Jack Marston

"Landon Ricketts, eat your heart out!"

- Jack Marston

John "Jack" Marston is a Major character featured in Red Dead Redemption.

Background
 is the only only living child of Abigail and John Marston and the sole surviving member of the Marston Family.

In 1908, John was badly wounded in a botched bank robbery. John took this as an opportunity to abandon his life of crime after it abandoned him, as John often puts it. He left with Abigail and Jack, moving them to a ranch on Beecher's Hope to try and start over as ranchers and give Jack a better life.

Interactions
At some unspecified point in 1911, Jack and his mother were taken hostage by Edgar Ross of the Bureau of Investigation to an unknown location in order to extort John to kill or capture his old gang members. After John had completed his task, Jack was released along with Abigail, and they headed back to the ranch where they were reunited with John. After his parents commented on how Jack had been troubled "growing up without a father", Jack began to finally share some time with John, as he was taught how to hunt and skin Elk, herd cattle, and become a better overall ranch-hand.

Wanting to prove that he was not a child anymore to his father, Jack rode off alone to hunt a Grizzly, despite his father's previous warnings not to head off by himself. Uncle, after failing to prevent Jack from leaving, reported what had happened to John shortly after. John then traveled to the top of Nekoti Rock where he found Jack badly injured and the grizzly bear that had caused the wounds. Saving Jack from the beast, they both rode back to Beecher's Hope, with John disappointed in his son's behavior. Although Jack survived his encounter with the Grizzly, he was scarred with bear scratches resembling those of his father.

Near the end of the story, the ranch was attacked by the U.S. Military as instructed by Edgar Ross, who believed that eventually John must still pay for what he had done. Before the attack, John told Jack to keep himself and Abigail inside the house and to lock all the doors and windows. After initially hiding inside the house with Abigail whilst his father and Uncle took down the first wave of soldiers, Jack soon came out onto the porch with a rifle and helped fight off the second wave in which Uncle was mortally wounded.

Eventually, after defeating numerous more soldiers, Jack was ordered by his father to retreat alongside his mother to the barn. Once John joined them, Jack and Abigail were commanded to ride far away from the farm to find a place to hide, John stating that he would catch up. With this, John slapped the horse, causing it to run out of the barn and away into the Great Plains. In order to ensure the safety of his family, John stepped outside the front barn doors and allowed his life to be taken by the soldiers waiting there, knowing that the government would no longer terrorize Abigail and Jack.

A few minutes later, Abigail told Jack that they had to return after hearing gunshots. At this point the player takes control of a sixteen year-old Jack riding on his father's horse. Upon arriving at the barn, they witness John lying in a pool of blood, his revolver by his side. After great mourning, they buried John's body atop a nearby hill overlooking the house, a hand made grave stone, possibly made by Jack, marking his final resting place, alongside Uncle.

Three years later, a 19 year-old Jack buried his now deceased mother next to his father's and Uncle's graves. Eager to avenge his father, he then proceeded to Blackwater where he met a Bureau agent named Howard Sawicki at the train station. Jack learns from Sawicki that Ross, the man that had betrayed his father three years earlier, had retired a year ago and moved to a quiet cabin near Lake Don Julio with his wife Emily Ross. Jack traveled to New Austin, hoping to confront the former agent. After reaching a cabin by the lake, Jack learned from Edgar's wife that he had gone on a hunting trip with his brother Phillip in Rio del Toro, Mexico. Jack gave her his thanks and stated that, after hearing her worries for her husband, he was sure Ross would be "just fine". After finding Philip at the hunting campsite, who told Jack that Edgar had gone down to the riverside to shoot ducks. Jack confronted Edgar Ross at the river side with building tension. Jack shared words of anger with the old man by the riverside. Ross stated that he would kill Jack too if he didn't leave, to which Jack responded "I ain't goin' anywhere, old man!" causing Jack and Edgar to have a final showdown. Jack drew his gun first and shot Ross, ending the man's life. Finally, after delivering justice to his father's killer, Jack turned and slowly walked away, leaving what had been done; representing that "Everyone will eventually pay for what they've done". However, this act also placed his own future in danger; by murdering Edgar, Jack was dangerously close to becoming an outlaw himself - the very life that his father had hoped Jack would avoid at all costs.

Jack, from here-on, is the playable protagonist, set in the world during 1914, the first year of World War One, as can be seen on the page of a newspaper in Blackwater.

Mission Appearances

 * &quot;The Outlaw's Return&quot;
 * &quot;John Marston and Son&quot;
 * &quot;Wolves, Dogs and Sons&quot;
 * &quot;Spare The Love, Spoil The Child&quot;
 * &quot;The Last Enemy That Shall Be Destroyed&quot;
 * &quot;Remember My Family&quot;
 * &quot;Love in the Time of Plague&quot; (Undead Nightmare)
 * &quot;On a Pale Horse&quot; (Undead Nightmare)

Gameplay
After the gameplay mission &quot;The Last Enemy That Shall Be Destroyed&quot;, players assume the role of Jack.

Jack now possesses all of his father's weapons, horses, properties, fame, honor, bounty, and abilities. He also retains moral traits of his father, such as a dislike of killing horses and women, an inability to swim, and a disinterest in prostitutes. Jack is still able to complete any unfinished stranger missions with his own speech dialogue.

Jack is unable to do the &quot;I Know You&quot; Stranger side-mission, as that entire quest foreshadows his father's demise. However, Jack gets the unique quest &quot;Remember My Family&quot;, to avenge John. Either way each Marston's unique quest deals with the other's fate.

Undead Nightmare
Jack Marston appears in Undead Nightmare. He is first seen reading and talking to his mother, discussing her swearing and her asking when he'll be finished with his "university education" before John comes home from the heavy storm. Later, after supper, John asks Jack about the book he's reading. Jack tells him it's about an Aztec man who apparently must kill his people who have been infected by a virus or plague, which just so happens to coincide with the storyline of Undead Nightmare.

Later that night, Uncle had come back as an Undead and is beaten over the head with a lamp by John. As John goes to fetch his gun, Uncle gets up and chases Abigail out to the front porch. She trips and is then bitten on the neck by Uncle, infecting her. John witnesses the attack and promptly puts Uncle out of his misery by shooting him in the head with his shotgun. Abigail holds her neck wound and moans in pain, causing John to call Jack out into the yard. Jack sees Abigail on the ground, bleeding, and goes over to try and help her. She bites Jack on the neck, infecting him as well. John grabs his lasso and goes back to them, seeing them having turned into Undead. He proceeds to hogtie them both, carrying them to the master bedroom of the house. He leaves them there, leaving them plates of food, and goes out to search for a cure and save his family.

Trivia

 * Jack's adult character model can be unlocked early in Singleplayer. Players can use a cheat to change the John Marston character model to Jack Marston. However, once entered, the player will not be able to enter available gameplay missions.
 * After Jack has been unlocked, his father's Cowboy Outfit is replaced by a beige jacket and a white shirt with a red bandana tied around his neck.
 * Jack is only 19 when he takes revenge on Edgar Ross, but appears to have physically matured significantly. In reality, the game engine uses the John Marston character model, but with a different head and body texture.
 * During the start of one of Jack's earlier missions, John finds Jack reading a book about a son who is out to avenge his father's death. This story not only references the plot of Red Dead Revolver, but also foreshadows his actions later in the game.
 * Jack has recorded dialogue for every Stranger side-mission which could have been completed as John, excluding &quot;I Know You&quot;.
 * While skinning an animal, Jack may say "Just like you showed me, Pa," referencing the mission in which John teaches him how to hunt.
 * Jack shares a similar disinclination towards prostitutes like that of his father's, rationalizing it by believing that his parents would disapprove of him having relations with them and that they are too old for him.
 * Jack does not like killing horses, as shown by some of the things he says, such as "Is this what I've become, a horse killer?" (although sometimes, he will say "Why the long face?" as a joke when killing a horse) He shows the same displeasure when killing women, saying either "What have I become?" or "No wonder I'm alone."
 * Jack appears to suffer from a severe case depression. Sometimes, after helping a citizen in a Random Encounter, he may say "I've got nothing else to live for" or "I've got nothing else to do with my life anyway." He also shows signs of loneliness and regret to becoming a gunslinger.
 * Jack seems to be very confused as he both loves his father, but also blames him for his current position as a gunslinger, as shown in his dialogue.
 * Jack enjoys reading, as shown in 1911, and expresses that he wants to be a writer. He alludes to this interest further when, after hearing a story by a campfire, remarks that he thinks he may have "Read that in a book once."
 * Jack has facial scars similar to John's, obtained by a grizzly bear in &quot;Spare the Love, Spoil the Child&quot;.
 * Jack, like his father, smokes cigarettes, but not to as large of an extent. This habit can be observed when Jack visits a theatre or around Beecher's Hope when Jack was a teenager.
 * Occasionally, when Jack kills law and military men, he might say "You are the real criminals!" or "The law killed my Pa!" or "I always hated lawmen!", referring to the incident at Beecher's Hope.
 * Jack is mistakenly taken as his father during Stranger missions started by his father, although he looks surprisingly more like his mother, Abigail, than his father John.
 * Stranger missions have different dialogues if you start as John and end it as Jack.
 * Sometimes when spurring a horse, Jack will yell 'Work, ya damn nag!' regardless of what type of mount he is riding.
 * It is very possible that Jack blames his father for what he turned into, because sometimes when aiming a weapon at someone he will say "My father made me this way, I'm afraid." or "John Marston did this to me!" when killing lawmen.
 * Jack was a very insightful and intelligent teenager, this is shown by his keen interest in reading and in a mission when Jack and his father are having a conversation about the difference between killing and murdering, and Jack says that there is no difference to the person getting killed.
 * It is possible that John telling Jack over and over that he will one day be a great rancher gave Jack a dislike of farming, because when firing a machine gun for a while he will exclaim "Forget farming!"
 * It is unknown where Jack Marston is between 1911 and 1914, it is possible that he was training with Landon Ricketts to heighten his weapon abilities, though some players believe that his mother Abigail was training his weapon abilities, this is also more likely due to the fact that Jack did not know Landon Ricketts, and that he probably would have wanted to comfort his mother after the shooting of John Marston.
 * It is also possible that Jack taught himself; in the mission &quot;Wolves, Dogs and Sons&quot; he mentions that it would be better if John not help him learn to shoot, but if he teaches himself in case John runs off again.
 * Jack might have known Landon Ricketts, this is shown after some duels when he says, "Landon Ricketts, eat your heart out!" but this could also mean that Jack has heard about Landon (due to the fact that he is a legendary gunslinger and Jack could have heard about him and his shooting skills).
 * He is a new playable multiplayer character in the Liars and Cheats DLC.
 * Jack is briefly seen in the official TV commercial for the Undead Nightmare DLC. In the TV commercial, Jack is quickly seen when John shouts "Jack, get out here!"
 * It is ironic that during Undead Nightmare, Jack was reading a book whose storyline closely resembles that of the DLC.
 * He seems to have genuinely cared for Uncle as he was greatly upset by his death. This is further shown in Undead Nightmare where he is concerned about Uncle not coming home, and when told to go to bed he asks "What about Uncle?"
 * His nickname, Jack, may be a nod to former president John Fitzgerald Kennedy, who's name was John, and nicknamed Jack.

Gallery
Jack Marston