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| “ | Just shut up and stick with me if you wanna stay alive. | „ |
| ~ Cash straight forwardly relays his simple plan to the Journalist. |
James Earl Cash is the main protagonist in the controversial stealth/horror game Manhunt.
He is a former inmate of Darkwoods Penitentiary, who was freed from death row and set loose in Carcer City under false pretenses. His supposed execution was staged by Lionel Starkweather, a corrupt ex-film director turned underground snuff producer, who saw potential in Cash as the perfect killer for his grotesque productions. Cash awakens to find himself hunted by brutal gangs, each more sadistic than the last, and must navigate the decaying, crime-infested streets of Carcer City using stealth, violence, and sheer willpower to survive. Unwillingly cast as the leading man in Starkweather’s twisted reality show, Cash is forced to kill on camera in exchange for the slim hope of freedom—turning his fight for survival into a personal war for vengeance and redemption.
He was voiced by Stephen Wilfong.
Biography[]
Past[]
Sometime before 1992, Cash was wanted by the San Andreas Police Department, which is likely what caused him to abandon his family. It is indicated that he was part of an organized crime ring, assumed to be either an enforcer or a hitman, due to the fact that only murder would get him the death penalty.
Indeed, Cash was already a proficient and highly experienced killer before the events of the game. During his career as a criminal, Cash has been evading the law for a decade, until the year 2000 when he was finally caught in Carcer City and locked away in Darkwoods penitentiary. Cash was then sentenced to death, the execution being three years later.
Manhunt[]
The day of the execution, Cash is given the lethal injection and everyone in the world believes he is dead. However, he wakes up inside a closed down Coffee and Donuts store in Carcer City, coming to find he was only injected with sedatives instead, thanks to the will of Lionel Starkweather, who had bribed the prison officials.
Cash is then forced to participate in one of Starkweather's snuff films in exchange for his freedom. Cash has no trouble in killing a gang called The Hoods as he plows through the town and executes them in brutal ways until he thinks it's over, but is then ambushed by the Cerberus, who work for Starkweather and Cash is taken to another location.
Some time later, he's dropped off by the Cerberus at Denton's Junkyard, where he must kill a gang of white supremacists called the Skinz. Cash kills them all as he makes his way through the location, using a crane to clear the path ahead and makes his way to the exit. He is once again forcefully picked up by the Cerberus and driven to the next location.
Next, Cash must face a gang of war veterans and survivalists known as the Wardogs at the City Zoo where he learns they have his family hostage. He manages to save at least one member (depending on the player's abilities) and kills all the Wardogs at the location.
Cash then arrives at the mall, where Starkweather has arranged a "screening" for him. He must find a tape and a video camera in the Carcer City Mall, while being attacked by a gang called The Innocentz, made up of child-like pedophiles and Satanists. Once all the gang members are dead, Cash watches the tape which turns out to be footage of his remaining family members getting killed by an Innocentz member with a machete. Cash angrily picks up the television and throws it to the ground, breaking it.
Now Cash is back out on the streets and is teamed up with a homeless man, where Starkweather instructs him to escort the Tramp to the cemetery, while killing more Innocentz on the way. Then he must clear out the remaining Innocentz at the Carcer Chemical Factory and on his way out, Cash makes a run for it, but is caught again by the Cerberus team.
Ultimately, Cash is then taken back to Darkwoods Penitentiary to face his former fellow inmates who have taken over the asylum after killing all the guards and calling themselves The Smileys. Cash makes his way through the asylum killing all the Smileys, until coming across the White Rabbit, whom Cash is told to follow by Starkweather. The White Rabbit leads Cash into many traps, where he is repeatedly attacked by the Smileys, until he enters one room filled with heavily armed Smileys which is the point where Starkweather had planned for Cash to die (thus betraying him). However, Cash manages to stay alive and kills the remaining Smileys, some of the Cerberus, and the White Rabbit, taking his gate keys and escapes.
Now Cash is on the run from Starkweather, who sends Ramirez out to capture Cash, which he does, but decides to toy with him at first. Cash is placed in a fenced-out yard outside the Wardogs' apartment building for the Wardogs to hunt him down for sport. Cash kills all of those in his way and enters the apartment building, killing the remaining Wardogs and Ramirez in the process. After killing Ramirez, Cash escapes the location where he's then picked up by a journalist.
The Journalist and Cash make their way to her apartment and Cash lets the Journalist get her evidence to bring down Starkweather, while killing the CCPD along the way who are following the orders of the corrupt chief of police Gary Schaffer, who was paid off by Starkweather. After taking all the evidence the Journalist needed, Cash tells the Journalist to get out of town, to which the Journalist seems to disagree with Cash's decision at first, but Cash explains that if he's killed then she can still expose him. Cash decides to head to Starkweather’s Estate via the subway, making it all the way to the Train Yard where he is cornered by Carcer City's SWAT team. Out of nowhere, the Cerberus arrive, wipe out the SWAT team and incapacitate Cash to take him to Starkweather's Estate on the director's orders.
Cash is then locked up in the garage at Starkweather's mansion and is about to be executed by the Cerberus, but their plan is interrupted by Piggsy, a psychotic cannibal armed with a chainsaw, who has managed to break free from his shackles earlier, allowing Cash to survive and obliterate all the Cerberus members in the estate garden. Once he sneaks into the mansion through the basement, he has to get past dozens of Cerberus, including their leader, who's seized the key for the elevator leading to Starkweather's office and shut off the power to it. Once he deals with every last one of them, restores the power, retrieves the key and gets into the elevator, he is ambushed by Piggsy and is forced to make a hasty exit from the elevator hatch, losing all his weapons in the process. After a lengthy fight in the attic, Cash manages to defeat Piggsy and uses his chainsaw to break the office door open, which prompts Starkweather to send out the last few number of Cerberus to take down Cash, who slaughters them all nonetheless.
After Piggsy and the remaining Cerberus are dead, Cash successfully breaks into Starkweather's office. Shocked, Starkweather falls to the ground and quickly arms himself with a revolver, in an attempt to defend himself (Starkweather will quickly change his mind and negotiate with Cash to spare him when the revolver run out of bullets). Finally, Cash manages to kill Starkweather by slicing open his stomach with the chainsaw, exposing his guts while he is begging for mercy, and drives the chainsaw into his face, killing him. Cash then lodges the murder weapon into Starkweather's back and leaves.
Afterwards, the police soon show up to Starkweather's estate, discovering the many corpses of the Cerberus, Starkweather, Piggsy, and his snuff film ring. However, Cash has already made his escape and is nowhere to be found.
After Manhunt[]
Cash went into hiding after killing Starkweather, as he was supposed to be executed. When the Journalist tells a psychiatrist that Cash is still alive, the psychiatrist reveals that no one has seen Cash since his "execution" two weeks before the Journalist was committed to a psychiatric hospital. This fact makes it possible that Cash created a new fake identity to cover up his criminal record in order to start a new life. His whereabouts and current activity are completely unknown/unconfirmed.
Personality[]
Cash is an extraordinarily dangerous and callous individual, capable of inflicting fatal injuries using the most simple objects, such as a plastic bag, in the most elaborate and gruesome ways possible. It's left ambiguous if Cash is an actual sadist, deriving pleasure from all the grisly executions he inflicts upon the hunters, or if he simply does what's required of him to survive and their inventiveness is warranted by the need to appease the director's insatiable bloodlust, although the ways in which he killed Piggsy and Starkweather were remarkably painful and personal, happening at a point where he didn't have to demonstrate profound levels of cruelty anymore.
Truly sadistic or not, two aspects of his personality stand out among the rest - relentlessness and thirst for vengeance. Once he's been pushed over the edge by Starkweather's multiple betrayals, he stops at nothing to hunt the sneaky manipulator down, overcoming great distances and dozens of seasoned, armed to the teeth foes with minimal help, while displaying no doubts or hesitation about his goal.
Cash is a man of few words, but whenever he speaks, he does so in a cold and thuggish tone, getting straight to the point without any excess remarks or unnecessary pauses. He's not above making semi-serious threats and harsh warnings as a way of encouraging cooperation, with a prime example of this being his commands to the Tramp and the Journalist during the escort missions.
Cash remains rather emotionless and stoic throughout most of the story line, with the exception of a few particularly tense moments, such as his first encounter with the Cerberus members, where he displayed clear signs of confusion and fear upon realizing he was lied to by Starkweather and outnumbered by his henchmen. He does demonstrate some sympathy for his kidnapped family members during one scene, desperately trying to save them from the Wardogs, even though they didn't have the common courtesy to show up to his execution, and is furious to see them killed, implying a level of unconditional love towards them.
In another display of supposed selflessness, Cash has helped the female journalist by escorting her safely to her apartment, before telling her to get out of the city while she could, possibly showing that he's good enough to allow an innocent person who has witnessed him commit multiple murders escape unharmed. This decision, however, could be motivated solely by Cash's thirst for revenge and sheer practicality, since he's fully cognizant of the fact that he could fail in his quest to kill Starkweather and thus wants to ensure that his life will become a living hell by having the journalist expose and ruin him, so that the psychopathic director cannot get out scot-free under any circumstances, even referring to the journalist as his "backup" in case he doesn't make it, therefore Cash's altruism in this situation is under the question.
Powers and Abilities[]
- Hand-to-hand combat proficiency: Cash is a formidable opponent in unarmed combat, capable of dealing precise and heavy blows to his enemies, whilst efficiently blocking the incoming attacks and is quite apt at grappling his foes when the chance presents itself, in which case he's able to unleash a combination of devastating punches, headbutts and knee kicks while keeping a firm hold on the target. With that being said, Cash's fighting abilities are not limitless, as more than one attacker at a time proves to be a health-draining endeavor, while three and more foes ganging up on Cash spells certain death for him. Moreover, he's shown on at least one occasion to be no match for a significantly burlier and more experienced fighter like Ramirez, who overpowers and beats Cash up when he ends up on the Wardogs' territory in "Divided They Fall", with the latter also being unable to perform an execution on the extensively-trained gang leader.
- Marksmanship expertise: By unknown means, Cash seems to be experienced in handling all sorts of handguns, shotguns and rifles, combining his decent aim with an effective usage of waist-high objects and corners as covers. Additionally, he's a confident enough firearm wielder to be able to reload while walking or running, can dive in and out of cover in a matter of seconds without losing poise or accuracy and is able to stun the adversaries that get too close for comfort with a butt of his gun.
- Weapon improvisation: If worst comes to worst and he's rendered defenseless against the numerous hunters, Cash can always find suitable tools in his surroundings via fashioning the ordinary day-to-day items, such as wires, glass shards and plastic bags into the lethal execution-exclusive instruments and melee weapons. Speaking of which, Cash can skillfully wield a number of cold weapons, starting with hammers and nightsticks and ending with baseball bats and chainsaws, making use of them with savage creativity. Depending on the degree of the execution, Cash can end the life of a hunter swiftly and almost painlessly, or can deliberately prolong his suffering by preluding the finishing blow with several non-fatal injuries.
- Brute strength: Cash possesses remarkable physical strength; he is able to pick up the corpses of grown men, including the noticeably overweight ones, then carry them over his shoulder and walk at his usual pace without struggle. This statement is further evidenced during the cutscene at the end of "View of Innocence", where Cash lifts a television with minimal effort, before breaking it by throwing it across the room. Cash can also run with a chainsaw by just holding it with his right hand, as seen during a cutscene "Deliverance" whilst escaping away from the Cerberus. However, Cash's most peculiar feats of strength are demonstrated throughout the various executions; he's capable of beating a hunter to death with multiple knee kicks to the face during the "Violent" plastic bag execution, effortlessly snapping a hunter's neck, either with his bare hands while employing a plastic bag or with the help of a nightstick/blackjack, can cause severe internal bleeding with a single strike of a hammer to the abdominal area, slice a hunter's head off by rapidly sawing into his neck with a wire and is able to end his adversary's life in one well-placed hit with a blunt instrument, as shown in the "Hasty" hammer and the "Gruesome" baseball bat executions, with his swing of the latter implement being so powerful it literally cracks a hunter's head open.
- Endurance and Stamina: Cash is considerably tough and resilient to pain, being able to quickly recover after multiple savage beatings inflicted on him by the Cerberus and Ramirez during the course of the game and can brush off various injuries, including but not limited to blunt force trauma, gunshot wounds and electrocution just with the use of the painkiller bottles randomly scattered throughout Carcer City, unless they're not actually real and are just a gameplay aspect, which is supported by Starkweather never mentioning their existence during the tutorial and their bizarre placement, making Cash's pain tolerance and durability all the more impressive. He doesn't seem to display any noticeable signs of fatigue after the prolonged periods of extreme exertion, engaging in unequal brawls, strenuous gunfights and frequent chases. Notably, in regards to the aforementioned chases, Cash is capable of outrunning most of his pursuers with ease and sprinting continuously without stopping to catch his breath, although he still switches to a slower speed once his stamina runs out in order to regenerate it.
- Stealth mastery: A substantial chunk of Starkweather's death game requires Cash to perform executions on the hunters by sneaking up on them, as such he has to rely on the element of surprise and stealth tactics, which he's an uncontested master of. He is a natural at blending in with the shadows and can identify the sufficiently dark areas in his environment easily, merging with them so flawlessly that the hunters inspecting his hiding spot from a few feet away can't even see him moving around whilst he's submerged in them. Cash is just as keen when it comes to actually creeping up on his foes from behind, as his default walking pace is silent enough for the hunters to not hear a thing as long as they're situated on an even surface like concrete. When the noisy surfaces, such as gravel and lying chain link fences, come into play, Cash is still capable of navigating across them without disturbing the silence via switching to a sneaking pace, carefully and skillfully placing his feet in a way to negate any sound. These natural abilities are supplemented by Cash's wit and advanced implementation of stealth tactics, such as distracting the hunters by throwing various objects and luring them to his position by knocking on the walls in order to separate them from the group.
Victims[]
Pre-1992[]
- At least one unknown person
Manhunt[]
- 86 Cerberus
- 81 Smileys
- 80 Innocentz
- 67 CCPD Officers
- 62 Wardogs
- 44 Skinz
- 29 Hoods
- 19 SWAT Officers
- The White Rabbit
- Ramirez
- The Cerberus Leader
- Piggsy
- Lionel Starkweather
Overall[]
- Total - 473 People (if the player manages to kill every NPC)
Quotes[]
| “ | Don't stop until you're out of here! | „ |
| ~ Cash to one of his family members after rescuing them. |
| “ | Trust no one, now go! | „ |
| ~ Cash to a rescued family member. |
| “ | Go on! Run, you idiot! | „ |
| ~ Cash upon rescuing a family member. |
| “ | Stay close. Make a sound, and I'll kill you myself. | „ |
| ~ Cash encouraging the Tramp to follow him. |
| “ | Stay put and shut up! | „ |
| ~ Cash rudely ordering the Tramp to stop following him. |
| “ | Come on, lady! | „ |
| ~ Cash telling the Journalist to move in a annoyed tone. |
| “ | You coming or what? | „ |
| ~ Cash compelling the Journalist to follow him. |
| “ | Hold up. I'll check ahead. | „ |
| ~ Cash gently encouraging the Journalist to wait. |
Trivia[]
- His sister in the pink vest was voiced by Kim Gurney, who also voiced Misty in Grand Theft Auto III.
- As a development oversight, Cash doesn't remove the earpiece that Starkweather told him to put on after his betrayal in "Kill The Rabbit".
- According to dialogue from the Wardogs, Cash may be an ex-soldier; the Wardogs discuss rumors that he is a "Sneaky Pete", which is military jargon for a Navy SEAL, Army Ranger, or a Green Beret.
- Unused text in zoo2's gxt confirms that one of the male family members is Cash's brother, and that the two women are Cash's sisters; Lionel says "Say a prayer for your brother, Cash..." and "Okay, Cash. There's still one of your sisters hostage in the monkey dome". However, according to the game files, Cash's relatives are his father, mother, brother, and sister; his sister in the white vest is incorrectly referred to as Cash's mother.
- Cash action figures can be found in Zero's RC Shop in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
- In Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, at the San Fierro and Las Venturas police stations, there are wanted posters for Cash (with a beta image) and a few members of the Hoods gang.
- Rockstar named Cash after James Earl Ray, who assassinated Martin Luther King.
- Cash looks similar to Mickey Knox in the prison break scene of Natural Born Killers. Knox was based on a real serial killer named Charles Starkweather, whose name is similar to that of Lionel Starkweather, the antagonist of Manhunt.
- It's possible that after Cash escaped Carcer City, he had a child with an unknown woman and started his own construction business. In Manhunt 2, the player can find a billboard that reads "J.E.C and Son's Construction" during the mission "Assassination".
- Despite being the protagonist of the game, Cash is only slightly less evil than all of the game's antagonists. He was sentenced to death for a murder he did in fact commit; he wasn't framed or tricked into committing it. He still has no problems at all with torturing and killing people with unnecessary amounts of violence. The only things that make Cash better than the gangs and Starkweather himself is the fact that he cares enough to save his own family and the reporter, and he's not a sexual deviant or a bigot.
- This doesn't necessarily stop the audience from wanting him to succeed in killing Lionel Starkweather, however, as he had his family murdered.
- James Earl Cash is Stephen Wilfong's only known role in any video game, movie, or TV show.
- Cash kills a maximum of 472 people throughout the events of Manhunt. While it is unknown how many people he could have killed in the ten years of his criminal life before he was finally caught and sentenced to death, only one murder is needed to be sentenced to death, so that's at least one confirmed kill included in Cash's body count.
- On the other end of the spectrum however, if the player were to take on a pacifist challenge to spite Starkweather, James Earl Cash would only be responsible for five murders during the game: White Rabbit, Ramirez, Cerberus Leader, Piggsy, and Lionel Starkweather. All five could arguably be considered self-defense.
- There is a popular fan theory that James Earl Cash is the biological father of Jimmy Hopkins, the main protagonist of another Rockstar game, Bully, with some very convincing evidence:
- In the very first cut-scene of Bully, it's quickly established that Jimmy's mother has remarried and his biological father is never brought up or has anything mentioned about him, possibly due to Cash's criminal history. The difference in their last names could also be due to Jimmy's mother having their last names changed legally so that no one would think they were affiliated with Cash.
- Bully takes place in 2006 and Jimmy is 15 years old at the start of the game, meaning he was born in 1991, a full year before Cash left his family due to being a wanted criminal. This explains why Jimmy has no memory at all of his biological father.
- Jimmy and Cash have several similar facial features, looking quite a lot alike each other.
- Jimmy is a naturally very skilled fighter much like Cash, both in armed and unarmed combat, being able to take on waves of enemies singlehandedly without showing any signs of fatigue.
- While Cash's birth year or age are never mentioned, he looks to be in his late 30s or early 40s, easily making him old enough to be Jimmy's father.
- Also, both Jimmy and Cash's first names are James; it is not uncommon for their sons to have their father's name. The nickname Jimmy was probably given to him later so he would not be associated with Cash.
Licensing[]
This article contains content derived from the "Cash" article on Wikihunt, licensed under CC-BY-SA.
External Links[]
- James Earl Cash on the Heroes Wiki
- James Earl Cash on the Manhunt Wiki
[]
 Villains
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