Tommy Vercetti

Background

Tommy Vercetti is the protagonist of GTA Vice City. Born in 1951, he grew up in Liberty City and rose through the Forelli Crime Family as a dependable enforcer for Sonny Forelli. In 1971 Sonny sent him to kill a man in the Harwood district, but the job turned into an ambush: Tommy was left facing eleven armed men and killed all of them. The massacre earned him the nickname "the Harwood Butcher" and a fifteen-year prison sentence, which he served without ever giving up the family.

When he walks out of prison in 1986, the Forellis see him as a liability in Liberty City. Sonny ships him south to Vice City to oversee a large cocaine purchase, hoping to open up the booming Florida market for the family.

Events of GTA Vice City

• In the opening mission In The Beginning..., the deal with the Vance brothers is ambushed. Tommy, the lawyer Ken Rosenberg and Lance Vance survive, but the money and the drugs are gone, and Victor Vance is killed. Tommy lies low at the Ocean View Hotel while an angry Sonny demands his money back in An Old Friend.
• Working through Ken, Tommy meets Colonel Juan Cortez at his yacht party (The Party), kills the hitman Leo Teal (Back Alley Brawl), intimidates jurors (Jury Fury) and starts a riot at a delivery company (Riot). He is introduced to the real estate shark Avery Carrington, who hires him for Four Iron, Demolition Man and later Two Bit Hit.
• Cortez's missions (Treacherous Swine, Mall Shootout, Guardian Angels) bring Tommy into contact with Ricardo Diaz. Tommy and Lance go to work for Diaz in The Chase, Phnom Penh '86, The Fastest Boat and Supply and Demand.
• When Lance tries to take revenge on Diaz alone, he is captured; Tommy rescues him in Death Row. Learning that Diaz was behind the ambushed deal, Tommy and Lance storm Diaz's Starfish Island mansion in Rub Out and kill him. Tommy takes over the mansion, which becomes the Vercetti Estate.
• Now running his own organization, Tommy launches protection rackets (Shakedown, Bar Brawl, Cop Land) and buys businesses across the city: the Malibu Club, Print Works, InterGlobal Films, Sunshine Autos, Kaufman Cabs and others. Along the way he plays both sides of the Cuban-Haitian gang war, rides with Mitch Baker's bikers and handles errands for Love Fist.
• Once the Print Works is producing counterfeit money, Sonny sends collectors to tax Tommy's businesses; Tommy kills them in Cap the Collector. In the finale, Keep Your Friends Close..., Sonny arrives in person, Lance reveals he has betrayed Tommy, and Tommy kills them both, leaving him the undisputed boss of Vice City.

Personality

Tommy is short-tempered, proud and fiercely ambitious. He has little patience for incompetence and often loses his temper with the eccentric people around him, yet he shows a dry sense of humor and real loyalty to those who earn it. He values respect above everything and refuses to be anyone's errand boy for long, which is why he outgrows the Forellis. He also has a softer side: he treats the elderly Earnest Kelly at the Print Works almost like family because his own father ran a printing press.

Relationships

• Sonny Forelli: Tommy's old boss, who resents him and ultimately tries to take everything he has built.
• Lance Vance: a partner in revenge and business who grows jealous of Tommy's success and betrays him.
• Ken Rosenberg: the nervous lawyer who becomes Tommy's legal advisor and stays loyal to the end.
• Ricardo Diaz: the drug lord behind the ambush, killed by Tommy in Rub Out.
• Mercedes Cortez: a flirtatious acquaintance who drifts in and out of Tommy's life and later stars in a film produced by his studio.

Trivia

• Tommy is voiced by Ray Liotta, and his look and attitude draw heavily on 1980s crime films such as Scarface.
• He is the first fully voiced protagonist in the 3D-era Grand Theft Auto series.
• His headquarters, the Vercetti Estate, is the former mansion of Ricardo Diaz, taken over after Rub Out.