Michael De Santa

Unreleased

"Why did I move here? I guess it was the weather. Or the... Ah I don't know, that thing. That magic."

- The protagonist during the teaser tralier

Michael is the one of the protagonists of Grand Theft Auto V.

Background
"You see it in the movies. I wanted to retire. From what I was doing, you know? From that, that... line of work. Be a good guy for once, a family man. So, I bought a big house. Came here, put my feet up, and thought I be a dad like all the other dads. My kids, would be like the kids on TV. We could play ball and sit in the sun. But well, you know how it is."

- The protagonist during the teaser tralier

Michael's background is unknown at the moment, but it has been said that he is from somewhere in the East Coast and at some point in his young life he became a bank robber, and through the years he became highly successful at his job. Whilst young Michael somehow ran into an ex-military pilot named Trevor Phillips, who also had a flare for criminal acts and the two became close friends, performing several major heists in the past. Michael then met his future wife Amanda and had two children, Jimmy and Tracy.

Events of GTA V
During the events of Grand Theft Auto V, Michael retired from his life of crime after making a "sweetheart" deal with the FIB. In the process of that deal, he and his family got rich off of it, now living in a large mansion with several sports cars and a private tennis court and golf course.

But Michae'ls domestic life is sadly coming to an end. In fact, his wife who now barely tolerates him anymore, spent almost all of his money in the city’s finest boutiques. Both his son and daughter have little -if not any- time left for him. Running out of money quickly and tired of being bored and miserable, Michael gets back to the criminal life.

His personal story is how the breakdown of his bought idyllic life pushes a man to breaking point. He is described as a man with everything and nothing to lose both at the same time, and his seemingly blissful existence in San Andreas will be changed forever by the events of GTA V.

Dan Houser's Way of Describing Michael
"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."

Personality
Michael is known to have a good and bad side. His good side is that he is thoughtful and calculated and likely to keep his motives hidden. But, his bad side are his flaws, and his flaws are certainly his egos, which are inability to control his temper, and his willingness to make large moral compromises. Rockstar has also stated that despite seeming to be the good guy (at least compared to Trevor), he might end up being worse than Trevor in the end.

Skills and Attributes
As an experienced bank robber, he’s skilled in planning the complex heists that make up the structure for the single-player saga. In the cutscenes that Game Informer saw, Michael appears to be the team’s leader – although neither of his partners were easily led. He’s good with a gun, and though older now, still capable of tackling challenging tasks like rappelling out of a helicopter onto a skyscraper. During the second trailer, Michael demonstrated great driving skills managing to save his son, who was hanging onto a large tow truck while losing his grip.

Appearance
Michael has a nice clean-cut appearance, along with nice clothes. During the opening scene in the second trailer, Michael walk outside to his pool with nothing on but sandals, swimming trunks and a pair of glasses, showing us that he is a small portion over weight but still in good shape.