The cutscene that plays the first time a player dies in Grand Theft Auto Online will probably leave players with a lot of questions. Depending on whether they've played Grand Theft Auto 5's story first, the cutscene could be even more baffling. There's a pretty simple explanation for one part of the cutscene, while the other half requires a bit more speculation. Even with Grand Theft Auto Online's relatively light story, not every detail of what's going on in the scene can be confirmed for sure. However, there is enough evidence to take a reasonable stab at it.

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GTA Online's Death Cutscene Features a Surprise Cameo and Useful Information

Grand Theft Auto Online - GTA Online character with the stun gun (taser)

Upon their first death in GTA Online, players will see a figure from one of Grand Theft Auto 5's side missions, Cris Formage, bathed in heavenly light. The leader of the Epsilon Program, Cris was the main antagonist for one chain of side quests for Michael. The missions end with either Cris gaining millions of dollars through a deal, or Michael crashing it and taking the money for himself, infuriating Cris. In his GTA Online appearance, Cris appears, floating and bathed in heavenly light, boasting of his power and telling the player how he can watch over the world at his leisure.

While the cutscene seems random and bizarre, it actually plays an important role, because it will introduce players to Grand Theft Auto Online's Passive Mode. In Passive Mode, players cannot be harmed deliberately, although they are unable to equip any weapons or attack anyone in return. In a way, Passive Mode works the way that Cris describes in his speech. It allows player to observe what's going on in the world without intervening in their own right. While Passive Mode doesn't grant perfect invulnerability, as it can still be surpassed in certain ways, it's the closest that GTA Online players can come to being a ghost.

While the cutscene does explain Passive Mode in its own way, that still doesn't explain Cris Formage's role in it. He was not a major Grand Theft Auto villain, only someone that Michael had to deal with in one specific quest chain, where he absolutely did not have any godlike powers. The cutscene was likely a dream that GTA Online's protagonist had after being knocked out. After all, GTA protagonists don't die after being wasted, and Formage was a popular topic in recent news at the time. That could have led the player to have a strange dream featuring Formage on their way to the hospital.

From Cris Formage's cameo, to how completely out of place the whole scene felt, dying for the first time is a bizarre experience even ten years after GTA Online's launch. On the bright side, characters can unlock Passive Mode out of the experience, which is a blessing for players who are wary of the constant chaos of the game's servers. It's certainly a strange moment, but Grand Theft Auto fans have likely experienced far more unusual incidents in the series. Grand Theft Auto Online's first death cutscene is weird, but it serves a purpose.

Grand Theft Auto Online is available now for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

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