WHAT’S WITH THE NAME “JACK”

If there is one name which seems to come up a lot in movies and series these days, it’s the name “Jack”.

• TITANIC – 1997: Jack Dawson played by Leonardo DiCaprio. The highest grossing movie of all time – so far – earned Leo a nomination for Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama. Jack had a fatal end.

• 24 – 2001-…: Jack Bauer played by Kiefer Sutherland. The second longest-running espionage series in television earned Kiefer 8 Emmy Nominations and 2 Wins and 4 Golden Globe Nominations and 1 Win. Its 8th season, probably its last, is scheduled for 2010 and will make it the longest-running espionage series by episode and longevity. – Everybody is after the first spot. – Kiefer, who is also one of the show’s executive producers, has expressed multiple time is wish for Jack Bauer to die at the end.
• ALIAS – 2001-2006: Jack Bristow played by Victor Garber. Victor got three Emmy nominations. Another espionage television series. Unlike 24, this one seemed not to be able to keep up with the competition and its creator/executive producer, J. J. Abrams got another project – See below -. Since he couldn’t handle them both at the same time, it was canceled. But not until Jack suffered a fatal “accident”.
• PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN Trilogy – 2003, 2006, 2007: Jack Sparrow played by Johnny Depp. Pirate movies don’t do so well and are usually box office flop; but POTC beat the odds. Johnny received an Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for the first two movies. None for the third one. Too bad. We did have to say goodbye to Jack Sparrow – Captain Jack Sparrow – at the end of the second installment, The Dead Man’s Chest. Luckily, POTC is a fantasy and they were able to “get” him back in the third one, At World’s End.
• LOST – 2004-…: Jack Shepherd played by Matthew Fox. Another J.J. Abrams creation/production. The series will end in 2010 and will finally get to know the fate of Dr. Jack Shepherd and the other survivors. Rumor circulating is that Matthew Perry (Chandler Bing in Friends) will appear in the season finale. Great way to attract viewer and for Matthew Perry gets to realize his dream of appearing in the series.

There are many other movies/series with main actors’ names are Jack like Watch Over me (Jack Porter played by Todd Cahoon) and Brokeback Mountain (Jack Twist played by Jake Gyllenhaal, Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor nominee). Harrison Ford has played three characters named Jack:

1- Jack Trainer in Working Girl (1988)

2- Jack Ryan in Patriot Games (1992), Clear And Present Danger (1994)

3- Jack Stanfield in Firewall (2006)

Just like watching/hearing the same story over and over again can get boring and can make the plot predictable, the same applies with names. There are so many to choose from. How about Jason for a change? “Jack”, another form of John, means “God is gracious”. It’s kind of hard to find His grace thru these characters.

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