Revealing mistake: The Merryweather Heist (Freighter Approach): When Michael goes inside the freighter to plant the explosive, he closes the door behind him, but his hand does not touch the door. He just appears to be mining the actions of pulling the handle and the door closes on its own.
Plot hole: Cleaning out the Bureau: At the garment factory, Michael arrives, agent Dave Norton arrives and later in the scene, agent Steve Haines arrives at the building, walks up the stairwell and says hello to the others. Apparently, the plot has completely forgotten that Steve had shot himself in the leg in the mission "Monkey Business" a few missions prior, to make himself appear as a double agent - he is walking around completely fine in this mission as if nothing happened.
Suggested correction: Maybe he quickly recovered? Sometimes injuries heal quickly.
Other mistake: Derailed: In Trevor's trailer, Michael sits down and takes out his phone. When the phone is in his hand, the screen on the phone is displaying the menu screen. However, Michael never unlocked the phone or pressed any buttons to display the screen. The menu screen is already displayed when he takes the phone out of his pocket.
Revealing mistake: Marriage Counselling: When Michael walks into his house at the start of the cutscene, keep an eye on the bouquet of white roses, shown in the hallway to the left of shot. In the very first frame, the white roses have been animated very brightly. After that first frame, an animation error occurs on-screen, where the white roses suddenly shift to a much more shadowed white.
Bug: If you switch from playing Michael to Trevor, there is one occasion in the game where Trevor has a man tied to a support beam underneath a pier. If Trevor chooses to use his Jerry can and spills gasoline all around the man and sets it on fire, the tied up man catches fire, however, a glitch occurs in the process. The man catches fire, screams, then somehow pops straight out of the ropes keeping him tied up and starts running around. The rope has also not changed shaped and still remains stretched out at the front. The man then suddenly pops back into the ropes and stays tied up before he dies.
Other mistake: Franklin and Lamar: Franklin and Lamar begin by entering two cars: a red car and a white car. If Franklin gets in the red car, then Lamar will get in the white car. As Lamar enters the white car, he is never shown pulling a handle. He is just miming the actions of pulling a handle and the car door just opens.
Bug: Go to Franklin's first house in the neighbourhood and have Franklin place a sticky bomb anywhere on the walls or ceiling in the hallway and place the bomb by throwing it from the front door. After the explosive is thrown and lands on the wall, a slight glitch in the animation occurs. The entire explosive won't actually be visible on the wall. No matter where the shot is angled at, the beeping red light on top of the explosive will always be visible, however the rest of the explosive won't actually be in sight. If the angle of the shot is rotated, the explosive will appear from different views, but still a glitch nonetheless.
Plot hole: Trevor Phillips Industries: After arriving at the Meth Lab, Trevor tricks Mr. Cheng and his translator into entering an ice freezer. The translator then asks for Trevor to let him out and starts banging on the door. Trevor never locked the door and there is nothing restraining the door as Trevor had just opened it a second ago, so the translator could have simply just pushed the door open if he wanted to exit the ice freezer.
Plot hole: Marriage Counselling: Michael destroys Martin Madrazo's girlfriend's house, believing it to be owned by the tennis coach. Within the 0.6 mile drive back to Michael's house, Madrazo's henchmen are suddenly firing on Michael and Franklin because Michael destroyed the house. Even Madrazo's girlfriend's told Madrazo about the incident, there should still be no way for Madrazo to know what Franklin or Michael looked like, track down their location or find them that quickly.
Suggested correction: Although Madrazo would have had to have had men very close by for it to be possible he could have found out about Michael from the tennis instructor.
Even if Madrazo was told about Michael and Franklin by someone in or near his house, the amount of time it takes for them to reach him is far too quick. They find him around a minute or two after driving away from the house, and they had no way of knowing which direction he will be going in. This is far too unlikely, as it is far too quick after destroying the house for Madrazo to have tracked down and found Michael's location.
Other mistake: Architect's Plans: Michael receives a call from Franklin where Franklin tells Michael that he is following the architect. It then cuts to Franklin, where he is seen hanging up the call, and pressing the hang up button on his phone, but the screen on his phone is switched off. He just appears to be pressing the screen, but not any actual button on the screen.
Continuity mistake: The Bureau Raid (Fire Crew Approach): In the FIB building, when Michael walks into the elevator, he presses the button for the floor he wants to go to. The door then closes and he is standing near the front. The shot then cuts to a view from the CCTV and he is suddenly standing towards the back of the elevator.
Other mistake: The Bureau Raid (Fire Crew Approach): Michael plants two sticky bombs in the FIB building, one in a locker and one on a toilet. Franklin detonates the sticky bombs when Michael is finished in the building, but there are more than two explosions.
Revealing mistake: The Big Score (Obvious Approach): If Gustavo Mota is selected as the gunman who will accompany Michael, he will get into Michael's car. When Michael asks if he's ready to do something profoundly stupid, Gustavo says "With you, M? I'd do anything." When he is just about to finish the line, part of his neck passes through his shirt collar.
Revealing mistake: The Big Score (Obvious Approach): When Trevor drops the second container of gold onto the freighter train, the cables that were attached to it fade into the ground once the container has settled on the train.
Other mistake: Derailed: When Michael is in Trevor's trailer, he takes out his phone to go on it. Just after this happens, the shot cuts to a different angle, where his head is suddenly hunched more downwards.
Continuity mistake: Hang Ten: When Trevor is in Floyd and Debra's apartment, he puts some water in a mug and sits on the couch, with the mug in his left hand. When the shot cuts, he is holding the mug with both hands.
Revealing mistake: The Ballad of Rocco: Just after Solomon Richards shows Michael his associate producer credit on his new movie, Solomon pours Michael and himself a drink. Michael drinks from the glass, but the level of liquid remains the same and does not lower.
Other mistake: Reuniting the Family: Just after Michael walks into his home, he takes out a bottle of whiskey, and goes to pour it into a glass. Just before he goes to pour, there is already a sliver of whiskey in the bottom of the glass, even though it should be empty. It appears as if the sliver of whiskey shown in the glass was used as an animation reference to help the animators during post-production.
Continuity mistake: Reuniting the Family: Michael pours himself a glass of whiskey. In the shot of him walking over to the couch, the whiskey is filled almost to the top, but when he sits down in the next shot, there is only a small amount left in the glass.
Audio problem: Marriage Counselling: When Michael goes outside to smoke a cigarette, the sound of him blowing the smoke out of his mouth is heard, but his lips stay closed and no smoke is ever shown leaving his mouth.