Does A Death “Death Stranding Movie” Make Sense? Here is What We Think About It

Hammerstone Studios and Kojima Production have recently announced that they are working on a film inspired by Death Stranding, a video game series – given the recent announcement of the sequel – created by the Japanese game designer, and former father of the Metal Gear franchise, Hideo Kojima. The news spread easily around the globe. Kojima is a bit of a superstar in the world of video games: a prolific and brilliant designer who, over many years of service, has gathered true enthusiasts (if not adepts) of his way of understanding and creating products for the public. Kojima himself is credited as an executive producer of the future film.

Considering the classic curse and failure of almost all films based on video games and the extremely cinematic nature of the title in question, net of enthusiasm, it is legitimate to wonder if a Death Stranding film makes sense. Let’s try to break down the key elements that make up the video game to conclude.

The Plot of Death Stranding

Hideo Kojima is not a trivial author, indeed. He’s one of those creatives who write hundreds and hundreds of pages of scripts for every game he creates. A sort of bible with names, events, narrative junctions, explanations, and the like. A compendium of wisdom that every programmer can draw on to have a clear understanding of the direction of the work in progress. Therefore, it is easy to understand that Death Stranding is not a video game whose plot can be dismissed in a couple of lines, but it suffices to know that, as players, we are called to cross (on foot) a post-apocalyptic version of the United States at following a catastrophic event, still in progress, called precisely Death Stranding.

This event created a peculiar connection between the world of the living with the world of the dead. The problem arises when elements of these two dimensions come into contact. Matter and antimatter that cross create an explosion of impressive destructive power, which has led the survivors to hole up in cities isolated from the outside world. There are no roads, there are no connections, outside the city walls there are the CAs (stranded creatures from the afterlife) and, as if that weren’t enough, there is also the Cronopioggia, a particular rain that manipulates the weather everything it touches, going to deteriorate objects or instantly age all living beings, including humans. In a world adrift, therefore, the only ones who venture into desolate and extremely dangerous lands are the couriers, exactly as we know them today, people who load on their shoulders orders to be delivered between different cities or outposts scattered throughout this land. now abandoned and battered.

Reconnect

The protagonist of which we will take control is Sam Porter (played in the game by the actor Norman Reedus), a legendary courier who is entrusted with an important task: in his delivery jobs he is also called to reconnect a now divided world, going to create that which is called a “chiral network”, a unique system to connect all people in the world. An almost religious mission to abandon individualism and embrace brotherly cooperation was lost due to Death Stranding, but necessary to overcome this difficult period together. No man is an island.

Here is one of the first elements to clash openly: Death Stranding is a game made up of long silences and endless walks. Although the transition between the video game and cinema screen is made up of adequate transposition and adaptation operation, on balance it will undoubtedly be difficult to be able to bring such a crossing to the screen without having to resort to narrative means to make the adventure livelier. The particularity of the videogame medium applied to games such as Death Stranding lies precisely in the growing empathy towards the protagonist, in assimilating the intimate and salvific value of this journey with a few gestures, a few words, and many sacrifices.

Another fundamental point in the game’s grammar is it’s very special asynchronous multiplayer. In Death Stranding it is possible to share your experience with many other gamers in the world and share some activities with others, but everything does not happen at the same time. Imagine starting the construction of a road surface for several hundred meters, but not having the right resources to complete the work and exit the game, well while we are not playing some other player could find that structure and complete it. We will return to the game with a completely built road and the possibility of knowing the name of the player who completed our work. The feeling of collaboration as of wonder for the recent construction is the result of an exclusive iteration of the video game, which certainly cannot be revealed in a film, at least not without provoking the same emotions.

Briefly summarizing, the playful fabric of mechanics that make up Death Stranding is something that on paper would always only work pad in hand and not passively assist as spectators. Very ready to be denied by a skilled screenwriter capable of dissecting these concepts in incisive and brilliant pages and pages, but for now we remain very doubtful.

Loyalty or Spin-Off?

The Death Stranding sequel is ready to revolutionize and delve into a very deep, multifaceted, and detailed narrative universe, but anyone who has played the title will know that the characters in the game are played by real world-class actors: Norman Reedus, Lèa Seydoux, Guillermo Del Toro, Mads Mikkelsen, just to name a few. With a film in the pipeline – as of today without any real information – what could we expect? A product that follows the deeds faithful to the videogame counterpart or something relatively new? And in the first case, should we expect the involvement of the same actors?

Very improbable on paper, but here an interesting glimmer could emerge in which to be able to develop a film adaptation, or to focus on the spin-off, to tell something that enriches the narrative universe, an added value that can make the global understanding of the franchise richest in details and stories. An adventure of citizens holed up in cities who find themselves having to cross the wastelands to reach a particular place, narrative parentheses of other courier companies or why not, an origin film about the Death Stranding event.

So, does a Death Stranding movie make sense? Perhaps, if taken in the right direction, moving away from the main concept, and then exploring new and unprecedented paths, always under the supervision of its creator Hideo Kojima. A new way to enjoy a fascinating franchise, inside and outside the videogame medium, and exactly as the novel of the same name did, adds more elements of a narrative universe in full construction and expansion. For now, we keep our hopes high waiting for new and succulent updates that will surely not be long in coming.