Carl Johnson: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 19:50, 31 August 2008

Carl Johnson in the clothes he wears in the beginning of the game

Carl 'CJ' Johnson is the playable main character (protagonist) in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

Background

Carl Johnson is one of the leading members of the Grove Street Families (GSF), along with his brother, Sean "Sweet" Johnson. Sweet suggested that CJ was born in the Johnson House, a two floor home at a Grove Street cul-de-sac in Ganton, Los Santos. After the death of his younger brother, Brian, Carl escaped the pressures of gang life and moved to Liberty City in 1987, where he had the opportunity of working with Don Salvatore Leone's son, Joey Leone in the car theft business, and is once seen mugging a passer-by on the streets. GTA San Andreas begins with CJ's return to Los Santos upon the death of his mother.

GTA San Andreas

Introduction

In 1992, CJ receives a phone call from Sweet on the death of his mother and returns to Los Santos, only to be confronted by members of C.R.A.S.H. (Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums), consisting of officers Frank Tenpenny, Eddie Pulaski and Jimmy Hernandez. Throughout the storyline, CJ is forced to work for C.R.A.S.H., after learning that he has been framed by the organization for the murder of an Internal Affairs police officer called Pendelbury, whom C.R.A.S.H. members had also silenced to prevent him exposing the team's activities.

Los Santos

Early in the game, CJ aided Sweet and the rest of the senior members in reviving the GSF, by ridding parts of the neighborhood of crack dealers, acquiring firearms and regaining gang territory. This would end for a period of time, after CJ learned two of his senior members and friends, Ryder and Big Smoke, had betrayed the gang, while Sweet was ambushed by rival Ballas gang members and arrested by the police. CJ was arrested in the process, and released by C.R.A.S.H. into a rural area to perform another job for the team. CJ's and Sweet's arrests also paved the way for the downfall of the GSF - as well as Cesar's Varrios Los Aztecas - and total domination of Los Santos by the Ballas and Los Santos Vagos, respectively.

Badlands

After C.R.A.S.H. leaves Carl in the badlands after eliminating the witness, Carl starts committing a series of robberies along with Catalina, the cousin of Carl's friend Cesar Vialpando, the heist include a Betting Shop, a Liquor Sore, a Gas Station and a Small Town Bank. Carl also meets San Fierro Triad leader Wu Zi Mu during a street race and aging hippie The Truth whom Carl steals a combine harvester for. After Catalina ditches Carl for her next boyfriend, Claude, and Carl beats them in a street race, gaining the deed to Claude's run down garage in San Fierro, Carl prepares to depart from the Badlands and does so after helping The Tru burn down his cannabis crops after getting ratted out by Frank Tenpenny.

San Fierro

Once he arrives in San Fierro with Cesar, The Truth and Kendl, CJ discovers the garage he won from Claude is completely useless. Thanks to Kendl and The Truth, Carl hires Dwaine, Jethro and Zero to work in his garage. Carl re-encounters Wu Zi Mu in San Fierro and Woozie tells him about the drug dealing organisation, The Loco Syndicate, who are suppling drugs to Big Smoke and Ryder in Los Santos, Carl then infiltrates the Syndicate through one of the syndicate's members, Jizzy B. Woozie then hires Carl to help him sort things out with the Triads' enemies, The Da Nang Boys. After Carl kills the Loco Syndiicte's members, Jizzy, T-Bone Mendez and (appearently) Mike Toreno. After sorting things out with Woozie and finishing off the Da Nang Boys, Carl recieves an anonymous phone call from a man using a voice distortioner, who offers a way to release his brother from jail, Carl travels to the desrt, to a ranch in the middle of Tierra Robada.

The Desert

Upon arriving at the ranch in Tierra Robada, Carl discovers it's Mike Toreno who cdhim there, CJ believes Toreno will kill him, Cj doesn't let Toreno explain himself, Toreno snaps and in a fit of rage yells out he isn't a drug dealer, but a government agen. Toreno has Carl buy an abandoned airstrip near Las Venturas and has him perform nearly impossible tasks, such as shooting down FBI helicopters from a plateu, Dropping goods from an airplane to Toreno's helpers in Angel Pine while flying below the radar level and riding a motorbike into an airplane and setting off a bomb inside it after jumping off the plane in a parachute. After this, Toreno leaves Carl without fullfilling his promise of having Sweet released. An aanred Carl then decides to sabotage Toreno by pulling obs for The Truth, like robbing a jetpack from Area 69 and stealing some green goo from a government train. After finishing the jobs for The Truth, Wu Zi Mu calls Carl to his casino, The Four Dragons Casino in Las Venturas.

Las Venturas

Upon arriving in Las Venturas, Carl starts planing a heist on the mafia run Caligula's Casino along with Woozie. To do this, Carl starts working for Salvatore Leone toan his trust and easy acces to the Casino. While planning the heist, Carl saves the life of rapper Madd Dogg, partly because Carl had sabotaged Dogg's career to launch OG Loc's career, after saving his life, CJ becomes Madd Dogg's new manager. Carl also helps Ken Rosenberg, Kent Paul and Maccer fake their deaths so they can stop working for Salvatore Leone. Finally, Carl (forcefully) retrieves a dossier for Frank Tenpenny, witnesses the murder of C.R.A.S.H. agent Jimmy Hernandez and kills another C.R.A.S.H. agent, Eddie Pulaski. After CJ and the triads pull the heist, Carl flies back to Los Santos and helps Madd Dogg take back his mansion from Big Poppa and Los Santos Vagos.

Back To Los Santos

Whe he gets back to Los Santos, Carl helps Madd Dogg get back his rhyme book from OG Loc and also helps him start his career again. Carl is recording a new album, Mike Toreno hacks into the houses P.A. system and tells Carl of a final job. Toreno says the job s very easy then reveals it's to sneak into a a military ship, steal a Hydra assault plane, and use it to blow up four spy ships. After pulling the job, Mike leaves Carl to take care of the plane claiming "what plane? I don't know what plane you're talking about, you stole it, you take care of it...bye!". Later on, Toreno returns to Carl and asks him for a final job, Carl then snaps and puts a gun against Toreno's head. Toreno calmly tells CJ that he's "embarassing himself" and then tells him that Mike has fullfilled his promise and has had Sweet released from prison and that his final job is to go pick up his brother.

However, with Sweet returning to the neighborhood, CJ once again, though reluctantly, aids Sweet in rebuilding the GSF's dominance in the city, and witnesses a citywide riot sparked after Frank Tenpenny was acquitted of corruption charges in court. To wrap up all loose ends in his life, CJ would finally confront and kill Big Smoke, before pursuing Tenpenny, who would die in a car crash in front of the Johnson House. In front of the dead and broken man, CJ prepared to shoot Tenpenny's corpse with his Desert Eagle, but Sweet stops him. CJ wished to be sure that Tenpenny was dead, but Sweet decided it was safer not to leave evidence. He then leaves Tenpenny with these words: "See you around... officer."

After the riot breaks up, Madd Dogg visits the Johnson house with an announcement that he's received a golden record for his new album. Everyone inside then decides to keep a low profile with everything that they've accomplished. CJ himself then gets up and leaves the house. Kendl then asks where he's going. He says in turn: "Fittin' to hit the block, see what's happening." The game's main storyline then ends.

Murders commited by Carl Johnson

Freddy (killed on orders from OG Loc)
Alan Crawford (killed on orders from OG Loc)
Little Weasel (killed during a gang drive-by)
Kane (killed at Little Weasel's funeral)
Jizzy B. (killed to destroy the Loco Syndicate)
T-Bone Mendez (Killed by Carl and Cesar Vialpando to destroy the Loco Syndicate)
Lance "Ryder" Wilson (killed for betraying the Grove Street Families)
The Snakehead (killed on the orders of Wu Zi Mu)
Benny (killed to gain access to Millie Perkins home)
Eddie Pulaski (killed after attempting to kill Carl)
Big Poppa (killed to retrieve Madd Dogg's Crib)
Melvin Harris/Big Smoke (killed for betraying the Grove Street Families)

Family Tree

Carl Johnson of Los Santos is the son of Beverly Johnson (deceased). He himself is the second-oldest Johnson sibling. The oldest is his brother, Sean (aka Sweet). The youngest is his other brother, Brian (deceased), and the second-youngest is Kendl. Nothing is known about their father. CJ does not have any living direct relatives other than Sean and Kendl.

Personality

CJ is markedly different from the previous playable characters in the Grand Theft Auto series. While Claude and Tommy Vercetti are both depicted as completely heartless and feeling no regret for all of the people that they kill, CJ is depicted as having a considerably less violent personality, occasionally giving his victims a chance to redeem themselves. An example is his failed attempt at convincing Eddie Pulaski to see that he was no more than Tenpenny's pawn. Furthermore, CJ displays genuine remorse for having to kill fellow Grove Street bangers Ryder and Big Smoke, who he considered close friends. However, CJ still has no problem with killing members of other gangs, and willfully slaughters any that get in his way of reclaiming Grove Street Families turf.

Voice

CJ was voiced by Chris Bellard, aka Young Maylay, even though he bears a striking resemblance to Dr. Dre. Rumors circulated the internet for a while that Dave Chappelle was supposed to voice CJ, but these were most likely just wishful thinking on the part of Chappelle's fans. Rap star 50 Cent says that he was asked by Rockstar Games to voice CJ, but turned the role down, stating that he would only voice himself in a video game (which eventually happened in 50 Cent: Bulletproof).

Trivia

An Easter Egg in Grand Theft Auto IV suggests that Carl died after 1992. However, this is not considered canon for the GTA III Era.

@@ Line 7: / Line 7: @@
 ==GTA San Andreas==
+===Introduction===
 In 1992, CJ receives a phone call from Sweet on the death of his mother and returns to [[Los Santos]], only to be confronted by members of [[C.R.A.S.H.]] (Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums), consisting of officers [[Frank Tenpenny]], [[Eddie Pulaski]] and [[Jimmy Hernandez]]. Throughout the storyline, CJ is forced to work for C.R.A.S.H., after learning that he has been framed by the organization for the murder of an Internal Affairs police officer called [[Ralph Pendlebury|Pendelbury]], whom C.R.A.S.H. members had also silenced to prevent him exposing the team's activities.
+===Los Santos===
 Early in the game, CJ aided Sweet and the rest of the senior members in reviving the GSF, by ridding parts of the neighborhood of crack dealers, acquiring firearms and regaining gang territory. This would end for a period of time, after CJ learned two of his senior members and friends, [[Lance Wilson|Ryder]] and [[Melvin Harris|Big Smoke]], had betrayed the gang, while Sweet was ambushed by rival [[Ballas]] gang members and arrested by the police. CJ was arrested in the process, and released by C.R.A.S.H. into a rural area to perform another job for the team. CJ's and Sweet's arrests also paved the way for the downfall of the GSF - as well as [[Cesar Vialpando|Cesar's]] [[Varrios Los Aztecas]] - and total domination of Los Santos by the Ballas and [[Los Santos Vagos]], respectively.
-After a brief stay in the Badlands, where he pulls some heists with Cesar Vialpando's cousin, [[Catalina]], and helped hippie, [[The Truth]], to brun down his cannabis crops after Frank Tenpenny rats him out, CJ and his remaining associates headed north for [[San Fierro]], establishing a vehicle chop shop and dealership while strengthening links with the local [[Triads]] and killing [[Ryder]]. Gaining access to [[Las Venturas]], CJ rescues rapper [[Madd Dogg]] from a suicide attempt (when he felt apparent responsibility for [[Madd Dogg's Rhymes|what he did to him]]), kills Eddie Pulaski, and meets up and works for undercover government agent [[Mike Toreno]], who would eventually arrange for the release of Sweet from prison. After that, he had planned a new life to start from.
+===Badlands===
+After C.R.A.S.H. leaves Carl in the badlands after eliminating the witness, Carl starts committing a series of robberies along with [[Catalina]], the cousin of Carl's friend Cesar Vialpando, the heist include a Betting Shop, a Liquor Sore, a Gas Station and a Small Town Bank. Carl also meets [[San Fierro Triad]] leader [[Wu Zi Mu]] during a street race and aging hippie [[The Truth]] whom Carl steals a [[combine harvester]] for. After Catalina ditches Carl for her next boyfriend, [[Claude]], and Carl beats them in a street race, gaining the deed to Claude's run down garage in [[San Fierro]], Carl prepares to depart from the Badlands and does so after helping The Tru burn down his cannabis crops after getting ratted out by Frank Tenpenny.
+===San Fierro===
+Once he arrives in San Fierro with Cesar, The Truth and Kendl, CJ discovers the garage he won from Claude is completely useless. Thanks to Kendl and The Truth, Carl hires [[Dwaine]], [[Jethro]] and [[Zero]] to work in his garage. Carl re-encounters Wu Zi Mu in San Fierro and Woozie tells him about the drug dealing organisation, [[The Loco Syndicate]], who are suppling drugs to Big Smoke and Ryder in Los Santos, Carl then infiltrates the Syndicate through one of the syndicate's members, [[Jizzy B]]. Woozie then hires Carl to help him sort things out with the Triads' enemies, [[The Da Nang Boys]]. After Carl kills the Loco Syndiicte's members, Jizzy, [[T-Bone Mendez]] and (appearently) [[Mike Toreno]]. After sorting things out with Woozie and finishing off the Da Nang Boys, Carl recieves an anonymous phone call from a man using a voice distortioner, who offers a way to release his brother from jail, Carl travels to the desrt, to a ranch in the middle of [[Tierra Robada]].
+===The Desert===
+Upon arriving at the ranch in Tierra Robada, Carl discovers it's Mike Toreno who cdhim there, CJ believes Toreno will kill him, Cj doesn't let Toreno explain himself, Toreno snaps and in a fit of rage yells out he isn't a drug dealer, but a government agen. Toreno has Carl buy an abandoned airstrip near [[Las Venturas]] and has him perform nearly impossible tasks, such as shooting down [[FBI]] helicopters from a plateu, Dropping goods from an airplane to Toreno's helpers in [[Angel Pine]] while flying below the radar level and riding a motorbike into an airplane and setting off a bomb inside it after jumping off the plane in a parachute. After this, Toreno leaves Carl without fullfilling his promise of having Sweet released. An aanred Carl then decides to sabotage Toreno by pulling obs for The Truth, like robbing a [[jetpack]] from [[Area 69]] and stealing some [[green goo]] from a government train. After finishing the jobs for The Truth, Wu Zi Mu calls Carl to his casino, [[The Four Dragons Casino]] in Las Venturas.
+===Las Venturas===
+Upon arriving in Las Venturas, Carl starts planing a heist on the mafia run [[Caligula's Casino]] along with Woozie. To do this, Carl starts working for [[Salvatore Leone]] toan his trust and easy acces to the Casino. While planning the heist, Carl saves the life of rapper [[Madd Dogg]], partly because Carl had sabotaged Dogg's career to launch [[OG Loc]]'s career, after saving his life, CJ becomes Madd Dogg's new manager. Carl also helps [[Ken Rosenberg]], [[Kent Paul]] and [[Maccer]] fake their deaths so they can stop working for Salvatore Leone. Finally, Carl (forcefully) retrieves a dossier for Frank Tenpenny, witnesses the murder of C.R.A.S.H. agent Jimmy Hernandez and kills another C.R.A.S.H. agent, Eddie Pulaski. After CJ and the triads pull the heist, Carl flies back to Los Santos and helps Madd Dogg take back his mansion from [[Big Poppa]] and [[Los Santos Vagos]].
+===Back To Los Santos===
+Whe  he gets back to Los Santos, Carl helps Madd Dogg get back his rhyme book from OG Loc and also helps him start his career again. Carl is recording a new album, Mike Toreno hacks into the houses P.A. system and tells Carl of a final job. Toreno says the job s very easy then reveals it's to sneak into a a military ship, steal a [[Hydra]] assault plane, and use it to blow up four spy ships. After pulling the job, Mike leaves Carl to take care of the plane claiming "what plane? I don't know what plane you're talking about, you stole it, you take care of it...bye!". Later on, Toreno returns to Carl and asks him for a final job, Carl then snaps and puts a gun against Toreno's head. Toreno calmly tells CJ that he's "embarassing himself" and then tells him that Mike has fullfilled his promise and has had Sweet released from prison and that his final job is to go pick up his brother.
 However, with Sweet returning to the neighborhood, CJ once again, though reluctantly, aids Sweet in rebuilding the GSF's dominance in the city, and witnesses a citywide riot sparked after Frank Tenpenny was acquitted of corruption charges in court. To wrap up all loose ends in his life, CJ would finally confront and kill [[Big Smoke]], before pursuing Tenpenny, who would die in a car crash in front of the [[Johnson House]]. In front of the dead and broken man, CJ prepared to shoot Tenpenny's corpse with his [[Desert Eagle]], but Sweet stops him. CJ wished to be sure that Tenpenny was dead, but Sweet decided it was safer not to leave evidence. He then leaves Tenpenny with these words: "See you around... officer."