GTA 5 canon ending seemingly revealed by The Contract update

GTA Online The Contract — (Image credit: Rockstar Games)

Grand Theft Auto Online's The Contract story has seemingly made one of GTA 5's ending's "canon."

As first reported by Kotaku yesterday on December 16, The Contract is a brand new story update set years after GTA 5's conclusion, bringing back Franklin and Lamar for a new mission. A tiny bit of dialog in the new story reveals that single-player protagonist Michael de Santa is in fact alive and well, and working as a movie producer.

Over on YouTube, the seemingly inconsequential line is captured in full. As Franklin is racing a golf cart around a movie studio lot, he says "I know one of the producers around here. I hope his ass ain’t at work today." This could be a reference to Michael, who became a movie producer towards the end of GTA 5's main story mode, fulfilling his lifelong goal.

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Because The Contract is set in the years following GTA 5's main story, this line of dialog points toward the third ending of the game being the canonical conclusion. Near the end of Rockstar's game, Franklin is given three choices: kill Trevor, kill Michael, or help the two overcome the powers hunting them down and fight for their lives.

The Contract posits that Franklin went with option three, and helped Trevor and Michael become free men. This certainly always felt like the natural conclusion of GTA 5's plot, and there's no doubt a lot of players out there that'll feel particularly vindicated by Rockstar selecting ending three as the conclusion that they carried forward and built upon with the new story in The Contract.

The Contract is out right now for all GTA Online players, entirely free of charge. The new story DLC has the player character teaming up with Franklin and Lamar's new celebrity agency, as the trio attempt to track down the phone of none other than Dr. Dre to stop his unreleased tracks leaking online.