DEATH STRANDING trailer 2- Hideo Kojima game

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ca56Xm0Bk10

The second trailer for the visionary new video game Death Stranding has recently dropped, in my opinion after watching the clip I have recognised a variety of similarities between my current themes and the plot of this trailer. I’m currently interested in the progress of society from the natural world to the urban world, its current development into the digital world, and its desire to transcend to a virtual world.

This trailer depicts a world in which such a timeline is traversed, with an opening scene showing the deceased and corrupt natural world, yet synthetic umbilical cords connect them to the urban world which is off screen at this moment showing that the connection and progression from one to the other.

Above is the shot at 0:42, in which we start to see the humans placement within this crumbled decrepit urban world, it is at this point that we see the human’s urban world has been abandoned as was the natural world before it; we see that society has progressed further hinting at a digital or even virtual world. A world inhabited by digital avatars which we see and understand deeper on the next still…

Above in stills from 1:57-2:26, we see the human desperately attempting to transcend from his physical link to the “inferior natural and urban worlds”, by implanting himself within an avatar shown as a synthetic infant within a digital womb. The human figure then tries to run and hide within the ruins of the urban world, a tunnel to be precise. Below is a shot showing the tunnel the human tries to hide inside. Above we see who he is fleeing from an army of potential androids/avatars (the military symbolism implies that the androids are waging war on humans removing the imperfections of their “superior world”.

Above I highlighted areas within the tunnel where we see aspects of the natural world perseveering within the ruins of the urban world, foreshadowing a potential natural revolution over the new order. Shown through primal cave paintings of hand prints within the tunnel.

However we are then reminded of the dominance of the virtual world portrayed by the hunter played by the actor Mads Mikelson. Shown below. We are clearly shown his digital nature as when he removes his nightvison mask the object eruots into a flame of digital shards.

We then see his superiority to others as his fellow soldiers are connected to himself by cables which he uses like chains on hounds.

So we therefore see ourselves the humans, caught between a conflict we have orchestrated between the beasts of myth the champions of the natural world and the android hunters of the champions of the virtual world.