Carl Johnson (Grand Theft Auto)

Unlike the principal characters of previous Grand Theft Auto games, Carl's appearance is highly customisable,[2] as the player can purchase a wide variety of different hair cuts, tattoos, and clothing for him. Certain clothes, tattoos, and hairstyles improve Carl's standing with his fellow gang members as well as his sex appeal to his selective girlfriends.

The game implements a tracking system for various skills and abilities, each of which gradually improves as it is used or practiced and slowly diminishes as it is neglected. As Carl rides bikes, drives cars and motorcycles, and flies aircraft, his skill improves in each. The same is true for the weapons that he uses. The player can choose to exercise, which improves skills such as stamina (which allows Carl to sprint for longer durations) and muscle (which visibly increases Carl's muscle tone and affects his hand-to-hand combat damage). Visiting fast food restaurants and regularly eating their large meals will increase Carl's size over time, eventually leading to him becoming overweight. Carl can lose this weight again by frequently exercising, and is required to maintain a small percentage of body fat to fight off starvation.

Carl was born to Beverly Johnson and an unnamed father in 1968, in his family home, located on Grove Street in the Ganton neighborhood of Los Santos. As a child, he got along well with his mother and siblings Sean (nicknamed "Sweet"), Kendl, and Brian, though not with his father, whom he barely remembers; as he states at one point, "[He] never really had a father." At a young age, Carl, Sweet, and Brian befriended Melvin "Big Smoke" Harris and Lance "Ryder" Wilson, who lived on the same street, and all five eventually joined the Grove Street Families. While Sweet became the gang's leader, Carl, Big Smoke, and Ryder all became high-ranking lieutenants, with Carl working his way up to the rank of underboss.

By 1987, with the drug trafficking business expanding, most Los Santos-based gangs became involved, allowing them to rise in prominence. However, Sweet, who was morally against drugs, refused to do the same, causing the Families to slowly lose their influence. Around the same time, Brian was killed in a gang attack, which CJ is implied to have witnessed, but chose not to intervene. This caused him and Sweet to have a falling out which, combined with CJ's desire to leave the gangbanger life behind, determined him to leave for Liberty City, where he began working with Joey Leone in the car theft business.[3]

The game's main storyline begins with Carl's return to Los Santos following the death of his mother in a drive-by shooting in 1992.[4] Upon his arrival, Carl is confronted by LSPD Officers Frank Tenpenny, Edward "Eddie" Pulaski, and Jimmy Hernandez, three highly corrupt members of the city's community policing unit, C.R.A.S.H. Tenpenny and his associates warn Carl early on that they intend to frame him for the murder of police officer Ralph Pendlebury, whom C.R.A.S.H. have killed to prevent him from exposing their illegal activities. They also force Carl to work for them in exchange for his and his family's safety.

After reuniting with Sweet, Kendl, Big Smoke, and Ryder, Carl learns that the Families have lost almost all of their influence and territories to rival gangs, primarily the Ballas, during his absence, and agrees to stay and help solve the gang's problems. He does this by expelling crack cocaine dealers from the territories the Families still control, regaining lost gang turf, and several other means. During this time, he also befriends Kendl's boyfriend and Varrios Los Aztecas leader Cesar Vialpando, despite Sweet's initial objections, and helps friend Jeffrey "OG Loc" Cross jumpstart his career as a rapper despite his lack of talent, inadvertently destroying that of renowned rapper Madd Dogg in the process.

The Families' resurgence is short-lived, as Carl discovers that Big Smoke and Ryder have betrayed the gang by forming alliances with C.R.A.S.H. and the Ballas, and arranged the attack that killed his mother, which was actually meant for Sweet, in an attempt to wipe out the Families. Sweet is ambushed by a group of Ballas on that same day and is wounded in the subsequent gunfight. Carl arrives on the scene and saves his brother's life but both are arrested by the police. While Sweet is sentenced to life in prison, Carl is bailed by C.R.A.S.H., who take him to the countryside near Los Santos so that he can continue working for them. In the aftermath of these events, the Families lose all their territories to rival gangs, who are now free to conduct their drug operations in Los Santos, under Big Smoke, Ryder, and C.R.A.S.H.'s supervision.

During his time in the countryside, Carl meets a hippie weed manufacturer known as "The Truth", who supplies him with a shipment of drugs for one of Tenpenny's jobs, and performs several robberies alongside Cesar's cousin Catalina, with whom he enters a short-lived relationship. He also engages in a few illegal street races hosted by blind Chinese-American Triad leader Wu Zi Mu/"Woozie", where he wins a defunct garage from Catalina's new boyfriend. After his brief stay in the countryside, Carl and his associates head north for San Fierro, where they transform the garage into a vehicle chop shop with the help of several new allies, and purchase a car dealership. Carl works for the local Triads, strengthening his ties with Woozie in the process, and infiltrates and destroys San Andreas' largest drug cartel, the Loco Syndicate, which had been supplying the Ballas with drugs. Aided by Cesar and the Triads, Carl exacts revenge on Ryder by killing him during a meeting with the Loco Syndicate, alongside two of the syndicate's leaders, Jizzy B. and T-Bone Mendez.

Following the destruction of the Loco Syndicate, Carl is contacted by its true leader, Mike Toreno, revealed to be an undercover government agent, who has him carry out several jobs in exchange for Sweet's early release from prison. During his work for Toreno, Carl purchases an abandoned airstrip, acquires a pilot's license, and steals a $60 million jetpack from the Area 69 military base. He later travels to Las Venturas to help Woozie open a casino by robbing the rival Mafia-run casino, Caligula's Palace. To do so, Carl first earns the mob's trust by working for Leone crime family Don Salvatore Leone and Caligula's manager Ken Rosenberg, whom he later helps escape from the Mafia alongside his associates Kent Paul and Maccer. Following the heist, Carl becomes a shareholder in Woozie's casino, and is contacted by C.R.A.S.H. for another job; however, Tenpenny betrays him, and leaves Carl and Hernandez, who was found to be informing the Internal Affairs of his partners' illegal activities, to be killed by Pulaski. The latter manages to kill Hernandez, before Carl pursues and murders him.

At the conclusion of these events, Carl and his associates run several successful businesses in both San Fierro and Las Venturas, and prepare to return to Los Santos. Before they can do so, Madd Dogg, whom Carl had rescued from a suicide attempt, approaches the latter with a request to become his manager. Accepting, he returns to Los Santos and reclaims his mansion from the Los Santos Vagos, to whom he had sold it for drugs, before enlisting Rosenberg, Paul and Maccer to help Madd Dogg rebuild his career.

Shortly after his return to Los Santos, Carl is contacted by Toreno for one final job. Upon completion, the latter honors their agreement and has Sweet released from prison. Although delighted to have his brother back, Sweet is not impressed with Carl's business ventures and chastises him for forgetting about their gang, talking him into helping rebuild the Families' strength once again. After reclaiming Grove Street from the Ballas, the brothers continue to expand by taking over more territories from their rivals and removing drug dealers from the streets. During this time, Tenpenny is tried for several charges, but is acquitted in his trial, causing all gang-occupied districts of Los Santos to riot. In the midst of the chaos, Carl helps Cesar to re-establish his gang, and tracks down Big Smoke to his crack palace penthouse, where he confronts and kills his former friend in a shootout. Tenpenny arrives to claim his share of Smoke's money and kill Carl, but the latter survives and pursues Tenpenny with Sweet's help. The brothers' pursuit eventually causes Tenpenny to crash outside Carl's family home, whereupon he dies from his injuries. With Tenpenny dead, the riots cease and all loose ends in Carl's life are resolved.

At the conclusion of the game, Carl and his associates are seen discussing what their future holds in the former's home, when Madd Dogg visits them to announce that he has won a gold record for his new album. As everyone celebrates, Carl leaves the house to check things out around the neighbourhood.