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| “ | I see our fearless leader Jack is looking for you. Charming fellow, isn’t he? Spouts drivel about bringing "peace" to the frontier, then shoots unarmed men, women and children like it was going out of style. Bah, I’m spouting exposition again, aren’t I? Apologies! | „ |
| ~ Sir Hammerlock's thoughts on Handsome Jack. |
| “ | I'm racking my brain trying to think of a name for that diamond pony I bought. I was going to call it "Piss-For-Brains" in honor of you, but this just feels immature | „ |
| ~ Jack provokes the player. |
Handsome Jack is the main antagonist in Borderlands 2 , the deuteragonist of Borderlands: the Pre-Sequel and the tritagonist of Rhys story turned main antagonist in Tales From The Borderlands. He is a ruthless, cruel leader and a self-proclaimed "Hero". He also stole the credit for defeating the entity that resided in the Vault from the original vault hunters form the original game. Handsome Jack wants to find and activate the Warrior, so he can get rid of all "criminals" on Pandora and rule the land for himself.
Due to him being the hidden manipulator of the events that ocurred in Bordelands, the villain in Borderlands 2, a one of the main villains in Tales From The Borderlands and the orchestrator of the events in Borderlands: the Pre-Sequel, Handsome Jack can be considered the main antagonist of the Borderlands franchise.
He is voiced by Dameon Clarke.
History
Handsome Jack's history is a complex one. His father passed away while he was very young, causing his mother to give custody of Jack to his grandmother. While being raised by his grandmother, he was subjected to (at the least) physical abuse. This abuse would most likely become one of the main contributors to the decline of his mental state as he became older. When he became older, he found a job as a computer engineer for the Hyperion Corporation and would eventually get married and have a daughter, Angel, whom was one of the universe's six sirens; women who were gifted with immense powers. His unnamed wife died of unknown causes, though some of Jack's dialogue implies that it was due to his daughter's powers. Handsome Jack then forcibly connected Angel to computers that would allow him access to the communication systems on Pandora. With his daughter in place, he orchestrated the events of Borderlands, using Angel as a proxy to relay instructions to the original vault hunters. He also used this as an opportunity to rise up the corporate ladder by orchestrating bets to his superiors and using Angel and the original vault hunters (whom were unaware of this at the time).
After the vault is opened and the Destroyer was defeated, he managed to persuade his superiors to build the Helios space station in order to keep watch on Pandora. However, this was a ploy to equip the Destroyer's eye into a laser weapon dubbed "The Eye of Helios". During this time, Jack also hired six vault hunters to help him with finding a vault on Elpis, Pandora's moon. However, a rouge Dahl military force, "The Lost Legion" commanded by Colonel Zarpedon attacks and seizes the space station, and commences to use the Eye of Helios to destroy Elpis in order to prevent the vault on the planet from opening.
Jack has his vault hunters assist him in retaking the station as well as calling in assistance from Roland and Lilith; two vault hunters who opened the vault on Pandora. During this time, he killed those who were assisting the Lost Legion or suspected of doing so. After fighting through the Lost Legion, Jack and his vault hunters manages to defeat Zarpedon. Before being killed by Jack, Zarpedon explains that the vault on Elpis has been opened. With Helios back under Hyperion control, Jack then decides to use the Eye of Helios to attack the Lost Legion forces on Elpis. Following the instructions of his then lover at the time, Moxxi, Jack activates the laser weapon; only for it to destroy itself. Moxxi, Roland and Lilith betrayed Jack in order to prevent him from getting too powerful. Jack then orders the vault hunters he hired to go after the vault on Elpis. After his group succeeds in seizing the vault, Jack arrives to claim the treasure, which was information on another vault on Pandora known as "The Vault of The Warrior". While taking in this information, Lilith arrives and destroys the artifact, scarring Jack's face in the process.
After donning a mask and killing his superior, Jack becomes Handsome Jack; president and CEO of the Hyperion Corporation. Handsome Jack then began operations on Pandora to carry out his vengeance. He then stole the vault key from Patricia Tannis, and used the rare mineral arose after the Vault was opened (eridium), to use as fuel to increase Angel's power in order to charge the vault key. This would eventually make Angel dependent on the substance for her own survival. He then tries to find other vault hunters in order to lure them into his sphere of influence, showing a need for them. After luring them in, he then tries to kill them. This however would eventually be the beginning of the end for Handsome Jack as vault hunters don't die so easily.
After a group of vault hunters survive Jack's trap, they manage to join up with the resistance created by the original vault hunters and with the help of Angel, manages to kill her, so that she could become free of Jack's control. Handsome Jack, enraged at the loss of his siren daughter, kills Roland and kidnaps Lilith (who is also a siren) to replace his daughter in charging the vault key. This would culminate into a showdown between Handsome Jack and the vault hunters. After battling the vault hunters for some time, the vault key becomes fully charged, allowing Jack to summon the Warrior. However, the Warrior manages to be defeated, and in a fit of disbelief, berates the vault hunters how Pandora would be much better off removing the "bandits" from the planet. Defeated, Handsome Jack is killed by the vault hunters.
Handsome Jack's acts range from merely being petty, such as taunting the Vault Hunters and even naming his own stead "Butt Stallion" as an insult for them, into utterly sadistic, such as cold-bloodily murdering Bloodwing and using his own daughter to charge the vault key. He is also very vengeful, as he did not hesitate to kill Roland and kidnap Lilith, another siren, to replace his daughter who died from being disconnected from the eridium that helped to keep her alive. He also rescinded the bounty place on the vault hunters sent to stop him, so that he could kill them himself. He revels in whatever evil he does and is not afraid to rub it in his enemies' face.
He held the delusions that he was the hero of the story, as he would be hailed as the savior. However, at the end of his life, he can be killed by either the Vault Hunters or Lilith.
Jack is later revived into an AI when Rhys activates him during the events of Tales from the Borderlands, leaving him inside Rhys' brain.
In the final episode, Jack tries to kill everyone in order to turn them into flesh bots and download himself into all of them. The plan fails and Helios crashes into Pandora, destroying everything he had built. Jack has one final confrontation with Rhys after a talk about his dead daughter and he eventually downloads himself into Rhys' cybernetics again. Jack starts to strangle him with his own robotic arm, but Rhys manages to rip off his arm. And while Jack threatens to eventually kill him, Rhys rips out all his cybernetics with a shard of glass. Jack then begins to beg on his knees for his former fan to spare him, but Rhys pulls out the echo eye. In one last, desperate attempt to kill Rhys, Jack tries to stop him only for Rhys to rip it out the last of his echo eye, severing Rhys' connection with Jack. Jack disappears and is trapped inside the echo eye. At this point, Rhys can either crush the eye in order to destroy Handsome Jack or he can spare him and leave him trapped inside the eye forever. Sparing Handsome Jack will allow him to get his goal of immortality, but at the cost of being trapped forever.
Killed Victims
- The Meriff
- Colonel Zarpedon
- Mr. Tassiter
- Angel (Caused)
- Mr. Moorin
- His grandmother (caused)
- Bloodwing (Caused)
- Roland
- Helena Pierce
- Wilhelm (Caused)
- Every CL4P-TP unit in the existence (except for Claptrap)
- Vallorys goons (Determined)
- Numerous Pandorians and Hyperions (Both directly and caused)
Trivia
- Handsome Jack is often considered a 'western-game' equivalent of Yuuki Terumi of BlazBlue, as they both enjoy mocking, trash-talking and trolling their enemies and flaunt their superiority and being sadistic in what they do. Unlike Terumi, however, Handsome Jack was more short-lived.
- During the development of the game, the developers originally gave him the name as a temporary place holder, but everyone liked the name that it was decided to become his actual name.
- Handsome Jack is considered to be one of the best video game villains of all time.
- Handsome Jack's favorite method of murder seems to be strangulation.
- Handsome Jack's favorite color appears to be yellow, as stated by professor Nakayama.
- Handsome Jack is thought to have heterochromia, which is a genetic difference in both of the eyes' color.