Behind the scenes GTA 5 camera work reveals Rockstar's trickery, featuring transforming NPCs, random T-poses, and a half-built plane

It takes a lot of game development ingenuity to ship something like Grand Theft Auto V or Red Dead Redemption 2. The sheer scope of Rockstar’s open-world epics requires all manner of ‘cheats,' shortcuts, and clever workarounds to maintain stability.

A compilation by Lucas7yoshi, a creator specializing in deep dives through GTA 5 and GTA Online, demonstrates the absolute wackiness that's frequently occurring just off-camera in cutscenes. Some instances make more sense than others, but they’re all absolute comedy.

The first clip features a crash mat right beside the airplane the characters are jumping from, meaning they're free-falling for mere seconds before landing safely. This is all happening miles in the air, as well.

Then we cut to a group walking downstairs through the ground of their own hallway. Next, as something crashes out the back of an airplane mid-flight, a lone character T-poses just off to the side. It’s all very Looney Tunes.

Others literally step down into the ground, as if they're moving off-stage, or make their weapons float while picking them up. One of the plane scenes involves an aircraft that’s only part-assembled, and an NPC transforms into another background character after walking off-screen, showing a clever re-use of assets.

It all combines to demonstrate how much of a cartoon Grand Theft Auto is even away from all the explosive nonsense that goes on in the main game. There's even a shovel just embedded in the ground during a particular scene for no discernible reason.

Perhaps it's load-bearing. I wonder what garden tools will be hidden away in Grand Theft Auto 6.

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