John Marston

• ◆John and Abigail share the same first names as the second President of the United States and the second First Lady; John Adams and his wife, Abigail.
• ◆John and Abigail also share the same names with Arthur Miller's characters Abigail Williams and John Proctor, who have a secret relationship in The Crucible.
• ◆The character of John Marston and its story were greatly inspired by Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch (1969). John is mostly based off of former outlaw Deke Thornton, who was portrayed by western actor Robert Ryan:
• ◆Pike Bishop, the leader of the gang, left Deke for dead after he got shot at by the authorities. Deke was later sent to Yuma and had to endure constant torture for many years while being imprisoned.
• ◆Deke is coerced into hunting down his former gang members during the closing days of the Old West, in the year 1913, in exchange of his freedom. However, the Railroad Company is responsible for forcing Deke into doing this, not a government agency.
• ◆The gang considered Deke to be a traitor for "turning states".
• ◆Thornton finds himself in the middle of a conflict during the Mexican Revolution between the military, rebels and his former gang.
• ◆Deke Thornton's journey ends when all of the members of his gang are killed.
• ◆As an addendum, gang member Tector Gorch wears an outfit similar to John Marston's bounty hunter attire, which is most likely where Rockstar got it from.
• ◆John Marston's physical appearance is similar to Charlie Burns from The Proposition. Moreover their stories are also similar in the sense that they are forced to work with law enforcement to capture a dangerous criminal (in Marston's case, criminals) to ensure the safety of their loved ones: Burns is ordered by Captain Morris Stanley to find and kill his brother Arthur in exchange for sparing his other brother Mikey — with whom Charlie was arrested after all their gang members were killed in a police shootout — from execution. Meanwhile, Marston is forced by Edgar Ross to find and kill three members of his former gang — Dutch, Bill and Javier in exchange for his family's safety.
• ◆Interestingly, John Hillcoat, who directed The Proposal directed the short film Red Dead Redemption: The Man from Blackwater.
• ◆John is the first official Rockstar protagonist to be playable in more than one game. The only possible exception could be optional protagonists that can be chosen to have a recurring role in GTA London 1969 and GTA London 1961.
• ◆Technically John could be second after Max Payne, but Payne was not initially a Rockstar character; the company only developed the third game, whereas they published the first two games by Remedy.
• ◆Marston and Red Harlow have similar scars and hats. This is due to the fact Rockstar originally intended John to be the son of Red Harlow in the scrapped Red Dead Revolver sequel, with the scars serving as a shared feature between father and son.
• ◆John's parents' relationship with each other is left ambiguous. As his mother was a prostitute, John implied that his father was her pimp, but even then, he still struggled with what to label him.
• ◆John's grave marker reads "Blessed are the peacemakers", signifying his long road to redemption and peace for his family in a lawless land.
• ◆"Blessed are the peacemakers" is a beatitude that was recorded in Matthew 5:9, in what is called the Sermon on the Mount; Arthur's epitaphs have the same origin.
• ◆"Peacemaker" is coincidentally a nickname for the Cattleman Revolver, John's starting firearm, giving his epitaph a slight dark irony since it would twist the meaning in "Blessed are the guns".
• ◆Before Red Dead Redemption came out, in the trailers, John looked much younger and thinner.
• ◆Marston, along with Leigh Johnson, Abraham Reyes, Luisa Fortuna, Bonnie MacFarlane, and Drew MacFarlane, sounded different during development.
• ◆John is #2 in Game Informer 's "30 Characters who Defined a Decade" list in their December 2010 edition and is also #1 in Game Informer 's "Top Ten Heroes" list.
• ◆If the player presses (PS3) or (360) while near Abigail, Jack, Uncle, or Amos, John will tip his hat, as usual, but he won't speak.
• ◆According to Rob Wiethoff in a playthrough of Red Dead Redemption, the way John lies on his back - one leg straight, and the other leg bent, dubbed the "Number Four" position by Wiethoff - was intentionally done as a tribute to his real-life wife, Tayler Wiethoff, which he made sure to portray "as many times as he could" in motion-capture.
• ◆This is more easily spotted during the mission "The Last Enemy That Shall Be Destroyed" when John collapses to the ground.
• ◆Zombie Marston walks and runs lopsided, but when he draws a weapon his stance returns to normal. Also, he walks and runs normally during Multiplayer.
• ◆As per his affliction, other zombies will ignore Zombie Marston until he provokes them (walking too close, shooting them, having a torch out near them, etc.)
• ◆If you look at his head while he is wearing the Undead Cowboy Outfit, you will see what appears to be a bullet hole in his head above his right eye. However, if you change to the Undead Hunter Outfit where he has no headgear, there will be no bullet wound. Perhaps his instant death with a gunshot to the head was a back handed "thank you" for stopping the Undead Nightmare.
• ◆The bullet wound seems to indicate a changing in the events of how John died, as in the main story his head was the only part of his body that wasn't hit by Ross' firing squad, and not only is he wearing a different outfit but the outfit also has no bullet wounds.
• ◆His stance as an undead is the same as it was when he was shot and killed in "The Last Enemy That Shall Be Destroyed".
• ◆Zombie Marston's left foot appears crooked, indicating that his ankle is broken.
• ◆John has his own theme music that can be heard in various missions where he is involved. He is one of four characters in Red Dead Redemption 2 to have their own leitmotif associated with them, the others being Sadie Adler, Colm O'Driscoll and Angelo Bronte.
• ◆John Marston's dynamic with Arthur Morgan in the game is quite similar to that of Carl "CJ" and Sean "Sweet" Johnson in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The only difference is that CJ and Sweet are related by blood while John and Arthur are surrogate brothers.
• ◆At the beginning of San Andreas Sweet resents CJ for failing to prevent their brother Brian’s death years ago, for running off to Liberty City, and for missing their mother’s funeral (though this wasn’t entirely CJ’s fault as Frank Tenpenny stopped him while he was on his way and took him into custody before letting him go). Meanwhile, Arthur holds a grudge against John for ditching Abigail, Jack and the gang for a year and running away from his responsibilities.
• ◆Both John and CJ work to prove themselves to Arthur and Sweet, respectively and regain their respect.
• ◆Both grow closer and make amends over the course of the game.
• ◆Both end up being betrayed by those they considered friends/allies. Arthur and John are betrayed by Dutch, Micah, Bill and Javier, while CJ and Sweet are betrayed by Big Smoke and Ryder. Moreover, at least one of the betrayers ended up cooperating with a corrupt police officer or law enforcement agent to undermine the gang. Big Smoke and Ryder allied with Frank Tenpenny, while Micah cooperated with Edgar Ross and Andrew Milton to save himself.
• ◆The only difference is that while Sweet and CJ ultimately survive the events of their game, Arthur and John end up dying at the end of their respective games.
• ◆John has unique facial animations when aiming firearms. While Arthur squints both eyes while aiming, John aims with his right eye wide open and his left eye shut.
• ◆When playable, John cannot swim. When entering any deep body of water, his stamina immediately depletes (even if it is fortified), and although the player can somewhat influence his movements, John's health will rapidly drain and he will drown soon after. However, if the player manages to get John as a companion via glitch and enters deep water, John will be able to swim.
• ◆Interestingly, John's inability to swim, which was a gameplay mechanic, in both the first game and this game, was incorporated into his backstory as him having never learnt to swim. During a camp interaction at Clemens Point, Arthur will comment on how their camp being near the water is making John nervous, which annoys the latter. Moreover, Arthur references John being unable to swim when playing Poker with him and in the mission, "The Sheep and the Goats."
• ◆John's inability to swim could also be a clever jest to his lack of swimming ability in Red Dead Redemption, when, upon entering any body of water that rises above his chin, he will instantly die.
• ◆The Dead Eye sound effect for John is different from Arthur's Dead Eye sound effect, with John's being the original effect from Red Dead Redemption.
• ◆If the player antagonizes the camp enough, John may punch Arthur and throw him out of the camp, just like Lenny, Javier, Bill, Sean, and Charles.
• ◆John's journal entries are generally sloppier than Arthur's. His drawings and handwriting both are usually more basic, and his text often shows mistakes which have been crossed out. Sometimes though, he can make sketches that are pretty equal to Arthur's or arguably better such as the pekin duck and merino sheep.
• ◆On the gunbelt he wears when first rescued from the Grizzlies, its holster is a perfect fit for the Mauser Pistol.
• ◆This is due to his Colter outfit being an identical recreation of Silence's outfit in The Great Silence. Silence duels with a Mauser and uses the holster as a stock in the film.
• ◆As a playable character, unlike Arthur or himself in Red Dead Redemption, John lacks any quotes for when he wants his horse to speed up (i.e. "let's go!" or "giddy up!"). He instead simply clicks his tongue, though he has the appropriate quotes for slowing down the horse.
• ◆The gold rush in the Yukon which John participates in soon after leaving the gang is a direct reference to the real-life Klondike Gold Rush, which took place in the Yukon and ended in 1899.
• ◆The hat John wears in 1899 (before the introduction of his classic hat seen in Redemption) is similar to the hat of Butch Cassidy from the 1969 movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, a movie that all three games took inspiration from. John is similar to Sundance Kid from the movie as both cannot swim.
• ◆His 1899 hat could've been based on the hat Harmonica wears in the 1968 film Once Upon a Time in the West, as they are both similar in color and shape and have similar curls.
• ◆John wears four main hats in-game. His worn gambler hat, a new blue version of his gambler hat, his classic hat, and Arthur's hat.
• ◆Marston's "Worn Gambler Hat" can be saved by getting it knocked off and picking it up in the epilogue.
• ◆During the Saint Denis bank robbery, he wears a much fancier and elegant version of his gambler hat, with a silver band around the middle.
• ◆Several mission and pre-release images show playable John with his hairstyle as it was in Chapters 1-6 and Red Dead Redemption, as well as briefly in a flashback during "A New Jerusalem". In the released game, however, playable John has the same options for hair as Arthur does, his original hairstyle not available as an option.
• ◆Arthur's vomiting sound effect is reused for John, being played when the player eats Oleander Sage, although there actually exists a distinct puking sound for John within the game files. Moreover, Arthur's stance, walking and running animations are reused for John when he is at Beecher's Hope.
• ◆During the encounter with the Pinkertons at Clemens Point, when Agent Milton asks John who he is, he replies with 'Rip Van Winkle'. This is a reference to the 19th-century short story of the same name, in which an elderly man falls asleep on a hill and wakes up 20 years in his future.
• ◆Arthur's body model is reused for the playable version of John. Other features of his are also similar to Arthur's, such as the width of his head and neck. The non-playable version of John does not share these similarities with Arthur, being completely distinct. Presumably, the decision to alter John's physical attributes was made in order to ensure compatibility with the various hairstyles and clothes within the game.
• ◆During the epilogue, if the player returns to any of the previous camp locations, John will get flashbacks from the past and the player will be able to hear quotes from other gang members during the specific chapter that John visits.
• ◆In the epilogue, if John antagonizes Abigail at Beecher's Hope, she responds and sometimes says his full name. If subtitles are turned on, his name is mistakenly spelled as "John Martson."
• ◆"The Clelland" outfit in Red Dead Online is based on his default cowboy outfit.
• ◆The bounty target Gene "Beau" Finley bears a resemblance to John.
• ◆John Marston makes a cameo in the character creator of Grand Theft Auto Online. He can be chosen as the player's father, allowing the player to determine their looks based on Marston's and another female's genes.
• ◆He is Gabriel Sloyer's favorite character.
• ◆A parody of Marston's hat appears as an Easter egg in L.A. Noire, also published by Rockstar Games. A Hollywood actor portraying the role of a cowboy is seen wearing it during the game's introductory cutscene.
• ◆A picture of John can be seen on a bike rental stand employee's shirt in the GTA V mission "Daddy's Little Girl".
• ◆John shares several similarities with Johnny Klebitz, the protagonist of Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned.
• ◆Both speak with very rough voices and have shady backgrounds, both rode in a gang and were betrayed by their gang's leader after they had gone insane.
• ◆Both Marston and Klebitz are called 'Johnny Boy by other characters.
• ◆Both are canonically killed on screen.
• ◆Both were killed by a person that they had an uneasy working relationship with, in Marston's case it was Edgar Ross, while in Klebitz's case it was Trevor Philips.
• ◆When both Marston and Klebitz were killed, their bodies were cradled by the women they loved. In Marston's case, it was his wife, Abigail Marston, while in Klebitz's case it was Ashley Butler. Both Abigail and Ashley would later die as well.
• ◆Both have a skeptical and hating view of how the US government operates, yet, they are forced to work for a government agent/politician in order to save themselves and the ones they care about (in Marston's case it was himself and his family, and in Klebitz's case it was himself and his club).
• ◆Both speak some Spanish through the game, but are otherwise clueless about most of the language (like how Johnny is unable to properly interact with Marta, or John cannot understand everyone in Nuevo Paraíso).
• ◆Women of both were "every man's wife" or the gang's whore at some point in their lives.
• ◆Johnny is able to play cards and arm wrestling, which are activities that can also be done in Red Dead Redemption.
• ◆Both are pictured wielding a sawed-off shotgun in their official artworks.
• ◆Johnny is nicknamed 'Cowboy by Trevor, which might emphasize these similarities.
• ◆Both have scars on the same side of their face (though John's was caused by being mauled by a wolf, while Johnny's was from a methamphetamine addiction).
• ◆Both were involved in kidnapping at least once. In Johnny's case it was kidnapping Niko Bellic's cousin, while in Marston's case it was bounty hunting.
• ◆Both eventually returned "back from the dead" in some form in Halloween-related content (Marston as a playable zombie in Undead Nightmare and Klebitz as a ghost in San Andreas Mercenaries), except Marston's return happened in an alternative timeline separate from Red Dead Redemption's continuity.
• ◆John's relationship with Abigail bears similarities to Michael De Santa's relationship with his wife, Amanda, from Grand Theft Auto V, as both couples separate over the course of their story and later reconcile.

Dans l'ordre de l'histoire, numérotées comme sur la liste des missions. Ce ne sont pas toutes des missions qu'ils te confient ; dans certaines, ils ne font qu'apparaître.

Pouring Forth Oil IVJohn Marston

Pouring Forth Oil IIIJohn Marston

Pouring Forth Oil IIJohn Marston

Pouring Forth Oil IJohn Marston

Old HabitsJohn Marston

The Sheep and the GoatsJohn Marston

The WheelJohn Marston

The Bridge to NowhereJohn Marston

Horse Flesh for DinnerJohn Marston