Rub Out (GTA Vice City)

Updated 2 November 2026 · Fan site. Not affiliated with Rockstar Games or Take-Two Interactive.

Rub Out is the Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002) mission in which Tommy Vercetti and Lance Vance raid Ricardo Diaz's mansion on Starfish Island and kill him. It pays $50,000, turns the mansion into the Vercetti Estate and marks the turning point from hired gun to crime boss. gta.wiki links its staging to scenes in Scarface and Pulp Fiction.

What is Rub Out in GTA Vice City?

Rub Out is the mission that ends the first half of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. After learning that Ricardo Diaz was behind the ambush at the start of the game, and after rescuing Lance in Death Row, Tommy Vercetti decides to take out the drug lord and his business in one go. It is listed with Diaz's chain on our Vice City missions hub.

How do you start Rub Out?

It becomes available after Death Row. Tommy waits at the bridge to Starfish Island, where Lance Vance, now out of hospital, pulls up in a Stallion. He opens the boot to show the weapons he has brought, and both men arm themselves with M4 rifles before heading for the gates.

What happens in Rub Out?

The pair attack across the gardens of the mansion. The front door is locked, and the game tells the player to find another way in, so they go round to a rear entrance beside the indoor pool. From there it is a room-by-room fight through the corridors. Diaz has been watching on his security cameras and is waiting in the main hall with his bodyguards. gta.wiki counts eight of them. Once the guards are down, the wounded Diaz tries to crawl up the staircase, still shocked that the man he trusted has turned on him, and Tommy and Lance finish him off.

According to gta.wiki, the mission fails if Tommy is killed or arrested, or if Lance dies. Keeping Lance alive is the main challenge, so it helps to clear rooms before he walks into them.

What is the reward for Rub Out?

gta.wiki points out that Rub Out pays more than the final mission, something only one other job in the game, The Job at the Malibu Club, also does. The new home on Starfish Island is one of the most useful safehouses in the game.

Why is Rub Out famous?

Rub Out is the clearest nod in the game to Scarface. gta.wiki compares it with the scene in which Tony Montana and Manny kill the drug lord Frank Lopez, who had betrayed them, and then take over his operation. Tommy does the same to Diaz. gta.wiki also notes that the camera shot from inside the car boot, as Lance hands out the guns, resembles a famous shot from Pulp Fiction.

It is also the point where the story changes direction. Before it, Tommy is a hired hand; after it, he owns a mansion, has partners and starts building rackets of his own, beginning with Shakedown. A phone call from Sonny Forelli soon follows, in which Sonny makes clear he has heard about Tommy's success and has not forgotten him.

Trivia

gta.wiki collects several details. Lance holds a Desert Eagle in the final cutscene, a gun the player can never use in Vice City. From now on the Infernus parked outside the mansion always appears in white, apparently Lance's car. Diaz's gang only shows up in rampages and some side jobs afterwards. And an unused line in which Lance talks to Tommy about running Diaz's empire survives in the game's audio files.