Rockstar Games
It’s been more than a decade since Grand Theft Auto V was released, and a developer who worked on the game has shed some light on an easter egg that’s spawned countless theories since the game came out while explaining why it may never be solved.
The Grant Theft Auto franchise has long set the standard for the open-world titles the folks at Rockstar Games have managed to master over the decades, and a major reason the series that can trace its roots back to the turn of the millennium has been so successful is the overwhelming amount of detail in the virtual worlds fans can explore.
That was certainly the case with the sprawling expanse of San Andreas that serves as the backdrop to GTA V, as players who got the chance to roam the franchise’s largest map to date when the game dropped in 2013 were able to discover a ton of the tucked-away easter eggs that series is known for.
However, none of them are steeped in more mystery than a mural scrawled on the wall in a cable car station at the top of Mount Chiliad, which includes drawings of a UFO, a man strapped to a jetpack, and (appropriately) an egg along with a number of other markings that suggest there are secrets hidden in the towering stone peak.
The drawing spawned what the GTA V community refers to as the “Mount Chiliad Mystery,” and while the enigma has spawned multiple hour-long YouTube essays asserting to have solved it along with a subreddit dedicated to deciphering its meaning, no one has a definitive explanation for its inclusion.
However, based on what former Rockstar designer Ben Hinchliffe had to say during a recent interview with the GTA VI O’clock show, the reason no one has unlocked the keys to the mystery more than ten years after it was discovered is probably because they don’t exist in the first place.
Hinchliffe (who worked on GTA V and the upcoming GTA VI before leaving Rockstar in 2021) says he wasn’t personally involved in the Mount Chiliad mural but strongly suggested it was included to troll players with a tendency to read way too far into cryptic details, saying:
“Obviously, there’s always a desire to put in these really complex easter egg hunts and trails that the really dedicated players will follow.
As with all Easter eggs, sometimes you just put them in to mess with people. They don’t actually do anything. You just mess with people, just to drive them a little bit crazy.”
Grand Theft Auto fans are likely around a year away from getting the opportunity to find a new conspiracy to obsess over, as the highly awaited GTA VI is still on track to come out on an as-of-yet unspecified date next fall.