Red Dead Redemption 2 Mind-Blowing Ending Secret Is One You've All Missed

Red Dead Redemption 2’s ending will go down in history as one of the greatest final acts in gaming history, but it gets better.

Spoiler warning if you haven’t finished Red Dead Redemption 2.

Gamers around the world have spent hours with the Van Der Linde gang over the years but when it was revealed Red Dead Redemption 2 was a prequel, pretty much everyone knew how it was going to end.

That didn’t make Arthur Morgan’s death any less impactful though, and it gets even more emotional when you learn what inspired his iconic demise.

Rockstar Games Drew Inspiration From 1973 For Red Dead Redemption 2’s Finale

In a thrilling confrontation between Arthur, John, Dutch and Micah, gamers are left with a choice. Either take the money as the low honour ending or save your friend John.

Both endings see Arthur succumb to the same fate but the high honour route is clearly the better of the two. There’s actually a secret third ending if you want to be cheeky about it.

The final shot of Arthur Morgan’s story is the dying man taking one last look at the rising sun, but as Reddit user RecentDivide6022 pointed out a couple days ago, this is actually a reference to a Western film.

“RDR2 ending is a reference to Soylent Green (1973),” began RecentDivide6022’s post.

Originally the poster said: “The character Sol also sees deer and wilderness before he dies. In the film, Sol sacrifices himself with euthanasia so Charlton Heston's character will get an inheritance/compensation as he is at the end of his life anyway. Very good inspiration.”

This was corrected in the comments though. The real story behind the sacrifice was Charlton Heston’s character followed Sol’s body to discover the secret of Soylent Green, which we’re not going to spoil.

While the details are different, the ending is the same in both stories, as Arthur’s sacrifice is ultimately for the greater good and so the events of Red Dead Redemption can take place.

The inspiration is clear to see and it’s a brilliant touch from Rockstar Games. It finalises the events of the story well whilst also paying homage to a famous film.

Fans were amazed to learn of the detail as it’ll have flown under many people’s radars, unless you’ve seen Soylent Green of course.

“This is a very good connection with proof, congratulations,” said AlcoreRain. “I knew of Soylent Green and had it in my list, another reason to have it in mind, thanks for sharing!”

So there you have it. Next time you play Red Dead Redemption 2 and accept Arthur’s inescapable fate, you’ll hopefully see it in a completely different light.

We’ll be keeping an eye out to see if Grand Theft Auto VI features any obvious references to films or TV, though Lucia and Jason already look like they take inspiration from Bonnie and Clyde.

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