GTA 5 Endings: Kill Trevor, Kill Michael or Deathwish?

After dozens of hours in Los Santos, GTA V doesn’t wrap up with a scripted cutscene: it makes you call it. Franklin has to choose between killing Trevor, killing Michael, or refusing both and going for broke. Short answer if you’re in a hurry: take the Deathwish option. It’s the only one where the whole crew survives, the only one that costs you nothing, and the story’s real ending, confirmed by Michael’s return in GTA Online in late 2025. Here’s why, and what the other two are worth.

One last choice forced on Franklin

Released on September 17, 2013, GTA V switches between three playable protagonists: Michael, Franklin, and Trevor. It all comes down to the moment right after the big Union Depository heist (the mission The Big Score). Two men corner Franklin. Steve Haines, the corrupt FIB agent, wants Trevor dead, since he’s too much of a loose cannon. Billionaire Devin Weston, on the other hand, wants Michael gone, blaming him for his failed deals and for the death of his lawyer, Molly. Devin lays out the options his own way: A, listen to a government employee making $50,000 a year, B, listen to a billionaire, or C, be “really stupid” and save both of your mentors. Franklin, which means you, makes the call in a simple three-letter menu.

A practical tip before you press anything: make a manual save in a separate slot right after The Big Score. You no longer need it to see the other endings (more on that below), but it’s the only way to go back if you regret your choice for the rest of your playthrough.

Ending A, kill Trevor: Something Sensible

Picking option A launches the mission Something Sensible. Franklin sets up a meeting with Trevor and pulls a gun on him, calling him the crew’s dangerous weak link. Trevor takes off in his pickup, Michael shows up to help and rams him into a fuel tanker. Soaked in gasoline, a furious Trevor calls his two partners “Judas” before Franklin sets the fuel alight. Trevor burns alive (and if you hesitate, Michael pulls the trigger for you).

After the credits, only Michael and Franklin stay playable, and Lester splits Trevor’s cut of the take between them. But you also lose everything that belonged to Trevor: his Sandy Shores trailer, his properties, his Strangers and Freaks missions, and the gunrunning jobs at the McKenzie Field hangar. Relationships take a hit too: Michael, shaken by the killing, refuses to see Franklin again, and Lamar, who has to lie low because of Stretch, only comes out at night. The crew is well and truly done.

Ending B, kill Michael: The Time’s Come

Option B triggers The Time’s Come. This time, when Franklin calls Trevor for backup, Trevor flatly refuses, saying he’s “done with traitors.” Franklin catches up with Michael, who quickly figures out it’s a setup and runs all the way to the Palmer-Taylor Power Station. At the top of a tower, Franklin has the upper hand. The game lets you choose whether to pull him up or let him go, but Michael’s fate is sealed: if you spare him, he headbutts Franklin, loses his grip, and falls to his death.

The price is steep. Franklin and Trevor become the only playable characters, Michael’s share goes to his family, and everyone around Franklin turns on him: Amanda and Jimmy tell him how much they hate him, and Trevor writes him off, declaring him “dead” to him. You also lose yoga, the three movie theaters only Michael can buy, and his Vinewood garage, and a “for sale” sign goes up in front of the De Santa house. A detail for stock market players: after this mission, Merryweather stock jumps 250% on the LCN, since Devin Weston is a shareholder in the company. The bleakest of the three endings.

Ending C, Deathwish: The Third Way

Choose “Deathwish” and you launch The Third Way. Franklin refuses to sacrifice anyone and goes to see Lester. Together, they come up with a plan: lure the FIB and Merryweather’s mercenaries into a trap at the foundry, under the pretext of melting down the gold from the heist. Franklin, Michael, Trevor, and Lamar tear through both squads, then the crew heads out to settle scores. Trevor kills Steve Haines, Michael takes out Stretch, and Franklin deals with Wei Cheng.

That leaves the worst of them: Devin Weston. Trevor kidnaps him from his mansion and stuffs him in a car trunk, and the three men push the car off a cliff on Mount Chiliad, where it crashes into the ocean in a ball of fire. That’s the end of their criminal careers: they each head home, all three alive, “mismatched friends” but alive, with Lester wiring them their cuts. Every hangout with friends stays available, Lamar included, at any time of day.

Trophies, 100%, and the stock market: what A or B costs you

Your ending choice has very real consequences for completionists. For 100% completion, no ending penalizes you: any of the three completes the story, and only Franklin’s Strangers and Freaks missions are required, precisely because Michael’s and Trevor’s can disappear. Trophies are a different story. Five of them can only be earned with Michael or Trevor, and become impossible if you kill the wrong character before unlocking them:

The ending trophy, To Live or Die in Los Santos, pops no matter which option you pick. The full Platinum hunt is covered in our GTA 5 trophy guide.

On the money side, the golden rule for Lester’s assassinations is to save them for after the finale, once every character has received his share of the Big Score. With ending C, all three bank accounts stay available for investing; with A or B, one of the three portfolios disappears. The full method is in our guide to the stock market and Lester’s assassinations.

Replaying the other endings with zero risk

Once the final mission is wrapped up, all three endings show up at the very bottom of the Replay Mission list, under the Game tab of the pause menu (Game > Replay Mission). You play the ending you picked, then land right back in your game as you left it: replays don’t affect Story Mode. A character killed in your original ending won’t come back to life, though, and a character you spared stays playable. So you can lock in Deathwish for good, then check out Something Sensible and The Time’s Come out of curiosity.

Why Deathwish is the canon ending

Rockstar never put out a statement naming “the right” ending, but the studio settled it its own way, in GTA Online, update after update. Taken one at a time, some clues could still fit another ending; taken together, they only line up with ending C:

That last row settles it. With A Safehouse in the Hills, which Rockstar announced on December 5, 2025 with “the return of a familiar face,” Michael shows up for the first time since 2013, older, alongside Amanda, as the players’ neighbor in Vinewood Hills. He’s started his own production company after the success of Meltdown, lives in Devin Weston’s old mansion, and says he’s still friends with Franklin. None of those three details works with endings A or B.

The Third Way is also the most polished ending: it ties up every arc, punishes every real scumbag in the story, and respects the bond between the three men. Endings A and B are fascinating experiments in loyalty, absolutely worth seeing, but they never happened in the series’ continuity. Rockstar had even promised single-player follow-ups starring the trio, plans that were eventually shelved along with GTA 5’s canceled story DLC. A game that still takes such care with its alternate endings is also one of the reasons GTA 5 has held up since 2013.

What about GTA 6?

There’s no telling whether Grand Theft Auto VI will offer multiple endings of its own: Rockstar hasn’t said a word. This time, the studio is telling the story of a duo, Jason and Lucia, in the vein of a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde, which frames the idea of a final choice in very different terms. We break down what we know about their relationship in our piece on the Jason and Lucia duo, and you can revisit our GTA 4 vs GTA 5 comparison or our profile of the actors behind Michael, Franklin, and Trevor. For what’s next, head over to the GTA 6 release date.