Jack Starbright

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Jack Starbright is a major recurring character in the popular Alex Rider novel series by Anthony Horowitz.

Jack is an American, but she lives in Britain with Alex Rider, the nephew of her former employer, who is now her ward . She was initially Alex's housekeeper, but after his uncle died, she became his new legal guardian. She is twenty-eight years old.

Jack is from Washington D.C., where her parents still live, and she still occasionally visits them.

1 Background
2 Jack's role in the life of Alex Rider
3 In the Alex Rider novels
4 In the Stormbreaker film
5 See Also
6 External Links

[edit] Background

Jack Starbright was born in the United States sometime in 1973.

She is described as having red hair and a round boyish face that "can't help being cheerful, even when in a bad mood". She is slim and her hair is often tangled.

Jack is a good cook, but refuses to make anything that takes longer than ten minutes to prepare (for comically unknown reasons). According to Alex, Jack specialises in scrambled eggs.

Jack once lived in France for a year at the Sorbonne while she was studying art in college. As a result, she speaks fluent but rusty French.

It has been stated in the novels that Jack's name might be short for Jackie or Jacqueline, and that Alex once asked her at one point, but she never revealed what it was.

[edit] Jack's role in the life of Alex Rider

Jack travelled to London from America as a law student when she was twenty-one years old. During her intended stay, she found employment when Ian Rider hired her to look after his seven-year-old nephew, Alex, and to maintain their house in Chelsea while Ian was away on business. As a result of this, Jack has had considerably more time with Alex than Ian had - her job involved babysitting Alex, light housework and maintaining the running of the house - in return, she was leased a room in the residence.

Jack has become a vital person in Alex's life, especially since his uncle died soon after Alex turned fourteen. Though caring for Alex was originally part of Jack's job as housekeeper, their relationship has become deeply personal and they are now very close friends, despite their nationality and age difference. Jack is extremely protective of Alex.

Jack's employment in London was placed in jeopardy when her visa expired, thus threatening her chance to continue looking after Alex. It was this fact that MI6 used to blackmail Alex into working for them, and it was very much because of his relationship with Jack that Alex agreed to do his first mission. In exchange, Jack was given a new visa so she could continue to take care of him.

It is also mainly because of Jack that Alex agrees to do a mission for the CIA in Ark Angel, involving travelling to space - at the time the mission had to be completed, Jack was visiting her parents in Washington D.C., which happened to be under threat of being destroyed by Ark Angel's built-in bomb, unless Alex could incapacitate it. By doing that, Alex not only saved the city, but he also saved Jack.

Jack is constantly fearing for Alex's safety, never wanting him to participate in a mission. It is this that Jack has become known for.

[edit] In the Alex Rider novels

Jack Starbright has appeared in every installment of the Alex Rider series.

Jack does not play a part in Alex Rider's MI6 missions, though in Eagle Strike she travels with Alex from France to the Netherlands and helps him gather information on Damian Cray.

It is not entirely certain exactly how Jack found out about MI6 and Ian Rider's true occupation, but it is presumed that she was informed by Crawley while Alex is away in Stormbreaker.

While Alex is away on his missions, Jack is mainly maintaining the Chelsea house. Jack is not at all happy with Alex's new occupation, and always expresses it, even sometimes becoming angry with Alex for always being in perilous and even near-death situations, saying that she often feels useless when she has no way of knowing if Alex is going to survive another mission. But she is always understanding when Alex reminds her that it is not his fault.

Jack even sometimes has moments of self-doubt as to whether or not she is really capable of looking after Alex, but Alex always assures her otherwise.

[edit] In the Stormbreaker film

In the film adaption of the first Alex Rider novel, Jack Starbright was played by Alicia Silverstone.

Jack had a considerably larger part in the film than she did in the novel. The film's Jack is arguably most well-known for the fight she had with Nadia Vole, when Vole interrogated her about Alex's true identity.

Jack's appearance in the film was fairly different to that of the novels, e.g. in the film, Jack's hair is blonde instead of red, and her face is not as round as described in the novel.

Also in the film, Jack is fascinated with Japanese culture. She regularly prepares Japanese meals, decorates the house with Japanese art and is first introduced wearing a kimono as she prepares a sushi dinner for Alex. She also is shown to sometimes converse with Alex in Japanese, though she speaks it with a strong American accent.

Jack also assists to stop the activation of the Stormbreaker computers' virus - because she is extremely worried about Alex after learning the nature of the people he was sent to spy on, she goes to the Science Museum where Alex incapacitates the red activating button. Jack then starts to drive Alex home, but when Alex decides to pursue Sayle to his tower to stop him setting off the virus himself, Jack then calls MI6 security to stop him getting hurt.