My God, after what felt like a million years of waiting, Rockstar Games has finally dropped the first cinematic teaser trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI. It is a trailer that revamps the old familiar playground of Vice City by introducing some fresh new faces in an astonishingly beautiful world of Next Gen detail.
So, by now, we know that GTA VI takes place in Vice City and in the state of Leonida, which is based on real-life Miami and, obviously, the state of Florida. So, of course, a lot of the things that you saw in the trailer, like the roads, the buildings, the architecture, and some of the important landmarks, are going to be parodied and based on that real-life area.
However, what you probably didn’t know is there were a lot of things shown off in that trailer that were specifically based on real-life events, and I want to go over all of those right now.
So a good bit of Rockstars trailer incorporated their in-game versions of social media, which is obviously a huge part of modern life, whether that be Instagram, Facebook Live, Twitter or X, Snapchat, etc. Rockstar used this to document some of the crazy stuff that you would see in GTA VI and this one in particular.
The Hammer Lady
The first one is coming from LuchaLibreFan, who is life. It says, “Neighborhood watch don’t play around in Hamlet”. So we know that Hamlet is a new area in the game, and you can see here it is this lady that’s wearing her house slippers and what looks to be like this pajama dress and dual wielding a set of hammers.
And she has something very specific to say to Lucha Libre fans. She says, “Well, look who’s back”. Clearly, this is a confrontation that she’s had before.
This is actually based on a real video. I think this was back in 2020 of a woman destroying cars while dual-wielding hammers. This is the wildest thing I’ve ever seen, and you definitely need to go and see that video if you haven’t so you can compare the version in GTA VI to the version in real life.
The Miami Joker
Now, the next thing that’s based on a real-life event is this shot from the trailer right here. It’s coming from Mega Mundo News, which I believe is like a parody of Univision or Telemundo, one of the Spanish broadcast channels that you might see.
If you’re wondering what this translation says, it states, “Confession written in ink for tattoos, A tattoo on the neck that gave himself away, key in the conviction of a Leonida man.” And you can see this guy’s got tattoos all over his face, and he’s got purple hair. This is actually based on a real-life dude known as the Miami Joker.
So Lauren Sullivan, who’s a 30-year-old man, is a tattoo model from Miami. He achieved Internet infamy when he was arrested in 2017 on charges that he pointed a gun at passing vehicles, revealing his colorful tattoo-filled mug shot, and he was dubbed the Miami Joker.
Since then, he has gained Internet fame on all social media accounts. But you guys can see there the Rockstar basically just changed him up a little bit. Instead of green hair, he’s got purple hair.
Obviously, his tattoos aren’t a 100% match, but this is definitely the guy they’re modeling this whole thing after that is absolutely spot on. There is some really crazy stuff that happens in Florida, and I can’t wait to see Rockstar sort of give us a parody of all of that in GTA VI.
The DJ Peggy Gou
Now, this next shot from the trailer, I actually thought this might have been a real-life DJ, and I believe it has since been confirmed. The reason I thought that this DJ might be real is because she looked very specific, like her hairstyle, her glasses, and all the tattoos on her arm. And this is Peggy Gou (Hopefully, I’m writing her name correctly).
Peggy is a South Korean DJ, singer, and songwriter, as well as a record producer. She is exceptionally popular, and it looks like she is going to be featured in Grand Theft Auto 6.
Now, this should come as no surprise: Rockstar absolutely loves their DJs, their nightclubs, and their music sets. Heck, they even have their own record label, Circle Local Records. They’ve done so much with music in Grand Theft Auto Online, so it is not surprising at all to see this continued over into GTA VI. And it looks like Peggy is not the only one who is going to be featured as far as the music side of things.
The Rapper Rod Wave
Then we get what I guess is a parody of an Instagram shot of @HighRollerzMag on the show High Rollerz Lifestyle. This is actually Rod Wave, and he’s an American rapper, singer, and songwriter best known for his hip-hop and R&B songs.
So, how cool is it that Rockstar seems to be incorporating some pretty famous musical celebrities into the game? Now, they might not be huge parts of the story, but you might be able to see Peggy Gou at a nightclub. You might be able to see Rod Wave on TV on his own Instagram parody program, and all of that is really awesome.
Alligators Roming Around Like Locals
Now, there’s a handful of other things in the trailer that are based on real-life events in Florida, too. For example, this one from the official poaches: “Stay alert, Vice city! Remember to check for uninvited guests before the pool party.” Literally, this is a guy pulling an alligator out of the pool on a local Florida News station.
So I guess that legitimately happens a lot for people who have pools in Florida, and I guess that’s a thing. Maybe that’s one of the reasons why they have their pools mostly covered in Florida.
Speaking of interesting, an alligator is going into a convenience store. Yep, that’s definitely happened, and it certainly happened in Florida that made the News with the title “Gator scare at Walmart.” So they are really going to have some realistic life-like events occur. It really does seem like Florida has the weirdest stuff that happens to them, and we’re not done yet.
Going NSFW
Believe it or not, some people end up twerking on top of vehicles coming from the account “have.a.vice.day” titled “Someone called the Department of Transport on this dump truck.” Yes, there have legitimately been videos viral videos going around of individuals twerking on top of vehicles riding down the road. It’s definitely not safe, but it is certainly interesting.
What about the in-game GTA 6 post from “PlanetLeonidaMan,” which is titled “Usually gotta hit the strip club to see jiggle like that for real”? That apparently has happened where you just see naked dudes strolling around at gas stations, and the police gotta end up dealing with it.
What about guys randomly watering their lawn and nothing but basically a thong in the nude? Yep, you guessed it, a Florida man does yard work naked. I guess you’re technically allowed to do that.
The Flipped Car In The Middle Of A Highway
What about this weasel news report titled “No overturning zone” and “Cops arrest man who flipped his car after Peewees Dine and Dash”? And you guys can see there. There’s an overturned car in the middle of what looks to be a very busy highway.
Sure enough, that exact same thing happened in Florida, and Rockstar even got it almost perfect with the overturned car and the cops chasing in on the scene. You’ve also got the same sort of color style on the police vehicles. The attention to detail here from Rockstar is astounding,
Crazy People Doing Crazy Things
There’s a handful of other examples that Rockstar seemed to have pulled from pop culture, but there might not be one specific example that grabs major news headlines. But the guy doing a crotch grab for an apology for bad driving, you’ve certainly seen that happening. Driving like this, where you literally aren’t even in the vehicle, I’m sure that has been spotted before.
There are definitely real-life examples of the thrill Billy Mud Club and people that act like that, as well as other small new snippets like the “Dirt-Bike Dirt-Bags.” That’s actually something I’ve seen, believe it or not, in real life, happening where dirt bikes like this actually shut down the roads and the highways completely.
So it is something that I have seen, and Rockstar is going to be incorporating it in Grand Theft Auto 6, which is absolutely wild.
Miami Buildings
Like I mentioned earlier, the game, of course, is based on Miami and its surrounding areas, so there’s going to be a lot of roads and buildings you see that 100% match the world. I feel like I want to save those examples for an updated mapping article.
But in this one, I wanted to show you sort of all the pop culture references that Rockstar has made to real life here, and there’s a ton of them just in this trailer alone. So it really does make you wonder how much more Rockstar has up their sleeve that we’re going to get to see and experience in the game.
References To The Pop Culture
Two more honorable mentions here. They don’t come directly from real life but actually pop culture. This is a shot of the speedboats driving by, and they’re going past sort of the port area, and you’ve got that massive cargo ship in the background.
That is actually taken straight from one of the opening scenes of Miami Vice, an incredibly popular television program. In fact, it actually inspired a lot of what Rockstar did and the original GTA Vice City game.
You might also be wondering what this sign is right here: “The vice sign.” Well, it’s actually very close to the in-game airport. And even though a sign like this doesn’t exist in real life, it has been featured in movies that take place in Miami, such as Bad Boys, for example.
So even though those aren’t real-life examples of things happening, Rockstar is also still referencing things that occur in pop culture when they’re creating their own version of Vice City and Leonida.
The Vice City Reference
The trailer shows us how incredible this next generation of Grand Theft Auto is going to be by starting us off with this beautiful wide shot of a sunrise over Vice City. Covering the entire scene in a pink and blue glow to match the iconic pink and blue color theme that has become synonymous with this fictional region ever since 2002’s GTA Vice City.
2002 is the year that Rockstar opened our eyes to how committing a series of small war crimes on the street of an 80s Miami parody is even better when you’re running from the US military, blasting Phil Collins’s greatest hits
That pink and blue color scheme was, of course, initially chosen for GTA Vice City, due in large part to that game, taking a ton of inspiration from the hit influential TV show Miami Vice. Ashow, that has parodied in this current HD GTA Universe as Angel in the Night, Vice City Pi.
I really think that this pink and blue theme ties super well into the fact that we are going to be controlling a female and male protagonist through this story.
Patriot Beer
In the foreground, we can see a truck for Patriot Beer, which is a fictional beer brand established during America’s founding in 1776 and is very popular amongst the most patriotic of rednecks in Rockstars HD universe, especially the Lost motorcycle gang.
It’s also a brand that was retroactively added to the definitive edition of GTA Vice City in 2021 and can be seen inside America Love and establishments like the Greasy Chopper bar, a bar that used to be the headquarters for Big Mitch Bakers Motorcycle Gang, the Vice City bikers.
Because the Patriot Beer brand is primarily marketed to a heavily redneck audience, the company also has strong connections and sponsorships to the world of professional racing. Even owning a race track called the Patriot Beer Motor Speedway and hosting a wild Redneck racing event called the Patriot 500.
So definitely expect to see a few patriot beers in the hands of the car-loving thrill Billys Mud Club in GTA 6. We can actually see a six-pack of Patriot Beer on the table that a drunk party guy jumps onto in the trailer.
But anyway, that is all the information that I’ve got for you guys in this and all the examples of GTA VI vs real life. Yes, there were so many, and I’m sure there’s going to be so many more. Let me know if you notice anything that I did not talk about in this.
