Ritual in Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number
"Isn't that pretty much what we did last time? I didn't hear any complaints back then..."
There's a certain accepted cultural narrative about the difference between the two Hotline Miami games. It generally goes as follows: the first game, Hotline Miami, is a surreal story that leaves several questions wide-open, interested more in its presentation and mood than in lore. Conversely, the second and final game, Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number, is understood as being a more grounded story that explains the mysteries of the first game in an understandable way.
This seems outright wrong to me. It presents a mythic view of the surrealism of the first game when really, the first game's story is rather self-explanatory; there wasn't much there to explain (other than, perhaps, what happened in San Francisco, and the contents of Jacket's photo). Conversely, the second game's story is sprawling and many of its threads don't really go anywhere in particular; it also has many ambiguous details and secret sequences.
I could elaborate about the ignored ambiguities in the second game, but rather than directly address these misconceptions, I'd like to instead show the themes of the game that support a thematic reading of the work, similar to the first game, a point that itself contradicts certain peoples' viewpoints that the game is only interested in telling a methodical story for its own sake.
Hotline Miami 2, like any good sequel, is actually keenly aware of its position as such - and thus has little interest in unironically replicating the first game, but at the same time, nor is it interested in making a work that ignores its relationship with the first game. Thus, the protagonists of Hotline Miami 2 repeatedly find themselves taking part in rituals that invoke the first game, but through a slightly skewed lens. This is reflected in-universe by the fact that many of the characters are living in the shadow of the first game's events; the protagonist Jacket, his crimes, and his criminal trial have since become the subject of much media attention (just as the first game became a relatively huge hit for an indie game, leading to a bevy of fan and media discussion and analysis.) Almost invariably, these rituals end up leading to their own downfall, often ingloriously and abruptly. Making sequels that do little but replicate what came before is a dead end, as is the case for the playable characters who replicate Jacket's actions (sometimes literally, sometimes only metafictionally).
Midnight Animal is a bastardization, of course. Just as consensus fan interpretations of works tend to take on a life of their own as simulacra, becoming simplifications of the text itself, Midnight Animal has stripped out certain ambiguities and reduced the story down to a less unique form. The phone calls are no longer seemingly innocuous messages that the main character understands as code; they are explicit instructions for murder. The Jacket stand-in, known as the Pig Butcher, is reinterpreted as sexually violent because he is here interpreted as nothing but a generic madman. Hotline Miami is stripped of all its subtlety. It's "just another slasher-flick".
I likely don't have to offer up any interpretation about the dream sequence in which the shocking content in Midnight Animal is subject to media scrutiny and the characters discuss whether you can reduce violence in fiction to "just a film", or perhaps for us, "just a game". I don't think the point here, though, is whether or not we can justify fictional violence. The point is that that very topic provokes discussion. Of course Hotline Miami was subject to much analysis regarding what it had to say about its violence, like many games before and after it. "Video game violence is bad", of course, would be a simplification of its themes. But the fact remains that people devoted a lot of effort into figuring out how they should feel about Hotline Miami's self-awareness. One possible interpretation was even that the game was ultimately a justification of itself, suggesting through the Biker's story that attempting to explain away or justify the violence is, in the end, an unfulfilling task when compared to just enjoying the game. And, of course, if you heard about Hotline Miami second-hand, and had little experience with the concept of seriously analyzing video games as more than toys for children, it would not register as any different than any other violent game - again, "just another slasher-flick".
It is perhaps the perfect irony that Midnight Animal, a story arc that comments on the concept of media controversy surrounding Hotline Miami, ended up being the subject of real-world media controversy due to its suggestion of sexual assault. (To be fair, as I understand it, this scene was first shown on its own and not in the context of the whole game.)
The second and final action stage of the Midnight Animal story arc is similarly blatant in its commentary, as the Pig Butcher's apartment is shown to be a direct recreation of Jacket's. Although this makes perfect sense in-universe as a set the film crew would build, it can't help but remind me of a similar scene in Metal Gear Solid 2 in which the similarities between it and its predecessor are also laid bare by outright reusing a room from the first game.
Despite all the bastardization in Midnight Animal, the conclusion of its in-universe story is of particular interest to me for different reasons. The Pig Butcher breaks into the interrogation room where the girl he's after (a stand-in for the girl Jacket brought home with him in the first game) is being held; she shoots him several times with a gun, shouting, "I'm not your fucking girlfriend!".
Like I said before, often times consensus fan interpretation of a work can become a simulacra that supersedes the truth. I've frequently seen "facts" stated about the unnamed girl from the first game that appear to be accepted by most if not nearly all players of the series. It is commonly understood, according to these "facts", that the girl was a prostitute who was being raped and drugged by the boss of the stage that Jacket encounters her at. Jacket bringing her to his house is thus seen as an act of rescue, and his most sympathetic action in the game. She is usually referred to by fans as "the Hooker" or "the Girlfriend".
But how much of that is really true? Yes, she is naked when Jacket finds her, and there's a needle found nearby. And indeed, she doesn't seem to be having a good time. But is there any evidence at all that this is the stage boss' fault? He receives almost no characterization. Is it impossible that she is on amiable, or at least neutral, terms with the mafia members Jacket has killed? Is it impossible that her state is the result of drug use brought on by herself rather than forced upon her? If her circumstances are subject to interpretation, it is similarly uncertain if Jacket picking her up and throwing her in his car can be considered "saving" her. You could just as easily argue that it is an act of kidnapping.
Of course, as the game goes on, the girl does stick around with Jacket, and the gradual improving of the state of his apartment do suggest that they ended up being positive influences on eachothers' lives. Perhaps the fan nickname "Girlfriend" is earned after all. But in Midnight Animal, her stand-in almost seems to speak to this nickname, and the fans who insisted upon it, when she asserts that she is very much not one. The Jacket stand-in was mistaken about the relationship between him and the girl. The players may have been mistaken about this as well.
For one, the Fans are literally called the Fans. It's right there in the name - they are fans of the events of Hotline Miami, more specifically of Jacket, and thus they imitate his actions to live up to the ideal of their hero. Surprisingly, Dennis Wedin actually directly offered up an interpretation of the Fans before the game was released - "They kind of symbolize people that want Hotline Miami 2 to be exactly like Hotline Miami 1", he said in an interview with Polygon. In the world of the game post-Hotline Miami, the vigilante operation Jacket took part in no longer exists in that form; nobody is threatening the Fans into action, they do it because they enjoy Hotline Miami. It's ritual reenactment of the previous game for the sake of that alone, and for no deeper reason.
Following the conclusion of their first action stage, the Fans reenact the outro of Jacket's "first" action stage in Hotline Miami (in quotes because they are reenacting the literal Chapter One, not the Prologue, which is the real first stage) by picking up pizzas from a pizza place. Of course, the differences in their reenactment betray that they are not truly Jacket; the man at the counter is a stereotypical teenage fast food worker instead of the omnipresent "Beard", and he specifies how much their pizzas cost instead of giving it to them "on the house". In Jacket's story, "Beard" also mentions that Jacket's pizza was already done without him needing to order; in the Fans' story, it is specified that they ordered ahead of time. The "Beard" sequences in the first game were a direct result of Jacket's circumstances and his memory of his old friend; try as they might to replicate them, the Fans are constrained by practical reality.
The Fans' second action stage is spurred by the concerns of an unseen friend for his sister, who has been "hanging out" with "junkies and lowlifes". This stage is a reenactment of the same "girlfriend" ritual explored in Midnight Animal. Just as in Jacket's stage in the original game, the girl is kept in a back room and is approached after clearing out the rest of the stage. When the Fans go to "rescue" her, however, she reacts in horror and confusion that they would attempt to bring her with her after killing all her friends. Much like the example in Midnight Animal, this recontextualizes the concept of the "Girlfriend" plot point in the first game; due to the reasons previously listed, it's not implausible to suggest that Jacket also "killed all her friends" when he rescued his "Girlfriend". Just as the real-world fans may have misinterpreted Jacket's actions as "saving" her, the in-game Fans misinterpret the same actions as they attempt to reenact them. The fact that they are unable to take her with them out of the building further denies a perfect reenactment of the first game, and her reaction ("Are you insane?") emphasizes the absurdity of treating their actions as a "rescue". Notably, the prompt for when the Pig Butcher first sees his "girl" and when the Fans first see theirs is exactly the same ("GET HER"), further emphasizing the two as different reenactments of the same core ritual.
The Fans' story ends with them discovering the location of the new HQ of the Russian mafia and assaulting it. Here they are reenacting the ending of Jacket's story in the first game, in which the same events transpired. Jacket, though, acquired documents leading to the location of the HQ and assaulted it in service of, we might presume, some form of (misplaced) revenge or rebellion against the system he was stuck in. Conversely, the Fans learn the location by sheer chance, and it holds no more significance to them than any other one of their pointless killing sprees - it's an excuse for more action, for more gameplay. And just like their previous rituals, its result is unsuccessful, a reversal of Jacket's. While Jacket killed the mafia boss, the Fans are instead killed by the new boss, the son of the previous one. They cannot replicate the ending of the previous game, and so their story leads to a dead end. Their death is unceremonious, and as later revealed, part of a hallucinatory rampage anyway; it is not even significant to their killer. As we also see later, the mafia boss completes the ending ritual as the victor of the conflict. Just as Jacket walked onto the balcony to end the game, the mafia boss walks straight off the building - leading him as well to a dead end.
Manny's gameplay is apparently arbitrary; he tends to show up at a location and just begin gameplay, without any real introduction or context for the events. It can later be inferred that Manny is raiding areas controlled by gangs, but these sequences are presented so abruptly that it can feel at first like he is engaging in Hotline Miami gameplay for no reason at all. Of course, the player is aware of what that is, and so they are able to carry out his ritual, but he remains a somewhat arbitrary character.
Eventually we do discover that Manny is a serial killer when off the clock as well, the very same one he purports to be investigating. Just like his reasons for partaking in gameplay, the motives behind his personal crimes are not largely elaborated on, though many have inferred from his earlier dialogue that he merely wants media attention. His killings as the "Miami Mutilator" are totally different from the crimes committed in Hotline Miami gameplay, as they only involve one victim, although they do carry the similar element of the criminal claiming that someone else is forcing him to kill.
One of the other cops remarks to Manny that the Mutilator killings might not make a splash with the media. "Seems they need buckets of blood before they even raise an eyebrow." This game is Hotline Miami 2, after all, and the ritual of the game is that of the first: mass killings, buckets of blood. Perhaps the only reason Manny partakes in gameplay is because he is forced to by the structure of the game. His real passion, individual serial killings, is denied focus both by the media and by the rules he exists in.
On the other hand, Evan has no wish to be involved with violence at all; he's just a writer. But in his first stage, he is unable to avoid killing the first Russian goon he comes across. This horrifies him; he tries his best to reverse it, but to no avail, and is forced to continue through with the ritual of Hotline Miami gameplay, albeit trying his best to do so non-lethally. Evan's gameplay is distinct for this reason; while the player can kill enemies and enter a mode like the rest of the game, they will receive a much better score if they keep Evan in control.
I don't see any real reason that Evan would be repressing a violent nature; he seems like a perfectly normal writer with normal concerns (the balance between work and family, for example). The reason he inadvertently kills a man, and has to keep his violence in check, is because he is in Hotline Miami 2. The ritual of the first game is further twisted by re-enacting it with a man who wants nothing to do with it, highlighting the absurdity of re-enacting it at all. Why would normal people possibly act like Jacket? Because it's a sequel, and they must if they are to recreate the circumstances of the first game. When the player walks up to that initial Russian guard, killing him seems completely natural, as it is the pattern established by the series thus far - it is for this reason that Evan's reaction is surprising, despite it being far more logical.
Both Manny and Evan are disinterested in the ritual, and it's perhaps for this reason that they don't meet their deaths until the apocalyptic ending. Although the previous playable characters were all killed in action, Manny merely becomes increasingly paranoid until the end (though is never actually caught for his crimes), while Evan has the potential for an actually happy ending - at least, until the bombs hit. They are incidental characters, caught in a gameplay loop that has little to do with them personally.
There's a certain accepted cultural narrative about the difference between the two Hotline Miami games. It generally goes as follows: the first game, Hotline Miami, is a surreal story that leaves several questions wide-open, interested more in its presentation and mood than in lore. Conversely, the second and final game, Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number, is understood as being a more grounded story that explains the mysteries of the first game in an understandable way.
This seems outright wrong to me. It presents a mythic view of the surrealism of the first game when really, the first game's story is rather self-explanatory; there wasn't much there to explain (other than, perhaps, what happened in San Francisco, and the contents of Jacket's photo). Conversely, the second game's story is sprawling and many of its threads don't really go anywhere in particular; it also has many ambiguous details and secret sequences.
I could elaborate about the ignored ambiguities in the second game, but rather than directly address these misconceptions, I'd like to instead show the themes of the game that support a thematic reading of the work, similar to the first game, a point that itself contradicts certain peoples' viewpoints that the game is only interested in telling a methodical story for its own sake.
Hotline Miami 2, like any good sequel, is actually keenly aware of its position as such - and thus has little interest in unironically replicating the first game, but at the same time, nor is it interested in making a work that ignores its relationship with the first game. Thus, the protagonists of Hotline Miami 2 repeatedly find themselves taking part in rituals that invoke the first game, but through a slightly skewed lens. This is reflected in-universe by the fact that many of the characters are living in the shadow of the first game's events; the protagonist Jacket, his crimes, and his criminal trial have since become the subject of much media attention (just as the first game became a relatively huge hit for an indie game, leading to a bevy of fan and media discussion and analysis.) Almost invariably, these rituals end up leading to their own downfall, often ingloriously and abruptly. Making sequels that do little but replicate what came before is a dead end, as is the case for the playable characters who replicate Jacket's actions (sometimes literally, sometimes only metafictionally).
Midnight Animal
The game wastes literally no time introducing this idea, as the very first sequence, and its corresponding character and arc, is about a literal adaptation (into film) of the events of the first game. "Midnight Animal" is the most direct version of commentary on the first game, or perhaps you could call it a commentary on a commentary on the first game. Just as players had various interpretations and fanon regarding the details between the characters' relationships and motivations in Hotline Miami, the actual culture of the game's world has done the same, which is now loosely playing out in metafictional form.Midnight Animal is a bastardization, of course. Just as consensus fan interpretations of works tend to take on a life of their own as simulacra, becoming simplifications of the text itself, Midnight Animal has stripped out certain ambiguities and reduced the story down to a less unique form. The phone calls are no longer seemingly innocuous messages that the main character understands as code; they are explicit instructions for murder. The Jacket stand-in, known as the Pig Butcher, is reinterpreted as sexually violent because he is here interpreted as nothing but a generic madman. Hotline Miami is stripped of all its subtlety. It's "just another slasher-flick".
I likely don't have to offer up any interpretation about the dream sequence in which the shocking content in Midnight Animal is subject to media scrutiny and the characters discuss whether you can reduce violence in fiction to "just a film", or perhaps for us, "just a game". I don't think the point here, though, is whether or not we can justify fictional violence. The point is that that very topic provokes discussion. Of course Hotline Miami was subject to much analysis regarding what it had to say about its violence, like many games before and after it. "Video game violence is bad", of course, would be a simplification of its themes. But the fact remains that people devoted a lot of effort into figuring out how they should feel about Hotline Miami's self-awareness. One possible interpretation was even that the game was ultimately a justification of itself, suggesting through the Biker's story that attempting to explain away or justify the violence is, in the end, an unfulfilling task when compared to just enjoying the game. And, of course, if you heard about Hotline Miami second-hand, and had little experience with the concept of seriously analyzing video games as more than toys for children, it would not register as any different than any other violent game - again, "just another slasher-flick".
It is perhaps the perfect irony that Midnight Animal, a story arc that comments on the concept of media controversy surrounding Hotline Miami, ended up being the subject of real-world media controversy due to its suggestion of sexual assault. (To be fair, as I understand it, this scene was first shown on its own and not in the context of the whole game.)
The second and final action stage of the Midnight Animal story arc is similarly blatant in its commentary, as the Pig Butcher's apartment is shown to be a direct recreation of Jacket's. Although this makes perfect sense in-universe as a set the film crew would build, it can't help but remind me of a similar scene in Metal Gear Solid 2 in which the similarities between it and its predecessor are also laid bare by outright reusing a room from the first game.
Despite all the bastardization in Midnight Animal, the conclusion of its in-universe story is of particular interest to me for different reasons. The Pig Butcher breaks into the interrogation room where the girl he's after (a stand-in for the girl Jacket brought home with him in the first game) is being held; she shoots him several times with a gun, shouting, "I'm not your fucking girlfriend!".
Like I said before, often times consensus fan interpretation of a work can become a simulacra that supersedes the truth. I've frequently seen "facts" stated about the unnamed girl from the first game that appear to be accepted by most if not nearly all players of the series. It is commonly understood, according to these "facts", that the girl was a prostitute who was being raped and drugged by the boss of the stage that Jacket encounters her at. Jacket bringing her to his house is thus seen as an act of rescue, and his most sympathetic action in the game. She is usually referred to by fans as "the Hooker" or "the Girlfriend".
But how much of that is really true? Yes, she is naked when Jacket finds her, and there's a needle found nearby. And indeed, she doesn't seem to be having a good time. But is there any evidence at all that this is the stage boss' fault? He receives almost no characterization. Is it impossible that she is on amiable, or at least neutral, terms with the mafia members Jacket has killed? Is it impossible that her state is the result of drug use brought on by herself rather than forced upon her? If her circumstances are subject to interpretation, it is similarly uncertain if Jacket picking her up and throwing her in his car can be considered "saving" her. You could just as easily argue that it is an act of kidnapping.
Of course, as the game goes on, the girl does stick around with Jacket, and the gradual improving of the state of his apartment do suggest that they ended up being positive influences on eachothers' lives. Perhaps the fan nickname "Girlfriend" is earned after all. But in Midnight Animal, her stand-in almost seems to speak to this nickname, and the fans who insisted upon it, when she asserts that she is very much not one. The Jacket stand-in was mistaken about the relationship between him and the girl. The players may have been mistaken about this as well.
The Fans
The second playable character(s) in Hotline Miami 2 happen to be the second most blatant example of ritual reenactment of the first game; by front-loading the game with the most direct examples, the pattern becomes established in the player's mind, allowing them to follow it as it becomes subtler and subtler over time. While Midnight Animal presents a literal, fictional recreation, the story arc of the Fans presents a literal imitation that takes place instead in reality.For one, the Fans are literally called the Fans. It's right there in the name - they are fans of the events of Hotline Miami, more specifically of Jacket, and thus they imitate his actions to live up to the ideal of their hero. Surprisingly, Dennis Wedin actually directly offered up an interpretation of the Fans before the game was released - "They kind of symbolize people that want Hotline Miami 2 to be exactly like Hotline Miami 1", he said in an interview with Polygon. In the world of the game post-Hotline Miami, the vigilante operation Jacket took part in no longer exists in that form; nobody is threatening the Fans into action, they do it because they enjoy Hotline Miami. It's ritual reenactment of the previous game for the sake of that alone, and for no deeper reason.
Following the conclusion of their first action stage, the Fans reenact the outro of Jacket's "first" action stage in Hotline Miami (in quotes because they are reenacting the literal Chapter One, not the Prologue, which is the real first stage) by picking up pizzas from a pizza place. Of course, the differences in their reenactment betray that they are not truly Jacket; the man at the counter is a stereotypical teenage fast food worker instead of the omnipresent "Beard", and he specifies how much their pizzas cost instead of giving it to them "on the house". In Jacket's story, "Beard" also mentions that Jacket's pizza was already done without him needing to order; in the Fans' story, it is specified that they ordered ahead of time. The "Beard" sequences in the first game were a direct result of Jacket's circumstances and his memory of his old friend; try as they might to replicate them, the Fans are constrained by practical reality.
The Fans' second action stage is spurred by the concerns of an unseen friend for his sister, who has been "hanging out" with "junkies and lowlifes". This stage is a reenactment of the same "girlfriend" ritual explored in Midnight Animal. Just as in Jacket's stage in the original game, the girl is kept in a back room and is approached after clearing out the rest of the stage. When the Fans go to "rescue" her, however, she reacts in horror and confusion that they would attempt to bring her with her after killing all her friends. Much like the example in Midnight Animal, this recontextualizes the concept of the "Girlfriend" plot point in the first game; due to the reasons previously listed, it's not implausible to suggest that Jacket also "killed all her friends" when he rescued his "Girlfriend". Just as the real-world fans may have misinterpreted Jacket's actions as "saving" her, the in-game Fans misinterpret the same actions as they attempt to reenact them. The fact that they are unable to take her with them out of the building further denies a perfect reenactment of the first game, and her reaction ("Are you insane?") emphasizes the absurdity of treating their actions as a "rescue". Notably, the prompt for when the Pig Butcher first sees his "girl" and when the Fans first see theirs is exactly the same ("GET HER"), further emphasizing the two as different reenactments of the same core ritual.
The Fans' story ends with them discovering the location of the new HQ of the Russian mafia and assaulting it. Here they are reenacting the ending of Jacket's story in the first game, in which the same events transpired. Jacket, though, acquired documents leading to the location of the HQ and assaulted it in service of, we might presume, some form of (misplaced) revenge or rebellion against the system he was stuck in. Conversely, the Fans learn the location by sheer chance, and it holds no more significance to them than any other one of their pointless killing sprees - it's an excuse for more action, for more gameplay. And just like their previous rituals, its result is unsuccessful, a reversal of Jacket's. While Jacket killed the mafia boss, the Fans are instead killed by the new boss, the son of the previous one. They cannot replicate the ending of the previous game, and so their story leads to a dead end. Their death is unceremonious, and as later revealed, part of a hallucinatory rampage anyway; it is not even significant to their killer. As we also see later, the mafia boss completes the ending ritual as the victor of the conflict. Just as Jacket walked onto the balcony to end the game, the mafia boss walks straight off the building - leading him as well to a dead end.
The Detective and the Writer
The characters of Manny Pardo and Evan Wright stand out for a number of reasons. For one, they're some of the only characters in the series to be given full names (apparently because they are actually fictionalized versions of real people). They also appear comparatively normal, at least on the surface, don't wear any masks, and of course, they are friends. Their rituals are similar as well.Manny's gameplay is apparently arbitrary; he tends to show up at a location and just begin gameplay, without any real introduction or context for the events. It can later be inferred that Manny is raiding areas controlled by gangs, but these sequences are presented so abruptly that it can feel at first like he is engaging in Hotline Miami gameplay for no reason at all. Of course, the player is aware of what that is, and so they are able to carry out his ritual, but he remains a somewhat arbitrary character.
Eventually we do discover that Manny is a serial killer when off the clock as well, the very same one he purports to be investigating. Just like his reasons for partaking in gameplay, the motives behind his personal crimes are not largely elaborated on, though many have inferred from his earlier dialogue that he merely wants media attention. His killings as the "Miami Mutilator" are totally different from the crimes committed in Hotline Miami gameplay, as they only involve one victim, although they do carry the similar element of the criminal claiming that someone else is forcing him to kill.
One of the other cops remarks to Manny that the Mutilator killings might not make a splash with the media. "Seems they need buckets of blood before they even raise an eyebrow." This game is Hotline Miami 2, after all, and the ritual of the game is that of the first: mass killings, buckets of blood. Perhaps the only reason Manny partakes in gameplay is because he is forced to by the structure of the game. His real passion, individual serial killings, is denied focus both by the media and by the rules he exists in.
On the other hand, Evan has no wish to be involved with violence at all; he's just a writer. But in his first stage, he is unable to avoid killing the first Russian goon he comes across. This horrifies him; he tries his best to reverse it, but to no avail, and is forced to continue through with the ritual of Hotline Miami gameplay, albeit trying his best to do so non-lethally. Evan's gameplay is distinct for this reason; while the player can kill enemies and enter a mode like the rest of the game, they will receive a much better score if they keep Evan in control.
I don't see any real reason that Evan would be repressing a violent nature; he seems like a perfectly normal writer with normal concerns (the balance between work and family, for example). The reason he inadvertently kills a man, and has to keep his violence in check, is because he is in Hotline Miami 2. The ritual of the first game is further twisted by re-enacting it with a man who wants nothing to do with it, highlighting the absurdity of re-enacting it at all. Why would normal people possibly act like Jacket? Because it's a sequel, and they must if they are to recreate the circumstances of the first game. When the player walks up to that initial Russian guard, killing him seems completely natural, as it is the pattern established by the series thus far - it is for this reason that Evan's reaction is surprising, despite it being far more logical.
Both Manny and Evan are disinterested in the ritual, and it's perhaps for this reason that they don't meet their deaths until the apocalyptic ending. Although the previous playable characters were all killed in action, Manny merely becomes increasingly paranoid until the end (though is never actually caught for his crimes), while Evan has the potential for an actually happy ending - at least, until the bombs hit. They are incidental characters, caught in a gameplay loop that has little to do with them personally.
Jake
Jake's story takes place concurrently to the events of Hotline Miami, and thus he is not consciously emulating anyone. However, Jake's story still metafictionally reenacts the ritual of Jacket's.
Although several characters have different "weapons" or "styles" available to select from, Jake is the only character who selects one of multiple named masks to wear in his levels, and thus the only character to replicate the famous mask-selecting mechanic of Jacket in the first game. This establishes him firmly as a direct parallel of Jacket, even more so because he is in the exact same situation: he is being directed to kill Russians in the same operation as Jacket was. (You can even find Jake's corpse and mask as Jacket in the original game.)
In many ways Jake is a reversal of Jacket, most notably in that while Jacket is a completely silent man, Jake talks too much. It's not just that he literally talks like every non-Jacket playable character in the series, but that he goes out of his way to accidentally and awkwardly spill the beans to 50 Blessings that he knows that they're behind the operations. 50 Blessings calls repeatedly reiterate that their operative should "be discreet"; Jake directly violates this.
While Jacket, as a mass-murderer, certainly wasn't actually "cool", Jake is Jacket with any of the qualities people could mistake for "cool" taken away. While Jacket's motivations were nearly entirely unstated, Jake is unabashedly racist; while Jacket had at least a positive relationship with his shopkeeper friend (even if just in his dreams), Jake abuses and turns on his own shopkeeper stand-in when they are unable to attend to him immediately. While Jacket was stoic, Jake is loud. Hell, the name "Jake" is "Jacket" with two letters removed!
[Will I ever finish this? I'm bad at endings but I think the point is pretty clear by now.]
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