Demolition Man (GTA Vice City)

Updated 30 October 2026 · Fan site. Not affiliated with Rockstar Games or Take-Two Interactive.

Demolition Man is a Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002) mission for Avery Carrington. Tommy uses a tiny remote-control helicopter, the RC Goblin, to plant four bombs in a rival construction site in Vice Point within seven minutes. It pays $1,000 and is widely named as one of the hardest missions in the series.

What is Demolition Man in GTA Vice City?

Demolition Man is the second job Tommy Vercetti does for Avery Carrington, the Texan property developer of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, after Four Iron. Avery wants a rival building project gone so he can get his hands on the land. The twist is the tool: instead of driving a car bomb in, Tommy has to fly the explosives into the site with a toy helicopter.

The title nods to the 1993 action film Demolition Man, as gta.wiki points out. For the other jobs around it, see our Vice City missions list.

Avery is one of the more colourful contacts in the game. Wikipedia describes him as a Texan business tycoon voiced by Burt Reynolds, who brings Tommy in on several deals and later suggests that he grow his empire by making businesses pay protection money. Demolition Man is the most memorable of those deals, and the only one built around a remote-control vehicle.

How does the mission work?

Tommy finds a Top Fun van parked near the site in Vice Point. Inside is the controller for the RC Goblin, a small radio-controlled copy of a helicopter. Once he is in the van, the player flies the Goblin over to the unfinished building, picks up a bomb and sets it down in a marked spot. There are four bombs to place, one on each of four floors.

According to gta.wiki and GTABase, the seven-minute timer starts only when the first bomb is picked up, so the player can fly around beforehand. The mission fails if Tommy dies or is arrested, if the van or the helicopter is destroyed, if the Goblin flies out of range, if time runs out or if a bomb is dropped into the water.

Why is Demolition Man so hard?

Most players struggle with the controls rather than the task. The RC Goblin is light and reacts to tiny inputs, so it drifts, spins and clips scaffolding. GTABase's ranking of the hardest missions in the series, published in June 2025, puts Demolition Man at number 12. It calls the handling aggravating and points out that a bomb set down at the wrong angle has to be picked up again, which costs time. Construction workers and guards on site also try to knock the helicopter out of the air.

Collisions add up. GTABase notes that hitting too many objects sets the Goblin on fire, which ends the attempt. That mix of tight timer, fragile vehicle and unusual controls is why the mission turns up on so many fan lists of rage-inducing jobs.

Tips for Demolition Man

These tips come from the GTABase walkthrough:

Is Demolition Man easier in the Definitive Edition?

The 2021 remaster in The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition keeps the same mission. gta.wiki lists one addition: the "Chopper'd Up" achievement, earned by killing every hostile worker with the Goblin's blades alone. We found no reliable source measuring whether the remaster makes the job easier, so we leave that question open.

Do you need to finish Demolition Man?

GTABase marks it as required for 100% completion. gta.wiki lists it as the mission that opens Avery's next job, Two Bit Hit. gta.wiki adds that Two Bit Hit also needs Phnom Penh '86 for Ricardo Diaz to be finished.