John Tanner is an undercover police officer and the main protagonist of the Driver series.
Background
Early Career
Tanner was an ex-racer whose career was cut short due to an accident. Sometime after that, Tanner applies to work for the NYPD, but not before proving his driving skills to Lt. McKenzie.
Driver
After proving his driving skills in a parking garage, Tanner begins work for the police department as an undercover cop by infiltrating the Castaldi crime family. After completing several jobs from various criminals across Miami, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York City, he discovers that his final job is to assist in the assassination of the U.S. president. Defying Castaldi's orders, Tanner rescues the president while also on the run from the police and FBI.
After rescuing the president, his superior officer, Lt. McKenzie, congratulates him and offers him his badge back. However, Tanner declines the offer.
Driver 2
In Driver 2, Tanner is working with the Chicago Police Department tracking down someone named Pink Lenny. Pink Lenny was a money man for a gangster named Solomon Caine, but has defected and now works for Caine's rival, Alvaro Vasquez. In Chicago, Tanner and his partner Tobias Jones follow up various leads to find out where Lenny is headed next. Along the way, Tanner runs afoul of Caine and his hitman, Jericho. Tanner escapes from him and heads to Havana with Jones.
In Havana, Tanner stops some of Vasquez's weapons shipments s follows up a lead on Rosanna Soto, which actually turns out to be a ship headed for San Diego. Tanner discovers that this means Lenny is headed for Las Vegas next. While calling Jones, Jones tells him that he's spotted Jericho and that Tanner should get over there as soon as possible. After tailing Jericho, Jericho performs a hit on two Brazilians, after which Tanner heads to Vegas with Jericho in custody.
In Vegas, Tanner offers to release Jericho if Caine works with them on finding Vasquez. Caine agrees, and Tanner is sent to work on various jobs, including sending a car bomb to one of Vasquez' casinos, stealing an ambulance, and most importantly, destroying one of Vasquez's supply dumps. Due to Caine's help, Tanner tracks Lenny to Rio.
In Rio, Tanner does some more jobs for Caine, such as destroying some of Vasquez's cars with a bus, stealing a limo with some cash, and blowing up a supply barge. However, Jones' cover has been running thin by this time, so Tanner must rescue him from a shootout at a water tower. When he gets there, he discovers that Jones has been wounded by gunfire, and upon Jones' urging, he chases down the gunman. After this, Tanner and Jericho head to the fort where Lenny is taking off in a chopper. At the fort, the two shoot at the chopper and manage to damage it. Tanner orders Jericho to drop his weapons and then goes off to pursue Lenny on his own. Tanner eventually comes to the chopper's crash site, apprehends Lenny and brings him back to Chicago.
Driv3r
Tanner has become an FBI agent and is working with the Miami Police Department and has been assigned to infiltrate a car theft ring known as South Beach. In order to do this, Tanner must steal a Corvette from the Gold Coast Hotel. After this, he must pass a series of tests given out by Lomaz. Once he is accepted into the gang, Calita, the gang's leader, gives him some more jobs, one of which is to hunt down a local crime lord known as The Gator. After the Gator is assassinated, Tanner and the gang head for Nice.
In Nice, Tanner ends up rescuing Calita from a group of French gangsters and steals so
Tanner in Driv3r
me cars for the gang. During this time, Tanner runs into two policemen from INTERPOL, Henri Vauban and Didier Dubois, who are also working on the case. Tanner also runs into trouble from a French crime lord named Fabienne, who puts a bomb in Tanner's car and also gets Calita trapped in a shootout. Tanner gets out of both situations and kills Fabienne. At one point, Tanner and Vauban team up to rescue Dubois. After Dubois is rescued, Tanner and Dubois head to a warehouse to collect a laptop with intel. However, Tanner runs into Jericho again, who kills Dubois. Tanner escapes and tracks Jericho to Istanbul.
While in Istanbul, Tanner tails Jericho to a secret location and learns of his plans. However, Vauban thinks Tanner killed Dubois and sends the Istanbul police after him. Now a rogue agent, Tanner decides to follow up a lead on The Bagman and pursues an arms dealer. Tanner then decides to pursue Calita while Jones goes after The Bagman. Tanner captures Calita after a brief chase and gets back into the good graces of Vauban and the Istanbul Police Department. After stopping an explosives truck, Tanner pursues a train carrying Jericho and ends up defeating him in a final showdown. However, Jericho regains consciousness for a long enough time to shoot Tanner in the back.
In the hospital, both men are in critical condition. One of them flatlines, but it is unknown who. It is also unknown who receives the defibrillator at the end.
Driver: San Francisco
6 months after the shootout in Istanbul, Tanner travels to San Francisco with Jones, where Jericho was meant to be sentenced, suspecting that an escape plan could unravel. Tanner's suspicions were confirmed when a convoy Jericho was being attacked by an unknown assassin aboard a hijacked KEOC helicopter and Jericho escaping via a vial of acid smuggled in by a guard he paid off, commandeering the armored truck he was being escorted. He chases down Jericho in downtown San Francisco before he seemingly disappears into an alleyway. At that moment, Jericho ambushes tanner and rams him down an alleyway, where he lost control of his car and eventually rammed by a semi-truck, sending Tanner into a coma.
Whilst in a coma dream, Tanner soon discovers his ability to "shift" into another person's body, retaining his persona but, to everyone else, looking and sounding exactly the same as the person he has shifted into. Tanner can use this ability in missions, activities, dares, or free drive, whilst trying to figure out Jericho's plan. After deducing that Jericho is after the materials to create a cyanide gas bomb, he shifts into Ordell, a low-time crook looking to rise up through Jericho's organization.
Unfortunately for Tanner, he discovers that Jericho can also shift, and realizes that when he is not in his body, Jericho can take over. He is deconspired, when disguised as Ordell, drives Leila to her target (John Tanner). Eventually, Tanner learns that he is in a dream world when the strange messages from the real world creep into his mind. Jericho's powers become more potent, but as it is in Tanner's head, he is over-powered and defeated when Tanner assumes control of his mental projection of the city. In a mental visualization of a police interrogation room, Tanner begins questioning his mental projection of Jericho and discovers that the news reports from the television in his real-world hospital bed are feeding his coma dream. From this he knows of a real-world bomb plot, but deduces that it is not real - Jericho is a gangster, not a terrorist.
Finally waking up, Tanner requests his car keys from Jones, who reminds him of the crash from the beginning. Tanner leaves in Jones' Chevrolet Camaro and heads for downtown San Francisco, which is being evacuated due to a bomb threat, when a massive cloud of gas erupts. Tanner finds escaping convicts, confirming his theory that it was not a real terror threat. Jericho made a deal with a prisoner for $30 million to break him out of jail. The "bomb" is in fact a smoke screen. Tanner pursues Jericho through Soma into the Hunter's Point docks. Before Tanner can take down Jericho in a warehouse, Jones rams Jericho in a police SUV. Tanner claims that he knew what he was doing, but Jones reminds him whose car he was driving, before suggesting a well-deserved beer. The fact that Jericho got T-boned, just like Tanner at the beginning of the game, and the song "Eye for an Eye" playing in the background, implies that Jericho was put into a coma.
Spin-offs
Outside of the five major games in the series, Tanner has appeared in the following mobile games below. The story lines for these games have no effect on the main storyline and are not reflected upon in any way between each other.
Driver: San Francisco (Wii)
As a prequel to the original Driver, Tanner is a rookie cop. His partner, Alvarez is killed in a high speed chase. Tanner goes undercover with Tobias Jones to catch his killer. He gains the trust of Solomon Caine and his Bay Street Crew. After finding out that Caine killed Alvarez, Tanner eventually captures Caine. It is unknown whether or not this game is canon to the main series.
Driver: Renegade 3D
After feeling disillusioned by the New York Police Department, Tanner saves Senator Andrew Ballard and agrees to eliminate 5 crime lords for him. He is granted permission to use what ever means necessary to kill the crime lords. After finding out that Ballard is the ring leader of the campaign, he chases him down and has him arrested. It is unknown whether or not this game is canon to the main series.
Driver: Speedboat Paradise
Tanner appears in the game as a supporting character rather than a protagonist.
Driver: Vegas
Both Tanner and Jericho have survived the events of Driv3r, so Tanner ends up pursuing him to Las Vegas.
Driver L.A. Undercover
Tanner has been recruited by Chuck of the LAPD to take down the Los Angeles mob.
Trivia
- Supposedly by confronting the police in Driver, Tanner has gained the headline of "the most dangerous man" in the cities' newspapers, with even a close-up of his face.
- The same picture of his close-up is also used at the Main Menu and loading screens in both PSX and PC versions (the later, only the European PC version features a loading screen).
- The voice actor for Tanner in Driver 2 is unknown, as the IMDB page for the game the wrong actor.[1]
- In Driv3r, Tanner originally wore the same suit he wore in Driver 2. This was changed in the final version but was left in other areas like a cutscene and the official soundtrack cover art.
- In the mobile version of Driv3r, Tanner's full name is "Tanner Harvey". This name was never used or reflected upon in other games.
- Tanner has parody appearances in Grand Theft Auto III and Vice City. In GTA 3, during the mission "Two-Faced Tanner", Claude has to kill him. He is based on the Driver 2 version of Tanner and is described as a "strangely animated undercover cop" and "totally useless outside his car", due to the lack of foot action in Driver 2. In Vice City during the mission "Autocide", Tommy Vercetti has to kill him again. In VC he is referred to as "Dick Tanner".
- In retaliation, Driv3r featured a man named Timmy Vermicelli, who looks similar to the protagonist of Vice City, Tommy Vercetti. Vermicelli also wears water wings, mocking the fact that Vercetti didn’t have the ability to swim in Vice City's waters unlike how Claude couldn't due to Liberty City's polluted water.
- Tanner has changed his personality quite dramatically during the series' development. In his first appearance in Driver, he barely speaks, and he doesn't say much when he does. In Driver 2, he seems to be more open to talk to others (probably because he isn't acting undercover, allowing him to speak freely). In Driv3r, he doesn't talk much, specially around Calita and her gang, talking freely only with Jones, Vauban or Dubois. In Driver: San Francisco, he is serious and down to earth in the real world. However, he can become lax and attempt to emulate the personality of the driver he shifted into, usually resulting in a jokey nature.
- There is an easter egg in Driver: Parallel Lines in which Tanner's face is shown on a sticker in a desk wall in the NYPD Building with "Driver 4" written on it, even though Parallel Lines is merely the fourth game of the series, and not exactly a "Driver 4".
- TK's apartment in the 2006 era has graffiti on the wall that says "Tanner Lives!" as well as "I love Tanner".
Mission Appearances
Tanner is the protagonist in every game he appears in.
Driver
As the protagonist, he appears on every mission.
Driver 2
As the protagonist, he appears on every mission.
Driv3r
As the protagonist, he appears on every mission.
Driver: San Francisco
As the protagonist, he appears on every mission.
Gallery
References
| Driver · Driver 2 · Driv3r · Parallel Lines · San Francisco · 76 · Renegade · Speedboat Paradise · Vegas · L.A. Undercover | |
| Bishop · Jericho · Tanner · Pink Lenny · Solomon Caine · The Kid · Tobias Jones | |
| John Tanner | Lt. McKenzie | |
| Los Angeles · Miami · New York City · San Francisco |
| Alvaro Vasquez · Charles Jericho · John Tanner · Pink Lenny · Solomon Caine · Tobias Jones | |
| Chicago · Havana · Las Vegas · Rio de Janeiro |
| Calita · Charles Jericho · John Tanner · Tobias Jones | |
| Miami · Nice · Istanbul |
| Bishop · Candy · Corrigan · Maria · Ray Davies · Slink · The Mexican · The Kid · Roost |
| Characters | John Tanner · Tobias Jones · Charles Jericho |