Grand Theft Auto V / Single Player Tropes N to Z

General Tropes | Single Player Tropes 0 to D | Single Player Tropes E to M | Single Player Tropes N to Z

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• Naked Nutter:
  • From time to time, Trevor ends up stripped down to his underwear in public, usually while doing something spectacularly irrational.
  • The Altruist Cult consists entirely of cannibalistic baby boomers who believe that they can regain their health by feeding on younger generations... and, as part of their ethos, often go around partially or completely naked. Hilarity Ensues when they interact with Trevor.
  • After being drugged by his son Jimmy in the mission "Did Somebody Say Yoga?", Michael trips out and wakes up stripped down to his underwear.
• Never Work with Children or Animals: Referenced in-universe. Solomon Richards references this during his first meeting with Michael. He has his own saying: Never work with actors or directors.
• Nerf: The next gen assassination stock values took a hit from the old values, which made it ridiculously easy to rack up 2.1 billion dollars after completing the game (for completions' sake).
• Next Sunday A.D.: Going by calendars found in several missions, the game takes place over the course of several months, starting in August (a month before the game's release date) and ending in November of 2013.
• Nice to the Waiter:
  • You can make Michael greet his maid and gardener when they are around.
  • After getting a haircut, whichever protagonist you're controlling will nod politely (as a quiet "thank you" to the barber).
• No Celebrities Were Harmed:
  • Two of the Fame or Shame judges, Hugh Harrison and Anita Mendoza, are very obvious parodies of Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul respectively.
  • Dr Friedlander looks and sounds like a typical John Turturro role.
• No Fourth Wall: Solomon Richards' movie, Meltdown.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: In "Eye In The Sky," if you decide to spare Chad Mulligan while stealing his car, he calls the cops, giving the player a two-star wanted level.
• Nobody Poops: Averted as Trevor can use a toilet to "take a dump".
• Noodle Incident:
  • If you switch to another character after leaving them alone for long enough, you might find them in the middle of a rather odd situation without any context. For example, switching to Trevor might see him waking up on a mountain in woman's clothing.
  • According to the mission "Marriage Counseling", Michael once cheated on Amanda in a seedy hotel. The exact details are unknown, other than that he apparently got crabs from the incident.
  • Overall, the exchange between Trevor and Martin Madrazo which resulted in Trevor kidnapping Madrazo's wife is one big Noodle Incident since we as the players only see one side of it. We only have Trevor's word on what occurred, saying that Martin "kinda got a little angry" when he asked for payment for services rendered, which caused Trevor himself to "kinda [get] a little angry" in return, result of which quickly escalated to Trevor kidnapping Madrazo's wife and cutting off his ear.
• Nostalgia Level: The mission "Hood Safari" takes you back to Grove Street ! Although it's also a case of nostalgic Tear Jerker, since the hood is now Ballas turf, with the house you have to visit being a smaller, run-down version of the Johnson house.
• Not Enough to Bury: Devin's legal secretary, Molly suffers this fate after getting sucked into a jet engine while being pursued by Michael. The only recognizable part of her left is a hand.
• Nothing Is Scarier:
  • Although there are a lot of times where we see Trevor committing grisly acts and murders, there are some times where the game doesn't show us what happens, leaving our imagination to do the rest. The biggest examples of this are Debra killing Floyd and Trevor killing Debra in revenge (which involves an abrupt Smash to Black and ends with Trevor completely covered in blood) and Trevor killing Leon (which takes place behind a closed door and doesn't last for long as the game automatically switches you to another character).
  • Exploring the ocean can be this when there aren't any sharks around. The deeper you go, the less light there is, and massive underwater cliffs and spires appear practically out of nowhere constantly. The submarine has no radio (unless you're playing the Xbox One, Playstation 4 or PC versions), so you're stuck listening to either the eerie ambient music, the droning of the submarine's engines, or various strange undersea noises. The next-gen releases add a healthy dose of nightmare retardant, however; while sharks and fish were the only sea creatures present in the original versions, the enhanced editions add humpback whales, killer whales and dolphins to keep you company.
• Oblivious Guilt Slinging: Several people do this to Trevor after him and Michael destroy their friendship. Patricia does it completely innocently, while Lamar does it initially unaware but later catches on and starts doing it deliberately.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • At the end of the mission "Derailed" Michael tells Trevor that if he gives Michael the loot so he can get himself out of Martin's bad graces he will get Trevor something better in return. When Michael tells him it's the Union Depository Trevor goes from irritated to uncharacteristically silent, clearly stunned at what Michael just suggested. He even claims it to be impossible and borderline suicidal only for Michael to insist that with Franklin and Lester it's not some unattainable dream the way it was when they were younger. And Trevor has zero back talk for it. It truly sells the gravity of the idea if it makes Trevor shut up.
  • When Trevor trips over the fence and Franklin laughs at him, Trevor (who at this point is eaten up with guilt over believing he left Michael to die) breaks into a rant. You can tell his mind's not in a good place (even by his standards) because this is the only time in the game he uses the word "motherfucker", a word he normally despises.
• Oddly Small Organization:
  • Franklin's green-wearing CGF gang is scattered and leaderless. It's so broken-up that Lamar says that they ought to start their own gang (consisting of two guys named after Forum Gangster).
  • "Trevor Philips Industries"^note Or Trevor Philips Enterprises, the name isn't entirely consistent, something that's likely intentional consists of Trevor, Ron, Wade, Chef, and whoever else he can bully into working with him at the moment. Yet he expects to fully take over all the drug and gun running in Blaine County. It's no wonder that his main competition, The Lost MC and the Aztecas, can't take him seriously at all (until after he's killed them all personally).
• Offstage Villainy: Aside from their aggressive use of the Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique, we never really see any evidence to support Steve Haines' claims about the IAA's villainy.
• Oh, Crap!: The reaction from the Blaine County Sheriff when Michael, Trevor, and their accomplice walk out of the bank wearing bomb suits and carrying Heavy Machine Guns (in Trevor's case, a minigun) is just priceless.
  "Sweet... mother of... shit!"
• One-Steve Limit: Played for Drama and for laughs in the same scene. Wade, when trying to track down what happened to Michael, first tries to search for him under Michael's birth name Michael Townley. Hilarity Ensues when he discovers that two other people in the city alone are also named "Michael Townley" (an old man and a young boy), neither of them are the middle-aged Michael he was looking for. He manages to nab the correct Michael afterwards under his new surname, De Santa, which plays the trope straight as nobody else in the game has this combination of given name and surname.
• Only Sane Man:
  • Out of the entire cast of weirdos, freaks, horrible people, and outright insane whack jobs, Michael and Franklin are probably the most down-to-Earth people in the entire state of San Andreas.
  • Manuel, the native-born American farmer of Hispanic descent who Trevor harasses and later helps, is one of the few non-criminal characters in the game, and also understands the xenophobic nationalism of the Civil Border Patrol is meaningless.
  • Franklin really becomes this as the bad blood between Michael and Trevor escalates. It culminates in Ending C where Franklin calls them both out on pointing guns at each other in a standoff while an entire army of corrupt FIB agents and mercenaries is just outside. Thankfully he convinces them to drop it and focus.
• Opponent Switch: A unique case in that it's not a single fight, but the entire climax is resolved this way. To boost their chances, the trio decide to each go after the antagonist they least personally know, which Michael going after Stretch and the Ballas for Franklin, Franklin going after Wei Cheng and the Triad for Trevor, and Trevor going after both Steve Haines and Devin Weston for Michael.
• Optional Sexual Encounter: Like other Grand Theft Auto games, the player can pick up prostitutes and have sex with them. Additionally, being successful during the lap dance minigame at the strip club often results in the stripper inviting the player over to her house for a booty call. As a bonus, having sex with a prostitute not only replenishes your health, it also improves your character's stamina stat.
• Optional Stealth:
  • Sneaking around and giving guys a "Hey, You!" Haymaker is a part of many missions now. This even extends to heists, which come with the options of this or going in loud.
  • The game allows this most of the way through save for one heist, which always ends up loud. The FIB raid ends with you trapped inside a skyscraper and fleeing into the streets — regardless of your approach choice, the only differences (save for the outfits) mean either a "survive for 2 minutes" objective or getting separated from the group.
• Ordered Apology: One of Michael's missions has him helping out a producer he's a fan of rough up his current director and lead actor over a contract dispute. Just for fun, Michael forces the director to apologize for being difficult.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Would you believe a wild-eyed psychopath with meth-induced facial scabs and a neck tattoo reading "CUT HERE" would be working as a highway patrolman, or a security guard? Lampshaded in the "subtle" version of the UD robbery, where the bank manager takes a very long time staring at Trevor's fake ID badge before finally waving him through.
• Paper Tiger: As it turns out, both Devin Westin and Steve Haines, the game's premier Big Bads, are this. Both claim and appear to have connections with powerful people and organizations that make them seem nigh untouchable to the protagonists. However, when Michael, Trevor, and Franklin decide they've been jerked around long enough and set out to just kill them already, both men are taken out with little fanfare and no repercussions as neither have as much support from or pull with Merryweather or the FIB as they think.
• Parachute in a Tree: When Franklin first meets Dom Beasley, the man has gotten himself stuck in a tree in this manner. Franklin releases him.
• Parking Problems:
  • Many of the tow truck missions involve towing vehicles misusing handicapped spaces. In one of them, the driver gets out and pretends to walk like a crippled person.
  • The lead up to the "Obvious" method of the Big Score requires you to find a getaway vehicle and park it in a certain parking garage. The marker for the spot is over a handicapped parking space. Given the position of the marker relative to how you enter the garage, it's likely you'll end up parking the vehicle across two handicapped spaces.
• Permanently Missable Content:
  • There is an optional Random Event that is unlocked by bringing four people in certain other Random Events to the Altruist Cult's fortress as Trevor. If you play the applicable Random Events as Michael or Franklin, or you haven't brought the required amount by the time you've played through them all as Trevor, then this mission becomes permanently inaccessible.^note Thankfully, it doesn't count towards 100% Completion.
  • Some of the random event characters that you can give rides for actually can have multiple in game effects that are lost if you give them to the Altruist cult such as one new getaway driver for heists that is actually one of the best in the game and takes the least amount from the maximum pay, one becoming an opponent in golf, one giving you a special increase in the stock market to help maximize your money, and one that can be a booty call when completed. It is heavily recommended that you bring the drunk passenger, the drunk couple, and the girl with a violent boyfriend from Hitch Lift 3 to the cult since they reward you with less than the cult would.
  • A more insidious example happens if Packie McReary gets killed in his Random Event. Seeing as how he's a Disc-One Nuke when it comes to heists, you'll want to avoid this by any means possible.
  • Another secret Random Event involves Michael or Franklin returning to crooked salesman Simeon Yetarian's car dealership, at which point the man sics guards on them which the played character must kill, before then gaining the option to either kill Simeon himself or let him escape. The catch is that in order to access the event, you have to return to the dealership after completing a certain mission (and you're given no in-game reason to actually go back there) but before the first heist; the Event becomes permanently inaccessible afterwards. Thankfully, said Event isn't necessary for 100% Completion either.
  • There's also player characters. Ending the game with the "Kill Michael" or "Kill Trevor" missions renders them and their assets permanently unavailable in the postgame. This doesn't intentionally lock you out of 100% Completion, but the knock-on effects make it very difficult and any content exclusive to that character is gone for good. If Trevor is killed, the Vanilla Unicorn will also stop acting as a safehouse in the process.
  • Any of the three optional missions involving Michael helping his family members with their respective problems will be rendered permanently unplayable if Michael declines when they call him for help, not even being available via the Replay Mission menu.
  • A minor one, but if you choose the Smart approach for The Jewel Store Job instead of Loud, you will not unlock Michael's Jewel Heist Suit in his wardrobe. All other story outfits will be unlocked after completing the main game, regardless of what option you take for the heists, except for this one. It doesn't help that the Smart approach is more profitable, as the player can use the lower pay driver, without him dropping any of the jewelry.
  • At certain points in the game, Michael has the option to go to therapy and talk with Isaiah Friedlander with the dialogue changing based on what missions have already been completed. What the game doesn't tell you is that most of these are only available in between certain missions with the first two taking place at Friedlander's office while the next two are only available by calling him on Michael's phone. If these aren't done at certain points, they cannot be done throughout that playthrough since they don't count as replayable missions. The only ones that aren't affected by this are when Michael and his family all go to therapy together when he gets them back together again as part of a story mission and the final therapy session that can start during the final few missions of the game and can still be completed after the main story is finished as long as Michael is still alive in the ending that you chose.
  • In the final Epsilon mission for Michael, you can either allow the chopper with $2.1 million fly away to Cris Formoge and be rewarded with a unique vehicle, a rusty tractor that you can't get anywhere else in the game, or in order to get the gold medal you can betray the cult by stealing the money for yourself, kill the cult members, destroy the chopper, and finally escape which results in an angry Cris calling you for your betrayal. If you choose the former you lose access to that money while it you choose the latter you lose access to the tractor. It actually is possible to collect the money and obtain the tractor both during your first time by shooting at the cultists and losing the wanted status by circling around the building you are at and checking the location of the tractor, driving it towards the tailgater with the money, and driving it to complete the mission. Doing any of these options however doesn't affect access to the Epsilon Probe collectibles.
  • In the Enhanced versions and the Enhanced and Expanded versions of the game for players who are linked with their Rockstar Social Club account and are returning from the original versions, they can take pictures of 50 Monkey Mosaics throughout the game and unlock a random event where they take a picture of the artist behind them which unlocks the Go Go Monkey Blista vehicle for all three characters. If the artist ends up being killed in the event however, the vehicle is permanently lost in the process with players advised against doing so.
• Pink Is Erotic: The Vanilla Unicorn is a strip club that possesses a neon pink and red aesthetic.
• Pistol-Whipping: Used as leverage by Michael in "Complications" to force Franklin to drive him straight to Yetarian's dealership. Michael will incapacitate Franklin by smacking a pistol against Franklin's head from the back seat if the player fails to drive Michael over by straying too far away.
• Player Nudge: Sometimes when switching to Trevor, he'll be standing outside the hangar at his Grapeseed Airfield, the base for his arms trafficking missions. ^note Since the Grapeseed Airfield does not actually produce an income unless you actually do the trafficking missions on your own time, this can be the game's way of encouraging you to do so if you want some money generated.
• Plot Device All Along: You know that dock Michael, Trevor, or Franklin can buy at Paleto Cove, and seems to only exists to only get nuclear wastes and Abigail's Strangers and Freaks mission as Michael? Well, in Ending C, that's where Michael, Trevor, and Franklin decides to dispose of Devin Weston by dumping him off near the dock, since no one would look into their private property if he's disposed there.
• Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure: Trevor and Michael go through this in the game's final act when Trevor discovers that Brad has been dead all along and that it's his body in Michael's grave. Trevor is enraged at the revelation and he and Michael come close to killing each other over it a couple of times. If option C is chosen at the end of the game the two men will reconcile.
• Point of No Return: Some of the safehouses will no longer be accessible upon completing certain story events.
  • After completing the first assassination mission, Franklin moves to a mansion in the upper-class district of Los Santos and can no longer visit his aunt's house or use it as a safehouse - Denise will bar him from entering if he visits, having apparently turned it into a "center for women" during his absence.
  • Trevor can no longer enter Floyd's house after the mission "Hang Ten", since Floyd and his wife Debra are dead and the house is a crime scene. To compensate, Trevor instead moves into the Vanilla Unicorn and uses it as his new safehouse.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: During the shootout at the Ludendorf cemetery, the Chinese gangsters (who have mistaken Michael for Trevor's gay lover) keep shouting that they know he is "weak and feminine."
• Poor Communication Kills: A literal case in "Legal Troubles". Devin Weston wants to sell Solomon's studio and shut down his film so he can build condos, Molly takes the physical copy of the film and Michael chases after her since it's the only copy. Or so he thinks. After Michael chases Molly into an airport hangar and she gets sucked into a turbine engine, Michael takes the film back and gets a call from Solomon, who only now informs him that he has digital backup copies of the film. The story tries to Hand Wave it as Solomon just assuming Michael knew there were multiple copies, even though the way Michael had just stormed out of Solomon's office to hunt down Molly should have made it pretty obvious that he didn't know. Solomon could have saved Michael a lot of trouble by clarifying that and sparing him the guilt of indirectly causing Molly's death.
• Post-9/11 Terrorism Movie: As with the previous game, the War on Terror plays a significant role in some portions of GTA V. Merryweather Security went from a small-time security firm to a full-on private military company thanks to making bloody profits on conflicts in the Middle East, and are now one of the most powerful entities in the United States. The FIB and IAA both exhibit paranoia and fear akin to their real-life counterparts over Islamic terrorism, and Weazel News is quick to report on any potential un-American activities or threats. Many of the in-universe politicians cite an end to the War on Terror, either peacefully or through evermore security and policing, as their campaign qualities. This makes a lot of sense and reflects the time quite well, considering that GTA V is set in The New '10s during the Obama era, a period when the first signs of the Pyrrhic Victory of the War on Terror in Iraq were observed, and the war was becoming increasingly unpopular worldwide. This negativity is vividly reflected in the Cold-Blooded Torture mission, where you are the interrogator.
• Potty Failure: The opening sequence of Impotent Rage ends with the title character grabbing an old lady who's squirming desperately until she shits all over the screen.
• The Power of Friendship: Ending C. Despite the great risk to his life, Franklin decides to save his mentors, Michael and Trevor, with some backup from Lamar. Trevor reaffirms his friendship with Michael, who in turn makes up for betraying him and Brad nine years ago by helping him fend off the FIB and Merryweather, before the trio split up to take out their antagonists. This reaches its logical conclusion when the three of them together push Devin Weston's car off the cliffside of Paleto Cove, with him in the trunk.

• Pragmatic Villainy: Michael and Franklin tend to ascribe to this, which reins in Trevor's behavior.
  • Michael is the one who reminds everyone to lay low and not spend extravagantly after the heists.
  • Trevor suggests adding Dave Norton to the list of people the protagonists kill in Ending C. Michael shoots it down, saying they need him alive to get the FIB to leave them alone. In Michael's case it could be him trying to protect a friend but Trevor agrees.
• Protagonist-Centered Morality: Pretty much a hallmark of the GTA series. It is also possible for the player to lampshade this based on making optional choices. For example, it is possible for Michael to have sex with one or more strippers or a hooker (certain strippers can even be recruited for "booty call" availability), and then immediately proceed into the mission in which his Berserk Button is pushed when he discovers his wife has been sleeping with the tennis coach, causing him to commit actions that push the plotline into full gear. ^note Michael notes that while he doesn't like the idea of Amanda sleeping around, what really pisses him off about it is that she's doing it in their house with someone he is paying to spend time with her; in his words, "If I have to use a motel, she has to use a motel!"
• Pulling the Thread: See Wham Line below.
• Punny Name:
  • The town the Cold Open takes place in is called Ludendorff. Most probably named after Erich Ludendorff, a German WW1 General and an early supporter of Hitler. Since North Yankton (the state it's in) is based on North Dakota, that would make it the equivalent of Bismarck, named after a fellow Prussian militarist politician.
  • The Los Santos soccer team is called The Benders; "bender" is British slang for homosexuals, equivalent to "faggot" in America. Likewise, "bender" is also American slang for a serious Mushroom Samba (and given how drugs are all over San Andreas, these tend to occur on a daily basis).
  • In one that was likely intentional in-universe, one of the purchasable properties is a gay bar called Pitchers. This refers both to the pitchers drinks are served in, and slang for a gay male who penetrates instead of being penetrated (the catcher, as it were).
  • The in-game equivalent of NASDAQ is called BAWSAQ, which is derived from the Scottish slang word "ballsack", meaning ballbag or testicles in general. Rockstar North are, of course, based in Edinburgh.
  • One of the brands of athletic clothing, which also appeared in San Andreas, is called Pro-Laps. It's a pun on "prolapse", a rather disgusting medical condition.
• Random Event:
  • Returning to a character after a long period increases the chances there'll be something happening. Also, don't expect an explanation as to how they got there beyond a few clues and a comment. For example, it's entirely possible to find Trevor either: A) demanding a body-builder prove he doesn't stuff his leotard crotch; or B) drunken and falling asleep on a rooftop without a ladder.
  • Or Trevor waking up on a beach, with a bunch of dead bodies, in his underwear and hung over.
  • Or Trevor in the middle of a high-speed chase with a two-star wanted level, screaming, "It was self-defense!"
  • Or Trevor chasing after a man in a burning car while apologizing for trying to show him "His thingy".
  • In Los Santos, Trevor is also commonly shown being kicked from some establishment (restaurant, casino etc.) and arguing hilariously with the security.
  • A lot of the in-progress random events for characters other than Trevor are more slice-of-life events: Franklin playing fetch with Chop, or drinking a soda, or cleaning his car, Michael getting bored with watching TV, or enchanted by watching the ocean from the pier... or either of them just stuck in Los Santos traffic.
  • Michael can sometimes be found in a park, speaking to someone who has apparently raised concern about his smoking habits.

    Michael: If I were you, I'd be concerned about more immediate causes of death. Go the fuck away.

  • Michael can possibly be found speaking to a state trooper who just wants him to smoke somewhere else.

    Michael: Oh, you are concerned about the fire hazard? How about I find out where you live and burn your fucking house down?!

• Red Herring: In one of the first missions as Michael, after you meet again with Lester, Lester tasks you to plant a bomb into a mobile phone and kill a CEO of LifeInvader company. During the scene, where Michael is planting the bomb, he leaves his backpack in the office. Some players might worry that it would lead the investigators of the CEO's death to Michael, as any person present witnessed a man with that backpack walking around in the building. As a bonus, you can't really choose to pick it up again, after Michael discards it. But nothing ever happens, the backpack is forgotten from the moment Michael leaves the building on.
• Reunion Revenge: Subverted to hell and back. After a lengthy mission where Trevor relocates to Los Santos and swears to find Michael, Michael's missions take the center, giving hints that he's going to slip up again and encounter Trevor. Come to his first mission after Trevor moves, which seems like a normal family situation where he has to save the day. Cue Trevor nonchalantly standing in the hallway and cracking jokes to the whole family, followed by a mission of the two working together to kick a sleazy producer's ass.
• Rewatch Bonus: Playing through the game again after having learned the specifics on Michael faking his death, it's quite clear in the second cutscene (after they got hit by the train) that him telling Trevor to "stick to the plan [of which way to go to the getaway chopper]" and standing in the open was so that Dave Norton would be able to fake-fatally shoot him.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • Michael's family trades these with each other in virtually every scene together. But the Master is Jimmy, who is very self-aware of most of his own failings and issues, but twists them all with "armchair" psychology so that they somehow come back to blaming his father.
  • Trevor and Michael trade these constantly after their reunion, with Trevor showing contempt for Michael's cushy lifestyle post-retirement and Michael being disgusted by every facet of Trevor's. At one point, Trevor flat out calls Michael a failure as a husband and father, and Michael dissects Trevor's habits and classifies him as a "proto-hipster" (the hipster that all hipsters aspire to be), knowing that Trevor hates hipsters (because hipsters would never admit that they were).
  • Michael gives one to the final enemy of the game, who it is depends on the ending.
    • In Ending A, he'll give one about a posthumous Trevor highlighting that Trevor was The Unfettered and a cannibal; and then he tells Franklin that even criminals such as themselves should have lines they won't cross. However, this instance is Played With because Michael's clearly trying to desperately justify betraying his best friend.
    • In Ending B, Michael's final enemy is Franklin (who is under the player's control). The two of them trade plenty of shouts during the chase up the tower, but Michael will give a speech just before Franklin pushes him over the tower's railing. The speech calls Franklin out for betraying Michael and claiming that nobody changes by reminding Franklin that Michael helped him change to a "three-bit gangster" while caring about him the entire time.
    • In Ending C, Michael gives a speech to Devin Weston about how Devin's Fatal Flaw. Specifically pointing out that Devin's business practices of: underpaying the private company who does his dirty work (the protagonists); screwing over his business partners in the name of a quick buck; and believing that people would really just let him get away with it have left him trapped in the trunk of one of his cars and surrounded by three angry criminals about to throw said car off a cliff.
  • Also, the Logger beer commercial is one of these to the viewer.
    "Pablo Rapazar makes $28 million a year. Duane Aller makes $35 million a year. You make $10 an hour."

• Recruiting the Criminal: After he blows his cover following the jewelry store heist, Michael, along with Trevor and Franklin, is forcibly made to do dirty work for the FIB. Unfortunately for all three of them, Steve Haines has every intention of working them until they're KIA or he feels they've outlived their usefulness. While their enslavement doesn't prevent them from committing "honest" crimes on the side, getting out from under the FIB's thumb is a huge driving force in the plot, especially after Haines betrays Michael and plans to arrest him anyway and later forces Franklin to kill Trevor. This comes back to bite Haines in ending C where Trevor decides to kill him by sniping him.
• Ret Irony:
  • One random event involves a construction worker on the phone talking about how he only has a day before retirement. Cue pipes falling off a crane, trapping him in his truck and triggering a gas explosion. Thankfully you can save him.
  • While walking by the police station, you can sometimes overhear them discussing their soon retirement. Given that they're police in a GTA game, the odds of them living to see it are approximately on par with the odds of a dog learning to play Tchaikovsky.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: A subject of one of the side missions. Castro's girlfriend is furious at him for cheating on her at a golf course. She's technically wrong — he's never cheated on her at the golf course, BUT he saves his impregnation sessions for out-of-town trips!
• Right Through the Wall: When switching to Michael at night and walking upstairs in his house, his daughter can occasionally be heard having loud sex in her room.
• Ripped from the Headlines:
  • Government surveillance factors heavily into a few missions (one where you use a police chopper to eavesdrop on civilians, and another where you break into the FIB headquarters to steal dossiers from their network), notable given that the exposure of Prism brought government surveillance to the forefront of the public consciousness not long before the game's release.
  • Think the Paleto Bay Heist is way over the top and could never happen in real life? It's actually not dissimilar from the 1997 North Hollywood Shootout.
  • Many news stories heard or read during the game reflect real-life issues facing the US during the several years the game was in production, from government bail-outs of companies to damage being done to Liberty City following a hurricane (reflecting real-life damage done to the New York City area by Hurricane Sandy). Numerous references are also made to the US being in recession; although this was not so much the case by the time the game was released in 2013, the game was in production during the years following the economic downturn of 2008.
  • As with the previous game, the War on Terror plays a significant role in some portions of GTA V. See Post-9/11 Terrorism Movie for more details.
  • Environmental issues akin to real-world problems also play a frequent role at times. Many citizens of Los Santos may express their frustration at environmental treaties which have apparently led to a reduction in vehicle quality, as well as a spike in the popularity of electric cars. Fuel prices continue to rise, and during the game's events the government of San Andreas is currently attempting to fix an ongoing pollution crisis, with smog levels said to be rivaling that of Beijing, similar to the real-world smog crisis of Los Angeles; while not as severe as Los Santos in the game, Los Angeles' own smog problem is one of the worst in the Western world.
• "Rise and Fall" Gangster Arc: Each of the three protagonists follows this arc to a greater or lesser extent. It's most obvious in the case of Franklin, as he rises from a quiet suburban life to a life of high-rise crime. Michael returns to a life of crime after his family continuously disrespects him. And Trevor wants to cause destruction and chaos for its own sake, though the extra money certainly doesn't hurt. In the end, all three of them fall to some degree. Franklin has to kill either Michael or Trevor to cover his own ass, and even the one who survives ends up with virtually nothing to show for it. With the Los Santos PD hot on their trail, all their money effectively worthless since they can't buy their way out of trouble, and a wake of bodies behind them, Franklin laments that the lifestyle of a gangster simply wasn't worth it, one way or another. In ending C however, he instead helps keep both of them alive while getting rid of all their enemies in the process.
• Roaring Rampage of Rescue: The mission "Fresh Meat", where Franklin has to find and shoot his way through the meat processing plant where Michael is being held by the Chinese before he's put through the grinder, as well as "Lamar Down", in which all three protagonists team up to save Lamar from the Ballas.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: After defeating a small army of Merryweather Security mercenaries and FIB Agents in "The Third Way", the protagonists decide to tie up all loose ends by assassinating all of the game's major antagonists in a brief period of time. Michael kills Stretch, Trevor kills Steve Haines, and Franklin kills Wei Cheng. Trevor then kidnaps Devin Weston and the three protagonists give him a "The Reason You Suck" Speech before locking him in the trunk of a car and pushing it off a cliff.
• Robbing the Mob Bank: The Paleto Score is this-except instead of mobsters, you're fighting Dirty Cops who are using the bank to store money extorted from local drug dealers and pimps.
• Rubber-Band A.I.:
  • A minor case with Franklin's street-racing side missions. If the runner-up isn't far behind you as you're at the home stretch, you might be surprised to be suddenly beaten in a photo finish. On the other hand, if you crash early in the race, as long as you're trying to catch up, the AI cars might slow down accordingly.
  • A major case with the third triathlon, although it's so long, it is possible to catch up and win, even if it appears the competition is miles ahead of you.
• Rule of Symbolism: In-game, there are quite a few nods to - Ron and Chef represent the paranoid Conspiracy Theorist viewpoint, what with their ramblings about government mind control drugs and Annunaki, whereas the newly successful Franklin is referred to by multiple characters as "Illuminati" in the context of urban black slang popularized by rappers like Killer Mike^note (i.e., an individual who has more money than they will ever need or even be able to spend). Lester even keeps an Illuminati poster in his home, and is a firm believer in the Illuminati and New World Order conspiracies.
• Running Gag: Trevor repeatedly changing the name of his company. A few examples are Trevor Philips Enterprise, Trevor Philips Incorporated, and Trevor Philips Industries.
• Sadistic Choice: Invoked both in-universe and out-of-universe with the final decision of the game. From Franklin's POV, an extremely powerful and well-connected villain just directed him to betray and kill one of his closest and most reliable partners, but he has to pick which. From the player's POV, that choice remains, but there's another side to it. If you take into account the Third Option, you can either go after the Big Bad Ensemble or give a Karmic Death to one of the Villain Protagonists. You can't do both; someone is going to get away scot-free.
• Safely Secluded Science Center: Humane Labs and Research, a Forbidden Zone in the San Chianski Mountain Range. Research on chemical and biological weapons is being done for several Federal agencies.
• Sarcastic Title: The mission "Bury the Hatchet" doesn't end with Michael and Trevor's reconciliation but with their already tense relation becoming way worse.
• Save Point: While safehouses are still a feature, a quick-save feature was added, allowing the player to save anywhere in San Andreas at any time off-mission.
• Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: Some Weazel News radio reports have the announcing guy going "transition woosh!" in between stories.
• Scenery Porn: Especially with the upgraded PS4 graphics, there are many, many locations where the views of the city and country side are spectacular. There is also amazing attention to detail, from readable "Missing Person" notices on power poles or little details like lawn sprinklers turning on in the morning, lifeguards coming to work every morning on their ATVs, NPCs playing full games of Golf by themselves, etc.
• Scolded for Not Buying: In Online, if you call one of your contacts but do not make use of their services, they will make a comment about you acting weird.
• Scope Perspective:
  • Zig-Zagged. While the game is in third person, all weapons of the sniper class use first person if you aim. You can also place scopes on some other weapons, however, which allow you to zoom in without switching into first person. The re-release for 8. gen consoles and pc then finally added a first person mode even if you don't aim a sniper rifle.
  • Looking through a telescope also puts you into first person.
• Scripted Event:
  • Of the good variety. Picking certain people for heists, increasing your skills when asked, picking up loot shares from downed allies, and numerous other factors can influence conversation between characters.
  • Although most traffic is random, during a number of missions AI-controlled vehicles will provide obstacles at scripted times. One instance is in the mission "Marriage Counseling", wherein a large van will always block the road through Vinewood Hills, allowing the tennis coach to escape.
• Seinfeldian Conversation: At the beginning cutscene for "The Big Score" if you take the subtle approach, some strippers at the Vanilla Unicorn are discussing how to file taxes; one is teaching the other, since the other hasn't filed since grad school.
• Self-Proclaimed Love Interest: A non-comedic example in Molly concerning Devin. She gets extremely touchy when Franklin calls her out on it, especially since it's very obvious that Devin doesn't really care about her that much.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story:
  • Most of Trevor's most spectacular thefts end with him empty-handed, for one reason or another.
  • Franklin's series of missions for Barry ends with Barry's "smoke-in" being called off on account of him having smoked all the weed and forgotten about it.
  • The entire "Legal Trouble" mission is revealed to have been totally pointless, since Solomon Richards has lots of extra copies of his film on reserve.
  • The entire game becomes this for Franklin, if he chooses either A & B. In both endings, it's heavily implied he cuts off contact with the survivors and goes back to his old life, thus making the story a moot point.
• Shot to the Heart: Trevor administers one to Kerimov during the torture sequence if his heart gives out.
• Show Within a Show: Like in the previous game, various shows can be watched on television. These include Impotent Rage (a Strawman Political superhero cartoon), Kung-Fu Rainbow Lazer Force (a Power Rangers parody), Fame or Shame (a game show in a similar vein to America's Got Talent), The Underbelly of Paradise (a real crime show similar to Dateline), Jack Howitzer is Jack Howitzer in Jack Howitzer (a reality show depicting efforts to bring the eponymous washed-up actor back into the spotlight), and Moorehead Rides Again (an animated adaptation of the Radio Drama from Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories). The Updated Re-release for PS4, Xbox One, and PC also has new episodes of Republican Space Rangers and Princess Robot Bubblegum.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: The reason why Tanisha doesn't want to settle down with Franklin.
• Signature Move: Each character has their own certain animations, skill specializations, and their own special move; however, the skills can all be increased as necessary:
  • Franklin has higher stamina and driving, and can use Bullet Time in cars and motorcycles. When carjacking, he throws them out the vehicle. He's also quickest to break into locked vehicles, jimmying the lock if he's able to and hotwiring so quickly bystanders won't even call the cops unless the alarm goes off.
  • Michael has higher stealth and shooting, and can use Bullet Time when shooting. When carjacking, he threatens them out. When stealing locked cars, he elbows the window.
  • Trevor has higher strength and flying, and can become enraged when shooting to gets a higher pain threshold and deal more damage (when in rage mode, he is the only character who can survive a mountain lion attack, which otherwise kills the others instantly). When carjacking, he assaults the occupant. Before he steals a locked car, he looks to his sides for anyone watching and then openly punches the window before slightly struggling to hotwire, taking the longest overall.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: All three protagonists drop the F-bomb like it's going out of style. Simply put, the F-word is used more than 1,000 times in the game's main campaign, definitely earning itself the "pervasive language" descriptor.
• Sixth Ranger: In Ending C, Lamar assists the crew in the Foundry shoot-out.
• Skewed Priorities: Played for laughs in Ending C. When Franklin arrives at the foundry, Michael and Trevor are both in a standoff despite the private army outside gunning for them. Franklin calls them both out on this and basically orders them to get their act together, which they thankfully do.
• Sky Heist: For some heists, the three protagonists can choose to use choppers to carry the loot.
  • Trevor is able to choose to use a Cargobob earlier stolen from the military to steal a submersible from Merryweather.
  • Likewise, for the final heist, the Trio is able to use choppers to carry the gold they have stolen from a bank. In this case, one of the missions to prepare for the heist involves stealing a train using a transport helicopter.
• Slice of Life: The character swapping feature allows players to witness some aspects of the main characters' lives when not using them, such as Franklin buying weed, Michael and Jimmy getting home after a bike ride, and Trevor waking up in his underwear, on the beach, surrounded by dead bodies.
• Small Role, Big Impact:
  • Albert Staley, a security guard that's encountered on the first heist. Michael gives him his Catchphrase: "You forget a thousand things everyday. Make sure this is one of them." When the guard recites this quote on the news, it serves to tip Trevor off that Michael is still alive.
  • Brad is hardly on-screen (alive) but his death and burial in Mike's grave is the major source of tension between Trevor and Michael and, until Trevor discovers that he's dead, his assumed incarceration is one of Trevor's main motivators. It also leads to the stand-off in North Yankton and Mike's subsequent capture by the Chinese.
  • Kyle Chavis the tennis coach disappears from the story after an early mission. However, by sleeping with Amanda and inciting Michael's wrath, he pretty much sets off the chain of events that put the plot into motion.
• Snow Means Death: The snowy state of North Yankton serves as the setting of the prologue and "Bury the Hatchet". In the former, Michael, Trevor, and Brad gun down a large number of state police after a heist gone wrong and Michael fakes his death, while in the latter, Brad, who was shot and allegedly arrested during the getaway, is revealed to have died from his injury and buried in Michael's place.
• Something Only They Would Say: It's how Trevor finds out that Michael survived the North Yankton job. The policeman who witnessed the Vangelico heist, when interviewed on TV, quoted the exact words that Michael (whose identity was concealed by a gas mask) had told him when he and Franklin left him, which were the same as the ones he said to a security guard who unmasked him in the bank job (that, in-game, are said to be from a movie Michael enjoyed):
  "You forget thousands of things every day. Make sure this is one of 'em."

• Special Effects Failure: In-Universe example. Nearly all of "Meltdown" was filmed on a green screen, and the finished product looks hilariously dreadful.
• Spiteful A.I.: The usual cops hostility notwithstanding, car chases and road escapes can get very frustrating due to the fact that your car/getaway vehicle will instantly turn into a NPC-car-magnet for the duration of those gameplay segments.
• The Social Darwinist:
  • Noted by Trevor:
  Trevor: This is why this country is screwed! There's not enough [people like me], there's too many [people like you]!
  Michael: [scoffs] Yeah, a country of you's — that's just what this world needs.
  Trevor: Shit would get done! It would be Darwinian!
  • Lester states that "It's time to put the Darwinism back in Social Darwinism" at the the start of a mission to assassinate Jay Norris.
  • Devin Weston describes himself as a Darwinian type of person when he first meets the group. Trevor hates him immediately, fitting with his self-loathing.

• Stat Grinding: Each of the main characters' skills can be increased by using said skills on a regular basis. Some skills are easier to grind than others; the shooting skill in particular can be maxed out by completing all of the Ammunation range challenges, even with Franklin's low starting stat.
• Stealth Pun:
  • Volume 2 (i.e. the material composed by Rockstar's in-house musicians) of the game's original soundtrack is subtitled "The Score".
  • All player-controllable submarines in the game only spawn in yellow.
• Stereotype Reaction Gag: During one mission for the cab company after you buy it, Franklin is told to pick up a specific passenger who wants to go to the docks. On the way there, the guy wants him to help sort out some gangsters messing with his daughter.
  Franklin: So you think because I'm a black guy I'd be cool with this shit?
  Walter: So you're not cool with it?
  Franklin: No, for sure, I am. beat That's not the point though.
• The Stinger: As with most past GTA games, after completing the story and viewing the closing credits, the player can continue to explore San Andreas, even completing missions and tasks that weren't required to complete the story. However, GTA V is the first to actually unlock a mission upon completion of the game. Upon completing all the tasks for 100% completion, a mission called "The Last One" is unlocked, but it doesn't appear until the player continues exploring the game world for a random length of time (as long as several in-game weeks in fact).
• Stock Market Game: The web browser features a simulated in-game stock market which becomes the focus of some of Franklin Clinton's missions under Lester Crest, where assassinating certain businessmen allows certain investments to become profitable later on. In addition, helping a random encounter stockbroker bound for Liberty City will also give any of the three protagonists a chance to make a good investment in their stocks not long after dropping him off at the airport. After getting ending C where you kill Devin Weston who owned 11 percent of Merryweather, the CEO of the company Dom Percival will text all three characters by thanking them for getting rid of him and that their actions would make him a profit on the stock market after he bought all of Devin's shares in the company. This hints at putting all of your money for each character in the Merryweather stock right after receiving the text. Doing so however is the most risky investment in the game with it being advised to turn off your autosave feature if the stock market doesn't go the way you want it to.
• Story Branch Favoritism: Occurs twice.
  • "The Big Score" monetarily penalizes players who pick the Subtle approach instead of the Obvious approach. The Subtle approach requires you to pay $300,000 to a coerced employee, and hire a hacker to manipulate traffic lights, who eats up an extra cut and leaves less for the player characters. You are forced to do these two things even if you execute the mission perfectly. Obviously, neither of these events occur in the Obvious route. Notably, while most heists have one route guarantee more money than the other overall, The Big Score is the only story-branched single-player heist where one path guarantees the player significantly less money earned than the other.
  • The trope appears again when you get to determine the ending, and this time the game gives you very, very harsh penalties if you pick any ending but the Golden Ending. Franklin is given three options at the end of the game, two of them involving assassinating one of the other two Player Characters, Trevor or Michael. Pick either of these two options, and the targeted player character is Killed Off for Real. You lose not only the ability to play as the dead character, but you lose everything that character owned as well. In stark contrast, the third option, the Golden Ending, spares both Trevor and Michael and has no negative gameplay downsides whatsoever.
• Story Breadcrumbs: You can pick up a lot of details on the side characters by reading their comments on LifeInvader. It's a good habit to check the page (and news websites) upon completing a mission.

• Stupid Crooks:
  • Franklin's 'hood associates are dumb. Really dumb. If he wasn't pulling their dead weight, they'd all be in jail or full of bullets. They embrace their idiocy, too. Notably, they all call him soft after he disappears from the 'hood after his first heist, despite the fact it earned him more money than all their shenanigans put together, for less strife overall, and the reason he's been absent is getting to live in a very ritzy tax dump property to legitimize his windfall.
  • Some of the low-level crew members are definitely this, but at least they're cheap. Packie is first seen screaming at his partner about being so stupid that he couldn't even get a getaway car for a drug-store robbery. Thank God he's much better on the actual heists.
• Stylistic Suck: You get to go to the movies and see Meltdown, the film that Michael helped get made. It really is a piece of shit.
• Sub-Par Supremacist: One of the NPCs is a racist asshole who wants to "protect" America from immigrants, legal or otherwise, and is too stupid to realize his partner in crime is a Russian who barely speaks English. Speaking of the Russian guy, he considers himself a red-blooded American, but doesn't know as much about his adopted homeland as he thinks he does and mistakenly uses British and French patriotic phrases.
• Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: Johnny Klebitz, the protagonist of The Lost and Damned episode of GTA IV appears as soon as we're introduced to Trevor - and gets killed by him, no less.
• Super-Strength: Trevor's special ability gives him this, able to knock down people with bloody punches. He can even blow up vehicles by hitting them repeatedly with melee weapons. He can also withstand attacks that would otherwise kill him (or the other characters) instantly.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • The canon Deathwish ending is this. It turns out that continually antagonizing, threatening and intimidating three One-Man Army killers eventually ends very badly. Haines, Weston, Cheng and Stretch all find this out the hard way.
  • Flipping the Bird at random civilians will get you cussed out at worst. Do it to a beat cop or a patrol car and they'll come down on you hard, giving you at least one wanted level with pursuers right next to you. Doing it on foot can get you busted or even killed before you have a chance to react, not unlike doing dumb shit like this in Real Life.
• Suspiciously Apropos Music: The radio often plays music relevant to the scenes going on at the time - sometimes a Theme Music Power-Up when the characters are doing something badass, sometimes just plain oddly underscoring tunes: like Chicago's "If You Leave Me Now", while Trevor brings Patricia back to her husband, or The Undisputed Truth's "Smiling Faces Sometimes", after Michael and Trevor have totally broken apart and Franklin is trying to decide who to trust. There's also The Alan Parson Project's "I Wouldn't Want To Be Like You" playing after Trevor puts Devin Westin in the trunk of his car in the Option C ending. And Harry Chapin's "Cat's in the Cradle" is heard in the car when Michael is arguing with his son after smashing his TV.
• Swiss-Cheese Security:
  • As expensive as Michael's mansion looks, it doesn't appear to have any sort of security system. Franklin, Trevor and Dave Norton are all able to gain unannounced access to the interior of the house without much effort. This also explains how Merryweather could easily infiltrate Michael's house later in the game.
  • The NOOSE base off Palomino Highway. It has security guards and electric gates, but no one will stop someone (even someone who looks like Trevor) from wandering in, climbing to the roof, and stealing the Buzzard attack chopper on the helipad.
• Sympathy for the Devil:
  • While Trevor is a monster through and through, this happens to him several times over the course of the game. Two of the most heartbreaking are his betrayal by Franklin and Michael in one of the endings, sending him into a sobbing, raging mess, and his side-mission at the completion of the story where he hallucinates meeting his mother, and promptly breaks down into a sobbing fetal position when she disappears.
  • Despite being a violent lunatic, Trevor shows admirable care and defensiveness for those close to him, particularly Michael's family.

• Tall Poppy Syndrome: Franklin is constantly ridiculed by his friends for trying to find a more productive criminal career and move out of his shitty neighborhood, no matter how willing he is to still help them with their problems.
• Tap on the Head: Dave knocks Michael out at the beginning of "Dead Man Walking" to get him into a morgue that is under guard by the IAA. When Michael wakes up at the morgue, he shows no ill effects and is able to take out a whole army of IAA agents.
• A Taste of Power: The prologue mission lets you play as Michael and Trevor equipped with Carbine Rifles, which you won't unlock again until after the first heist.

• Tempting Fate: During the mission where you have to assassinate Javier Madrazo, Trevor tells Michael that the latter should come visit Sandy Shores ("Trevor Philips Country" as Michael calls it) sometimes. Michael refuses by saying that "he's good" with staying in Los Santos. Guess where he and Trevor end up holing up for a while after Trevor kidnaps Patricia Madrazo because of Martin refusing to pay him for the job.
• Through the Ceiling, Stealthily: The mission "The Bureau Raid" can be completed in two ways, one of which involves stealthily entering the building through a hole cut in the roof's skylight. Then immediately after silently entering the building, stealth is completely foregone when Michael uses explosives to blow open a door.
• Title Drop: When switching to Trevor, one of his cutscenes will have him mention the crime of grand theft auto.
• Too Awesome to Use:
  • The Minigun. It's powerful, devastating, and even sounds cool when firing it. It's an awesome weapon for ripping and tearing everything in sight. Too bad it just burns through (expensive) ammo so quickly...
  • Ditto (more so) for the Homing Rocket Launcher. It can down a helicopter and destroy other vehicles with ease due its ammo, but it's very expensive as well and you can only keep 10 rockets at any time. You might find yourself simply taking out the pilot/driver with ordinary guns instead of trying to blow it up.
• Too Dumb to Live: In just the first few story missions:
  • A guard that thinks making himself a witness to two vicious bank robbers with automatic weapons is a good way to stop the robbery.
  • A car dealer whose business is expressly pointed out to partially involve scamming drug dealers.
  • One gang member who thinks asking for a kidnapping ransom via modern cell phone is a good idea.
  • Another gang member who thinks being alone with several probably armed rival gang members he just set up is a good idea.
  • An allegedly experienced criminal who is unimpressed the local Mexican cartel boss has issued a kill-on-sight call for him.
• The Triads and the Tongs: Trevor manages to piss off a group of Triads at the beginning of his story after they screw each other out a few business deals. Later, the Triads kidnap Michael to get to Trevor, necessitating a rescue by Franklin.
• Torture Always Works: Zigzagged in the mission "By The Book". Trevor is ordered to torture Mr. K on information to identify a target for the FIB. It works and he gives enough intel to identify the man. But later, when Trevor drives K to the airport, he discusses torture and questions it's effectiveness. It should also be noted that Mr. K was already willing to give the information and the only reason he hadn't was because Haines stopped him or didn't ask crucial questions until after Trevor tortured him.
• Timmy in a Well: Franklin is led to Dom Beasley, trapped in a tree, by a frantic and possibly imaginary dog.
• Translation Convention: Parodied in a radio commercial for Righteous Slaughter 7 when a Russian soldier asks why they're speaking English instead of Russian.
• Trash Landing: Michael is forced to escape from the coroner's office through a window in "Dead Man Walking", but thankfully there's a dumpster below to break his fall.
• Trojan Ambulance: Should you pick an experienced driver for "The Bureau Raid", they'll acquire an ambulance as their getaway vehicle, allowing the heist crew members to escape under the radar.
• True Companions:
  • Trevor feels that he, Brad, and Michael were this back when they were a team, and holds the concept of being loyal to your friends to the bitter end very highly. It's particularly why he and Michael's relationship is so strained now, as he feels the latter betrayed the friendship they had when Michael faked his own death and retired from the game. Somewhat downplayed after Ending C where Trevor admits that Brad was "a dick" and that he'd have probably killed Brad at some point anyway.
  • Franklin, Michael and Trevor ultimately turn out to be this despite their ups and downs. In Lamar Down despite Michael and Trevor's relationship having soured greatly by this point in the story they both drop what they're doing and immediately drive to the rendezvous to help Franklin rescue Lamar, no questions asked. They both trade barbs but neither actually goes as far as putting the rescue mission at risk. In the canon Deathwish ending Franklin refuses the orders to kill either Michael or Trevor. With Lester's help, Franklin convinces Michael and Trevor to stand together so they can take all of their enemies out.
• Trunk Shot: One piece of artwork.◊ The shot appears during the last mission in the game, if the player chose ending C.
• Trust-Building Blunder: The "Children of the Mountain" website has one anecdote about this. This is what they have to say:
  When I attended that seminar and we did the thing where you are blindfolded and have to fall backwards and your teammates are supposed to catch you, I learned a lot - especially when they didn't catch me and I got a concussion and learned to never trust anyone, only myself.
• Turbine Blender: During the mission where Solomon's movie is stolen, Michael, chasing Molly for the movie reel, pursues until she runs into the path of a jet engine, reducing her to chunky goo.
• Unexpectedly Realistic Gameplay:
  • There are optional tow truck missions where you have to save a car that's stuck on train tracks. This is a pain in the ass because you need to drive in front of the car, lower the hook, and back up squarely until the hook is attached, and then drive away ASAP before the train hits it... Or you can just push the car out of the way with the tow truck first. This won't fail the mission, and it's a hell of a lot faster.
  • You can tow antagonizing vehicles, pretty much bringing any vehicular combat to an abrupt end.
  • A fast way to lose the cops is to switch vehicles or change clothes (without them seeing you do it). Even if you get spotted in their field of vision, they will ignore you. However, if they find your old car, they'll spot you no matter what you're driving.
  • Convenience store clerks will recognize you if you try to rob them more than once and sometimes will have the cops lying in wait for you... unless you wear a mask they haven't seen before.
  • Taking off or putting on a mask while out of sight will instantly drop a Wanted Level by one star.
  • In GTA IV, it was possible to survive falls from any height into a body of water. In GTA V the result of falling from a great (or even moderate) height into a body of water is the same as in real life - fatal.
  • The protagonists can be take damage (or, at least, see their armor decreased) in motor vehicle collisions (up to and including death). They can also be directly killed by gunfire while driving enclosed vehicles, which differs from most GTA games.

• Unlimited Wardrobe: Some of the main non-playable characters will have different outfits at different points in the story. NPCs who are present at safehouses, such as Michael's family, will also change outfits periodically off-mission.
• Unnecessary Combat Roll: While these were present in IV, they're much improved for V, allowing characters to additionally roll from cover to cover.
• The Unreveal: You never do find out who (or what) Josh Bernstein's "wife" is since you end up killing him in your final mission with him after he turns on Trevor.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight:
  • At the end of "By the Book", the civilians standing around outside Los Santos International Airport don't even seem to notice the shirtless, badly battered and bloody man limping past them and falling down the stairs.
  • After Trevor brutally murders Floyd and his wife, he's covered in tons of blood, which Wade notices. This doesn't stop him from walking right through the Vanilla Unicorn strip club with nobody noticing at all.
• Updated Re Release: The game was updated for the eighth generation consoles and known as the Enhanced version and included even more content for story mode than the original seventh generation versions which stopped getting updated after part two of the Ill-Gotten Gains update if you linked your game to your Rockstar Social Club account. Similarly, Ninth Generation console versions were updated yet again and called Expanded and Enhanced, but had no new inclusions for story mode. Among the new things added were:
  • The ability to play the game in a first person perspective.
  • New side missions such as a wildlife photography challenge for Franklin given after meeting Beverly Felton fire the first time which when completed rewards him with the Kraken submarine at a new dock, a murder mystery for Michael which rewards him with a noir camera filter when completed, stunt plane time trials which were originally only available in the collectors edition of the original game, Stock Car Racing for all characters after Trevor receives the message from Ron about it, and three new random events that reward the player with new vehicles such as the monkey mosaics one mentioned below, "Duel" where the player finds a Duke O'Death parked near a gas station West of the ownable Los Santos Customs, and "Sea Plane" where the player finds a Dodo Seaplane in the cove east of RON Alternateive Wind Farm.
  • New collectables in the form of 27 peyote plants which when used make the characters hallucinate themselves as one of the many animals in the game with a special golden peyote plant appearing after completing "The Last One" Strangers and Freaks mission that can turn the player character into Bigfoot and Monkey Mosaics with 50 mosaics in total to photograph in order to unlock a new random event where one of the main characters finds the artist and takes a photo of him while letting him live afterwards awards the player with the unique car Go Go Monkey Blista.
  • Brand new vehicles such as many of the listed above ones, the Imponte Dukes, Dinka Blista Compact, and Declasse Stallion returning from Grand Theft Auto IV, Declasse Burger Shot Stallion, Bravado Redwood Gauntlet, Vapid Pisswasser Dominator, Bravado Sprunk Buffalo, and Cheval Marshall from Stock Car Racing and Xero Blimp.
  • Two new weapons, the Hatchet melee weapon and the Coil Railgun.
  • 162 new songs across all radio stations and two new radio stations in the game, The Lab which was added to console versions with part two of the Ill-Gotten Gains update and Self Radio which is exclusive to the PC version of the game.
  • The Rockstar Editor which allows players to create, edit, and share videos of story mode and Online as well as Director Mode for the editor which allows players to select from a list of characters as "actors" and control aspects and props around the game world. While both were originally a PC exclusive, they were added to console versions on September 15th, 2015 as part of the Freemode Events update. While it is still available on PC versions as well as Ninth Generation console versions of the game, it was later removed from Eighth Generation versions on February 20th, 2024, meaning all trophies involved with that mode can no longer be obtained if you didn't get them before then.
  • A one time-only transfer for your player character from the Seventh Generation version of Online which creates a copy of that version. After Online support for Seventh Generation consoles ended in 2021, this is no longer available for that generation. While it is also possible to do so in the Ninth Generation from the Eighth generation, it will instead transfer your character to that generation with all of the progress going to the new one instead, making you unable to get it back on the previous Generation consoles.
  • Hao's Special Works which replaces the auto shop in LS Car Meet in Online for the Ninth Generation versions where Hao offers performance upgrades to vehicles alongside new vehicles and both races and time trials exclusively for those vehicles.
  • Career Builder and Career Progress for the Ninth Generation versions of Online which changes the opening of that game a little bit and helps assist new players with picking which career path they want to do first after robbing and obtaining $4,000,000 with the options being an Executive, Gunrunner, Nightclub Owner or a Biker.
• Vandalism Backfire: This is what starts the first major conflict in the game. Michael and Franklin chase after a tennis instructor who was sleeping with Amanda. They find him in a house on stilts, and Michael uses a truck to tear it down. But it turns out he was just hiding there. The house actually belongs to a notorious criminal.
• Vapor Trail: Players can do this in-game, strategically pouring the gasoline themselves.
• Variable Mix: The mission-specific music tends to build up track by track the further in the mission you get.
• Vehicle-Based Characterization: The three protagonists, by default, own vehicles that reflect their vastly different lifestyles. Wealthy family man Michael drives a Tailgater, an upper-class sedan. Franklin, a repo worker and street racer, drives the sporty Buffalo S; he also ends up taking ownership of a green Bagger motorcycle, which befits his association with the Families gang. Then there's Trevor, a meth head who runs a drug and gun enterprise out in the desert, who owns a rugged Bodhi pickup truck. Incidentally, the Bodhi's alleged history as a military vehicle complements Trevor's past service in the air force.
• Vehicular Sabotage: The reason Michael is captured by a Chinese triad near the end of "Bury the Hatchet" is because Trevor sabotaged his car.
• Video Game Caring Potential:
  • Several times you may see a random pedestrian getting their wallet or car stolen. You can take the thief out and keep the stolen item for yourself, or you can actually return it to the victim. Even Evil Has Standards in this case, and yes, that does include Trevor, who'll even admit to being disgusted in a thief's pettiness if you do so.
  • The protagonists aren't always forced to be evil. As with previous games going on rampages or murdering numerous innocents is optional, and beyond the infamous torture scene, the game never forces the player to be unnecessarily sadistic and cruel to anyone regardless of gender, race, or occupation, despite media claims to the contrary.
  • With the next-gen update, conversations with Peds are more expansive. The player can offer polite greetings and friendly comments to pedestrians, even police, and many respond with equal kindness.
  • During the Cold-Blooded Torture sequence where you are offered all sorts of nasty methods to use on Ferdinand Kerimov, the least horrifying out of all the options which won't shock him with a car battery, lose a tooth or get his legs smashed in is waterboarding him. Just doing the latter has him in the best condition when Trevor convinces him to get out of the country.
  • Michael can choose to help Amanda, Tracy and Jimmy when they're in trouble in optional side missions.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential:
  • There are story missions that give you the choice, or you can just run around town wreaking havoc on everyone unlucky enough to be near you. In-universe, Trevor seems to enjoy this more than anything, even firing off jokes whenever the player kills someone.
  • If so inclined, Michael can ignore his family when they request his help for optional side missions. However, this results in them taking money from him later and you won't be able to access the missions again.
• Video Game Cruelty Punishment:
  • In two of the endings, if you choose to kill either Michael or Trevor, "hanging out" will be much more difficult for you, since the survivor cuts off contact with Franklin, Michael's family does the same, and Lamar goes into hiding from Stretch. Even worse, certain "hanging out" activities are required, so if you don't remember to do them before you do the deed, 100% Completion is considerably harder to achieve.
  • Kill a friendly named character when not in a mission and they'll be sent to the hospital, where they'll send you an angry text and take money from your character to pay their hospital bills.
• Video Game Time: Every three seconds of real-life time equals one minute of in-game time. Some dialogue explains this as the reason why Trevor has never been in Los Santos before despite it only being a few minutes of real-life time to drive to, as in-universe he lives several hours away.
• Villainous Breakdown: In Ending C, Devin Weston. Once Trevor has him packed into the trunk of his car and is driving him to his certain death, Devin attempts to bribe Trevor into letting him live by offering him a position in his organization. Once it becomes obvious Trevor isn't buying it, Weston desperately screams for Trevor to let him out of the "fucking trunk." This ploy also fails.

• Vitriolic Best Buds:
  • The protagonists much of the time. Franklin, Michael and Trevor may argue and fight among themselves for various reasons, but in the end they will get into shootouts to save each other, and during Ending C, the trio offer assassinating the other's enemies so that they don't get targeted.
  • Franklin and Lamar. Lamar may ridicule Franklin about him trying to move out of the hood, but Franklin always saves Lamar from his enemies and in Ending C, Lamar intervenes in the final shootout to assist Franklin.
• Violation of Common Sense:
  • The mission "Uncalculated Risk" is pretty much nothing more than a glorified cutscene in which you watch Dom jump off the Land Act Dam to his death. There is, however, a single Gold requirement: make the exact same jump (though preferably with a parachute). Anyone who says they got Gold on this mission on their first attempt is a bald-faced liar.
  • Heist crew member have stats, and the better they are, the higher is their share. However, their stats increase each time they survive a heist, and Karim and Rickie (the cheapest driver and hacker) are still decent enough to complete the first heist without issue. The cheapest shooter will get killed during the chase after the heist, but dead members' money share can be looted from their body. The best way to do the jewelry heist is to choose the worst crew members.
• Wacky Startup Workplace: The Life Invader headquarters, being a parody of Facebook, features numerous in-office gyms, entertainment areas, and yoga classes in the hallways. Employees also apparently frequently use their computers for porn.
• Walking Shirtless Scene:
  • Many NPC's can be found roaming sunny Los Santos shirtless. The player doesn't unlock shirtless outfits until the postgame, unless you're playing as Trevor, where several switch scenes can open with him wearing nothing but his shoes and and underwear.
• War for Fun and Profit: Possibly the only antagonistic force to make our sociopathic trio look good by comparison. The Merryweather Company ships classified nuclear superweapons through the port of Los Santos with very little security or oversight, and doesn't require any sort of government approval to act as as a personal army for its CEO. The public sector, on the other hand, isn't much better. The FIB and IAA compete to kidnap, torture, and assassinate any suspected Islamic terrorists (Read: Brown People) on American soil while turning a blind eye to much of the wanton chaos committed by the protagonists. The FIB even sic the protagonists on the IAA over budget disputes.
• Water Torture: In "By The Book", this is one of the four tortures the player can choose for Trevor to use on Ferdinand Kerimov.
• Wham Episode: "Did Somebody Say Yoga?" is one for Michael. His family gets pissed at him for various reasons, and they all move out.
  • "Mr. Phillips" is for the people who played the previous game. Hey, Johnny is back! And he looks like an ally to Trevor - wait why is he stomping on him?
• Wham Line:
  • For fans of GTA Radio, this line regarding the host of Fame or Shame, who appears in person soon afterwards.
  Trevor: WHERE THE FUCK IS LAZLOW?!
  • During the start of the mission "Bury the Hatchet" after the previous heist setup mission, Trevor visits Michael's house to..... chat about old times. Things get a bit heated, and then out of nowhere, Trevor mentions this game changing line:
    Trevor: Let me..... Let me just ask you something. Alright? Something I've been, I've been thinking about. Up in North Yankton...... Exactly who was buried in your place?
  • For San Andreas players, as it signals the start of a mission that's one big Call-Back:
    Trevor: Where's this "thing" happening?
    Lamar: Down Grove Street.
• Wham Shot: "Bury the Hatchet" has Trevor digging up the grave shown in the prologue, revealing that the actual person buried is Brad, the other guy that was shot.
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • What became of Michael's boat? It's gone forever, but Michael can sometimes be found sitting at the dock where he previously kept it, either out of reminiscence or mourning. Besides, if the player have enough money, there's nothing stopping them from buying a new one on the in-game internet.
  • Unless you choose Ending C, Trevor's beef with the Chinese gang will go unresolved, as will Stretch's story. Option C resolves both of these issues, as well as giving a better ending to the FIB/Devin story.
• "What Now?" Ending: Trevor says this verbatim if the player chooses ending C.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • At the end of the game, when Franklin is given the choice to either off Michael or Trevor, both give Franklin a "What the heck?"-speech, although Michael is much more understandable, since he made Franklin go from being a simple repo-man to what he has become now. Trevor's more pissed about being betrayed once again by someone he trusts, especially when Michael shows up to help Franklin off him, although Michael reasons why Trevor should be killed.
  • In two of the endings: In Ending A, Michael berates Franklin for showing too much mercy to Trevor, but his criticism is brief. In Ending B, Trevor is furious that Franklin is going to kill his own mentor and father figure, betraying the only man that ever showed him respect; he severs his ties with Franklin from then on.
• What the Hell, Player?: The game seemingly goes out of its way to pull this if the player chooses to kill Michael at the end. At least with Trevor, Franklin remains friends with Michael and even ends up getting half of Trevor's cut from the UD score. With Michael, not only does the game go to great lengths to make you feel guilty as sin just before the deed is done, but his cut ends up going to his family and Trevor cuts ties with you as a result of your treachery. In short, Franklin gains nothing and loses everything from betraying Michael, making this choice the game's de facto Bad Ending.
• With a Friend and a Stranger: Franklin is introduced to a stranger, Michael, and is then introduced to Michael's old friend (for lack of a better word), Trevor. The mission "Hood Safari" also sees Lamar and Franklin (friends) teaming up with Trevor (who's just met Franklin, and is a stranger to Lamar).
• With Friends Like These...:
  • Franklin's friends are shit. Lamar is even dumber (and more Trigger-Happy) than Ryder, Stretch seems to think that doing jail time somehow gives him seniority (not to mention that he's actually in cahoots with the Ballas), and Tonya is a flirty washed-up crackhead who keeps cajoling Franklin into covering her even lamer boyfriend JB's tow truck shifts for no pay because the latter is in bed smoking. Of course, every time Franklin says he wants to do something more profitable and than this, they all sneer at him and say he's getting all uppity and acting like he's too good for them. Let's face it, he is.
  • The mutual relationship between Michael and Trevor: Michael sees Trevor as an unstable psychopath, while Trevor sees Michael as a greedy coward.
• The Worf Effect: Trevor effortlessly killing Johnny Klebitz, who was possibly the toughest GTA protagonist, and the former Liberty City Chapter of the Lost MC in his opening mission demonstrates exactly why he is The Dreaded.
• Worf Had the Flu: Johnny's meth addiction has taken a visible toll on him both physically and mentally by the time his ill-fated confrontation with Trevor comes to pass. Most tellingly, he's unable to look at Trevor in the eye when confronted face to face.
• Worthless Treasure Twist: Trevor, Michael, and Franklin manage to steal something from Merryweather in "The Merryweather Heist''. Unfortunately, it turns out to be a nuclear weapon that Lester can't sell without trouble, forcing the heist team to leave it behind afterwards.
• Would Not Hit a Girl: Played with. When Michael and Franklin carjack from a female driver, they are noticeably more gentle than they are with male drivers, but this does not stop the player from making either of them be violent towards women anyway. Averted by Trevor, who doesn't show the same chivalry.
• You Are What You Hate: In "Paleto Score Setup", on the way to Paleto Bay, Michael deduces that Trevor is a hipster because of his lifestyle. Trevor, of course, angrily denies the allegations, and Michael responds that self-hatred is a "common hipster affliction".
• You Can't Go Home Again: This is the final fate of Ferdinand Kerimov. Once his torture is over, Trevor brings him to the airport and urges him to get out of the country. Since the government expects him to be dead, Mr. K now has to disappear off the grid and leave his family behind.
• Your Door Was Open: A common occurrence on Michael's side of things. Whereas Franklin is shown answering his door whenever he gets visitors and Trevor's trailer doesn't have anything in the way of security to begin with, various characters are somehow able to walk into Michael's house without being invited inside. Notable examples include Franklin^note a downplayed case as Michael did invite him over and Amanda, who's shown leaving the house just beforehand, could have let him in and Dave during the intro to "Mr. Philips" and Trevor in the missions "Fame Or Shame" and "Bury The Hatchet".

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