Jack

"They told me: Son, you're special, you were born to do great things. You know what? They were right."

- Jack

Jack Ryan is the protagonist of BioShock, whom the player controls throughout the game. He is a young Caucasian male who, prior to his unwilling arrival in Rapture, was a passenger on an airplane that crashed near a lighthouse that provided entry to the underwater city. During his journey through Rapture, he comes across a number of various gene altering substances, known as Plasmids, that he uses to empower and protect himself.

History


Jack is the illegitimate son of Andrew Ryan and Jasmine Jolene, Ryan's mistress. An Audio Diary by Jolene, and photos found on Ryan's desk indicate that Jack was purchased by Bridgette Tenenbaum on behalf of Frank Fontaine as an embryo. Jack was to be Fontaine's back up plan if he was ever forced into a bad position by Ryan during the increasing hostility leading up to Rapture's Civil War. Jack was "born" some time in 1956 and raised by the scientists of Fontaine Futuristics, including Dr. Yi Suchong and Bridgette Tenenbaum. According to audio diaries by Dr. Yi Suchong, who was responsible for Jack's development, Jack weighed fifty-six pounds and had the "gross musculature of a fit nineteen-year-old by the age of one", thanks to Lot 111. Dr. Suchong also reveals in another audio diary that he was responsible for the mind control imprinting that Frank Fontaine requested.

Sometime in 1958, before Fontaine faked his own death in a shoot out with Sullivan's forces, Jack was smuggled out of Rapture in a bathysphere and sent to the surface as a sleeper agent, living out his pre-programmed life until Frank Fontaine "activated" him. Upon Fontaine's command, using the trigger phrase "Would you kindly", Jack boarded a plane in January of 1960 that passed over Rapture's location in the North Atlantic, then hijacked it, forcing it to crash land at the coordinates of the Lighthouse, the Main entrance to Rapture.

BioShock
During the events of BioShock Jack arrives in Rapture in a Bathysphere taken from the lighthouse at the surface. In the beginning, he explores the different areas of BioShock under the guidance of Atlas, who speaks to him through a short wave radio. Jack's main objective at first is to find a functional bathysphere that will return him to the surface. Atlas promises to help him if in return Jack will save his trapped family in Neptune's Bounty. This proves to be more difficult than it at first seemed, as Andrew Ryan had noticed the intrusion and cut of access to Neptune, keeping close tabs on Jack and setting security and Splicers on him from then on. Jack is forced to detour through Medical Pavilion, encountering Dr. Steinman. Here Jack meets Bridgette Tenenbaum for the first time, or so he thinks. She implores him not to hurt the Little Sisters, and gives Jack a way to rescue them, although Atlas advises against it.

When Jack finally reaches Neptune's Bounty he makes his way to the Smuggler's Hideout where Atlas's family are allegedly trapped in a bathysphere. Jack is supposed to meet Atlas there, but when he enters the control booth to open the bathysphere Andrew Ryan takes control, sending a wave of Splicers that destroy the sub and force Atlas to flee. Jack escapes through a tunnel to Arcadia, and Atlas informs him that their new objective is vengeance, to put an end to Andrew Ryan.

Jack makes his way through Arcadia and Fort Frolic, finding his way constantly blocked by Andrew Ryan's influence. In Fort Frolic Jack makes the discovery that Jasmine Jolene was Ryan's murdered lover, though he does not realize the significance of this at first. Eventually Jack reaches Hephaestus, where Atlas asks him "Now, would you kindly head to Ryan's office and kill the son of a bitch? It's time to finish this." Ryan had set up strong defenses, but Jack eventually breaches them and enters Rapture Central Control only to find that Ryan has set the entire complex into self destruct. Jack enters Ryan's office and sees the "Would you kindly" board upon which Ryan has connected all the evidence about Jack's true past. Jack finally encounters Ryan for the first and last time in a scene during which Ryan proves that Jack has been a slave under the control of Atlas the whole time, saying "A man chooses, a slave obeys." Jack is forced to kill Ryan, and take his genetic key to shut down the self destruct mechanism. Finally, Atlas reveals his true identity as Frank Fontaine and thanks Jack for handing the keys to Rapture to him. He sends security bots to kill Jack, but Jack is led to an escape route by rescued Little Sisters. Jack enters a vent only to have it collapse under him and is knocked unconscious.

Jack wakes up in Tenenbaum's Sanctuary, where she informs him that while he slept she removed most of the mental conditioning that Dr. Suchong put in his mind. Jack is no longer vulnerable to the "Would you kindly" command, but Fontaine quickly proves that he still has control over Jack by activating the phrase "Code Yellow." This causes Jack's heart to begin the slow process of ceasing to beat. With the help of Tenenbaum Jack finds the cure for the conditioning, a chemical produced by Dr. Suchong called Lot 192. Finally, Jack completely frees himself from Fontaine's mind control. Once he is free, Tenenbaum urges him to go after, and Fontaine obliges by challenging Jack to a showdown.

However, in order to pursue Fontaine, Jack is forced to become a Big Daddy to trick little sisters into thinking he is one of their protectors. However, this transformation is not complete, as he does not have the suit grafted onto him (he never wears the gloves, either), nor is his mind altered in the process. The only physical change he undertakes is the automated vocal chord surgery, which Frank Fontaine (truthfully or not) warns over the radio beforehand is irreversible in an attempt to stop him. Afterward, Jack confronts Fontaine in a final battle but is knocked to the ground by him. When Fontaine is about to kill Jack, five Little Sisters pounce on him with the hypodermic devices they use to suck ADAM out of corpses, killing Fontaine.

Depending on the player's actions throughout the game, Jack will either become the new ruler of Rapture and leader of the Splicers, or he escapes to the surface with the five Little Sisters, raising them as his own daughters until dying of old age.

Theories of Jack's Aging
It can be heard in an Audio Diary from Dr. Suchong that Jack grew to the size and physical condition of a nineteen-year-old when he was just a year old. Doing the math, and considering the average human life span at the time (a little over sixty years ), Jack could quite possibly have died when he was only 4 "real" years old, if he were lucky. On the other hand, there is evidence against this theory, such as: As such, it is more likely Jack was only Spliced to grow rapidly to maturity, and then age as a normal human would. This would give him an extra fifty years to live after the events of BioShock
 * The Good End: Rescuing and raising the Little Sisters, graduating college and having children of their own, all of which would have taken at least twenty years after after leaving Rapture.
 * Considering the possibility that Fontaine left Jack on the surface for a few years also challenges the theory. Since Jack was born in 1956 and reentered Rapture in 1960, he would have been dead before the events of the story if the fast aging theory was correct.

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BioShock 2
Jack is confirmed to not make a return in BioShock 2. However, in an interview with Jordan Thomas, the creative director of BioShock 2, it is revealed that apparently Jack has become a man of legend among the Splicers left in Rapture. BioShock 2's storyline will work with either the good or the bad ending of the original. In the same interview with Jordan Thomas, he said that Jack possibly wouldn't survive the second game, being that the protagonist (Subject Delta) is much more powerful than the enemies are in the second game.

Trivia

 * Shortly after the middle of the game, it is revealed that Jack is the illegitimate son of Andrew Ryan and Jasmine Jolene. This fact and other Audio Diaries explain how the Vita-Chambers work on Jack and not Splicers and also how he can use the Bathyspheres despite them being genetically locked to allow only the Rapture council to use them.


 * While Jack's face is never directly seen in the game or in cinematic cutscenes (both of which take place largely in the first person perspective), a few pictures of him can be found throughout Rapture. His voice is heard a few times throughout the game; in the beginning cinematic Jack is heard talking, and in the Mind Control Test audio diary, as well as whenever he is injured (he screams or grunts).


 * Taking his biological father into account names the character Jack Ryan, a character created by Tom Clancy with whom he shares several thematic aspects: both have an "everyman" quality about them, that of a tough but relatively normal person thrown into circumstances for which they are psychologically unprepared. Andrew Ryan initially suspects that Jack is a CIA spook, then comes to the conclusion that he is not based on his behavior. In contrast, Clancy's Jack Ryan actually is a CIA employee whose mission requires him to impersonate a naval officer. Both are forced to engage in gun-play underwater to survive.


 * On Jack's wrists are tattoos of chain links. This could be a reference to Andrew Ryan's "Great Chain" or, more likely, that it is symbolism of Jack's enslavement. The tattoos could also be explained as a reference to Dagny Taggart's chain link bracelet in Ayn Rand's novel, Atlas Shrugged . (Note: the chain links on the right wrist are visible during the cutscene where the first plasmid is acquired, when the player is wielding the wrench, and in the good ending.)
 * As seen in the BioShock X06 Trailer Jack could've originally worn what looks like a sweater-vest. In the final game, he wears what looks like a turtleneck sweater instead (as seen in pictures of him in Ryan's office.)