Carl Johnson

Background

Carl "CJ" Johnson is the protagonist of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. He grew up in the Johnson family house on Grove Street in Ganton, Los Santos, alongside his older brother Sweet, his younger sister Kendl and his younger brother Brian. CJ ran with the Grove Street Families as a teenager, but after Brian was killed in 1987 he left Los Santos for Liberty City, where he spent the next five years. Sweet never fully forgave him, blaming CJ for Brian's death and for walking away from the family and the gang.

Events of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

In 1992 CJ flies home after learning that his mother Beverly has been killed in a drive-by shooting. The moment he lands, officers Frank Tenpenny, Eddie Pulaski and Jimmy Hernandez of C.R.A.S.H. pick him up, threaten to pin the murder of a police officer on him and dump him in Ballas territory.

Back on Grove Street, CJ finds the Families split into rival sets and swamped by crack. Working with Sweet, Big Smoke and Ryder, he tags turf, clears drug dens, buys weapons and slowly rebuilds the gang's reputation. He also meets Cesar Vialpando, leader of the Varrios Los Aztecas and Kendl's boyfriend, and starts running errands for the aspiring rapper OG Loc and for Tenpenny's unit, which keeps him on a short leash.

The turning point comes in The Green Sabre. Cesar tips CJ off to a meeting under a freeway, where CJ watches Big Smoke and Ryder doing business with the Ballas and C.R.A.S.H. Sweet is wounded and arrested, and Tenpenny drives CJ out into the countryside, ordering him to stay out of Los Santos.

Exiled in Red County, CJ pulls robberies with Cesar's volatile cousin Catalina, helps the hippie known as The Truth, and wins a run-down garage in Doherty, San Fierro, after beating Catalina's new partner Claude in a street race. In San Fierro he turns the garage into a business with Kendl, Cesar and The Truth's friends Dwaine and Jethro, helps Zero with his RC shop, and allies with the blind Triad leader Wu Zi Mu. He infiltrates the Loco Syndicate, the drug ring supplying Big Smoke, kills its pimp Jizzy B, then kills T-Bone Mendez and Ryder at Pier 69 and destroys the syndicate's crack factory.

Mike Toreno, who survives the Syndicate's fall and turns out to be a government agent, pulls CJ into a string of covert jobs in the desert, dangling Sweet's release as the reward. CJ buys the abandoned Verdant Meadows airfield, earns his pilot's license and moves on to Las Venturas, where he becomes a partner in Woozie's Four Dragons Casino and plans the heist of the mob-run Caligula's Palace. Along the way he works for Salvatore Leone and Ken Rosenberg, kills Eddie Pulaski in the desert, saves Madd Dogg from a suicide attempt and becomes his manager, and then takes Madd Dogg's mansion back from a drug dealer.

When Sweet is finally released, the brothers return to Grove Street to find it overrun. Tenpenny's charges are dropped, riots break out across Los Santos, and CJ storms Big Smoke's crack palace, killing his old friend. Tenpenny flees in a fire truck, and CJ and Sweet chase him until he crashes off a bridge above Grove Street and dies.

Personality

CJ is calm, loyal and more level-headed than most of the people around him. He is quick to joke and tease, but he rarely loses his temper, and he can talk his way through tense situations. He takes his responsibilities to his family seriously, and much of the story is driven by his attempts to earn Sweet's respect again. At the same time he is adaptable and pragmatic, ready to work with corrupt cops, mobsters and federal agents when it serves his goals, and he shows a real talent for business once he reaches San Fierro and Las Venturas.

Relationships

CJ's most important bond is with Sweet, whose approval he chases for the whole game, and with Kendl, who becomes the brains behind his legitimate ventures. Cesar becomes one of his closest allies and effectively part of the family. Big Smoke and Ryder start as childhood friends and end as traitors CJ kills himself. Tenpenny, Pulaski and Hernandez control him through blackmail, while Wu Zi Mu, The Truth, Zero, Madd Dogg and Ken Rosenberg become friends and business partners. Catalina is a short, explosive romance; CJ can also date several girlfriends, including Denise, Millie, Helena, Katie, Michelle and Barbara.

Trivia

• CJ is voiced by Chris Bellard, known as the rapper Young Maylay.
• He is the first 3D-era protagonist whose physique, hair, clothes and tattoos can be customized, and whose stats such as fat, muscle, stamina and driving skill change with play.
• CJ can swim, climb walls and fences, and learn fighting styles at gyms, all new features for the series at the time.