Two of Rockstar’s biggest franchises,Grand Theft AutoandRed Dead Redemption, draw heavily from movies. TheGTAgames are akin to action-packed crime epics about cops and robbers, while theRed Deadgames are similar to revisionist westerns that deconstruct the classic genre.
RELATED:10 Great Games To Play While Waiting For GTA 6
Naturally, the designers and writers of these games have been influenced by a ton of different movies. Certain characters, plot points, and visual stylings in theGTAfranchise were borrowed from action thrillers and gangster movies, whilethe tone and aesthetic of theRed Deadgameswere inspired by a very specific subcategory of western films.
10GTA: Heat
The most obvious movie reference inGTAis Michael Mann’sHeat. If Rockstar never makes a live-actionGTAmovie,Heatmakes for a pretty good substitute.
“Three Leaf Clover,” the bank heist mission fromGTA IV, is taken straight from the bank heist scene inHeat, complete with the suits and balaclavas. When it comes to looking for inspiration,GTAcan do much worse thanHeat.
9RDR: Dollars Trilogy
Bill Elm and Woody Jackson worked for over a year on the original score forRed Dead Redemptionand researched music from other western stories for inspiration. They ended up being heavily influenced by EnnioMorricone’s iconic musicfrom theDollarstrilogy.
Directed by Sergio Leone, theDollarstrilogy – consisting ofA Fistful of Dollars,For a Few Dollars More, andThe Good, the Bad, and the Ugly–pioneered the spaghetti western subgenreand made Clint Eastwood a star.
8GTA: Menace II Society
The biggest influence on the plot and setting ofGrand Theft Auto: San AndreasisMenace II Society, one of the defining entries in the lexicon of “hood” movies.
Several characters inSan Andreas’ Grove Street Familyappear to have been directly based on the O-Dog character fromMenace II Society, while the line “I feel sorry for your dad” is lifted straight fromMenace, used in a similar context.
7RDR: The Wild Bunch
SinceRed Dead Redemptiontakes place in 1911 and most western fiction is set between 1840 and 1880, the design team decided that the theme of the game would be the death of the Old West as opposed to the myths of the Old West peddled by classic John Wayne movies.
RELATED:Red Dead Redemption: 10 Actors Who Could Play John Marston In A Movie
One of the biggest influences on this theme was1969’sThe Wild Bunch, a blood-drenched western epic helmed by the great Sam Peckinpah, complete with all the director’s usual bleak, genre-dismantling violence.
6GTA: Scarface
The influence of Brian De Palma’s flashy ‘80s crime epicScarfacecan be seen all overGrand Theft Auto: Vice City, whose titular setting was based onScarface’s Miami setting.
The final mission inVice City, “Keep Your Friends Close,” in which the player defeats their closest rival on the fancy staircase of the Vercetti Estate, was lifted directly from the final scene ofScarface. The name of the mission also references a quote fromThe Godfather, another cinematic influence on theGTAfranchise.
5RDR: High Plains Drifter
One of Clint Eastwood’s darker and lesser-known westerns,High Plains Drifterrevolves around a mysterious drifter who saves a mining town from corruption.
It’s never revealed who the drifter is, but it’s implied that he’s the Devil, or the Angel of Death, or the ghost of Marshal Duncan – either way, it’s at least a little supernatural, and very unconventional for a western.Rockstar specifically recommendedHigh Plains Drifterin the lead up toRed Dead Redemption’s release.
4GTA: The French Connection
The gritty, grounded visual style of William Friedkin’s ‘70s crime thrillerThe French Connectionhad a huge influence on the muted look ofGrand Theft Auto IV. The game even homages the movie’s title with the mission name “The Puerto Rican Connection.”
RELATED:Grand Theft Auto: 5 Directors Who Should Direct A Live-Action Movie (& 5 Who Absolutely Shouldn’t)
Plus, the final mission ofGTA IVis an obvious homage to the iconic car chase fromThe French Connection, as Niko Bellic pursues an enemy in an overground subway train.
3RDR: The Proposition
Theuncompromising violence and dark toneof theRed Deadgames were influenced byJohn Hillcoat’sThe Proposition. Instead of taking place in the American West,The Propositionis set against the Australian outback in the 1880s, using the familiar tropes of American westerns to explore an ugly chapter in Australian history.
There are some scenes inThe Propositionthat are difficult to watch – like when brutal punishment is doled out with a cat o’ nine tails – but it’s a movie that dares the viewer to look away.
2GTA: Goodfellas
TheGTAteam must be big fans of Martin Scorsese’sGoodfellas. For starters, they cast the movie’s star Ray Liotta to play the lead role inVice City. The mafia storyline ofGTA IIIalso borrows a lot of gangland antics fromGoodfellas.
Henry Hill’s lifelong quest to get “made” (which he can’t, because he’s not 100% Italian) is replicated inClaude’s quest to become a made maninGTA III.
1RDR: Unforgiven
Clint Eastwood bid farewell to the western genre withUnforgiven, a movie that both celebrates the genre that made Eastwood a star and deconstructs its myths.
The grit ofUnforgivencan be seen all over theRed Deadgames. Eastwood stars as William Munny, an ex-gunslinger who’s pulled out of his peaceful retirement as a pig farmer to kill two cowboys who attacked and scarred a prostitute.
NEXT:10 Classic Directors Who Could Make The Perfect Red Dead Redemption Movie
