The Hoods

HUNTERS
The Hoods
Fronts	Carcer Mark
Type	Street thugs
Affiliations	Lionel Starkweather
Weapon(s)	Blackjack Baseball Bat Crowbar Fire Axe (unused) Hammer (unused)
Businesses	Contract killing
Known members	Carl Doug Duke Mike Vince Zed
Game information
Appearance(s)	Manhunt
Voiced by	Hood 1 - John Doman Hood 2 - Greg Salata The Crusher - Peter Appel Hood 4 - Nestor Serrano Hood 5 - Sean Lynch Hood 6 - Lenny Venito
Motion Capture	Lawrence Ballard

“The Hoods are a mixed bag of off-duty cops and local thugs. They partake in the hunt largely for the financial gain rather than the vicious brutality enjoyed by the other hunters. The Hoods are unruly for the most part; they are noisy and impulsive. They suffer from a lack of concentration during the hunt, treating it like weekend deer hunting. The Hoods dress in dark, non-descript street clothes and wear an assortment of balaclavas and ski masks.”

―Official Strategy Guide

The Hoods are a hunter gang in Manhunt. They are the first gang the player encounters in the game.

Background

The Hoods are a local gang composed of thugs with average Joe backgrounds, their sole territory being the decrepit Carcer Mark neighborhoods. They are presumably named after the variety of hoods they wear: executioner hoods, balaclavas, ski masks, and tied-up rubber bags. These thugs are just as violent as the other gangs who participated in Starkweather's snuff films, but they are mainly motivated to participate in the manhunt by the bounty on the runner rather than the pleasures in taking and harming a life that the rest of the gangs are motivated by, although they still enjoy the manhunt's prospects of violence nevertheless, such as human trophies and the thrill of the kill.

There's a common misconception about the Hoods being off duty policemen. It seems to have originated from the official Manhunt Strategy Guide. However, there's nothing in the game, or any of its related material that even implies that the Hoods have backgrounds in the police department, not to mention that the Hoods are willing to attack any police officers for their clients, which contradicts with the Hoods being cops since they'd never attack each other with no existing tensions in the gang.

According to Valiant Video's Winter / Spring Catalogue, the Hoods offer services as hitmen. They also have tags around Carcer City to define their turfs.

Members

Names like Vince, Duke, Zed, Doug, Mike and Carl are said by the Hoods to refer to each other. It's unknown which among them do these names belong to.

The Hoods are composed of Americans that include those who sound like they're from New York or New Jersey and some African-Americans, based on the models.

Notable Members

Portrait	Hunter's name	Summary of background
	Duke	An old but violent thug who has back problems, a harmful smoking habit, and his own family. Outside of pursuing and hunting Cash which is when he sounds more excited and energetic, he sounds sad and tired likely due to the issues he's had in life, like his nagging wife Lucy who might be cheating on him while he's away.
	Mike	A violent hoodlum distinguished by his New York accent and his recent purchase of the Maibatsu Monstrosity which he brags about. He joined the manhunt for Cash with the intent to kill him before flaying him for a trophy. No different from the other Hoods, he has a bad relationship with his woman who finds him lacking and he disapproves of her plans to move in together with him.
	The Crusher	A cruel and violent brute of a lowlife. Not only does he want to collect a trophy from him, but he also wants to brutally murder Cash in relatively gruesome ways to collect the bounty on his head which he plans to spend on a new car, perhaps the new Maibatsu car that he saw which impressed him. Like the other Hoods, he has a bad relationship with his woman, whom he often argues with and hates to see drunk after leaving her alone by herself.
	Vince	A hoodlum who sounds more relaxed and cheerful than the others, he is unique because he is the only hunter with a happy family life. He has an athlete son who graduated into the “state finals” of some sport, it is implied his family is aware of and accepting of his hood life since he plans to tell his kids how the manhunt went, and he lives a happy life with his woman. He is one of the few Hoods who are privy to those behind the manhunt and how they control its participants. He's still a thug who enjoys violence, though.
	Carl	A tryhard Hood who badly wants to get Cash first, because of the two things he wants from him: the bounty on his head and the thrill of the kill. He is easily frustrated and thus he will whine at himself and the Hoods when he fails to get any of these two. Also, he's quite cowardly as he only faces his death without bravery or acceptance. Like most of the Hoods, he has a poor relationship with his woman who thinks him as a pathetic excuse of a man, causing him to regard her poorly.
	Lenny	The only Hood who is single, he is also one of the few members who are on to the truth of this manhunt (such as the people behind it and their intentions) and he's very concerned about what it means to his survival and his gang's, disquieting his cowardly lowlife ass. Like the other Hoods, he's looking to get a trophy from Cash, his ear to be specific. He is distinguished by his (subjectively) funny New York accent as well as him being a foodie.

Apparel

Just like with most other gangs in the game, there are three Hoods models in the game files and three textures for each model.

Image	File name	Description
	HodB1A	This Hood is a clean shaven and old Caucasian man with dark stringy hair. He wears black leather work boots, fading blue and belted jeans, a Prussian blue sweater, a black leather motorcycle jacket with the Hoods' “H” symbol painted on its back along with a tan stocking with tears tied over his head for a hood. Hunters who use this skin: Hood 3, Hood 4
	HodB1B	This Hood is a bald middle-aged Caucasian man with a scruffy beard. He wears white sneakers with blue stripes, fading and belted sand-colored khakis, a dark purple-blue shirt, a red varsity jacket with yellow sleeves and trim and “Furys” written on the back along with a tan stocking with tears tied over his head for a hood. Hunters who use this skin: Hood 1 (in Doorway to Hell only), Hood 3, Hood 4
	HodB1C	This Hood is a clean shaven and dark skinned man with pulled back hair and an ageing body. He wears seaweed green boots, torn blue sweatpants, a tan tank top, a mint green and faded winter jacket with a bloodstain smear and a yellow tag on his right breast, and a tan stocking with tears (including a noticeable claw mark near his left eye) tied over his head for a hood. Hunters who use this skin: Hood 3
	HodM1A	This Hood is a light skinned man with a tribal tattoo and writing on his chest, along with a colorful tattoo design on his left forearm. He wears black boots, brown jeans with a large belt, an open sleeveless leather jacket decorated with six tally marks and the Hoods' “H” symbol painted on his left breast and its back, as well a red hood resembling that of a medieval executioner's with the word “HATE” written on it. Hunters who use this skin: Hood 1, Hood 2
	HodM1B	This Hood is a lighter skinned man covered in scratches and scars. He wears black boots with red laces, worn jeans and a buckle plate, black biker gloves, an olive green shirt, an open sleeveless leather jacket decorated with various pins on the front and a skull and crossbones with the words “FUCKER” painted on the back, as well as a leather Medieval-esque Gimp hood, with a “X” shape cut into the forehead. Hunters who use this skin: Hood 2
	HodM1C	This Hood is a dark skinned man with scrapes, stitches and tribal tattoos. He wears black leather boots, torn jeans with a large buckle, black biker gloves, a wifebeater, an open red jacket, which is marked on his right breast with the word “PIG” overtop three tally marks, that are aligned to the words “DIE DIE DIE” on his left side, along with “FUCK YOU UP” scrawled across his back, and finally a black hood that invokes the image of a medieval executioner that has a large red cross painted down its front. Hunters who use this skin: Hood 1
	HodS1A	The Hood is a white man with a tattoo of a topless cowgirl on his right forearm. He wears black leather boots, torn brown khakis, a black sweater and a slightly torn blue balaclava. Hunters who use this skin: Hood 5, Hood 6
	HodS1B	The Hood is a white man who wears black sneakers, torn jeans, black biker gloves, a dirty brown sweater and a black balaclava with a scar shape cut going across the left-most side of the eye hole. Hunters who use this skin: Hood 5, Hood 6
	HodS1C	The Hood is a tattooed black man who wears brown boots, green cargo pants, black biker gloves, a blue sweatshirt with “Furys” written on the front and a slightly torn red balaclava. Hunters who use this skin: Hood 5, Hood 6
	Hod_F1 Fat_Hood	The Hood is an obese white man, who wears boots and pants. The texture is found in a Manhunt 2 episode, Ritual Cleansing. The "F" in the file name means "fat", meaning that the Hood member is an obese.

Relationships

With Valiant Video and the manhunt

Before the events of Manhunt, the Hoods starred in The Hoods Take Carcer, a 5 star rated snuff film from Valiant Video Enterprises. This gang has also participated in some of Starkweather's manhunts before Cash's time.

Snuff film director Lionel Starkweather hired the unfortunate Hoods as the first group of hunters that his brand new leading star James Earl Cash must snuff for the Director's pleasure. He set up multiple specific Hoods to die to Cash (or at least compromise them), plus it is implied he purposely made the Hoods underequipped and even underprepared (such as not supplying them with flashlights or dogs to help them find Cash) for the manhunt. To make matters worse for the Hoods, the Director manipulated and exploited the circumstances (filming at night, hiring hungover and sleepy Hoods to his hunt, etc.) to make Cash's debut much easier. He has a poor opinion on all of the snuff film's hunters, including the Hoods whom he calls a bunch of “shitheads” and “low-life cowards” while directing Cash.

Apparently, they were told that the manhunt for Cash was just a game, a kind of blood sport. They reveal this to Cash as an excuse for him to not take it seriously whenever he is causing them real danger or trouble. The manhunt's runner, James Earl Cash, had a bounty of an unknown amount of dollars on his head. Whatever his price was, it was enough to draw the interest of the Hoods to participate in hunting him down.

While idle and oblivious to Cash, one of the Hoods mentions the Director telling him that he is being “carried” by an unknown entity, perhaps Valiant Video Enterprises.

One of the Hoods and, by extension, his fellow Hoods are sponsors of Valiant Video Enterprises. These hoods offer their services to anyone who needs their target hospitalized and perhaps even killed in a brutal gang beating, from old teachers that still annoy their client to pesky law-abiding cops.

As one of the wielders of the Wooden Bat, individual members of the Hoods must've signed their bats to be sold by Valiant Video to their members only.

Enemies

Remnants of their rivalry with the Innocentz can be found in the scene View of Innocence where a dead Hood can be found sitting on a toilet (in the bathrooms where the gun wielding Innocent jumps out of after Cash restores the power) with his head blown off, presumably done by said Innocent lurking in there.

History

Prior to Manhunt

At some point prior to 1992, the Hoods had some influence in San Andreas, particularly in the city of Las Venturas, as evidenced by wanted posters of Hoods (along with Cash) appearing in the Las Venturas police department. They do not physically appear in the game, suggesting that what little territory they once held was lost.

Events of Manhunt

The Hoods are the first gang Cash encounters in his debut scene, Born Again. He faces these men throughout Carcer City Mark and he is told little about them by the Director, who tells him that they're nothing but “meat” for him. From Carcer Mark Shopping Mall, to Carcer City Library, many corpses of the Hoods lie strewn at Cash's wake―their final moments well recorded for the Director's snuff film―as he makes his way to the next scene.

Scenes of Appearance

Tied with the Wardogs, the Hoods have the second most appearances in Manhunt when counting ‘cameos’ and bonus scenes, only edged out by the Cerberus when counting cutscenes.

Manhunt

• Born Again
• Doorway Into Hell
• Road to Ruin
• View of Innocence (Cameo, a headless corpse of a Hood is in the bathroom where a jumpscare Innocent leaps out of)
• Hard as Nails
• Brawl Game
• Time 2 Die

Gallery

Screenshots

Two Hoods chasing Cash in the Carcer Mark Mall.

Three Hoods in the Hoods Warehouse.

A Hood patrolling the derelict alleyways of Carcer Mark.

A Hood patrolling a street in Carcer Mark.

Cash carrying a dead Hood.

Trivia

• The Hoods are named after the word “hoodlum” which refers to a gangster or a thug. Said word may be shortened to just “hood” which has the same meaning.
• The beta Hoods have quite a few visual differences from the release versions, this is an incomplete list of them:
  • HodB1C is missing smaller details on his coat.
  • HodM1A has a more readable white "H" on his hood instead of "HATE", less coat strapping and lower res textures.
  • HodM1B has less rivets on his hood as well a more bondage/DIY stitch line where he now has a "X", and lower res textures.
  • HodM1C has a less detailed mask, less readable coat markings, less strapping and lower res textures.
• HODB1B and HODC1C have "Furys" written on their jacket and sweatshirt respectively - a possible reference to the Baseball Furies in the 1979 action film The Warriors.
• A member of the Hoods is featured on the background of Manhunt’s main menu. He wields a weapon resembling a short sword that's not found in the game.
• Although the Hoods are not actually off-duty cops, they do share similarities with the CCPD, which may have led to the creation of this misconception:
  • Both the Blackjack and the Nightstick, weapons wielded by the Hoods and the CCPD respectively, use the same execution animations.
  • Relatively, the Hoods and the CCPD have normal backgrounds. They have no perverse cultures in their normal lives (unlike the Skinz who are white supremacists, the Wardogs being poachers of men and animals alike, the Innocentz being a mixture of many repulsive people in society, and the Smileys being mentally ill), and some of their members have families that may have children.
  • Hood 2 and SWAT officer Alpha mention a “Finnegan” entity. Hood 2 implies his gang is associated with it, while Alpha implies that Finnegan is a bar.
  • Both the Hoods and the CCPD have a member named “Mike” among them.
• Mugshots of some Hoods (alongside Cash's mugshots) can be found in bulletins in the Las Venturas Police Headquarters. Besides being references to Manhunt in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, it might imply that the Hoods are also wanted outside of Carcer City.