Henry Dorsett Case
Henry Dorsett Case, sometimes referred to as "Cutter" but usually just as Case, is the novel's protagonist. Often classified as an antihero—a main character who lacks standard "hero" qualities like courage—Case is a former "console cowboy," a hacker who executed jobs in cyberspace for criminals and gangs. After attempting to steal from one of his bosses and losing his ability to access cyberspace as punishment, Case turns to drugs and stimulants to try and replicate the exhilarating feeling of hacking. He is later recruited by Armitage, who promises to restore his hacking abilities in exchange for service on a hacking job. Case is often withdrawn and reluctant to feel emotions, in large part due to his deep cynicism and nihilistic attitude toward life.
Molly Millions
Molly Millions is a "razorgirl" distinguished by her many cybernetic body modifications, which include implanted eye-lenses and retractable razors on her fingers. She is hired alongside Case by Armitage. She is as reticent as Case, and rarely reveals private information about herself. She and Case briefly engage in a sexual relationship but share little emotional intimacy. However, Molly does eventually reveal that she used to live on the streets with a former boyfriend, Johnny. Johnny was killed by a member of the Yakuza. Like Case, her experience on the streets and as a cyber hacker has left her with a jaded, hardened outlook on life.
Armitage/Colonel Willis Corto
Armitage finances and assembles the team that sets out on the hacking mission. At first, he remains a mystery. It is later revealed that he is actually Colonel Willis Corto, an American colonel who was involved in a military operation codenamed "Screaming Fist," where his plane was shot out of the sky over Russia. He was able to survive by crossing over into Finland but sustained lasting physical and psychological injuries, losing his legs and sight in the crash. After the crash, Corto resorted to violence and crime as a way of coping, but was eventually found in a Parisian psychiatric ward by the AI Wintermute. Wintermute coerces Corto into returning to the United States and repairs him physically. Corto is able to stand trial to testify about the crash, but receives little to no support from the government, which instead covers up the entire operation. Wintermute begins to psychologically prey upon Corto's instability, and reconstructs his personality to create Armitage, functionally erasing Corto. Over the course of the novel, Armitage's personality gradually deteriorates and Corto resurfaces, reliving the Screaming Fist operation. Wintermute ejects him from a spacecraft due to the threats he poses to their mission.
Peter Riviera
A thief hired by Armitage to be part of the team. He is also a drug addict who creates holographic projections to manipulate and ridicule those around him. Often, he uses these projections to prey upon people's insecurities and weaknesses. While Riviera originally agrees to be part of Case's team, he later double-crosses them by allying himself with 3Jane Tessier-Ashpool.
Lady 3Jane Marie-France Tessier-Ashpool
3Jane is one of the leading members of the Tessier-Ashpool family and leader of Tessier-Ashpool SA, which runs Freeside and has a long history of being involved with corporate technologies and potentially dangerous technological development. 3Jane lives in Villa Straylight, an expansive mansion located in Freeside, and retains control of Tessier-Ashpool's AIs in order to prevent them from developing their own independent free will. 3Jane is a clone of the original Jane, as Tessier-Ashpool is now run by clones of their originators. She is protected at all times by Hideo, her bodyguard and personal assassin.
Hideo
3Jane's bodyguard, a former Japanese assassin.
The Finn
One of Molly’s contacts and old friends, he works as a fence for stolen merchandise and owns a shop in the slums. The Finn possesses a variety of surveillance and counter-surveillance equipment. Armitage recruits him to supply Case with the gear he needs for hacking. Later in the novel, the AI Wintermute uses the Finn's image as a "mask" to give him a physical form and communicate with Case.
Maelcum
A resident of Zion—a community in space developed by a society of Rastafarians—who was recruited to pilot the space tug Marcus Garvey and bring Case's team as close to Villa Straylight as possible. He also helps sustain Case when he flatlines while hacking into Villa Straylight's network. Being a Rastafarian adherent, Maelcum distrusts all technology, most especially cyberspace, as he views it as nothing more than an extension of “Babylon,” an umbrella term that Rastafari use for any pervasive, oppressive establishment. He aids Case in infiltrating Straylight at the end of the novel.
Julius Deane
A 135-year-old importer-dealer in Chiba City who provides data for Case on several contraband dealings in the early parts of the novel. Deane uses a series of rejuvenation therapies and body augmentations in order to preserve his body against the ravages of old age. Case finds out later on that Deane had ordered the death of Linda Lee, Case’s on-and-off girlfriend. Wintermute takes on the form of Julius Deane as another one of his "masks."
Dixie Flatline, a.k.a McCoy Pauley
Dixie Flatline, otherwise known as McCoy Pauley, was a computer hacker and one of Case's mentors. Prior to his death, his consciousness was copied and saved into ROM format by Sense/Net, one of Tessier-Ashpool's networks. Case and Molly later steal this ROM so that it can assist them in their mission. While Case hacks into Villa Straylight, Flatline is often a voice of reason and advice for him.
Wintermute
Wintermute is one of two AIs developed by Tessier Ashpool. Its goal is to fuse with its twin AI—Neuromancer—and achieve a status of omniscience and omnipotence as a superintelligence. Wintermute and Neuromancer are both restrained by "Turing locks," which are set off when the AIs develop too much consciousness, prompting either a Turing police or 3Jane herself to intervene and launch a software code that will prevent the program from sustaining a steady, individual identity. Wintermute's identity, thus, is chronically unstable, and he must take on "masks" of other characters in order to communicate. This instability also prevents it from succeeding in its mission, as it cannot retain enough of a grasp on its own plan or desire in order to execute it thoroughly.
Neuromancer
Neuromancer is Wintermute's twin AI. Neuromancer is more developed than Wintermute, and as such has a fully-formed, stable personality, allowing it to create cyberworlds and manipulate Case through projections that involve his deceased girlfriend, Linda Lee. Neuromancer is a far more adept manipulator than Wintermute and has no desire to fuse with Wintermute, as he has already ascended to a level of higher intelligence.
Linda Lee
Case's former girlfriend, who is killed within the first few chapters of the novel. Although Case doesn't realize it at first, he comes to understand that he had incredibly deep feelings for Linda, and laments her death frequently. Neuromancer is able to prey upon Case's emotions by "resurrecting" a projection of Linda Lee.
