| Handsome Jack | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Actor | Dameon Clarke |
| Gender | Male |
| Age | 30s-40s |
| Occupation | President and CEO of Hyperion Former Owner of Atlas Former Co-Leader of The Group (alongside Rhys) |
| Family | Unnamed Grandmother (Deceased) Angel (Daughter, Deceased) (Unnamed) -Mother (Deceased) (Unnamed) - Father (Deceased) Nisha - Ex-Girlfriend (Deceased) (Unnamed) - First wife (Deceased) (Unnamed) - Second wife (Deceased) |
| First Appearance | Borderlands 2 |
| Last Appearance | The Vault of the Traveler |
| Death Episode | The Vault of the Traveler (Determinant) |
| Cause of Death | Killed by Vault Hunters or Lilith (1st Death) Crushed inside echo eye by Rhys (Determinant) (Final Death) |
| Status | Determinant |
| Series lifespan | Borderlands 2 to Present (Determinant) |
| Handsome Jack Gallery | |
- "Everyone thinks they´re the hero of their own story."
- —Handsome Jack
Handsome Jack is a main character and the main antagonist of Borderlands 2, a main character in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel and a main character and one of the main antagonists in Tales from the Borderlands.
Character
Handsome Jack is a character in Borderlands 2 and Borderlands: The Pre Sequel. He is shown to be the main antagonist in Borderlands 2. The real Handsome Jack is dead at the start of the Tales from the Borderlands, but he appears as an AI (Artificial intelligence) only seen by Rhys in a program developed by Professor Nakayama.
Once going by the name of Jack, he was a Hyperion programmer whom was often called John by his superiors, mostly because they did not care to know him better. He was married and had a daughter, Angel, who was a siren, one of six women in the universe gifted with immense power. Jack covertly used Angel since she was young to plan his rise to power. He managed to successfully use Angel to manipulate four vault hunters on Pandora, and have them open The Vault, and defeat the entity inside it known as The Destroyer for him. He then managed to persuade his superiors at Hyperion to construct the Helios Space Station, where he then managed to recover the Destroyer's eye and use it as an amplification device for the beam cannon secretly built on Helios, which was dubbed "The Eye of Helios". He then secretly hired six vault hunters to help him find a vault on Elpis, Pandora's moon. Unfortunately, he came into conflict with Col. Zarpadon and her Lost Legion, who were former Dahl Corporation military soldiers that went rogue after Zarpadon met an alien entity who warned her of Jack's plans. The Lost Legion managed to capture Helios and use the Eye of Helios to try and destroy Elpis in order to destroy the vault on the moon. With the vault hunters he hired, as well as some help from people Jack hired to help retake Helios, they managed to build a robot army and take back Helios, defeat the Lost Legion and kill Zarpadon. During this time, Jack gradually became obsessed with power. Upon hearing that the vault on Elpis was opened, he ordered his hired vault hunters to seize it. After it had been seized, Jack managed to take the artifiact and acquired knowledge of a vault on Pandora. While this was going on, a vault hunter siren named Lilith blasted the object into pieces and maimed Jack's face. After having a mask medically grafted to his face, he killed his superior, Mr. Harold Tassiter, renamed himself as Handsome Jack and took over as the President and CEO of Hyperion.
As president and CEO of Hyperion, Jack would go on to wage a war on Pandora under the guise of peacekeeping, and to mine the element called eridium from the planet. During this time, he seized an artifact, the vault key, from a former Dahl scientist, and killed many civilians or had them captured for inhumane experiments involving eridium. He also had to deal with a ragtag group calling themselves the Crimson Raiders, who were made up of vault hunters and former military soldiers from the Atlas Corporation. At first this group was a minor annoyance, until six vault hunters who survived one of Jack's many attempts to kill vault hunters join the group. They would go on and successfully kill Angel, who was being forced to charge the vault key while being injected with eridium. Jack would then kill the leader of the Raiders and kidnap and force Lilith to charge the vault key. He would eventually battle the vault hunters at the Vault of The Warrior. After battling them and managing to successfully summon the Warrior, Jack was defeated and executed for the crimes he committed.
Tales from the Borderlands
"Zer0 Sum"
Jack is first mentioned in the beginning of the episode by the narrator, Marcus. Later on when Rhys reactivates Prof. Nakayama's Hyperion ID chip, Jack's voice is heard - although it is not clear that it belongs to Handsome Jack. He is not heard until Rhys is messing with his glitched out gadget. Rhys yells that "he's got it."
"Do you, champ? Do you really?" The voice says. Rhys says that he does, which causes Sasha to say, "Do what?" Rhys shrugs it off and Jack isn't heard until the end when Rhys and Fiona discover the Gortys Project. "This ladies and gentlemen... is the Gortys Project. And it's going to lead us to a vault! And then I'll probably kill you."
"Atlas Mugged"
Picking up right where the first episode left off, Jack looks at Rhys and tells him that it's good he's working for Hyperion. Jack leads him upstairs and Rhys tells him that he is dead, Jack is in denial and tries to rip Rhys' throat out but is unable to due to his state. Rhys keeps backing up and hits head and falls over the stair railing and hits a computer, Rhys can choose to tell about seeing Handsome Jack, they don't believe him and bring him up. He is not seen until later when Hugo Vasquez hits Rhys. Handsome Jack says as much as he would like to watch "this idiot kill you two idiots”, he won't let it happen due to Handsome Jack being a part of Rhys.
Handsome Jack enhances his ECHO eye and gets to overload the gun, which causes it to explode. Handsome Jack points his finger forward which also happens to Rhys. Rhys punches himself in the head in order to get Jack away. They run off and they get picked up by Loader Bot.
Jack is seen later in the episode when Rhys gets knocked down again by Hugo. He is then when Hugo leads Rhys through the hallway. At the end of the episode when they put together the Gortys cores, Hugo and August point their guns at Sasha and Vaughn. Fiona tells them to back off by grabbing Felix's hand grenades. Jack tells Rhys to let him into his subsystems to hack the Atlas drones. Rhys can choose to trust Fiona or Trust Jack. If Rhys chooses to trusts Jack, he will change Rhys ECHO eye color from blue to orange and Jack gains control over the drones.
"Catch A Ride"
He appears in this episode
"Escape Plan Bravo"
He appears in this episode
"The Vault of the Traveler"
Jack plays a major and final role in this episode. Following the events of the fourth episode, he shows his true colours once more, revealing that Rhys will cease to exist, as Jack plans to surgically implant a robotic endoskeleton into Rhys' body with Jack's personality uploaded into it, effectively turning him into Jack.
Rhys, understandably, objects to this, which immediately results in Jack turning on him. Rhys then goes to work to prevent his fate and this results in the shutdown and fall of the Helios Space Station and its subsequent crash into Pandora.
Following this, Rhys emerges from the wreckage, alive, and is taunted by Handsome Jack through still-functioning monitors within the broken satellite. However, after a legitimately hurtful remark from Rhys, a careless move on his part leads to Jack downloading himself back into Rhys' eye, where he takes control of Rhys' arm and attempts to strangle him to death.
Rhys saves himself by impaling his arm through a piece of shrapnel and severing it entirely. Jack remains heartened and unfased by Rhys' success in deterring him. However, his cocky attitude soon becomes one of a pathetic whelp as Rhys begins removing his EchoEye implant.
As Jack kneels before and begs Rhys to cease removing the implant, he reveals true fear at the prospect of there being nothing inside it after it's disconnected. Rhys goes through with removing it entirely, but not before Jack pointlessly lunges at Rhys in an attempt to prevent it from happening, only to fizzle out of existence the moment his hands reach Rhys' neck. It's at this point the player is given a choice:
Crush the Eye
If Rhys chooses to Crush the EchoEye, it will permanently destroy Jack's AI, effectively ending Handsome Jack's life and legacy once and for all.
Keep the Eye
If Rhys chooses this option, he will stare at his removed implant before putting it away within his pocket. Effectively leaving Handsome Jack alive, but presently in no dangerous state.
As of June 16, 2017, more players have chosen to destroy the EchoEye than keep it, meaning that the former option is currently the canon one.
Death (Determinant)
Killed By
- Rhys (Determinant)
Rhys rips his arm off in order to stop Jack from choking him. Jack then says that Rhys will live to see another day. He then tells him that while Rhys has the cybernetics in him, he isn't going anywhere. Because he said this, Rhys rips out his cybernetic. Handsome Jack then asks him to not do this, but Rhys then rips out his ECHO eye, causing Jack to disappear. Rhys has the option to either keep the eye, and keep Jack trapped forever, or destroy the eye killing Jack and ridding the world of Jack once and for all.
Killed Victims
Jack is known to have killed many people.
- Numerous Pandorians and Hyperions. (Both caused and directly)
- Bloodwing (Caused)
- Angel (Caused)
- Roland
- Numerous members of Vallory´s gang (AI) (Determinant)
- Dumpy (Determinant)
Relationships
Jack's Grandmother
Jack was sent to be raised by her at a young age. Her treatment of him was terrible as she would subject him (at a minimum) to physical abuse. This would affect his mental health over time and may have played a role in his development into whom he became as an adult. During his time as president of Hyperion, he had some assassins kill her as a way of getting revenge on her for her treatment of him.
Angel
- "Oh, you can´t even BEGIN to understand my intentions. You think I haven´t had to make sacrifices?"
- —Handsome Jack to Rhys about his sacrifices
Jack's daughter. Ever since of the discovery that she was a siren, he used Angel when she was little as an important instrument for his rise in power. He would eventually use her to charge the vault key in order to open the Vault of The Warrior by injecting immense amounts of eridium into her. This made Angel dependent on the substance for her own survival. Because of this, Angel would grow to detest her father. After being forced to do his bidding for so long, she secretly assisted the vault hunters aligned with the Crimson Raiders in attacking the location she was in. They would then go on and destroy the eridium injection systems keeping Angel alive. When the eridium injectors were destroyed, Jack pleaded with her to stop. With her last breaths she called her father "an asshole" before she died from her eridium dependency. Jack then proceeded to go mad due to the fact he had basically killed his daughter, but then believed her death to be the Vault Hunter's fault and not his own.
If Rhys says to the AI of Handsome Jack that he deserved to die, he will tell Rhys that he can´t imagine what sacrifices he had to make (which includes Angel) to gain his high position in Hyperion. However The A:I is unaware that Angel is dead. If Rhys chooses to reject Jack´s offer to become the President of Hyperion he can say that he died alone because Vault hunters killed his friends and family (including Angel), which causes Jack to become furious. Later, the A.I finds the information about Angel´s demise in Helios‘ data files.
Rhys
- "You know you died alone, right? Vault hunters killed your friends, they killed your family and you croaked in some volcano in the middle of nowhere."
- —Rhys arguing with Handsome Jack about his failed life (Determinant)
It is unclear what Handsome Jack and Rhys relationship is. He did call him a `real winner´. But he also said that Rhys was just a `pitful little code monkey´ meaning he is unable to follow in Jacks footsteps. In episode 5 Jack tells Rhys "I should have seen this coming - Ever since I came to this nacho-flavored shithole of a planet, I've been betrayed by everybody I gave a rats ass about." which he then lists: his boss, his girlfriend, his daughter and indirectly Rhys himself. This is later revealed that Jack was only manipulating Rhys, in order to get back into his body and kill him. After Jack fails to strangle Rhys, he says that as long as Rhys got the cybernetics in him, Jack would be with him, waiting to take him out or just watch him wither away with age. Rhys begins to cut out his ECHO-eye, while Jack is begging him not to do it. Either way, Rhys tear out his eye and AI Jack disappears.
If the player continues to be respectful of Jack and accepting offers of friendship in the end of episode 4 he gives Rhys a chance to rule Hyperion. If Rhys accepts he takes over Helios and announces to everyone that Rhys is the president of Hyperion and tells Rhys that Pandora, Elpis, and Helios are just he start of their reign. The similarities between him and Rhys are lampshaded constantly by Jack throughout the series. Also near the end of episode 5 Rhys is asked by Fiona if he is going to follow Jack's footsteps. Rhys can say that he learned one thing from Jack: That he never wants to become like him, just follow his own path.
Hugo Vasquez
- "Whoa, wait a minute...Wallethead!"
- —Handsome Jack to Vasquez
Handsome Jack met Vasquez when he worked in the Hyperion mailroom. He used to call him `Wallethead´, because he used to stick money to his head when he was getting hair implants and he was always punching him in the face, which that Vasquez did approve because he was a big fan of him. After Vasquez is killed, he doesn't become upset over the events, he only congratulates Rhys that his rival is finally dead.
Fiona
- "Yeah, hurry up Rhys! God, she is so cute when she's excited."
- —Handsome Jack on Fiona
Although they don't directly interact, Handsome Jack appears to have great interest in Fiona, possibly even crushing on her. This is shown as when Fiona urges Rhys to 'hurry up', Jack comments on how 'cute' she is when she is excited. Furthermore, Jack rates her as 9/10 on his 'hotness level' (Higher than both Vaughn and Sasha) commenting that he likes her hat. If Jack ends up controlling Rhys, he will be very suggestive towards her, calling her 'sweetie'. When Fiona is puzzled by Rhys's odd behaviour, Jack answers "I just gotta be me, baby." Fiona is completely unknowing of Jack's feelings, and even his existence inside of Rhys.
Appearances
- Zer0 Sum (AI)
- Atlas Mugged (AI)
- Catch A Ride (AI)
- Escape Plan Bravo (AI)
- The Vault of the Traveler (AI)
Trivia
- Handsome Jack AI is the third character from the original Borderlands games to die. "(Determinant)" The other two were Shade "(Determinant)" and Scooter.
| Tales From The Borderlands Characters | ||
|---|---|---|
| Hyperion | Rhys • Vaughn • Loader Bot • Jack • Yvette • Hugo • Saul | |
| Felix’s Group | Fiona • Sasha • Felix | |
| Hollow Point | Tector • Janey • Scooter • Tommy | |
| Prosperity Junction | Rudiger • Shade • Penumbra • Bewm • Nakayama • Steele | |
| Vallory's Group | August • Kroger • Vallory • Finch • Gary | |
| Atlas | Gortys • Cassius • Dumpy • Pollux | |
| Bandits | Mask Vendor • Bossanova | |
| Vault Hunters | Zer0 • Athena • Brick • Mordecai • CL4P-TP | |
| Vault Monsters | The Traveler | |
| Unnamed Or Unseen Characters | Kidnapper • Marcus • Moxxi • Lilith • Angel | |
| Alive characters appear in green. Dead characters appear in red. Unknown characters appear in blue. Determinant characters appear in purple. | ||