Plot of Grand Theft Auto VI (Johnsonverse)

Prologue
The prologue is a series of abridged recreations of big heists in past games (with subtitles representing the year the game takes place in), such as "The Job" from Vice City, "Breaking the Bank at Caligula's" from San Andreas (both of which are now set in their HD Universe counterparts while reusing the original audio; in "The Job", lines referencing SWAT are redubbed to reference N.O.O.S.E., its HD Universe counterpart), "Three Leaf Clover" from IV, and the obvious approach for "The Big Score" in V. The player then takes control of Josh Walton in a botched robbery of a Fleeca branch in Blaine County, where he manages to escape with $3,000 with the help of Trevor Philips and Lester Crest. Feeling downtrodden that he didn't get as much as he hoped, Trevor reassures him that, for his first take, three grand is pretty good, but ridicules his choice of a getaway vehicle, which is a combine harvester; Josh defends his choice by saying he was planning to use the header to mulch the cops, which Trevor laughs at for sounding like something he would do. He then takes him to Los Santos to get training in bank robbing from his old friend, Michael De Santa. After the logo forms, the opening credits play as Trevor drives Josh to Michael's house.

Josh's Plot
Josh is assigned by Michael to take him to a bank. When they get there, they put on masks, get in the bank, and pull out their guns. Josh successfully gets $12,000 from the bank heist. After this, he is told by Michael to go to Grove Street and hook up with Franklin Clinton, the leader of the Grove Street Families. Upon visiting Grove Street, Josh sees Franklin, who tells him to spray tags over Ballas graffiti on key Ballas blocks around Los Santos. When he does so, he decides to kill the

Elise's Plot
While Josh is training with Michael, his twin sister Elise in Vice City is snorting SPANK she got from a stranger who calls himself "T" in her run-down apartment at Vice City, and she hears a doorbell ring. When she opens, a pizza delivery man comes in, and Elise sees that her pizza is supreme, rather than the pepperoni she had ordered. She then proceeds to use a butter knife to cut his neck open and slit his throat, causing him to bleed to death. Elise then eats the pizza regardless, saying it would be a waste to throw it out. She then goes to the Well-Stacked Pizza Co. store at the Warsaw Mall and blows it up with satchel charges that she buys from the Ammu-Nation as revenge for getting her order wrong. Elise outruns the cops and goes safely back to her apartment.

When Josh flies to Vice City, he and Elise meet up with each other. Elise tells Josh that she met the stranger with a black jacket. As they walk down the street, they happen to come across the stranger, who reveals himself to be Tommy Vercetti by unzipping his jacket revealing a teal Hawaiian shirt, and explains that he was the most respected man in the city until the arrival of even larger gangs caused him to lose all his influence in the city, before losing all of his assets and his estate to an insurance company in 2002 for defaulting on his taxes. Josh and Elise decide to help him recapture his former 1980s glory, and so they fly back to San Andreas, meeting Tommy's former lawyer Ken "Rosie" Rosenberg, who he cut ties with in 1991. Rosie is reluctant to help at first, due to seeing Tommy as ungrateful for refusing to ever answer his calls again, before Elise convinces Rosie to give him another chance by pointing a gun to his skull. They go to a TransFender in San Fierro to repair Josh's car after a drive-by shooting with the Rifa, meeting Stephen Winslow, who recognizes Tommy as the "Harwood Butcher" and respects him. Tommy decides to seize this opportunity and reform the Vercetti Crime Family. Stephen agrees to join the gang. With the gang reformed, Tommy decides that they go back to Vice City to reclaim what was once Vercetti turf, as well as regain his alliance with Los Cabrones, a band of Cuban refugees that allied with Tommy in 1986.

After the Vercetti Crime Family retakes a few of its neighborhoods, Tommy and Rosie patch things up, and Rosie reminds Tommy of when he was ordered by the Poison of the Tigers, or just the Tigers, a band of Haitian refugees whose elderly leader, Esther "Auntie Poulet" Plymouth, ordered Tommy to kill several Cabrones members against his will. Tommy laughs it off, claiming it to be extremely unrealistic, before Rosie takes out an old news article from his "personal archive", consisting of boxes of every issue of the Vice City Inquirer and the San Andreas Post from their founding dates to the present, stating that Tommy killed the Cabrones members under Poulet's orders. Tommy and Elise go to Auntie Poulet's Tea House to kill her, and is greeted by Poulet brandishing a shotgun. Expressing surprise that Poulet is still alive at 119, Tommy and Elise engage in a violent shootout in which they are aided by members of the Vercettis and the Cabrones, while Poulet is aided by members of the Tigers. After critically injuring her, Tommy and Elise drive Poulet to a graveyard, burying her alive in the process, and destroy the rest of the Tigers' fronts with a rocket launcher, ensuring the gang would be in ruins.

With the Vercetti Crime Family beginning to regain its former glory, Elise comes across Reni Wassulmeier, a transgender film director who is shooting a commercial for the 2020 Maibatsu Monstrosity. Under her orders, Elise drives one through a ring of fire, before crashing it through the window of a building. At the same time, Tommy is beginning to work with the Corvino Crime Family, a Vice City Mafia family founded in 1995. He talks to its Don, Issac Corvino, a man with a short fuse and a knack for charisma. Corvino agrees to work with the Vercetti Family. Josh and Elise are notified of this, and Tommy decides to expand his gang to Liberty City, where he heard that the Forellis are nothing but a memory now. The Walson twins fly to Liberty City, where they meet Ellie Dyer, a gaming enthusiast. Ellie agrees to join the Vercetti Crime Family, and Josh and Elise take her to an Ammu-Nation gun range, as Ellie had never used a firearm before. After this, the three meet Claude Speed, a silent drifter who happened to come back to Liberty City years after the betrayal of his ex-girlfriend Catalina Ramos, and his current girlfriend Florence St. John, who tells Josh and Elise about arms dealer Phil Cassidy. They drive to Cassidy's gun shop, and Phil agrees to help the Vercetti Crime Family. Josh, Ellie, Elise, Claude, Florence, and Phil drive to Staunton Island and meet Uptown Yardies leader King Courtney, who is killed point-blank in a shootout by Claude and Josh. Without a leader, the Yardies fall apart, and all their turf is taken over by the Vercettis.

A satisfied Tommy congratulates Josh and Elise for their efforts, and he decides that they should fly back to San Andreas, hearing about a small-time street gang called the Grove Street Families, which the Vercettis can partner with to take Ballas and Vagos turf. Phil sees Tommy for the first time in years, and Tommy notes that Phil has gotten smarter since the moonshine incident, which Phil reminds Tommy to never speak of again. When Josh and Elise go back to San Andreas, they meet Franklin, the Families' leader. Franklin explains that C.R.A.S.H. has been reformed with Irving Tenpenny (the son of the deceased officer Frank Tenpenny) in charge. He hears that Carl "CJ" Johnson, a former Families OG turned rapper, is on a tour to promote his latest rap album called "C to the M.F.K. J", and tells Elise to steal a limo and pick up CJ. When CJ walks into Elise's stolen limo, Elise tells him about C.R.A.S.H.'s resurrection, and CJ is not happy about it. He swears to take it down once and for all, and calls on his siblings Sweet (who is now an actor) and Kendl (who is now a model) to help him after being taken to his next stop. CJ has booked an appearance on a special celebrity episode of the game show Twenty Questions to a Million (a parody of the British game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?) in Liberty City, where he correctly answers all 20 questions without any "cheats", winning the $1,000,000 prize. He claims that he'll give his winnings to the Autism is Alive Foundation (an exaggerated caricature of Autism Speaks), but instead gives it to Josh and Elise, who use it to start an anti-C.R.A.S.H. movement entitled "Take Out Tenpenny". Later, they blow up the Autism is Alive headquarters in San Fierro.

Chris' Plot
Chris is running the Express Car Service in Broker, Liberty City, as its owner, Roman Bellic, is competing in the bowling championship at the Memory Lanes in Firefly Island. Chris gets a call from Toni Cipriani, Don of the Leone Crime Family in Portland. Cipriani tells Chris that he's doing a better job at running the cab depot than Roman ever could, and tells him to meet face to face at Salvatore's Gentlemen's Club at the Saint Mark's District in Portland. Chris drives there, and meets Toni, his wife Emily, and their children Rafaello and Tori. Chris agrees to deal drugs for the Leones, and after distributing twenty packets from a Leone Sentinel, an impressed Toni gives Chris jobs, such as taking back Marco's Bistro from the Forelli Brothers with Chris managing it (the Leones took it from the Forellis in 1995, and lost it in 2000, when the Forellis took it back), stealing Forelli-imported tomatoes for the Bravo Ragazzo Tomatoes Co. (the Leones' tomato sauce front), scaring its leader Roger "Kid" Forelli into giving up the code for the building where Rafaello and Tori are kidnapped in by dangling him over the roof of a Sentinel, hijacking several cars for Underboss Joey Leone, among other things. Toni also orders the explosion of a Forelli-owned car dealership (the last Forelli front) in the Carraways, with its leader included, leaving the gang nothing but a memory, and teams with Chris and Joey to perform a heist at the Bank of Liberty to get money for the struggling Leones. At the same time, Chris has Marco's Bistro renovated and upgraded.

At the Memory Lanes in Firefly Island, Chris meets his boss Roman Bellic, his wife Mallorie, and their daughter Kate. Roman has just won the bowling championship for the third consecutive year, and decides that he, Mallorie, and Kate would go to Momma's Ristorante to celebrate, and that Chris would drive them there before returning to the cab depot. On his way back, Chris spots a warehouse containing several vans, and several people inside. Feeling one of them looks familiar, Chris decides to check it out. He talks to the person running it, and the person reveals himself to be Niko Bellic. Niko explains that he tried to get out of crime, but Russia's antics with Ukraine forced him to get back in, and guesses that Chris got back from bowling, which Niko really hates due to Roman constantly calling him at the most inappropriate times. His second-in-command and best friend "Little" Jacob Hughes walks by, and explains that he and Niko are smuggling arms to anti-Russian rebels in Ukraine. Chris agrees to drive a van to Francis International Airport while Little Jacob drives a van to Stewart International Airport (the former Francis International) in Shoreside Vale.

At the same time, Niko flies to San Andreas to track down FIB interrogator Karen Daniels, who posed as a woman named Michelle and pretended to be his girlfriend in 2008. When he finds Daniels, he is shocked to find that she had become even worse than she was back in the day, and engages in a violent shootout in which Niko shoots her with a machine gun, although Niko holds back tears in the process. When Karen lies down on the floor, she tells Niko that she secretly still loved him, after which Niko stuffs her in the trunk of a car and dumps it into the river with her still inside, causing her to drown to death.

After Chris and Little Jacob deliver the weapons, Chris gets a call from Niko, who tells him to go to Alderney. When he gets there, he is greeted by Johnny Klebitz, leader of the New Lost MC, his second-in-command Johnny Vincent, and his girlfriend Rianna Winter. Klebitz explains that after Trevor Philips eliminated the entire old Lost (he also blames Trevor for Ashley Butler's death, with the dialogue intentionally making it vague as to whether Trevor ran her over or she overdosed during an orgy), he's been wanting revenge. When Chris and the new Lost ride their bikes to Sandy Shores, they meet Trevor, Ron and Wade. Chris tells Trevor that Johnny has formed the New Lost MC. Trevor doesn't believe this at first, as he thought he'd stomped Johnny to death, but Ron and Wade tell him that Trevor was just stomping the ground, having a psychotic episode after learning Michael was alive, but Ron and Wade didn't want to say anything for their own safety. Johnny rides his bike in, and meets with Trevor face-to-face for the first time since Johnny's "death", ready to take him out once and for all. After a violent shootout ensues, Trevor is bleeding, and Ron and Wade drive him to the hospital. A furious Johnny orders Chris to follow Ron and Wade to the hospital, but not before Michael stops him first. Michael tells Johnny to give Trevor a second chance, having done so after Trevor found out that Brad was buried where Michael supposedly was, and let go of the past. Johnny decides to meet Trevor, and tells him that he (Johnny) was in the wrong.

When

Taliana's Plot
Taliana is the manager of Martinez Autos in San Fierro, a store that specializes boosting, modding and reselling cars. She gets a phone call from rival Simeon, who runs an auto company in Los Santos.

Walt's Plot
In Carcer City, Walt is an arms dealer selling weapons stolen from the U.S. Military. He sees a yellow Sentinel, and blows it up with a rocket launcher, thinking it's the same car whose driver had killed his wife. Walt sees the gang leader Vladimir Jerkov, the brother of Rudolf Jerkov, who ran the Russian Mafia in Leston from 1995 until his 1999 death. The Russian Mafia has a rivalry against the Black Spadez, a Hispanic gang whose members had killed Walt's wife. Walt decides to join the gang, and Vladimir assigns him to dress up as a Spade and blow up one of their most important fronts with several sticky bombs.

Walt also meets a man named J.R. East, who assigns Walt to kill 50 Kings members with a flamethrower he built. After Walt does this, East gets him to poison the food of Spadez leader and founder Orson Spade. After Spade gets killed by the poison, Walt is introduced to Donald Love, Jr., a real estate mogul from Liberty City. Love orders him to start a gang war between the Russian Mafia and the Spadez to drive down real estate prices, much like how his father had ordered Claude to start a gang war between the Yakuza and the Cartel back in 2001.

Karissa's Plot
In Las Venturas, Karissa Thorn is a member of the Grunge Girls, a troupe of chorus girls that is stated to combine glamour with edginess, and is affiliated with the Sindacco Crime Family. After being chewed out by fellow member Julienne Holmes for her performance, she meets up with her best friend Cyndi Lewis, the leader of the Venturas Gusanos gang. Karissa and Cyndi decide to commit heists together, as Karissa had never done a heist before. After completing their first heist, Karissa and Cyndi kill 25 Sindacco Crime Family members, participate in an illegal street race, and hijack several high-end automobiles for the Gusanos. They then meet up with Walt during their trip to Carcer City, and agree to help him avenge his deceased wife. Karissa kills the Spadez second-in-command, Keith Downey, with a chainsaw, before finding that the police are looking for her and Cyndi. They escape to San Andreas, where they meet Michael, who tells Karissa that there's a group called Mothers Against the Glorification of Gross and Offensive Trading of Sins (M.A.G.G.O.T.S.), led by former nun Margaret Wayne. Karissa is told to hijack a helicopter and fly to Vice City with it to kill Wayne. After Karissa does so, Michael introduces her to his family; his wife Amanda, his son Jimmy, and his daughter Tracey.

Karissa and Cyndi come across nightclub owner Anthony "Gay Tony" Prince. Tony states that a rival nightclub is about to open a few miles away, and asks them to sabotage its grand opening. Karissa plants an array of small but powerful bombs in the trunk of every vintage car inside, with the exception of the owner's 1969 Grotti Stinger, which she uses to escape from the club. After the club explodes, Tony congratulates them and accepts them as members of his club. He

Epilogue
When Josh goes home, he gets a visit from Toreno, who explains that the government has kidnapped Elise for ransom, that the FIB is investigating Chris, Karissa's employers are looking for her, the IAA is looking for Tallie, and the military is looking for Walt. Toreno gives Josh a choice to kill one of them.

Option A: "Love Hurts" (Go to Capital City)
Josh decides to go to Capital City to save Elise. There, Elise has uncovered Love's plan to turn the United States into a fascist dictatorship where all non-whites will be systematically exterminated. Love himself spots Josh, and orders him executed. This leads to Chuck Dollar betraying Love and Josh and Elise breaking out and fighting Love, who's using body armor. He threatens to brand Josh and Elise as terrorists supporting Japanese separatism if they kill him. When Josh and Elise critically injure him, they ask Love why he did this. Love reveals that he was a Neo-Nazi who thought the whole thing was an eldritch ritual to bring Adolf Hitler back from the dead, and only now realizes how purely insane it sounded in what seemed to be his first moment of lucidity in decades, before dying. The next day, Josh and Elise are back in their San Andreas home with Michael, Trevor, Franklin, Walt, Karissa, Cyndi, Tallie, Chris, Elise, Luis, Johnny Klebitz, Johnny Vincent, CJ, Denise, Sweet, Ryder, Paul, Maccer, Madd Dogg, Zero, The Truth, Claude, Florence, Niko, Roman, Mallorie, Kerry, Kate, Tommy, Pete, Stephen, Ken, and many others all there, and watching a news report that Love was assassinated, his wife Jillian is dating a Vinewood producer named Kenny Orr, and Dollar has become the new President. He informs the nation of everything Love had done and planned to do, and promises to free the country from Love's agenda and make it great for everyone (not just the rich) again. The credits roll after Josh and Elise decide to walk off their house as the nation descends into a brief yet destructive civil war between liberals and conservatives, as described by a post-game phone call between Josh and Toreno.

Option B: "Farewell, Fallon..." (Kill Chris)
Josh decides to take his helicopter to Liberty City, where he meets up with Chris at Roman's cab depot. He pulls out his gun, and engages in a violent shootout with Chris, before shoving a grenade into his mouth, killing him. A post-game email shows a furious Roman chewing Josh out for killing his best employee, before stating that the next time he comes to the cab service, the Leone Crime Family will show him the error of his ways. The Leones are hostile to Josh from this point on. Niko also gives Josh a furious phone call, saying that if he's killed, then he deserves it. He and Little Jacob will also no longer provide service for Josh, though Phil Cassidy still offers weapons.

Option C: "Kickin' Her Out" (Kill Karissa)
Josh decides to call Karissa, who comes to his place. Karissa tells Josh that she and Cyndi have started a relationship together, and Josh decides to take her for a drive, supposedly to get her a wedding suit. However, Josh instead drives Karissa to the Del Perro Pier, and jumps out of the car before it lands into the water. The car is sunk, and Karissa drowns to her death. Toreno calls Josh and assures him that he'll use his connections to get the authorities off his hands, and that Elise is a free woman. A post-game phone call has Cyndi angrily phone Josh in a screaming fit of rage, and telling him that he's a dead man for killing her girlfriend. The Venturas Gusanos are now hostile towards Josh from this point on, shooting him on sight if he goes to their territory. Karissa is also no longer playable. Josh is banned from all Claudia’s Needlz locations; if he tries to come in, he’s immediately shot on sight.

Option D: "Bang For Yo' Buck" (Kill Tallie)
Josh goes to Tallie's garage in San Fierro, where he engages in a shootout with her. After this mission,

Option E: "Extra Crispy" (Kill Walt)
Josh decides to take a train to Carcer City, where he sees Walt. Walt tells him that he and his girlfriend are about to be married.