion's B-Company. There, he meets Sergeant Redford, Terrence Sweetwater, and George Haggard, his new squadmates. The four board a convoy that is later hit by an artillery strike. Preston is knocked out by the strike, to which Haggard thinks he died already. As he wakes, Redford assures Haggard he isn't dead as he rejoins the squad.

After testing his weapons, Preston grabs a repair tool to fix a nearby HMMWV and the squad drives off to secure a Russian artillery battery. After securing the area, Mike-One-Juliet orders the squad to use the enemy guns to protect Juneau Convoy who are about to be hit by a group of Russian Vodniks. Due to Haggard not wanting to get in trouble for hitting their convoy, he tells Redford that Preston should use the guns. Redford and Sweetwater agree, and Preston uses the nearby gun to take out the three waves of Vodniks.

Later on, Preston finds an XM8 Prototype in an abandoned house after Sweetwater tells Haggard it could be a trap. Preston then helps the squad on their next objective to take a river crossing for Juneau Convoy. The squad's next objective is to take a nearby farm. Once the squad secures it, they hear a sound coming from the garage under a barn. The sound turns out to be an enemy BMD-3. Preston grabs an RPG-7, and with the help of Haggard, destroys the tank.

The squad was then to be extracted by helicopter, but en route, their UH-60 callsign Super Six Five, is shot down by nearby Russian ZU-23-2s, which become the next objective for the squad.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2
In Bad Company 2's singleplayer, he fights alongside his squad in the Special Activities Division against a local militia, Russian forces, and their commander, Arkady Kirilenko.

Trivia

 * Prior to his transfer, Marlowe shared the common belief that "the Legionnaire" was a myth.
 * Despite his delinquent act that landed him in Bad Company, he is a very eager and somewhat by-the-book soldier, as can be seen by his use of "Sir, yes, Sir" terminology when addressing Redford in the opening cutscene.
 * In Battlefield: Bad Company, he is the only American soldier with goggles - the Legionnaire Mercenaries are the only others to wear them.
 * Marlowe seems to be an incredibly talented soldier. He is proficient at driving and gunning light vehicles and armor, piloting helicopters, and has extensive knowledge of handheld weapons, both small arms and explosives, American and Russian designs alike. He is also a talented marksman with high-powered rifles, as shown in some missions of Battlefield: Bad Company 2.
 * Marlowe also appears to have some knowledge of hand-to-hand combat, as seen in a few cutscenes in Battlefield: Bad Company 2.
 * In Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Marlowe rarely curses, only swearing when Kirilenko escapes in Cold War, calling him a piece of shit, and when the squad gets pinned down by flames in the mission High Value Target, something Haggard and Sweetwater congratulate him on. Finally, he curses near the end of the game when no one wants to try and stop Kirilenko's plane, saying "Fine, I'll go my fucking self." In Battlefield: Bad Company, Marlowe doesn't curse at all.
 * Preston seems to be a marksman in Battlefield: Bad Company 2, as do the rest of his squadmates.
 * Preston never speaks in a mission or during first-person cutscenes. He only speaks in third-person cutscenes (such as beginning or ending cutscenes, or during important moments during missions).
 * In Bad Company, he is the only playable character. But in Bad Company 2, he is accompanied by another playable character.