Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas негізгі кейіпкері – Карл "CJ" Джонсон

Protagonist of the 2004 video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

Carl "CJ" Johnson is a fictional character and the playable protagonist of the 2004 video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the fifth main installment in Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto series. He is voiced by Young Maylay, who also served as the likeness for the character. 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.

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.

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. 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.

During his time in the countryside, Carl befriends a hippie weed 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.

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.

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 Magazines 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; CraveOnlines 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", 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". 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". Similarly, Larry Hester of Complex Gaming named CJ the "gangbanger with a good heart." In 2012, GamesRadar wrote "few [Grand Theft Auto] heroes have been as charismatic as him, and few likely will in the future". 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". Game Informers 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." In 2011, readers of Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition voted Carl "CJ" Johnson as the 22nd top video game character of all time. CJ won Hero of 2005 at the Golden Joystick Awards.