Max Payne is a fictional character who is the titular protagonist of the neo-noir video game series of the same name. Created by and initially modeled after the likeness of Sam Lake, Max was introduced in an eponymous 2001 video game developed by Remedy Entertainment. Max was voiced by actor James McCaffrey in all his appearances, and was modeled after Lake, Timothy Gibbs and McCaffrey in the series' various installments; Mark Wahlberg portrayed Max in the 2008 film adaptation of the series. Inspired by the antiheroes of hardboiled fiction, Max is a weary and cynical ex-NYPD officer who becomes a vigilante and uncovers various criminal conspiracies.

In the original Max Payne, Max is an NYPD police detective and an undercover special agent for the DEA. He becomes a vigilante following the murder of his family and, later, the murder of his police partner, for which he was framed. In the second game, Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne, he returns to the department as a detective and must solve a conspiracy filled with death and betrayal, which has a deep effect on his personal life. At the start of Max Payne 3, which was developed by Rockstar Games, Max finds himself employed as a bodyguard for Rodrigo Branco, a wealthy businessman in São Paulo, Brazil, but is soon drawn into another conspiracy. The character has been well-received by critics.

In the creation of Max Payne, the publisher 3D Realms "wanted to develop another strong character that would be the foundation for a new gaming franchise, much like we [3D Realms] had done with Duke Nukem." The titular character of Max Payne was originally named Max Heat, and 3D Realms spent over $20,000 worldwide trademarking this name before someone at the company suggested the last name Payne, which was immediately adopted. He was modeled after Sam Lake (Sami Järvi), who wrote the game's story and script for the Finnish company Remedy Entertainment. Lake also dressed up and played this role for the graphic novel-style cutscenes. For Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne, however, Lake declined the role. Due to having a much larger budget this time, the developers were able to hire professional actors, choosing Timothy Gibbs to be the new model for Max.

In both games, Max's voice actor was James McCaffrey. McCaffrey recalled: "Originally, I’d worked on a show called Swift Justice, and there were some similarities between the two characters in terms of them both having experienced some family tragedy and were familiar with the concept of vengeance, but there weren't any specific characters that Max is based on." In an early announcement from Rockstar Games (the franchise's new developer and publisher), Max's voice actor was to be recast with an older actor. In the end, however, McCaffrey did return to the role of Max in Max Payne 3, for which he also provided the motion capture material. McCaffrey said that performing motion capture helped match the dialogue to the scenes and compared it to "having to act in Avatar." Payne's look changed significantly for the third game, featuring an older, bald and bearded Max; this move received overwhelmingly negative reactions. In response, Rockstar Games made changes to the game, as Max's appearance shifts over the course of the game, including his 'classic' appearance during flashbacks of his time in New Jersey. According to Rockstar's Sam Houser, "This is Max as we've never seen him before, a few years older, more world-weary and cynical than ever." McCaffrey compared Max in the third game to Charles Bronson's character Paul Kersey in the film Death Wish.

Max Payne has been put into a fatalist situation against his will, in the style of a classic element of many noir films, the fall guy. Max is an antihero, as he himself states: "I was not one of them, I was no hero." The character is noted for his complex use of both metaphors and wordplay to describe the world around him within his inner monologues, which often contradict his external responses to characters he speaks with. He is an extreme introvert and his life is largely illustrated through dramatic and often morbidly cynical soliloquies describing his feelings about his actions and situation. It is also hinted through the games that Max has a questionable grip on reality.

At the beginning of the first game, Max is seen differently as a smiling, happily married extrovert with a bright personality. However, after his family is murdered, Max loses his meaning of life and blindly works toward his only remaining purpose: vengeance. However, he has not nullified his feelings, as he is taken with the femme fatale contract killer Mona Sax when they first meet, and befriends the Russian mobster Vladimir Lem. All the while, Max shows signs of survivor's guilt and self-destructive behaviour.

Rockstar vice-president Dan Houser described Max Payne in the third game as "a drunk, somewhat morose, widowed ex-cop, trying to find some kind of peace with himself. [...] A man who has spent his life killing, even in the service of his idea of what is right or wrong, is going to be extremely damaged. [...] He wants to be a thinker but he's much better as a doer. When he thinks, he gets wrapped up in himself or makes mistakes. When he acts, he is brilliant, almost super human. That is his character, and the dichotomy between the two is the reality of his life and at the heart of the game. He cannot seem to move forward emotionally, but physically, he is relentless." Max is shown to be quite aware of his shortcomings and flaws, stating: "I'm not slipping. I'm slipped. I'm a bad joke." Max Payne 3 has him display not only extreme violence but also more restraint than in the previous games.

In the original game, set between 1998 and 2001, Max Payne (voiced by James McCaffrey) is a former New York City Police Department (NYPD) homicide detective whose wife Michelle and six-month-old daughter Rose were brutally murdered in a home invasion connected with the investigation of a new street drug known as Valkyr. Enraged, Max joined the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) as a secret agent and went undercover in the Mafia. Eventually, framed for the murder of his NYPD and DEA partner Alex Balder, and with his identity exposed, Max becomes a fugitive and vigilante wanted by the Mafia and the police alike while waging his personal war on the crime. Eventually, he discovers a powerful conspiracy behind all these events, and has several interactions with Mona Sax, an assassin. Max makes a deal with the leader of a secret society called the Inner Circle to clear his name in exchange for killing the organisation's former member Nicole Horne; Horne is responsible for the manufacture of Valkyr and also the death of Max's family. After Max kills Horne, he surrenders and is taken into police custody.