Tommy Vercetti

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Thomas "Tommy" Vercetti
Image:GTAVC TommyVercetti.jpg
Game series	Grand Theft Auto
First game	Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002)
Voiced by	Ray Liotta[1]
Motion capture actor(s)	Jonathan Sale[2]

Thomas "Tommy" Vercetti is a fictional character, voiced by Ray Liotta, in the Grand Theft Auto video game series. He serves as the protagonist, anti-hero and playable character in the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, where he would emerge as the leader of his own organization.

Contents 1 Role 1.1 Prologue 1.2 Arrival in Vice City 1.3 Epilogue 1.4 Appearance 2 Relation to Tony Montana 3 Trivia 4 References

[edit] Role

[edit] Prologue

Tommy Vercetti indicates that his father worked all his life in a printing shop and adds that years later, he still has fond childhood memories of helping his father clean the rollers.^[3] Vercetti once had dreams of following in his father's footsteps, but he has chosen a different path, instead becoming a criminal in the employment of the Forelli family of the Liberty City Mafia.^[3]

Vercetti is sent to prison in Liberty City in the 1970s for multiple counts of homicide, apparently totaling eleven (although Tommy is originally sent by the Don of the Forelli family, Sonny Forelli, to assassinate just one man), earning him the nickname "The Harwood Butcher", a reference to the Liberty City neighborhood in which the murders occur. It appears that Tommy successfully assassinates the man he was sent to kill, but is then surrounded and has to fight his way out.^[4] Thanks to the Forelli family's connections, he is spared the death penalty and only serves 15 years for manslaughter.

[edit] Arrival in Vice City

Thanks to Sonny's influence, Tommy is released early from prison in 1986. Sonny quickly realizes that having "The Harwood Butcher" returning to Liberty City and working on behalf of the Forelli family would be harmful to business, so he decides to send Tommy to Vice City to oversee an important drug deal between the Forelli family and the Vance Crime Family. Tommy and the two Forelli soldatos sent along with him, Harry and Lee, meet with Ken Rosenberg, a bent lawyer serving as the Forelli family's contact in Vice City. The deal is supposed to be the beginning of the family's expansion "down south", but during the exchange, concealed masked gunmen kill three of the people involved in the deal (Harry, Lee and Victor Vance), stealing both the drugs and the money Tommy was charged with protecting. Having narrowly escaped with Ken, Tommy immediately informs Sonny of the botched deal. The furious Sonny demands that Tommy get back both the cocaine and the lost money, or lose his life as a consequence. Tommy assures Sonny that a painful death awaits those responsible for the ambush.

During his search for leads within Vice City's underworld, Tommy teams up with Lance Vance, the surviving member of the Vance Crime Family who is seeking vengeance for the death of his brother Victor. Together, they discover that Vice City's most powerful drug lord, Ricardo Diaz, was responsible for the ambushed deal and the death of Lance's brother. Tommy manages to gain Ricardo's trust over time by performing multiple tasks for him, and becomes a trusted member of Diaz's gang. However, Lance, who has already infiltrated the gang, is spurred by the death of his brother into staging a premature attempt on Diaz's life.

Lance fails to kill Diaz and is taken by members of his gang to the Vice City Junkyard to be tortured before Tommy manages to rescue him, blowing his cover as a hired gun working for Diaz's gang in the process. After Lance recovers in a hospital, Tommy assures him it would be best to forcefully invade Diaz's estate in order to take him out before he has them both killed. The two men infiltrate the grounds of the mansion, killing several of Diaz's men while making their way to his office, where they ruthlessly murder him, thus exacting revenge for the ambushed deal. Tommy then assumes control of Diaz's huge mansion and its accompanying grounds, renaming it "Vercetti Estate". With Diaz out of the picture, Tommy becomes Vice City's new crime lord and sets up a huge and very successful criminal empire. Tommy then goes on to assume ownership of multiple businesses and assets within the city, and forms the very powerful Vercetti Gang in the process, becoming one of Vice City's richest, most powerful, and most influential men. However, Lance begins to feel that Tommy is treating him like a child, as his brother Victor used to, and repeatedly complains of his dissatisfaction with his cut of Tommy's vast profits.

Sonny Forelli becomes increasingly infuriated with Tommy's obfuscation of his gradual lordship over Vice City's underworld, constantly phoning him and demanding that he not only locate the lost money and drugs, but also share his burgeoning wealth with the Forelli family. After it becomes clear that Tommy has officially abandoned the Forelli family, Sonny sends collectors to attempt to forcibly tax and take control of Vercetti's many businesses. His plans are immediately thwarted, however, when Tommy kills all of the collectors before they can accomplish their goals, after which Sonny comes down to Vice City personally, accompanied by numerous Forelli family soldiers. Forewarned of Sonny's arrival, Tommy sets aside $20 million of the money he has been counterfeiting at the print works in an attempt to placate him. When Sonny arrives at the Vercetti Estate with his entourage, he makes clear his disappointment that Tommy could not see what was "good for business", and is about to accept the counterfeit cash when Lance openly betrays Tommy and informs Sonny that the real money is in Tommy's office safe (citing "business" as the reason for his betrayal). It is also revealed then that the incident which resulted in Tommy's original imprisonment was an ambush that was orchestrated by Sonny.

As a result of these multiple revelations, a huge gunfight erupts in the mansion, which leads to the massacre of the treacherous Lance and countless members of the Forelli family, including Sonny himself. The final cut scene in the game depicts Tommy engaging with Ken Rosenberg, stating that because the Forelli family has been eliminated, the Vercetti gang can now enjoy its dominance of the Vice City underworld, free of any allegiances. Although Tommy has eradicated all opposition, he feels somewhat guilt-ridden over having to kill Lance, whom he once trusted. He then goes on to say that "this could be the beginning of a beautiful business relationship" between him and Ken.

[edit] Epilogue

Following the death of Don Sonny Forelli in Vice City, the Vercetti Gang no longer holds any ties to the "North" (i.e. the Liberty City Mafia), and Vercetti emerges as the richest and most powerful crime lord in the city. While the longevity of his reign is uncertain and contested, Tommy is indicated to be in control at least up until 1992 (the date and setting of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas), when Ken Rosenberg phones him from a rehab clinic on the outskirts of Las Venturas. Rosenberg tries to get in touch with his old boss in The Introduction prequel machinima film in order to find work, only to be turned away several times by one of Vercetti's associates, as Vercetti has apparently terminated his "employment" due to his cocaine addiction and propensity for liability. As Vercetti no longer takes Rosenberg's calls, their partnership is considered dissolved.

[edit] Appearance

Tommy is portrayed with combed dark brown, almost black hair, and a five o' clock shadow. He first appears wearing a light blue-green Hawaiian shirt with dark blue palm trees printed on it, a gold chain around his neck, a gold watch around his left wrist, and a pair of blue jeans and white sneakers. This outfit becomes known as Tommy's "street" clothes. As the game progresses, Tommy is offered more wardrobe options: he obtains a blue-purple pastel suit with the sleeves rolled up over a black dress shirt and black loafers, as well as the option of a dark pinstripe suit labeled as "Mr. Vercetti".

[edit] Relation to Tony Montana

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This section may contain original research or unverified claims. Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (May 2007)

Tommy Vercetti, in several ways, exhibits characteristics of fictional drug lord Tony Montana from the 1983 film Scarface. This coincides with the heavy themes and appearance of the movie that has been implemented into Vice City. Among these characteristics, his exile from his old home (Liberty City), his rise to power (acquiring property and wealth in the city, and a mansion which also sports an interior similar to that of Montana's mansion), and his rather short-tempered behavior. Tommy is also a hired assassin, has killed his own collaborators (Lance Vance), took over his temporary boss's business (Ricardo Diaz) and rebelled against his former leader (Sonny Forelli), as Tony Montana had. The only notable differences are that Montana consumed his own narcotics to the point of severe addiction, a fatal flaw that Vercetti is not depicted to have, and that the final gunfight in Montana's mansion sees Montana eventually killed, whereas Tommy manages to single-handedly take down his captors and survive. Interestingly, the scenario of Montana single-handedly wiping out the forces raiding his mansion and escaping is the opening mission of the 2006 video game Scarface: The World Is Yours.

[edit] Trivia

• In DRIV3R, tanned men wearing Hawaiian shirts that are hidden throughout the game are called Timmy Vermicelli, a parody of Tommy Vercetti. The men are heavily armed and are hard to kill, but are also seen with floaties on their arms, ridiculing the fact that Tommy Vercetti could not swim in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. A bonus is awarded to the player if all Timmy Vermicellis are killed.
• In the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas' mission "The Meat Business", Carl "CJ" Johnson is forced to kill multiple members of the Sindacco family in a meat-packing facility, in a fashion very similar to Tommy wiping out the Forelli family in his mansion. While in the plant with Ken Rosenberg, Ken excitably exclaims "Hey, just like old times, huh, Tommy?", to which CJ replies "Who the fuck is Tommy?".^[5]

[edit] References

v • d • e Grand Theft Auto
Games	Grand Theft Auto (Mission Packs) · Grand Theft Auto 2 · Grand Theft Auto III · Vice City · San Andreas · Advance · Liberty City Stories · Vice City Stories · Grand Theft Auto IV
Protagonists	Claude · Tommy Vercetti · Carl "CJ" Johnson · Mike · Toni Cipriani · Victor Vance · Niko Bellic
Characters	GTA III · Vice City · San Andreas · GTA Advance · Liberty City Stories · Vice City Stories · GTA IV · Gangs
Locations	Liberty City · Vice City · San Andreas
Soundtracks	GTA2 · GTA III · Vice City · San Andreas · Liberty City Stories · Vice City Stories · GTA IV

ca:Tommy Vercetti

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