In the mission Predator, Michael must use a sniper rifle fitted with a thermal scope to find the O'Neil Brothers in the woods at night. If the player zooms in on the thermal heat dot on the bottom right, it appears to be a Bigfoot standing still. Shooting it does nothing and it abruptly disappears after a few seconds.

Later in the game, Spoiler:an entire mission is dedcated to Bigfoot. "The Last One" has Franklin meet a hunter who has been on Sasquatch's trail for 9 years, the same number of years since San Andreas was released. Franklin, however, concludes that Bigfoot is just a man in a suit.

In the Special and Collectors Edition of the game there is a double sided blueprint map. When looked at in UV lighting it reveals secrets and surprises.

The world is bigger than the total size of the worlds from Grand Theft Auto IV, Red Dead Redemption, and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas combined.

There is an underwater UFO that can be accessed by mini-sub. The UFO is found in the north of the world map.

In its first 24-hours, Grand Theft Auto V made over $800 million. This surpassed the previous record of $500 million set by Call of Duty: Black Ops II in 2012.

The mission "Grass roots - Trevor" is thought to be a reference to a scene in the movie "PeeWee's Big Adventure". Both scenes are hallucinations, contain clowns, and both have the same background music.

In the Suburban store that you visit in the mission 'Friend Request', one of the shirt stalls allows you to buy a parrot tropical shirt, similar to the one worn by Max Payne in Max Payne 3. Also, if you give Michael just a light scruffy beard while he's wearing his grey suit, he looks oddly similar to Max Payne at the beginning of Max Payne 3.

In the Discount Clothing Store in Grapeseed, you can find a diamond print white and black jacket with a yellow crab on the back. This is a reference to Ryan Gosling's Jacket in the movie 'Drive', where he had an almost identical diamond print white and black jacket but with a yellow scorpion on the back.

On GTA's Facebook parody, Life Invader, you can see that Michael has a man named Nicholas Bell in his friends list. This is a reference to GTA IV's main protagonist, Niko Bellic. Roman is also on his friends list.

There are billboards around the game that say "Rehab Island". The logo bears resemblance to the logo from the game Dead Island.

On Michael's Spoiler:tombstone in North Yankton it states that he was born in 1965 (making him 48 in 2013). However Trevor, Lester, and his son Jimmy all state that he is 45 years old (meaning he was born in 1968). Therefore his exact age is unclear.

In an interview with Playboy Magazine, Sam Houser admitted that he got his mother, veteran actress Geraldine Moffat, to do some voice and mo-cap work for Grand Theft Auto V. While she is uncredited in the game, it is widely believed by many that she played Trevor Phillips' mother. They look similar, her actress is not credited, and she has an uncharacteristically English accent for a woman who is supposed to be Canadian.

Trevor Phillips' starting vehicle in the game is a "Canis Bodhi" pickup truck. Steven Ogg, Trevor's voice actor, has a son named Bodhi. It's believed the vehicle is named after his son.

In the mission "Fresh Meat", the opening cutscene was almost entirely improvised by the two main actors (Steven Ogg as Trevor and Shawn Fonteno as Franklin). During motion-capture, Ogg tripped over an obstacle and Fonteno broke out laughing. Upon standing up, Ogg started to yell at Fonteno (in character) and the scene was kept in-game.

The mission "The Ballad of Rocco" is a reference to "The Ballad of Gay Tony", where Rocco makes his first canonical appearance.

During The Paleto Score, if Spoiler:Packie McReary is brought along as a heist gunman, he begins to talk about a robbery in Liberty City:


This refers to the events of the mission Spoiler:Three Leaf Clover in Grand Theft Auto IV.

A book case in the living room of Franklin's Vinewood house contains a book called "Red Dead", by J. Marston. This is a reference to Red Dead Redemption, and its protagonist, John Marston.

John Marston from Red Dead Redemption is one of the possible "Special Dads" available during character creation for Grand Theft Auto Online. This will only display if the user has a save file from that game, and can be used to influence the appearance of their GTA Online character.

There are a couple of locations in Los Santos that feature Marilyn Monroe, Charles Chaplin, John Wayne and Elvis Presley. One is near board walk and the other is in a back alley.

All of the characters' special abilities (Michael's marksman abilities, Trevor's rage ability, and Franklin's handling of cars) are displayed by the game's interface. However, Franklin's special ability is the only one to be referred to by the characters themselves; This is done by Lamar during the mission Chop, in which he tells Franklin to use that "special driver thing that he does" to capture D.