Cover art for novel.
Jumper: Griffin's Story is the story of Griffin's past that was released in August 2007 shortly before the movie Jumper in 2008. o It is the back story of Griffin O'Conner and his fight for survival. It's also from his perspective.
[Spoiler Alert!]
Chapter 1 - 4
Starts out with Griffin as a nine years old, living with his parents. We learn his family has moved from Oxford because of Griffin jumping for the first time at five in front of a bus load of tourists. They currently reside in San Diego, California. He and his father are driving to a location where Griffin can practice jumping. Then it goes to him talking a bit about his home life. He is homeschooled by his mother and attends karate class. This is where he has one of his first problems: a bully named Paully MacLand. He was his sparring partner in class and Paully always took it too far. One day though after class Paully charged at Griffin and jumped to the ravine in the Empty Quarter (where his father and him practiced). This led to two strange men and a woman killing his parents that evening.
The next three chapters are about how a man by the name of Sam found Griffin once he jumped away from the people who killed his parents too the Empty Quarter. Consuelo was a Mexican woman who lived with his niece, Alejandra and friend Sam. They take Griffin in, teach him Spanish, and care for him. He lets them in on his secret ability, but is very careful about when and where he's jumping. This takes us up to Griffin at the age of 12.
Chapter 5
Whoever's after Griffin starts to catch up to him. His dentist is questioned by the same people. We then meet our main antagonist, a man by the name of Kemp. He was the Bristol-accented man who killed Griffin's parents that fateful night. He watches the house Griffin lived in with Consuleo and the others. Griffin decided to live on his own where the people and Kemp can't find him. He decided that's in the San Diego park mountains. He blows a shaft with dynamite and creates his first "lair" but we'll know it as the Hole in time.
Chapter 6 - 7
Griffin stocks up for his new home (a.k.a the Hole,) joining a new karate dojo in England for his 13th birthday gift to himself, 4 levels ahead in his studies, and making a new friend: Henry Langsford. He picks up some new jumpsites around christmas and bonds with Henry.
Chapter 8 - 9
Griffin deals with coyote hunters near the Hole, visiting Alejandra, going on a trip to Normandy with Henry, getting intrested a bit more in girls, sketching/drawing more, and having a run in with the law. An officer noticed him from the picture six years ago and wanted to take him in, but Griffin (being the jumper) jumped away when he was in the bathroom. He wrote Henry a note at a shipping store in San Diego apologizing and saying goodbye. He also stopped going to karate and halted going to London for a while. He began practicing fighting and jumping together in the Empty Quarter. Griffin started to carry a sketchbook with him. He sketched a picture of Kemp, and the other people he's had run ins with that have been after him. He also started mapping where he saw these people. But soon enough, Kemp began to catch up with Griffin again. Kemp had caught Sam and Consuelo. In the end, he tried to save the two, but failed. Sam and Consuelo were killed. Griffin tells Alejandra, and she is heartbroken.
Chapter 10
Griffin and Alejandra hide out in the Hole for five days. Griffin tries to sketch his parents but can't bring himself to do it. The same when he tries to draw Sam and Consuelo, but manages to draw Alejandra very well. Alejandra decided to dissappear on her own. Griffin writes a letter to various police stations about what really happened with some sketches. This is around the time when he meets Elaine Vera Kelseon or as we'll get to know to be E.V. E.V and Griffin sketch each other in France. E.V is American and on a trip with her high school french club. They get to know each other some. Griffin gets in contact with a special agent who wants some more info about the letter and Griffin, along with the people after him. Griffin sketches a beautiful picture of E.V.
Chapter 11
Griffin meets with the Special Agent. He is told to find a guy in a library with a red folder. He is there as expected, but he pulls a knife on Griffin and stabs him. Griffin pretty much blacks out and end up in a place with a doctor. He is told he gotten thirty nine stiches because the man had stabbed him and was aiming for the kidney. The doctor mentioned the police were nearby and wanted to talk to him, but of course, Griffin used the bathroom and didn't come out. Griffin now feels betrayed almost by the detective that told him to find that guy there in the library. He gets the stitches out ten days later and then calls E.V. He meets her parents in their home in Trenton, NJ. Griffin and E.V sit and talk in a cemetary. She kisses him. He kisses her. But when she touches where his stitches were he freaks out. He tells her the truth about what happened and why he got the scar. He also end up telling her about his ability. She's not scared by it; she actually thinks it pretty cool and an advantage.
Chapter 12
E.V and Griffin prepare to take their relationship to the next level. When there in bed is when we learn Griffin is about 16 now. They did couple-y things together. Her father finds a nude sketch of Griffin so he grounds her for three weeks. She goes to the Hole for the first time. And all of it started to crumble for them on a Thursday night. E.V said about going to a teen club to see a band play, as they were friends of hers. E.V was acting strange and Griffin noticed before they went. When they got there it was a usual loud club. Until the drinks rolled out. Someone pissed off Griffin a bit so he took E.V and jumped. He jumped with her to the Empty Quarter. She zapped him it seemed though and she demanded and screamed that he take her back to the club. She dropped her purse and pills come flying out. She keeps using the word THEY. Then it hit Griffin that they had her parents. That's when she gives up the act and tells him how they killed her father and how her mother and brother are kidnapped. This is when Griffin takes action. He hides E.V at the Hole. He takes the phone they gave her and calls them telling them that she is dead and blames them. He saves E.V's mother and brother and possibly finds a bomb. He calls 911 and lets them handle the rest.
Chapter 13
In the final chapter, E.V tells him she wasn't really going to hurt him. They fight and he then jumps her to near the hospital where he took her mom and brother. Tells her he hopes she never has to lie about who she is. He says goodbye, and he is gone. Griffin goes back to the Hole. He think about everything that's happend. Then realizes it all comes back to THEM. He jumps to the San Diego Police Station and snatches Vigil outside, jumps him to Empty Quarter, and "questions him". He shows him his scar from where he was stabbed. And asks why a 16 year old kid would be a "threat to national security," as Vigil put it. Tortures Vigil a bit. Takes his phone and makes Vigil set up a "meeting" at Sam's old place for 3. He hides under the couch. He eventually takes out two of them. He tries washing off the blood in Oaxaca and then when he jumps back to the Hole he realizes that E.V's coat is still there. He takes it to the funeral home where her father is being held. She sorta thanked him. After that cold and numb goodbye. He goes back to the Hole and rips up the sketch of her. He goes back to going after the men who threw the coyotes down the shaft. They were men of Kemp's-6 of them in 2 atv trucks. He managed to get Kemp himself in a trap. He took Kemp to the Hole and lit propane with candles that were ment for E.V and him. Kemp mentions Alejandra which sets Griffin off even more. The last paragraphs mention that Griffin is following a cell of three paladins. They were in France where he was. He was trying to draw them out. Eating, he saw Spanish tourists and saw Alejandra for the first time in a long time. She looked different and wanted to hold her in the worst way, but he didn't. He got a lock on the three paladins. His last words are "Hello Boys..."
Trivia[]
-In the film, Griffin says that Roland killed his parents when he was five. However, in this book Roland is not present when Grifins parents are killed. Griffin hears about Roland near the end of the book and decides to try to learn more about him. This means that there is a large gap between the end of this book and the film, because in the film Griffin says he's been hunting Roland for years and in the book he learns about him at the end. Apparently, Griffin has several years in which he will fight Roland and aquire the scar on his neck before he meets David Rice.