Carl Johnson (Grand Theft Auto)

Carl Johnson
Grand Theft Auto character
Carl Johnson's official artwork
First Episode Appearance	Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004)
Final Episode Appearance	The Introduction (2004)
Created by	Rockstar North
Character played by	Young Maylay
Motion capture	Young Maylay
In-universe information
Nickname	CJ
Occupation	Gangster Carjacker (formerly) Chop shop, car dealership, Zero RC, Four Dragons Casino co-owner Madd Dogg's manager
Affiliation	Grove Street Families Varrios Los Aztecas San Fierro Triads Loco Syndicate (formerly) Leone Crime Family (formerly)
Family	Sean "Sweet" Johnson (brother) Kendl Johnson (sister) Brian Johnson (brother, deceased) Beverly Johnson (mother, deceased) Cesar Vialpando (brother-in-law)
Significant other	Catalina (ex-girlfriend)
Origin	Los Santos, San Andreas, United States
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.

CJ is the underboss of the Grove Street Families, a fictional street gang led by his older brother Sean "Sweet" Johnson and based in their home city of Los Santos (a fictional parody of Los Angeles, California). He is depicted as a somewhat naïve, clumsy, and selfish gangster, who seeks to distance himself from the gangbanger life and become a successful businessman. Following the death of his younger brother Brian in 1987 and a falling out with the rest of his family, he leaves for Liberty City to pursue a better life, but ends up returning five years later, after his mother's murder. Discovering that his former gang has lost most of its influence and territories to their rivals because of Sweet's refusal to become involved in the expanding drug dealing business, CJ agrees to stay and help rebuild the Families' strength, while slowly mending his relationships with his remaining relatives and investigating his mother's murder. As the game's story progresses and he completes increasingly difficult tasks, CJ learns to become less selfish, a successful criminal, and care more about his gang, even when he rises in prominence by making criminal contacts and becoming a major shareholder in various businesses across the entire state of San Andreas.

Carl received critical acclaim, with praise going to his flawed character, lack of stereotype and his sense of conscience. Carl is regarded as one of the greatest video game characters of all time.

Character design

Carl's physical appearance is modeled after Los Angeles-based rapper and actor Young Maylay, who also provided the character's voice and motion-capture work. When asked about the character model for Carl, Young Maylay stated that the development team took "very professional" photographs of him to model Carl.

Customisation

Unlike the principal characters of previous Grand Theft Auto games, Carl's appearance is highly customisable, as the player can purchase a wide variety of different haircuts, tattoos, and clothing for him. Certain clothes, tattoos, and hairstyles improve Carl's standing with his fellow gang members as well as his sex appeal to his selective girlfriends.

The game implements a tracking system for various skills and abilities, each of which gradually improves as it is used or practiced and slowly diminishes as it is neglected. As Carl rides bikes, drives cars and motorcycles, and flies aircraft, his skill improves in each. The same is true for the weapons that he uses. The player can choose to exercise, which improves skills such as stamina (which allows Carl to sprint for longer durations) and muscle (which visibly increases Carl's muscle tone and affects his hand-to-hand combat damage). Visiting fast food restaurants and regularly eating their large meals will increase Carl's size over time, eventually leading to him becoming overweight. Carl can lose this weight again by frequently exercising, and is required to maintain a small percentage of body fat to fight off starvation.

Biography

Background

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. As a child, 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." 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 eventually joined the Grove Street Families, with Sweet becoming the gang's leader, Carl his underboss, and Brian, Big Smoke, and Ryder high-ranking lieutenants.

By 1987, with the drug trafficking business expanding, most Los Santos-based gangs began selling drugs in an effort to increase their power. However, Sweet's morality prevented him from doing the same, causing the Familes to slowly lose most of their influence and territories to their rivals. Around the same time, Brian was killed in a gang attack; Carl is implied to have witnessed the attack, but chose not to intervene. This soured the relationship with his family and friends, especially Sweet, who blamed him for the tragedy. Eventually, Carl decided to leave his old life behind and moved to Liberty City, where he began working with Joey Leone in the car theft business.

Return to Los Santos

The game's main storyline begins with Carl's return to Los Santos following the death of his mother in a drive-by shooting in 1992. Upon his arrival, Carl is confronted by LSPD Officers Frank Tenpenny (with whom he has some history), Edward "Eddie" Pulaski, and Jimmy Hernandez, three highly corrupt members of the city's community policing unit, C.R.A.S.H. Tenpenny and his associates warn Carl early on that they intend to frame him for the murder of police officer Ralph Pendlebury, whom C.R.A.S.H. 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 C.R.A.S.H. 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 is sentenced to life in prison, Carl is released on bail by C.R.A.S.H., who take him to the countryside near Los Santos so that he can continue working for them, and threaten to have Sweet killed if he attempts to return to Los Santos and intervine in their dealings with Big Smoke, Ryder, and the Ballas, who have effectively taken over the city and flooded it with drugs.

Exile, new alliances and business ventures

During his time in the countryside, Carl befriends a hippie weed grower known as "The Truth", and performs several robberies alongside Cesar's 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/"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. 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, which acted as the Ballas' main supplier. In the process, he also exacts revenge on Ryder for his betrayal, killing him during a meeting with the syndicate's leaders.

Following the destruction of the Loco Syndicate, Carl is contacted by its former leader, Mike Toreno, revealed to be an undercover government agent, who has him carry out several jobs 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 the Area 69 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. 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 works for C.R.A.S.H., 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 he murders Hernandez.

At the conclusion of these events, Carl and his associates run several successful businesses in both San Fierro and Las Venturas, and are preparing to return to Los Santos. Before they do so, Madd Dogg asks Carl to become his manager and help him rebuild his career, which he does with the help of Rosenberg and his friends.

Tying up loose ends

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 with Sweet's help. The brothers' pursuit eventually causes Tenpenny to crash his car outside Carl's family home, whereupon he dies from his injuries. With Tenpenny dead, the riots cease and all loose ends in Carl's life are resolved.

At the conclusion of the game, Carl and his associates 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 neighbourhood.

Influences and analysis

Young Maylay stated that he was influenced by his own life when portraying Carl. "[The development team] wanted authentic L.A., that's where I'm from and they knew that, so that's what I gave 'em," he added. "I put Maylay on CJ. I make him as much me as I can, without too much changing of the script."

Reception

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. Jesse Schedeen of IGN included CJ in his list of Grand Theft Auto Favorite Badasses, stating, "Of all the protagonists in all the GTA games, few are as compelling or flat out badass as Carl "CJ" Johnson," and also went on to praise the character customisation and available assets. Crave Online's Paul Tamburro placed Carl eighth in his Top 10 Most Memorable GTA Characters, stating that "it was refreshing to take control of a character who was considerate about when and when not to commit wanton mass-slaughtering." Matthew Cooper of Sabotage Times placed the character in his list of the top 10 characters in the Grand Theft Auto series, stating that Carl Johnson "was the first to appear with a conscience, the first that didn't seem to enjoy killing copious numbers of people."

GameDaily listed Carl 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". Similarly, Larry Hester of Complex Gaming placed Carl second on his list of the 10 Best Black Characters in Video Games, naming him the "gangbanger with a good heart." In 2012, GamesRadar placed Carl 77th on their list of the 100 Best Heroes in Video Games, saying that "few [Grand Theft Auto] heroes have been as charismatic as him, and few likely will in the future." UGO Networks have placed Carl as the second character who most deserves his own live-action film.

In 2008, The Age ranked Carl as the 33rd greatest Xbox character of all time, noting him as "the most humble" of Grand Theft Auto anti-heroes, and as "one of the first strong African-American lead characters in any major videogame." Although Carl ultimately did not make the cut, Game Informer staff considered his inclusion in their "30 characters that defined a decade" collection, with Matt Helgeson saying, "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." In 2011, readers of Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition voted Carl "CJ" Johnson as the 22nd top video game character of all time.

References

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