GTA 5's Jetpack Mystery

While many game franchises are known for masterfully hiding easter eggs, few are quite as famous for their easter eggs as the GTA franchise. While the hidden secrets have only become a staple of Rockstar's hit open world crime franchise in the 3D era, this trend continued on into the HD era. One of the most famous easter eggs of all time is probably the creepy, beating heart chained to the inside of the Statue of Liberty knockoff found in GTA IV.

However, eventually all games have their secrets laid bare, either due to blind luck or thanks to data-miners digging out any easter eggs from the code rather than finding them the hard way (of course, this only applies in cases where digging through the code isn't the only way to find said egg).

All games save for GTA 5, it seems. Sure, plenty of easter eggs have already been found, including several UFOs, the frozen alien in North Yankton and most recently the Bigfoot Peyote. However the biggest and possibly oldest mystery of the most recent installment of the franchise hasn't been solved yet - maybe because it couldn't be?

Quick history lesson: The tallest peak in GTA 5's version of San Andreas is Mount Chiliad. This was also the case in the game San Andreas, though the location of the mountain, as well as the peak itself, were different. A cable-car is the easiest way to access the top of the mountain. Hidden under the cable-car station is a mysterious mural, which seemingly depicts a cross section of the mountain with several odd symbols etched into it.

There is also writing on the wall saying "come back when your story is complete". If the player visits the peak with 100% completion during certain weather conditions, a UFO is seen hovering above the mountain.

Now, UFOs are a fairly common easter egg in the GTA franchise, and many players assumed this is where things end. This, however, could not be farther from the truth. The Mt.Chiliad mystery has since reached unprecedented depths, with a dedicated group of players trying with extreme efforts to unlock what they think is the final goal of the whole puzzle - the legendary Jetpack.

The Jetpack was an important, famous and very popular easter egg in San Andreas. Seeing as GTA 5 returned to the same setting (albeit in a changed incarnation), many expected some form of homage being paid to the legendary Jetpack. However, aside from one of the symbols on the Chiliad mural being a Jetpack, no mention of it occurs in the game.

In fact, it was that very symbol that triggered this whole mystery craze. Some people started playing around with the mural, trying to uncover the meaning of the various symbols. There were X marks, a cracked egg, the Jetpack, a landed UFO, an eye at the peak of the mountain and lightning all around.

Some of these symbols have been solved, or one meaning of them at least - many people theorize that they might all have multiple meanings and applications. The eye at the top of the mountain is thought to actually be UFO seen upon hitting 100% completion, while the lighting signifies that the peak must be visited during a storm to see the UFO.

Even so, the other symbols remain unsolved and even the eye and the lightning is often revisited for further clues. One of the most frequent techniques used is laying the mural over the map of GTA 5, and checking if the locations the symbols are above have anything interesting nearby. While this has lead to some interesting discoveries, including further UFOs, the leads produced more questions than answers.

After some investigation it has become clear that the Chiliad mystery is a very complex beast. Players have theorized that the recently uncovered Bigfoot easter egg is somehow related - however when that too just opened up yet another mystery, eventually leading to the Beast, a pretty frightening realisation dawned on the mystery hunters: maybe the mystery can't even be solved yet.

Now, both the Bigfoot and Beast mysteries were eventually solved by snooping in the game's code instead of accidentally happening upon them of figuring them out through other means. The relative ease with which the code of a game surrenders the secrets developers try to hide make hunting for easter eggs a much less trivial matter.

Seeing as the Beast was only added to the game with the Freemode Events DLC, while Bigfoot was probably around since launch (the model for it was, at the very least), it is obvious that that particular mystery was expanded upon over-time through the various updates GTA 5 receives.

So what if the solution to the Chiliad mystery isn't even in the game yet? What if it is only added in a future patch? This makes sense since no amount of data-mining has been able to turn up a solution. Some small breakthrough or clue is discovered every few months, allowing the people trying to unravel it all some progress, but it always ends up stalled.

This could be because said clues are only ever added every few months by the developers. This concept has also raised the interesting questions of who the mastermind behind the mystery really is. Many fans have begun to doubt that this is a proper feature Rockstar planned out, but rather one or a few creative programmers hiding funny things in the game in their free time.

Maybe the whole mystery is just one guy messing with the community. Maybe it is an elaborate hoax, where the hints will be continuously added in patches, but no solution will ever be reached. Either way, the mystery hunters are relentless, and all kinds of conspiracy theories have arisen.

Some people have started looking for clues in the real world, while others have developed in-depth theories based on the loosest of threads. Some are scouring Rockstar's social media posts, looking for hidden messages, while others spend innumerable hours looking through the game-files.

The bottom line is that currently, there is no Jetpack game-model or code entry, meaning that at this point, it is impossible to acquire. Chances are it will be added in the future once enough hints have been dropped and the community has uncovered enough leads.

However, there is one way to get a Jetpack, as long as you're playing on PC. Someone took the easy way of modding a Jetpack into the game. So long as the mod is installed, you get the jetpack with no effort required. Of course, for dedicated mystery hunters, that is cheating.

It might be the best thing to do though, since this might end up being the most elaborate troll of the decade here. So many fans have dumped so many hours into unravelling this mystery that ending it with a "ha, fooled you" should constitute a literal crime, maybe even a capital offense.

Provided this recounting of the Jetpack's mystery in the game has motivated you to plunge into the mystery, there is a Subreddit dedicated to solving it. Here you will find the theories of other faithfuls as well as plenty of resources to get your started!

Have you ever tried dabbling in GTA 5's Mt.Chiliad mystery? What have you found?