Tommy Vercetti

Grand Theft Auto series protagonists by Universe
2D Universe
	GTA Protagonists; GTA London Protagonists; Claude Speed / GBC;
3D Universe
	Claude; Tommy Vercetti; Mike; Carl Johnson; Toni Cipriani; Victor Vance;
HD Universe
	Niko Bellic; Johnny Klebitz; Huang Lee; Luis Lopez; Michael De Santa; Franklin Clinton; Trevor Philips; GTA Online Protagonist;

Spoiler Warning: Plot details, ending details, or both are in the text which follows.

“Yeah, my old man used to work on these. I used to spend the evenings with him cleaning the rollers. I was gonna follow him in his trade but... I lived a different life.”

— Tommy Vercetti

Thomas "Tommy" Vercetti is a character in the Grand Theft Auto series who appears as the protagonist of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (set in 1986). He is also mentioned in The Introduction, a prequel short film to Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (set in 1992), and in the game itself during the mission The Meat Business by former friend and lawyer Ken Rosenberg. Tommy was voiced by late movie actor Ray Liotta, making him the first protagonist in the series with a voice actor.

Tommy is a former member of the Forelli Crime Family in Liberty City, who, after being released from prison following a fifteen year sentence, is sent to Vice City to oversee a major drug deal with the Vance Brothers. When that deal is ambushed, resulting in both the drugs and the money being lost, Tommy begins searching for the person behind the attack, working for various prominent figures of Vice City's criminal underworld in return for answers. Over time, Tommy begins building his own criminal empire and eventually finds the man responsible for the ambush, killing him and taking over his business. Now the head of his own gang, the Vercetti Gang, Tommy subsequently attempts to expand it, ultimately eliminating all competition and becoming the undisputed kingpin of Vice City.

Biography

Early Life

Thomas Vercetti was born in Liberty City in 1951. His father worked in a printing shop and as a child, Tommy used to clean the rollers with him. Tommy had planned to follow in his father's footsteps, but, in his own words, "led a different life". Dialogue spoken by Tommy while fighting indicates that he had a bad relationship with his mother.

Early 1970s

Sometime prior to 1971, Tommy joined the Forelli Crime Family, one of the main three Mafia families in Liberty City and the most powerful one at that time. He continued to work with the Forelli Family, making his way up the ranks and presumably becoming a made man by the time he was 20 years old. In 1971, Sonny Forelli, the head of the family, growing apprehensive of Tommy's increasing power, attempted to set up an ambush for him, under the guise of a hit in Harwood. Tommy survived after killing all the men that were sent to assassinate him, but was arrested and convicted of eleven counts of murder. Tommy was sentenced to death for the murders, but since he kept quiet and turned no evidence on the Forelli Family, Sonny used judicial connections to commute the sentence. Tommy remained in prison for fifteen years, refusing to divulge any Forelli Family secrets to the LCPD. He was nicknamed "the Harwood Butcher" by the press.

Events of Grand Theft Auto Vice City - 1986

In 1986, Tommy is released from prison after Sonny "pulls some strings". Fearing that Tommy is "too well known" in Liberty City, and also wanting to expand into the drugs trade in the south, Sonny sends Tommy to Vice City. Tommy flies to Vice City along with Harry and Lee, meeting Ken Rosenberg at the airport, before immediately driving to a drug deal at the docks. The drug deal turns into an ambush, and Harry, Lee, and one of the drug dealers are killed. Only Tommy, Ken, and the other dealer escape the attack.

Tommy informs Sonny of the ambush and is reminded that Sonny is "not a man to be screwed with"; Sonny makes it clear he wants his money and his drugs back. Tommy initially works for Ken, starting riots and intimidating jurors. While working for Ken, Tommy also meets Lance Vance, the other dealer, who seeks revenge for his brother who was killed during the initial drug deal. Tommy also works for Juan Cortez, an intermediary for the drug deal, who begins to look into the ambush for Tommy. Meanwhile, Cortez has Tommy steal missile technology chips and kill Gonzalez, who had talked about the deal.

Cortez, believing that Ricardo Diaz was responsible for the ambush, asks Tommy to act as protection for Diaz in a deal with the Cubans. The Haitians, enemies of the Cubans, ambush the deal but are killed by Tommy and Lance. Diaz, seeing potential in Tommy and Lance, hires them to kill gang members who were stealing his money and steal the fastest boat in the city in order to purchase drugs from a dealer on a boat. Lance eventually attempts to kill Diaz for the death of his brother, but is captured by Diaz's men, though he is later freed by Tommy. The two subsequently go on to take revenge, killing Diaz in his own mansion.

The death of Ricardo Diaz brings change to Vice City, allowing Tommy and Lance to step in and continue the crime ring established by Diaz. Tommy, however, begins to look beyond the protection rackets established by Diaz and purchases a number of businesses around the city, most prominently the Malibu Club, the Cherry Popper Ice Cream Factory (a front for a drug running business), InterGlobal Films and the Print Works. After purchasing each business, Tommy helps establish their influence in the city. During this time, Tommy also begins to work for a number of smaller time criminals in the city, including the Cuban leader Umberto Robina and the Haitian leader Auntie Poulet (due to her drugging him), helping both sides attack the other. He also works for Avery Carrington's real estate business, Phil Cassidy's gun running business, Mr. Black's hitman business, Mitch Baker's biker gang, and Kent Paul's management of Love Fist. Tommy also goes on to help Juan Cortez escape the city when the GIGN assault his yacht for the missile technology.

Sonny, growing restless and impatient, eventually sends some of his men to collect some of his money from Tommy's businesses. Tommy kills the collectors, although not in time to save Earnest Kelly, the owner of the Print Works, from being injured. Tommy decides to give Sonny fake money printed at the Print Works. Tommy meets Sonny in person at his estate to give him the counterfeit cash, but Sonny informs him that Lance has sided with him, betraying Tommy. A gun battle ensues, with Tommy killing both Lance and Sonny, who also confirms Tommy's suspicion that he was set up in Harwood. Following the deaths of Lance and Sonny, Tommy and Ken, with no one left to oppose them, become the most powerful men in Vice City.

Life After 1986

Tommy Vercetti continued to run the criminal underworld of Vice City after 1986; during that time, Tommy's relationship with Ken became increasingly strained due to Ken's cocaine addiction. Tommy eventually got Ken into rehab at the Fort Carson Medical Center in Fort Carson, San Andreas. Although Ken completed rehab and got clean of his addiction by 1992, Tommy refused to speak to him following this and essentially cut all ties.

Tommy is mentioned by Ken in the mission The Meat Business in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, leading Carl Johnson to question, "Who the fuck is Tommy?" Rosenberg also calls Vercetti at the introduction video of the aforementioned game, Tommy's secretary answers and tells Ken that Tommy is not taking calls, this is the moment where Rosenberg discovers that Vercetti was ignoring him.

Tommy is also mentioned on Kent Paul's website in 2002 under the list of social problems of the 1980s, saying, "(see, Tom, I didn't mention your name, nowhere. Maybe you won't get us killed now, okay?)" This could mean that Tommy is still alive and in power during the early 2000s.

VCBI Crime Tree Record

TOMMY VERCETTI

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

TOMMY VERCETTI

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

Personality

Tommy Vercetti is depicted as both intelligent and temperamental. He is easily angered and quick to resort to violence. He does not hesitate to kill, though many of his victims are trying to kill Tommy, or have done something that guaranteed their deaths. However, Tommy often shows care and sensitivity towards characters like Mercedes Cortez and especially Earnest Kelly, viewing Kelly as a father figure due to his own father working in a print works, and showing anger and concern when Kelly is injured by Sonny's hitmen. 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.

Tommy prefers to perform his own work rather than delegate tasks to others. Even after he has his own gang and other subordinates working for him, he usually puts his plans in motion personally. He also personally gets involved if things aren't going as well as he'd like - for example, in the opening cutscene of Bar Brawl he is irritated by Lance's lazy attitude towards the bar refusing to pay protection money and immediately goes out to settle things himself.

Despite his hot temper, Tommy tends to be loyal and trusting, especially toward those whom he feels helped him to achieve his goals. He went back to work for Sonny Forelli after being released from prison even though he strongly suspected that Sonny set him up. Another example is Ken Rosenberg, who Tommy chose to let live following his drug problems because of his help with setting up Vercetti's empire. However, the best example is Lance Vance, as although Lance's competence was declining and his temperament was becoming negative, Tommy still viewed and attempted to treat Lance as an equal partner, even letting him in on the counterfeiting setup at the Vice City Print Works. When busting Lance's chops once over the phone, Tommy states he's doing so because Lance screwed up: if Tommy ever messed up, he considered it within Lance's full rights to take him to task on it. Tommy was shocked at Lance's betrayal, automatically assuming that Lance was selling out their entire organization rather than himself personally. He notes over the phone that he really didn't think Lance was like that, leading Earnest Kelly to quip, "Tommy, for a raging lunatic, you're pretty naïve".

Appearance

Tommy, an Italian-American, is portrayed with a tall, swarthy, handsome appearance, combed dark brown, almost black hair, brown eyes, and a five o'clock shadow. He first appears wearing a light blue-green Hawaiian shirt with dark blue palm trees printed on it, a pearl necklace (silver chain necklace in The Definitive Edition), a gold watch around his left wrist, stonewashed blue jeans and white sneakers. He has other outfits also, and his appearance can be completely changed through the Player Skin Setup, a new feature of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, allowing players to create custom textures for the default player model and apply them in the game.

Inspiration

Tommy Vercetti shows many characteristics in common with Tony Montana, a drug lord from the film Scarface. The two both end up in exile, both arrive in the city wearing Hawaiian shirts, both rise to power in Miami using great amounts of violence, both build an empire from a large estate and mansion, both have short tempers and are prone to violence, both work as contract killers, and both killed their collaborators and took their ex-bosses' empires. The interior of the Vercetti Estate is even modeled after Montana's mansion, save for the lack of an indoor pool. There are, however, key differences, most notably that Tommy did not become addicted to his own narcotics (he even politely turns down alcohol offered during business meetings) and that Tommy survived the shootout in his mansion, as opposed to Montana who was killed, and Tony Montana is of Cuban descent, whereas Tommy Vercetti is of Italian descent. (However, Al Pacino, who played the role of Montana in Scarface, is of Italian descent)

Tommy Vercetti also bears some resemblance to 'Mr. Blonde' from the film Reservoir Dogs, played by Michael Madsen who also voiced Toni Cipriani in Grand Theft Auto III, protagonist of Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories. The film sees 'Mr. Blonde' released from prison after loyally doing time for his crime family, as Tommy did after the "Harwood Incident". Tommy later performs contract killings for a 'Mr. Black', whilst he is referred to as 'Mr. Teal' (a reference to the then deceased Leo Teal). He also has a small resemblance to his own voice actor Ray Liotta.

Tommy Vercetti's story is similar to famous real-life mobster Joseph Iannuzzi. In the 1980s, 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 by Tommy Vercetti

Victim	Mission Killed	Reason
Leo Teal	Back Alley Brawl	Murdered due to his possible links with the ambushed drug deal between the Forelli Family and the Vance Crime Family.
Unnamed Property Developer	Four Iron	Murdered under Avery Carrington's orders for refusing to sell him some land.
Gonzalez	Treacherous Swine	Murdered under Juan Cortez's orders for betraying his organization and leaking information about the drug deal between the Forelli Family and the Vance Crime Family.
Pierre La Ponce	Mall Shootout	Murdered in order to retrieve his stolen missile guidance chips for Juan Cortez.
Carl Pearson	Road Kill	Murdered under orders from Mr. Black.
Mrs. Dawson	Waste the Wife	Murdered under orders from Mr. Black.
Mike Griffin	Autocide	Murdered under orders from Mr. Black to prevent his and his accomplices' planned bank robbery.
Dick Tanner	Autocide	Murdered under orders from Mr. Black to prevent his and his accomplices' planned bank robbery.
Franco Carter	Autocide	Murdered under orders from Mr. Black to prevent his and his accomplices' planned bank robbery.
Marcus Hammond	Autocide	Murdered under orders from Mr. Black to prevent his and his accomplices' planned bank robbery.
Nick Kong	Autocide	Murdered under orders from Mr. Black to prevent his and his accomplices' planned bank robbery.
Charlie Dilson	Autocide	Murdered under orders from Mr. Black to prevent his and his accomplices' planned bank robbery.
Streetwannabe's Leader	Phnom Penh '86	Murdered in order to get back Ricardo Diaz's money.
Haitian Warlord	Two Bit Hit	Murdered while dressed as a Cuban gang member under orders from Avery Carrington, in order to start a gang war between the Haitians and Cubans and lower real estate prices.
Ricardo Diaz	Rub Out	Murdered as revenge for organizing the ambush of the drug deal between the Forelli Family and the Vance Crime Family and in order to take over his empire.
Pedro Garcia	Gun Runner	Murdered under orders from Phil Cassidy, due to his being a rival in the gun-running business.
Candy's Agent	Recruitment Drive	Murdered for refusing to let Candy appear in his movie.
Lance Vance	Keep Your Friends Close...	Murdered for betraying him and attempting to kill him.
Sonny Forelli	Keep Your Friends Close...	Murdered for betraying him, setting up the Harwood massacre that resulted in his arrest, and for attempting to kill him.

Optional Murders

Victim	Mission	Reason
Front Page Café Owner	Bar Brawl	Can be killed during Bar Brawl, though his death does not affect the storyline.
Cam Jones	The Job	Can be killed during The Job, though his death does not affect the storyline.
Rico	Trojan Voodoo	Can be killed during Trojan Voodoo, though his death does not affect the storyline.
Pepe	Trojan Voodoo	Can be killed during Trojan Voodoo, though his death does not affect the storyline.

Crimes Committed by Tommy Vercetti

Other crimes (player-determinant)

Grand Theft Auto
Carjacking
Robbery
Manslaughter
Mass Homicide
Violating Gun Control laws
Looting
Dangerous Driving
Assault

Mission Appearances

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

As the protagonist, he appears in all missions.

Dialogue

This is Tommy's dialogue during free roam.

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Gallery

Artworks

Screenshots

Trivia

"remember Tommy u r still my hero" is on the bottom.

Tommy has a few unique traits when compared to other GTA protagonists; he was the first one to speak (although that honor technically goes to Toni Cipriani in GTA III, who was not actually recognized as a protagonist until GTA Liberty City Stories, which was released after GTA Vice City). He was also the first 3D Universe protagonist to be given a name - Claude of GTA III wasn't named until GTA San Andreas, and Toni Cipriani didn't officially become a protagonist until GTA LCS. He was also the only verbal GTA protagonist to never say the word "fuck"; instead, he frequently says the word "prick" throughout the game.
In GTA IV, there is graffiti found around the map with Tommy's name, along with the other 3D Universe protagonists. It states that they are all dead. Rockstar Games later confirmed that it was a "little joke for the fans of the series".
Tommy's shirt can be seen in the wardrobe at The Compound safehouse in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, but Vic cannot wear it.
The video game Driv3r featured Hawaiian shirt-wearing characters known as "Timmy Vermicelli" hidden throughout each of its 3 main maps, who could be killed to unlock bonuses, a parody of both Tommy and the hidden package system of GTA games. Additionally, the Timmy Vermicelli characters wore inflatable armbands, making fun of the fact Tommy Vercetti is unable to swim and will die upon entering the water.
Tommy and Trevor Philips are the only protagonists to be present for the death of another protagonist in a canonical situation (Tommy witnessed Victor Vance's murder during a deal, and Trevor beat Johnny Klebitz to death).
In The Introduction, Ken Rosenberg calls Tommy Vercetti, but Tommy doesn't speak because Ray Liotta had a dispute with Rockstar Games about how much "effort" he put into GTA Vice City, so Tommy's voice wasn't recorded.

References

↑ Tommy is said to be 35 years old in the BradyGames guide officially endorsed by Rockstar Games.
↑ "The Body Behind Vice City's Tommy Vercetti" by Andy Grieser (June 9, 2003) - ESCMag

Navigation

[1] Tommy is said to be 35 years old in the BradyGames guide officially endorsed by Rockstar Games.

[2] "The Body Behind Vice City's Tommy Vercetti" by Andy Grieser (June 9, 2003) - ESCMag

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