Grand Theft Auto V and its latest remake for the current-gen systems takes place in a massive world full of intricate details. Rockstar planted a nearly endless supply of references to pop culture, previous games, and a more than fair share of little secrets, side missions and unique characters that determined players are still adding to the roster of easter eggs to this day. There are dozens upon dozens of properly juicy easter eggs and subtle nods to be found in Los Santos, and the following are just a few of my absolute favorites.
I found Jesus...
...In Grand Theft Auto
On the Los Santos Del Perro Pier you can find Jesus...sort of. You will find a man named Jesse who looks an awful lot like JC, as he is so often portrayed, and is clearly a hippie, pothead facsimile of the bearded pacifist that died for our sins.
It's a small easter egg character who's only mentioned briefly in a story mission, but if you find him on the pier, you can choose to talk to him. He'll babble on about his life stories that hilariously mirror biblical tales. And he'll say things like:
"My dad used to be a real mean guy, he was real mean to the Jews--but he doesn't hate the Jews, he loves the Jews, he might even be jewish himself, and then I came along and it was all cool."
If you rob him, not that I ever would because that is turning the wrong cheek, he will always leave exactly $12 in reference to the twelve disciples.
A deal gone wrong
This reference to the Cormac McCarthy novel-adapted film No Country For Old Men (2007) is awesome to stumble upon as a non-story, random event. I came across it while driving through the area and immediately saw several cars still running, one with a horn still blaring from the dead body on its wheel. Weapons and bodies were strewn about a small clearing, some of them dead and some still dying.
Listen to the dying words of one of the men and you'll find a suitcase of money near another. Anyone familiar with the corresponding scene from the novel or the movie will immediately make note of a striking resemblance, and the whole scene is really fun to discover, even if you don't understand the reference. The only bittersweet piece of it is that a little part of me wanted it to turn into a side mission, or at least just get chased down after stealing the money, but instead you just walk away with the money, having found a fun little easter egg.
If you haven't found this event yourself, visit the location below, a western coastal road and follow a small dirt path off the road.
Bigfoot is real!
Bigfoot has always been a fan-favorite easter egg in GTA games, and GTA 5 is no exception. In the story mission 'Predator', you'll be able to make out a sneak peek outline of Bigfoot when using the thermal scope on your sniper rifle.
It's small tease, but if you stay vigilant and keep playing the story through it's completion, you'll be treated to a special mission where you meet and hunt Bigfoot himself. I won't spoil the surprise, but it has a nice juicy reveal of Bigfoot's true identity that's worth the wait.
Aliens love Los Santos
There are so many aliens and UFOs in Los Santos that there's a larger conspiracy mystery that people are still trying to crack. There are UFOs flying around the city in a few spots, some that can only be seen after finishing the story, and there are some alien references in and out of the story - such as an alien corpse under the ice of a frozen river, and a side mission where Michael hallucinates being abducted by aliens (or does he?) during a drug trip.
The community is still uncertain as to whether Rockstar is alluding to something alien in GTA or future games, or just completely messing with us. Only time will tell.
The Internets!
The Internet in GTA 5 is as much of a time-waster as the real Internet, and even though I've been playing the game since its original release, I am still finding new websites to laugh at, profiles of in-game characters on the Facebook facsimile site LifeInvader, and even some side missions.
There's a cult that makes some obvious jabs at Scientology that Michael can get involved in, and if you have the money to spend and the time for one of the longest and most tedious side missions in the game, you can make a cool 2.1 million by the end of it. The GTA 5 internet is a testament to the staggering amount of detail Rockstar puts into their games, and there's always some new nugget of comedy that I haven't run into yet.
