Jack Marston

"Landon Ricketts eat your Heart out!"

- Jack Marston

John "Jack" Marston Jr. is a Major character featured in Red Dead Redemption. He is the only child of John Marston and Abigail Marston, and also the only surviving member of the Marston family.

Background
Jack Marston is the only surviving child of Abigail and John Marston.

Some time later, 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 farmers 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. Toward the end of the story, Jack was released along with Abigail, and they headed back to the farm 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 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 out of the farm by himself. Uncle, after failing at preventing Jack from leaving, reported what had happened to John shortly after. John then traveled to the top of Nekoti Rock where he found Jack injured and the Grizzly bear that had caused the wounds. Saving Jack from the animal, 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, the scars resembling those of his father.

Later 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. This leading to a large gunfight between the US military and John, Jack and Uncle. After initially hiding inside the house with Abigail whilst his father took down the first wave of enemies, Jack soon came out onto the porch and helped fight off the second wave, in which Uncle was mortally wounded.

Eventually, after defeating numerous more soldiers, Jack was ordered by his dad 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 stated that he would catch up. With this, John hit the horse causing it to run out of the barn, and away into the Great Plains. In order to ensure safety for 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 you take control of a 16 year old Jack riding on his father's horse. Upon arriving at the barn, John lies 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 mother next to his father's and Uncle's graves. Eager for his father's vengeance, he then proceeded to Blackwater, where he met a police officer of no name at the train station. After discovering that Ross, the man that had betrayed his father three years earlier, had retired a year ago and moved to a quiet cabin with his wife Emily Ross near Lake Don Julio, 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 after hearing the woman worry for her husband that 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 gunned down Ross with several rounds, sending his bullet torn body into the river. 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 that 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

 * "The Outlaw's Return"
 * "John Marston and Son"
 * "Wolves, Dogs and Sons"
 * "Spare The Love, Spoil The Child"
 * "The Last Enemy That Shall Be Destroyed"
 * "Remember My Family"

Gameplay
After the gameplay mission "The Last Enemy That Shall Be Destroyed", 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 "I Know You" stranger mission, as that entire quest foreshadows his father's demise. However, Jack gets the unique quest "Remember My Family", to avenge John. Either way each Marston's unique quest deals with the other's fate.

Trivia

 * Jack's adult character model can be unlocked early in singleplayer. Players can use a cheat phrase to change the John Marston character model to Jack Marston. However, once entered, the player will not be able to enter available gameplay missions or save progress.
 * After Jack has been unlocked, his father's cowboy outfit is replaced by a beige jacket and a white shirt.
 * 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 "I Know You".
 * 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 as his father, though he rationalizes it by believing that his parents would disapprove of his having relations with them.
 * Jack does not like killing horses, as shown by some of the things he says like "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 depression. Sometimes, after having helped a citizen in a random event, he may say "I've got nothing else to live for" or "I've got nothing else to do with my life anyway",losing three members of his family in less than four years might be the reason why.
 * 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 "Spare the Love, Spoil the Child".
 * If one uses the cheat to play as Jack, the game may become glitched, and tell the player that they should go home and see their wife (as it will when John kills Dutch). NOTE: This only works if you have unlocked Beecher's Hope, but have NOT beaten the game.
 * Jack, like his father, smokes cigarettes, but not to as large of an extent. This habit can be observed when Jack visits a theatre. The habit can also be seen around Beecher's Hope when Jack is 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 at the start of strangers missions started by his father, although he looks surprisingly more like his mother, Abigail Marston, than his father John Marston.
 * 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.
 * Some players prefer to not do bounty missions when playing as Jack as catching or killing bounty targets helps lawmen that Jack hates for killing his father.
 * 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.
 * He is a new playable multiplayer character in the Liars and Cheats DLC.