Not to be confused with In The Beginning..., another introduction mission from Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.
“Grove Street - Home. At least it was before I fucked everything up.”
— Carl Johnson, once he reaches Grove Street for the first time.
In the Beginning is the introductory mission of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, which introduces the protagonist Carl Johnson and shows his return to his home in Grove Street in the neighborhood of Ganton, Los Santos.
Cutscene
“After five years on the East Coast, it was time to go home.”
— Carl Johnson at Francis International Airport
The game starts with Carl Johnson loading his suitcase onto the baggage carousel at Francis International Airport in Liberty City, saying it is time to go back home after living in Liberty City for five years. As Carl retrieves his suitcase at the Los Santos International Airport arrivals lounge, the phone call from his estranged brother Sweet Johnson, informing him that their mother had died, is heard. Carl catches a taxi and heads home to Grove Street.
As Carl nears Grove Street, his Taxi is pulled over by a police car with three members of C.R.A.S.H. - Frank Tenpenny, Eddie Pulaski and Jimmy Hernandez. Carl exits the taxi with his hands on his head and is confronted by the three Los Santos Police Department police officers. Tenpenny confiscates Carl's money, which he claims to be drug money. After that Tenpenny bundles Carl into the police car while Pulaski shoos off the taxi, with Carl's suitcase still in it.
Tenpenny threatens Carl to frame him for the murder of LSPD officer Ralph Pendelbury (which was actually committed by Hernandez when he was forced to do so by Tenpenny and Pulaski). Tenpenny tells Carl that he will be watching him. The officers then throw Carl out of the car in the Ballas territory of Jefferson. The game then instructs the player to get on the BMX parked nearby and make their way back to Grove Street.
Tutorial Objectives
No actual mission takes place after the cutscene, but the game instructs the player to:
- Get on the BMX bicycle.
- Follow the "CJ" icon on the map and go to Johnson House in Grove Street.
Reaching Grove Street
The mission ends when the cutscene ends. The game instructs the player to reach Grove Street, but it is not part of the mission. Once the cutscene ends, CJ will be in an alleyway in Jefferson with a BMX parked nearby. Either get on the BMX as instructed by the game or take any other vehicle and get back to the Johnson House (denoted by the "CJ" icon on the radar) in Grove Street.
The game will instruct the player on how to ride the BMX. The controls are same for other land vehicles. The easiest route to reach Grove Street is by following the railway line.
Once CJ reaches Grove Street, walk into the mission marker in front of the Johnson House to start the first mission, Big Smoke.
Transcript
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Walkthrough
Carl "CJ" Johnson is preparing to get on a flight back home to Los Santos after 5 years of being away.
After landing in Los Santos International Airport back in his hometown, CJ recalls his brother calling him.
CJ recalls his brother telling him that their mother has passed, making Carl decide to come back.
Outside of the airport CJ gets into a taxi and heads back home...
CJ is nearly back at his childhood neighborhood in Ganton, as an LSPD patrol car pulls CJ's taxi over.
Two police officer get out of the patrol car and point their weapons at the taxi.
The third police officer gets on a microphone and orders CJ to get out of the car. CJ gets out and is told to put his hands up and walk towards them.
After CJ nears the patrol car he is told to stop and get down on his knees.
After CJ gets down on his knees he's told to get down on his stomach.
One of the officers apprehends CJ and takes some money from him. The commanding officer tells him that he'll take it.
CJ tells the officer that he can't just take his money like that.
The officer says that it's made via drug dealing, therefore he can.
The other officer tells CJ that he'll get it back later.
The officer who took CJ's money welcomes him back to Los Santos and asks him if he's glad to be back. He then laughingly asks if he hasn't forgotten about them, implying that CJ has history with the three officers.
CJ recognizes the commanding officer as Frank Tenpenny and tells him that he would never forget about them and says that he was just wondering why they took as long as they did to apprehend him.
Tenpenny tells Carl to get into the car.
As Tenpenny puts Carl inside, he tells him to watch his head and purposefully slams it into the car's roof, making his fellow C.R.A.S.H. officers share a laugh.
One of the officers, Eddie Pulaski then addresses the taxi driver and tells him to get out of there.
As the C.R.A.S.H officers prepare to drive off, CJ complains about them confiscating his bag.
CJ and the officers take off on a stroll around Los Santos...
As the officers and CJ drive around the block, Tenpenny decides to converse with him. He asks how his family is doing.
CJ tells Tenpenny that he came back to Los Santos to pay respects to his dead mother and Tenpenny probably knows it, since he's always involved with interfering in his family's business. Tenpenny responds saying that CJ is correct. He then asks what he's been up to in the five years the two hadn't seen each other.
CJ tells Tenpenny that he's no longer involved with crime and that he's living a legit life in Liberty City now.
Tenpenny laughs at the idea of CJ not being involved with crime anymore and says that he knows he's lying.
Pulaski takes a look at Carl's belongings and plants a gun there.
Tenpenny says that the gun was used to gun down a police officer very recently.
Tenpenny says that the officer CJ supposedly killed was Ralph Pendelbury and it's a real shame CJ decided to kill him, as he was a good man.
Tenpenny sarcastically tells CJ he works incredibly quickly if he killed Pendelbury in so little time after getting off the plane.
CJ tells Tenpenny that he just got off the plane and Tenpenny knows his. Pulaski says that it's a good thing they managed to find him then.
CJ still says it's not his gun.
Tenpenny tells CJ not to lie in his face like that.
CJ asks Tenpenny what their unit wants from him now, since they intend to blackmail him for something.
Tenpenny tells CJ that they don't want anything for now, but that he'll be their man if they come up with something. Tenpenny then says that they intend to let CJ go now.
CJ tells Tenpenny that he can't be left here since they're driving in Ballas, CJ's sworn enemies', territory.
Tenpenny says that he thought Carl said he didn't involve himself with crime anymore and that being in Ballas hood shouldn't be problem for him if he's no longer a gangster.
Tenpenny throws CJ out of the car and into the alleyway they were driving through and mocks him.
As they drop CJ out, the police dispatcher says that Officer Pendelbury was found dead and Pulaski responds to the radio call, saying they'll be right over.
CJ monologues about how dangerous it is for him to be in Rollin' Heights Ballas territory. He says that he didn't represent Grove Street Families in a very long time, but is unsure if it'll make a difference to the bloodthirsty Ballas that occupy the area.
CJ must now make his way to Grove Street in Ganton and reunite with his family after five years.
CJ heading home.
CJ monologues as he approaches the street he spent the better part of his life in.
After returning to Grove Street after five years of being away, CJ heads back into his late mother's house...
Video Walkthroughs
Gallery
"Grove Street – home. At least it was before I fucked everything up."
Oversights
- In the PC version, if the host computer is running at around 25-30 frames per second, the police car will drive on before the train has passed the level crossing, causing it to pass through the train.
Trivia
- The cutscene model for the Police vehicle differs from its in-game counterpart. In the PC version, the car does not have specular reflection, causing it to look much darker than a normal LSPD car. Also the wheels are reused from Grand Theft Auto III and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, the license plate is blank, and the rear lights are black for some reason.
- During the cutscene at the airport, Carl has a Rockstar Games logo on his suitcase.
- The player is free to explore Los Santos after the cutscenes conclude. Players are able to gather money and weapons, purchase several safehouses and even work on increasing their stats. They won't be able to buy new clothes, haircuts or tattoos since none of them have been unlocked yet, and the only food they can buy is from street vendors and vending machines, and they can only work out at the Verona Beach Gym if they wish to build their muscle stat at this point.
- While the name "In the Beginning" may appear in the save file after purchasing a safehouse and saving the game, it is not actually the name of any mission. Instead, "In the Beginning" serves as a placeholder title used when the "last completed mission" statistic in a savefile is empty. This typically occurs early in the game, before any major missions have been completed. There is no specific mission associated with this label; it's simply the default fallback when no mission has yet been marked as completed.
- Additionally, if the player, through the use of modifications, somehow manages to save the game before even triggering the introduction sequence, the save file will still display "In the Beginning", reinforcing that it is a generic placeholder and not tied to any actual mission content.
- The female steward at the airport uses cartoonish textures which contrast with the game's character art style, implying she was created very early in development and never updated, as a couple of other unused peds, such as an early rendition of the
BFYSTped and a female valet, as they use the same texturing scheme and low poly modelling.[1][2] - Tenpenny has extra lines recorded after bailing Carl out of the patrol car, but because of the distance, they go unheard. The audio file is longer than what is heard in-game.
- Carl's line, "You can't leave me here - it's Ballas' country!" is a reference to Duke's line in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, "We can't stop here, this is bat country."
- This is also a reference to Menace II Society, where the cops leave Sharif and Caine on Mexican gang territory.
- In the cutscene where Carl Johnson says, "Whassup, Sweet, what you want?", the player can see the interior world.
