Friend Request is a mission in Grand Theft Auto V given by Lester Crest to protagonist Michael De Santa.
Mission
In debt for destroying Martin's mistress's deck, Michael goes to an old friend named Lester Crest. Upon getting to his doorstep, he notices a security camera is aimed at him, causing him to flip Lester off and ask to be let in. After being let in, the two old friends catch up a bit before Lester retrieves an alert about Lifeinvader founder, Jay Norris. He throws Michael a backpack, containing an explosive device, and asks him to buy some "youthful" clothing at SubUrban. After this, Lester gives him instructions to infiltrate the Lifeinvader offices and place the device in their latest prototype phone.
Once at the Lifeinvader offices, Michael waits at the back entrance as an employee walks outside for a smoke and lets him in. He mistakenly assumes Michael is a tech support agent and asks Michael to resolve the endless spam mail on his computer (mostly because of not running anti-virus software). After this is done, Michael finds the prototype, plants the explosive, and leaves.
Lester then instructs Michael to head home and watch Norris's reveal of the prototype on TV. When he gets home, he kicks Tracey - who was watching Fame or Shame - out of the lounge, and turns it to Weazel News. Waiting until Norris actually reveals the phone, Michael rings the phone using his own. Once Norris answers, confused at the unexpected call, the phone explodes and kills him instantly as the crowd flees in horror, and an official waves the camera crew to make an emergency broadcast ending.
Lester calls, saying the incident has generated a huge profit for him on the stock market, and agrees to help Michael. He also sends a text with a link to the in-game stock market for Michael to later browse at his leisure.
Mission objectives
- Go to the Suburban store in Vinewood.
- Go to the Lifeinvader offices.
- Go to the rear entrance.
- Follow the programmer.
- Close the popups to reveal the antivirus shortcut.
- Run the antivirus software.
- Rig the prototype.
- Exit the building.
- Watch the keynote at Michael's house.
- Wait for Jay Norris to pull out the prototype phone and then give him a call.
Gold Medal Objectives
- Time - Complete within 08:30.
- Popups Clear - Clear all popups within 32 seconds.
Aftermath
Weazel News Newspaper
"Viewers were horrified yesterday to witness the worst act of corporate espionage in American history. Jay Norris, the controversial, outspoken champion of openness and data mining had his data mined all over the stage when his head was blown off while giving a keynote speech at a shareholder meeting at the Vinewood Bowl, in Vinewood Los Santos. Mr. Norris, CEO and founder of social networking site Lifeinvader had made many enemies in his rise to the top, but nobody thought he was a likely assassination target. He had recently been championing the rights of companies to share and use data as they saw fit more freely. He had also helped block proposed legislation to regulate the use of sourced labor, arguing that is "un-American of us to tell foreigners how many hours a mature 12 years old should work, or what their minimum wage should be. In some countries you can live very well on 35 cents a day." He was demonstrating the company's much hyped Lifeinvader "docking" smart phone when his head was blown off, killing him instantly."
Lifeinvader Posts
- Lester Crest - "Wow, you really made yourself hard to find with the whole family on here."
- Lester Crest - "Ok, I'd say you've atoned for that decade of poor friendship. How ironic we're both on Lifeinvader? To soon?"
- Hayden Dubose - "I was driving through Vinewood earlier and saw a guy dressed like a moronic teenager who looked the spit of you! I must be going crazy!"
Bleeter Posts
- @wibblyhymen - "RIP Jay Norris. This is a tragic day for social media. I am having a minute of silence on my Lifeinvader page and posting on Bleeter instead."
- @baconandexactly - "PLZ tell me Bleeter isn't responsible for Jay Norris' death. I can't take it. Don't make me choose."
(after The Long Stretch mission)
- @LesterC - "I hear Jay Norris's funeral will be free, restricted access, minimal design, with guest-targeted advertising."
Weazel News (Radio)
Jay Norris, Lifeinvader CEO and controversial champion of openess and data mining, had his data mined all over the stage, when his head was blown off while giving a keynote speech to shareholders at the Vinewood Bowl. Mr. Norris was demonstrating the new Lifeinvader telephone, when a bomb was triggered, killing him instantly. Police are unsure of the motives. Lifeinvader's shares are down on the news.
Trivia
- After this mission, Rickie Luckens, an employee from Lifeinvader, will call and say he just got fired because of Michael and needs work. After the call Michael can now employ Rickie as a hacker for any heists in the game requiring one.
- After this mission, if you go back to the SubUrban store where you bought the clothes as Michael, the store attendant will ask you how the job interview went.
- While the anti-virus is scanning the computer, you can see very quickly, that an Epsilon Program file appears being scanned.
- Should you fail to call Jay during the press conference, he will comment that somebody was supposed to call him right then and storms off, breaking the prototype by throwing it on the stage. This will still fail the mission.
- The phone bomb may be a reference to the 2009 crime thriller Law Abiding Citizen, where Clyde Sheldon assassinates a judge with a rigged cell phone bomb.[1]
- The mission name is a pun of the act of sending someone a friend request on Facebook, which Lifeinvader is a parody of, and the request of a favor that Lester is asking to Michael, in order to help him.
- In another instance of crude sexual humour used by Rockstar, Jay Norris mentions "docking" as a feature of sharing data, and that the user can "dock with some kids at the public pool." Docking is a homosexual act when a man sticks the head of his penis in the foreskin of another man's penis.
- This is the first mission in the game in which the player is required to use a computer.
- The day trading stock market referred to by Lester Crest after the mission, the BAWSAQ, is a reference to a man's testicles, another crude sexual joke by Rockstar Games. The BAWSAQ is also a reference to the NASDAQ.
- This mission marks the first time the ingame Stock Market is refered to.
- Jay Norris seems to be a parody of both Mark Zuckerberg (founder of the real life social networking site Facebook and notable seller of private data) and Steve Jobs (The late Apple CEO who was noted for claiming credit for others' ideas) who both possess qualities which Lester, Michael, and Franklin make fun of.
- The scene of Michael taking the remote control from Tracey was used on Michael's Character Trailer.
- Also in the character trailer, you can see that Tracey is wearing purple pants while in the actual game she is wearing silver pants.
- The events of the mission Repossession happens in the same in-game week as this one, according to an internet article after the Repossession mission.