After 16 years, Red Dead Redemption's John Marston actor completes Rockstar's epic Western, breaks down crying during the end credits: "Oh my goodness"

A screenshot of Red Dead Redemption protagonist John Marston.
(Image credit: Rockstar Games)

It only took 16 years, but the man behind John Marston finally completed a play-through of Red Dead Redemption. Rob Wiethoff finished the main story in Rockstar's Western sandbox just this week, and the conclusion left him speechless.

He posted the concluding part of his series, playing through Red Dead Redemption, on March 2, in which he laughs through the climactic gunfight between Jack and Ross, leading to the stylish closing title card. "Oh my goodness," Wiethoff exclaims, now ogling at the credits. "Look at this, all these people."

Rob Wiethoff Plays Red Dead Redemption - Playthrough - Part 22 - YouTube Rob Wiethoff Plays Red Dead Redemption - Playthrough - Part 22 - YouTube
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Gradually, it becomes overwhelming, assisted by the American melancholia of 'Deadman's Gun', and Wiethoff gets emotional seeing everyone listed. It's worth understanding just how much John Marston means to him: not only is this his biggest role, it's what defined his career as a performer.

After a number of years trying to break into Hollywood, Wiethoff was chosen as the voice for John in Red Dead Redemption. One hit game led to DLC, the incredible Undead Nightmare, then an expanded part in the prequel, Red Dead Redemption 2. The outlaw is as defining as a character can be for him as an actor, and understanding the scale of how John was brought to life was clearly a heavy moment.

"I don't know how long this takes, to go through this," he says, as the credits continue, "I definitely want this to be part of a stream that I'm doing. Everyone's name is going to be shown."

Just short of 20 minutes later, the names are finished, and he starts laughing at being plunged back into the new frontier for that 100% trophy. Sadly, that's not happening, but we might get Red Dead Redemption 2 one day, once he's emotionally recovered.

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Anthony McGlynn
Contributing Writer

Anthony is an Irish entertainment and games journalist, now based in Glasgow. He previously served as Senior Anime Writer at Dexerto and News Editor at The Digital Fix, on top of providing work for Variety, IGN, Den of Geek, PC Gamer, and many more. Besides Studio Ghibli, horror movies, and The Muppets, he enjoys action-RPGs, heavy metal, and pro-wrestling. He interviewed Animal once, not that he won’t stop going on about it or anything.

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