Mike Toreno


 * For the mission see Mike Toreno (mission)

"It's not all white knights and heroes. We have to make decisions, kid. You know, I try to set bad people on other bad people and sometimes I let good guys die."

- Mike Toreno

Michael "Mike" Toreno is a character who appears as a central character in GTA San Andreas. He is an undercover agent from an unknown "government agency". Toreno disguises himself as a drug supplier for and leader of the Loco Syndicate. He is voiced by James Woods.

Role in GTA San Andreas
Carl Johnson first encounters Toreno when he and Cesar do some snooping with a Ballas drug van apparently headed for Angel Pine. When Carl and Cesar arrive at the rendezvous, they witness a meeting between CJ's former friend Ryder and the leading members of a drug cartel known as the Loco Syndicate, Jizzy B., T-Bone Mendez and Toreno himself.

The first time Carl personally meets Toreno is during Carl's brief tenure as Jizzy's hitman, after Toreno is abducted by a gang of Da Nang Boys who are stealing one of the syndicate's drug vans with the agent inside. CJ and T-Bone locate the vehicle at the Easter Bay International Airport, and free Toreno. The agent is immediately suspicious of CJ and pulls a gun on him, but T-Bone Mendez convinces Toreno not to shoot him. All three then destroy the van, with the cocaine still inside in order to eliminate any evidence.

Following the death of Jizzy B., the Triads plan to ambush the Syndicate's drug purchase at Pier 69. CJ assists them with a sniper rifle, but Toreno, who arrived by helicopter, notices CJ's victims on top of the pier buildings and aborts his landing. CJ later tracks the chopper to another location and shoots it out of the sky; presuming that Toreno is dead.

Toreno, however, was never on the helicopter. After the Loco Syndicate plant is destroyed in San Fierro, Toreno goes incognito and, using a digitally-distorted voice, calls CJ to invite him to a ranch in Tierra Robada. Carl is shocked by Toreno's survival, and curses him as a mere drug dealer but Toreno reveals that he is in fact a government agent, and explains that he was distributing the cocaine to raise funds for overseas dictators and "useful" drug suppliers.

Toreno makes Carl an offer: if Carl works for him, taking down enemy agents and sabotaging rival agencies, no harm will come to Carl's now-incarcerated brother, Sweet. If CJ does enough work for Toreno, Sweet will be granted an early release.

Toreno's assignments, which include commandeering a rival agency's truck and shooting down FBI choppers from a plateau, strike CJ as almost impossible.

Later, Toreno sends Carl to purchase the Verdant Meadows Aircraft Graveyard, a defunct landing strip in Bone County, and use the facility to have CJ trained as a pilot. Afterwards, he immediately assigns Carl with jobs involving what he had learned from training. One time, he tasks CJ to drop off a package halfway across the state using a plane. At one point, a container jet lands without warning at the airstrip, and men in black suits and sunglasses empty out of it. Toreno instructs CJ to sneak onboard, bomb the plane and parachute back onto land safely.

While Toreno initially dismisses CJ as street trash, and uses Sweet as a bargaining chip to ensure CJ's obedience, his attitude changes as CJ proves his ability to get seemingly impossible jobs done, and he begins to display a sense of camaraderie with CJ, despite still thinking nothing of sending him on dangerous errands. After a lengthy hiatus, Toreno eventually returns and gives CJ one last job; he personally drives CJ to Easter Basin, and sends him to infiltrate an aircraft carrier and steal a V/STOL fighter jet. CJ successfully takes the jet, shoots down enemy planes and takes out several boats at the Sherman Reservoir; Carl is then exasperated with the danger he has been exposed to, and his rage only increases when Toreno leaves him to deal with the burden of the stolen jet.

Toreno shows up unannounced yet again in the mission Home Coming, and tells Carl that he has one more mission. CJ snaps and holds a gun to Toreno's face, but Toreno is unperturbed; he tells CJ that the "mission" is simply to pick up Sweet — true to his word, Toreno has secured Sweet's release. CJ leaves to pick up his brother and Toreno is not seen again.

Personality
Philosophically, Toreno is a highly cynical American imperialist. He primarily uses CJ as a courier, saboteur, and assassin. Though he knows of Tenpenny and Pulaski's dirty dealings, Toreno does not use his power to stop them. He tells CJ in one mission, "we have to make decisions, kid. You know, I try to set bad people on other bad people. And sometimes, I let good guys die." Toreno, like Tenpenny, seems to have gravitated toward committing heinous acts in the name of a greater good, but unlike Tenpenny, Toreno is not corrupted by his power. He equates maintenance of the American socioeconomic system with the continued survival of the free world. Unlike many other bosses Carl works for, Toreno appears to be a man of his word, as he fulfilled his promise to Carl and secured his brother's early release from prison.

Mission appearances

 * GTA San Andreas
 * The Introduction
 * Photo Opportunity
 * Jizzy (Photo)
 * Mike Toreno
 * Outrider
 * Pier 69
 * Yay Ka-Boom-Boom (Post-mission phone call)
 * Monster (Voice/Boss)
 * Highjack (Boss)
 * Interdiction (Boss)
 * Verdant Meadows (Boss)
 * Learning to Fly (Voice/Boss)
 * N.O.E. (Boss)
 * Stowaway (Boss)
 * Vertical Bird (Boss)
 * Home Coming (Boss)

Trivia

 * During missions, the number plate on Toreno's Washington reads "OMEGA" (Outside of missions, the Washington encountered at his ranch bears a standard plate). "OMEGA" could be a reference to the movie "True Lies" OMEGA Sector, "The Last Line of Defense", something which Toreno is adamant about.
 * The U.L. Paper Contact in Grand Theft Auto IV could be consider a counterpart to Toreno as both have the same personality, both force the main characters of their stories to do dirty and dangerous jobs for them (Carl Johnson forced by Toreno, while Niko was forced by the U.L. Paper Contact) and they both hint towards working for the CIA (although the U.L. Paper Contact has been confirmed to work for the IAA, the HD Universe equivalent of the CIA). Near the end of the storyline, each character receives what he wanted (Sweet out of prison for CJ and Darko Brevic for Niko), to thank the protagonist for their cooperation.
 * Due to Toreno's involvement in Latin American politics and cocaine trafficking, it is likely that the agency he works for is based on the CIA, which has often been suspected of involvement in drug trafficking, especially during the Nicaraguan Contra Wars. Other indications towards this are Toreno's involvement in the Loco Syndicate, an organisation involved in drug trafficking, and during N.O.E., when Toreno mentions the agencies watching him, he does not mention the CIA.
 * His texture names are torino.txd and torino.dff, hinting that his beta name could have been "Mike Torino", or that it was possibly a spelling mistake.
 * The suspicious van that appeared in Wear Flowers In Your Hair could possibly belong to Toreno's men, because in the mission Toreno's Last Flight, Wu Zi Mu explains to Carl that his men had tracked down a van that Carl had been looking for, and when Carl arrives at the helipad, a van can be seen parked next to it.
 * It could also be the van owned by the Da Nang boys that appears in the mission Mike Toreno.

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