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| “ | An old man dies. A little girl lives. Fair trade. | „ |
| ~ Hartigan's most famous line |
John Hartigan is one of the main protagonists of the Sin City franchise by Frank Miller, serving as the main protagonist of the That Yellow Bastard storyline. A former cop, he was framed and unjustly imprisoned by the corrupt Senator Roark after gravely wounding his son, serial child murderer Junior Roark.
He is portrayed by Bruce Willis, who also portrayed John McClane in the Die Hard franchise, Butch Coolidge in Pulp Fiction, Korben Dallas in The Fifth Element, Joe Hallenbeck in The Last Boy Scout, Harry Stamper in Armageddon, David Dunn in the Unbreakable Trilogy, A.K. Waters in Tears of the Sun, Art Jeffries in Mercury Rising, Mr. Church in The Expendables, Paul Kersey in Death Wish, and Frank Moses in Red and Red 2.
Personality[]
John Hartigan is an exceptionally brave and loyal man. In a city where almost everyone is corrupt, Hartigan is a symbol of virtue. He spent most of his time doing his duty and protecting innocents, even if it involves corrupt gangsters and politicians under heavy protection. Though Hartigan follows a strict moral code, he is willing to bend the law to go after especially depraved and dangerous criminals.
Biography[]
Hartigan's backstory is unknown. At some point, he joined the Basin City Police Department, where he became a well-known cop.
He dedicates himself to protect a nine-year-old girl named Nancy Callahan from a sadistic pedophile named Ethan Roark, Junior, who has already raped, tortured, and murdered three little girls. The killer's father, wealthy, influential state senator Ethan Roark, Sr., bribes the Basin City police to force Hartigan into early retirement because of his angina. On Hartigan's last day on the force, Junior kidnaps Nancy, and Hartigan goes after him. Hartigan shoots Junior repeatedly in the genitals and saves Nancy, but his corrupt partner Bob shoots him and saves Junior.
Senator Roark uses his influence to to frame Hartigan for Junior's crimes; he even pays to cure Hartigan's angina, intent on Hartigan living a long, miserable life. Hartigan allows himself to be framed and imprisoned, knowing that Senator Roark would kill everyone he holds dear if he revealed the truth. He becomes the most hated man in Sin City - no mean feat - and is abandoned by everyone he cares about except Nancy, who writes him an anonymous letter every week and becomes his reason to live.
Eight years later, the letters stop coming, and Hartigan assumes that Nancy has outgrown her childhood hero. One day, Hartigan wakes in his cell to find that he is being visited by a mysterious, foul-smelling man with bright yellow skin, who promptly punches him out. Soon afterward, Senator Roark, satisfied that no one will ever believe Hartigan should he tell the truth, pulls strings to have him paroled. Hartigan goes to Kadie's Bar, where the 19-year-old Nancy now works as a stripper. He sees the mysterious yellow man in the corner and realizes that the Roarks have used her as bait to kill him. He tries to leave unnoticed, but Nancy recognizes him and kisses him. They flee the bar with the yellow man in pursuit, but Hartigan manages to lose him.
Hartigan and Nancy check into a motel, where Nancy tries to seduce him. Hartigan, who sees Nancy as a surrogate daughter, rebuffs her advances, and goes to take a cold shower. When he emerges from the bathroom, the yellow man - none other than Junior, mutated by the unorthodox medical treatments his father paid for to grow back his genitalia - ambushes him and leaves him hanging by a noose from the ceiling while he kidnaps Nancy. Hartigan escapes, however, and goes to the Roark family farm, where Junior is torturing Nancy. He gets the better of Junior and beats his head into bloody yellow chunks while castrating him again, this time with his bare hands.
Hartigan and Nancy share a kiss, and he sends her away in a cab, promising to take down the Roark family. After she leaves, however, he reflects that Senator Roark has too much dirt on too many powerful people in Sin City to ever face justice, and that he would never stop trying to kill Nancy to get revenge for his son's death. He realizes that he can only keep Nancy safe if he dies, and, in an act of pure love, commits suicide by shooting himself in the head.
His spirit later appears to Nancy, who has fallen into an alcoholic depression since his death, and inspires her to get her life back together and kill Senator Roark.
External links[]
- John Hartigan at Wikipedia
- John Hartigan at the Sin City Wiki