Jason Lee Scott

"Back to Action!"

- Jason Lee Scott

Jason Lee Scott is best remembered as the original Red Power Ranger from the first entry of the franchise, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, as well as the leader of the original team of the Power Rangers until Tommy Oliver becomes the White Ranger. He later becomes the second Gold Ranger in Power Rangers Zeo. He is also love interest of Trini Kwan.

He is portrayed by Austin St. John in the original franchise and Dacre Montgomery in the 2017 re-imagining Power Rangers film.

Mighty Morphin Era
Before becoming a Power Ranger, Jason was already a talented martial artist who enjoyed teaching others as well. Like his fellow future Rangers, he grew up and lived in the city of Angel Grove and attended Angel Grove High School. Jason taught a martial arts class at Ernie's Juice Bar and Gym, a place that Jason and his friends like to work out and hang out in. One fateful day, as Jason finished conducting one of his classes and was chatting with his best friends, Zack, Billy, Trini and Kimberly, an earthquake began across Angel Grove. As Ernie's emptied out, Jason and his friends felt themselves being lifted and carried along in streams of colored lights. They landed in a pile on top of each other in a strange place. As Jason and the others examined their surroundings, a robot by the name of Alpha 5 approached them. As Jason was taking this all in, an even more strange sight awaited him. In an energy tube of blue light, was a huge floating head, who introduced itself as Zordon and explained that Jason and the others had been chosen by him to fight evil in the form of Rita Repulsa. In order to do so, Zordon said he would grant the five teens the power to become a fighting force known as the Power Rangers. The further explanation of dinosaur Zords and Power Morphers threw Zack and the others off, except for Jason. As Zack was leading the group out, Jason lingered; he was a natural-born leader and the idea of him being a sort of modern day hero appealed to him greatly. Very reluctantly, Jason followed his friends out of the Command Center.

Once outside the building, Jason tried to persuade the others that maybe they should give this a shot. They didn't get too far. Before Jason's eyes a group of very strange beings were standing before him and the others. The beings were Putties - Rita's evil henchmen. At first, Jason and other others fought with all their might, but they were swiftly defeated. Realizing they didn't have the strength to defeat the Putties, Jason encouraged everyone to use their Power Morphers. Jason morphed into the Red Mighty Morphin' Power Ranger for the first time. With these new powers, Jason and the other Rangers made quick work of the Putties. When Rita unleashed her second-in-command Goldar on Angel Grove, Jason led the other Rangers in summoning their Zords and combining them into the Megazord, which they used to successfully force Goldar into retreating. Elated with their victory, the group went back into the Command Center. Unable to suppress the grin on his face, Jason quickly told Zordon that he was more than willing to continue defending the world from evil. Thus, Jason became the leader of the Power Rangers and a formidable force of good against evil.

Although a Ranger, Jason still kept up with the life he had prior to becoming a Ranger. Jason got involved in all the extra school activities that went on in Angel Grove as well as activities outside of school: food fairs, carnivals, dances, insect collecting, planting trees in the park, burying a time capsule, acting in school plays, and even finding stray animals a home.

Jason still taught his martial arts classes. He even managed to beat a weight lifting record set by Bulk, which greatly angered Bulk. During this time, not only did Jason have to contend with Rita, but with Bulk and Skull as well. Most especially Bulk, who seemed to take a great joy in trying to put Jason down. They had many confrontations with usually Bulk on the losing side. Bulk and Skull also enjoyed tormenting Billy. Jason offered to teach Billy martial arts and Billy took Jason up on his offer. Jason gave Billy as much encouragement as he could to bolster up Billy's self confidence.

Green Ranger Arc
Although Jason had had many battles with Rita Repulsa's various monsters, the Rangers' biggest challenge awaited ahead. Another Ranger, colored green, appeared on the scene, but this Green Ranger was working for Rita. Jason was placed in great danger when the Green Ranger transported him to the Dark Dimension. There Jason faced off against Goldar. Narrowly escaping damage from Goldar's sword, Jason had to be quick on his feet, for all he had was his martial arts skills as his morpher was in Goldar's hands. Things changed when the Green Ranger stepped in for Goldar. Thankfully, the other Rangers transported Jason back to the Command Center just before Green Ranger could kill him with the Sword of Darkness. His heart still pounding, Jason was still tense until he realized he was back. He quickly recovered and commanded the Megazord against Goldar, Scorpina, and a grown Green Ranger, but it was all part of a trap laid out by Rita, as she caused a solar eclipse that cut off the Megazord's power supply. Ultimately, the Rangers were forced to ditch the Megazord as it received heavy damage and then fell into the Earth's molten core. Jason was upset by this defeat, but he managed to convince the other Rangers not to despair over their seemingly hopeless situation. At the same time, Alpha was able to uncover the Green Ranger's true identity, which to Jason's shock turned out to be Tommy Oliver. Tommy had been a worthy opponent at a Karate match from earlier and the last person Jason expected to be the Green Ranger.

As Jason and the others fit in the pieces of what had been happening, another battle loomed when Tommy summoned his own Zord, the Dragonzord, to attack Angel Grove. Thankfully, Zordon - who had disappeared due to Tommy's earlier attack on the Command Center - returned and revived the Megazord, which the Rangers used to stop the Dragonzord's rampage. Jason went down and fought Tommy in a final battle, but was still outmatched due to Tommy's Dragon Shield. However, Jason ultimately won when he hurled his charged-up Power Sword at Tommy, disarming his opponent and knocking him to the ground. Jason then immediately used his Blade Blaster to destroy the Sword of Darkness, breaking Rita's evil spell over Tommy. As Tommy slowly rose to his feet, Jason was the first to offer him friendship and a place on the Ranger team. Now the team of five had turned into six and the Rangers were more powerful than ever.

Initially, Jason and Tommy were always trying to upstage each other. Especially across the Karate mat; neither one wanted to cooperate with the other. Zordon wisely sent them on a mission together to acquire a new weapon. Forced to work together or fail the mission, Jason and Tommy realized they could get a lot more accomplished if they worked together. From that point on, Jason and Tommy became very close friends as they battled the forces of evil together. When Rita threatened Tommy's powers via the Green Candle, Jason would enter the Dark Dimension again to try to save Tommy from losing his powers.

But once again, Goldar was waiting for him and Jason was unable to retrieve the candle. Jason felt a deep sense of frustration as Zack led him out of the Dimension, but Jason needed to save Tommy from Rita's monster. Zordon came up with a way to defeat Rita from obtaining the Green Ranger's powers, he would have to give his Power Coin to one of the Rangers with a strong link to the Morphing Grid. Tommy passed his coin onto Jason. Jason felt the power surge through his body, and the Dragon Shield and Dragon Dagger transferred to him. He was unable to help Tommy from losing his powers, but he would take good care of them and the Dragonzord.

Peace Conference
Things were changing for the original team. A peace conference was coming up and three students from Angel Grove were to be selected. Much to his amazement, Jason, along with Zack and Trini, were selected to go. At first, they were not sure if they should go due to their Ranger duties, but Zordon knew the trio would be a big help at the peace conference. Zordon selected three new Rangers. They turned out to be Rocky, Adam and Aisha, three new students who had assisted the Rangers in several missions. Jason's last Ranger mission was to get a sword that would allow his powers to be transferred. With Zordon's approval, Jason transferred his powers onto Rocky. And with Zordon's blessing, Jason, Zack and Trini left for the peace conference.

Zeo
After the peace conference, Jason returned to Angel Grove and got the powers of the Gold Ranger from Trey of Triforia and become a member of the Zeo Ranger team. He was reunited with Tommy and Billy and become friends with Rocky, Adam, Katherine Hillard, and Tanya Sloan and becomes guardian of Auric the Conquer.

He is forced to give the powers back to Trey when the energy of it starts to hurt him and drain them away from him.

Turbo: A Power Ranger Movie
Jason and Kimberly return in the movie and while scuba diving they are captured by Divatox and are both brainwashed by her to fight the Turbo Rangers but they are restored by Lerigot. He is last seen filling the injured Rocky in a martial arts tournament and winning the match along with Tommy and Adam.

Wild Force
Jason along with the other Red Rangers go on a special mission to stop the remnants of the Machine Empire. There he uses his original Red Ranger power to combat the threat.

Super Megaforce
Jason along with his Mighty Morphin teammates and the other past Power Ranger teams came to help the Megaforce rangers battle the Warstar Armada.