James Rushton
Dec 06, 2023
Rockstar Games
If you though the wait for the Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer was bad, the wait until the full 2025 release is going to be agonising.
Fans will pore over every single detail of the GTA 6 trailer for a long time, until a second trailer comes. Something is going to have to fill the time.
With fans already picking up on hidden elements, things people might've missed and the many, many real life references in the GTA 6 trailer, something has been missing from the mainstream analysis of the footage Rockstar have given the world.
What is perhaps being lost, maybe hidden by the visual elements, is the song underscoring the trailer - the longest continual element of the reveal itself.
The score of the trailer, Tom Petty's 'Love is a Long Road' is hiding detail. Every part of promotional material is thought out - especially if it's promotional material made by a company the size of Rockstar Games for a product like GTA 6. There must be facts to gleam from that, and they will be in the lyrics of the song.
The chorus changes intro each time, but features the same structure:
"Yeah, we were desperate then. To have each other to hold. But love. Is a long, long road. Yeah, love. Is a long, long road."
"And give her one more chance. To try and save my soul...."
"For maybe one more chance. To try and save my soul"
Here are the verses from 'Love is a Long Road':
'There was a girl I knew. She said she cared about me. She tried to make my world. The way she thought it should be,'
'There were so many times. I would wake up at noon. Yeah, with my head spinning 'round. I would wait for the moon,'
'Yeah, it was hard to give up. Some things are hard to let go. Some things are never enough. I guess I only can hope.'
It's a man singing about a woman, one who tried to form his world - or world view. He would wake up late (perhaps after staying up/staying out with her). He couldn't give her up -although he eventually did - and it was hard to let go. Some things are never enough - more was wanted from the relationship than was given. They were desperate at one point. He wants to be saved by her, he wants to keep giving chances. It's a long road together.
Petty's song is more than likely about the difficulties of trying to maintain a relationship with someone you love when things are getting complex.
With what we know about GTA 6, complex relationships are right. We know that there will be a female protagonist, Lucia, who will be partnered with Jason. Leaked information suggested this was a 'Bonnie & Clyde-like' relationship. That's far more complex than the relationship documented in Petty's lyrics, but there are still similarities.
The desperation for one another, the needs and wants feeding each other, things never being enough and escalating. It's very similar to the duo of Mickey Knox and Mallory Knox in the film 'Natural Born Killers'.
The story of Bonnie & Clyde eventually ended in great tragedy (if you were Bonnie or Clyde, that is, the police were probably very happy), Petty's song, depending on perspective, ends sadly - but without the violence of Bonnie and Clyde.
There's a number of key hints that Lucia and Jason's relationship will go the same way. They indulge in violence and crime together, they can't get enough of each other, the trailer shows them convincing each other to trust the plan, it escalates, and potentially ends badly.
So, unless Rockstar throw a curveball, their specific choice of song is a big hint as to how GTA 6 will go for Lucia and Jason.
Either that, or they just chose an 80s belter to throwback to GTA: Vice City.
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