Tommy Vercetti
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Thomas "Tommy" Vercetti | |
|---|---|
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| Game series | Grand Theft Auto |
| First game | Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002) |
| Voice actor(s) | Ray Liotta[1] |
| Motion capture actor | Jonathan Sale |
Thomas "Tommy" Vercetti is a fictional character, voiced by Ray Liotta, in the Grand Theft Auto video game series. He serves as the protagonist and playable character in the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, where he would emerge as the leader of his own organization.
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[edit] Role
[edit] Prologue
Vercetti's father worked all his life in a printing shop, and years later Tommy still has fond childhood memories of helping his father clean the rollers.[2] Vercetti had wanted to follow his father in the family business, but Tommy had lived a different life and instead became a criminal in the employment of the Forelli Crime Family of the Liberty City Mafia.[2]
At a young age, Vercetti was sent to prison in Liberty City in 1971 for multiple counts of homicide (which Sonny claimed totaled at eleven deaths),[3] earning him the nickname of "The Harwood Butcher", after a district in Liberty City.[3] Because mob boss Sonny Forelli called in favors and pulled strings, Tommy never received the death penalty or a life sentence in prison without parole.
[edit] Dispatch to Vice City
Tommy was released from prison 15 years later, in 1986, and was quickly sent by Sonny Forelli to the Miami-like Vice City to supervise an important drug deal between the Forellis and brothers Victor Vance (protagonist of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories) and Lance Vance; two Forelli henchmen, Harry and Lee, and Ken Rosenberg assist Tommy. At the exchange, masked gunmen kill three of the people involved in the trade (Harry, Lee and Victor), stealing both the drugs and the money Tommy was charged with protecting. Vercetti narrowly escapes with Ken and informs Sonny, who demands that Tommy get back both the "product" and the money. Both Sonny and Tommy wish to kill those responsible for the theft.
Tommy eventually teams up with Lance Vance and they discover that Vice City drug lord Ricardo Diaz was responsible for the botched deal and the death of Lance's brother. Lance, believing he can overpower Diaz, failed to do so, and was tortured by Diaz's men before Tommy rescues him. After Lance recovers in a hospital, both men forcefully invade Diaz's mansion, killing several of Diaz's men and then Diaz himself (assuming control of Diaz's mansion in the process and renaming it as "Vercetti Estate"). With Diaz out of the picture, Tommy goes on to assume control of local businesses and performing jobs for them, earning large sums of cash. However, Lance begins to feel that Tommy is treating him like a child and that his brother Victor used to do the same thing.
By then, Sonny Forelli, who has become impatient waiting for Tommy to return him his money and failing to shake up Tommy, is heading to Vice City personally. Informed by the news, Tommy prepares three million counterfeit dollars to give to Sonny. Unfortunately, Sonny learns of this deceit, as Lance Vance informs Sonny of it (citing business as a reason for betraying Tommy). It is also revealed that the incident which resulted in Tommy's imprisonment was an ambush that was orchestrated by Sonny. Tommy is said to have had his suspicions, but the truth is not unambiguously revealed until this final confrontation between both men.
As a result, a large gunfight erupts in the mansion and Tommy kills both Lance and Sonny. The final cut scene in the game depicts Tommy engaging with Ken Rosenberg, stating that "this could be the beginning of a beautiful business relationship" between him and Ken.
[edit] Epilogue
After the death of Sonny Forelli, it is unknown what happened to Vercetti. It is implied however, that Tommy has become a master entrepreneur and one of the most powerful, rich and influential figures in Vice City, remaining so at least all the way to the setting of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, when Ken Rosenberg attempts to call Tommy from San Andreas in The Introduction prequel machinima, only to be turned away by Tommy's secretary, as Tommy has apparently abandoned him. Pedestrian dialogue in San Andreas in which a woman would state that she used to live in Vice City until the mob took it over.
[edit] Relation to Tony Montana
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 in the city, and a mansion, which also sports an interior similar to that of Montana's mansion), and his short tempered behavior. Tommy was also a hired assassin (before he was jailed) and has killed his own acquaintances and friends (Lance and Sonny), as Tony Montana has. The only notable differences is that Montana consumes his own narcotics to the point of severe addiction, a fatal flaw that Vercetti was not depicted to have and that; in addition, the final stand off of the film sees Montana killed, wheras Tommy escapes alive.
[edit] Trivia
- In DRIV3R, tanned men wearing Hawaiian shirts that are hidden throughout the game are called Timmy Vermicelli, a parody of Tommy Vercetti. Floaties on their arms ridicule the fact that Timmy Vermicelli could not swim (as is Tommy Vercetti in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City).
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Full Grand Theft Auto: Vice City credits. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved on October 1, 2006.
- ^ a b Earnest Kelly: "Mr. Vercetti? Hey. You bought the old print works?" / Tommy Vercetti: "Yeah, my old man used to work on these [printing machines]...I used to spend the evenings with him, cleaning the rollers. I was going to follow him in his trade, but...I lived a different life." (Opening cut scene of "Spilling the Beans", Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.)
- ^ a b Sonny Forelli: "Didn't I say your temper would get you into trouble, huh?...How many was it? Ten? No, eleven men. That's how you get to be called the Harwood Butcher!" / Tommy Vercetti: "You sent me to kill one man, ONE MAN. They knew I was coming Sonny..." (Opening cut scene of "Keep Your Friends Close...", Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.)
