By the s , Aperture remained in financial turmoil. Desperate for a successful new product, in Johnson purchased approximately seventy million dollars-worth of Moon rocks for use in further mobility gel development, despite not having nearly enough money to cover the costs.
Upon discovering that moon dust serves as a remarkable portal conductor, Johnson took an active role in its implementation into Conversion Gel. However, during the development of the Conversion Gel, Johnson contracted a severe illness as a result of prolonged exposure to moon dust, which slowly damaged his respiratory system and caused both of his kidneys to fail.
Dying, brain damaged, and incapable of realizing time was not flowing backwards, Johnson planned out a three-tier research and development program to ensure Aperture's success into the "fast-approaching distant past". During this time, Johnson continued to make pre-recorded messages over the intercom system , however few were on the subject of testing, and instead addressed employees about the future of the company, and many had Johnson raging over his imminent demise.
Desperate to cheat death, in Johnson ordered his engineers to begin research and development on a computer system that could store his consciousness.
However, should the system not be completed before his death, Johnson ordered that his ever loyal assistant Caroline succeed him as CEO of Aperture, and have her consciousness uploaded instead, regardless of any protests she might have.
Posthumously, Johnson's prerecorded messages were still issued over the PA system in Aperture, primarily to mark trivial events, such as telling employees to resume working.
This practice continued into the later stages of GLaDOS' development, but apparently ended after her takeover of the facility. In Portal , Johnson is only referred to once in the game, in a graffiti by Doug Rattmann found in Test Chamber 17 , simply as cjohnson followed by tier3 scribbled on a wall, which appeared to be an administrator login and password for ApertureScience.
Above can be found three images of men in suits with their heads masked by a Weighted Companion Cube. The bottom-left one, based on a painted portrait of Sam Rayburn , has the words "Our Founder" under it and the letters "R. In Portal 2 , Johnson appears to be deceased, with only his automated pre-recorded voice messages playing to guide Chell through the forgotten bowels of the facility.
In the Perpetual Testing Initiative , which takes place in an alternate timeline in which he did not die of moon rock poisoning, Cave Johnson wants to lessen Aperture's spending to avoid bankruptcy. In order to do so, he establishes the Extra-Earth Outsourcing Initiative. Instead of having Test Chambers built in our own dimension, known as Earth One, the plans are sent to versions of Aperture Science in other dimensions within the multiverse, and these alternate Apertures will then build the Test Chambers.
Along with a different version of Aperture Science, come different versions of Cave Johnson. Cave Johnson is said to have learned to trust his gut. A big picture thinker, he did not expand on details.
He apparently did not really know how science works, but he knew how people "work". He was used to getting what he wants. He was extroverted, enthusiastic and opinionated. He seems to have been very energetic, perhaps even impulsive, and considered that life is an adventure he was happy to be on.
He was born a salesman, a leader, an evangelist. People trusted him, even when his plans were clearly dangerous. He used his warm, homespun delivery to put people at ease. He did not seem to accept the responsibility that comes with his power. Either he did not see or chose not to see the ramifications of his actions and experiments.
The results of the Aperture Science Collaborative Disposition Test tell that Johnson does not see crises - only challenging opportunities "challengitunities" he chooses to scale like mountains, that he is a can-do, shoot-from-the-hip, silver-tongued self-starter, and a good match for any cooperative test partner, providing they shut up and listen.
Originally, Cave Johnson was to be the game's primary antagonist, talking about every chamber entered by the early protagonist Mel , while GLaDOS had only cameo appearances. As the game progressed, Cave would begin to realize how much humanity he had lost. The rest of the story would be the tale of Cave trying to become a robot and leading a robot uprising.
The bots and Cave would gain power. Eventually, they would put the player on trial for having committed war crimes against their brothers-in-arms, the robots turrets, which the player would inevitably have abused in the course of the game. However, this was abandoned due to lack of resources. A casting call conducted by Shana Landsburg for Portal 2 was posted on the subscribers-only industry website Breakdown Express on June 8, , with a concept art portrait of Cave Johnson.
That call sheet, seeking a voice-over artist to take on the role of Johnson, an "eccentric dead billionaire", with work tentatively to start at the end of July , was the first hint that Johnson would appear in Portal 2. During his career in science, he called upon the wealthy and powerful to join his cause for the future of science.
He also employed top scientists and other staff who were dedicated to the field, such as Caroline , and those lacking common sense for the dangers inherent in scientific experimentation. Most of his ideas were wild and, more often than not, lethal.
Some experiments involved replacing the test subject's blood with gasoline, or injecting test subjects with mantis DNA, while others exposed a test subject to jet engines in order to lower the amount of water in the human body. The latter experiment was conducted after Cave Johnson concluded that the average amount of water in the human body 'seemed excessive'. Most of his crackpot ideas turned out to be massive failures, leaving only a few that seemed to be remotely useful, such as the gels that appear during the later stages of the game.
As such, it seems that Aperture had already started to perfect portal technology, but was not ready to release it to the world, under the belief that much more could be done than just create portals. Of course, the technology was also impractical and bulky, and was delayed by Cave's wild innovations. During the s, Aperture Science had become known as just 'Aperture', and the rise of Black Mesa and its success in bidding for contracts pushed Cave's temper to the limit.
It is also implied that Black Mesa stole designs from Aperture and began to produce them commercially before Aperture could do so because Johnson refused to release the devices until they met his excentric standard of perfection. At some point during the s, Cave Johnson had renamed the company to Aperture Laboratories, a name that would be known far into the future.
However, the number of willing test subjects had dwindled over the years, and out of desperation, employees and random strangers were pulled off the streets in order to be a part of the testing. The technology had advanced greatly, and robots had started to replace human employees.
These employees then become unfortunate victims in Cave's quest for the future of science. During his final days, Cave stated that he had tried to purchase a number of "moon rocks".
However, his last few recordings indicated that these acquired "moon rocks" were toxic, and resulted in a fatal illness possibly silicosis, a real effect from breathing dust from crushed lunar rock, as well as the lunar material being ionized and filled with toxic compounds by cosmic radiation, an effect found in Martian soil [1].
He explained that he contracted the illness when, in one of his wild ideas, he was grinding moon rocks together in the name of science in order to form a new type of substance called the 'Conversion Gel', most likely named due to its ability to serve as a portal conductor and allow portals to be placed on any surface.
As the symptoms of his terminal illness became more severe however, he decided to re-purpose the 'conversion gel' to create new portals that would hopefully leech the poison out of his system. As his illness progressed, Cave's emotional state, already precarious due to the success of his rival Black Mesa , began to deteriorate. It was at this point that Cave mentioned the aphorism "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade". As his condition became more debilitating, Cave's comments became increasingly emphatic, resulting in advice to never give up, "get mad," and "make life take the lemons back!
Despite his attempts to stave off fate, all attempts to cure his affliction failed, and with little hope of a cure, he instructed his engineers to start research on artificial intelligence AI and brain mapping in the hope that his brain could be downloaded into a computer.
Cave Johnson : For this next test, we put nanoparticles in the gel. In layman's terms, that's a billion little gizmos that are going to travel into your bloodstream and pump experimental genes and RNA molecules and so forth into your tumors.
Now, maybe you don't have any tumors. Well, don't worry. If you sat on a folding chair in the lobby and weren't wearing lead underpants, we took care of that too. Cave Johnson : [prerecorded message] Welcome, gentlemen, to Aperture Science. Astronauts, war heroes, Olympians - you're here because we want the best, and you are it. So who is ready to make some science? Caroline : I am! Cave Johnson : Ha ha! Now, you already met one another on the limo ride over, so let me introduce myself.
I'm Cave Johnson. I own the place. That eager voice you heard is the lovely Caroline, my assistant. Rest assured, she has transferred your honorarium to the charitable organization of your choice.
Isn't that right, Caroline? Caroline : Yes, sir, Mister Johnson. Cave Johnson : She's the backbone of this facility. Pretty as a postcard, too. Sorry, fellas. She's married. To science. Cave Johnson : Greetings, friend. You might know us as a vital participant in the senate hearings on missing astronauts.
And you've most likely used one of the many products we invented - but that other people have somehow managed to steal from us. Black Mesa can eat my bankrupt Caroline : Sir, the testing?
Cave Johnson : Right. Now, you might be asking yourself, "Cave, just how difficult are these tests? What was in that phonebook of a contract I signed? Am I in danger? Who wants to make sixty dollars? You can also feel free to relax for up to twenty minutes in the waiting room, which is a damn sight more comfortable than the park benches most of you were sleeping on when we found you.
Welcome to Aperture. You're here because we want the best, and you're it. Couldn't keep a straight face.
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