Rattlesnake Jake

Rattlesnake Jake is a Western Diamondback Rattlesnake and serves as the secondary antagonist of Rango. He was hired as a hitman/henchman by the Mayor. His skills are seen when he kills the Mayor after Jake is betrayed by him. After doing so, Jake returns to the desert and continues to live his bandit life. At first, he was decisive, intelligent, and vicious, showing a distaste for Rango. By the end of the movie, Jake seems to have developed respect for him.

Role in the Film[]

And now, I get to play Rattlesnake Jake, and he's pretty scary. I love the way he looks. You know, if you're gonna be a snake, and if you're drawn by Crash, you're in good shape.

— Bill Nighy, Jake's voice actor, describing Rattlesnake Jake.

Rattlesnake Jake was initially brought into the plot by Mayor John to be used as a hitman, after being mentioned several times by townsfolk to instill fear of the character in the audience.

Rattlesnake Jake makes his debut just as Rango begins to appease an angry mob of Dirtonians. After confronting Rango and publicly outing him for all he's lied about, Jake mockingly demands that he pull the trigger and shoot Jake with "just one bullet". Jake sees the cowardice in Rango's eyes and hisses, "You got killer in your eyes, son? I don't see it." After driving Rango out of town, he and Mayor John kidnap Beans, trying to force her to give up her family's ranch. Beans continues to deny the Mayor, even to the point of splashing water on his face. Jake constricts her in response, demanding that she does what the Mayor says. The mayor tells him to stop, and in response Jake hisses, baring his fangs and telling him to "let him do his job". He turns back to Beans and tells her to "sign the damn paper", but she refuses in the form of an insult, so he begins to choke the life out of her. However, before Jake can kill her, Rango returns and a skirmish for Dirt begins.

In a mock standoff, Rango lures Jake over a covered mole hole which serves as a trap. Once he moved onto it, the characters helping Rango turned the valve which turned on the waterflow, causing the hole to erupt with a geyser of water and fling Jake far into the air. Jake comes crashing down, spitting threats at Rango. Rango then tricks Jake into hiding with the aid of the moles, flying through the air on bats in a hawk-shaped formation. However, Jake soon realizes the facade and starts to shoot wildly at the bats, eventually draining his ammo completely. Rango takes the opportunity and turns the tables on Jake, aiming his revolver with a single bullet directly at Jake's face. Jake sees that the cowardice that was once in Rango's eyes is no more and gains a new respect for him, withdrawing from the conflict as Mayor John calls Rango towards the bank. After Rango's deft escape from the bank using his last bullet, Mayor John is left prone and at the mercy of both Rango and Jake. Rango turns Mayor John over to Jake, the two exchange a mutual tip of the hat, "From one legend to another", and Rattlesnake Jake slithers off into the distance with Mayor John in his coils. It is assumed that, after the movie's conclusion, the Mayor is killed by Jake.

Appearance[]

Jake is a western diamondback rattlesnake, and he has the same appearance of the real species. He has the typical fangs of a rattlesnake, which contain deadly venom, and a black snake tongue. His eyes are yellow-orange, and as an allusion to how he comes from Hell, they have fiery irises. He also has a "moustache" made of black markings on the scales of his upper lip. He has a black cowboy hat on his head, several bandoliers on his upper torso. A Gatling gun rattle replaces his natural rattle, which he either lost in a battle (probably with the Hawk) or decided to remove and replace.

Fighting Style[]

Jake is a large animal and uses this to his advantage. When he wishes, he can use his coils to squeeze the life out of anyone small enough to fit in them. He can slam his bodyweight around in powerful waves, knocking over anyone or anything in his path.

Jake uses his Gatling gun with both speed and accuracy. A prime example of this was shown when he was seen for the first time in the film; he shot down the Sheriff sign with his Gatling gun, without damaging anything or anyone else. This is quite impressive, considering the fact that Gatling guns are known for having poor accuracy.

Like all diamondback rattlesnakes, he can inject a strong venom with his fangs: in the film, this venom is seen only once, when Jake arrives at Dirt and meets Rango for the first time, the serpent balances a shot glass atop his Gatling gun and fills it with his venom, mockingly offering it to Rango as a drink. This references Rango falsely stating that Jake is his brother and that he is immune to his venom, and that he uses Jake's venom in his coffee to give it a little kick. Jake never used the venom again in the film.

Personality[]

Like many antagonists, Rattlesnake Jake Snake exhibits significant antisocial behaviors: he is cruel and vicious; he is mostly seen using violence to threaten others, and shows no mercy to his victims.

Unlike a common mercenary, who kills people only for cash, Jake is sadistic and loves his job. He seems to derive pleasure from instilling fear in those around him and causing violence. During the scene in which Beans is being made to give up her ranch, Mayor John calls upon Jake to persuade her into signing the papers. Instead of simply pushing the woman to signing, Jake immediately takes her up into his coils, laughing and taunting her. Mayor John objects to this treatment, but Jake does not care. After she objects to signing the papers, Jake happily offers Beans a descriptive account of how he's going to squeeze her until her eyes pop out.

As a badass western gunslinger, Jake has also a strong sense of honor and shows respect towards fighters he considers skilled and brave enough to compete with him. In fact, when Rango saves the town of Dirt using "just one bullet", Jake considers him a legend and shows him mutual respect.

It can be inferred that Jake possesses effective information gathering skills. When he met Rango for the first time, he knew all about the stories Rango told to make himself famous, including the lies he told about Jake and himself being brothers. He was also able to quickly deduce that Rango cares most about Beans and Priscilla, using them as levy to scare Rango.

Quotes[]

"Long time, 'brother'... how ya been keepin'?"
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"This is my town now. If I ever see you again I will drag your soul straight down to hell!"
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Jake: "Sign the damn paper, woman!"
Beans: "Go to hell!"
Jake: "Where do you think I come from?"
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Mayor: "Stop, Jake, there's no need-"
Jake: "Let me do my job! You brought me in, now we're gonna play this thing out to the end!"
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"I'm gonna blow so many holes in you, yer guts'll be leaking lead!!"
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(mocking the Mayor) What was that you said..? "Pretty soon, no one will believe you even existed!"
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"Or what, little man? You gonna kill me?"
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"One bullet... I tip my hat to you, one legend to another."

Trivia[]

It's unknown how Jake lost his rattle-tail, but it might have happened while fighting the Hawk in the past and being injured. Jake also has a strong fear of hawks, and this reinforces the theory. However, this is not said in the film and remains a theory.
- It's also possible that the serpent just voluntarily "modified" the rattle of this tail in order to do that lethal deadly machine-gun. However it's unknown how and where he modified it.
- The end of the Hawk's beak is replaced with steel: While just a theory, some belief it was lost in an incident with Jake, possibly the same that cost the snake his rattle.
- In real life Hawk and Snake are naturally enemies also naturally predator
Rattlesnake Jake may be based on Angel Eyes (played by the late Lee Van Cleef) from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Both wear similar black cowboy hats, hold prominent moustaches and share similar personality traits and dialect. Angel Eyes was the arch-nemesis of the Man with No Name, aka the Spirit of the West, in that same film, similar to Jake being Rango's nemesis. There is a difference though; unlike Angel Eyes, Jake has a sense of honor and dignity.
The upper part Jake's body is covered with bandoliers. But due to his lack of arms, it is unknown how is he able to reload his rattle gun (some theories are that he uses his mouth, gets assistance from others, or his prosthetic is complex enough that the bandoliers feed their bullets to the gun internally).
Bill Nighy and Johnny Depp work together in Pirates of the Caribbean film series, as the antagonist Davy Jones and protagonist Captain Jack Sparrow, respectively.
Rattlesnake Jake also shares some traits with Davy Jones considering them being played by the same actor, including speech patterns, how they move their head when they talk etc. However, unlike Davy Jones, he's able to respect his enemies, as shown in the ending.
The quote "I tip my hat to you, one legend to another" from Jake is used as a meme on the internet as a way of showing respect to other legends, such as Bob Ross, Keanu Reeves, Chuck Norris, etc. More can be read about this on Know Your Meme.
It is possible that Rattlesnake Jake's real name is simply 'Jake', and the 'Rattlesnake' portion is simply a title used to refer to him. This is confirmed by the way characters in the film refer to him.
It is possible that Rattlesnake Jake is actually a Mojave Rattlesnake, but it's impossible to know for sure—especially considering their and Western Diamondback's coloration and patterns are nearly identical.
- It is even more difficult to figure out since they both inhabit the Mojave Desert, where the movie takes place.
- However, it could be assumed that he is a Western Diamondback, due to the fact that the markings along his back are STRICTLY diamond-shaped.
  - Mojave rattlesnakes' back patterns are more polyhedral, not having the sharp points on the dorsal.
Jake's movement patterns are possibly inspired by real western diamondback rattlesnakes.