GTA Myths That Turned Out To Be True
Everyone loves a good urban legend. The man with a hook hand stalking on Lovers' Lane, the Mothman, dead Paul McCartney ... they're all exciting and interesting in their own way (yes, even dead Paul McCartney). Well, just like the real world, video games have their own urban legends, like hidden areas that are hard to locate and secret characters that seem to defy all logic.
There may not be another video game series that has as many myths and legends as Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto franchise. From paranormal monsters and extraterrestrial threats to hidden items and ominous warnings, players have spent years combing through the maps and codes of these games in an attempt to uncover every last secret in the world of GTA. Some of them haven't quite panned out yet or are hard to verify, but there are a few that are surprisingly real. It took enterprising players recording their findings to prove these myths, so we owe it to them to talk about the wild stuff they found. Let's take a look at some of the downright weirdest proven myths in Grand Theft Auto.
Ghost cars - GTA: San Andreas
These rogue vehicles in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas appear to move on their own without any driver inside them or external force pushing them along. They also commonly appear to be older and rather beat up, which is exactly what you'd expect a haunted car to look like. In the PlayStation 2 version of the game, the cars will sometimes roll through a solid tree, becoming stuck and spinning its wheels in vain.
While this myth has been proven to be real, its veracity was debated for a while, thanks to several faked videos and forum posts that embellished the behavior of the ghost cars. It's likely that this phenomenon occurs due to the cars spawning on a hillside, which in turn causes them to roll downwards, appearing to the player as though they've come to life and are seeking revenge. However, knowing Rockstar, it's also possible that this was an intentional jump scare on their part.
The myth of Bigfoot - GTA 5
Much like in the real world, the legend of Bigfoot can't seem to die in the world of GTA, with players swearing they've encountered the beast since the days of San Andreas and modders creating encounters with the infamous cryptid. Even after Rockstar assured players that Bigfoot wasn't in the game, people still held out hope and scoured the woods surrounding Flint County in hopes of encountering the mythical Sasquatch for themselves.
Eventually, their wishes were (kind of) granted in the form of a few missions in Grand Theft Auto 5. "Predator" allows Bigfoot to be briefly spotted with a thermal scope, after which it will quickly vanish. Another big moment comes in the game's final mission, "The Last One," in which GTA 5 protagonist Franklin is tasked with hunting down a Sasquatch in Raton Canyon. After chasing it down, it will begin speaking to Franklin, who can then unmask "Bigfoot" and reveal a madman in a costume.
If players have completely finished GTA 5 and found all of the peyote plants throughout the game map, they can partake in a hallucinatory mission that turns them into a Sasquatch, becoming a Grand Theft Auto legend in their own right.
Jetpacks - GTA 5
In Grand Theft Auto 5, players have noticed a curious icon in the corner of a mural in Mount Chilead, which appears to resemble a stick figure on a jetpack. Eagle-eyed players have also noticed a sticker of a man with a jetpack in Lester Crest's home. Naturally, these little crumbs have led many to believe that Rockstar put these in as hints, trying to tell gamers that such a device is actually somewhere in GTA 5. In fact, hackers eventually found source code for jetpacks within GTA 5, which seemed to point to the devices being available in a future DLC or still hidden somewhere in the world of the game.
GTA 5 players' jetpack dreams finally came true when they were introduced in Grand Theft Auto Online, released as part of the Doomsday Heist update. The jetpacks are expensive, but they can be upgraded with all the bells and whistles your gravity-defying, bank-robbing heart desires.
The Downtown screams weren't a myth after all - GTA: San Andreas
At first glance, this one seems almost too weird and creepy to be true, but it has in fact been verified. When exploring Downtown Los Santos in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, it is possible to encounter a glitch that is unsettling, to say the least. If you stop in a specific little area full of park benches, you will hear several pedestrians screaming — but there's nobody in sight! What's worse, the screams seem to be coming from below the ground. It's like hell just opened up beneath Los Santos (which still wouldn't be the craziest thing to ever happen in a Grand Theft Auto game).
This glitch is apparently due to the coordinates of some of the benches being slightly off within the game's code. Basically, any NPCs who spawn there will immediately fall through the ground and out of the Los Santos map, screaming and tumbling forever into nothingness. All they wanted was to take a load off after a long day, but now they're trapped forever. It's best to just keep walking when you hear these screams of the digital damned.
Undead BMX riders - GTA: San Andreas
Imagine this: you've just gotten into an altercation with an aggressive NPC on a bicycle. Okay, considering this is Grand Theft Auto, it's more likely that you started the fight in the first place. Whatever the case, things have gotten ugly. After landing a well-placed shotgun blast to their head, they crumple to the ground in a bloody mess. After a few moments, they rise to their feet, still visibly agitated and with a full green health bar. You'd be forgiven for thinking you're playing something like Resident Evil or Dead Rising, but these immortal bicyclists are actually native to Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
It's unclear what kind of glitch causes these mythical ghouls to occur in the game, but it's easily one of the more upsetting accidents in the game's code. It's also worth noting that this doesn't even happen every time, to the point where its unclear if this phenomenon is confined only to BMX bikers.
The ghost trains myth - GTA 5
While it could be argued that a few of the so-called haunted wheeled vehicles in the Grand Theft Auto series could be victims of gravity, merely careening down hills or what have you, these ghostly locomotives defy the laws of physics entirely. In GTA 5 and Online, it's possible to encounter train cars that are moving along the tracks without an engine car, let alone a driver. The GTA Wiki posits that this may be a glitch caused by overcrowded online servers.
Whatever the cause behind these strange trains, the weirdest part isn't the fact that they're moving without an engine. No, the strangest thing about them is that they seem to pick and choose when they're made of solid matter. Players are not able to push the trains along with one of their own vehicles, as though they're made of sterner stuff than some locomotives in GTA. However, players have also observed other trains on the same tracks can drive through these phantoms like they're not even there. These inconsistencies in the trains' ... well, consistency is what makes spotting one of these ghost locomotives such a memorable experience.
Ghost helicopters - GTA: Vice City
Let's be honest: of all of the vehicles that could come to life and move of their own volition, the scariest would have to be helicopters, right? Imagine looking up and seeing the whirling blades of a phantom helicopter bearing down on you.
In Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, you can sometimes spot pilot-less helicopters roaming the city skies. If you're flying your own vehicle, you can even pass straight through them on occasion. Okay, that's weird, but it's even creepier when the glitch sometimes causes the rotors to stop working while they're still airborne, giving these things even more of an unearthly feel to them.
And if that wasn't puzzling enough, here's where it gets even more bizarre: if you shoot down one of these ghost helicopters, you will immediately receive a three-star Wanted level. Now why on earth would that happen? The only logical explanation is that the Vice City Police Department was clearly employing poltergeists in the '80s. Suddenly, every single time you've gotten a Wanted level for doing something that you thought was unseen makes complete sense.
Photographers on the edge - GTA: San Andreas
Unlike some of the other entries on this list, which seem to have special conditions that must be met in order to play out, these oddly depressing NPCs seem to pop up any time, in any weather. In Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (which is beginning to seem like the most haunted game in the series), this particular pedestrian may spawn at the edge of the Los Santos Inlet, taking photos of the view. After a bit, they'll lower their camera, walk straight into the water, and die, giving the appearance that they wanted to take one last serene photo before shuffling off this mortal coil.
Because of this behavior, they've been nicknamed "Suicidal Photographers" by GTA gamers. One possible explanation is that the inlet originally extended farther than it does in the final version of the game, but the NPCs movement path wasn't edited when the landscape was changed by the development team. The result is one of the saddest tourists in gaming history.
The myth of the ghostly graffiti - GTA: San Andreas
It seems like every neighborhood in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is a bad neighborhood, so spotting graffiti in San Andreas isn't a particularly odd sight. What makes this particular bit of tagging notable is its habit of vanishing and reappearing on a schedule.
This ghostly graffiti can be found in the Vinewood Cemetery. It says, "Families 4 Life," which seems pretty on-brand for one of the Grove Street Families in the game. However, if you look closely, you can see what appears to be a "666" incorporated into the design. Okay, that's creepy, but it's not the worst part. The graffiti is only visible during the night, from around 8 p.m. to 6 a.m., and then vanishes with the morning light. You know, the kind of thing that non-paranormal graffiti totally doesn't do.
While it's possible that this is a glitch, it's more than likely a intentional spooky touch on Rockstar's part, considering how many members of the Grove Street Families are buried in this cemetery. If nothing else, this proves that it feels good to be a gangsta, even after death.