Cave Johnson

Cave Johnson is the founder of Aperture Science, which was built from Aperture Science Innovators. He was briefly mentioned in Portal, then was mentioned with additionnal details during the first Portal 2 ARG, before becoming a more prominent character in Portal 2, in the form of tape recordings he leaves behind. His current status and whereabouts are unknown, presumed dead.

Portrait of Cave Johnson.

“

I'm Cave Johnson. I own the place.

Click to listen

— Cave Johnson

”

Cave Johnson is voiced by American actor J. K. Simmons.

History

Shower curtains

In 1953 Cave Johnson sets up Aperture Fixtures, a shower curtain manufacturer. The precursor to Aperture Science, he chose the name because it 'makes the curtains sound more hygienic'. He becomes a billionaire after winning contracts to manufacture the US Military's shower curtains.

Aperture Science Innovators

During his career in science, he called on the wealthy or power elite to join his cause for the future of science, as well as those with the brains, much like Caroline, and those lacking common sense for the dangers of science. Most of his ideas were wild and, more often than not, lethal. Some experiments involved replacing the test subjects blood with gasoline, while another exposed a tester to jet engines to lower the amount of water in the human body, stating it seemed 'excessive'. Most of his crackpot ideas turn out to be massive failures, leaving only a few that seem to be remotely useful ideas such as the gels that appear during the later stages of the game, namely Propulsion Gel and Repulsion Gel.

Aperture

At the time of creation, Aperture Science Innovations had created the Aperture Science Portable Quantum Tunneling Device, a prototype to the modern Handheld Portal Device Chell wields. It seems Aperture had already begun to perfect the portal technology, but was not ready to unleash it to the world, thinking much more could be done than just portals. Of course, the technology was impractical and bulky, coupled with Cave's wild innovations. During the 70s, Aperture Science had become known as just 'Aperture', with the rise and competition of Black Mesa already putting Cave's temper to its limits. It was also around this time that Caroline became a bigger part of Cave's life as a secretary. It's also around this time where Cave becomes more desperate in his struggle to continue the life of his career and company through incentives, even if they were low-ball offers to lure potential test subjects to their doom.

Aperture Laboratories

See also: Aperture Science

Sometime during the 80's, Cave Johnson had renamed the company Aperture Laboratories, a name that would be known far into the future. However, the number of willing test subjects has dwindled over the years, and it grows to the point where employees and random strangers are pulled off the streets to be a part of the testing. The technology has advanced greatly, where robots are beginning to replace human employees. Said employees then become unfortunate victims of science in Cave's visions of the future of science.

During his final days, he states he has tried to purchase a number of "moon rocks". However, his last few recordings indicate that these acquired "moon rocks" have caused him great illness. He explains that, in one of his wild ideas, he was grounding moon rocks together in the name of science to form a new type of substance called the 'Conversion Gel', most likely named due to its ability to serve as a great portal conductor by converting covered materials into suitable surfaces to place Portals on. However, With his terminal illness still growing worse and with no cure available, he decides to re-purpose the 'conversion gel' to create new portals that would hopefully sap the poison out of him.

With little hope of a cure left, he instructs his engineers to start research on artificial intelligence (AI) and brain mapping in the hopes his brain can be downloaded onto a computer, stating they "should've been doing this 30 years ago". He also states that if he were to die before the technology is released, he leaves instructions that his secretary Caroline will take charge of Aperture Science. He states that he knows she'll decline at first or feel she can't do it, which he follows up with "Force her to do it if you have to". It is unknown what becomes of him, but it is presumed he fell victim to the illness, and ultimately, to science.

References

Portal

First Portal 2 ARG

Additional details about Portal 2 background were provided by the first Portal 2 ARG, which took place in March 2010. On those notes, Cave Johnson's life, as well as Aperture history, look much different than in Portal 1, foreseeing the retconned Aperture history showcased in Portal 2 : most notably, some of the ARG text findings are written into the form of Cave Johnson's post-mortem memos, implying that Johnson's consciousness was uploaded into an AI, much like Caroline's in the final game.^[1]

Gallery

A young Cave Johnson.
An older Cave Johnson.
Cave Johnson with his secretary, Caroline.
Last known image of Cave Johnson.
Cave Johnson's image from the leaked 2008 casting call.

Trivia

During early stage of development, Cave Johnson was planned to be the player's sidekick, taking the form of an AI. As the story progressed, he would lose his touch with humanity and eventually try to become a full robot, leading to a robot uprising. Cave would confront the player for their "commited crimes against their brothers-in-arms" and become the game's main antagonist. Cave's original role of sidekick to antagonist was recycled in the final game by Wheatley.