This article may need to be rewritten to comply with Wikipedia's quality standards.(January 2024) |
Carl Johnson | |
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Grand Theft Auto character | |
![]() Carl Johnson's official artwork | |
First appearance | Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004) |
Last appearance | The Introduction (2004) |
Created by | Rockstar North |
Voiced by | Young Maylay |
Motion capture | Young Maylay |
In-universe information | |
Nickname | CJ |
Occupation |
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Affiliation | Grove Street Families |
Family |
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Origin | Los Santos, San Andreas |
Nationality | American |
Carl "CJ" Johnson is a fictional character and the playable protagonist of the 2004 video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas , the fifth main installment in Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto series. He is voiced by Young Maylay, who also served as the likeness for the character.
In the game's storyline, Carl is depicted as the second-in-command of the Grove Street Families, a fictional street gang based in his home city of Los Santos, San Andreas (a fictional parody of Los Angeles, California). The gang is led by his older brother, "Sweet" Johnson, with whom Carl became estranged after the death of their younger brother, Brian, in a gang-related attack prior to the events of the game. Feeling his life in Los Santos is unpromising, Carl eventually decides to move to Liberty City in 1987, only to return home five years later after his mother, Beverly, is similarly killed. While seeking to make amends with friends and family for abandoning them, Carl returns to his previous gangster lifestyle as he embarks on an eventful journey across the entire state of San Andreas, which sees him making new allies and clashing with several powerful criminal organisations and corrupt authorities. Although initially portrayed as somewhat naïve, clumsy, and selfish, Carl develops over the course of San Andreas' storyline, both on a professional level, becoming a successful criminal and businessman, and on an emotional level, as he learns to appreciate his roots and those around him.
Carl received critical acclaim, with praise going to his complexity, lack of stereotype and his sense of conscience, and is regarded as one of the greatest video game characters of all time.
CJ has over 7,700 lines of dialogue in San Andreas: more than 3,500 in cutscenes, and over 4,200 in the open world. [1] Executive producer Sam Houser sought an unknown actor for CJ as he found Ray Liotta's performance as Tommy Vercetti in Vice City "conflicting"; he opted to cast celebrities in secondary roles, such as Jackson as Tenpenny, and felt Young Maylay's obscurity in the industry made CJ feel "very, very human". [2] Rockstar asked Young Maylay to audition after overhearing him speak with co-writer DJ Pooh; he was cast in the role—his first acting performance—a few weeks after auditioning. [3] : 41 He felt the developers gave him freedom to insert his own personality into CJ. [4]
The team aimed for CJ to be "the most human" character they had developed, ensuring he had "the most intense story around him" to allow players to identify. [5] : 54 DJ Pooh compared CJ to Tupac Shakur in that he is fiercely dedicated to his family but becomes "cold-blooded" when necessary. [6] : 49 CJ's physical appearance is modeled after Young Maylay. [4] He said he was influenced by his own life when portraying the character: "I put Maylay on CJ. I make him as much me as I can, without too much changing of the script". [3] : 41
San Andreas introduced role-playing elements to customise CJ's accessories, clothing, hairstyles, and tattoos. [7] [8] Balancing food and physical activity impacts CJ's appearance and physical attributes; eating and exercising maintains health. [9] The team felt that the ability to adjust CJ's weight helped the player to feel as though their actions could have consequences in the game. [10] Dan Houser felt CJ's customisability allowed players to better connect with the characters. [11] : 50 The game's focus on several communities was prompted by the variety of the West Coast in the 1990s. [10]
![]() | This section's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed.(January 2024) |
Carl was born to Beverly Johnson and an unnamed father, in his family home, located on Grove Street in the Ganton district of Los Santos. Growing up, he got along well with his mother and siblings Sean (nicknamed "Sweet"), Kendl, and Brian, though not with his father, whom he barely remembers; as he states at one point, "[He] never really had a father." [12] At a young age, Carl, Sweet, and Brian befriended Melvin "Big Smoke" Harris and Lance "Ryder" Wilson, who lived on the same street, and all five got involved in small-time criminal activities. After Sweet joined the Grove Street Families, one of the oldest and most powerful street gangs in Los Santos, he eventually became its leader and inducted Carl, Brian, Big Smoke, and Ryder into the gang.
By 1987, with the drug trade business expanding, most gangs in Los Santos began selling drugs in an effort to increase their power. However, Sweet's principles against drug-use prevented him from doing the same, causing the Families to slowly lose most of their influence and territories to their rivals. Around the same time, Brian was killed under unknown circumstances, most likely an attack by a rival gang, which Carl is implied to have witnessed, but did nothing to try and save his brother. This soured his relationships with his friends and family, especially with Sweet, who blamed him for the tragedy. After deciding that his life in Los Santos was unpromising, Carl cut his ties with everyone and moved to Liberty City, where he resided for five years and found work in stealing cars for Joey Leone. [12]
The game's main storyline begins with Carl flying back to Los Santos following the death of his mother in a drive-by shooting in 1992. [13] Upon his arrival, Carl is confronted by Los Santos Police Department (LSPD) Officers Frank Tenpenny, Edward "Eddie" Pulaski, and Jimmy Hernandez, three highly corrupt members of the city's community policing unit, Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums (CRASH) Tenpenny and his associates warn Carl early on that they intend to frame him for the murder of police officer Ralph Pendlebury, whom CRASH had killed to prevent him from exposing their illegal activities. They also force Carl to do work for them in exchange for his and his family's safety.
After reuniting with Sweet, Kendl, Big Smoke, and Ryder, Carl learns that the Families have lost almost all of their territories to their main rivals, the Ballas, during his absence, and agrees to stay in Los Santos and help solve the gang's problems. While doing so, he befriends Kendl's boyfriend and Varrios Los Aztecas leader Cesar Vialpando, despite Sweet's initial objections, and helps his friend Jeffrey "OG Loc" Cross jumpstart his career as a rapper despite his lack of talent.
The Families' resurgence is short-lived, as Carl discovers that Big Smoke and Ryder have betrayed the gang by forming alliances with CRASH and the Ballas, and planned the attack that killed his mother, which was actually meant for Sweet, in an effort to eliminate the Families. While Carl uncovers this, Sweet is ambushed by a group of Ballas and wounded. Carl arrives to rescue him, but both brothers end up arrested by the police. While Sweet goes to prison awaiting trial, Carl is kidnapped by CRASH, who take him to the countryside near Los Santos so that he can continue working for them. Tenpenny threatens to have Sweet killed if Carl attempts to return to Los Santos or intervene in CRASH's dealings with Big Smoke, Ryder, and the Ballas, who have effectively taken over the city and flooded it with drugs.
During his time in the countryside, Carl befriends a hippie weed farmer known as "The Truth", and performs several robberies alongside Cesar's aggressively psychotic cousin Catalina, with whom he enters a short-lived relationship. He also engages in a few illegal street races hosted by blind Triad leader Wu Zi Mu alias "Woozie", in which he wins a defunct garage from Catalina's new boyfriend. Carl and his associates later travel to San Fierro, where they transform the garage into a vehicle chop shop with the help of several new allies, and purchase a car dealership and an RC shop. Carl later works for the local Triads, strengthening his ties with Woozie in the process, and infiltrates and destroys San Andreas' largest drug cartel, the Loco Syndicate, who supplied the Ballas with crack cocaine. In the process, he also exacts revenge on Ryder for his betrayal, killing him during a meeting with the syndicate's leaders.
After eliminating the Loco Syndicate, Carl is contacted by its former leader, Mike Toreno, who reveals himself to be an undercover government agent, and enlists his help with several operations in exchange for Sweet's early release from prison. While working for Toreno, Carl purchases an abandoned airstrip in the desert, acquires a pilot's license, and steals a $60 million jetpack from a military base. He later travels to Las Venturas to help Woozie open a casino by robbing the rival Mafia-run casino, Caligula's Palace, after earning the mob's trust by working for Don Salvatore Leone, the father of Carl's former employer, Joey. In the process, he befriends former Caligula's manager Ken Rosenberg, and helps him and his associates escape from Salvatore's clutches. During his stay in Las Venturas, Carl also rescues famous former rapper Madd Dogg, whose career he inadvertently ruined while helping OG Loc, from a suicide attempt, and continues to work for CRASH, until they betray and try to kill him. Carl is saved by Officer Hernandez, who secretly betrayed his partners by reporting them to the Internal Affairs, and kills Pulaski after the latter murders Hernandez. Carl is later called by Sweet, who has been sentenced to life in prison, effectively removing Tenpenny's bargaining chip.
As Carl and his associates make plans to return to Los Santos, Madd Dogg asks Carl to become his manager and help him rebuild his career. Carl regains ownership of Madd Dogg's mansion in Los Santos, which the latter had sold to the Vagos gang for drugs, and restarts his career with the help of Rosenberg and his friends.
Shortly after his return to Los Santos, Carl is contacted by Toreno for one final job. Upon completion, the latter honors their agreement and has Sweet released from prison. Although delighted to have his brother back, Sweet is not impressed with Carl's business ventures and chastises him for forgetting about their gang, before talking him into helping to rebuild the Families' strength once again.
During this time, Tenpenny is tried for several charges, but is acquitted in his trial, causing all gang-occupied districts of Los Santos to riot. In the midst of the chaos, Carl reclaims the Families' lost turf from their rivals, and tracks down Big Smoke to his crack palace penthouse, where he kills him for his betrayal. Tenpenny then arrives to claim his share of Smoke's money and kill Carl, but the latter survives and pursues Tenpenny, who is driving a fire truck, with Sweet's help. The brothers' pursuit eventually causes Tenpenny to crash the fire truck outside Carl's family home, whereupon he dies from his injuries. With Tenpenny dead, the riots come to an abrupt end and all loose ends in Carl's life are resolved.
At the conclusion of the game, Carl and his allies are seen discussing what their future holds in the former's home, when Madd Dogg visits them to announce that he has won a gold record for his new album. As everyone celebrates, Carl leaves the house to check things out around the neighborhood.
The character of Carl Johnson received critical acclaim after the release of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and has been included in many lists of the best characters in video games. Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine 's John Davison considered CJ "possibly one of the most well-developed and believable videogame characters ever made" due to his layered personality and realistic behaviour; [14] 1Up.com's Parish concurred but felt CJ's kind nature made his in-game actions less believable, a problem that may have been circumvented through a branching narrative. [15] IGN 's Jesse SChedeen felt, of all series protagonists, "few are as compelling or flat out badass" as CJ, praising the customisation. [16] CraveOnline 's Paul Tamburro wrote that "it was refreshing to take control of a character who was considerate about when and when not to commit wanton mass-slaughtering", [17] and Matthew Cooper of Sabotage Times said CJ "was the first to appear with a conscience, the first that didn't seem to enjoy killing copious numbers of people". [18]
GameDaily listed CJ among their list of the best black characters in video games, refusing the idea that he reinforces negative stereotypes since he is "more ghetto-born James Bond than straight-up gangsta". [19] Similarly, Larry Hester of Complex Gaming named CJ the "gangbanger with a good heart." [20] In 2012, GamesRadar wrote "few [Grand Theft Auto] heroes have been as charismatic as him, and few likely will in the future". [21] In 2008, The Age called CJ "the most humble" of Grand Theft Auto anti-heroes and "one of the first strong African-American lead characters in any major videogame". [22] Game Informer 's Matt Helgeson felt "he could have easily been another gangster stereotype, but by the end of San Andreas we see CJ as a flawed, but ultimately good man who did the best he could in the worst of circumstances." [23] In 2011, readers of Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition voted Carl "CJ" Johnson as the 22nd top video game character of all time. [24]
CJ won Hero of 2005 at the Golden Joystick Awards. [25] At G-Phoria, CJ nominated for Favorite Character and Young Maylay for Best Voice Performance – Male. [26]
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is a 2002 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the fourth main game in the Grand Theft Auto series, following 2001's Grand Theft Auto III, and the sixth entry overall. Set in 1986 within the fictional Vice City, the single-player story follows mobster Tommy Vercetti's rise to power after being released from prison and becoming caught up in an ambushed drug deal. While seeking out those responsible, Tommy gradually builds a criminal empire by seizing power from other criminal organisations in the city.
Thomas "Tommy" Vercetti is a fictional character and the playable protagonist of the 2002 video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, the fourth main installment in Rockstar Games's Grand Theft Auto series. The first protagonist in the series who can speak, Tommy was voiced by Ray Liotta.
Grand Theft Auto III is a 2001 action-adventure game developed by DMA Design and published by Rockstar Games. It is the third main entry in the Grand Theft Auto series, following 1999's Grand Theft Auto 2, and the fifth instalment overall. Set within the fictional Liberty City, the story follows Claude, a silent protagonist who, after being betrayed and left for dead by his girlfriend during a robbery, embarks on a quest for revenge that leads him to become entangled in a world of crime, drugs, gang warfare, and corruption. The game is played from a third-person perspective and its world is navigated on foot or by vehicle. Its open world design lets players freely roam Liberty City, consisting of three main areas.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is a 2004 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the seventh title in the Grand Theft Auto series, following 2002's Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Set within the fictional state of San Andreas, the game follows Carl "CJ" Johnson, who returns home after his mother's murder and finds his old street gang has lost much of their territory. Over the course of the game, he attempts to rebuild the gang, clashes with corrupt authorities and powerful criminals, and gradually unravels the truth behind his mother's murder.
The Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums (CRASH) was a specialized gang intelligence unit of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) tasked with combating gang-related crime between 1979 and 2000. The unit was established in the South Central district of Los Angeles, California, United States, to combat rising gang violence during the period. Each of the LAPD's 18 divisions had a CRASH unit assigned to it, whose primary goal was to suppress gang-related crimes in the city, which came about primarily from the increase in illegal drug trade.
Christopher Bellard, also known by his stage name Young Maylay, is an American rapper, record producer and actor based in Los Angeles. He is best known for his portrayal of Carl "CJ" Johnson, the main character of the 2004 video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
Grand Theft Auto (GTA) is an action-adventure video game series created by David Jones and Mike Dailly. Later titles were developed under the oversight of brothers Dan and Sam Houser, Leslie Benzies and Aaron Garbut. It is primarily developed by British development house Rockstar North, and published by its American parent company, Rockstar Games. The name of the series is a term for motor vehicle theft in the United States.
Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories is a 2005 action-adventure game developed in a collaboration between Rockstar Leeds and Rockstar North, and published by Rockstar Games. The ninth installment in the Grand Theft Auto series, it was initially released as a PlayStation Portable exclusive in October 2005. A port for the PlayStation 2 was later released in June 2006. At the time of release, the recommended retail price of the PS2 port was around half the price of the PSP version, because the PS2 version does not feature the custom soundtrack ripping capability of the PSP version. Ports for iOS, Android and Fire OS devices were also released in December 2015, February 2016, and March 2016, respectively.
"Hot Coffee" is the unofficial name for a minigame in the 2004 action-adventure video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas by Rockstar Games. While it was not playable in the official game release, the modding community discovered hidden code that, when enabled, allows protagonist Carl "CJ" Johnson to have animated sexual intercourse with his in-game girlfriend.
Grand Theft Auto IV is a 2008 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the sixth main entry in the Grand Theft Auto series, following 2004's Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and the eleventh entry overall. Set in the fictional Liberty City, based on New York City, the single-player story follows Eastern European war veteran Niko Bellic and his attempts to escape his past while under pressure from high-profile criminals. The open world design lets players freely roam Liberty City, consisting of three main islands, and the neighbouring state of Alderney, which is based on New Jersey.
"I Don't Give a Fuck" is a protest song by American rapper 2Pac and the fourth track of his debut studio album 2Pacalypse Now (1991). The song, which features rapper Pogo, deals overtly with police brutality and racism. In the song, he narrates how the black community in the United States face harassment by racists, including police.
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories is a 2006 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar Leeds and Rockstar North, and published by Rockstar Games. The tenth entry in the Grand Theft Auto series, the game was initially released as a PlayStation Portable exclusive in October 2006. A PlayStation 2 port was released in March 2007. Set within the fictional Vice City in 1984, the game is a prequel to 2002's Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and follows the exploits of ex-soldier Victor "Vic" Vance, a minor character originally featured in said game. The story centres around Vic's attempts to build up a criminal empire alongside his brother Lance. With the initial intention of raising money for his sick brother Pete's medication, Vic comes into conflict with rival gangs, drug lords and other enemies.
Trevor Philips is a character and one of the three playable protagonists, alongside Michael de Santa and Franklin Clinton, of Grand Theft Auto V, the seventh main title in the Grand Theft Auto series developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. He also appears in the game's multiplayer component, Grand Theft Auto Online. A career criminal and former bank robber, Trevor leads his own organisation, Trevor Philips Enterprises, and comes into conflict with various rival gangs and criminal syndicates as he attempts to secure control of the drugs and weapons trade in the fictional Blaine County, San Andreas. He is portrayed by Canadian actor Steven Ogg, who provided the voice and motion capture for the character.
Grand Theft Auto V is a 2013 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the seventh main entry in the Grand Theft Auto series, following 2008's Grand Theft Auto IV, and the fifteenth instalment overall. Set within the fictional state of San Andreas, based on Southern California, the single-player story follows three protagonists—retired bank robber Michael De Santa, street gangster Franklin Clinton, and drug dealer and gunrunner Trevor Philips, and their attempts to commit heists while under pressure from a corrupt government agency and powerful criminals. Players freely roam San Andreas's open world countryside and fictional city of Los Santos, based on Los Angeles.
A team of approximately 1,000 people developed Grand Theft Auto V over several years. Rockstar Games released the action-adventure game in September 2013 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, in November 2014 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, in April 2015 for Windows, and in March 2022 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. The first main Grand Theft Auto series entry since Grand Theft Auto IV, its development was led by Rockstar North's core 360-person team, who collaborated with several other international Rockstar studios. The team considered the game a spiritual successor to many of their previous projects like Red Dead Redemption and Max Payne 3. After its unexpected announcement in 2011, the game was fervently promoted with press showings, cinematic trailers, viral marketing strategies and special editions. Its release date, though subject to several delays, was widely anticipated.
Grand Theft Auto Online is an online multiplayer action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It was released on 1 October 2013 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, 18 November 2014 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, 14 April 2015 for Windows, and 15 March 2022 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. The game is the online component of Grand Theft Auto V. Set within the fictional state of San Andreas, Grand Theft Auto Online allows up to 30 players to explore its open world environment and engage in cooperative or competitive game modes.
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