About

"Follow The Damn Train, CJ!" is a memorable quote uttered by the character Big Smoke during a mission in the 2004 action video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Due to the frustrating difficulty of the mission, the quote is often referenced online by fans of the Grand Theft Auto (GTA) series.

Origin

In the GTA: San Andreas mission "Wrong Side of The Tracks", the protagonist CJ and his partner Big Smoke are ambushed by the Vagos Gang at a train station. CJ is then ordered to chase down the escaping gang members who are on top of a train while Big Smoke attempts to shoot them down. The mission is completed once all 4 gang members are killed before the Train reaches the Fredderick Bridge that connects Los Santos with Las Venturas. Failing to do so will cause the mission to fail and prompt Big Smoke to yell "All we had to do was follow the damn Train, CJ!" (shown below).

Spread

On October 13th, 2010, YouTuber qwert50 uploaded a video titled "Follow the Damn Train CJ," which shows his failure in completing the mission due to getting hit by an incoming train.^[2] In five years, the video gathered more than 234.000. On June 2nd, 2011, YouTuber Pocky Pocky uploaded a video titled "Follow the damn train yourself Smoke." in which he plays the mission using a modified Sanchez that looks like Big Smoke (shown below). On September 18th, a forum thread titled "ALL YOU HAD TO DO WAS FOLLOW THE DAMN TRAIN CJ." was posted on IGN that discusses the infamous mission.^[4]

On September 30th, 2014, 9Gag user DOGE23 uploaded a picture titled "All we had to do was follow the damn train cj!", which accumulated over 21.100 points and 500 comments in six months.^[5]

Grand Theft Auto V Easter Egg

In the 2013 action video game Grand Theft Auto V, the mission "Derailed" contains a gold medal objective titled "Better than CJ" which is a direct reference to the San Andreas mission. The objective is completed by landing on the train using the first jump^[6].

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References