GTA Easter Eggs and Myths: Bigfoot, Mount Chiliad and More

The famous GTA Easter eggs and myths, from San Andreas Bigfoot to the Mount Chiliad mural, each sorted into what is real and what is myth, with sources.

Last checked: Oct 12 2026. Five weeks before GTA 6 lands, a whole new state is about to get combed for secrets. So this is a good moment to settle the old ones.

Grand Theft Auto has two kinds of legends. Some are Easter eggs Rockstar really hid, like a beating heart inside a statue. Others are myths players invented and then chased for years, like Bigfoot in the woods of San Andreas. The fun part is that the line keeps moving: Rockstar has a habit of turning yesterday's myth into tomorrow's Easter egg.

For each legend below, we give the claim, what is REAL (backed by a developer, Rockstar or a reputable outlet) and what is MYTH. No glitch guides, no exploits, no money tricks. Just the record.

At a glance

Legend	Game	Verdict
Bigfoot in the woods	San Andreas	MYTH. A former Rockstar North technical director says it is not there
Bigfoot in Los Santos	GTA V	REAL, as a Rockstar nod to the myth
Mount Chiliad mural	GTA V	REAL mural; no single official answer
A jetpack hidden on Chiliad	GTA V story mode	MYTH. A jetpack came to GTA Online in 2017
UFOs	GTA V	REAL, after 100 percent completion
Heart of Liberty City	GTA IV	REAL
Ghost Town	GTA III (not Vice City)	REAL, an unreachable leftover set
Ghost cars	San Andreas	REAL effect, ordinary cause
Infernus as a series regular	GTA III onward	REAL car; "every game" not proven

Bigfoot: the myth that Rockstar adopted

The claim. After San Andreas came out in 2004, players became convinced that Bigfoot roamed its forests. Kotaku's Zack Zwiezen describes a whole community of YouTube "myth hunts," many set to the X-Files theme, hunting for sasquatch, ghosts and UFOs.

MYTH: Bigfoot in San Andreas. A quote kept the hunt alive. It was widely repeated that Rockstar's Terry Donovan said there was no Bigfoot "but there is something in the woods." Kotaku reports he only said, "There is no Bigfoot, just like in real life." Somebody added the rest. In April 2024, former Rockstar North developer Obbe Vermeij told fans on X that Bigfoot is not in San Andreas, as Kotaku and NME both reported. When a fan later joked he had forgotten Bigfoot, Vermeij replied that "Bigfoot is in the same category as climbable ladders," according to GTA BOOM. San Andreas has no climbable ladders either.

REAL: Bigfoot in GTA V. Rockstar leaned in. GamesRadar+ notes that in the Strangers and Freaks mission The Last One, Franklin chases a "bigfoot" who is clearly a man in a suit. In the mission Predator, one heat signature Michael sees through the sniper scope belongs to Bigfoot. And in 2015, Kotaku reported that players digging through game files found a hidden item that turns the player into Bigfoot, after an update added an achievement called "Cryptozoologist."

So the San Andreas Bigfoot was never real, and the GTA V Bigfoot is a joke about the San Andreas one. For more on the 2004 game itself, see our GTA San Andreas page.

Mount Chiliad: a mural, an egg and a jetpack

The claim. GTA V's pre-release footage showed a shed on top of Mount Chiliad. Fans decided a jetpack was inside, a nod to San Andreas, which really had one.

REAL: the mural. GamesRadar+ reports the shed is a cable car station, and inside is a drawing of the mountain with a glowing eye, red X marks, a UFO, an egg and a figure wearing a jetpack. Text at the top of the mountain reads "Come back when your story is complete," as quoted by GamesRadar+ in 2025.

MYTH: a jetpack in GTA V's story mode. GamesRadar+ called the shed-jetpack rumor false in 2014. In 2015 it reported that a PC mod opening every locked interior found no jetpack anywhere.

REAL, later: a jetpack under Chiliad, online. In December 2017, Rockstar announced The Doomsday Heist for GTA Online. Its own description, quoted by Kotaku, sent players "all the way to the inner depths of Mount Chiliad," and the trailer showed jetpacks. It launched Dec 12 2017. Our GTA Online heists history covers that update.

Still open: what the mural means. Rockstar has never published an answer. In 2025, YouTuber Gator Keys argued the mural simply points to 100 percent completion and the UFOs that follow, and admitted many players reached that idea in 2013. GamesRadar+ also quotes an unnamed ex-Rockstar employee who suggested some Easter eggs exist only "to mess with people." That is a theory and a shrug, not a solution.

UFOs and aliens in GTA V

REAL. GamesRadar+ reports four UFOs in GTA V after 100 percent completion: one above Fort Zancudo, one over Sandy Shores, one over the peak of Mount Chiliad, and one on the seabed off Paleto Bay. It also lists a frozen alien under the ice in the game's prologue. San Andreas had players looking for UFOs too, and Kotaku notes those myth hunters "never really found anything" there.

The Heart of Liberty City (GTA IV)

The claim. There is a giant beating heart inside the Statue of Happiness.

REAL. It sounds like playground talk, but GamesRadar+ confirms it. A door on the statue's base, marked "No Hidden Content This Way," leads up to a huge, chained, pulsing heart. More on the city on our GTA IV page.

The Ghost Town (GTA III, not Vice City)

The claim. There is a secret town hidden off the edge of the map. The legend is often filed under Vice City, but every reputable source we found puts it in GTA III's Liberty City. We found none for a Vice City ghost town.

REAL. GamesRadar+ (from CVG, 2008) explains it is the set from the bank job that opens GTA III, left in the game. You can see it from the air but cannot land, because it is not solid. It is not Carcer City, as some claimed. Close by in spirit is GTA III's alley sign, "You weren't supposed to be able to get here, you know." Liberty City Stories on PSP changed it to a new joke.

And Vice City's real egg. Vice City does have a famous one: a hidden room in a downtown tower holding a literal egg with "Happy Easter" on it, reported by the same 2008 GamesRadar+ list. See our GTA Vice City page.

Ghost cars and other San Andreas spooks

The claim. Empty cars drive themselves, planes fall from the sky because of your luck stat, and a photographer walks off a cliff on purpose.

REAL effects, ordinary causes. Vermeij explained all three in 2024, as Kotaku and NME reported. Ghost cars are parked cars spawned on steep slopes that roll downhill. Small planes are created near the player for fly-bys, and a cheap obstacle check sometimes misses trees and poles, so they crash. Luck has nothing to do with it, he said. The photographer finishes taking a photo and walks toward the nearest path point, which can be across water.

The Infernus

REAL. The Infernus is one of the series' oldest cars. When Rockstar brought the Infernus Classic to GTA Online in 2017, it said the car "first made its appearance on the streets of Liberty City in GTAIII."

Not proven: "in every GTA." You will often read that the Infernus is in every game. Rockstar has not published such a list, and we have not checked every game ourselves, so we do not repeat it. The GTA 6 car Rockstar named with a series history is the Grotti Cheetah; see vehicles and weapons.

The full scorecard

This table is ours. It sorts each legend by where the truth came from, which shows a pattern: developers bust myths, and Rockstar answers them with new Easter eggs.

Legend	Game	Verdict	Who settled it	Did Rockstar answer later?
Bigfoot in the woods	San Andreas	MYTH	Obbe Vermeij, 2024 (Kotaku, NME)	Yes: GTA V's suit, heat signature and hidden item
"Something in the woods" quote	San Andreas	MYTH (misquote)	Kotaku, 2021	n/a
Chiliad shed jetpack	GTA V story	MYTH	GamesRadar+, 2014 and 2015	Yes: Doomsday Heist jetpacks, 2017
Chiliad mural	GTA V	REAL, meaning unconfirmed	GamesRadar+	No official answer
Four UFOs	GTA V	REAL	GamesRadar+, 2017	n/a
Mount Gordo ghost	GTA V	REAL	GamesRadar+, 2017	n/a
Ratman	GTA IV	MYTH	GamesRadar+, 2025	Sewer laugh audio in GTA V, as GamesRadar+ reads it
Heart of Liberty City	GTA IV	REAL	GamesRadar+, 2017	n/a
Ghost Town	GTA III	REAL	GamesRadar+ (CVG), 2008	n/a
Ghost cars	San Andreas	REAL effect	Vermeij, 2024	n/a
Zombie Elvis	GTA III and Vice City	MYTH	GamesRadar+, 2014	n/a
Beverly Johnson's ghost	San Andreas	MYTH	GamesRadar+, 2014	n/a

Three of the myths in this table got what looks like a Rockstar reply in a later game. That is the pattern to watch in GTA 6.

Two more from GamesRadar+

Mount Gordo ghost (REAL). GamesRadar+ reports a ghostly woman appears near a rock marked "JOCK" on Mount Gordo late at night. An in-game website ties her to Jolene Cranley-Evans, who died there in the 1970s while hiking with her husband, Jock Cranley.
Ratman (MYTH, then a wink). A GTA IV player claimed a rat-man lurked in Liberty City's subway. GamesRadar+ reported in 2025 that GTA V's sewers contain a creepy laugh, in a file named as a hobo laugh, and read it as Rockstar's nod to the myth. That reading is the outlet's, not Rockstar's.

What about GTA 6?

GTA 6 is not out, so its secrets are not found yet. Rockstar's own copy already nods to the past: the Vintage Vice City Pack's weapon pattern is "inspired by Tommy Vercetti's iconic palm tree button-up." Outlets' Easter-egg finds in the official trailers are on our trailer breakdown. Anything claimed from leaked footage stays off this site; see confirmed vs rumor.

Trivia

San Andreas had a jetpack, and that is why GTA V players expected one on Chiliad, per GamesRadar+.
GamesRadar+'s 2014 list also busted underwater Atlantis rumors: the San Andreas images came from a mod.
In GTA V's 2015 update, Rockstar's achievement text read "You unlocked all animals for use in Director Mode... or did you?", Kotaku reported. That line set players hunting for Bigfoot again.

Sources and method

Each verdict rests on a developer statement, a Rockstar page, or a reputable outlet's article that we opened ourselves on Oct 12 2026. Fan wikis and search summaries were used only to find articles, never as sources. Where an outlet interprets something (the Ratman audio, the Chiliad theory), we say so. No glitch steps, coordinates or money methods are given.