Johnny Silverhand

"Wake the fuck up Samurai, we have a city to burn."

- Johnny Silverhand

Johnny Silverhand is a central character throughout the Cyberpunk series, as well as an influential Rockerboy and the lead singer of the band Samurai before the breakup in 2008.

Overview
Johnny Silverhand, originally born as Robert John Under, is a man everyone in America knows about. An ex-US military veteran turned who changed the rockerboy movement to what it is today. He was the lead singer of the band Samurai and one of the most prominent figures that fought against the corporations. More so then any corp, Johnny hates Arasaka and wishes to burn them to the ground for what they did to his girlfriend, which may or may not have been his fault. He's charismatic and quite the charmer. However Johnny is also known to be irrational, impulsive, and a manipulator.

Johnny has a temper and seems to always be on edge, mostly due to his history in the Central American Conflict. His dedication and ambitions are what keep him going, but at the end of the day he doesn't care for anything else but seeing Arasaka burn and his girlfriend freed.

In 2077, Johnny is still as ambitious as ever. He has his own agenda he wants to accomplish and plans to use V to get to it, it's up to them whether Johnny is to be trusted or not.

1990
The Central American Conflict started in 1990. It was a bloodbath, ran by a corrupt and manipulative government. But when their secrets were exposed, many of the American soldiers dropped their red, white, and blue weapons. Instead, they fought back by deserting the military. The government used its power to create powerful propaganda to make the public hate deserters.

But Johnny Silverhand wouldn’t fight a corrupt war. So he went back home to Night City and began his life anew. The military changed his life forever, and even changed his name. Silverhand. A cybernetic arm that replaced the arm he lost at war. His every movement would remind him of his mission: rebellion.

2000s
His rebellion came in the form of a band called Samurai. Samurai was a band made up of these members: Johnny Silverhand, Kerry Eurodyne, Denny, Nancy/Bes Isis, and Henry. His music was revolutionary, and the world loved him. He rose to the top of the carts in record time with his band. But Samurai couldn’t last forever.

Their keyboard player Nancy was in an abusive relationship at the time. When she couldn’t take it anymore, she pushed her abusive boyfriend out of a window and was taken to prison. And without her, Samurai split up in 2008.

Johnny Silverhand was still one of the most popular musicians at the time. He planned to use his star power to begin a solo career and continue to push his anti-corporation and anti-government messages. DBS Music wanted to sign him so desperately that they threatened him and even blackmailed him. They threatened to reveal that he was a deserter.

Instead, Johnny Silverhand signed with Universal Music, and released an entire album calls  SINS of Your Brothers  admitting that he was a deserter, and revealing all the terrible things the government ordered. The album was wildly successful, and changed public perception of what it meant to be a deserter. And Johnny Silverhand was not even at the height of his career yet.

In 2020, everything changed for Johnny Silverhand. He was on a walk with his girlfriend, Alt Cunningham when she was suddenly kidnapped by thugs working for the mega-corporation Arasaka. They wanted to  use  Alt Cunningham for her incredible talent as a programmer. They wanted her to make a software called The Soulkiller that would be able to copy and download any netrunner’s mind. It was a dangerous software, that would have killed anyone whose brain they wanted to copy.

Johnny Silverhand made a plan. He gathered a strike team to infiltrate the Arasaka offices so that he could save Alt Cunningham. On top of that, he called in a favor from all the members of his old band. Samurai gathered together and performed an entirely free show. The show was right in front of the Arasaka Offices in Night City.

The strike team made it there just moments too late. Cunningham was dead. However, while her body was left as a husk, her mind became trapped inside of the Arasaka mainframe. And Johnny planned to get it back.

Dead, Disappeared, Hiding
Johnny, alongside Morgan Blackhand, led an assault the Arasaka HQ in Night City, with the intention of ending the Fourth Corporate War.

He went to find Cunningham, but there were more than a few obstacles in the way. The biggest obstacle was a Borg, Adam Smasher, a once man who is now more machine than flesh.

Legend has it, Adam Smasher gunned down Silverhand with a rifle. His body was never found though, because Militech, a company fighting against Arasaka, launched their attack at the same time. They dropped a bomb on the Arasaka building and nothing was left to find.

Legacy
Ever since he disappeared, people have mourned Johnny Silverhand. There is graffiti all throughout Night City that simply says, “Where’s Johnny?” Even decades later, people hold out hope that Johnny Silverhand is somewhere out there, ready to raise some hell and lead the revolution.

Development
During the E3 2018 trailer, several pieces of graffiti can be seen asking "Wheres Johnny?", alluding to the false reports of his death. During the E3 gameplay reveal, V can be heard listening to Johnny's song, Chippin' In, as well as wearing a Samurai jacket.

At the Microsoft E3 2019 conference, Keanu Reeves was revealed to be playing Silverhand. He shows up at the end of the 2019 Cinematic trailer, helping V after they were left for dead in a dump site. In interviews it was revealed he had been approached a year prior to the announcement.

Campaign
Silverhand acts as V's guide to the city and will be with him or her for most of the game. Throughout the game, the player will be haunted by the "digital ghost" of Silverhand, suggesting that he is physically dead. The full gameplay scope of Silverhand's involvement with the character is not fully known, but he will make comments on the player's actions through voiceover, and will occasionally appear in game as a hologram. Figuring out the mystery of Johnny Silverhand's digital ghost is a large part of the main plot line.

Quotes

 * "Wake the fuck up, Samurai. We have a city to burn."


 * ”Come on. Really think they give a rat's dick how you look?”

Trivia

 * Mike Pondsmith's original inspiration for Johnny Silverhand was David Bowie from 'Labyrinth'.
 * Johnny Silverhand is portrayed by two people in 2077, his face is modeled after Keanu Reeves who also does his voice throughout the game. The Samurai Soundtrack Johnny is portrayed by Dennis Lyxzen from Refused.
 * Johnny first appears in the Cyberpunk 2013 supplementary booklet, Welcome to Night City, within the mini adventure Never Fade Away.
 * In many interviews Mike Pondsmith has mentioned, Johnny Silverhand may be one of the main characters, but he is far from being the good guy in the story. In Cyberpunk there are no good guys.