Cave Johnson (Portal)

Cave Johnson was the founder and CEO of Aperture Science from its inception until his death from moon rock poisoning in the late 1980s.

hair color: light brown. brown eyes

In his youth, Cave Johnson, the son of a local agricultural college professor,[5] became a successful businessman and at some point before 1943 founded Aperture Fixtures, a shower curtain manufacturer. Johnson owed much of his early success to Aperture Fixtures, which developed high-tech shower curtains for most branches of the U.S. military, as well as for the general public.[2] Johnson soon became a billionaire, winning the "Best Shower Curtain Salesman" award in 1943. Deciding to put his wealth to good use, in 1944 Johnson purchased a giant salt mine in Upper Michigan, with tunnels extending more than 2.5 miles (4 km) underground, where he located the bulk of the Aperture Fixtures complex. A headline in the Michigan newspaper The UP Pioneer Press referred to Cave Johnson as a "local" entrepreneur, suggesting that he was born in or had lived in Michigan for a long time before buying the mine. Johnson subsequently decided to take a broader scientific approach to Aperture Fixtures in 1947, renaming the company Aperture Science. Johnson focused on experimental physics as the company's new focus, and although his originality was well known, Aperture Science won the Best New Science Company award in 1947. By the 1950s, Aperture Science was a thriving company. At the Development Center, Johnson was heavily involved in testing new products, making voice announcements and playing prerecorded messages to test subjects, which included hand-picked astronauts, Olympians, and war heroes. Johnson's assistant was Caroline, who remained loyal to him even decades later. At the same time, Aperture is in the process of developing a quantum tunneling device, many prototypes of which are used in various test chambers of Test Shaft 09.

By the 1960s, Aperture's financial boom period was over, with many products still in the testing phase and some released products being pulled from store shelves due to health and safety violations, causing the company to struggle. In 1961, Johnson ordered the lower levels of Test Shaft 09 to be locked down to cover up evidence of unethical experiments conducted by Aperture Science. In 1968, Aperture was involved in the United States Senate hearings into the disappearance of astronauts who had taken part in the tests.[6]

Later that year, Aperture declares bankruptcy. As a result, the company can no longer invite respected members of society to test, and so resorts to luring homeless people with the promise of $60. Johnson takes the bankruptcy of his brainchild with bitterness, and does not even try to hide his disgust towards the homeless people he is forced to employ. Johnson blames Black Mesa for the company's financial difficulties. In his opinion, the rival firm stole many of Aperture's designs. He was never able to provide evidence, so nothing happened to Black Mesa. By October 1976, Johnson had selected "low-risk" subjects, including orphans, mental patients, and the elderly.

In the 1980s, Aperture remains in decline. Desperate to release a new successful product, Johnson purchases approximately $70 million worth of moon rock in 1981 to create a new gel, despite not having enough money to cover the costs. The discovery of moon rock's portal-conducting abilities prompts Cave Johnson to take an active role in creating the transformative gel. However, during the gel's development, Johnson becomes gravely ill from prolonged exposure to moon dust, causing his respiratory system to gradually deteriorate and both kidneys to fail.[8]

Near death, brain damaged, and unable to comprehend that time cannot be turned back, Johnson plans a three-stage research and development program to ensure Aperture's success in the "fast-approaching distant future." In his plans, he describes the "Heimlich countermaneuver," the "Take-a-Wish" fund, and the continued development of a quantum tunneling device.[2] Furthermore, in response to the ongoing difficulty in finding test subjects, Johnson makes testing mandatory for all employees.

During this period, Johnson continues to record messages and broadcast them over the PA system. Few of the messages are about the tests themselves; instead, Johnson addresses employees about the future of the company, as well as rages over his impending death. Wanting to cheat death, in 1982, a desperate Cave Johnson orders his engineers to begin developing a computer that could host a human mind. Should he die before the project is completed, Caroline is to succeed him as director of Aperture, and her consciousness must be uploaded into the computer whether she wants it or not.[9] This is what happens. Johnson dies, and Caroline's personality becomes the basis for GLaDOS.[10]

Posthumously, many of Johnson's recorded messages continued to be used, primarily to announce mundane events such as employees returning to work. The practice continued into the later stages of GLaDOS's development, and apparently only ceased with her takeover of the facility.[11]

In Portal, Johnson is only mentioned once in the game, in Doug Rattmann's graffiti in Test Chamber 17, as the inscription on the wall reads cjohnson, followed by tier3, which is the username and password for the ApertureScience.com administrator. Above the inscription are three images of men in suits, their faces covered with pictures of weighted cubes. The bottom left image is based on a portrait of Sam Rayburn, with the words "Our Founder" written underneath, and "RIP" written on the right.

In Portal 2, Johnson is long dead, but his pre-recorded messages guide Chell through forgotten corners of the facility.

In the Perpetual Testing Initiative, the hero is a test subject from a parallel dimension in which Cave Johnson seeks to reduce Aperture's costs to avoid bankruptcy. To do so, he declares the Outsourcing Initiative to another Earth. Instead of building test chambers in his own dimension, known as Earth-1, he sends the plans to other versions of Aperture Science in other dimensions in the Multiverse, where new chambers are built. Each version of Aperture Science has its own version of Cave Johnson.

At the beginning of the game, Cave Johnson's recorded earlier messages about hiring and staff assignments are heard. In the middle of the game, Grady tells the protagonist that he has agreed with Cave Johnson about the presentation of his toilet turret. But after reaching the office, he admits that he could not agree with Johnson, and he has not left his office for a long time. But as soon as the heroes enter the office, they notice a giant clay head of Cave Johnson. Since the events of the game take place in one of the alternative universes, Cave Johnson lived to see the transfer of consciousness to the computer. Initially, it was planned to transfer consciousness to a computer the size of a human brain, and then place it in a robotic body, but the computer was not powerful enough, which is why a larger computer was created along with robotic body parts. The transfer of consciousness was successful, but did not suit Cave Johnson himself, which is why he panicked and killed several employees, and threatened to kill the rest, and since then no one has entered his office. So he asks the heroes to kill him, because he has lived long enough. After destroying the power supply, the backup power is activated and Johnson fires both, but then his robotic head falls into the ground. At the end of the game, Johnson's head, powered by the generator, sings a symphony along with the turrets.

Cave Johnson learned to trust his intuition. A big-picture thinker, he was oblivious to details. He apparently didn't know much about how science worked, but he did know how people "worked." An extrovert with an air of self-confidence and enthusiasm, he was used to getting what he wanted. He was very energetic, even impulsive, and saw life as an adventure he enjoyed participating in. A natural salesman, leader, and preacher, people trusted him even when his plans seemed downright dangerous. He put people at ease with his warm, homely manner. He probably didn't accept the responsibility that came with great power. He was unaware of, or chose to ignore, the consequences of his actions and experiments.[12]

The results of the cooperative planning test show that Johnson does not see crises, only challenges in which he sees opportunity, that he is an articulate initiator who “shoots from the hip” and lives by the principle of “say and do.” He would make a good partner in the cooperative test for anyone who can shut up and listen.