GTA 5 Three's Company: Beating the 7:30 Timer and All Three Gold Medal Objectives
Three's Company puts Michael on a rope down the IAA headquarters, Franklin on a sniper rifle and Trevor in a helicopter. The Gold Medal hinges on a 7 minute 30 second clock, and cutscenes are what usually eat it. Here is how to clear all three objectives.
Three's Company is one of GTA 5's great set pieces. The FIB's Steve Haines and Dave Norton want a man called Mr. K pulled out of the IAA headquarters, and the plan is pure spectacle: Michael rappelling down the side of the building, Franklin on overwatch with a sniper rifle, and Trevor flying the helicopter that holds the whole thing together. It is also a Gold Medal built almost entirely around a clock.
The three Gold Medal objectives
- Time. Finish the mission in under 07:30.
- Accuracy. End with at least 60% shooting accuracy.
- Headshots. Kill 10 enemies with headshots.
Three objectives, and two of them are the standard shooting pair. The timer is the one that decides your evening.
Skip every cutscene
The single biggest thing you can do for the 07:30 target costs no skill at all: skip the cutscenes. Three's Company is cinematic, and those seconds are counted. Players who sit through the dialogue and then miss Gold by twenty seconds are losing the medal to the story, not the shooting.
Skip everything you are allowed to skip, every single run.
Do not linger on the rope
The rappel section is where the rest of the time goes. It is tempting to play it like a cinematic and descend carefully, but the shooting here is forgiving. Take the window shots you need, keep descending, and do not hover mid-air admiring the view. Momentum through this section is most of the difference between 7:10 and 7:50.
Franklin's sniper shots are your easiest headshots
While Michael is on the rope, you can switch to Franklin on the neighbouring rooftop. His sniper rifle is the most forgiving headshot tool in the mission: the IAA agents at the windows are close to stationary, the scope does the aiming, and every clean hit counts toward the ten you need. Bank two or three here before the escape turns chaotic and the rest of the objective takes care of itself.
Headshots and accuracy, the usual balance
The same rule from every GTA 5 shootout applies. Chase headshots while Michael's special ability is active and the slow motion makes them reliable, then fall back to body shots when it runs dry. A landed body shot helps your accuracy; a missed headshot hurts it twice. Ten headshots across the whole mission is a low bar if you bank them during the ability and let Franklin cover the rest.
The flying handoff
The end of the mission has a specific switching rhythm that catches people out. Once you are clear of enemies, switch to Michael so that Trevor flies to the checkpoint, then switch back to Trevor before landing. Getting this order wrong costs time at exactly the moment the clock is tightest.
Split the objectives across replays
If the timer is fighting you, stop trying to do everything at once. Gold Medal objectives carry across replays, so dedicate one run purely to speed, skipping every cutscene and ignoring headshot opportunities entirely, then replay at a relaxed pace to farm headshots and accuracy. The game keeps the ticks you have already earned.
The bottom line
Skip cutscenes, keep moving on the rope, let Franklin bank the easy headshots, respect the Michael-then-Trevor switch at the end, and use Michael's ability for the rest. If 07:30 still beats you, take it in two runs. For the mission's full details and where it sits in the story, see our Three's Company mission page, and for the heist crew system that underpins the rest of the game, the complete crew guide.
Update log
- September 13, 2026: corrected the building. Michael rappels down the IAA headquarters, not the FIB tower (the FIB building is the target of the later Bureau Raid). Added mission screenshots and a section on using Franklin's sniper overwatch for headshots.
