Tommy Vercetti | |
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Grand Theft Auto character | |
Tommy Vercetti, as seen in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Tommy is the first playable protagonist in the Grand Theft Auto series that has a proper voice actor, with full dialogue.
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First game | Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002) |
Created by | Rockstar Games |
Voiced by | Ray Liotta |
Motion capture | Jonathan Sale |
Thomas "Tommy" Vercetti is a fictional character, the protagonist and playable character in the 2002 video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, a game in the Grand Theft Auto series. He is voiced by Ray Liotta.
After being released from prison, Tommy agrees to take part in a deal for an old friend, in which he was ambushed. In an attempt to find the man who set up the ambush, Tommy rises through the ranks of the Vice City crime underworld. After murdering the man who set up the ambush, he becomes extremely powerful in the criminal world, and eventually becomes the kingpin of Vice City.
Tommy, an Italian-American, is portrayed with a tall, swarthy, handsome appearance, combed dark brown, almost black hair, and a constant five o'clock shadow. He first appears wearing a light blue-green Hawaiian shirt with dark blue palm trees printed on it, a gold pearl necklace around his neck, a gold watch around his left wrist, and a pair of blue jeans and white sneakers. This outfit becomes known as Tommy’s "street" clothes. As the game progresses, Tommy is offered more wardrobe options: he obtains a blue-purple pastel suit with the sleeves rolled up over a black dress shirt and black loafers, as well as the option of a dark pinstripe suit labeled as "Mr. Vercetti" (which bears similarities to Tony Montana's uniform). A light green costume is available to perform a bank robbery, complete with a hockey mask, and is even able to wear the uniform for an allied gang, among many others.
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). Tommy is also a hired assassin, has killed his own collaborators (Lance Vance), taken over his temporary boss’s business (Ricardo Diaz) and rebelled against his former leader (Sonny Forelli), as Tony Montana had. The only notable difference is that the final gunfight in Montana's mansion sees Montana eventually killed, whereas the final gunfight in Tommy's mansion sees Tommy managing to single-handedly take down his captors and survive.