The COMPLETE Borderlands Timeline Explained
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00:00So, you want to hear another story, eh?
00:12One about treasure hunters, a corpling turned complete psychopath, and how it all turned
00:18into a blockbuster movie spawning the next trillion dollar cinematic universe for a tired
00:23IP.
00:24Well, that last part isn't in this video, but if you are brand new to the Borderlands
00:27series and want to know what's what before seeing the movie, well, have I got a story
00:32for you.
00:46Before we begin, we publish new videos all week long, so be sure to subscribe to Mojo
00:50Plays and ring the bell to be notified about our latest videos.
00:55Our story begins with the very first game in the Borderlands series, titled, uh, Borderlands.
01:02On the planet Pandora, a planet not too different from ours, save for the bloodthirsty psychos
01:07and vicious skags running amok, the complete lack of government as it was overthrown by
01:12megacorporations, and everyone has a snarky and or personality loaded with quips.
01:17While folks are living in shacks made of scrap or worn down buildings, the only aspect of
01:30life that has evolved and continued to thrive here are the guns.
01:35The big, beefy, badass guns.
01:38Pick your megacorporation of worship, Jacobs, Dahl, Torg, Malawan, Atlas, S&S Munitions,
01:45Viridian, Vladoth, Teteor, or Hyperion if you're a high roller, and every one of them
01:51produces some of the most powerful guns you can imagine.
01:54So long as you got a pepper sprayer from any of these guys, you should be okay wandering
01:58around Pandora, unless you're a terrible shot, in which case, you may as well expose yourself
02:03in the middle of the wasteland and let the racks eat you alive.
02:06You'll save some bullets for whoever finds your carcass later.
02:17But if you do have your wits about you, you may become another one of the legendary Vault
02:22Hunters, true badasses of the wasteland who hunt for vault keys.
02:27Where might these keys lead to?
02:29Well, vaults of course, and inside every vault is a treasure trove of glorious guns capable
02:36of unimaginable powers, and most importantly, a ton, a ton of cash.
02:46Okay, maybe it isn't as magical as I'm making it sound, but when you stumble upon alien
02:50technology with no explanation as to how it works, the fairy tale makes it sound better
02:55than the Atlas Corporation found the first one in word spread about vaults on other planets.
03:00Pandora's Vault was the one everyone had their eye on first, yet none found any evidence
03:05of such a thing, because none of them have survived long enough to find the vault.
03:10And that is where our heroes enter the fray.
03:21First there's Roland, a former soldier of the Crimson Lance, Atlas's private military
03:26who will do absolutely anything to accomplish their mission.
03:30And I do mean anything.
03:32Then we have the alluring Lilith, a resident of the planet Dionysus and one of the six
03:37mystical sirens, women who wield untold abilities.
03:41We also have Mordecai, an expert sniper who can pop heads with even the shoddiest of rifles,
03:47with a little help from his trusty bird friend Bloodwing, of course.
03:59And lastly, there's Brick, a big, mean son of a gun who can solve almost any problem
04:05with a single punch.
04:06He isn't opposed to using bullets, but his fists can get the job done just as quick.
04:11Guided by a mysterious woman known as the Guardian Angel, these four were destined to
04:16find Pandora's long sought after, but long elusive vault key.
04:21Mind you, this was no easy task, even for a band such as this.
04:25Pandora has forever been home to the most vicious vermin you could encounter.
04:29Skags are no problem, but when you throw in freaks of nature like Raks, spider ants, and
04:35bandits, well, Pandora clearly wants everybody dead.
04:38But after trudging through the arid Badlands, Sledge, and Jaina's town, our heroes found
04:43what they were looking for, Pandora's legendary vault.
04:54What riches awaited them inside?
04:56Were they about to become as rich as Hyperion?
04:58Perhaps they'll uncover a weapon so powerful it can destroy a planet, or maybe some other
05:04harbinger of death.
05:06Worse, it was a giant, tentacled beast.
05:10Upon defeating the Crimson Lance and attempting to unlock the vault, our heroes had unknowingly
05:15unleashed a terrible monster known as the Destroyer.
05:26In the first years of the universe's birth, an ancient race of beings called the Eridians
05:30discovered this monster and quickly learned it wielded enough power to decimate the entire
05:36universe.
05:37Before it could react, the Eridians imprisoned the Destroyer in a vault that was the size
05:42of a planet, thus creating Pandora.
05:45The only way to open it was to get its vault key, that being its own moon, Elpis, to crash
05:52into Pandora.
05:53Other vaults were created across the galaxy as well, some harboring other creatures while
05:58others hold rewards.
06:08For our vault hunters here, they had found the false vault the Eridians created as a
06:13means to prevent others from freeing the true Destroyer.
06:16The fight was long and painful, but after suffering many slimy blows from its tentacles,
06:22the Destroyer was destroyed, and our heroes could finally claim their reward and put an
06:28end to Pandora's myths.
06:30If only the journey had been worth the effort, how would you feel if you went to hell and
06:41back just to find a blob of murderous tentacles and receive a pat on the back from your guardian
06:45angel, and be told, oh, the vault will be ready to open in like a few hundred years
06:50from now?
06:51Our heroes disband, off to fulfill their own desires for the time being.
06:55But high above Pandora's atmosphere, trouble brews within Hyperion, and the events that
07:01had just transpired were conducted by one man.
07:09Meet Jack.
07:10Jack was a Hyperion executive who once had it all- fame within the company, a loving
07:15wife and daughter, and so much money he could buy anything he wanted simply on impulse.
07:21However, his daughter, Angel, was given a unique gift where she could take control of
07:26technology.
07:27While this power did reveal her as one of the six sirens, it also painted a huge target
07:32on the family's back.
07:38One encounter with a group of bandits resulted in the death of Jack's wife, which would
07:42cause Jack to harbor a deep resentment towards his own daughter.
07:46He had Angel encased in a Hyperion control core, allowing him to use her power to control
07:51communicators across Pandora.
07:54This included the communicators for Roland, Lilith, Mordecai, and Brick.
07:59Our heroes had indeed been tricked from the very beginning, as Jack used Angel to get
08:03the Vault Hunters to unleash the Destroyer.
08:10One would think the Destroyer's defeat would mean Jack's plan had come to an end.
08:15No, this was only all according to Jack's plan.
08:20After our heroes left, Jack visited the site where the Destroyer died and took its eye
08:24back to Hyperion.
08:26With this, he could power up Hyperion's weaponized satellite, the Eye of Helios, firing
08:31a blast so devastating it could wipe out entire cities.
08:35If there were no bandits to worry about, who would be able to stop Jack from opening Pandora
08:40himself?
08:44To help him execute the rest of his plan, Jack hired four new Vault Hunters with their
08:48own sets of skills.
08:50He had Athena, a former Crimson Lance assassin who was formidable with a shield, Nisha, a
08:55notorious sharpshooter who defines the phrase, if looks could kill, Wilhelm, a cybernetic
09:01super soldier who excels in robotics, and Claptrap, an annoying little robot whose malware
09:12can either help or hinder his allies.
09:15An unlikely band of Vault Hunters, but a band nonetheless.
09:18Together, they would help Jack head to Pandora's Moon, Elpis, to take on the Lost Legion faction
09:24and retrieve the Destroyer's Eye.
09:27Along the way, they would encounter a couple of familiar faces, Roland and Lilith, the
09:31same two that Jack had tricked into opening the Destroyer's Vault.
09:35So long as that information wasn't exposed, all would be fine.
09:39Alas, that information did get exposed.
09:47After hearing about Jack's plan to destroy parts of Pandora, Roland and Lilith had the
09:51Destroyer's Eye crushed.
09:54Jack was left with no other option than to call for desperate measures.
09:58Turns out the Lost Legion were in possession of a Vault Key that could open Elpis' Vault.
10:03After fighting their leader, the tyrannical Colonel Zarpedon, Jack and the Vault Hunters
10:07jumped at the chance to open the Vault.
10:09What they weren't expecting was another titanic monster.
10:22The Vault Hunters spent every bullet they had fighting the Empyrean Sentinel, every
10:27elemental ability they had at their disposal to bring down the mystical entity, and at
10:31long last, the deed was done.
10:34Another target neutralized, another Vault raided, and another chance for Jack to activate
10:38the Eye of Helios using the Sentinel's remains.
10:41However, Lilith quickly ambushes the team, destroys the Sentinel's remains, and scars
10:47Jack in the process.
11:00His wife long-deceased, his daughter a living weapon, and his plans foiled twice now, Jack
11:06snaps.
11:08He proceeds down a warpath where he conducts a hostile takeover of Hyperion by killing
11:13the President and attempting to scatter and erase the megacorporation's technological
11:18secrets.
11:19Claptrap was shot and thrown into an arctic wasteland.
11:22Now begins a new reign within Hyperion, one led by the man now known as Handsome Jack.
11:30With Wilhelm's assistance, Jack seized control over much of Pandora, taking down
11:41any and all who dared stand in his way.
11:44To keep tabs on all communicators, he began pumping Angel's body with a substance dubbed
11:49Iridium, expanding her powers and giving Jack almost total surveillance over the planet.
11:54In other words, Handsome Jack was in almost complete control over Pandora.
12:01The only settlement left brave enough to stand up to Jack is the little town called Sanctuary,
12:05a home for rebels led by Roland, Lilith, Mordecai, and Brick.
12:21The next step in Jack's plan was born from his final moments on Elpis.
12:25While holding the artifact left behind by the Sentinel, Jack saw intense visions of
12:30another dormant entity waiting to escape its vault, a creature named the Warrior.
12:36After the Destroyer's imprisonment and the birth of the vault, the Iridians found themselves
12:40at odds ends with each other.
12:42Some believed the imprisonment was the best solution, while other Iridians believed they
12:46should have killed it when they had the chance.
12:49To further prevent the Destroyer from breaking free, the Iridians created the Warrior, which
12:54would forever serve as a protective guardian for Pandora, but they didn't anticipate
12:59some crazed egomaniac to exploit its power.
13:02Jack saw the Warrior as another opportunity to execute his plan, and he lured a new group
13:07of Vault Hunters to Pandora.
13:20Taking the token soldier position was Axton, an ex-Sergeant for Dahl's military and always
13:25kept a deadly turret close to him.
13:28Then there was Maya, the third of the six Sirens who could lock targets into stasis
13:33and even use their pain to heal herself and others.
13:37Next was Salvador, a local Pandorian who once served the Crimson Raiders before becoming
13:42a Vault Hunter, excited by the thrills of a good gunfight that could come from the job.
13:47And lastly, there was the mysterious Zero, an assassin who was much more about action
13:52than words, and had mastered the ability to cloak himself in order to take out enemies
13:56without them ever knowing he was there.
14:05With all the pieces in place, Jack could sit back and watch his master plan unfold before
14:10his eyes, that is, until the people of Sanctuary entered the picture.
14:15Unsure of their ambitions, Roland and Lilith fought hard to win the new Vault Hunters to
14:19their side.
14:20Doing so not only meant more rebels, but another major step forward in bringing down Handsome
14:25Jack.
14:26Joining them would be Tiny Tina, a mischievous child with a love for explosives, and Patricia
14:31Tannis, an archaeologist who studies the effects iridium has on subjects and uses the Vault
14:37Dwellers' expeditions to further her research.
14:40In their efforts to stop Handsome Jack, casualties were suffered.
14:44Jack abducts Bloodwing and subjects her to extreme slag mutation, forcing Mordecai and
14:49the Vault Hunters to kill her.
15:01During the assault on the Control Corps imprisoning Angel, Roland sacrifices himself to buy the
15:06Vault Hunters time to destroy the Core Shields before he was killed by Jack himself.
15:11Angel also succumbs during the Corps' destruction.
15:17After a few more trials and tribulations, the Vault Dwellers and Handsome Jack face
15:21off within the Warriors' Vault.
15:23Surrounded by lava and taking on two separate enemies at the same time, the Vault Hunters
15:28exhausted every bullet until one party fell.
15:31It isn't long until Hyperion's leader was at death's door.
15:35One lengthy monologue later, Handsome Jack was dead.
15:39Although some monsters are hard to kill.
15:47With Jack gone, Hyperion begins going through some corporate restructure.
15:52One employee named Reese has long dreamed of becoming a high-ranking officer within
15:57the megacorporation and be as big of a legend as his hero, Handsome Jack.
16:02Unfortunately, a possible promotion turns into an insulting demotion thanks to his jackass
16:08manager Vasquez.
16:12Seeking revenge, Reese infiltrates Vasquez's computer while he isn't looking, steals
16:17information on a high-value exchange involving a Vault Key, and heads to Pandora to do the
16:22deal posing as Vasquez.
16:24The deal almost expectedly goes awry, as the dealers, August, Sasha, and Fiona almost immediately
16:31deduce that Reese is not the person they were planning to meet.
16:34One daring escape and some more screw-ups later, Reese discovers an ID drive and plugs
16:39it into his head.
16:41He quickly finds out that the ID drive he has plugged into his brain is the same one
16:45holding the digitized conscience of the one and only Handsome Jack.
17:01Following the events of Jack's initial plans with the Destroyer's Eye, he had once
17:05tasked one of Hyperion's top scientists, Professor Nakayama, to create a digital construct
17:17of himself in case he were to die.
17:19Nakayama seemed to have succeeded in preserving the psychopath in some form, even if only
17:24the ID drive's user can see Jack.
17:27With Hyperion's former leader now in his head, Reese and company soon uncover secrets
17:31surrounding some of Atlas' highly confidential, and often times failed, experiments.
17:36Among these experiments was something called the Gordus Project.
17:48This turns out to be an adorable little robot with the capability of turning into a colossal
17:53mech and the ability to locate hidden vaults within holographic maps.
17:58This kind of information alone has made Gordus a high-priority target between Bandits, Hyperion,
18:04and of course, Atlas.
18:06Thankfully with the help of Fiona, Sasha, Vaughn, and a probably defective loader bot,
18:12Gordus made it out A-OK.
18:13Meanwhile, Reese is struggling to tolerate Handsome Jack messing with his head.
18:22The man he once revered as a hero has shown his true colors as an unpredictable, manipulative
18:28psychopath.
18:29Jack has been berating him for making moral decisions instead of backstabbing his friends
18:33for the sake of Hyperion.
18:35Ultimately, it takes Reese to be on the verge of death to finally put an end to things.
18:41Jack begins infecting Reese's mind, forcing him to tear his own cybernetic parts off.
18:45Luckily, Reese finds the will to take back control of his body and manages to tear out
18:50Jack's ID drive from his head.
19:01With Handsome Jack having pulled most of the strings, if not all, since the very first
19:06game, it's hard to believe the story does not end here.
19:09And yet, we still got a game like Borderlands 3, which⊠you can either take it or leave
19:15it.
19:16Regardless, we find ourselves in a setting where several years have passed since the
19:19events of Borderlands 2, where Jack tried to unleash the Warrior, and the events of
19:24Tales from the Borderlands, where Reese learned the unfortunate lesson in never meeting your
19:29heroes.
19:34Borderlands 3 is almost a completely new slate of characters.
19:38Lilith, who has lost her Siren powers, has now opened up a new legion of Crimson Raiders,
19:44and recruited four new Vault Hunters to join her cause.
19:48Zane fills the Mr. Call of Duty role here, and specializes in spawning drones and clones
19:53of himself.
19:54Moze is a reckless gunner who can summon a mech to spray the area with bullets.
19:59Amara is yet another Siren, but can spawn additional arms for increased melee damage.
20:05And then you have FL4K, or Flak, a hunter who can cloak and call upon various wild animals
20:12to aid him in a fight.
20:13These four are given a new threat to face, a cult known as the Children of the Vault.
20:19And they are more annoying than you can possibly imagine.
20:30The Children of the Vault was started after the events of Borderlands 2 by a brother and
20:34sister known as the Calypso Twins.
20:37Together, Tyreen and Troy Calypso would go out and commit grisly acts across Pandora,
20:43streaming their dark deeds to every Echonet communicator on the planet.
20:47Their following grew to such an insane number that the twins managed to start their own
20:51weapon manufacturing under the cult's name.
20:54Not only that, but both Troy and Tyreen boasted Siren powers of their own.
20:58The two became so massive that it effectively drove the Crimson Raiders off of Pandora.
21:12What exactly are they promising here that the bandits and vagabonds are seeing in them?
21:17Iridium tier memberships?
21:19Live events?
21:21No.
21:22They were simply using their influence to accelerate their plan to open the Great Vault,
21:27or as we know it, Pandora itself.
21:30By the time Lilith and the Vault Hunters infiltrated the Children of the Vault's main base, it
21:35was too late.
21:37Troy had already initiated the Great Vault's opening.
21:40Lilith and the Vault Hunters take him down as Tyreen makes her escape.
21:44Game over, bitches!
21:49It isn't long until the group gets in contact with Typhon de Leon, the very first Vault
21:54Hunter who ever lived, who warns them about the Destroyer's power.
21:58Coincidentally, the Iridiums left behind yet another backup plan in case the Destroyer
22:03was to break free, a machine that could be powered up by four Vault Keys.
22:08Tyreen soon gets in touch with the Vault Hunters, and reveals that Typhon was her and
22:13Troy's father, and she nearly kills him before escaping to Pandora, preparing for
22:18her final stand against the Vault Hunters.
22:27Despite their efforts, and Lilith getting her powers back from a now dead Tyreen, nothing
22:32has managed to stop Elpis from colliding with Pandora.
22:36Suddenly, Lilith has one idea, one final method in stopping the madness.
22:42She uses her powers to fly towards Elpis, sacrificing herself while leaving a massive
22:47Firehawk sigil engraved into the moon.
22:51If you've been keeping track of who's still alive, Brick and Mordecai are now the
22:55only surviving Vault Hunters from the original game.
23:07She's lighting the way.
23:09And that is pretty much everything you need to know about the events of Borderlands from
23:13start to finish.
23:14Yes, there is new tales from the Borderlands, but there hasn't been any confirmation as
23:19to whether that game is canon or not.
23:21It was also such a dumpster fire of a game that much of the fanbase refuses to acknowledge
23:25its existence.
23:27So consider this your primer for the Borderlands movie, as well as Borderlands 4, for whenever
23:32that decides to come out.
23:34But which game in the Borderlands franchise is your favorite?
23:37Let us know down in the comments, and be sure to subscribe to Mojo Plays for more great
23:41videos every day.
23:43Welcome to Pandora, kiddos.
23:51Thanks for watching.
23:52If you enjoyed the video, there's more where that came from.