Grand Theft Auto Easter eggs

Running over an entire line of Hare Krishna monks in one go makes the screen explode with the word “GOURANGA!” (a real Krishna-movement greeting meaning roughly “be happy”) and pays out a generous score bonus. It became one of the founding jokes of GTA humor and is still fondly remembered by Rockstar today.

Among the first GTA's eight selectable criminals is one named Travis — a name fans have read since 1997 as a wink at Travis Bickle, Robert De Niro's cabbie in Taxi Driver (1976). The whole roster (Bubba, Troy, Kivlov, Ulrika...) already set the series' snarky tone.

Head Radio debuts in 1997's GTA and later returns in GTA 2, GTA III and Liberty City Stories, with its own playlist and hosts. It's the earliest example of Rockstar treating its radio stations as a continuous parallel universe — even when the rest of the canon gets rebooted.

The first GTA already contained the franchise's entire world map: its three cities are named Liberty City, Vice City and San Andreas. Each would be rebuilt from scratch in the 3D and HD eras — and revisiting the 1997 game means finding the “rough draft” of gaming's most famous playgrounds.

Anywhere City is crawling with packs of Elvis impersonators strolling in groups. Flatten the whole troupe at once and you trigger a bonus plus the classic line “Elvis has left the building!” on screen — the spiritual sibling of the first game's GOURANGA!.

In GTA 2, saving your progress means walking into a church under a giant “Jesus Saves” sign (a pun on saving your game). Pay the US$50,000 tithe and a voice bellows “Hallelujah!”. One of the most fondly remembered interface puns of the 2D era.

The run-over-able monks of the first game return in GTA 2 as a complete faction: the Krishna, with turf, missions and their own vehicles (the Karma Bus wagon). The in-joke lives on — the GOURANGA! bonus is still in the game, now against an entire gang that shoots back.

To promote the game, Rockstar shot a live-action short (~8 minutes) in New York showing Claude Speed stealing cars and dodging the police — footage from it opens the game itself. It was the first time the series got “flesh and blood”, decades before today's cinematic trailers.

GTA 2's protagonist is named Claude Speed (revealed in the manual and the official short). Two years later, GTA III introduced a mute protagonist that San Andreas would confirm is called Claude — Catalina calls him by name. Rockstar never officially confirmed they're the same person, but the coincidence is deliberate enough to keep fans fed to this day.

Beyond the playable map lies the “Ghost Town”: the slice of city used only in the opening cutscene (the bank job). Anyone who manages to fly there finds a billboard with Rockstar's scolding: “You weren't supposed to be able to get here, you know.” One of the most legendary easter eggs of the 3D era.

A sniper-rifle shot at the Moon makes the satellite grow or shrink, cycling through several absurd sizes. The gag debuted in GTA III and was kept in Vice City and San Andreas — becoming such a beloved tradition that Rockstar paid tribute to it in later games.

In the mission “Two-Faced Tanner”, Asuka sends Claude to eliminate an undercover cop who “walks strangely” and is “useless out of his car” — a direct mockery of Tanner, hero of the Driver series, whose on-foot sections were widely panned. The studio rivalry drew return fire from both sides.

The Diablos kingpin handing out payphone missions in GTA III is El Burro — the exact same employer from the original 1997 GTA, also in Liberty City. One of the first direct bridges between the 2D and 3D universes.

GTA III's radio stations advertise absurdities like PetsOvernight.com, a site that delivers “pets by mail in boxes”. Rockstar registered the domain in real life with a full joke page — inaugurating the tradition of carrying the game's satire onto the actual internet.

Chatterbox FM is an entire station with no music: just Lazlow fielding calls from Liberty City's unhinged residents, including citizens defending “letting kids fight with knives” and a cult leader recruiting volunteers. It's practically an hour-long comedy episode hidden inside the game — and it launched Lazlow as a recurring character in the saga.

The cheat that lets GTA III's cars glide once they pick up speed is typed “CHITTYCHITTYBB” — a direct reference to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), the flying-car movie. The 3D-era codes were jokes in themselves: every password was a hand-picked comic phrase.

The ad for the “Maibatsu Monstrosity”, a gigantic SUV that “barely fits on the road”, satirizes the SUV craze — and the Japanese brand Maibatsu is inherited from GTA 2, where it appeared as a manufacturer (Maibatsu Thunder). The fictional carmaker would live on into the HD universe.

The definitive easter egg: a secret doorless room tucked between two buildings contains nothing but a pedestal holding a giant chocolate egg inscribed “Happy Easter!”. It's Rockstar turning the term “easter egg” into a physical joke — and it became the canonical example cited in every list of the genre.

Inside the unassuming Apartment 3C is a bathroom with blood-soaked walls and a chainsaw free for the taking — a recreation of the motel scene in Scarface (1983), where Tony Montana nearly gets sawed apart. All of Vice City is a love letter to Brian De Palma's '80s Miami, and this is its most explicit note.

The final mission has Tommy defending his mansion from dozens of invaders from the grand hall's double staircase — choreography identical to Scarface's climax, in a mansion that is already a replica of Tony Montana's house. The difference: here, the kingpin gets to win.

Raise your wanted level and two plainclothes cops in pastel suits come hunting Tommy in a white Vice Cheetah — a sports car inspired by the Ferrari Testarossa of Sonny Crockett and Rico Tubbs, Miami Vice's finest. The city's very name and the game's neon aesthetic complete the tribute to the show.

One of the Starfish Island mansions has a pool built in the exact shape of the Rockstar Games starred “R”. It's a discreet developer signature, visible in full only from above.

To promote the game, Rockstar published Kent Paul's personal website on the real internet, written in first person by the cocky English fixer of the underworld as an “'80s nostalgia zone”. The character talked about the game as if it were his own life — pioneering in-character marketing.

On the radio show Pressing Issues (VCPR), televangelist Pastor Richards promises to save the faithful from the apocalypse by boarding them onto a “Salvation Statue” — a skyscraper-rocket shaped like himself, funded by donations. The satire of '80s TV preachers is some of the sharpest audio Rockstar has ever recorded.