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Recap / Borderlands 2 C 14 The Man Who Would Be Jack

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Recap pages are Spoilers Off by default, so all spoilers were removed. Proceed with caution. You Have Been Warned

Roland: To be honest, I've got no idea how to get past a door that'll only open for Jack.
Angel: Sorry to interrupt, but we've got little time. Get to the city of Opportunity. To breach the final door to my chambers, you'll need to be Jack — that means passing a bio-scan and speaking a password in his voice. If you can kill one of Jack's body doubles in Opportunity, I can get you through that door.
Roland: Much as I hate tellin' you to listen to her, Angel's the best lead we got. You already know not to trust her, but... be careful.
Mission briefing

With Brick on your side, the four original Vault Hunters are finally reunited. Now comes the next part of the plan to get into Angel's chamber and get the Vault Key.

The Vault Hunters need to travel to Opportunity, a shining city located north of the Highlands, and basically Hyperion's view for Pandora. There, you need to locate one of Jack's Body Doubles and steal the devices that allow them to mimic Jack's likeness such as his voice and mannerisms.

Afterwards Angel is taken back by Jack, and the Vault Hunters from 1 and 2 lose contact with her.

The mission takes place in Opportunity which also houses the sidequests "Home Movies", "Hell Hath No Fury", "Written By The Victor" and "Statuesque"; as well as the challenges "Shame the Foreman", "Down With Big, Handsome Brother", "Cult of the Vault", "Top o' the World" and "Opportunity Knocks".


This mission, the related sidequests, and the "Opportunity" level show examples of:

  • Bad "Bad Acting": The Handsome Jack double you kill is a laughably poor actor. He says everything in an extremely bored tone and reiterates that he is totally Handsome Jack virtually every sentence.
  • Creator Cameo: Writer Anthony Burch is the Handsome Jack double in Opportunity.
  • Dead Guy on Display: When the player reaches Opportunity, they can see at a certain spot Bloodwing's beheaded body.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: One of the announcements notes that littering is a crime punishable by death. It then goes on to specify that speaking badly of Hyperion is considered "Verbal Littering".
  • Don't Explain the Joke: When discussing Moxxi leaving Jack during "Hell Hath No Fury":
    Jack: Once you've eaten prime rib for free, it's hard to go back to suckin' down hamburgers for cash. If you know what I'm talking about. Do you know what I'm talking about? (Beat) Dicks! I'm talkin' about dicks.
  • Easy Level Trick: During the "Statuesque" sidequest, if you clear out the random mooks hanging around the city, then activate the loader afterwards and don't follow it, it'll destroy the statues of Jack without interference. The mobs are scripted to appear only if you're in the vicinity of the loader, so if you don't go near or follow it, it'll slowly destroy the statues while you can do other missions provided you don't have to go near where the loader is currently at.
  • Egopolis: The city of Opportunity, a ridiculously shiny city with statues and cardboard cutouts of Handsome Jack everywhere. True to his actual character, the people building it are overworked to death, there are more security robots around than humans, and it's not very well-planned out because the road to the city just stops without room for a parking lot. The actual builders are even told they won't be able to live there when the city is finished, since they aren't civilized or rich enough. The fact that he's actively paying people to live in a city in the middle of a bandit-infested planet makes the place an example of Fascist, but Inefficient.
  • Foreshadowing: Turning in the mission to Roland have him muttering "Time to think of some memorable last words."
  • Giver of Lame Names: As shown in an audio required to complete the "Opportunity Knocks" challenge, Jack's attempt at giving "cool" and "cutting-edge" names to Hyperion's line of gun products doesn't amount to anything more than putting business-related buzzwords on the items, even if they make no sense, like "Synergy!" and "Longitudinal!" His executive board is dumbfounded by this, but of course, Jack assumes that this means they're the stupid ones.
  • Monument Of Humilliation And Defeat: Opportunity itself has several statues, which you get to destroy during "Statuesque", where Jack is seen subjugating others, mostly bandits. At the end of the mission, Jack promises to do a new statue where he's stepping onto the Vault Hunters' heads. Naturally, this has no chance of happening.
  • Protection Mission: "Statuesque" requires you to protect a hacked Constructor that's busy destroying Jack's statues across Opportunity.
  • Punch-Clock Villain: Lampshaded. The PA announces that Vault Hunters have apparently been spotted in the vicinity, so don't be afraid to run away from them. They don't get paid enough for that crap.
  • Stealth Pun: The local directory lists all the companies and locations of interest in the still developing city. While most of the area is still either Hyperion related or TBD, one of the stores listed is "Dee's Nuts". Also doubles as a Stealth Insult.
  • Story Breadcrumbs: The "Opportunity Knocks" challenge is about collecting ECHO recordings that tell about Jack's plans and vision for Opportunity.
  • Suspiciously Specific Denial: After completion of the story quests in Opportunity, which involve a lot of vandalism and murder, the next issue of "This Just In" in Sanctuary reports that "today, everything was just fine in Opportunity, and nothing bad happened".
  • Theme Naming: Lampshaded by Handsome Jack in regards to weapon names during one ECHO recording required to complete "Opportunity Knocks".
  • Thriving Ghost Town: Opportunity literally exists to show off Handsome Jack's wealth and might and nothing else. It looks like a shiny mini-metropolis made of perfectly polished glass and steel, bustling with advertisements, broadcast screens, tickers, attractions, office districts, shopping centers and seeminly enough capacity and infrastructure to house at least 10,000 people... but as soon as you set foot into that place it becomes crystal-clear that it's all just a lie, nobody actually lives there, and the only people that have any such thing as a permanent presence in that city are all Hyperion armed forces.
  • We Care: The city of Opportunity is full of this trope, with loudspeakers blaring constant propaganda while Handsome Jack verbally abuses workers.
  • We Have Reserves:
    • Jack has this approach to warfare and employees. It helps that most of his soldiers are disposable robots that get replicated cheaply, but unfortunately he treats every living asset he has just as poorly as the robots (or worse, since he doesn't waste time emotionally abusing and terrorizing the robots).
      Handsome Jack: Engineers, let the loaders do the lifting. Loaders, let the engineers take enemy fire. This is called teamwork.
    • One of the PA announcements subverts this, where the foreman notes that they have "several" issues with the workforce, starting with "you should try dying less". He then realizes that's the only thing on the list. Played straight with a highlands announcement, where one of the three laws of robotics is "[Jack and the Threshers] consider you expendable".
  • Word Salad Title: Hyperion guns have financial buzzwords in their names, bandit weapons are hilariously misspelled, Maliwan goes into Purple Prose, etc. The different manufacturers' weapon naming conventions are lampshaded by Handsome Jack on an ECHO voice log found in Opportunity.
  • Would Hurt a Child: A hidden ECHO recording required to complete "Opportunity Knocks" strongly implies that Jack had a fellow Hyperion colleague's two young boys killed for pointing out the flaws of Opportunity.

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