GTA Online players are locked in a physics debate thanks to a falling forklift

GTA Online's Michael dressed as mythbuster Jamie Hyneman.

GTA Online's Michael dressed as mythbuster Jamie Hyneman.

While some GTA Online players are already looking forward to GTA 6, others are still trying to enjoy everything that Los Santos has to offer by spending all of their hard-earned cash, grinding out a few more heists or just going for an illuminating cruise around the city.

After all, if you don’t enjoy trying to predict what the next game’s map will look like, lack any hot takes regarding what or who it should include, and have given up on planning out your first playthrough, why not just try to appreciate the final stretch of GTA Online, even if you aren’t exactly excited about its current in-game events?

It seems that some players are doing so by putting on their best Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman cosplays and dissecting how the game’s physics have affected a forklift taking a strangely slow fall off of a building.

Have you ever managed to find a loophole in GTA Online’s physics?

This analysis is the subject of a recent thread on the GTA Online subreddit, which began with a post from user Aura_Masta420, who kicked things off by sharing a clip of them taking flight in the utility vehicle, captioning it: “Rockstar logic (number) 69420: Cement + Forklift = Slow Fall?”

Their fellow criminals were quick to dust off their physics degrees, lab coats and expert knowledge of GTA 5 to examine the situation, with user Caeoc theorising: “This looks almost like the glitch that occurs when you pull backwards on a bike (like a wheelie) in air. The bike is pulled ‘downwards’ by a phantom force, but downwards is now forwards, so the bike gains extra forwards momentum.”

However, they were unsure whether this glitch had been patched out in the time since the early days of GTA Online, eventually prompting user Mxzytplk to do some digging and find out that, after being patched out, these strange bike physics had been added back into the game via a 2014 patch, as a result of feedback from some of the GTA community’s hardcore stuntpeople.

Others looked elsewhere to try and rationalise the incident, with a few settling on the unique nature of the vehicle being used as a potential culprit, as user DLoFoSho surmising: “Forklifts only know one speed.” and xGETSMACKED42x suggesting that the US Department of Labour would approve of how the stunt transpired.

Meanwhile, user zyl15 lamented: “Imagine (the) load of tomfoolery we could achieve if Forklift was available for purchase.”, with Manan6619 frustratedly adding: “Tell me about it.”

Regardless of whether your GTA Online character has been eagerly waiting to get their forklift operating certification since 2013, make sure to follow us for more GTA 6 and GTA Online updates as new vehicles and more arrive.