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Jonathan Cross (also known as Sergeant Cross or Cross) is a character that appears in Need for Speed: Most Wanted and Need for Speed: Carbon through live action segments as well as during gameplay. He also has a short cameo in Need for Speed: Payback.

In Need for Speed: Most Wanted, Cross works as a police sergeant for the Street Racing Unit of the Rockport Police Department[2]. He is constantly accompanied by his unnamed female partner.

In Need for Speed: Carbon, Cross works as a bounty hunter to hunt the player.

Need for Speed: Most Wanted

Cross first appears during the prologue of Need for Speed: Most Wanted, where he pulls the player over for street racing and driving a unsuspectingly non-street legal car. Due to an emergency call, Cross is forced to release the player, leaving a big scratch on the car caused by his car keys beforehand, but still gets his chance of arresting him after the player loses their car to Razor. The player is later released from custody due to a lack of evidence.

Cross makes his final appearance after the player defeats Razor and becomes the number one on the Blacklist. As Mia has let the player go, Cross calls in all units of the Rockport Police Department to catch the player once and for all. After the player jumps through an incomplete bridge and successfully evades all units, Cross issues them the national Most Wanted status.

Need for Speed: Carbon

Cross discovers the player on the Carbon Canyon on their way to Palmont City and starts to chase them. The player fails to escape from him due to totalling their car in a crash in a construction site. When Cross is about to apprehend the player, he is called off by Darius, who offers him to pay the player's bounty.

Cross' last appearance takes place after Darius betrays the player by turning them over to him again. Owing to a deal with Nikki, which obliges her to pay the player's bounty, Cross sets the player free and drives off.

Need for Speed: Payback

Cross makes a brief appearance in Need for Speed: Payback through a voice recording that plays during the mission Covert Courier.

Pursuit

Main article: Pursuit

Cross has a small chance of appearing in Heat Level 5 or 6 pursuits to aid other pursuing officers.[3] The player receives a bounty of $100,000 for wrecking his car. He also appears as a police unit in Need for Speed: Carbon despite not being intended to do so.[4]

Vehicles

Cross' pursuit vehicle is a Federal Cruiser with a unique livery that appears in heat condition 5 or 6 pursuits. He is featured with different cars outside of pursuit events:

  • Cross is seen driving a Chevrolet Corvette C6.R during FMV cutscenes of Need for Speed: Most Wanted and a Chevrolet Corvette Z06 in Need for Speed: Carbon. The latter may be unlocked as a reward card for Quick Race play without upgraded performance.
  • Cross' Chevrolet Corvette Z06 in Need for Speed: Carbon is fitted with a bodykit overlaid on top of the stock body.
Development - Main article: Need for Speed: Most Wanted/Development.
  • The PlayStation 2 demo of Need for Speed: Most Wanted features an unused variant of Cross' Corvette with a yellow stripe livery, which only appears in the introduction film of the final release.
  • Cross' pursuit vehicle featured in Need for Speed: Most Wanted can be found in the game files of Need for Speed: World.
  • Unused textures show that at some point of the game's development, Cross' car was going to be a C6.R instead of a C6 in Need for Speed: Most Wanted.

Trivia

Need for Speed: Most Wanted

  • After defeating the number 5 on the Blacklist - Webster - the player receives a voice message from Cross, which states that he will "help them out" with some pinstripes and looks forward to busting them repeatedly. This means the player can now get up to heat level 5 in pursuits.[5]
  • The scene in which Cross shouts "Everyone" in Need for Speed: Most Wanted is a reference to the 1994 French Motion Picture - "Léon: The Professional".

Need for Speed: Carbon

  • Some trailers for Need for Speed: Carbon show Cross' RPD Interceptor being driven by players during a Pursuit Knockout event, which was replaced by the Police Federal Cruiser in the final release.
  • Darius jokingly mispronounces Cross' name as Crog or Crawl.
  • The player has a $150,000 bounty according to Cross.
  • The player has to drive Cross' Corvette Z06, fitted with performance parts, in the Gold Canyon Challenge Series event along the "Eternity Pass" course against a BMW M3 GTR GT.
  • During the prologue, Cross will actively attempt to ram and hit the player repeatedly, going as far as to turn around if passed. This is the only instance of cop A.I. behaviour in a Canyon Duel.

Need for Speed: Undercover

  • Cross is said to be affiliated with Gregory MacDonald in Need for Speed: Undercover, who is a police lieutenant turned criminal.
  • Cross' full name - Jonathan Cross - is the only transcript with his first name and appears as part of Gregory MacDonald's FBI file in the Prima Official Game Guide for Need for Speed: Undercover.[6]

Need for Speed: Payback

  • The recording of Cross that plays during the mission Covert Courier in Need for Speed: Payback is voiced by Chris Williams.

Need for Speed: Heat

  • An Easter egg reference to Cross with a sign for the Sgt. Cross Memorial Bridge, which can be found in Mendoza Keys, Palm City.

Cameos

Gallery

References

  1. Prima Official Game Guide - Need for Speed: Undercover (GMac's FBI file)
  2. Voice Message by Mia ("Cross has your file.")
  3. Prima Official Game Guide - Need for Speed: Most Wanted, p.33
  4. Prima Official Game Guide - Need for Speed: Carbon, p.68 (not mentioned in the heat level summary)
  5. Voice Message by Cross ("Pin stripes.")
  6. Anthony, B. 2008. Gregory "GMCAC" MacDonald. In: Need for Speed: Undercover - Prima Official Game Guide (pp. 103).


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