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.
Concept and design
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]
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]
Return to Los Santos
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.
Exile, new alliances and business ventures
During his time in the countryside, Carl befriends a hippieweed 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.
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, 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.
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. 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]
