GTA and Red Dead Redemption have both made references to each other in their respective stories, with GTA 5 and RDR2 including many Easter eggs.
Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption series share various similarities and are even connected via what appears to be a shared timeline. Both franchises have a long-running history and their most recent releases have gone on to collect high praise. Many times games created by the same companies will look similar to each other. Developers also love planting little references in their world to other games they have worked on. However, in GTA and RDR, their connections suggest that Rockstar had more in mind. There are many hints and references to be found which give rise to the theory that the games take place in the same universe.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is set in America in 1899 and focuses on notorious outlaw Arthur Morgan as he attempts to prevent the collapse of the Van der Linde gang. Grand Theft Auto 5 is set in the modern United States, with Michael De Santa, Trevor Philips, and Franklin Clinton the protagonists. Both games take place in a fictionalized version of the U.S., and it looks as though they may also share a timeline.
GTA and Red Dead Redemption have vast open-world maps filled with thought-out details. Red Dead Redemption 2 was particularly detailed, boasting an assortment of supernatural references and Easter eggs as well as unique encounters for players to discover as either Arthur Morgan or John Marston. RDR2 is also where the bulk of the connections between Red Dead and GTA were first uncovered, with Rockstar following this up by including a number of RDR2 Easter eggs in GTA Online. It's unclear if these references and connections will lead to a substantive crossover in the future, but they do at least hint at the two franchises sharing a continuity.
GTA Online players were sent an email from vanderlinde@eyefind.com to their in-game phones when Red Dead Redemption 2 came out. The email address is a reference to Arthur's mentor and leader of RDR2's gang, Dutch van der Linde. The email sent players on a quest in search of lost treasure. At the end of the quest, the player receives a double-action revolver that can also be found in RDR2. The fact that the weapon exists in both games hints at the connection between them, and that GTA and Red Dead Redemption 2 take place in the same universe. The name of the email helps cement this theory as it hints at the possible ancestor of the notorious outlaw potentially living in Los Santos. Even if they don't make a physical appearance, it could be that this reference will be expanded upon in GTA 6.
There are a lot of curious encounters with strange men in Red Dead Redemption but players will no doubt remember the side quest to track Edmund Lowry. The disturbing man owns many weapons but a noticeable pistol belonging to him can be found in both Red Dead Online and GTA Online. The pistols are not the only weapons to be found in both games, however. A stone hatchet can be located in RDR2 while in GTA a similar weapon is found by handing in five bounty hunting targets. This could just be Rockstar reusing a questline and weapons, but this reference feels a bit more deliberate.
Weapons are not the only objects to lend credibility to the theory that Red Dead Redemption and Grand Theft Auto coexist in the same universe. In Franklin's house on a bookshelf in his bedroom lies a blue book called Red Dead by J. Marston. This could be a reference and connection to RDR's Jack Marston existing in the GTA universe, as Jack was fond of writing in both the first Red Dead Redemption and Red Dead Redemption 2.
Throughout both Red Dead Redemption games, players are treated to quests and dialogue on how much John's son Jack loves reading and writing. He even states that he wishes to become a writer. If this GTA Easter egg is anything to go off, Jack did become a writer in the end and published a book about his father's redemption, which would mean that both franchises exist in the same continuity.
In Red Dead Redemption 2, players can encounter a character called Francis during a side mission. Once they complete what he asks of them they can return to the cabin where they originally met. There, the player will be met by a woman carrying a child with the same birthmark and red hair as Francis. As either Arthur or John, players can find drawings covering the walls that suggest Francis is a time traveler who traveled back from the 1920s.
But this is more than just a neat Easter egg with a sci-fi twist - Francis actually connects GTA 5 with RDR2 through time travel, and it all relates to the Epsilon program. In GTA there is a cultist group, the Epsilon program, Michael can even join them and players can interact with them on their web pages. They worship Kraff, who is depicted as a bald man with a scar on his face similar to that of Francis. Going back to the images on the walls in Red Dead Redemption 2, one of them includes a bald man with a scar on his face. The cultists believe that any man with a scar on his face is a descendent of Kraff. It would appear as if Rockstar is hinting at Francis being involved somehow, especially given the color of his clothes match that of the cultists' traditional garb.
A UFO appears in both GTA 5 and RDR2, which means that there is the alien life in both of the games. But does the alien life connection lend support to the games existing in one universe? There may be an answer to this question in a closer examination of the UFOs.
The two crafts have a similar shape, light display, and color to them, which adds further weight to the idea that they are from the same alien race. It could even be that the appearances are by the same UFO in both games. Rockstar might have just decided to reuse a model for the UFO but the effort put into the detailing of both GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 would suggest that this is not the case.
RDR2 Online introduces character Madam Nazar. She is a travelling collector who when the player interacts with her seems to have psychic abilities. In GTA Online, a fortune teller machine called Nazar has a woman who looks almost exactly like the same character from Red Dead Online. The link between the two characters is only furthered when the machine says she sees a strange man with a top hat, which seems like an obvious reference to the Strange Man from both Red Dead Redemption and its follow-up. Was Madam Nazar psychic and did she somehow gain enough fame to have a fortune-telling machine named after her? It could be, but it does confirm another connection between the worlds.
Some would reject the theory that Red Dead Redemption and GTA share a universe. One of the reasons for this is the fact that cities in GTA are modeled after real-life counterparts but have their names changed, with Liberty City being based on New York. However, there is dialogue in the GTA games that mention the real-life states and cities, which means that they do exist somewhere. This would mean that the universe can still be connected even if GTA's cities are not mentioned in RDR.
By all accounts, it would seem as if Rockstar's two biggest franchises do in fact share a universe. Red Dead Redemption and Grand Theft Auto are interlinked and connect to each other through quests, characters, and many other details. It remains to be seen if these connections will be strengthened in GTA 6, but it would be interesting to see some kind of crossover further down the line.
