Jack Cooper (2024)

Jack Cooper is the Pilot protagonist and the playable character of Titanfall 2's single-player campaign. Beginning his military career as a Rifleman in the Frontier Militia, he is the (eventual) Pilot of BT-7274 and ends up becoming a lynchpin of Operation Broadsword, specifically the hero of the Battle of Typhon, where Cooper uncovers and stops the IMC's plot to use a new-found super weapon to devastate the Militia.^[1]

Background[]

Due to the radically skewed population and wealth distribution on Earth, Jack Cooper's family relocated to the Frontier in search of a better life when he was an infant. The rural Frontier community they inhabited was subjected to harassment and exploitation by IMC garrisons. An event known as the Dunnam Vale massacre,^[2] a result of the IMC's continued disruption of people's livelihoods in his home system, inspired Cooper to volunteer as a Militia Rifleman to free the Frontier from the oppression of the IMC. One of his first assignments as a rifleman was during the battle of Fracture, where he suffered a head injury in the line of duty and had trouble remembering his involvement as a result.

Battle of Typhon[]

Tai Lastimosa, an SRS captain and Pilot in his own right, gave then-Rifleman Jack Cooper off-the-record Pilot training in virtual reality (VR) for an extended period of time before the game began. The first level of the game, The Pilot's Gauntlet, is one of these VR sessions. The training session is interrupted when the 9th Militia Fleet arrive at Typhon. Cooper and Lastimosa are deployed to the planet's surface.

During the first battle on the planet, Cooper's battalion is ambushed and surrounded by Spectre units. Apex Predator Titans show up to finish off the grunts, but Cooper is protected by Lastimosa and BT-7274. Lastimosa is mortally wounded in the process. Cooper awakens to find Lastimosa barely alive. With his last breath, Lastimosa transfers control of BT to Cooper. After giving Lastimosa a proper burial, Jack takes Lastimosa's jump kit and helmet and meets BT-7274, who recognizes Cooper as his new Pilot. Jack retrieves batteries for BT, and the duo escapes into the wilderness in an attempt to locate Major Anderson to complete Lastimosa's mission.

The two come across a water reclamation facility, where a battle is occurring between Militia and IMC forces. Cooper and BT fight through the facility and make their way to Kane, an Apex Predator responsible for the death of many Militia pilots in the battle. They kill Kane, and Cooper takes his helmet radio, allowing him to listen in on enemy communications.

Jack and BT press on, and they attempt to save time by taking a shortcut through what's revealed to be an IMC factory creating pre-furbished housing and simulated environments for testing purposes. The facility is controlled by Ash, the simulacrum Apex Predator. Cooper and BT are separated, and Ash torments Cooper throughout the facility with its deadly traps and trials for him and other captured Militia soldiers. After finding each other again, Jack and BT confront and destroy Ash before escaping the facility.

Afterwards, they arrive at Anderson's coordinates, which are at a classified, seemingly abandoned IMC research facility. Once Cooper ventures inside, he experiences strange temporal phenomena, which is later revealed to be a result of time anomalies in the area. They then locate Anderson's body, lodged in the ceiling. After Cooper retrieves Anderson's helmet, they uncover his mission: he was sent to the facility to locate and identify a new weapon being developed by the IMC. During the briefing hologram, they also discover that Anderson had been given a wrist mounted device which would allow safe passage through the facility. With Anderson's death, the command of Special Operation 217 transfers to Cooper. Cooper locates the other half of Anderson's body and takes the wrist mounted device, which is actually a time travel device that allows its user to travel forwards or backwards in time with a simple flick of the wrist. Cooper makes judicious use of the Time Gauntlet as he further infiltrates the complex, battling Prowlers and worn-down Stalkers in the present and assorted IMC grunts and Titans in the past. He eventually finds Anderson's objective: information on an IMC super weapon known as the 'Fold Weapon' and its power source, the 'Ark', which works by folding space and time to create untold levels of damage and destruction. Cooper discovers that the version being tested at the facility was a scaled-down prototype, and that the IMC - specifically General Marder and his ARES Division - have a full-scale version almost ready to go and aimed at Harmony, the Militia's "home" planet. BT and Cooper then leave the facility and search for a location to contact the main Militia fleet.

Jack and BT soon reach one of Typhon's Interstellar Beacons, an enormous satellite dish currently under the control of Militia survivors. After retrieving an Arc Tool and reactivating the reactor that powers the dish, Jack, with BT's throwing arm, repairs the dish. Before they can make contact, Richter, an Apex Predator, arrives. Jack and BT defeat the freelance pilot and reestablish contact with Commander Sarah Briggs and the Militia 9th Fleet. When Sarah arrives with reinforcements and meets Cooper and BT personally, she insists on finding a new Pilot for BT, as Cooper is still technically a Rifleman and thus not cleared to link with a Titan. BT protests on Cooper's behalf, citing their newfound chemistry and efficiency, and Sarah ultimately allows the duo to remain connected for the time being.

Cooper attaches to the 9th Fleet, as Sarah then initiates an all-out attack on the air base containing the Ark weapon. During the offensive, Sarah comes to acknowledge Cooper's skill as a would-be Pilot, effectively field-certifying him as a Pilot. Unfortunately, the attack ultimately fails when the Ark is loaded onto the IMS Draconis, a large transport vessel, which then flees the area and heads for the full-sized Fold Weapon. Jack, Sarah and the remaining ground forces are picked up by air transports and link up with the bulk of the Militia forces, taking immediate aerial pursuit of the Draconis and the Ark. With the aid of Barker and the 6-4, Jack takes control of the IMS Malta battlecruiser, which was hindering Militia pursuit of the Ark. Jack and BT then battle the Apex Predator Viper and kill him, and the duo successfully recover the Ark, but the Draconis crashes seconds later due to damage sustained.

Cooper and what remains of BT's chassis are captured by the last surviving Apex Predators, Kuben Blisk and Slone, who promptly interrogate Cooper on the whereabouts of the Ark. BT makes a last-ditch effort to save Cooper's life, but in so doing, the rest of his chassis is destroyed, and the Ark he was hiding in his co*ckpit is recovered by Blisk and Slone, who promptly retreat and leave Cooper to die. Cooper retrieves the Titan's core and the emergency SERE Kit within, which allows him to escape captivity.

Jack plants BT's data core in a new Vanguard chassis and tracks down the Ark on foot. After confronting and killing Slone at the Fold Weapon's central control station, Cooper and a heavily-damaged BT are confronted one last time by Blisk on-foot. However, out of a show of respect for the Militia Pilot's skill (or a willingness to stick to the letter of his contract), Blisk spares Cooper - to General Marder's extreme protest - and even extends a standing invitation to the Apex Predators before retreating. Cooper attempts to launch himself into the Fold Weapon and sacrifice himself to destroy it, but at the last second, BT extracts Cooper from the Titan's co*ckpit and hurls him away from the weapon's core, leaving only the Titan to sacrifice. Jack is then saved by Briggs and Barker, who make one last daring escape as the Fold Weapon is destroyed (resulting in the devastation of Typhon as a byproduct).

Cooper is hailed as a hero and officially sworn into the higher echelons of the SRS as a fully-certified Pilot, although he is reluctant to be assigned a new Titan, stating "I liked the old one." A message in binary would later be sent through Cooper's helmet by a unknown individual, possibly what is left of BT-7274, translating to "Jack?"

Personality and traits[]

In terms of personality, Cooper is shown to be a very good-natured person as he is always polite and friendly toward other characters, He is also never shown verbally cursing in the entire game. Cooper also doesn't seem to hold any vengeance agaisnt the Apex Predators and only kills them in self-defence, Despite them being responsible for killing Tai Lastimosa and many of his Militia comrades.

Despite being only a Militia rifleman, Cooper is shown to be an extraordinary pilot as he easily cuts through the IMC forces and their Titans and defeats all members of Apex Predators saved for Blisk himself. It should noted however that this can be attributed to Cooper being a pilot of a highly advanced and powerful Vanguard-Class Titan and Cooper himself being personally trained by Lastimosa for an unknown amount of times before his deployment on Typhon.

Relation with BT-7274[]

After being mortally wounded by Apex Predators, Tai Lastimosa is forced to transfer his Titan BT-7274, to Cooper as there are no other alternatives, Cooper has come to bond with BT-7274 nicknamed BT, Initially BT only sees Cooper as his pilot and not a companion, Only protecting Cooper according to his protocol. However after sometimes the two warmed up to each other, occasionally cracking jokes and trading banters to one anothers.

Eventually, the friendship between the two grew greatly, Evident by combat effectiveness between the two exceeding ninety percent in a very short amount of time. BT also comes to genuinely care for Cooper as he refuses to leave Cooper behind and escape the Draconis with the Ark, In the final mission, Cooper is shown to be ready to die together with BT when they are about to launch into the Fold Weapon's core and only to be saved by BT whom threw Cooper away to safety.

Titanfall: Assault[]

Jack Cooper and BT-7274 were added to Titanfall: Assault on September 21, 2017, as part of the 2.0 update. Befitting his stature as the hero of the Battle of Typhon, Cooper is a Legendary-tier Pilot a commander can potentially add to their squad.

Cooper is able to slide-boost across the map when traversing on foot, making him slightly faster than most deployable Pilots. At range, he will engage multiple targets with his Smart Pistol, and when he closes into melee, he cleaves enemies with his Data Knife (even Titans). When he successfully captures a Hardpoint, he will Phase Shift, turning into a black silhouette, and move on to the next objective. While phased, he is invulnerable, untargetable, and immune to all offensive effects and attacks. He will only deactivate the Phase Shift to begin capturing a Hardpoint (he cannot capture while phased out) or to attack the nearest valid enemy. If the enemy he encounters is an emplacement or other large target like a turret or even a Titan, he will disengage the phase normally and attack as per usual; if the enemy he meets is any form of infantry like a Pilot or errant Spectre, he will backstab the enemy out of phase in a pseudo-execution for massive damage, referred to in-game as a "Critical Strike."

Cooper's ability to Phase Shift is a callback to his time travel escapades in Effect and Cause, although it is unknown whether his use of it as it is represented in Titanfall: Assault is canon. He uses a Smart Pistol at range and a knife, just like in the mission The Fold Weapon.

Cooper has multiple different spoken lines he can use when deployed onto the field. He even quips about deploying onto the field at the same time as another Jack Cooper deployed by the rival commander: "Mirror match, eh? Well, one way or another, I guess I win."

When idle, Cooper is shown carrying his Pilot helmet under his arm. During the Halloween event, the helmet was temporarily replaced with a jack-o'-lantern.

Trivia[]

• Although his ethnicity is assumed to be Caucasian, in the Art of Titanfall 2 book, Lead Artist Joel Emslie said of his appearance, "We went for the look of a guy who might be a mix of ethnicities with a hint of Benecio Del Toro."
• Cooper's mass/weight is stated by BT-7274 as being 89kg which is excessive considering his build and height. However, this includes two weapons, the ARC tool, jump kit and armour, all of which likely weigh 10-20 kg together. Considering Jack's height, relative fitness and apparent build, his weight is likely closer to 70kg without gear.
• Cooper was present at Operation: Fracture, though he suffered a concussion that led to a minor case of amnesia.
• Cooper has a tattoo on his left arm, though it cannot be fully seen as it is partially covered by his clothing.
• During the development of Titanfall 2, there were originally plans for a player to choose Cooper's gender at the start of the game, letting you play as a "Jack Cooper" or "Jill Cooper" as it were, but due to time constraints and to tell a more focused story, the developers elected to keep Cooper a male only.^[3]
  • This "Jill Cooper"'s appearance would go on to be recycled for Gates's design.
• Evident from Cooper's birthday (October 6, 2687), his Zodiac sign is a Libra.
• It is believed that Jack Cooper will join the Apex Games because of the Apex Predator card that Blisk handed to him at the end of Titanfall 2.

Gallery[]

Images[]

Concept art[]

Videos[]

References[]