Tommy Vercetti is heavily based on Tony Montana from the film Scarface. They both end up in exile, both rise to power in Miami using great amounts of violence, both build an empire from a large estate and mansion, both have short tempers and are prone to violence, both work as contract killers, and both killed their collaborators and took their ex-bosses' empires, and both engage in a battle with large groups of assassins at the end of their stories. However, Tommy survives his final gunfight with his enemies, while Tony is killed. Even the mansions in the games are similar.

The Mr. Vercetti suit is likely based off of one of Ricardo Tubbs' suits from Miami Vice, from which the game draws inspiration.

The Havana clothes bear a strong resemblance with the clothes worn by an extra in the first episode of Miami Vice.

The PSG-1 semi automatic sniper is labeled as the "PSG-1" only in the PS2 Version of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City; all other versions label it .308 Sniper

In the mission "Phnom Penh '86", a worker, like those seen in the mission "Riot", can be seen jumping off of the bridge that the helicopter flies under. The camera must be pointed behind the helicopter in order to see this.

It's possible to acquire a bulletproof Admiral vehicle in the game during the mission "Guardian Angels". In the mission, instead of helping Ricardo Diaz, kill him to fail the mission and then store the vehicle in a garage. The car is bulletproof, fire proof, explosion proof and strong in collisions.

There's a criminal ranking called "SA Goon", which only appears if your score is between 1000 and 1009, after which it goes over to the normal "Goon" ranking. Because of this small window, it's nearly impossible to see it.

This ranking is a reference to the Something Awful Forums, where the users are nicknamed Goons.

In the mission "Autocide", in which Tommy must kill undercover members of a European gang, all of the targets are named after characters in rival sandbox games.

• Mike Griffin (Mace Griffin from Mace Griffin: Bounty Hunter)
• Dick Tanner (Tanner from Driver)
• Marcus Hammond, Franco Carter and Charlie Dilson (Mark Hammond, Frank Carter and Charlie Jolson from The Getaway)
• Nick Kong (Nick Kang Williams from True Crime: Streets of LA)

The map at Sunshine Autos depicts several changes to the city before its final design. These include the absence of Hyman Memorial Stadium, the rocks and lighthouse in Ocean Beach, the shacks in the sea, Fort Baxter Air Base (originally an air traffic control tower and a runway), and some roads (most notably the long road from the Downtown police station to the Ammunation).

An unused phone conversation between Tommy Vercetti and Avery Carrington mentions an unused area called "Gator Keys", and suggests that there would have been a mission to go there.

Concept art on Rockstar North's website shows that the working name for Ricardo Diaz was "Fernando Diaz".

In early screenshots and trailers, the Pump Action Shotgun had the same model as the Pump Action Shotgun from Grand Theft Auto III, but it was later changed.

On Rockstar's official Kent Paul website, the name "BJ Jones" is present on a list of characters from the game. This likely refers to BJ Smith, and could suggest that "Jones" was Smith's surname during development.

A pre-release screenshot of Tommy Vercetti preparing to throw a grenade uses the grenade texture and model from Grand Theft Auto III. However, the released game uses a different model and texture, which were also used in San Andreas and Liberty City Stories.

A Steyr AUG was supposed to appear in game, but was cut, although it's model and texture can still be found on the PS2 disc. These files were removed from all other ports of the game.

There is a model and texture file for a silenced Colt m1911 on the PS2 disc, but they go unused.

Cam Jones is referred to as "mike" in the game's internal files.

Ken Rosenberg is based on Sean Penn's character Dave Kleinfeld from the 1993 movie Carlito's Way. Both of them are lawyers, always supporting the protagonists of their respective series, they're addicted to cocaine and also cut ties with them (in Kleinfeld's case, he was about to testify against Carlito and Tommy cut his ties with Rosenberg because of his drug addiction).

In the 1.04 & 2.01 versions of the game, Umberto Robina's "Trojan Voodoo" mission's intro cutscene features dialogue mentioning the word "Haitians". In the 3.0 release this was modified to remove any mentions of the word "Haitian".

In the mission "Waste the Wife", Tommy is hired by Mr. Black to kill his employer's wife, Mrs. Dawson. This is a reference to the 1985 film Commando, as Tommy attempts to crash Mrs. Dawson's car the same way Matrix (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger) attempts to crash Sully's (played by David Patrick Kelly) car in the movie. Both feature the same yellow car, as well as Mrs. Dawson whining in fear, just as Cindy (played by Rae Dawn Chong) does in the movie.