Grand Theft Auto V

The seventh main game, and fifteenth entry overall in the Grand Theft Auto series, Grand Theft Auto V is a 2013 video game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games.

Michael Townley is an ex-robber living on the fictional city and state of Los Santos, San Andreas, now using the name Michael De Santa since he lives under witness protection. Despite his extremely dysfunctional family, he seems to live a fairly normal life. Then he discovers his wife betrayed him with the tennis coach. He chases him to a mansion and destroys the house out of anger. The problem is, the mansion actually belongs to a Mexican drug lord that asks for reparation, forcing Michael to go back to a life of crime....

A critical and financial success, it was released for the seventh generation of video game consoles in September 2013. Then re-released for the eighth generation a year later in November 2014. Then re-released a third time for the ninth generation in March of 2022.

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Tropes used in Grand Theft Auto V include:

• A Lighter Shade of Black:
  • How Dave Norton identifies. His hands are dirty but he's as a close to a Reasonable Authority Figure as you'll get in the FIB.
  • Essentially what Michael's family realizes about him. Michael is an abrasive jerk but he's not an outright douchebag like Fabien.
• All for Nothing: "The Merryweather Heist". Just after it's completed, Lester tells the guys to put the MacGuffin back. It's so valuable that if they make off with it, the American government will descend on them with full force so the protagonists walk away with no money.
• Badass Normal: Every now and then, the people whose vehicle the player tries to steal will fight back and fight competently enough that they might win. Truck drivers in particular put a good fight.
• Big Bad Ensemble: The FIB and Merryweather Security.
• Black and Gray Morality: The guys are hardly saints but even they don't approach the sheer level of moral depravity of the Big Bads.
• Canon Discontinuity: "The Diamond Casino & Resort" DLC wipes away Endings A & B, confirming that only Ending C happened.
• Crapsaccharine World: Los Santos looks like a thriving settlement but it's filled with all the worst aspects of American culture; wealth gaps, racism, faux activists, police brutality. And the ghettos are full on Crapsack Worlds.
• Cool Car: Everyone has one. And they're all up for grabs and customizable.
• Dirty Cop: Steve Haines, and his right-hand man Andreas Sanchez, are openly corrupt FIB agents, in the pockets of Devin Weston. Dave Norton openly identifies A Lighter Shade of Black, viewing backroom deals as Necessarily Evil and prefers diplomacy instead of killing.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Ending C big time. The three aren't perfect but their enemies are all dead, they've got enough money for the rest of their lives and it took a massive firefight to get there, but they can finally retire.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Michael and Trevor will say this to Franklin if the player choose Endings A or B.
• Even Evil Has Standards: There are in fact some lines that Trevor won't cross. He won't take children to strip clubs or bars and he lets an innocent man who was tortured by the FIB go free. He also seems to respect women quite a bit, looking down on Domestic Abusers. His big moment comes when he's furious that he's been helping unlicensed vigilantes patrol the US-Mexican border and has been harassing innocent, and legal, immigrants just because of right-wing xenophobia.
  • Played for Laughs with Michael. If he wants to have an affair, he goes to a motel. Can't his wife have the decency to do the same?
• Everything Trying to Kill You: 90% of the open world can kill the main characters in very little time.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Something Dr. Friedman calls Michael out on. Michael claims anger that his spoiled children don't appreciate the sacrifices he's made so that they can have an easy life but all he's really doing is pushing the responsibility for his horrible actions and their consequences onto others in denial of the fact that he's an adrenaline junkie.
• Good Feels Good: Michael and Franklin have nice smiles whenever they return a mugging victim's wallet.
• Greed: The Central Theme of the game. However much people have, they always want more.
• Heel Realization: Life with Fabien makes Michael's family realize that they've kind of been dicks to their patriarch.
• I Coulda Been a Contender: Michael and Trevor. The former was a high school quarterback whose Hair-Trigger Temper cost him his spot and the latter loved being in the Air Force before he was drummed out.
• Jack of All Stats: Michael's Tailgater (a lawyer friendly third generation Audi A6). It can keep up with supercars, has good grip, and can take a punch while dishing one out.
• Killed Off for Real: Choosing endings A or B invokes this for Michael and Trevor respectively who will be unable to played afterwards in the free roam.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane:
  • The Labrador Retriever that Franklin runs across. Maybe Franklin Speaks Fluent Animal and the dog is in fact a supernatural being or given that Franklin is The Stoner, it was only ever a hallucination.
  • Aliens. Flying Saucers definitely exist, operated by the FIB, but the aliens are only ever hallucinations or men in costumes. Whether or not they actually exist is never made clear.
  • Trevor's rampages. If he actually killing all those people or is it just him imagining him going apeshit on people who pissed him off?
• Mistaken for Gay: The Triad believe Michael and Trevor are boyfriends.
• Nice, Mean and In-Between: Franklin, Trevor and Michael respectively. Franklin is the most Affably Evil and at least tries to do the right thing when he can. Trevor revels in causing chaos, destroying what he can and feeling no remorse about killing Innocent Bystanders. Michael would like to avoid unnecessary deaths but at the same time, he is ready to mess some shit up.
• Never My Fault: Should the player crash into an AI car, one of the stock phrases is them blaming the other driver.
  • Michael's family has the right to be angry at him for how his life affects them, but they take it way too far while ignoring their own failings and how much they leech off of him.
• Nothing Is Scarier: After Debra and Floyd order Trevor out of the former's apartment, the scene cuts to black. When it resumes, Trevor is covered in blood, merrily walking away. No details are provided as to what Trevor did to them.
• Papa Wolf: Michael has a very complicated relationship with his children but taking advantage of them is a good way to piss him off.
• Plot Irrelevant Villain: Stretch. Despite how much he harasses Franklin and Lamar, his relevance on the plot in next to none.
• Police Brutality: The default mindset of the police.
• Pretty Fly for a White Guy: Jimmy. Franklin warns him that although he understands that Jimmy isn't trying to be, other African-Americans are likely to find it very offensive.
• Realistic Diction Is Unrealistic: Averted. Stuttering and repetition of words does happen to several characters.
• Retired Outlaw: Michael is one at the beginning of the game. The situation quickly changes.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Simeon Yetarian. He only really appears for three missions in the game's opening but he ultimately leads to Franklin meeting Michael.
• Spoiled Brat: Both Jimmy and Tracey de Santa.
• Take a Third Option: Steve Haines wants Franklin to kill Trevor. Devin Weston wants Franklin to kill Michael. Lester suggests that Franklin kill both of them but in Ending C, Franklin ensures that both survive, killing all their enemies.
• Take That: Solomon Richards seems to be a "No Celebrities Were Harmed" version of famous film directors from the second half of the 20th century like Martin Scorsese and Mel Brooks. And it's stated that all of his "masterpieces" are dangerously oversimplified Cliché Storms that a no-talent hack could produce, while the man himself is shown as being near-completely out of touch with the cultural tastes of the 21st century, something he blames on the kids rather than trying to update his style to stay relevant.
• Universal Driver's License: All three of the guys can drive anything from a sedan to a helicopter, a tank, a monster truck, a plane, a tractor and anything in-between.
• Wanted Meter: With a maximum level of five. The meter eventually cools down as long you stay out of the law enforcement's line-of-sight.
• Weaksauce Weakness: The police will give up their pursuit if the player manages to get on the railroad tracks, into one of their houses, or manages to repaint their getaway car. A less guaranteed one is to get underwater without the cops noticing.
• Witness Protection: Michael sold out his gang to the FIB in exchange for this.
• Would Hit a Girl: Would? It's fair play dude! (well, not so fair if you're attacking civilians) You can attack any female you want. Now including female police officers.