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Tommy Vercetti
Artwork-GTAVC-TommyVercetti
Appearances: Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (mentioned)

Also Known As: Thomas, Mr. Vercetti, Mr. V, The Harwood Butcher
Date of Birth: 1951, Liberty City
Gender: Male
Home: Vice City
Nationality: Italian-American
Main Affiliation: Sonny Forelli and the Forelli Family (Formerly)
Ken Rosenberg
Lance Vance (Formerly)
Ricardo Diaz and Diaz' Gang (Formerly)
Umberto Robina and the Cubans
Auntie Poulet and the Haitians (Formerly)
Mitch Baker and the Bikers
Kent Paul
Love Fist
Candy Suxxx
Steve Scott
Juan Cortez
Mercedes Cortez
Delores
Earnest Kelly
Mr. Black (Formerly)
Phil Cassidy
Hilary King
Cam Jones
Vercetti Gang
Vehicle(s): White Stretch
White Admiral
Player's Choice
Businesses:

Boatyard, Cherry Popper Ice Cream Factory, InterGlobal Films, Malibu Club, Print Works, Sunshine Autos, Pole Position Club

Voiced by: Ray Liotta

"Sonny, you have my personal assurance that I'm gonna get you your money back, and the drugs, and I'm gonna mail you the dicks of those responsible."

---Tommy Vercetti in An Old Friend

Thomas "Tommy" Vercetti (1951-?) is a character in the Grand Theft Auto series, who serves as the protagonist of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and is briefly mentioned in a mission in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. He is also the leader of the Vercetti Gang, based in and around Vice City.

He was voiced by the late Ray Liotta, who has starred in the academy award-winning blockbuster film Goodfellas.

Background

Early Life

Tommy was born in Liberty City in 1951 and is thirty-five years of age in the game (according to GTA Vice City's strategy guide). He is the son of a unnamed father, whom he used to spend the evenings with at the Print Works cleaning the rollers of printing machines. He was going to follow his father in his footsteps, but he ended up living a different life. He joined in as a hitman and a mobster of the Forelli Family sometime around the 1970's or earlier.

1971

Tommy eventually worked as a hitman and a mobster for the Forelli Family and possibly became a made man until 1971. Sonny Forelli set up an ambush for him to kill one man. Instead, eleven men ambush Tommy which leads to him killing all eleven attackers. He was arrested by the Liberty City Police Department and convicted of eleven counts of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to fifteen years in prison and never informed the LCPD of any Forelli Family secrets.

1986

In 1986

Tommy 2

Tommy as he appears in the game (c. 1986)

, Tommy is released from prison after Sonny "pulled some strings." Sonny decides to send Tommy south to Vice City, since he's too well known on the streets of Liberty City. Sonny, wanting to be involved in the lucrative narcotics trade in Vice City, sends Tommy with some money and allows him to establish a drug cartel for the Forelli's. Upon arrival at Escobar International Airport, Tommy, along with Harry and Lee meet up with a lawyer named Ken Rosenberg who talks to them about the deal while driving them in his car to Viceport. After arriving, a helicopter arrives carring Lance Vance and his brother Victor. However, the drug deal between the two families is ambushed by men dressed in black BDUs, leaving Harry, Lee, and Victor dead with Tommy escaping unharmed in Ken's car and Lance in his helicopter.

Tommy gives Sonny a call from a hotel he is staying at. He informs him about the ambushed drug deal. Sonny becomes furious and orders Tommy to take out those that were involved in the ambush. Tommy begins to work for Rosenberg by attending a party for him, causing riots and intimidating jurors. Tommy later meets Juan Cortez, who looks into the ambushed drug deal for Tommy while he preforms various tasks for him, such as stealing missile technology chips, a tank, and killing Gonzalez, whom Cortez heard that he had been talking about the deal.

Cortez believes that Ricardo Diaz was responsible for the ambush, so he has Tommy act as protection for Diaz and the Cubans for a drug deal. The Haitians arrive and attempt to ambush the deal, but are thwarted by Tommy and Lance. Diaz eventually gives Tommy a call about the good work that he did for him so he hires Tommy to work for him. He has Tommy follow a Streetwannabes gangster to the house that he's been stashing 3% of Diaz's money. After finding out, Diaz sends Tommy and Quentin (Lance Vance who joined in under another name) to kill all the gangsters and retrieve the money. Diaz then has Tommy steal the fastest boat in the city and use it to purchase drugs from another boat in Vice Point. Lance Vance attempts to kill Diaz, but is captured and held in the Junkyard. Tommy

Lance and tommy

Tommy and Lance preparing to kill Diaz.

rescues him and the two extract revenge, killing Diaz in his mansion.

The death of Ricardo Diaz brings change to Vice City, allowing Tommy and Lance to step in and continue the protection ring. Tommy looks beyond the protection ring and begins purchasing businesses throughout the city. After purchasing the businesses, Tommy helps establish them in the city by preforming various tasks. Around this time, Tommy begins to work for a number of small time criminals in the city, including Cuban leader Umberto Robina, Haitian leader Auntie Poulet (due to her drugging him) helping both sides attack each other. He also helps Avery Carrington with his real estate business, Phil Cassidy and his gun running business, Mr. Black in killing a number of people, Mitch Baker to retrieve his stolen motorcycle, and Kent Paul and Love Fist to stop a psychopathic fan. Tommy later went back to Cortez to help him flee the city when the French government decided to assult his yacht.

Kyfc 1

Tommy Vercetti preparing to meet with Sonny Forelli in 'Keep Your Friends Close'.

Sonny eventually becomes restless and impatient that he is not getting his money, so he sends some of his men to Vice City and collect the money themselves. Tommy eventually finds them and kills them. Sonny then decides to pay Tommy a visit in person which leads to a massacre, involving the deaths of Sonny and Lance Vance (for betraying Tommy). Following the deaths of Sonny and Lance, Tommy and Ken eventually begin to run the city.

Later life...

After the events of Vice City, Tommy continued to run the criminal underworld of Vice City until at least 1992, although the relationship between him and Ken strained due to Ken's drug addiction. Tommy sends him into rehab at the Fort Carson Medical Center in Fort Carson, San Andreas, later refusing to answer Kens phone calls. After this, nothing else is known about Tommy's later life or fate. Tommy is mentioned on Kent Paul's website in 2002 stating, "see, Tom, I didn't mention your name, nowhere. Maybe you won't get us killed now, okay?" Since the sentence is directed at Tommy himself, this probably indicates that he is still alive in 2002.

Personality

Tommy Vercetti is shown to be intelligent but temperamental, easily angered and quick to resort to violence. He has no hesitation about killing, though most of Tommy's victims are in turn of killing him, or have done something that resulted in being killed. The story line doesn't require Tommy to kill innocent people. Tommy does show a softer side that is seen with his relations with Mercedes Cortez and Earnest Kelly, whom he views as a father figure due to his childhood memories of working with his father at the print shop. He also seems to have sympathy for children, as he considers Maude Hanson a psycho for her attitude towards kids. He also seems to have a distaste of the government and/or the army/police, as he characterizes the events of the Vietnam war "ugly business" when Mitch Baker tells him about how he was "bertrayed by his own country", and consistently makes sarcastic comments about the country's military and police force when cops are after him during free roam.

Inspirations

Scarfance 1

Tommy Vercetti's inspiration came from Tony Montana. In this photo, Tony is being involved in a shootout with Sosa's men.

Tommy shows many same characteristics to Tony Montana from Scarface. The two both end up in exile, arriving in the city wearing Hawaiian style shirts. The two eventually rise to power in Miami/Vice City using great amounts of violence, both build an empire which they then operate from large estate and mansion that they acquire overtime (Tommy took his by force). The two both have short tempers and are prone to violence, both work as contract killers, and both killed their collaborators and took over their ex-bosses' empires. The two do show some differences from each other; one notable difference is that Tommy survives the shootout in the end while Tony ends up being killed by The Skull, one of Sosa's hit man. Also, Tommy never became addicted to his own narcotics like Tony was throughout the last of the film.

The interior of the Vercetti Estate that Tommy acquires from his ex-boss in 1986 is modeled to resemble that of Tony's mansion that he lived in during the film. Although parts show similarities, there are parts and pieces of the mansion that are different or even absent from the game entirely, such as Tony's famed "The World Is Yours" fountain. The outside of Tommy's mansion is also completely different than that of Tony's mansion.

Tommy Vercetti's story is somewhat similar to famous real-life mobster Joseph Iannuzzi. In the 1980's Joseph was sent to Florida to be a representative for his mob boss Tommy Argo. Like the relationship between Tommy and Sonny in game, the relationship between Joseph Iannuzzi and Tommy Argo became strained over a large sum of money. When Joseph was forced to flee Florida with a large sum of Argo's money. As a result, Argo ambushed Joseph in Florida and nearly killed him.

Tommy also shares some characteristics with Vito Corleone from The Godfather. Vito arrives in America after being forced to leave Sicily, he becomes involved with feared mob boss Don Fanucci, and eventually kills him. Vito takes over, and begins to expand his criminal organization into a large empire. Both of them also hire lawyers as relatively high-ranking members of their organization. Both of them are extremely loyal to their friends and associates, but seek vengeance if betrayed. Just like Tommy, Vito took pains to ensure that those loyal to him felt valued and important because of their loyalty, not merely grunts to be used.

Murders Committed

"If I have to kill you, I will!"

---Tommy Vercetti

Optional Murders

Crimes committed by Tommy Vercetti

Tommy Vercetti committed numerous crimes during the events of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City; some of these crimes include:

  1. Killed eleven men in Harwood, Liberty City and was imprisoned for fifteen years
  2. Killed a bunch of Sharks gang members and their leader at their mansion on Prawn Island, with the assistance of Lance Vance
  3. Stole a tank from a military convoy.
  4. Killed Gonzales with a chainsaw outside his penthouse.
  5. Killed a chef in an alleyway.
  6. Smashed 5 store owners windows.
  7. Stole two cop uniforms with Lance Vance and blew up the Tarbrush Café.
  8. Robbed the El Banco Corrupto Grande along side Phil Cassidy, Cam Jones, and Hilary King.
  9. Killed Lance Vance and former boss Sonny Forelli at his mansion while taking control of Vice City.

VCBI Record

The Vice City Bureau of Investigation[1] has a file on Vercetti:

  • Who is this guy? I've got a call into the Parole Board in Liberty. Seems he was in prison up there.

Gallery

Trivia

  • In the beta version of the game, Tommy wore a dark blue Hawaiian shirt.
    Tommy with cult

    A beta version of Tommy. In this picture, he is wearing a darker blue shirt than the one he wears in the final version of the game.

  • Tommy murdered more people than any other GTA III era protagonist, as the probable body count is 26, including optional murders.
  • It's possible that Tommy may have lived in Vice City before the events of 1986, as he mentioned during the mission "Hit the Courier" that his father worked at the Print Works and would spend the evenings with him as a kid cleaning the rollers of the printing machines. However, this isn't fully known.
  • Tommy is the first playable character in a Grand Theft Auto game that the player could play as the leader of a gang.
  • Tommy Vercetti is mentioned once in a mission in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Ken Rosenberg mistakenly call Carl Johnson "Tommy", to which Carl responds, "Who the fuck is Tommy?"
  • In Zero's RC Shop in GTA San Andreas, a model action figure of Tommy can be seen in the store, along with model action figures of Lance Vance, James Earl Cash and Piggsy.
  • Tommy is shown to like the outfit he's wearing, as Ken Rosenberg slightly angered him when he told Vercetti to change into the Soiree Outfit before attending Juan Cortez's party.
  • Most people believe that Tommy was born sometime in the late 1940's. However, if Tommy is 35 years of age in the game, then his birth year would be sometime in the early 1950's.
  • Tommy Vercetti is the only verbal protagonist who doesn't say the word "fuck" in the series.
  • Despite Tommy being both a major character and the playable character in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, the VCBI only has little information on him (see VCBI Record).
  • Tommy calls people "prick" more then any other GTA character.
  • Tommy was the first Grand Theft Auto protagonist to change his outfit more than one time in the storyline. The first protagonist to ever change his outfit was Claude when he changed from the prisoner outfit to his classic outfit one time in the game.

References

  1. http://www.grandtheftwiki.com/Tommy_Vercetti
  2. Vice City Crime Tree
  1. Vice City Crime Tree
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