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Jack Wilder
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Biographical information
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Full Name
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Jack Wilder
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Nickname(s)
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The Sleight
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Gender
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Male
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Affiliations
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Occupation(s)
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Magician
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Physical Description
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Hair Color
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Brown
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Eye Color
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Dark Brown
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Personal Information
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Friends
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Enemies
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Love Interest(s)
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Lula May (Girlfriend)
J. Daniel Atlas (never his boyfriend)
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Production Information
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Portrayed By
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"Nothing is ever locked."
— Jack Wilder, when he, Atlas, Merritt and Henley are first brought together,
Jack Wilder is a main character in Now You See Me and Now You See Me 2. He is portrayed by Dave Franco.
Biography[]
Jack Wilder is a fan of J. Daniel Atlas, and Atlas was an huge inspiration to him. He is a pick-pocket and a street magician, and specializes in picking locks, sleight of hand, and imitating voices.
Now You See Me []
Jack is first seen on a ferry boat in New York City, performing a magic trick in front of an audience. He says that if anyone can figure out how he does his trick, he will offer them one hundred dollars. A man figures out the trick, and Wilder promptly pays him. However, the man soon realizes that Jack stole his wallet. Jack bumps into a mysterious hooded man as he escapes. Later, Jack discovers a tarot card in his pocket labelled "Death". On the back of the card are a date and an address.
Jack travels to the place mentioned on the card: a rundown apartment building. When he arrives, he meets three other magicians: Henley Reeves, Merritt McKinney, and J. Daniel Atlas. Jack states that he is a huge fan of Atlas and has seen all of his tricks. The magicians tell Jack that the door to the apartment is locked, to which Jack replies "Nothing is ever locked." He picks the lock to the door and they enter. The apartment is empty and looks as though no one has been taking care of it. After looking around, the group discovers blueprints that have the ability to propel them to stardom.
One year later, the group has already branded themselves as the Four Horsemen and is sponsored by Arthur Tressler. Their first performance is at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. They announce that for their final trick they are going to rob a bank. They state that they will choose a volunteer to rob the bank using ping pong balls chosen by the audience. The audience chooses the seat B-5-13, but that is just what the Horsemen want them to believe. The Horsemen switched out the ping pong balls chosen by the audience for the seat they wanted.
The man sitting in the seat chosen stands up and states his name, Étienne Forcier, and his bank, Crédit Républicain de Paris. While Étienne makes his way to the stage, Daniel gives a special shout out to Arthur Tressler for being their benefactor. On stage, Merritt whispers something in Étienne's ear, then Jack gives him a "teleportation helmet"(which is presumably just for show). Atlas has Étienne choose a playing card at random and sign his name on it. Henley conjures up a teleporter on the stage. The Horsemen direct Étienne to step on the platform, and then "teleport" him to his bank in Paris, which is actually a vault under the stage, though neither Étienne nor the audience knows this.
Étienne stands up in the vault and is able to communicate with the audience through a camera and microphone built into his helmet. He observes a pile of euros in the center of the room. Daniel instructs Étienne to put the card he just signed on the floor in the middle of the money pile, along with his ticket stub from the performance. He then tells Étienne to push a button on the side of his helmet. The button activates an air duct that vacuums up the entire pile of money. The money is showered from above onto the Las Vegas crowd.
Shortly after, bank employees at the Crédit Républicain de Paris enter the real vault only to discover it empty. The Horsemen had robbed the bank sometime before their show and replaced the money with fake notes, which were then burned.
The Horsemen are caught by the police and are interrogated by Dylan Rhodes and Alma Dray. Jack is shown to be asleep during his interrogation. The police are forced to release the group because they cannot find enough proof to arrest them.
While in Arthur Tressler's private jet on the way to their next show, Daniel attempts to use mentalism to guess Arthur's first pet. He fails, and Henley suggests that Jack could do better.
The Four Horsemen's next show is in New Orleans. The group performs various different tricks. Jack throws cards into the audience with enough accuracy and force to break a pencil in half. For the show's finale, the Horsemen invite Arthur onto the stage for a special trick. They empty his bank account and distribute it to the members of the audience that were wrongfully denied insurance claims by Arthur's company. The Horsemen escape thanks to some audience members that were hypnotized earlier in the show. The police chase the Horsemen through the city but are unable to capture them.
The police are able to locate the Horsemen in New York City as they prepare for their last show. Jack expresses concern about being arrested, but the other Horsemen convince him to carry out the plan. The police surround their building. Jack stays behind to destroy evidence while the other Horsemen escape. Dylan and Agent Fuller enter the apartment and begin searching it. Jack attacks Agent Fuller and incapacitates him. Dylan finds them and begins fighting with Jack. Jack imitates Dylan's voice and commands the police to move to the next apartment. Dylan and Jack continue to fight, but Jack escapes through a garbage chute.
Dylan chases after Jack. Jack is able to steal a car and begins driving away. Alma, Dylan, and the police follow after him. The news reports the chase on live television. Jack appears to lose control of the vehicle and the car crashes and catches on fire, leaving the police to assume he has died. However, Jack and the other Horsemen faked his death using an already dead body and a duplicate car. Daniel, Henley, and Merritt post a video online announcing the location of their last show and mourning Jack's supposed death.
The FBI is able to learn about a safe needed for the Horsemen's last show. The Horsemen trick the FBI into following the wrong safe, allowing Jack to retrieve the contents of the real one. The other three Horsemen perform their final show and leave fake bills with their faces behind as they escape from the police once again.
Thaddeus Bradley, a former magician who revealed how the Horsemen did some of their tricks, was framed by the Horsemen as being involved in their plan. Thaddeus is arrested even though he is innocent.
Jack reunites with the other three Horsemen at the gates of the Central Park. The other horsemen declare that it is lock, and Jack is seen walking up and saying, "haven't you been listening, nothing is ever locked." They then all cheer and are glad to see him. They then walk in and past the Shrike Tree where they then hear sounds. They head to the carousel, where they discover Dylan. Dylan reveals that he was the mastermind behind the plan and the fifth Horseman. Jack apologizes for attacking Dylan before. Dylan tells the Horsemen that they have been accepted into the Eye, a secret organization of magicians. They join him on the carousel.
Now You See Me 2 []
During the one year in hiding Jack took Merritt as his apprentice in card tossing in exchange for learning hypnosis. In the Second film it is revealed that Jack is alive to the world altogether. In their first act, a mysterious antagonist glatout announces to everyone at the Octa festival that Jack Wilder was alive and healthy, and shows a footage of him frantically running through the crowd. In China he starts developing feelings for Lula and fails to hypnotize Chase due to lack of surprise. On the New Year show in London Jack was the first to appear reforming a life-sized Three Card Monte aka Find the lady using trapped doors and duplicates of the volunteers. In the big reveal, he shows that was how the tricked Walter and Arthur. And then once the fireworks go off, Jack and Lula both kiss until they are separated by the others to leave the show. Weeks or days later they meet at a house, and you see Lula and Jack holding hands maybe resembling that they may be dating. The last we see them at least until the third movie is in the stairwell looking down.
Skills []
- Skilled Reflexes: Jack is a skilled pick-pocket and street magician. He is capable of picking locks and imitating voices. He is able to throw cards with force. He was also taught hypnotism by Merritt McKinney.
- Skilled Hand to Hand Combatant: It is seen that he is a well-experienced fighter. In the first film, he attacks agent Fuller in an apartment when the FBI goes to raid the place, and he fights off Agent Rhodes, though Rhodes was clearly holding back as part of his cover. He throws his cards with such power it cuts agent Rhodes in the face and allows for him to escape. In the second film, it appears that Jack knows how to ride a motorcycle quite well and also fights off the henchmen of Arthur's in the meeting spot.
Relationships []
Lula May []
When they met, Jack had a slight dislike towards the new Horseman, due to the fact that she had stolen his spot on the stage. He appears to be a bit confused by her flirtatious behavior towards him at first. When he remarked that he was nervous, Lula suggested him to imagine each other naked. He brushes the suggestion off saying that he's not in the mood, but eyes Lula with a side-glance, implying that he had taken the suggestion. He seemed to develop feelings for her from that point on, finding her funny at times. When Lula questioned him about his relationships, he merely says that he ends up “taking their trust... and then their wallet". Lula retorts saying “you take their wallets, do you take their belts, or the peanut shells from the hotel bar, don’t know why you took those”, and handing him his wallet, belt, and peanuts she had swiped from him. Then she says “you didn’t think I was like those girls did you? Oh Jack” Jack smiles at this, realizing she is as deserving of the spotlight as he is, and throughout the movie, they are seen cooperating each other in friendly terms. Whenever Lula is in danger, Jack is shown to be overprotective of her and automatically rushes to her rescue, and Lula appreciates the willingness to help. On the airplane before the finale, J. Daniel Atlas even refers to Lula as Jack's "little girlfriend", which he seems to deny, replying, “My little girlfriend!? He had a knife to her head!” But later they share a kiss during the New Years Eve trick, which seems to confirm that the two have romantic feelings for each other. After that, they are seen holding hands while walking into the Eye's headquarters.
J. Daniel Atlas[]
Jack idolized Danny before he had met him, claiming when they first met, "I'm your biggest fan, I've seen everything you've ever done." During the first film, he had developed some sort of leaderly respect towards him, accepting and approving of being his teammate. And through the second film, he didn't have any objection whatsoever to what J. Daniel Atlas did, even though he did look slightly disappointed at his indifference. Through the end, he never failed his teammates and showed spectacular performance each mission.
Henley Reeves []
Although their friendship was brief, they did respect each other, complimenting each other times. At the first movie, Henley comments, "Good job, Mr. Wilder!" when Jack had successfully faked his death and completed his part of the magic show seamlessly. Even though she was absent for the second film, his respect and motherly fondness for her did not seem to change. Her exit gave him a chance to be on stage once more but he never showed any desperation or a sense of anger when his chance was replaced by Lula. It seems that their relationship was more mother/son than romantic. It looks like they were on pretty good terms when they met/left.
Merritt McKinney []
Jack develops a close, brotherly friendship with Merritt. He teaches Merritt to throw cards in exchange for lessons in hypnotism. And he even bets on his claim on the bunk, saying that he can hypnotize J. Daniel Atlas. Of course, his attempt failed but whether or not Merritt reclaimed his bunk since their deal was interrupted by Lula. He bets on his hypnotizing skills and tried to hypnotize Merritt's twin brother, Chase, into apologizing to Merritt, even though that had failed, Merritt appreciated the attempt. Later in the movie, Jack succeeds in hypnotizing Chase with the element of surprise and the use of blind spot. It looks like Jack and Merritt were pretty great friends.
Dylan Rhodes[]
They aren't very seen having a personal relationship although, their actions prove that they respect each other. Jack complained to Dylan when Dylan elected Lula as the new fourth horsemen, replacing Henley, when he had promised Jack the spot. Jack takes his orders without a complaint, trusting his leader as Lionel Shrike's son.