Tommy Vercetti

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Tommy Vercetti is the protagonist and playable character of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. He was voiced by Ray Liotta.

Background
Tommy Vercetti's father worked all his life in a printing shop, and years later Tommy had fond childhood memories of helping his father clean the rollers. He wanted to follow his father in the family business, but he lived a different life, instead becaming a criminal in the employment of the Forelli Family.

Tommy went to prison in Liberty City in 1971 for 11 counts of homicide in the district of Harwood, earning him the nickname "The Harwood Butcher." However, Sonny Forelli, a mob boss, called in favors and pulled strings, so Tommy was released 15 years later. That year Sonny sent him to Vice City. There, Vercetti was supposed to be the Forelli's representative in a drug deal and expand their empire "down south"; however, the drug deal was ambushed by hitmen for drug lord Ricardo Diaz. Tommy worked for several people including Juan Garcia Cortez and Ricardo Diaz himself to find out who was behind the ambush, and to get the drugs back. Tommy and Lance Vance finally discover that Diaz was actually behind the ambush; and Lance, hungry to avenge his brother's death, attempts to kill Diaz. He fails, however, and is captured by Diaz's Gang members, taken to the junkyard, and eventually rescued by Tommy. This forces them to raid Diaz's mansion and kill Ricardo. Tommy took over the mansion and started his own gang, the Vercetti Gang. He bought properties and pulled several jobs: bank heists, carjacking, taxi firms and films. The Vercetti gang was known to rule the Vice City underworld to at least 1992, as witnessed in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

Sonny Forelli, angered by the limited attention Tommy had given him, decided to send hitmen to raid Tommy's businesses; however, Tommy killed them all. Sonny was angered and decided to come to Vice City himself to face Tommy one-on-one. It was revealed that the incident which caused Tommy's imprisonment was an ambush orchestrated by Sonny Forelli; and that Lance Vance betrayed Tommy. Eventually a gunfight broke out inside Vercetti Estate, and both Sonny and Lance were killed.

When Ken Rosenberg was released from drug rehabilitation, Tommy severed all connections with Ken; and in 1991 he tried contacting Tommy, but was unsuccessful.

Character Personality
Throughout the game, Tommy Vercetti is shown as being an intelligent, but temperamental man, getting angry with people very easily and he is constantly shown to be very violent (for example, Tommy brutally beating Leo Teal to death for ambushing his drug deal and Tommy roughing up and beating Kent Paul whenever he needs to confirm a rumor).

However, Tommy also shows several signs of being a caring man. One example is his friendship with Earnest Kelly. Earnest is an old man who worked the Vice City Print Works, whom Tommy met after buying the Print Works. Tommy sees Earnest as a father figure; when Tommy was a child, his dad used to work with printing presses, and Tommy still has fond memories of helping his dad clean the rollers of his printing machines.

Despite that, Tommy is shown as a ruthless killer, an example being his work for Mr. Black since Black ordered Tommy to kill people in several contract killings and Tommy just complied because he was being paid to do it. The only occasion in which Tommy shows regret for killing someone was when he killed his former associate Lance Vance after Lance sided with Sonny Forelli to kill Tommy at Vercetti Estate.

Vercetti's Dealings
Other than Tommy's main activity of getting back Sonny's money, Tommy pulled off several other jobs with other people to gain popularity with other gangs and also to boost his assets when he starts buying property. Among those dealings are:

Avery Carrington
In order to start up on real estate, Tommy worked with Avery Carrington to learn more about real estate. Tommy pulled off jobs for Avery which involved helping Avery obtain more property around Vice City, like:
 * Killing Avery's main rival in Vice City real estate.
 * Blowing up a building in construction so Avery can buy out the lot in which it's being built.
 * Starting a gang war between the Cubans and the Haitians to reduce real estate prices.

Umberto Robina
To boost his popularity with other gangs, Tommy worked for the Cuban leader, Umberto Robina. Pulling off jobs to weaken Umberto's rival gang, The Haitians, jobs like:
 * Raiding a Haitian drug storage.
 * Busting a Haitian drug deal with the Sharks.
 * Blowing up the Haitian's drug plant.

Mr. Black
To earn extra cash, Tommy worked as a payphone hitman for Mr. Black, assassinating people like:
 * Carl Pearson, works as a pizza delivery man.
 * Mrs. Dawson
 * Mike Griffin, Franco Carter, Nick Kong, Dick Tanner, Marcus Hammond and Charlie Dilson, European bank robbers
 * A business man bringing evidence against Mr. Black's customer in Escobar International Airport.
 * FBI agents and Shark members sealing a deal that would give the FBI evidence against Mr. Black's employer.

Phil Cassidy
In order to get extreme firepower, Tommy works for Phil Cassidy by:
 * Killing Phil's rival at gun running, a man called Pedro Garcia and stealing his weapon shipment.
 * Saving Phil's life when he accidentally blows off his own arm by standing too close to a homemade Boomshine bomb.

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 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. 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. Another notable difference is that the final gunfight in Montana’s mansion sees Montana eventually killed, whereas Tommy manages to single-handedly take down his captors and survive. The 'alternate outcome' of Tony surviving the final battle at the mansion and then escaping is the basis for the 2007 Scarface: The World is Yours video game.

Tommy also bears some resemblance to Michael Madsen's character 'Mr. Blonde' in the Quentin Tarantino film Reservoir Dogs. This is a possible explanation for the reason that his contact for the payphone assassination missions is called 'Mr. Black' and his reference to Tommy as 'Mr. Teal'. Also, it should be noted that at the beginning of Reservoir Dogs, it is stated that Mr. Blonde (real name Vic Vega) has just been released from prison after showing his loyalty by doing time for the family, much like Tommy.

Trivia

 * An Easter Egg in Grand Theft Auto IV suggests that Tommy Vercetti is dead as of 2008. However, this is not considered canon for the GTA III Era.
 * In GTA San Andreas, a Tommy Vercetti action figure, along with a Lance Vance figure, are seen on shelves in Zero RC Shop.
 * Tommy is the Grand Theft Auto character to kill the most amount of other characters in the game he appears as the protagonist.

Murders commited by Tommy

 * Leo Teal - Killed due to his involvement of the bust of Tommy's cocaine deal
 * Gonzales - Killed for betraying Juan Cortez by giving information to Ricardo Diaz
 * Pierre La Ponce - Killed for attempting to escape his and Cortez's technology exchange when the police show up
 * Carl Pearson - Killed on Mr. Black's orders
 * Mrs. Dawson - Killed on Mr. Black's orders
 * Mike Griffin - Killed on Mr. Black's orders for planning to rob the Vice City Metropolitan Bank
 * Dick Tanner - Killed on Mr. Black's orders for planning to rob the Vice City Metropolitan Bank
 * Franco Carter - Killed on Mr. Black's orders for planning to rob the Vice City Metropolitan Bank
 * Marcus Hammond - Killed on Mr. Black's orders for planning to rob the Vice City Metropolitan Bank
 * Nick Kong - Killed on Mr. Black's orders for planning to rob the Vice City Metropolitan Bank
 * Charlie Dilson - Killed on Mr. Black's orders for planning to rob the Vice City Metropolitan Bank
 * Ricardo Diaz - Killed by Tommy and Lance Vance at his mansion for ambushing their cocaine deal
 * The Psycho - Killed for attempting to kill Love Fist aka rock band
 * Pedro Garcia - Killed on Phil Cassidy's orders
 * Lance Vance - Killed for betraying Tommy
 * Sonny Forelli - Killed for setting Tommy up in 1971 and for sending collectors to Vice City to beat up Earnest Kelly

Optional Deaths

 * Cam Jones - The player can kill Cam during the mission The Job