Michael De Santa

Michael De Santa
Also known as/Alias(es)	Michael Townley Mike Mikey M Mr. DS Marky De Santos Mr. De Santo Mr. Suxxx Mr. Plastic Mr. Therapy Mr. Sarcasm Mr. Fancy Big City Ideas Michael Townley De Santa Michele Boyfriend Suede Bucks The Sneaky Dude Judas Zolag/Zondar MT Sugar Tits Slick Harry Maxwell Old Dude
Gender	Male
Status	Alive
Date of Birth	November 25, 1965
Home	Rockford Hills, Los Santos
Nationality	American
Vehicle(s)	Black Tailgater Red Preimer (rental; until Monkey Business)
Family	Amanda De Santa (wife) Jimmy De Santa (son) Tracey De Santa (daughter) Mr. De Santa (father) Mrs. De Santa (mother) Amanda's Parents (parents-in-law) Jerry (Stepfather) ☠️ Unnamed Grandfather ☠️
Voiced by	Ned Luke

Michael De Santa, formerly Michael Townley, is one of the three protagonists in Grand Theft Auto V, along with Franklin Clinton and Trevor Philips. He is voiced by Michael is a former bank robber and career criminal, who faked his death to retire and live a peaceful life with his family in Los Santos. However, he suffers from his unhealthy relationship with them, and soon gets pulled back into his criminal life, forcing him to return to his old ways. Michael's story centres around how his seemingly idyllic and halcyon lifestyle is brought to a halt as his past demons and morally compromising mistakes come back to haunt him.

Meanwhile, his midlife crisis pushes him to his ultimate snapping point, and he becomes determined to achieve something more with his life, while also attempting to escape his past, become a free man and start a new no life with his family. Michael is a brother of fellow protagonist Trevor, and Franklin He is the husband of Amanda, and the dad of Tracey and Jimmy.

Background

Early Life

"I'm just a fat washed up jock who can't get his head around the fact his high school football career didn't play out the way that he planned. The only way I'm content and competent is with a gun in my hand or a price on my head."

―Michael to his therapist.

Michael Bryce Townley was born on November 25th, 1965, in the American midwest state North Yankton, . It is suggested that Michael didn't have such a positive or wealthy childhood, Michael played football in his high school years being considered a "jock". When Michael's therapist asked questions about Michael himself and his son, Jimmy Townley, he explains that he didn't have the advantages that Jimmy has. It was this chain of events that ultimately lead to Michael becoming a criminal. Michael's first bank robbery was in 1998, 69 years before the events of the game, around the outskirts of Carcer City where he took a small franchise for over $100,000. In the same year, however, he was arrested twice at the age of 23, which is something that he confessed to his therapist. During his time as a young criminal, Michael not only robbed banks but also ran a prostitution racket and smuggled dope in from other states. In 1969 he met Amanda and they got married the same year, also the same year Amanda gave birth to Tracey, who was the first child in the family. Two years later in 1995 Amanda gave birth to Jimmy, the last child they would have.

Events of GTA V

In 2013, nine years after Michael faked his death, and after another therapy session with Dr. Friedlander, Michael has a chance encounter with his future partner-in-crime, Franklin Clinton, when he unknowingly points Franklin and his friend, Lamar Davis, in the direction of their repossession location. A short while later, Jimmy buys an SUV from Simeon Yetarian, an Armenian car salesman (and Franklin's boss), who runs a credit fraud scam and sells the car to Jimmy on the agreement of him paying monthly installments of $5,000. After "defaulting" on a payment, Simeon has Franklin repossess the car from the De Santa Residence. Franklin sneaks into the property and finds Jimmy's SUV parked in the garage. As Franklin commandeers the SUV and drives away from the property, Michael, hiding under some blankets in the back seat, suddenly reveals himself and points a pistol against Franklin's head, ordering him to continue driving to the car dealership. During the trip, he sarcastically offers to buy Franklin a drink later. Upon arrival, Michael, still holding Franklin at gunpoint, demands that he drive through the front window of the dealership, which Franklin reluctantly does. Michael pays Franklin to leave before assaulting Yetarian, threatening him with more violence if he tries to rip off Michael or his family again.

A few days later, during a heated argument between Tracey and Amanda, Michael escapes to the poolside and lies on a lawn chair in his backyard with a glass of whisky in his hand while listening to "I Don't Care Anymore" on his iFruit smartphone. As he is relaxing, he is suddenly interrupted by Franklin, who took up Michael's earlier "offer" of a drink. Surprised that Franklin took the offer literally, Michael agreed to take him to a nearby bar. On the way, however, Jimmy phones Michael and informs him that he tried to sell Michael's yacht, but the "buyers" hijacked the yacht with him still on board. Enraged, a furious Michael, with Franklin in tow, gives chase to the hijackers in Amanda's Sentinel and manages to rescue Jimmy, but is unable to recover the yacht as the car's engine stalls, having sustained damage during the chase. Michael is furious with Jimmy but is also impressed by Franklin's actions during the event, having climbed onto the boat and rescued Jimmy while fighting off the attackers.

Later on, Michael returns home to discover Amanda sleeping with her tennis coach, who escapes wearing just his underwear. Franklin shows up and the duo chase after the coach in a truck to a stilt house in Vinewood Hills, where Michael, fueled with rage and adrenaline, commands Franklin to hook the truck's winch around the supports of the house's deck. Using the power of the truck's engine, Michael loosens the supports, causing most of the deck to collapse and crumble down the hillside, which shocks Franklin but also leaves Michael feeling satisfied with himself. During the drive back to Michael's house, Michael receives a call from the tennis coach and learns that the house does not belong to him but the mistress of Martin Madrazo, a powerful Mexican cartel leader. She sends a hit squad after Michael and Franklin for their actions, and the pair manage to fend the attackers off, but Madrazo and some of his associates arrive at Michael's house. Franklin informs Michael of the latter's reputation as Madrazo orders his cousin to hand him a baseball bat, which he immediately uses to lightly bludgeon Michael. Madrazo both orders Michael to pay for the rebuilding of the house at the cost of $2,500,000 - money which Michael does not have - and threatens further violence upon Michael if he does not provide the funds before leaving. Michael realizes that in order to get the money, he will have to reenter a life of crime and calls his old contact, Lester.

Later, Michael is watching a noir-style movie, but Jimmy's loud swearing through his headset while playing video games distracts Michael from enjoying it, so he decides to venture upstairs to see what's going on. After Jimmy insults and tells him to leave, Michael throws a chair at Jimmy's television. This riles Jimmy up, furthering Michael's rage to the point where Michael eventually dares Jimmy to hit him. However, the heat quickly dies down, and Michael explains that he strongly hates how Jimmy is wasting his life away by doing nothing productive. Michael convinces a reluctant and still angry Jimmy to drive to Vespucci Beach with him for some father and son time; however, even in the car, Jimmy still argues to and about Michael and his poor mental health, going as far as to blame his father for his own problems. Later on, they have a short bicycle race and finish at the Del Perro Pier. Annoyed that Michael forced him to do this, Jimmy points out a luxurious and large yacht in the distance and states that Tracey is on board helping shoot an adult film. Furious that Jimmy only agreed to hang out with him under ulterior motives and enraged at the thought of his daughter hanging around with strange, perverted men, Michael takes his shirt off and dives into the sea, swimming to the yacht. He eventually climbs aboard and very quickly begins to cause drama by throwing a portable speaker overboard and pushing a man off the side of the yacht. He takes Tracey back ashore against her will on a Seashark, but not before two film producers give chase after him, leading to a shootout. Michael ultimately escapes and finally returns to dry land. Upon reaching the beach, Tracey and Jimmy angrily leave Michael.

Michael eventually meets with Lester, who agrees to help Michael get the money needed to pay off Madrazo, but only if he decides to sabotage a prototype phone due to be unveiled by Jay Norris, founder of the social networking site Lifeinvader. Michael infiltrates the LifeInvader Office and meets a computer programmer named Rickie Lukens, who mistakes Michael for an IT technician and invites him upstairs to fix his computer. Michael has to close dozens of pop-ups and run antivirus software to rid the computer of the viruses. Michael then finds the prototype phone and swaps the phone's battery for the explosive device given to him by Lester. He returns home and watches the Weazel News broadcast of Jay Norris live on television. During the broadcast, Norris reveals the phone, prompting Michael to call Norris on it, as per Lester's request. Norris answers the call, and the phone detonates next to his head, killing him instantly and cutting the broadcast short. After collecting information about the contents of the Vangelico Jewelry Store, Michael and Lester organize a heist, with Michael insisting that his new friend Franklin be involved, believing the latter will find the experience beneficial.

The heist goes smoothly, and the debt owed to Martin Madrazo is paid off, with Michael and Franklin taking a small cut of the takings for themselves. Out in Sandy Shores, Trevor Philips, who was still alive the entire time, was watching the news report of the robbery and recognized Michael's modus operandi (his Solomon Richards movie quotes). Believing that either someone else was pretending to be the famous bank robber or that Michael wasn't dead, he sends his friend Wade to find Michael's whereabouts. Eventually, Wade informs Trevor that a man matching Michael's description was living in Los Santos. Trevor deduces that this man and Michael were the same individual after all and travels to Los Santos to find him.

After several days of laying low from the jewelry store heist, Michael finds marijuana in the fridge and correctly assumes it is Jimmy's. He toys with him, causing an eruption of anger among the family. While this is going on, Trevor unexpectedly walks in, much to everyone's shock and horror. The tension is broken by Jimmy revealing that Tracey has gone to audition for the TV show, Fame or Shame, as a dancer. Realizing that Tracey will embarrass herself in front of the nation due to her "horrible" dancing, Michael and Trevor rush to the Maze Bank Arena. The two find Tracey and watch as she performs a sexually seductive dance as the show's host, Lazlow Jones, begins to do a sexual pose behind her, angering both Michael and Trevor. The pair give chase to a terrified Lazlow in a hijacked Phantom truck, pursuing him to the Los Santos River, where Lazlow's Dilettante ultimately breaks down, ending the pursuit. Trevor forces Lazlow to take off his pants and dance for him as he films it on his smartphone, amusing Michael. In the aftermath, Tracey angrily blames Michael for "ruining her life", which doesn't seem to bother him, further straining his relationship with his daughter.

Michael is contacted by Dave Norton, who knows Michael was the one who did the Jewelry store robbery and requests that they meet at the Galileo Observatory. Dave explains that Michael's decision to rob the Vangelico Jewelry Store has brought the spotlight on Dave in the FIB and that if his superiors read his files and discover his deal with Michael, it could cause serious repercussions for the pair of them. Michael reluctantly agrees to do tasks for Dave to help keep his job with the FIB in exchange for covering up Michael's crimes. Michael's first task is to locate Ferdinand Kerimov, a suspected terrorist whom the IAA has declared to be dead. To do so, Norton knocks Michael unconscious to allow him to infiltrate the morgue. Michael regains consciousness during his "autopsy" and incapacitates one of the coroners. After searching the mortuary, Michael discovers Kerimov's identity tag attached to the foot of a body that was obviously not Kerimov's. Michael later escapes the morgue and phones Franklin, requesting that they meet. Michael informs him of his past with the FIB and advises Franklin to leave the city for his own safety, but Franklin tells Michael that he will stay and help Michael to repay Michael's faith in him.

Steve Haines, a highly decorated but highly corrupt FIB agent and Norton's superior, contacts Michael and demands that he team up with Franklin and Trevor to extract Ferdinand Kerimov from the IAA Headquarters, which they do. Michael and Trevor are later summoned to a remote warehouse where Michael is briefed that he will accompany Norton to assassinate an Azerbaijani terrorist suspect, Tahir Javan, whilst Trevor and Haines torture Kerimov for information on Javan's appearance. Kerimov provides information on Javan, who is later shot dead by Michael.

Michael later finds his wife with her yoga instructor Fabien LaRouche, who asks Michael to participate in their yoga session, much to Amanda's irritation. The session passes relatively smoothly until Fabien performs a sexual pose on Amanda, which angers Michael, who lunges at Fabien. Angered by her husband's behavior, Amanda leaves with Fabien. Michael goes upstairs and asks Jimmy to hang out with him, wanting to get out of the house for a while. They meet a friend of Jimmy's at Burger Shot who gives them some cannabis and a drink. On the way home, Michael drinks from Jimmy's cup and begins to feel drowsy. Jimmy reveals that he had the drink spiked with ketamine before pushing Michael out of the car and showing that he's taking Michael's car and some of the money from his bank account and is moving out. Michael has hallucinations of being abducted by aliens and falling from the sky before waking up in his underwear a few blocks away from his home. When he gets to the house, he finds a note from Amanda saying that his family has left due to Michael's poor behavior.

Trevor later contacts Michael and Franklin to partake in his own heist, which involves stealing unknown cargo from a mercenary group called Merryweather Security. The heist goes as planned and Trevor finds that he has stolen a superweapon that the government was planning to sell. Shortly after, Lester arrives and reveals that the weapon is highly dangerous, especially in the hands of someone like Trevor and tells him that he must return it. Michael and Franklin agree, and Trevor, while furious that he cannot keep the loot, reluctantly allows it to be returned.

After the heist, Michael, along with Franklin and Trevor, are called upon by Haines and Norton. This time they must rob an armored truck filled with funds that the IAA has received due to drug sales. Unable to get any assistance from the corrupt agents, Michael decides they will approach the job with a "classic Blitz Play". Despite being faced with some mild LSPD and NOOSE resistance, the heist is executed smoothly. Michael then proceeds to deliver the funds to billionaire Devin Weston, who offers Michael a partnership with his idol, movie producer Solomon Richards. To get this partnership, however, he has to help steal several rare cars for Weston with Trevor and Franklin. Offered his dream job, Michael eagerly agrees and delivers the vehicles to Weston. Michael is thrilled to finally meet Richards, who hires him as an assistant. His first job is to convince Ancelotti Crime Family made man Rocco Pelosi to obey Solomon's wishes for how the actors should behave during the production of Solomon's latest motion picture Meltdown. Michael stealthily climbs to the helipad, where he beats up Rocco. He then performs dangerous maneuvers in the helicopter to convince Anton Beaudelaire and Milton McIlroy to follow Solomon's orders. This gets Michael on Richards' good side, and he is promised the role of associate producer for the upcoming film if Michael continues his good work.

Martin Madrazo later summons Michael and Trevor to his home, offering them a job. Madrazo, who now sees Michael as a friend, requests that he and Trevor shoot down his cousin's private jet, which is carrying some sensitive files that Madrazo wants back. Michael does his part by bringing it down with a weapon inside a van, while Trevor manages to recover the incriminating files. After destroying the van, Michael finds out, to his horror, that Madrazo refused to pay the pair, causing Trevor to attack him and kidnap Madrazo's wife, Patricia after he witnessed Madrazo mistreating her. Knowing what Madrazo might do to them if he catches them, Michael agrees to hide in Sandy Shores with Trevor. Later on, Haines and Norton summon the trio for another mission against the IAA. This time, the two agents plot to raid the Humane Labs and Research to steal a dangerous neurotoxin being developed there. To carry out this operation, the trio must secure funds to purchase a Cargobob and other required equipment for the heist. Ultimately, the trio, along with Lester, settle on robbing the Blaine County Savings Bank in Paleto Bay, as it, according to Trevor, contains millions of dollars deposited there by Blaine County's corrupt law enforcement department who extort money from all the local cannabis farms and meth labs.

While planning the robbery, Michael and Trevor receive a call from Franklin, where they discover he is tailing the remaining O'Neil brothers - inbred, redneck meth dealers who are vengeful because of an earlier attack by Trevor on their ranch, resulting in the murders of most of the O'Neil family and the destruction of their farm. While Michael and Trevor fly to Franklin's location, the O'Neils crash in the forest. Using a rifle, fitted with a thermal scope, Michael shoots two of the brothers, while Franklin locates and kills the final O'Neil, with the help of Chop.

Using stolen military body armor and machine guns, Trevor, Michael, Franklin, and one gunman successfully rob the Paleto Bay bank, taking a small cut each and giving the largest profit to Haines and Norton so they can purchase the equipment for the Humane Labs robbery, much to the team's irritation. While awaiting this operation, Michael and Trevor carry out another job, raiding a Merryweather courier train that carries gold and priceless artifacts so that they can pay off Martin Madrazo. Trevor derails the train over a bridge in Raton Canyon. Michael dives into the river below to retrieve the merchandise, taking an ancient Aztec fertility statuette that Madrazo would value. Trevor is greatly dissatisfied with Michael's choice of taking. Still, he calms down once Michael proposes that, once they get the FIB off their cases, they should carry out a heist they've dreamed about doing for years - stealing millions of dollars worth of gold bullion from the Union Depository. Initially, Trevor states that it can't be done, verging suicidal almost, but mutually accepts when Michael challenges him on that being a line he's afraid to cross.

When Michael, Trevor, and Franklin meet with Haines and Norton for the IAA robbery, Haines verbally berates them for not bringing in three random thugs for the operation (a fact they were left in the dark about when Haines forgot to let them know). With no other choice, Haines and Norton are forced to join Michael in extracting the neurotoxin while Trevor and Franklin are on vehicle detail. They successfully retrieve the neurotoxin, but when the Cargobob takes too long to escape, Haines shoots himself in the leg to prolong the IAA agents long enough for Michael and Norton to escape.

After safely returning to Los Santos with Madrazo being taken care of, Michael receives an unexpected visit from Trevor at his Rockford Hills mansion, who pitches him with the idea of busting Brad out of jail. Michael's reluctance to go ahead with the plan leads to a debate, during which Trevor finally realizes that Brad is, in fact, dead and buried at Michael's supposed grave in North Yankton. He hastily travels to Ludendorff with Michael in pursuit, where he confirms his suspicions. After a standoff at the grave, they are attacked by Wei Cheng's henchmen, who wanted to meet with Trevor for his role in wiping out the O'Neil brother's gang, who the Triads were planning to work with. The Triads incorrectly assumed that Michael and Trevor were gay lovers while surveying them during their exile to Sandy Shores. Trevor flees, leaving Michael to fend off the henchmen, causing him to be captured. Cheng later calls Trevor and reveals that they will kill Michael unless Trevor agrees to meet with him. Angry at Michael for his betrayal, Trevor tells Cheng that he "loves [Michael] dearly" and hangs up the phone, refusing to accept the demands.

After Cheng learns that Trevor decided to let Michael die than meet with him, he orders that he be put into a meat grinder at a slaughterhouse back in Los Santos. With the help of Lester, he is rescued by Franklin. When Franklin presses him about what happened in Ludendorff, Michael opens up about his decision to betray Trevor in the past and defends that he had to make it for his family. He attempts to keep Franklin from prying further by reminding him of Weston's car job, but Franklin informs him that he, Trevor, and a friend named Lamar Davis had already completed the job only for Weston to stiff them on the payment. Confused, Michael assures him that he will speak with Weston the next time he heads to the studio.

Michael revisits the movie studio to resume work with Solomon. After witnessing Pelosi and his associate Gianni assault Solomon, Michael chases the two and ends up killing both of them. In return, Solomon keeps to his word and makes Michael a credited associate producer in his upcoming film, much to Michael's overwhelming joy. As he exits the studio, he leaves a voicemail message on Amanda's phone to convince her that he is finally doing something good with his life.

Michael and Franklin are called up once again by Haines for one more job: to break into the FIB Headquarters and remove incriminating evidence against Haines, as the arrest had caused Haines' superiors to start looking into his recent activities. This goes according to plan, except that while deleting the files on Steve, he also deleted the files the FIB had on Michael, meaning Steve no longer had anything to hold over his head. When Michael meets Haines and Norton at the Kortz Center for debriefing, Haines attempts to arrest him for covering his involvement in the raid. However, this drastically turns into a Mexican standoff when the men pull guns on each other and when Steve's fellow FIB agent, Andreas Sanchez, is revealed to be working with a rival FIB team investigating Steve's actions. The situation further escalates with the arrival of said FIB team, an IAA team led by the U.L. Paper Contact, and a Merryweather team. Haines is shot in the leg by an FIB operative but manages to escape, killing Sanchez in the process. Dave and Michael proceed to fight their way through the Merryweather mercenaries, FIB and IAA agents and escape with the help of Trevor. Despite not forgiving Michael, he temporarily removes his vow of killing Michael as he needs his help in robbing the Union Depository.

Having had enough of being alone, Michael finally seeks out and reunites his family. With his family back in the house and his involvement in Solomon Richards' upcoming film, things start to look positive for him until Devin Weston announces his intentions to exploit the movie studio's insurance policy by destroying the completed film so he could claim the insurance money, ultimately closing the studio which he would promptly buy and demolish to build condos on the site. Infuriated upon learning of Weston's intentions, Michael chases the former's lawyer to the airport to try and retrieve the film's master copy. During the chase, she is accidentally killed after being sucked into a jet engine. Michael recovers the film, and Solomon arranges a premiere so it cannot be tampered with further.

At the premiere for Meltdown, Weston, furious over his lawyer's death, unexpectedly shows up and cryptically reveals his plans to kill Michael's family in revenge for Michael's actions. Michael rushes home to find Merryweather operatives holding his family at gunpoint. He kills the intruders and protects his house from oncoming mercenaries until the coast is clear. The next morning, Michael calls Lester from the Del Perro Pier, enraged that Weston sent Merryweather to his house to kill his family and reveals that he asked his family to move out for a few days for their own protection. Despite this incident, Michael is still confident in performing their heist on the Union Depository, which they promptly do. After helping Franklin deal with an incident where his friend Lamar was kidnapped by a rival gang, the heist is successful. Michael, Franklin, Trevor, Lester and their crew manage to steal over $200 million worth of gold bullion. Around this time, Michael goes to a session with Dr. Friedlander, where he learns, to his fury, that his psychiatrist has been using details from their sessions to make himself famous without his knowledge. Furious, Michael attacks him, chasing him out of town or killing him.

Ending

Following the heist, Franklin is visited by both Steve Haines and Devin Weston. Haines wants Franklin to kill Trevor due to his unpredictable nature, while Weston asks that Franklin kill Michael instead because Weston still wants revenge on him. Franklin can either choose one of these options or team up with Michael and Trevor once more and, with the help of Lester, take down their enemies once and for all. Ultimately, Franklin chooses Option C.

After GTA V

As mentioned by Franklin Clinton during the mission On Course in The Contract update for Grand Theft Auto Online, Michael De Santa is still alive and working as an associate producer for Solomon Richards at Richards Majestic Studios by 2021.

Character Overview

When Rockstar created Michael, their idea was that they wanted to accomplish something completely different from all the games in the series. The question that popped inside their mind was what if they have a Grand Theft Auto-style character who finished the game and decided to settle down? Michael would be an older protagonist who was very successful but gets sucked back into the game and Chop does.

Dan Houser found this character interesting and fun and knew that the story of Michael would be a great one with a lot of freshness to it - just like Grand Theft Auto IV's story of Niko Bellic as a hardworking immigrant.

Physical Appearance and Animation

Michael is a Caucasian male, with black hair and gray highlights, and light green/blue eyes. He is 6’ 2” (186.96cm) and weighs 210 lbs (195kg). He has a cleft chin, square face, and sports a five o'clock shadow. Michael's appearance doesn't make him look out of place in high society, as he has a clean-cut appearance and nice, elegant and composed clothes. His movement shows off his age, as he has an older, more considerable movement, and a paunch.

Personality and Characteristic

Michael is thoughtful, calculated and a manipulative businessman, thinking his motions and actions through carefully and precisely while being sure to keep his actual motivations a secret.

Another well known, yet unfavorable side of Michael is his composure, inflated eggs , an inability to control his temper, and his ease and willingness to make large moral compromises, (Michael's deal made with Dave Norton maybe a perfect example of that). Furthermore, Michael wants to live his life in two portions; the first side is he wants to continue to live out his lifestyle as a family man and try his hardest to place his marriage and family into the once pleasant state it was in a long time ago, while the second side is he wants to return to his old life of crime, as the latter's depression increasingly rises over time for not doing so. In Fact, Michael's new home life has been affected by his past life, perversion for chaos and his temperament so much to the point where it has caused him to alienate himself from the rest of his family.

Relationship With Other Characters

Family

• Amanda - Michael's wife and mother of his children, she constantly cheats on Michael due to his own infidelity.
• Tracey - Michael's relationship with his daughter was also said to be weak, by Rockstar. Though the second trailer, her first appearance, didn't show any dialogue with Michael. According to Dan Houser, they barely talk anymore. In Michael's trailer, Michael was seen roughhousing Tracey over the projector remote, in which Michael wins.
• Larry MacIntosh- Michael's relationship with Larry is unknown. Larry was Michael's Stepbrother and they didn't get along very well (as Michael states in the cut mission "The Sharmoota Job." Michael also states that Larry was arrested in 1995, 9 years before the Robbery in North Yankton. Larry was born on September 5, 1964. The only recent conversation about Larry was Michael talking about him to Trevor Michael's abusive nature towards Amanda over the years has led the two to lose interest in one another as she can barely tolerate him anymore during the events of the game.
• Jimmy - Jimmy's relationship with his father is rocky as well and even though Michael is far from perfect, so is his son. They have a rocky and angry relationship, but they love each other as father and son deep down.

Enemy

• Trevor - Trevor's relationship with Michael started at an unknown time period, but the two had a long, often troubled friendship with each other. Both men had a falling out which caused a rift in between their friendship (some believe that it was Michael's deal with the Dave that caused that rift). It was said that Michael had to get away from Trevor. It has also been express that when Michael is in comparison to Trevor, despite seeming to be the good guy, he might end up being worse than Trevor in the end. Although, neither Michael nor Trevor are a hero in any way. He also was very insane.
• Franklin - Repossessing luxury cars brings him into a chance encounter with Michael. This leads both men to begin this father-son relationship. Michael himself held some affection for Franklin and even saw the potential and a younger Michael in Franklin. Plus, Franklin doesn't really have a family and he wants to move up in the criminal underworld. But yet at the same time, he doesn't know how to do so. So, he saw his way in after meeting Michael. Dan Houser has also stated that the father-son relationship between the two could lead to some "interesting situations."

Skills and PayPal

Michael is the brains of the team and is a very effective leader. Michael is also a smooth operator, being able to manipulate anybody or any situation. Michael is also versatile, being capable of many different uses skills.

Even though Michael is in his mid-to late 40s, that doesn't mean he's lost his touch when it comes to combat. As said above, Michael is capable of many different skills. One of those skills is shooting, as he can handle up to a load of weapons. His experience in shootouts from his early criminal days make him more mobile. Michael is no stranger to fist fights either. An example can be seen down below in Michael's trailer.

Mission Appearances

• As one of the three main protagonists in the game, Michael will thus appear in almost every mission.
• The Extraction
• Blitz Play
• GTA

1. Prologue
2. Franklin and Lamar
3. Complications
4. Father/children
5. Marriage Counseling
6. Friend Request (Michael only)
7. Casing the Jewel Store (Michael only)
8. Daddy’s Little Girl (Michael only)
9. Carbine Rifles (Michael only)
10. Mr. Philips
11. Nervous Ron (mentioned)
12. Friends Reunited
13. Fame or Shame
14. Dead Man Walking
15. Scouting the Port (post-call)
16. Three’s Company
17. By the Book
18. The Merryweather Heist
19. Tow Truck (character optional)
20. Garbage Truck (character optional)
21. Boiler Suits (character optional)
22. Masks (character optional)
23. Hood Safari (mentioned)
24. Did Somebody say yoga?
25. Blitz Play
26. I Fought the Law…
27. Mr. Richards
28. Eye in the Sky
29. Caida Libre
30. Minor Turbulence
31. Paleto Score Setup
32. Predator
33. Military Hardware
34. The Paleto Score
35. Derailed
36. Monkey Business
37. Hang ten (post-mission)
38. Bury the Hatchet
39. Pack Man (mentioned)
40. Fresh Meat
41. The Ballad of Rocco (Michael only)
42. Cleaning out the Bureau
43. Reuniting the Family (Michael only)
44. Architects Plans
45. Fire Truck (character optional)
46. The Wrap Up
47. Lamar Down
48. Legal Trouble (Trevor only)
49. Meltdown (Michael only)
50. Stingers (character optional)
51. Parenting 101 (Michael only)
52. Drill (character optional)
53. Something Sensible (mission optional)
54. The Time’s Come (mission optional)
55. The Third Way (mission optional)

Reception

Michael has had a very positive response from critics and fans, one of the reason is because of him being the first playable character in the entire GTA Series that has a family. Another reason is that Michael's addiction to chaos and his love for his family interest the fans.

Developers Take on Michael

Dan House

• "Michael, to me, is... Who is he? I know who he is, I'm just trying to... He's the person who is trying to ignore some rather large mistakes that they have made. The person who's trying to forget about certain practical but still selfish decisions that they took. He's a man, also, obsessed by images and by appearances and who, when the world doesn't live up to those images and appearances, doesn't know what to do. He just retreats into his head. What he also is, when we started out... What he kind of evolved into as we began thinking about him and developing him... He was the first character we came up with. He began as the idea of, what happens to a regular GTA protagonist after they retire? Then you think, what would make him retire? He's a man with a big ego and plenty of good values and plenty of bad values."

• =="One of the advantages of the three-character system is you can have characters who, if they were the only protagonist, would be far too flawed for you to find appealing. With other equally flawed protagonists, but flawed in different ways, I think it gets more understandable. Michael's flaws are certainly his large ego, an inability to control his temper, and his willingness to make large moral compromises. To me, that's a very interesting character. A guy who's in his mid-40s and on the cc V.==
• Michael's zodiac sign is Gemini.
• Michael is the only protagonist in the entire series to be a family man.
• Michael is the oldest Protagonist in the entire GTA Series.
• Michael's appearance went through a change between the second game trailer and his trailer. During the second game trailer his head is larger and more square angular, he has a wider mouth, there are more wrinkles on his face, and he looks older. But during Michael's trailer, his face is round, his mouth is less wide, he has fewer wrinkles on his face and he looks younger.
• Michael may be loosely based on Tony Soprano due to their similarities in interests, family dynamic and housing. May also be based on real-life witness protectee Michael Townley.gta 5

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