Jack O'Neill
Template:Stargate character Jonathan "Jack" O'Neill is a fictional character in both the science fiction feature film Stargate and the subsequent television series Stargate SG-1 played by actors Kurt Russell in the former (but spelt as O'Neil) and Richard Dean Anderson in the latter.
Events of the movie
Colonel Jack O'Neil, USAF was married and had one son, Charlie. But after a tragic accident when Charlie shot himself with O'Neil's personal gun (a Beretta 92 series pistol), O'Neil went to pieces, retired from his position and didn't talk to anyone.
When the Stargate was deciphered by Daniel Jackson, General West knew that O'Neil was suicidal and therefore perfect for the mission (in which he would go through with a team and detonate a nuclear warhead near the Stargate if there was any sign of danger), and had him reactivated.
On Abydos, O'Neil and the team found the indigenous population to be simple desert-dwellers. He made friends with a boy called Skaara, the son of the ambassador, (Kasuf) to the evil ruler, Ra (in Stargate SG-1, developed as a Goa'uld System Lord who was responsible for the enslavement of millions of people over the galaxy, as most System Lords are).
During the battle of Abydos, O'Neil fought in hand-to-hand combat against Ra's First Prime to regain control of the warhead (which had fallen into Goa'uld hands). As the motion picture played out, Ra attempted to escape, only to have O'Neil and Jackson transport the bomb to his ship, destroying it in orbit. O'Neil returned to Earth with all but Jackson (who has been married to a local woman, Sha'uri), and lied that the Abydos gate had been destroyed.
In the movie, Jack's son is named Tyler (the name is seen on an award in his room in an early scene.) as opposed to Charlie (as in the SG-1 series) or Jack Jr. (as in the non-SG-1 books.) Also, the Colonel's name in the film is O'Neil (with one L), a fact which was referenced light-heartedly in the TV series.
Character transition
With the Goa'uld Apophis' incursion through the earth gate one year later, the military knew that the Stargate was still a threat. O'Neill was recalled by the new base commander General Hammond. O'Neill admitted that he hadn't destroyed the gate, but only after a plan was revealed to send a more powerful warhead through "just to make sure".
After returning to Abydos, they discovered a cartouche which contained a list of Stargate addresses. From that, they learned that the Stargate led not only to Abydos, but to hundreds of other worlds as well. O'Neill was re-reactivated and made the team leader of SG-1, the lead field unit of Stargate Command. SG-1 comprises Colonel Jack O'Neill, Dr. Daniel Jackson, Captain Samantha Carter and Teal'c.
The corresponding character in the original Stargate feature film, played by Kurt Russell, was named Jack O'Neil. This was ignored, but there was once a joking reference to another colonel who happened to be named Jack O'Neil who had "no sense of humor" (because O'Neil in the movie was brooding and serious, only to become witty and deadpan during the series).
Some fans consider the "Stargate" O'Neil and the "Stargate SG-1" O'Neill to be, in fact, two different people. In order for this to be consistent, they must assume that there were two colonels with the same name working on the Stargate project, with identically-named wives, each with a dead son who had been killed by an identical accidental firearms discharge. There are also references made within the SG-1 series to interactions between Jack and Daniel that were depicted in the movie, making this position somewhat untenable.
While the two O'Neills do have radically different personalities, it is easy to reconcile the two versions of the character, as Kurt Russell's O'Neil is depressed and suicidal over the loss of his son, while Anderson's O'Neill has, over the course of the year between the movie and the first season, since come to terms with his loss and has reverted to his 'true' personality. There are even one or two moments in the film where O'Neil seems to display certain mannerisms common to the series' O'Neill, such as his comments to Ra's guards before killing them; "How you doin'?" and "Give my regards to King Tut, asshole!" Likewise, the series O'Neill occasionally reverts to his original personality - an example being "Shades of Grey"[original research?].
Events of Stargate SG-1
Template:Sgspoiler While visiting a planet, Jack was duplicated by a crystalline energy life form which then accompanied SG-1 back to Earth in his place; it sought out Sara O'Neill, Jack's ex-wife, in search of his dead son Charlie, whom the lifeform believed could help heal. Jack who had been injured by the duplication process. The alien had mistaken emotional pain for physical pain and Jack returned to Earth himself and then took the lifeform back to its planet, but not before it took the appearance of Charlie, giving Jack a chance at closure over his son's death. Template:Sgspoiler Jack's life was turned upside-down when the Repository of the Ancients (builders of the Stargates) was accidentally downloaded into his brain. He slowly lost the ability to speak, write, and even comprehend English. He entered hundreds of new gate addresses into the dialing computer that were not on the Abydos Cartouche, formulated a new system for calculating distances based on gate addresses, and translated Ancient text for Daniel Jackson. He finally built a device that produced enough power to allow the Stargate to dial Othala, a planet in the galaxy of Ida and home to a colony of Asgard, using an eight-chevron address. The Asgard there were able to remove the knowledge from O'Neill's mind and return him to normal. First contact (in modern times) with the Asgard provided O'Neill and his team with new allies, Earth with the protection of a people that even the Goa'uld feared, and humanity with the chance to someday become the Asgard's equals: 'The Fifth Race.' The Asgard saw great potential in O'Neill and the human race, maybe because they could detect a special gene which O'Neill had (later known as ATA gene). Template:Sgspoiler O'Neill was stranded on one planet for a considerable period of time when a meteor hit the local Stargate. Although he believed it destroyed, he continued for months to search for a means of uncovering its pieces. Eventually, he gave up all hope of returning home, and began to build a relationship with a local woman. In fact, the gate was still whole, but had been buried under literally tons of earth, creating a "natural iris." SG-1 found a way to disintegrate this barrier with the unstable vortex the gate created when opening, and eventually rescued O'Neill.
Over several years, O'Neill fought a personal war with Colonel Harry Maybourne of the NID, a government organization dedicated to the examination and application of technologies retrieved by the SGC, and later leader of a rogue group of NID agents. The relationship between them improved as Maybourne helped expose corrupt NID agents, threaten the corrupt Senator Robert Kinsey, and save Carter from Adrian Conrad. Template:Sgspoiler Jack and Mayborne were trapped on a planet with only each other for company, Maybourne became paranoid from a toxin in a local plant, and both were eventually saved by the rest of SG-1 and a Tok'ra scoutship. Jack partially reconciled with Maybourne and offered to help him retire to a peaceful planet somewhere. Template:Sgspoiler Jack was again forced to download the Ancients' knowledge into his mind in order to protect Earth from attack by the Goa'uld Anubis. He led SG-1 by Goa'uld Cargo Ship to a planet where an Ancient outpost stood in ruins, and showed SG-1 the location of the Lost City they had been searching for. He removed the power device from the outpost and SG-1 returned to Earth to find a fleet of Anubis' starships ready to attack the planet's surface. They flew to Antarctica to find an identical outpost where Jack, using a control chair, launched Ancient Drone Weapons that devastated the fleet, destroying Anubis' fleet. Jack finally put himself into stasis in the Ancient outpost to save his own life. His ability to operate the Ancient chair technology means that O'Neill possesses the ATA gene, seemingly in a pretty powerful form. This is later confirmed in the episode "It's Good to Be King". Template:Sgspoiler SG-1 attempted to contact the Asgard, only to find that the humanoid replicators had escaped and were again threatening the Asgard. Thor returned with SG-1 to Earth and removed the knowledge from O'Neill's brain, but not before he designed a weapon to destroy a replicator instantly by severing the communication between their blocks.
O'Neill was promoted to Brigadier General and put in command of the SGC after Hammond was promoted to Lieutenant General. He faced new threats: Ba'al took over Anubis's power vacuum and nearly defeated the System Lords, the replicators returned, and Anubis was found to be still alive. He continues to try to adjust to life on the quiet side of the gate room glass, envying his former teammates' journeys and joining them when he can; the SG-1 episode "It's Good to Be King" was the only time after his promotion that he went off-world. Template:Sgspoiler His character fades into the background during Season 9, in which O'Neill only appears in 2 episodes as Major General Jack O'Neill and is no longer a main cast member. He has been replaced by Major General Hank Landry (played by Beau Bridges), who takes command of the SGC early in Season 9. Producers have suggested O'Neill will be promoted and take over as head of Homeworld Security, a position which his predecessor, General Hammond, held during the eighth season. Template:Sgspoiler Template:Sgspoiler O'Neill is scheduled to appear in the episode 200 of SG-1 and in at least 3 episodes of Stargate Atlantis season 3.
Character developments
O'Neill has focused his free time on 'the more important things in life', such as fishing at his pond in Minnesota (which in fact contained no fish until the timelime was altered in "Moebius"), watching The Simpsons, doing crossword puzzles, playing chess and drinking Guinness (and also cooking with it, usually as the only ingredient). It has been mentioned, occasionally, that he likes one Mary Steenburgen (Urgo). O'Neill also commonly corrects incorrect grammar, most often saying, "It's whom!"
Throughout the series, O'Neill's relationship with Samantha Carter has been subjected to a great deal of interest and speculation. On two separate occasions, either O'Neill or a member of his team came into contact with two alternate realities in which O'Neill and Carter were either engaged or married. In the fourth season episode "Divide and Conquer", both O'Neill and Carter had to officially admit that their feelings for one another were more than professional. There are several events and incidents spread throughout the series that imply that the feelings they have for one another remain a subtle constant in their lives, despite various outside influences, such as Carter's temporary fiancé Pete Shanahan, and O'Neill's brief relationship with Kerry Johnson, an officer of the CIA, as well as their relationships with offworlders, particularly (in Carter's case), Narim and Martouf. Some fans, however, feel that such a relationship would not be able to work due to their drastically different personal interests (These fans commonly favour Carter ending up with Daniel Jackson, due to the similarities between the two, and pointing out that Daniel has been noticable absent from the two realities where Sam and Jack were married).
Unlike Anderson's other famous on-screen persona, Angus MacGyver, O'Neill has no aversion to firearms, apart from the fact that his son, Charlie, accidentally shot himself with O'Neill's weapon, and died (O'Neill never forgave himself). He is a career special forces operator, owns at least one personal firearm, and becomes extremely agitated whenever it is suggested he and his team go anywhere unarmed, including places known to be safe for SG-1 and where said firearms may be a liability. Another trait that set Anderson's two characters apart is that while Angus MacGyver is an all-around scientific genius, O'Neill is confused by almost every form of scientific dialogue or explanation (which Carter & Daniel often indulges in) and likes to defer to magnets as the explanation behind any technology he does not understand.
O'Neill will be returning in Season 10 for 2 episodes -one of them will be surely the 200th episode- and will make 3 appearances in Stargate Atlantis as well.
See also
