Awesome / Grand Theft Auto V

Time to face the music!

Grand Theft Auto V is widely considered by many to be the best in the series and for good reason; Rockstar went above and beyond in escalating the hijinks you'll get into both during story mode and online as you cause chaos and carnage across the state of San Andreas in pursuit of the almighty dollar.

All spoilers are unmarked per wiki policy. Read only at your own risk. You Have Been Warned.

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• The prologue. Most GTA games have their first mission be a "drive here, look around the neighborhood" tutorial level. But here, the first mission puts you into the middle of a high paced robbery armed with carbine rifles for a sweet taste of power and things to come.
  • The second mission, which begins immediately after you finish the prologue, puts you behind the wheel of a supercar and gives you a chance to experience the city at high speed.
• Shortly after starting the game, you can go around the corner from Franklin's house and find a very familiar face robbing a drugstore. It's Packie McReary from the previous game! If you help him get away from the cops, you've just got access to one of the very best Heist crew members you could possibly have.
• Getting your first heist mission in the game to go off without a hitch.
• There's a mission ("Three's Company") where the protagonists have to kidnap a prisoner being interrogated by the IAA for the FIB. How do they accomplish this? With Trevor piloting a helicopter over the skyscraper the agent is in. Michael rappels down from the helicopter and crashes through the window, grabbing the prisoner and begins shooting anyone who tries to stop him. Franklin provides sniper support from afar, and Trevor hoists Michael and the agent into the helicopter and flies away.
  • It's even more awesome to play this mission for the first time experiencing the three man job with smooth transition first hand. This is also the mission where all of our protagonists are together for the first time and seriously could there be a job more suiting for this occasion?
    • This also credits Rockstar with awesome points for the honesty of their trailers. In the preview, switching between characters took less than a second, was fluid enough to keep you oriented, and gave you control immediately. In gameplay, mid-mission character swaps take less than a second, are fluid enough to keep you oriented, and give you the controls immediately. It's nice to see them deliver exactly what they promised.
• Trevor's Rampages, it's him against an endless horde of whoever pissed him off enough and he wins.
  • One of which includes the U.S Army and a damn tank.
• The entirety of "Minor Turbulence." Trevor wants to get the guns off a Merryweather cargo plane, but he doesn't want to take them on after they land. So he flies a cropduster into the plane, kills everyone inside, and hijacks it. Then when the plane gets shot down by the air force, the player has the option of driving a jeep out of the plane instead of simply jumping out just because it's there.
• "Legal Trouble": As seen in Michael's trailer, he gets in a car chase with Molly, who's stolen a copy of the film he helped produce, which ends up going around virtually every part of the Los Santos International Airport tarmac, weaving around jet planes in various states of landing, takeoff, and taxiing. Several times the game even switches to slow motion as police cars are blown away by the backblast of jets.
• "Crystal Maze." Trevor annihilating the O'Neil brothers, and lighting up a Vapor Trail to blast their family farm/meth lab sky high, while storming off in an Unflinching Walk.
• "The Paleto Score". Trevor and Michael rob a rural bank. Surrounded by corrupt police intent on killing them, they leave the bank... in fifty pounds of body armor and armed to the teeth with heavy machine guns and a freaking handheld minigun. The police can only mouth "oh shit" before the crew massacres them... and the helicopters... and the Army... and the tanks. Almost the entire mission consists of rampaging throughout town, including Franklin showing up in a bulldozer to use as improvised armored transport, and ending with an intense firefight in a factory before the characters hop a train out of town.
  • During the setup, Trevor recommends bringing along Chef as the third gunman, calling him a "consummate professional." He's not kidding. Halfway through the heist, Chef splits off from Michael and Trevor to distract the cops and give them a chance to get away. Not only does he make an opening, he fends off the cops so long that they back off, seemingly thinking that there's more than one of him! And to top it all off, he survives! (Though the same happens when you choose any of the other competent gunmen, including Packie McReary.)
• Seeing Lazlow in the pathetic, washed-up flesh.
• In one early mission, Michael goes Papa Wolf when he realizes Simeon is scamming his son out of thousands by credit fraud. After taking Franklin at gun-point (by hiding out in the car that Franklin steals, as a matter of fact), he orders him to drive straight into Simeon's dealership. After paying off Franklin for his part of the Roaring Rampage of Revenge, Michael beats the ever-loving shit out of Simeon (and can potentially do it without taking a single hit from Simeon), and warns the smarmy bastard of what'll happen if he ever needs to come down again. And thus, we get our first real taste of Laser-Guided Karma this game has in store...
  Michael: Don't make me have to come back here.
  • As for what happened to Simeon? Except for one last angry phone call to Franklin, he does not reappear. Michael's threat worked!
  • He does reappear if you visit the dealership as Franklin after "Complications" and before the mission "Mr Phillips", as he'll send two gunmen to kill you and run off. You can then chase him down and kill him (or better yet, block off the entrances so he can't run off), very satisfying after all the crap he put you through.
• "The Long Stretch" Franklin, Lamar and Stretch gets into a heated late night shootout with the Ballas after a deal gone wrong using a shotgun with a flashlight attachment and "Hood Safari" where he, Lamar and Trevor blow away some more Ballas on Grove Street brings back nice memories of the last time we were in San Andreas.
  • "Hood Safari" has a moment for Trevor. He decides to tag along on a drug deal with Franklin and Lamar, and the trio go to Grove Street to pick up the product. When they get there, the Dealer offers a sample to Lamar, who tries it and declares it A-OK, and Franklin insists they hurry and leave. Cue Trevor, a veteran drug-trafficker, demanding a taste of the other side of the brick with clear suspicion towards the Dealer, and immediately becoming even more suspicious when the Dealer curtly refuses. The following altercation results in the kilo brick of coke being torn in half and revealed to actually be a brick of drywall containing only a baggie's worth of an ounce of coke, saving Lamar and the hood from being scammed, and saving them from a lot of embarrassment and lost money.
    Trevor: Did we ask...for a key...or a FUCKING OUNCE?!
    Lamar: Man, that's motherfucking drywall!!
    Dealer: Hey, we got some motherfucking buyers' remorse out here! (slams door)
    Trevor: You can't fucking hustle a hustler!
• While it starts off as a That One Level for some, there's no denying that the acid-trip that Michael goes on in "Did Somebody Say, Yoga?" is one of the most awesomely hilarious drug-addled hallucination sequences in video game history... period! The music makes it even better, especially during the freefall sequence.
• You have to admit, there's something cool about how you blow up Jay Norris' head on live television at the end of "Friend Request".
  • Hell, pulling off any heist mission. Given that the player has to go out of their way to plan and prepare for them, in ways that aren't just an excuse to string a few missions together, seeing it all work out feels awesome. You'll love it when a plan comes together.
• The final heist, A.K.A "The Big One". The trio, (and their Badass Crew) rob the Union Depository, a feat thought impossible, and, depending on whether or not the player invests in the best heist members, can steal up to four tons of gold.
  • Just this quote from Lester about the heist is enough to sell just how big the heist is:
    Lester: And remember this, gentlemen: if we pull this off, we will be making history. Sordid, nasty, depraved history, but history nonetheless.
  • The first plan ("Subtle") starts with the crew hijacking and impersonating an armored car convoy to transfer the gold, makes a clean getaway with Franklin manipulating the Los Santos traffic lights, has a close-call when the crew has frantic firefightwith dozens of Merryweather Mercenaries in an underpass shantytown, and ends with a long car Chase Scene between the Lemming Cops and four heavily-modified Cool Cars loaded with the gold, which vanish into thin air by driving into two cargo trucks.
  • The second plan ("Obvious") starts with Michael and his gunman crashing the bank lobby to create a diversion for Franklin and his gunman to use a giant drill to burst into the gold room. After Trevor and one of your Badass Drivers secure the gold with their helicopters, the ground team has to fight off practically every police officer in Los Santos in their escape, while Lester of all people] covers Trevor's wingman from Merryweather Buzzards with an RPG.
  • And the reward? Depending on how well you plan your crew and carry out the heist, you can make off with over two hundred million dollars in gold, which adds up to approximately a cool hundred to hundred and thirty million^note provided you made the right choices in picking the crew between Michael, Trevor, and Franklin, after paying off the rest of the crew.
• After Franklin is given his mansion he gets a bitchy e-mail from Denise who is only just realizing that he's moved out. She goes on about her self-empowerment, calls Franklin a bad person even after talking like she'd need his help for her own shit, and speaks ill of Franklin's mother. Franklin can retort telling her to not fuck up the house he still half-owns, to keep her straw feminist shit out of it, and that his mother's only mistake was ever giving her a roof over her head to begin with. Then comes the cherry when he wishes her luck with her pelvic floor exercising stint, saying that she ought to be really good at it considering all the men that fucked her and ran off. It's satisfying as hell to finally get to see Franklin give her a well deserved "Fuck you".
• Martin Madrazo had all the makings of being the games Big Bad. Michael pisses him off early on by crashing his mistresses' deck, then Trevor goes and pisses him off worse by kidnapping his wife. And you think that he's going to be the primary antagonist... up until you learn Trevor cut off his ear, and scared him into agreeing to leaving both him and Michael alone, and warning he'll chop his other ear off if he doesn't treat Patricia Madrazo better.
• "Derailed:" Trevor can see that his buddy, Michael, is upset...how does Trevor choose to cheer him up? Motorbiking over a hill onto a moving train, hijacking said train and crashing it into another train over the bridge, plummeting into the river below, taking out Merryweather snipers and choppers whilst Michael steals the contents from inside the train and finally guns down the remaining Merryweather forces in a boat. To top it off, Trevor lets Michael have the bigger vehicle at the end of the mission. He does this all on a whim.
  • The Mission in itself is awesome, especially when Michael gets to the Bridge.
    Michael: Quite a spot you picked...
    Trevor: Get used to it, cause it's about to START RAINING FIRE!! (Crashes train on the bridge and leaps off, all in slow motion)
• "Meltdown:" Michael going full Papa Wolf again after Devin sends some of his Merryweather goons to the De Santa residence.
  Michael: Daddy's home you pricks.
  • At the end of the mission, Michael gets waylaid by a Merryweather guard, only for Jimmy to kill the lights and knock out the goon with a bong while wearing full military gear, including night-vision goggles.
• "The Wrap-Up", a mission that begins with a Mexican Standoff between Michael and Dave Norton, Steve Haines, Agent Sanchez and an FIB SWAT team, a team of IAA agents led by the UL Paper Guy himself, and a whole platoon of Merryweather Security operatives with several Buzzard attack helicopters and turns into what is literally the largest gunfight in Grand Theft Auto history and finishes with a chase/fight against the Buzzard with no set goal beyond evading or destroying it, which can easily result in a chase across half of Los Santos with the helicopter firing missiles and miniguns.
  • Special mention goes to Trevor's Big Damn Heroes moment where he snipes a helicopter out of the sky to save Michael and Dave, and keeps giving fire support throughout the shootout.
    Trevor: If anybody's going to kill you old friend, it's going to be me!
• In "Fresh Meat", Franklin busts into a slaughterhouse to rescue Michael from the Triads. When you reach him, you have one segment where you shoot enemies as Michael with a pistol while hanging upside-down. This includes making a perfect headshot from at least 50 yards away in the dark.
• In the final "Minute Men" mission, you meet a Latino land owner who Trevor had previously tased and helped the Boarder Patrol abduct. He proceeds to calmly give Trevor a scathing What the Hell, Hero? speech for helping the Right Wing Militia Fanatics just because the money was good before demanding that Trevor make amends, and refusing to pay Trevor a cent for it. He doesn't even flinch when Trevor puts a gun right to his temple. Trevor then proceeds to do everything the man demanded. That dude is awesome.
  • It takes a lot of balls to stand up to a complete psycho like Trevor, let alone ask him for help and state out loud you won't pay him a single penny for his trouble - and he's so badass that Trevor actually backs down. That Mexican has it in spades.
  • The way Trevor finally kills off the Minute Men is also awesome too. After Joe and Josef cross the Moral Event Horizon by attempting to "arrest" an innocent family at gun-point (implying they were about to violate their one, measly virtue of Thou Shalt Not Kill), Trevor shows up, and tells them he's here to shut them down. When they try to fight back, it does NOT end well for them. Bonus points for the optional objective to taser them before killing them, called "What Goes Around..."

    Joe: Stay out of this you dumb Canadian!
    Trevor: Oh, you just made this REAL easy for me!

  • Trevor's lines while chasing down Joe are pure, furious gold.
    Trevor: How's it feel, being chased down by a stranger that hates you?! You started this, it's too late to back out and become a liberal now!
• Both times when Michael and Trevor humiliate Lazlow for acting sleazy towards Tracey: the first time (after he gropes Tracey during her Fame Or Shame audition), they chase him down (in a big rig, no less!) and force him to dance in his underwear while they videotape it. The second time is in a tattoo parlor, after Michael overhears him talking about wanting her to blow him so she can get back on Fame or Shame; he forcibly gives Lazlow piercings, lasers a tattoo of a dick on him, and cuts off his ponytail.
• The Ballad of Rocco: You finally get to kill Rocco Pelosi from Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony and it is oh so satisfying.
• An optional one: as Michael, you can get a phone call from Tracey saying she's being tailed by a stalker. If you choose to help her, you get to kick his ass and he runs away in terror. Lesson learned, do NOT mess with Michael's family.
• One random event you can encounter is finding Mafia princess Antonia Betino about to be buried alive, and saving her by killing the mooks. You then deliver her to a drop off point, where she tells you she will make sure you’re taken care of. Not long after, you get a notification stating that her father just deposited $60,000 into your account.
• Franklin, Trevor and Michael all teaming up to save Lamar from getting killed by Ballas.
• Finding all the letter scraps and confronting the killer Peter Dreyfuss as Franklin, Dreyfuss runs away in fright after Franklin tells him why he's there, and you then get the chance to kill him before Franklin quips "Say hello to Leonora, motherfucker!"
• When Michael re-unites with Amanda after she moved out of the house, she's initially hesitant to come back to him, but then her yoga instructor Fabien starts to act like a jerkass to her, Michael and Jimmy. Amanda finally realizes what a douchebag he is and tells Michael to "just hit him already". Michael obliges by picking up a nearby laptop and smashing it into Fabien's head, and Jimmy Kicks Him When He's Down for good measure.
• Remember that mission seen in the trailers with Jimmy hanging off the mast of a yacht during a highway chase? It's the first mission you actually activate as Michael. GTA V starts off bigger and badder than any past game and never lets up. What the trailer leaves out is Franklin jumping from Michael's car to the yacht, throwing several mooks off to save Jimmy, and jumping back while Michael perfectly pops heads with a pistol and drives at the same time.
• One of Franklin's missions for Devin Weston has you steal a car that is being used at Richards Majestic Productions for a movie. To sneak onto the set, you must knock out an actor and take his outfit, which is a white dinner jacket with a black bowtie and black dress pants. The outfit hints at what the car turns out to be: A JB 700, the GTA equivalent of the Aston Martin DB5. As you escape in the car, you find out that it's equipped with Caltrops and even an Ejection Seat... and in a later mission, you find that it's even got built-in machine guns! And you can later buy one for yourself, albeit without the gadgets.
  • When you are transporting the stolen cars to the destination on a car carrier, the cops start chasing you and Franklin climbs on the car carrier to get into the JB 700, and uses the spikes and machine-guns to effortlessly tear the cops to shreds.
• After choosing option C and winning the game, listening to Weasel News will reveal that Merryweather Security is ending all domestic operations because of all the misfortune (all of it caused by the player characters) they have suffered recently. That's right: the three main characters are such badasses that they intimidated a heavily-armed, near-N.G.O. Superpower-level Private Military Contractor into backing off and admitting defeat. You will even receive an email from the founder, and now new CEO of Merryweather where he basically says "I'll leave you guys alone if you promise to stop attacking Merryweather". He will also thank you for killing Devin Weston and making him the most powerful man in the company.
  • Of course, Online content reveals that Merryweather's retirement didn't last long, but on the other hand, not even the force of nature that is the Online Protagonist managed to make Merryweather consider ceasing domestic operations.
• At the end of the "Kifflom!" missions, you can achieve "Enlightenment" by delivering a carload of money to a helicopter (which will fly it to Cris Fromage in the Cayman Islands), and receive...a rust-bucket tractor. Or you can blow the helicopter out of the sky, kill all the Epsilon security guards, and drive away with the car $2.1 million richer. The post-mission phonecall from Cris in the latter option. hammers home how much you've screwed up his scam.
  Cris: You can consider your enlightenment revoked, you sonuvabitch!
  Michael: And you can consider this my refund.
  Cris: Don't you realize how powerful I am?! I make or break Vinewood careers! I will destroy you...
  Michael: -Gotta go, brother-brother! Kifflom!
• Think it was awesome when "The Payday Gang" broke into the FBI office? Well, Michael and Franklin's crew one-up them when they break into the FIB Los Santos offices to wipe some evidence on Steve Haines' behalf. The first option is one long Bavarian Fire Drill literally: Michael plants some firebombs while disguised as a janitor, detonates them, and then has the crew storm the building disguised as firefighters to snatch the server in the chaos. The second option has you skydive onto the building, and has the crew hold off the FIB mooks while the team Hacker does some good old-fashioned Hollywood Hacking, before rappelling down the side of the building when the extraction helicopter crashes. Bonus points for Rickie potentially showing he Took a Level in Badass from the Jewelry Store Job, and your Badass Driver showing their ability to be Crazy-Prepared by showing up to the scene in an ambulance, which is just the thing the team needs to leave the scene inconspicuously.
  • Minor example: if you choose the Roof entry, while you are driving to the FIB building Franklin will call Michael out for his whiny attitude.
    Franklin: So the plan was feeling sorry for your ass, right? I missed Lester saying that shit, but sure, let's feel sorry for Michael. Rich, white Michael. Poor michael, who robbed banks for ten years and then got his slate wiped clean.
    Michael: Yeah, yeah.
    Franklin: Poor Michael, whose homies get into shit with the FIB out of the kindness of their own heart. Put they necks on the line. Man, where's my get out of jail free card, motherfucker?
    Michael: I'm sorry, okay?
    Franklin: You know what, Mike? You're a real easy dude to identify with. Poor me, poor me. Man, pour me a drink, nigga.
• The story of Taliana Martinez's near-escape before she meets the player: she and three friends were about to rob a pawn shop, but it turned out to be a police sting. Barely getting in the car with one of her partners, Taliana burned rubber like a bat out of hell, having to flee nearly half the cops in the state, and ramming through three police roadblocks. She would've been home-free...If her partner didn't decide to knife her... while she was busy driving at 100 miles an hour. Needless to say, he gets his stupid carcass smeared across the freeway, but Taliana is barely able to hold out until the player ends up rescuing her.
• Chef is probably the most badass employee of TPI, including Trevor. He has the same starting stats as Packie, he guilts Trevor into defending the lab from the Aztecas, and even Trevor recommends him.
  Trevor: You should consider my buddy, Chef. He's a Consummate Professional.
• After Trevor hands four hitchhikers over to the cult in the mountains, they decide to kidnap him and try to kill him. Needless to say, Trevor takes them out, and can walk out over a hundred and twenty five thousand dollars richer, and carrying some powerful firepower you may not be able to buy yet at Ammo-Nation, or will at least save you a lot of money (Ranging from a full heavy armor, to an RPG and an Assault Shotgun).
• Option C. Instead of killing Michael or Trevor, Franklin decides to unite with the two against everyone who wronged them throughout the game. This results in the trio, with help from Lamar, taking on FIB and Merryweather in a massive assault before going after Steve Haines, Stretch and Mr. Cheng all at once. This ends with Trevor kidnapping Devin and the trio meeting at a cliffside with Devin still in the truck of a car, giving Devin a few choice words, and them pushing his car (with him trapped inside) off the side of the cliff, ending the game.
  Franklin: (to Devin) My bad homie! I picked C; ain't that a bitch.
  Michael: You know, Devin, the way I see it, and hey, I'm no intelligent businessman like you, but the way I see it, there's two great evils that bedevil American capitalism of the type that you practice. Number one is outsourcing. You paid a private company to do your dirty work for ya, and then you underpaid that company because you thought you were big enough and bad enough that you didn't have to play by the rules. Oh, number two. Off-shoring your profits.
  Trevor: Off-shore?
  Michael: Oh, it's horrible. You wouldn't want to be sent off-shore just to save a little money, would you, T?
  Trevor: (Plays along) Oh, no, I wouldn't.
  Michael: Franklin?
  Frankin: Oh, nah. I ain't goin' nowhere.
  Michael: Yeah, see? But we know your opinions on the matter, Devin! KEEP YOUR PROBLEMS THE FUCK OUT OF AMERICA, huh?!
  Trevor: In this instance, when he puts it like that, it makes sense.
  Michael: 'Course it does! Hey, Devin... Goodbye, my old friend. Thanks for all the advice. (slams the boot)
  • Particularly satisfying is when Trevor takes out Steve Haines, clipping him on a Ferris wheel with a sniper rifle. Couldn't have happened to a more deserving guy...
    • Particularly awesome if you remembered Haines asked Franklin to off Trevor as first part of his Sadistic Choice. This actually caused his death...
  • Michael taking out Stretch at his own territory also counts, and if you did the Gold requirement, gave him a brutal Curb-Stomp Battle before killing him. Do not mess with Michael's family and friends.
  Michael: I got a message from your homies, Lamar and Franklin. / Hey! Lamar and Franklin send their best!
  • Franklin taking out Wei Cheng and his Triad henchmen, for retaliation of their attacks and near-murders of Michael and Trevor.
  • Another highlight of the Option C ending is Trevor mocking and threatening Devin Weston, who is locked in the trunk of his car. Devin Weston has always thought that his money and his connections made him invincible, and when he realizes that he can offer Trevor nothing he already has, he has an epic Villainous Breakdown.
    Devin: You know, you're a-you're a resourceful guy, getting past those trained killers. I need someone like you, in my organization!
    Trevor: The CEO position's gonna be vacant real soon, Slick!
    Devin: I've got nothing against you, apart from the obvious hygiene issues. Michael caused me problems, so Michael had to go!
    Trevor: You're looking at it rationally - there are people who are useful to you, and people who ain't, and the people who ain't, gotta go! Me? I'm not rational, I don't care if you're useful, or not. I feel like taking you out, Devo, so that's what I'm doing.
    Devin: This is a serious offer! Work for me, you'll have everything you've ever wanted!
    Trevor: All I've ever wanted is to see you drift in and out of consciousness as you're slowly disemboweled!
    Devin: Yes! Yes! That's the kind of creativity I need on my team! Come on, come on! Let me out of here!
    Trevor: Look, I got my own company - Trevor Philips Industries!
    Devin: Ohh, yeah, a-a-a-a fellow entrepreneur! Uh, let me buy a stake, uh, give you money to grow!
    Trevor: I dunno if you heard, but I'm kinda gold rich right now, so you got precisely nothing to offer. Prepare for the end, my friend.
    Devin: YOU CREEPY BUM!!/YOU'RE DEAD!!!/I'm going to get you!/PHILIPS!!!!!/YOU'RE OVER!/SCREW YOU!!!
  • Be honest. How many people kept driving like a madman, slamming the trunk of the car into everything they could see?
  • What's the best thing about this whole thing? It's implied to be the true ending to the game, since it has its own artwork and a few scenes in the trailer, along with franchise tradition signaling the protagonists' victory. ^note  Later events in Online confirms Option C canon, meaning all three survived after crushing their enemies, and got away successfully.