Lance Vance

Lance Vance (? - 1986) is a cocaine dealer who soon becomes the partner-in-crime of protagonist Tommy Vercetti in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Lance worked in the cocaine trade with his brother, Victor (the protagonist of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories). Lance piloted the helicopter and Victor conducted the deals themselves. In GTA Vice City Stories, the two make up the main members of the Vance Crime Family, with Victor as the boss.

GTA Vice City


In GTA Vice City's opening cutscene, Lance flies Victor (unnamed) to a cocaine deal with Sonny Forelli's men (Ken Rosenberg, Tommy Vercetti, Harry and Lee). But before the goods could change hands, Victor, Harry and Lee are shot down in an ambush. Lance, still in the helicopter, flies away unscathed, while Vercetti jumps into the car with Rosenberg and narrowly escapes.

Lance meets Vercetti face-to-face shortly after Tommy murders a minor gangster/cook named Leo Teal. Each agrees to help the other get revenge on whoever wrecked the cocaine deal. Lance, however, comes to resent Tommy's attitude and greater share of their money, and eventually betrays Tommy to Sonny in the last mission of the game. Tommy kills Lance during this mission.

Lance on the surface appears cool and collected, but he is very impulsive, and his quest for vengeance against Ricardo Diaz lands Tommy in a great deal of trouble. He's also very sensitive about his name, and will protest every time somebody makes fun of it. Ricardo Diaz calls Lance "Quentin", Lance probably took this name, so Diaz didn't give a hard time as everyone else does. After Tommy Vercetti asks Lance about it, he says that he always liked the name. Lance is also known in the underworld for the infamous "Lance Vance Dance", and has been seen owning and driving a distinctive white Infernus.

GTA Vice City Stories


In Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, set 2 years before events in GTA Vice City, Lance Vance is first mentioned by messages via pager to Victor by Aunt Enid. He is also been mentioned by Victor in the opening cutscene, saying that Pete is sick with asthma, and that Lance is sick in another way (suggesting his cocaine addiction or possibly just how Lance acts). Lance arrives from his home (which is not stated) to share Victor's rise to power. Victor says no, knowing Lance's penchant for falling into trouble, but he eventually agrees to work with him. Lance makes contact with drug dealer Bryan Forbes, who is really an undercover cop from the Vice City Police Department. After finding this out, Lance decides not to kill Forbes, hoping that holding him captive would force him to divulge the locations of numerous drug deals around the city (Victor eventually kills Forbes when he tries to escape, after Bryan tricks the brothers three times, even leading them to a white supremists homosexual bar called The White Stallionz).

Lance then suggests an attack on a drug deal with Jerry Martinez, the deal that Forbes was also talking about. Victor and Lance kill the dealers and steal two trucks worth of drugs, managing to escape to the other side of Vice City alive while Martinez uses a Hunter attack helicopter in an attempt to destroy them. Afterwards Victor calls Jerry and rubs the failed deal in his face saying that it hurts to be betrayed, however Martinez warns Victor that they messed up a Mendez Brothers deal and that the Mendez' will kill all involved, including Jerry himself. Lance promises Victor to deal with the problem and actually manages to form an alliance with the Mendez Brothers. Lance's cocaine addiction becomes been known when he lies about a shipment of cocaine being stolen by a biker gang. In the mission "Light My Pyre" Lance says Louise Cassidy-Williams is a drug addict and explains he only does it for fun, stating there's a difference. When Victor learns that Armando Mendez have kidnapped Louise from Mary-Jo, Lance shows no feelings for her, saying that she's better off dead. Victor forces Lance to come as help, Mendez' men appear and tell Victor and Lance to leave Vice City and Louise will be left alone. Lance only goes after Mendez when his henchmen destroy his car with a rocket launcher, after that Lance rushes to Armando and Diego's mansion to kill them, ignoring thugs shooting at him in cars; he even attacks Armando fully, even with a large amount of bodyguards blocking his way. After Louise dies, he tells Victor that she wasn't right for him and that family is what matters most (implying himself). At the end of the game, Lance arrives at the Mendez penthouse to back up Victor, but he arrives so late that the shootout is already over.

In GTA Vice City, the player will learn in the middle of the storyline that Victor frequently treated him like a little kid and not helping the fact that Lance has a cocaine addiction and manages to always bring the Vance brothers into trouble wherever they go, a matter that is explored in the earlier-set GTA Vice City Stories, in the mission "Jive Drive", where Lance and Victor both make a statement about this matter.

Trivia

 * In a PC World article, Lance was voted as #17 of the top 47 "most diabolical videogame villains of all time."
 * Lance Vance owns a white Infernus.
 * There is an age discrepancy between Victor and Lance Vance on who is older. In GTA Vice City, it is been stated that Lance is the older, being 32 years old as of 1986. However, in GTA Vice City Stories, Victor is portrayed as the older one, being 28 as of 1984 and 30 in 1986, and explicitly stating Lance is the younger one. The two brothers are two years apart in age. As a result, Lance would be 26 in GTA Vice City Stories and 28 in GTA Vice City. It is possible GTA Vice City Stories retconned the discrepancy, so that Victor is the older sibling.
 * Lance Vance is voiced by Miami Vice star Philip Michael Thomas in both GTA Vice City and GTA Vice City Stories.
 * He can be seen as an action figure at Zero RC along with Tommy, James Earl Cash, and Piggsy from Manhunt.
 * During the final cutscene of Last Stand in Vice City Stories, he is seen flying a unique Black and Yellow striped Maverick.
 * He reveals in Phnom Penh '86 that he was been made fun of in school because of his name.
 * Lance Vance appears in GTA San Andreas on bilboard in "Los Santos",but he died in 1986.

Mission appearances

 * GTA Vice City
 * Introduction
 * Back Alley Brawl
 * Guardian Angels
 * Phnom Penh '86
 * Supply & Demand
 * Death Row
 * Rub Out
 * Shakedown
 * Bar Brawl
 * Cop Land
 * Hit The Courier
 * Keep Your Friends Close... (Betrayal, Killed)


 * GTA Vice City Stories
 * Jive Drive
 * The Audition (Boss)
 * Money for Nothing
 * Caught as an Act (Boss)
 * Leap and Bound (Boss)
 * The Bum Deal
 * Snitch Hitch (Boss)
 * Blitzkrieg (Boss)
 * Turn On, Tune In, Bug Out (Boss)
 * From Zero to Hero (Boss)
 * Brawn of the Dead (Boss)
 * Taking the Fall (Boss)
 * Blitzkrieg Strikes Again (Boss)
 * Lost and Found (Boss)
 * White Lies (Boss)
 * Where it Hurts Most (Boss)
 * The Mugshot Longshot
 * Burning Bridges
 * Domo Arigato Domestoboto
 * Light My Pyre (Boss)
 * Last Stand

Murders committed

 * Ricardo Diaz (killed by him and Tommy Vercetti to exact revenge)

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