Why Rockstar Games don’t need to have adaptations (or 20 movies to watch if you like Rockstar Games)
The way Rockstar Games develops most of their projects (or publish from others developers) is quite singular, they look at their games as if they are functioning within specific genre traditions. Grand Theft Auto for crime movies; Red Dead for Westerns; L.A. Noir and Max Payne in the subgenre of noir and neo-noir respectively; tangentially related to crime movies the illegal street racing series midnight club; Manhunt which is sort of their take on exploitation movies, something like “snuff film on video games”. It’s worth mentioning that they once announced ‘AGENT’ which was supposed to be their take on the tropes of spy fiction (it was later canceled) and they also had a game adaptation of Warriors (1979). I have mixed feelings about this approach, sometimes it feels like just silly riffs or parodies of other movies (GTA suffers the most from this), still every now and then they can create great and meaningful narrative or gameplay moments using the tropes of those specific genres (or specific set pieces from movies). However this has an interesting byproduct that if you ever wished some Rockstar game had a movie or TV show adaptation, don’t worry because it already “exists”. Rockstar uses their inspiration up their sleeves, they don’t try to hide anything and you can almost try to reverse engineer every Rockstar game into a couple of movies or tv shows that they took inspiration.
Max Payne
Max Payne 1 and 2 were developed by Remedy entertainment, but it was already packed with neo-noir influences from the 1980’s,1990’s and specially hong kong movies from this time period (also add the matrix bullet time gameplay and the comic book flourishes that are very Frank Miller esque).
Nevertheless when Max Payne 3 went in development internally at Rockstar they doubled down on the film influences. I think the amount of homages in Max Payne 3 is unmatched until this day, this is a game made by people who are completely obsessed with crime and noir movies and has so many Tony Scott and Michael Mann nods that gives me the feeling of watching an extended universe. A comparison I can make with Max Payne 3 is to the Fargo TV series which has so many Coen brothers homages (aside the film it’s based on) that it feels like everything is in the same cinematic universe.
The setting of Max Payne 3 in Brazil is very inspired by the success of Brazillian cinema, of movies like City of God and Elite Squad. Regardless, the story of Max Payne 3 is very close to Man on Fire (2004), It has the same plot of protecting a rich family on a poor country, with Max and Casey being alcoholics bodyguards chasing kidnappers; it uses that stereotypical look of a foreigner in a latin american country, that is also in Miami Vice (2006) which Max Payne 3 borrows some of the elements of international drug traffic for later plot developments.
The visual style of Max Payne 3 is 100% inspired by late carreer tony scott with crazy jump cuts, saturated colors and camera effects like chromatic aberration. However, aside the bullet time and the new last stand mechanic that generates over the top tony scott like cinematic moments, at the heart of Max Payne 3 gameplay it has some of the Michael Mann discipline for action scenes: everything gameplay wise is deliberate and precise with weight, consistent physics and detailed ragdoll/animations.
Max payne 3 also has an homage to the shootout in the night club in Collateral (2004). Still, one of my favorite set pieces in the game is the encounter with the sniper in the soccer stadium which is taken from another Tony Scott neo-noir movie The Last Boy Scout (1991)
Grand Theft Auto
The prodigal Son, Rockstar’s original franchise. Grand Theft Auto has so many references in the open world, secondary and main missions that it is hard to recommend two or three movies that encapsulate the feeling of everything. Still I think the main story of each GTA entry can be approximated.
GTA III: Carlito’s Way(1993) and Payback (1999)
GTA Vice City: Scarface (1983) and Miami Blues(1990)
GTA San Andreas: Hood films like Boyz n the Hood (1991) and Menace II Society (1993)
GTA IV: The most difficult to pinpoint the main references, but it has shades of Sopranos mixed with the context of Eastern Europe-Russian mobs similar to Little Odessa (1994) and Brother (1997).
GTA V: The main inspiration is obviously Heat (1995), a sprawling crime saga in Los Angeles. However some of the heist dynamics and the relationship between Trevor and Michael seems to me inspired by Sexy Beast (2000).
Red Dead Redemption
You almost can’t talk about the red dead without talking about westerns. This is Rockstar in serious business, Red Dead have way more drama, character development with more RPG elements than GTA. The first Red Dead Revolver doesn’t have too much going for it, just little western homages to Leone and Peckinpah westerns.
Red Dead Redemption: RDR has its main plot taken straight out of The Wild Bunch (1969) even some names are similar, and this tone of the hopelessness and desilusion of Sam Packinpah is on pair to Unforgiven (1992).
Red Dead Redemption 2: Its interesting to make this as a prequel to the first RDR because it creates a sense of melancholy because of the inevitability to the events of the story, and if that isn’t enough to link it to The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007), the similarity to Roger Deakins cinematography makes it clear (with an almost shot by shot homage to the train robery). Also the snowy vistas and Dutch always trying to make entrepreneurial plans puts it in McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) territory.
L.A. Noir
A period authentic Noir from the now closed Team Bondi. L.A Noir is like a big mesh of homages or pastiche to classic Noir. From time to time there’s some movie with this type of stylistic pastiche (David Fincher’s Mank is one recent example) but L.A. Noir seems to draw inspiration in something like L.A. Confidential (1997) or Mulholland Falls (1996)
List on letterboxd with all the recomended movies.
