The following is the timeline of Max Payne's life and of those people connected to him. The timeline covers the characters and events as depicted in Max Payne, Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne, Max Payne 3, and the Max Payne 3 comics.

1900s

1903

• The Galatians FC soccer team of São Paulo, Brazil, is founded.

1940s

1940

• Anthony DeMarco is born.

1941

• Jack Payne is born.

1944

• Helen Payne is born.

1948

• Nicole Horne is born.

1960s

1961

• Rodrigo Branco is born.
• Valerie Winterson is born.

1964-1965

• May 12, 1964: Michelle Payne is born.
• Victor Branco is born.
• November 30, 1965: Max Payne is born.

1967

• Álvaro Neves is born.

1970s

1970-1979

• April 4, 1970: Mona Sax is born.

*Before 1976: A young Max Payne is growing up, but at his home, Jack Payne abuses his wife and cheats on her. Max Payne's grandfather tells his grandson stories from ancient literature. Jack Payne is rough on Max as he is growing up against his wife's wishes due to Jack's misguided belief that Max needs to be ready for anything, due to Jack's PTSD from Vietnam.

1973

• April 27, 1973: Raul Passos is born.
• Milo Rego is born.

1976

• Helen Payne passes away.

1979

• Jack Payne dies.

1980s

1984-1985

• "Serrano" is born.
• April 24, 1985: Fabiana Branco is born in Lisbon, Portugal.
• Tony DeMarco is born.

1986

• Giovanna Taveres is born.

1990s

1990

• Max Payne Becomes a police officer and starts working with the NYPD in the north midtown district in hells kitchen, Manhattan.

October: Max Payne saves a woman who works at the District Attorney’s Office named Michelle from two robbers in an alley in New York. The two meet up for a drink a week later and begin dating soon afterwards.

1991

• The United States Government secretly commences Project Valhalla, with the objective to create a chemical compound that enhances the stamina and morale of U.S. Infantry troops.

1993

• Max and Michelle marry sometime in June after just three years and thirty-two months of dating. The couple has their honeymoon in Montauk.

1994

• Max Payne is promoted to Detective and starts working in the homicide division.

1995

• Project Valhalla is cancelled after the results of the project are considered "unsatisfactory" by the government, but Nicole Horne continues the project in an unofficial capacity, manufacturing Valkyr as a recreational drug.
• Fabiana and her family move to Brazil from Portugal.

1997

• June: Michelle becomes pregnant

1998

• February 4th: Rose Payne is born.
• Alfred Woden leaks the Project Valhalla files to the District Attorney's office.
• August 22: The Payne family massacre at the Payne Residence, New Jersey. Nicole Horne learns about the Project Valhalla leak to the District Attorney's office that Michelle Payne is employed at. Michelle sees the documents but before she can investigate them any further, Horne sends three Valkyr test subjects to Michelle's home in order to prevent any further leak of the documents, under the guise of a "field test" on the subjects' behavior in an "urban environment" for Project Valhalla. The three test subjects are given guns, double their dosage of Valkyr, and then dropped off at the Payne residence to be let loose on the house and its inhabitants. The frenzied, manic test subjects murder Michelle and her baby, Rose, before Michelle's husband, NYPD detective Max Payne, can stop the intruders, who are then shot dead by Payne in self defense.
• Late August: Max Payne transfers to the Drug Enforcement Administration and begins working on the Valkyr case.

2000s

2000

• Mid December: Max Payne Infiltrates in the Puncinello crime Family

2001

• Álvaro Neves becomes a captain in the Unidade de Forças Especiais.
• Late January/early February: The Punchinello Crime Family enters a war with the Russian Mob.
• February: The main events of the Valkyr Case occur over the course of three nights during a winter storm in New York City
• After receiving information from an informant that underboss Jack Lupino is trafficking Valkyr, Max Payne goes undercover and infiltrates the ranks of the Punchinello crime family.
• Max Payne stumbles upon a bank heist at the Roscoe Bank while attempting to meet up with his partner, Alex Balder, in the Roscoe Street Station. Payne foils the heist by killing the robbers, but after meeting up with his partner, Balder is shot by an unseen assassin. Max is framed for the murder, and despite being pursued by the New York City Police Department, he decides to go on a "nothing-to-lose" vendetta against the people who are responsible for Valkyr and the murder of his partner.
  • Max Payne kills numerous Punchinello gangsters in Lupino's Hotel while looking for Jack Lupino, his prime suspect as Valkyr's main distributor. Notable Punchinello Crime Family members killed includes Joey Finito, Virgilio Finito, and Rico Muerte. The police later arrive, tape off the hotel, and take the bodies away.
  • Alfred Woden begins calling Payne in order to warn and guide him through his violent, vengeful quest for the truth.
  • Vinnie Gognitti is chased and shot by Payne, who is able to get Gognitti to confess Lupino's whereabout.
  • Ragna Rock, a nightclub owned by Jack Lupino, is stormed by Max Payne, who shoots dozens of Lupino's men occupying the club.
  • Jack Lupino, in a manic, psychotic state due to heavy Valkyr usage, is killed in a shootout with Payne in Ragna Rock.
  • Payne meets Mona Sax in the bar area of Ragna Rock, but their meeting ends with him being drugged and losing consciousness.
  • The police arrive at Lupino's Hotel, collect evidence and the bodies of the mobsters Payne had killed earlier, and eventually leave after taping off the building and station a few officers to guard the building. The remaining officers are killed by Frankie "The Bat" Niagara and his men.
  • Payne wakes up the night after the shootout at Ragna Rock to being assaulted by Frankie Niagara with his baseball bat in the basement of Lupino's Hotel.
  • Frankie Niagara is killed by Max Payne after the fugitive DEA agent escapes from confinement in Lupino's hotel basement.
  • Boris Dime and his men, who have defected from the Russian Mob, take over the Charon and the nearby Brooklyn dockyard in order to claim a large cache of weapons stored on the ship.
  • Dime and his men are killed by Max Payne after he is instructed by Vladimir Lem to reclaim the Charon and its contents for the Russians. Lem regains control over the ship.
  • Casa di Angelo is burned down as Payne escapes a trap and ambush set up by Angelo Punchinello.
  • Sometime before Max Payne arrives at Punchinello Manor, Lisa Punchinello is killed, presumably by her husband.
  • Punchinello Manor comes under attack by Max Payne, who is looking for Angelo Punchinello.
  • Notable members of the Punchinello crime family, including Vince Mugnaio, Pilate Providence, Joe Salem, and the Don himself, Angelo Punchinello, are killed during the shootout at Punchinello's manor. Angelo is executed by Nicole Horne's Killer Suits.
  • Payne is drugged by Horne and left to die from an overdose on Valkyr.
  • Max Payne survives the hallucinatory side effects and the withdrawal symptoms of Valkyr, waking up much later - presumably the next day - and traces Horne to Cold Steel.
  • Once those responsible for guarding the Cold Steel complex realize it has been compromised, "Operation: Dead Eyes" is put into effect. The complex is destroyed, but not before Payne finds the files on Project Valhalla and realizes Horne is responsible for the deaths of his wife and daughter.
  • B.B. and Max Payne meet on the roof of the Choir Communications Garage, where B.B. reveals himself as corrupt and responsible for Alex Balder's murder and Max being framed.
  • B.B. and his men are killed by Payne as B.B. tries to escape the parking garage.
  • The fugitive DEA agent meets Alfred Woden and several other members of the Inner Circle at the Asgard Building, who reveal this intention to assist Payne in taking down Nicole Horne. The building is invaded by numerous Killer Suits, who kill most of the Inner Circle members present at the meeting. Payne and Woden make it out alive.
  • Max storms the Aesir Headquarters building, killing dozens of Aesir security guards and Killer Suits. Mona Sax and Payne meet in the building, but she is shot and presumed dead.
  • Max Payne chases Nicole Horne to the roof of the building, where she tries to escape in her helicopter. Payne shoots the guy-wires holding the skyscraper's radio mast in place, which causes it to collapse on top of the fleeing helicopter, sending the tower, the helicopter containing Horne and her pilot, and the heliport structure crashing to the streets below.
  • Max is arrested by the NYPD while Woden looks on.

2003

• All charges against Max Payne for his actions in 2001 have been dropped, due to Alfred Woden's influence, and Payne returns to the NYPD as a Homicide detective.
• The Punchinello Crime Family, led by Vincent Gognitti, continue to battle Lem's Russian Mob.
• The Cleaner Case: Over the course of a few rainy nights, New York City is turned into a bloody battleground as Vladimir Lem launches an aggressive, large-scale operation aimed to quickly eliminate his enemies and consolidate the power of the city's criminal underworld under his control.
  • Mysterious assassins posing as cleaners working for the Squeaky Cleaning Company are tasked with covertly eliminating influential underworld figures.
  • The Inner Circle splits and falls into infighting. Alfred Woden and Vladimir Lem are the heads of the two warring factions.
  • Max Payne responds to a shots-fired call at a warehouse owned by Vladimir Lem. Taking down several suspects dressed as Cleaners, the rest of the shooters escape when Payne's police back-up arrives. Annie Finn, an arms dealer that works for Lem, is killed execution-style in her gun workshop. Mona Sax is revealed to be alive after being wounded two years prior in Aesir Headquarters.
  • Valerie Winterson is assigned to the investigation of Senator Gate's murder. Max Payne is assigned to the Cleaner case.
  • Sometime before Payne meets up with Vlad at his restaurant, Mona Sax shoots Lem in the arm.
  • Later that night, a massive shootout occurs at Vodka restaurant between Max Payne, Lem and his Russian mob including Mike, who run the establishment, and Vinnie Gognitti with a large group of his men. The gunfight results in a stalemate and Gognitti gets away.
  • Max Payne is attacked in his apartment complex by dozens of Cleaners, but nearly of them all killed by Payne and a few of his neighbors.
  • Later, an apartment building on the Upper East side is the setting of another gunfight between Payne and the Cleaners, with Mona Sax joining in as well. The Cleaners are caught in the middle of cleaning up after assassinating several members of the Inner Circle. Numerous Cleaners as well as their leader, Kaufman, are killed by Max and Mona during their investigation of the building. Winterson shows up, arrests Sax, then Payne and her take Sax back to the precinct they work at.
  • The precinct Mona is brought to comes under attack by the Cleaners soon after she is brought there to be held. Mona escapes the Cleaners, who have come to kill her, but the explosives used to break into the precinct kills several of the officers at the station. More officers are killed by the Cleaners as they look for Mona, but Max and a few of his fellow officers take them out.
  • Mona Sax's hideout, the Address Unknown Funhouse, is invaded by a large group of Cleaners who attempt to kill both her and Payne, who met her at the funhouse. Between the two of them, they are able to overcome the assassins before the rest retreat in Squeaky Cleaning Company vans, but not before Payne jumps into one of them before they speed off.
  • Payne infiltrates the Castling Construction Site, which a base for the Cleaners. A condemned building on the site is destroyed during Payne and the Cleaners' destructive gun battle, and Mona eventually shows up to assist Max on getting out alive.
  • Sax and Payne are stopped before they are able to escape the construction site by Valerie Winterson, who was sent there to kill both of them by Vladimir Lem. Payne shoots and kills Winterson, but not before being shot himself.
  • Payne and Winterson are taken to the New York Memorial Hospital, where Max is operated on and Winterson's body is sent to the morgue. The hospital is later attacked by Cleaner commandos, who are sent to kill Payne. Numerous guards, hospital staff and Cleaners are killed during the seige on the hospital. Jim Bravura is wounded while questioning Payne in the lobby of the hospital, and is sent into surgery almost immediately afterwards.
  • Another shootout occurs in Vodka, this time with Payne working against and shooting the Russian mobsters. Mike the Cowboy is among those killed in the shootout with Payne. Payne, looking for Lem, instead discovers plans to kill Vincent Gognitti.
  • Payne finds and saves Gognitti from a Russian mob attack against Gognitti and his men, however he discovers Gognitti is trapped in a Captain BaseBallBat-Boy outfit.
  • Max takes Gognitti to Mona Sax's funhouse, hoping to get her to help him remove Gognitti's costume, but they instead find Lem, who kills Gognitti by blowing up remotely detonating a bomb within his costume.
  • Sax, witnessing the death of Gognitti's and the subsequent destruction, rushes into the burning funhouse to rescue Payne, who is unconscious from a bullet wound to the head and smoke inhalation.
  • Mona is able to save Payne and together they head to Woden's Manor, assuming Lem is headed there as well. a massive gun battle breaks out between Lem, his Cleaner commandos, Woden's bodyguards, Mona, and Max.
  • Alfred Woden is killed by Vladimir Lem, ending the war between their factions. Mona is shot and later dies from her injuries in Payne's arms. Vladimir Lem is killed by Max Payne after the structure Lem is shooting from collapses, sending it and the Russian Mob leader crashing down into the manor below.
  • NYPD officers swarm the manor, rescuing Max from the building as the only apparent survivor of the deadly conflict.

2004

• September: Álvaro Neves is accused of orchestrating the executions of two left-wing politicians.
• Fabiana moves to São Paulo after living in São Carlos for 9 years.

2005

• Álvaro Neves quits the Unidade de Forças Especiais.

2006

• "Serrano" becomes the leader of the Comando Sombra.
• The Crachá Preto is founded by Álvaro Neves and some other ex-police officers.
• Milo Rego is drummed out of the Brazilian Army after a psychiatric evaluation deems him unfit for service.

2007

• Milo Rego joins the Crachá Preto as Neves' second-in-command.
• Max Payne becomes a regular customer at Walton's Bar.

2009

• March: Fabiana and Rodrigo Branco marry in Ilhabela, after meeting the previous year at a charity dinner.

2010s

2010

• November: Fabiana Branco is kidnapped by gang members, but is safely freed after an UFE rescue operation.

2011

• Jim Bravura dies of heart failure.
• Max Payne is hunted by Anthony DeMarco, after killing Tony DeMarco, Anthony's only son, his escape is assisted by Raul Passos. Brewer dies in a suicide attack during the fighting, helping Payne escape.
• Max Payne leaves Hoboken, New Jersey for São Paulo, Brazil and works as a bodyguard for the Branco Family, having been recruited by Raul Passos.
• Daphne Bernstein is killed along with many of her fellow of passengers when a tour ship secretly smuggling laundered money by Marcelo Branco and Raul Passos on orders of Victor Branco is attacked by pirates, with Max Payne and Passos being too late to save the passengers except for Marcelo Branco.

2012

• The Comando Sombra attempts to kidnap Fabiana Branco and Rodrigo Branco but is stopped by Max Payne, Raul Passos, São Paulo Police Department officers including Detective Wilson Da Silva and Unidade de Forças Especiais officers including commander Armando Becker, who had been attending the party the kidnapping attempt took place in.
• Fabiana Branco is kidnapped by the Comando Sombra in Club Moderno.
• The IT Guy is killed during the attack on the Branco compound.
• Rodrigo Branco is killed by Bachmeyer during the attack on the Branco Compound.
• The unidentified Mugger is killed by Max Payne during Payne's assault on the favela to reach Serrano's compound.
• Fabiana Branco is shot in the head by Serrano.
• Serrano is captured by UFE, who also capture Marcelo Branco and Giovanna Taveres during the same raid, which happened a few minutes after Serrano had shot Fabiana Branco. Payne, caught in the crossfire, fights his way through and witnesses Bachmeyer handing over captured civilians to Milo Rego. Branco and Taveres are also handed over.
• Marcelo Branco is burned alive by the Crachá Preto on orders of Milo Rego.
• Milo Rego is killed by Max Payne to avenge Marcelo Branco's death and to rescue Giovanna Taveres immediately after Branco's death.
• Arthur Fischer is killed by Serrano during the raid on the Imperial Palace Hotel by Payne on orders of Wilson da Silva.
• Álvaro Neves is shot in the head by Raul Passos, saving Max Payne who was being held at gunpoint at the end of the fighting in the Imperial Palace Hotel. The Hotel collapses due to explosives detonated earlier by Payne after Passos and Payne leave with the helicopter Neves had arrived in. This causes the dissolution of the Crachá Preto.
• Bachmeyer is killed by Max Payne in a gunfight at the UFE headquarters.
• Armando Becker is killed during the fighting at the Piratininga Airport. Victor Branco's plane is destroyed while attempting to take off and Branco's left leg is shattered by Payne, Branco is then arrested by Wilson da Silva.
• Victor Branco is hanged in his prison cell with police suspecting either suicide to escape the consequences or a murder in revenge, though it is possible he was silenced by fellow conspirators in a targeted assassination. The Unidade de Forças Especiais is disbanded after it's involvement in the organ harvesting scandal is exposed.
• Max Payne, while smoking at Bahia one week after the firefight at Piratininga Airport, learns of the UFE's disbandment and Victor Branco's death by watching TV with an elderly Brazilian man serving him a soda in a stand next to a beach in a bay. The INC further speculates that Branco either managed to commit suicide or was killed for revenge of the organ harvesting scandal and states that the São Paulo city officials were conducting a full investigation. The INC further states the citizens of São Paulo were feeling outraged after the monumental betrayal by the police force. The old man expresses his guess that Branco was killed in revenge and describes it as "Local justice". Payne, having extinguished his cigarette and finished his soda about half a minute earlier, thanks the old man, puts on his sunglasses which were on the counter and picks up and puts on his bag as he stands up. The INC reports on the weather that "Boy it's dark in some places, but it's sunny everywhere else.". Max Payne leaves the stand and walks away on the beach as the Sun sets.