Jack

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Jack
Character Information
Aliases	GR-74 Jack - (The Climbers) Puppet (Mara) Tool (Architect) Number (Asuras)
First appearance	An Awaking - Ghostrunner (2020)
Last appearance	The Monolith of Inhumanity - Ghostrunner 2 (2023)

GR-74, commonly known as "The Ghostrunner" or "Jack" is the protagonist of the Ghostrunner series. He is the 74th Ghostrunner, and is presumed to be the last one active. The name Jack was given to him by The Climbers, as Zoe claimed when they found him and tried to repair him that he was all "jacked up", or that they had hit the "jackpot" in finding him.

Personality

While designed to be a completely obedient Android cyborg, Jack displays opinions fairly early on in the game, notably during conversations with Zoe, the last member of The Climbers, and when referring to the fate of the other Ghostrunners. While The Architect states that the Ghostrunners are not meant to feel compassion or pity, Jack shows an equal amount of concern for the few over the many, willing to divert from his initial tasks to help Zoe and The Climbers when she needs his help. His individuality and conscience are dismissed by the Architect as his programming being ruined by the Climbers. Jack's independence eventually grows into self-sacrifice and defiance, as he was willing to sacrifice himself to save the last remaining humans in the Tower by killing the Architect after defeating The Keymaster, despite knowing it will kill him as well, showing Jack to be a stoic, selfless, and courageous individual.

History

GR-74 was built as a part of the GR Project Series 7. Like all the mass-produced GRs, his body was vat-grown from genetic material, secretly acquired from Dharma Tower's healthcare facilities. Once formed, the subject's brain was implanted with an Atma 0 chip. It enabled interfacing within the Cybervoid network and imprinted necessary neural pathways onto the organ, enabling an instant transition of knowledge and abilities to the forming Ghosrunner's cortex. Awake, Ghostrunner 74 went through a strict training regimen that made him into a highly proficient fighter - devoid of consciousness, conditioned for unquestioning loyalty and obedience toward Adam.

He followed his core directives that were later known as the "bushido protocol". GR-74 was active and participated in the attempt to stop the Asura Rebellion, but was ineffective due to its low speed. Likely many years afterwards, he, alongside many other Ghostrunners, were involved in an attempt to stop Mara's coup against The Architect. Though he got closer to stopping her than his brethren, he was deactivated last second by Mara with his built in kill-switch, though he still attempted to defy Mara despite this, losing his arm as a result, before being thrown from Dharma City into the dumpster of an industrial district where he laid, inactive for 20 years.

Later found by a group of Rebels, known as The Climbers, GR-74 was then named Jack by the leader of the climbers, Zoe, before being repaired, his missing limb replaced with a basic mechanical prosthetic, and was awakened soon after. Following the directives of an AI voice in his head, he unknowingly freed the Architect from imprisonment, before starting his journey of heading back up Dharma Tower to stop Mara, now known as The Keymaster.

Powers and Abilities

Ghostrunner Physiology: As a Ghostrunner, Jack is a biomechanical cyber warrior. His physical limits are beyond any normal human and he has supernatural abilities.

• Enhanced physiology (Increased Awareness/Digital Body): Jack has inhuman capabilities thanks to his biomechanical body. He is faster, stronger, and has impressive coordination and exceptional spatial awareness, and more. He can track hundreds of enemies, deadly projectiles, terrain layout and info without breaking a sweat, and can automatically parry and deflect projectiles with relative ease.
• Spectral Cloaking: All Ghostrunners are designed to be invisible or not recognisable to almost all forms of electronic surveillance, (eg. Surveillance Cameras, Motion Sensors, Body Scanners and more.)
• Cybervoid Materialization: Using inbuilt mechanisms, Jack is able to materialize the energy/medium of Cybervoid into physical projectiles he throws at his enemies.
• Acceleration Module: Utilizing this module, Jack is able to produce bursts of speed in any direction, even midair, and is utilized for many Ghostrunner techniques. When connected to a Cybervoid Uplink, this module may be temporarily overclocked to simulate the slowing of time for Jack.
• Air Filtration Systems: Jack is immune to the effects of toxic air contaminants due to inbuilt air filtration systems. This allows him to survive in highly radioactive environments like the outside of Dharma Tower and, according to Saul Dyson, potentially in Outer Space.

Abilities

• Swordsmanship: Jack reliably uses several different variants of single-edged swords to dispatch enemies.
• Parkour: Jack is an excellent traceur and thanks to his Biomechanical Physiology he is much more skilled than a regular human.

Ultimate Abilities (Ghostrunner)

• Blink: Unlocked at the end of 'The Climb'. This enables you to target multiple enemies at once and kill them with a single attack.
• Tempest: Unlocked at the end of 'Road to Amida'. Micro-vibrations within Jack's internal hydraulics are used to generate a blast of air. Though initially designed for non-lethal crowd control, the power of this blast can be scaled up to the point it is lethal for standard humans. Properly timed, this blast may also be used to reflect projectiles.
• Surge: Unlocked at the end of 'In Her Own Image'. A ranged attack where Jack releases a slash of energy towards his target.
• Overlord: Unlocked during 'Reign In Hell'. Utilizing the Atma Chips installed in nearly all Dharma Tower residents, Jack takes control of nearby enemies and turns them against their allies.

Ultimate Abilities (Ghostrunner 2)

• Flux: Unlocked during 'Setting the Stage'. Flux allows Jack to charge and fire a laser beam.
  • Level 2: The charge time for Flux is reduced.
  • Level 3: Flux charges instantly.

• Sensory Overdrive: Similar to when connecting to a Cybervoid Uplink<ref>, Sensory Overdrive allows Jack to overclock his acceleration module, enabling 'bullet time'.
  • Level 2: Increases the duration of Sensory Overdrive.
  • Level 3: After dashing during Sensory Overdrive, Jack can gap-jam towards any enemy for a period of two seconds.

• Blink: Like the version of Blink from the first game, this enables you to target multiple enemies at once and kill them with a single attack. Unlike the first game, the enemies do not need to be in a line. Jack can mark up to 2 targets and Blink towards them, killing them instantly.
  • Level 2: For a few seconds after using Blink, you can use it again to return to your initial position.
  • Level 3: Blink can now target 3 enemies at once

• Overlord: Like in the first game, Overlord allows you to mindhack the Atma chip of an enemy who then proceeds to fight on your side.
  • Level 2: For a few seconds after using Overlord, you can use it again to blow up mindhacked enemies.
  • Level 3: Overlord can now target up to two enemies at once.

• Motoric Overheat: Unlocked during 'Pillars of Creation'. Allows Jack to overclock all of his motoric functions, allowing him to move faster, jump higher and dash further.
  • Level 2: Significantly improved energy regeneration rate whilst Motoric Overheat is active.
  • Level 3: Makes you immune to one hit when Motoric Overheat is active.

Skills:

• Shuriken: An application of cybervoid materialisation, this ability allows Jack to conjure and throw a shuriken to attack enemies at range. This kills weaker enemies, and appears to stun stronger opponents using electricity. Stunned enemies can then be quickly approached using the gap-jammer. It can also be used on certain surfaces to create points that can be grappled to using the gap-jammer.

Using upgrade chips, this ability can be augmented with homing abilities (Tracking System), and electric AOE effect (Shuriken Charger), the ability to throw three shuriken at once (Energy Distribution) and the ability to Blink to stunned enemies (Shuriken Charger) among others.

• Shadow: Allows Jack to turn invisible whilst deploying a hologram clone of himself at the location the ability was activated. Enemies will target the hologram, and attacking disables the invisibility.

Using upgrade chips, this ability can be augmented. Shadow Booster improves movement speed by 40% when the Shadow skill is active during combat, Static Shock causes an electric discharge that stuns nearby enemies when the skill ends and Teleporter teleports Jack back to the hologram's position if hit whilst the Shadow ability is active.

• Tempest: Similar to the Tempest Ultimate from the first game, this ability uses micro-vibrations within Jack's internal hydraulics to generate a blast of air. Unlike the first game, this ability works as a non-lethal crowd control ability by default. This ability knocks larger enemies off balance, reflects all projectiles and outright launches smaller enemies into the air, where they can be quickly reached and killed using the gap-jammer. It can also be used to move large objects around the map, launching exploding barrels at enemies, moving large crates out of the way or relocating grapple points.

Using upgrade chips, this ability can be augmented. Pressure Extender increases the range of Tempest by 50%, Pressure Adjustment scales the power of Tempest up to be lethal, similarly to how the ability functioned in the first game. Proximity Shield creates an omnidirectional blast around Jack that pushes enemies and projectiles away whenever Tempest is used and Pressure Booster allows Jack to move at great speeds by using Tempest to 'rocket jump' by pushing against the environment.

Weaknesses

• Firearm Restrictions: All Ghostrunners are programmed by their creator to be unable to utilize any kind of firearm, this was due to concerns for the collateral damage such weapons may cause to Dharma Tower.
• Kill-Switch: All the Ghostrunners had a built-in kill switch (likely to neutralize them if they posed a threat or attempted to oppose The Architect and The Keymaster). This was how The Keymaster managed to not only defeat Jack in their initial fight after she had killed the Architect but eliminate all the other Ghostrunners that attempted to stop her. Though it is useful, The Architect claimed that their second encounter would be much more even, given that the kill switch had already been used to stop Jack before, implying that the kill switch only works on a Ghostrunner once.
• Cybervoid: Despite being able to use Cybervoid as a medium to learn new abilities, Jack needs the Cybervoid akin to an operating software. On top of needing Cybervoid to learn new abilities, while learning new abilities he can’t leave the Cybervoid until he masters any new ability he requires. The Architect exploited this during the final mission and attempted to override Jack's software and control his body.

Despite his Ghostrunner Physiology, Jack is still made of flesh, albeit part flesh, meaning his body can still be damaged and feel pain, as The Keymaster easily tore his arm off after neutralizing him with the Kill Switch in the intro before the beginning of the game.

While this would be considerably difficult, his skill can still be opposed, though not surpassed, by the likes of Hel, despite The Architect labelling her as a 'cheap knockoff'.

Trivia

• He is voiced by Carl G. Brooks.
• Despite having a full third-person model, Jack is never visible outside of first-person except for the Ghostrunner intro, a blink-and-you-miss-it glance of his face in An Awakening, and the ending cutscene.
• Despite being considered dead by the end of the game, Jack's fate was unclear, even though The Architect claimed that if he (Jack) deleted Cybervoid, Jack would cease to function, he can be seen seemingly reactivated in the ending cutscene of the game.
• While running, Jack will occasionally twirl or spin his sword. This can be triggered deliberately while idle or while moving by pressing X on PC, Triangle on PS4/5, and Y on Xbox One.