Storyline Construction

[bwasroy]

I've been snooping on here for a couple months and have enjoyed threads ranging from the clever (map scaling) to downright retarded (Trevor is clearly running away from the cops by climbing the Vinewood sign). Rewatching the trailers today, I was reminded how much of LA Noire's story was given away in the trailers. Red Dead was also very similar in that a good deal of its storyline was given away in preview footage (despite some of the Mexico parts and the ending.. obviously, those still felt legitimately surprising). I was wondering what types of storylines people were projecting so far from the various trailers we have seen. Obviously due to the three protagonist thing, the storyline might be a bit harder to reconstruct from footage bfter a bit of introductory work, here's what I think:

 

SETTING UP MICHAEL

 

1. Michael is the first character and opens the story (he is the one who later introduces Franklin and Trevor, he is not only the brains of the trio but also appears to be the central protagonist, every multi-protagonist story focuses on one character a little more than the others). He's a retired bank robber who made a deal with the FIB and is in the witness protection program. (This is interesting, for later, when he decides to introduce his old friends back into his life. That's pretty much an absolute no no of witness protection.) He lives in a Rockford Hills mansion. His family spends most of his money, and he's pulled back into crime.

 

2. There is a sub-plot involving Michael's rebellious teenage daughter, Tracy. (Trailer #2). If you want to go all Richard Donner on this, that would mean she gets kidnapped and eventually does a 180 character-wise by the end of the story.

 

3. There's also a subplot that Michael's wife, Amanda, is schtooping "the pool boy" (or something similar), this storyline as suggested by the Michael trailers appears to end with Michael beating the guy up. I can sense this going in a bit of a Die Hard direction (man forced to save estranged wife, man reconciling with estranged wife) - I find it hard to believe that Rockstar would give Michael a sh*tty wife and then just not try to put some type of a resolution on the relationship.

 

4. Early on, Michael visits his therapist and talks about his problems. (This therapist is probably a reoccuring Dr. Melfi type.) Michael talks about his son and how his son, Jimmy, is a good boy.

 

5. Jimmy is probably not all that good a son at all. I don't know if this means he'll cause trouble or play some sort of mid Second Act foil to Michael, but I anticipate problems here. Also, is that Michael's son in the boat/highway scene from Trailer 2? I imagine a storyline about the son doing something dangerous here.) Obviously based on the "I can't relate to him" line in the Michael trailer, Michael's story will end with Michael finally being able to relate to his son.

 

SETTING UP TREVOR

 

6. At some point (apparently at our own discretion) the Trevor storyline begins. here are a handful of non-heist missions that Trevor engages in: collecting drug money (which occurs partially at the bar where Trevor will later meet Michael) (Trailer #2), burning down the house we've all seen a million times with the gasoline can (photos, Trailer #2), jumping into several planes, strangling several people (the old man in Trailer #2 and an unidentified / what I would presume to be a drug dealer in Trailer #2), racing a doon buggy (Trailer #2), beating someone with a baseball bat (Trailer #2), jumping out of several vehicles before they are smashed by trains (Trevor trailer, Trailer #2), Trevor using what appears to be a car battery to shock someone (Trevor trailer), pushing someone out of a copter (Trevor trailer). I think what we can tell by this is that Trevor is involved in the drug trade in the LA desert. (Side note: It's odd how far out you'd have to be to be in this part of LA. Will there be Glendale/Pasadena/Alhambra areas before you go into this type of "East of Azusa" atmosphere?) Trevor is clearly violent and a bit unhinged. He's the hardest storyline to wrap my mind around mostly because the two types we see him wax philosophic (talking about making new friends and abandonment issues) the statements don't make much sense. What would this even mean? I know it could just be for humor (a psychopath talking about his feelings, haha) but Rockstar normally doesn't just throw in cheap one shots like that with no context whatsoever. Asides from how we first meet Trevor and his life situation to this point, Rockstar is keeping the lid pretty tight on his character arc. Also, Trevor's friend Ron is going to be set up at this point - there are no other people in Trevor's life that we're aware of who live in the vicinity and will serve as openers for his storyline.

 

SETTING UP FRANKLIN

 

5. Then at some point we cut to Franklin, who has a fight with his girlfriend over his involvement in gang activities (Trailer #2). Based on the role that love interests (long lasting) tend to play in Rockstar games, it's my impression that this will establish an arc where Franklin wins back his girlfriend. There's also the Franklin dynamic as evidenced in Trailer #2 and the Franklin trailer that he wants to leave the ghetto. It's odd his character arc would so closely follow CJ's so I'm sensing there's going to be some type of major shift here that makes it no that simple or similar a storyline. We don't know much about the Franklin storyline either other than right now there appear to be a handful of slightly more upscale (read: Stripclub, not Los Santos cul de sac based) friends who appear a lot like repeats of SA characters. There is going to be at least one playable mission where Franklin steals a car and is chased. Simeon Yetarian, an unscrupulous Armenian car dealer which Franklin and Lamar work for, is introduced at this point. Lamar, Franklin's less serious friend, is also introduced at this point. This leads up to:

 

SETTING UP THE TRIO

 

6. Trevor meets Michael again and hugs Michael (Trevor Trailer)

 

7. Michael meets Franklin during a repo job (Trailer #2) - I don't know whether 6 or 7 would come first. But it's clear that Michael is the one that goes and gets this "team" back together.

 

8. There is a gap here where Michael becomes a mentor to Franklin. Potentially at this point there is a meeting between Michael and Franklin at the Tequila Night Club (photo).

 

9. Michael introduces Franklin to Trevor (Trailer #2)

 

10. At the point that Michael introduces Trevor to Michael's family, Michael's wife tells Michael to keep Trevor away from her and the children. This to me is odd because I don't see why Michael is introducing his business accomplices to his family. Niko went off and had his whole "Packy/Irish" thing and didn't even involve Roman in it. There's probably a reason or a storyline or some plot point about why Michael introduces his family to Trevor and Franklin and they're standing around in Michael's kitchen nonchalantly.

 

HEISTS

 

9. HEIST 1 (a guess) There is aerial fighting that occurs over Vinewood with military planes. This is part of a heist, I would guess, based on the sheer scale.

 

10. HEIST 2 (a guess) There is a Terminator 2 inspired viaduct chase that we've seen in pictures and trailers. I'd guess this is part of a separate heist.

 

11. HEIST 3 (confirmed) There is the Heat based bank heist. This is the Game Informer one where the characters jump in the skyscraper through the windows.

 

12. HEIST 4 (confirmed) There's the Breaking Bad / Rodeo Drive jewelry store heist.

 

13. HEIST 5 (a guess) I'd guess there's a heist that ends at an airport, and a car being flown into the back of a plane then driven off the plane and you have to parachute out.

 

14. HEIST 6 (confirmed) There's the heist from the Demo previews where the armored car is flipped over.

 

15. HEIST 7 (a guess) There's a heist where the Vinewood sign is used.

 

16. HEIST 8 (a guess) There is likely a heist where Trevor rides off on a Los Santos Lifeguard vehicle (photo)

 

ENDING

 

17. Michael's daughter stops being a bitch. Michael finally connects with his son. There is some resolution between Michael and his wife. The other two guys are a complete guess to me at this point in time. It's also really odd because there are not really any antagonists established so far in the game (I don't know if because GTA is focused on heists that this means there won't be any in the game at all. I think it's weird that there hasn't been any actual footage of the Epsilon members, which leads me to think that Rockstar has focused on only a very small part of the story in the footage. If I recall from the LA Noire previews, as the date of release gets closer, the material released will tell an even more concrete story.)

 

 

 

I'm sorry if there's another thread that emulates what I'm trying to do here (I didn't see one). I'd be interested to see how others would revise the narrative I've proposed, and what elements I've left out of these events.

 

 

 

Edit: As I'm looking at this proposed storyline (not list of missions, that would be fool's work), it's occurred to me how well many of the character templates from Rush fit into this proposed outline.

 

a. Mitch Hayes is clearly an earlier form of Michael. ("Annoying, wise cracking, highly successful FBI agent. In great shape. Does triathlons, drinks low cal beer, but still has a sense of humor.")

 

b. Miguel Gonzalez is a protoype of Franklin. ("Caught between a few mob bosses. Very clean cut.")

 

c. Clyde is very similar to Trevor ("Moronic, almost inbred and creepy white trash hillbilly. Very naïve but in a creepy 'it's only incest sort of way")

Now here's where this gets interesting, and tells us a lot about where the meat and potatoes of the storyline lies

 

d. Brother Adam is the template for The Epsilon Leader (I forget if he's been named somewhere) and clearly the antagonist. ("Welsh monk / cult leader / yoga teacher - 50, very lithe, very into exploring your personal tension through gripping massage."

 

e. I'll make a wild guess that Mrs. Avery is Michael's wife. ("Neurotic soccer mom, home maker, 48, anxious and addled on pain killers. Very angry at neighbor MRS Bell.")

 

f. Ms. Bell and Eddie are not people I can trace.

 

g. Remember the part of the demo about the young girl being pursued by the paparazzi? Well, Ira Bernstein seems related to this girl. ("publicist for an actress known as America's newest sweetheart who just so happens to love animals, orphans, drugs and sex. He's always trying to hide her latest indiscretion.") If this is true there's a storyline here that I don't necessarily see a connection to. The most logical place this would fall in the story is this is related to people that Michael knows. (Franklin is too ghetto and Trevor is out in the sticks.) This would mean there's going to be a storyline where Rockstar satirizes the media. (I am really looking forward to this. It's the real shining moment in Rockstar's writing, if you ask me.)

 

h. Albert's son became Michael's son is Jimmy. ("Smokes a lot of weed, has anxiety issues and a card for a bad back, very soft, very opinionated. Into making racist comments while playing online.") Definitely fits with the pictures we've seen of Jimmy playing video games.

 

i. Harut Vartanyan became Simeon Yetaria. ("Armenian car dealer, moneylender, would be Fagin and would be bully. Heavily connected to the underworld, but irritates people so much no one likes him.") This suggests that Franklin potentially leaves this scene because he hates his boss.

 

j. Nervous Jerry became Ron. ("paranoiac living in the sticks, near Simon, completely paranoid, and terrified of Simon.")

 

k. Calvin North, Rich Roberts, Alex, Scarlet, Chad, Tae Wong, and Taes Translator are characters we haven't seen the final version of yet. (Although, if we are to make cursory notes based on the information we already have available: we need to anticipate that there's going to be a Chinatown section of the game based on LA's own significant Chinatown section, there's going to likely be Scientologists/Epsilons in east LA where the real life church of scientology is, and I am really surprised that there are yet to be any final characters introduced who are Mexican, this seems like an obvious thing given the LA setting.)

 

l. Jerry Cole ("disabled IT expert and criminal information vendor") is likely one of the guys you can recruit for heists.

 

m. Unrelated Notes: LA has 4 or 5 major important cemeteries. There was a cemetery mission in SA. I feel like this is a very likely candidate for something that will be included this time around. Also, I really would like to see if Rockstar has constructed smaller towns east of SA (it's ridiculous that people are complaining that having one big city is some type of a failure, LA is one big city with a hundred small ones around it). I would also like to see how satirical Rockstar gets with the western part of SA (West Wood) and if they've gone to the extent of satirizing Amoeba and the various big $ shops around the way. Also, there's a heavy porn industry in LA (the Hustler building) and that's something I expect Rockstar cannot resist satirizing.

 

Edit: It has occurred to me that there also pretty much has to be a submarine heist. The inherent problem in this is that from what we know so far the ocean is pretty devoid of story. (Not personality or depth, but actual story). Of course, in order for there to be an actual submarine there has to be some type of incentive/reason for a large scale oceanic heist to be committed. Thus, it's likely there's another group of unknown but well developed characters dealing with the ocean.

Edited May 28, 2013 by bwasroy

[Flashify]

OMG

[Polish_Trucker]

I got a head ache by just scrolling down

[WildBrick142]

No way there will be 17 missions. What you wrote would make up a very good story but I think there will be more missions.

[bwasroy]

No way there will be 17 missions. What you wrote would make up a very good story but I think there will be more missions.

Agreed. There will definitely be much more than 17 missions. These are just the major establishing points I think we can now say exist with a near level of certainty.

[minwager]

I could've sworn this this thread would be about the gradual construction of that building (forget the name) through the game the more you play the story.

[bwasroy]

I could've sworn this this thread would be about the gradual construction of that building (forget the name) through the game the more you play the story.

The very first word in the topic is "storyline"...

[greenrock]

there will probably be roughly 70 missions

[bwasroy]

there will probably be roughly 70 missions

Speculation or is this confirmed somewhere? 70 is awfully long for GTA.

[johnny_zoo]

Wow one hell of an opening thread.

 

I don't know what to say. Seems like what you have is self explanatory. The story will involve those scenes. But guessing what might happen instead isn't easy.

[visionist]

l. Jerry Cole ("disabled IT expert and criminal information vendor") is likely one of the guys you can recruit for heists.

 

 

[TakinThyBacon]

[GrandMaster Smith]

there will probably be roughly 70 missions

Speculation or is this confirmed somewhere? 70 is awfully long for GTA.

They've (R*, Dan Houser) said V would be about as long as RDR's storyline which from answers.yahoo- 57 main missions 19 stranger quests 40+ bounty missions ect..

 

 

I personally found RDR kind of too long in the sense that it was too drawn out.

 

Would be the perfect length for a story that has a lot of variety. It's cool V revolves around heists but I hope each one feels very unique and there's more to it than just 'lets go rob some banks'.

[bwasroy]

Welll said Grandmaster, well said Grandmaster. Variety is the key to this game's success.

Edited June 20, 2013 by bwasroy

[SlappyPwnsAss]

17 missions?! What?! GTA 4 has 94 MISSIONS and im not even considering the optional side missions. I think GTA V will have like 100 missions (hopefully) and like 25 side missions

[visionist]

Here's a fun heist mission: steal a pre-production copy of a videogame for Jimmy, a GTA like game (call it Rush) to try and please him. Could be he comes along to the E3 type convention that's showing off the game and causes a ruckus or maybe saves the day. That's when Michael decides he might like to teach Jimmy some tricks of the trade (see other threads on here about this idea).

 

Naturally you get to play the game after the mission. This could also be the same mission Franklin has to make a choice between the heist itself and saving Lamar. The choice would therefore be between Lamar (otherwise he dies) or Michael's son (otherwise he dies?) Imagine Michael's reaction if Franklin saves Lamar over Jimmy. An important storyline twist and makes such a "joke" heist with seemingly no monetary reward a crucial turning point.

[Cysiek]

are you nolife? It seems you got a lot of free time

[visionist]

How about Trevor is climbing the Vinewood sign...

 

...to steal it?!

 

Yusef Amir would want it... ...you'd infiltrate some kind of movie set revolving around the sign for this heist string.