What Rockstar Said
Trailer 2 dropped May 6, 2025, without warning. Three minutes. Captured entirely in-engine on PlayStation 5. Rockstar described it as equal parts gameplay and cutscenes. Roughly half of what you see is the game running.
The official description: "Vice City, USA. Jason and Lucia have always known the deck is stacked against them. But when an easy score goes wrong, they find themselves on the darkest side of the sunniest place in America, in the middle of a criminal conspiracy stretching across the state of Leonida, forced to rely on each other more than ever if they want to make it out alive."
That was the first time Jason Duval was named by Rockstar in any official material. Trailer 1 showed him. Trailer 2 introduced him.
The Keys, Before Lucia
The trailer opens on an aerial shot of the Leonida Keys. The island chain, the shallow reef channels, the open Atlantic. Six small ducks in the top left corner. A heart-shaped swimming pool beside a greenhouse-style home below. Just to the left of the pool, a pod of dolphins swimming together. A blimp or tethered radar system in the top right, low, anchored, not free-flying.
Then Jason Duval. He is on the roof of a house in the Keys, doing repair work. Someone calls up to him. His answer: "I'm just up here fixing some leaks." The GTA VI gameplay leak of 2022 was one of the largest in gaming history. That line is Rockstar acknowledging it directly, with a straight face and a toolbox in hand.
His hair is long. His beard is shaggy. He looks like someone who has been alone in the Keys for a while. On his right arm, a tattoo: Marauders B Company, a military unit. On his chest, a second tattoo: a bird being impaled by an arrow. A phoenix. He did a stint in the army. He ended up running product through the Keys anyway.
In the bottom left of the frame, a large iguana sits on the property. Purple body, striped yellow-and-black tail. The same iguana shows up later at the Rusty Anchor bar, draped over someone's shoulders.
Brian Heder and the Morning's Work
Brian Heder pulls up to the house. His truck leaves tire tracks visible in the mud. They deform as he drives over them and remain after the vehicle has moved on. Brian looks like a Keys beach bum and moves like a great white shark. He owns the property Jason lives in, rent-free, in exchange for errands and stopping by for his wife Lori's sangria.
Jason comes down from the roof. A cargo boat passes behind him in the water. He gets into his Vapid and drives away. The side mirrors on the car show real-time reflections. What is behind and beside the vehicle is reflected accurately as he moves. First time in the GTA series. He passes a woman in pink walking a Chihuahua, with pink paw print decals on her pink car.
He arrives at a crystal and new-age shop. He is here on a shakedown for Brian. Signs above the door: "Alien activity in area" and "Summer of love." Inside: postcards for $1, a QR code on the till that nobody has successfully scanned yet, a Fleeter Bank sticker confirming the bank returns, a man in a t-shirt reading "Dodo's Rising" with a gas-masked Dodo bird, and 420 rolling papers next to the register.
Jason empties the till. His watch reads approximately 11:08 AM. He left the house around 10:11 AM. The drive from his Keys property to this shop took about 45 minutes of in-game time. The trailer is running on a real clock.
On the Road
A shot from inside a car. Jason's fingers are visible, tapping the steering wheel, the road ahead through the windshield. First-person driving perspective. Signs on the road point to VCI Airport, Ambrosia, Downtown Southside, and Peacock Bay. A FlyUS plane overhead. Two people riding in the bed of the pickup truck ahead. Road workers on the shoulder. One on their phone, one doing actual work.
Car bumper stickers on the vehicle ahead: "#UNBUCKLED" and "MyWays."
Then Jason on a beach, bench pressing outdoors. 100 kilograms on the bar. He has in-ear headphones. AirPods equivalent. A sports drink beside him. A woman walks her dog in the background. Two women walk toward him in slow motion and as they move through the sand, their footsteps deform the ground. Trails left behind them as they pass. The beach remembers where you walked.
The Convenience Store
Jason enters a convenience store to buy beer. Inside: a Leonida Lottery sign reading "Promotes a new billionaire every week" with a dolphin-wearing-sunglasses logo. A cat sitting on top of the ATM machine. A magazine rack: Vain, Players, Desire, ET, Sophisticated, Starstruck. Redwood cigarettes at $4 a pack, checking ID for anyone under 30.
He picks up a six-pack of Patriot beer. The liquid inside the bottles moves dynamically as he carries them. It sloshes with the motion, catching light. His shirt reads "Leonida Marine Center, We support all marine life."
On the way out, a woman walking toward him turns slightly at the last moment to avoid him. Her body movement adjusts in real time to another character in the same space.
Door signs leaving: "It is unlawful to possess an open container within 100 ft of this store." Also: "All dogs must be carried or leashed" and Vaporin, a vaping brand new to GTA.
The Haitian Wall
A street in a Haitian cultural neighborhood. Possibly first-person passenger perspective. On the wall: the word HAITI with a white outline of the island beside it. French writing: "Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité", the motto of Haiti. Graffiti: "SANS POU SANS." In Haitian Creole: blood for blood.
This is Sans Pour Sans territory. Their music label, Sound for Sound Records, is tagged on the wall. The same brand visible on a car sticker in Trailer 1. The cultural neighborhood, the gang, and the music label are all tied together on one wall.
Also on it: "For the flag and for the homeland" in French, two portrait paintings with "In love and affection" in Haitian Creole underneath one. A memorial. A train car passes in the background with silhouettes of passengers through the windows. A sign: "NO VIDEO WITHOUT PERMISSION", phone number: 305-555-1780. The 305 area code is real Miami-Dade.
The audio here is "Child Support" by Zenlan, a Miami-based Haitian band. Rockstar sourced the music to match the neighborhood.
The Prison, and Lucia
The exterior of Leonida Penitentiary. Jason pulls up to the gate. A guard speaks to him. Something about recognizing him. Jason's answer: "You might've." A deliberate non-answer from someone with a history here.
Signs at the gate: "Do not enter until instructed by an officer." The Leonida Department of Corrections name is on the building. A visiting hours notice: 15 minutes through the week, 1 hour every Sunday. The days-of-week system the game is hinting at, made explicit in a prison sign.
Lucia Caminos walks out. This is the first time we see her in Trailer 2. Her t-shirt reads "I Went Down on the Leviathan", the Leviathan is the roller coaster at the Pleasure Pier in Los Santos. The shirt is old and faded. Her mother is from Liberty City. At some point Lucia ended up in Los Santos, rode the coaster, kept the shirt for years, and is now wearing it out of a Leonida prison. Three cities. One t-shirt.
Her ankle tag is on her left leg. She is out on conditions. Around her neck, a boxing glove necklace. Small, worn, clearly old. Her father taught her to fight from the moment she could walk. She wears it in almost every scene in the entire trailer. The one exception is the bank heist, where a turtleneck covers it.
Jason's watch when he picks her up: approximately 5:08 PM. He spent the morning doing Brian's errands. He collected Lucia late afternoon. The evening scenes that follow make chronological sense.
Together in the Keys
Evening. The two of them inside Jason's Keys house. The same one from the opening. A ceiling fan overhead, the window open. Hot Together by the Pointer Sisters plays. Lucia's ankle tag is visible again.
Later: a picture frame on the wall that was not there in the earlier scenes. She has moved in. Lucia says: "This place is just the start."
They are at the Rusty Anchor bar. A proper Keys local. Jason is in a floral Hawaiian shirt, a deliberate nod to Tommy Vercetti's original Vice City look. On the table, two bottles of Pindejo beer, a Modelo parody, the name a play on Spanish slang. They clink the bottles and the liquid moves dynamically as the glass connects. Fluid physics inside a bottle during a casual bar scene.
Lucia's boxing glove necklace is in one of its clearest close-up shots in the entire trailer. Her father taught her to fight since she was born. She never takes it off.
Brian's Operation at Night
Brian's Boat Works and Marina: "Boat Repairs, Equipment and Storage." Phone number: 786-551-09. The 786 area code covers Miami-Dade and Monroe County, including the Keys.
Dark. A seaplane is being loaded under cover of night. Brian, Cal Hampton, and Jason are all visible. Cal is wearing a Rusty Anchor t-shirt. On the wall inside, a Nagasaki brand flag. A sign reads "Wocks Outboards."
A fourth figure is getting off the plane. Only their boots are visible. Identity unknown.
Separately: Lucia on the roadside in a hi-vis vest doing community service. Conditions of her parole. She is wearing a Brian's Boat Works cap. A car drives past and its tail lights sweep across her face, moving her from complete shadow to fully lit as the beam travels over her. Real-time light and shadow on a character's face, from a passing car.
The Bank
Lucia in full heist gear. A skull-print bandana covering her lower face, armed, moving through a building under a security lockdown. The bank: Sinfronta National Bank. Security shutdown is visible on computer screens. Hand sanitizer on the desk.
Jason tackles a security guard. Hand-to-hand, military-trained. Lucia's style is cage fighting. Jason's is a soldier. They move differently and it is visible.
The skull bandana on Lucia's face matches the one Raul Bautista wears in his Rockstar profile video. Coordinated. Raul is an experienced bank robber who is always hunting for new talent. His bio says he found some.
Elsewhere: Jason and Lucia walking out of a building carrying bags of money. Daytime. Same conditions as the bank interior. The shot looks like a Michael Mann film. They got out.
Vice City, Wider
Lucia in an apartment with in-ear headphones in. The same AirPods equivalent Jason had on at the beach. Hot Together is leaking out of them. Her t-shirt reads "Gellhorn International" with a racing car image, almost certainly a parody of Sebring International Raceway, one of the oldest tracks in the US, which shares space with a regional airport in Sebring, Florida.
A billboard or TV ad for Phil's Ammu-Nation. The character in it is wearing a tank top with the store logo. The look, the posture, the missing arm: Phil Cassidy, the fan-favorite from the original Vice City. Back in the world.
The Vice City skyline at night. Neon-lit, enormous, at a fidelity level that has not existed in this series before. The city is not a backdrop.
Boobie Ike's entertainment strip. Strip club, recording studio, Only Raw Records, the label he runs with Dre'Quan Priest. The Real Dimez, Bae-Luxe and Roxy, are massive on social media and signed here. Inside a nightclub, a DJ performing.
A rain scene. Roads wet, headlights in puddles, windshield wipers running. Water deforms dynamically. Vice City in the rain looks and feels completely different from Vice City in the sun.
What They Want and What It Costs
Two lines that define the whole thing.
Lucia: "Who you know and what you got is all that matters."
Jason: "I want to do this right."
Her philosophy is pure Vice City. Connections and assets, by any means. His is something else. Not naivety. He just wants something that does not compromise them completely. That gap between them is the whole story.
They raise glasses: "To new beginnings."
Then the conspiracy closes in. A police standoff. They are outnumbered. The easy score went wrong. Cars at speed, helicopters in pursuit, explosions. The Keys were the beginning. This is what the Keys led to.
The defining image of the trailer: Jason and Lucia on a dock, pistols drawn, looking directly at the camera. Confident. Dangerous. Together. This is the official key art for GTA VI.
The Date
The GTA VI logo. Then: Grand Theft Auto VI, May 26, 2026.
May 26 is the date of Bonnie Parker's funeral, of Bonnie and Clyde fame. It is also the anniversary of Ray Liotta's death, May 26, 2022. Liotta voiced Tommy Vercetti in GTA Vice City. Whether those are coincidences or deliberate, Rockstar chose that date.
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