Death Stranding Plot Twists Explained
Where do these BTs come from, and what is BRIDGES? How do BB, Amelie, and Cliff Unger all fit into Sam’s life? From shocking character reveals and hours-long cut scenes to unsuspected betrayals, we’ve dissected everything that happens at the end of Death Stranding. If you don’t want spoilers, turn back now, and check out our Death Stranding Ending Explained
The Final Boss… Er… Final Bosses
The beginning of the end, so to speak, starts with a series of boss fights, the first of which is a building-sized, goopy, anthropomorphic BT that Higgs rides atop — with Amelie stuck to it in a wad of chiral gunk. Have you played Death Stranding ?
After Higg’s final defeat, which we’ll go into more of later, Sam then treks back across the whole UCA and encounters a vortex above Lake Knot City that warps him to a Vietnam battlefield. Here Cliff Unger continues his frantic hunt for BB. Unbeknownst to him, he finds BB… But BB is no longer a child. Read on for an explanation of that.
As Sam concludes his cross-country Chiral Network car trip, he runs into one, final BT boss: A giant, flying BT whale. Like most of us, this whale is weak to rocket launchers.
After all of this, much of what remains to be seen in Death Stranding is just that: Stuff you can see, but not play. Yes, there are many hours of cutscenes to come in Episodes 13 and 14. We break down the biggest revelations in those cutscenes below. Death Stranding Final Bosses
Amelie is Bridget/the Extinction Entity
Death Stranding does a good job of setting you up for the actual big reveal: Amelie and Bridget are actually one person, and together
He pre-records a video to point out how odd it is that no one’s ever seen her corporeal, physical form. The Amelie as we know her is a projection of her Ka, or her soul that’s trapped on her beach. Bridget, the older looking Amelie who leads as President of America until her death in the opening acts, is actually the Ha (or body) to Amelie’s Ka.
Amelie, and Bridget for that matter, are actually one and the same, and the larger role they play in the universe is the inevitable destruction of life on Earth. This would be the sixth mass extinction event to date, and the biggest: The Extinction Entity plans to make this one the last, even referring to it as a “Big Bang.”
You Prevent the Sixth Extinction Event
So, turns out Amelie lied to Sam, but maybe not for the worst reasons. While Sam believed he was carrying out official presidential orders to
Amelie decided that, instead of waiting for thousands more years, she’d escalate the fulfilment of her role in the universe and execute on her plan for one final extinction (this time including humans) — and get to spend a little more time with you, too. As Sam connected the Chiral Network, he also connected everyone’s beach to Amelie’s, which allows her to bring the destruction brewing on her beach to Earth, and maybe beyond (it’s unclear how big this Bang actually is).
You are given control back briefly, and Sam is given a revolver by Amelie, along with a message (“A gun won’t help you here. But it still has a role to play.”) and a choice: Either watch the world end and stay with her, or stop the impending apocalypse by cutting her beach off from others’ beaches. You can shoot her, but the bullets have no effect.
If wait too long, say, wasting time firing the gun, all you’ll bring about is the end of the world — and a game over screen. However, you can also holster your gun — this allows Sam to give Amelie a hug, reminding her of the connection she shares with Sam and his love and need to survive and see humanity survive.
This also traps Sam on Amelie’s beach, alone. As the first (of three sets) of the credits roll, Sam is stranded alone. We’ll get back to that in a bit.
Higgs Was Working for Amelie All Along
If Amelie’s intent was to bring about another Extinction Event, then it tracks that Higgs was working for her all along. Higgs, ever the self-serving baddie, initially took advantage of Fragile’s unique ability to transport between locations using her beach. Higgs and Fragile were partners, and made deliveries together.
But Higgs was eventually seduced away from Fragile by Amelie’s superior power as the Extinction Entity, who could manipulate BTs. According to a journal entry, Amelie gave Higgs a Bridge Baby (BB), and the ability to control things like BTs and Timefall. As he put it, he is no longer just a delivery man, but instead a herald for Amelie and her new world.
After Sam’s showdown with Higgs, Higgs is defeated, and Fragile is finally given the opportunity to kill him. Fragile is unable to kill Higgs in the end because, in her words that Sam repeats back to her, she fixes things, she doesn’t break them. Instead, Fragile gives Higgs a choice between death or eternity on the beach. It’s never said out loud, but judging from the gunshots heard back on the beach, we have to assume Higgs chose death.
Sam is Rescued From Amelie’s Beach
LoadingAfter saving humanity, while Sam is trapped on the beach, listening to Amelie as she appears in moments to explain who she is and what the Death Stranding is. At the end of a series of these explanations, Sam is rescued by Deadman and the others. At first, Heartman and Mama/Lockne jumped to different beaches in search of Sam with no results. The team then tried using President Strands umbilical cord. Unfortunately, President Strand had already cut her beach loose, rendering her umbilical cord useless.
It was ultimately Die-Hardman’s revolver, the gun that was used to kill Cliff Unger and Sam (as a the young BB in a pod, read on for more on that) that led the team to Sam. Before Die-Hardman traveled to Amelie’s beach, he loaded his revolver with Hematic Rounds made from Sam’s blood, thus connecting the gun to all parties. That “part to play” Amelie referred to above is revealed to be a connection to Sam the team uses to pull him from Amelie’s beach.
When the team contacts Sam to retrieve him, five figures appear in the sky above the beach. These five figures appeared in the very first Death Stranding trailer. We have two competing theories on who these figures in the sky are:
- They could be manifestations of Deadman, Heartman, Fragile, Mama/Lockne, and Die-Hardman as they break through to the beach and reach Sam.
- They also could be representations of the five previous Extinction Entities.
Whoever these mysterious figures are, Sam’s friends couldn’t have shown up soon enough: It took them a month in Earth time to find him on what turns out to be his own beach.
Sam is the Original BB All Grown Up
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In a panic, having certainly not intended on killing BB, Amelie rushes to Sam’s beach and revives BB, thereby giving renewed life to what eventually becomes Sam, and explains his ability to repatriate from death.
Sam was born to Cliff and Lisa Unger, and was the first baby to be in the UCA’s highly-secretive BB program. The reason Sam gets flashbacks of Cliff throughout the game as he connects to his BB pod is perhaps because of Sam and Clifford’s connection as father and son and not, as we initially were led to believe, because of any connection between him and Lou.
Clifford Unger Is Your Father
Cliff Unger is Sam’s father, and the connections he felt toward BB in those “boss levels” scattered between WWI, WWI, and Vietnam were actually a connection to Sam and not Sam’s own BB, Lou.
It turns out that those crazy storms that sucked Sam into various war zones are actually the setting of Clifford Unger’s beaches. The war zones are a specialized form of beach that seem to have adapted to Clifford’s personal history as a soldier.
When Cliff finds out they’re going to take Sam away from him to be used as a tool, Cliff attempts to escape the facility with the help of Die-Hardman.
Clifford Unger’s Connection to Die-Hardman
Before he was the Director, Die-Hardman was a soldier under Unger’s command. He got his name because, though Unger led him into battle many times, Unger never let him die. His connection to Unger and Unger’s wife — BB’s mother — is that of an ultra-loyal friend and soldier.
It’s why he attempts to protect him without disobeying direct orders after President Strand decrees she’d be taking BB away from Unger to carry out her plans to bring on the Extinction Event sooner than natural events would allow for.
Although he spares Unger several more seconds and moments with BB, ultimately President Strand grabs the gun with Die-Hardman’s finger still on the trigger and forces him to pull it, killing both Unger and BB simultaneously.
Sam is sent to the Beach where Amelie heals him, and this is where he
The Significance of the Gun
The revolver given to Sam by Amelie belonged to a young Die-Hardman while Clifford Unger was in captivity with his wife and BB. Die-Hardman gives this gun to Clifford to assist in his escape. Clifford uses the gun to kill his wife, then makes his escape attempt.
When Clifford is caught, despite all of Die-Hardman’s efforts to aid him in his escape, he is killed by this revolver. Although Di-Hardman is holding the weapon, the trigger is pulled by Bridget Strand as she reaches from behind.
A bullet strikes the BB as well. We then see the BB appear on a beach where Amelie resurrects BB, aka Sam, for the first time. It is Amelie who gives BB/Sam the power to come back to life, or repatriate.
Sam is given Die-Hardman’s revolver by Amelie shortly before the world-saving hug. After the hug, Sam is stranded on a beach by himself and, thinking he’ll be trapped there for eternity, puts the revolver to his head and pulls the trigger.
Nothing happens. Shortly after that, his friends use the revolver to find him and retrieve him. This explains the “role to play” that Amelie cryptically mentioned when she gave the revolver to Sam. Loading
Lou is Reborn
Having returned to the land of the living, Sam settles back into a private room and Deadman informs him BB has sadly passed away. It’s only a matter of time before necrosis settles in, so, similar to Sam’s first main mission, Sam’s final mission is to transport BB to the incinerator.
Deadman unhooks his data-linked cuffs and lets him know that if he removes them, he’ll be off the UCA’s radar. Deadman not-so-subtly suggests that taking Lou out of the pod to see if he can survive is directly against orders, but that his location and actions won’t be recorded with the cufflinks off.
Sam briefly sets BB down for the incinerator, and immediately scoops him back up, takes him out of the pod, and desperately attempts to revive him as a BT cord seems to appear around his naval. Fortunately, one heroic hug later (again) brings Lou back to life, setting the two of them up to live happily ever after. Also, Lou is a female, and Sam names her Louise. How cute.
The Post-Game (after the big finale)
When you’ve carried out all your remaining duties, including bringing Louise into real life, the game reverts to two weeks before the presidential inauguration. In
Lou is available as your BB, Where do these BTs occur from, and what is BRIDGES ? How practice BB, Amelie, and Cliff Unger all fit into Sam ‘s life ? From shocking character reveals and hours-long cut scenes to unsuspected betrayals, we ‘ve dissected everything that happens at the end of Death Stranding. If you do n’t want spoilers, turn back nowadays, and check out our spoiler-free review instead.The begin of the end, so to speak, starts with a series of boss fights, the beginning of which is a building-sized, goopy, anthropomorphic BT that Higgs rides atop — with Amelie stuck to it in a wad of chiral gunk.Higgs escapes following the frustration of his BT hop on, and Sam must travel to The Beach to meet him in a mano a mano, Metal Gear Solid-style emboss fight. This competitiveness is loaded with references to video games, including Street Fighter-style health bars and a exclaim out to Mario and Princess Peach.After Higg ’ s final defeat, which we ’ ll go into more of subsequently, Sam then treks back across the unharmed UCA and encounters a whirl above Lake Knot City that warps him to a Vietnam battlefield. here Cliff Unger continues his delirious search for BB. Unbeknownst to him, he finds BB… But BB is no longer a child. Read on for an explanation of that.As Sam concludes his cross-country Chiral Network car trip, he runs into one, final examination BT party boss : A colossus, flying BT giant. Like most of us, this whale is unaccented to rocket launchers.After all of this, much of what remains to be seen in Death Stranding is just that : stuff you can see, but not play. Yes, there are many hours of cutscenes to come in Episodes 13 and 14. We break down the biggest revelations in those cutscenes below.Death Stranding does a effective job of setting you up for the actual big reveal : Amelie and Bridget are actually one person, and together they ’ re actually an Extinction Entity. The suspicion around Amelie ’ s universe comes up when Die-Hardman is invited to her beach.He pre-records a television to point out how odd it is that no one ’ second always seen her bodily, physical form. The Amelie as we know her is a projection of her Ka, or her soul that ’ s trapped on her beach. Bridget, the older looking Amelie who leads as President of America until her death in the opening acts, is actually the Ha ( or torso ) to Amelie ’ mho Ka.Amelie, and Bridget for that matter, are actually one and the lapp, and the larger function they play in the universe is the inevitable destruction of life sentence on Earth. This would be the sixth mass extinction event to date, and the biggest : The Extinction Entity plans to make this one the last, even referring to it as a “ Big Bang. ” So, turns out Amelie lied to Sam, but possibly not for the worst reasons. While Sam believed he was carrying out official presidential orders to connect the United States to the Chiral Network and bring about a better reason of the Death Stranding ( and, therefore, potentially a solution to surviving it ), it turns out he was actually making it easier than always set off an extinction Event. And Amelie herself is the Extinction Entity who will constantly, inescapably end all human life, and lots of early life, as well ( yes, MULEs are people, excessively ) .Amelie decided that, alternatively of waiting for thousands more years, she ’ d escalate the fulfillment of her character in the population and carry through on her plan for one final extinction ( this time including humans ) — and get to spend a fiddling more time with you, excessively. As Sam connected the Chiral Network, he besides connected everyone ’ s beach to Amelie ’ mho, which allows her to bring the destruction brew on her beach to Earth, and possibly beyond ( it ’ second ill-defined how big this Bang actually is ) .You are given control back concisely, and Sam is given a revolving door by Amelie, along with a message ( “ A gun won ’ thymine help you here. But it even has a role to play. ” ) and a choice : Either watch the populace end and bide with her, or stop the at hand apocalypse by cutting her beach off from others ’ beaches. You can shoot her, but the bullets have no effect.If wait besides long, say, wasting time firing the gun, all you ’ ll bring about is the end of the earth — and a plot over screen. however, you can besides holster your accelerator — this allows Sam to give Amelie a embrace, reminding her of the connection she shares with Sam and his love and necessitate to survive and see humanity survive.This besides traps Sam on Amelie ’ s beach, alone. As the first base ( of three sets ) of the credits roll, Sam is stranded alone. We ’ ll get back to that in a bit.If Amelie ’ s intent was to bring about another extinction Event, then it tracks that Higgs was working for her all along. Higgs, ever the self-serving villain, initially took advantage of Fragile ’ s alone ability to transport between locations using her beach. Higgs and Fragile were partners, and made deliveries together.But Higgs was finally seduced away from Fragile by Amelie ’ s ranking world power as the Extinction Entity, who could manipulate BTs. According to a journal entry, Amelie gave Higgs a Bridge Baby ( BB ), and the ability to control things like BTs and Timefall. As he put it, he is no long just a pitch man, but alternatively a announce for Amelie and her new world.After Sam ’ s showdown with Higgs, Higgs is defeated, and Fragile is last given the opportunity to kill him. Fragile is unable to kill Higgs in the end because, in her words that Sam repeats back to her, she fixes things, she doesn ’ thymine break them. rather, Fragile gives Higgs a choice between death or eternity on the beach. It ’ sulfur never said out brassy, but judging from the gunshots heard back on the beach, we have to assume Higgs choose death.After saving world, while Sam is trapped on the beach, listening to Amelie as she appears in moments to explain who she is and what the Death Stranding is. At the end of a series of these explanations, Sam is rescued by Deadman and the others. At first, Heartman and Mama/Lockne jumped to different beaches in search of Sam with no results. The team then tried using President Strands umbilical cord cord. unfortunately, President Strand had already cut her beach loose, rendering her umbilical cord cord useless.It was ultimately Die-Hardman ’ second revolver, the gunman that was used to kill Cliff Unger and Sam ( as a the young BB in a pod, read on for more on that ) that led the team to Sam. Before Die-Hardman traveled to Amelie ’ s beach, he loaded his revolver with Hematic Rounds made from Sam ’ s blood, frankincense connecting the gun to all parties. That “ function to play ” Amelie referred to above is revealed to be a connection to Sam the team uses to pull him from Amelie ’ s beach.When the team contacts Sam to retrieve him, five figures appear in the flip above the beach. These five figures appeared in the very first Death Stranding trailer. We have two competing theories on who these figures in the sky are : Whoever these mysterious figures are, Sam ‘s friends could n’t have shown up soon adequate : It took them a month in Earth time to find him on what turns out to be his own beach.In a panic, having surely not intended on killing BB, Amelie rushes to Sam ‘s beach and revives BB, thereby giving renewed life to what finally becomes Sam, and explains his ability to repatriate from death.Sam was born to Cliff and Lisa Unger, and was the first base baby to be in the UCA ’ s highly-secretive BB program. The reason Sam gets flashbacks of Cliff throughout the game as he connects to his BB pod is possibly because of Sam and Clifford ’ randomness connection as beget and son and not, as we initially were led to believe, because of any connection between him and Lou.Cliff Unger is Sam ’ sulfur beget, and the connections he felt toward BB in those “ bos levels ” scattered between WWI, WWI, and Vietnam were actually a association to Sam and not Sam ’ s own BB, Lou.It turns out that those crazy storms that sucked Sam into respective war zones are actually the set of Clifford Unger ’ south beaches. The war zones are a specialize form of beach that seem to have adapted to Clifford ’ s personal history as a soldier.When Cliff finds out they ’ re going to take Sam off from him to be used as a tool, Cliff attempts to escape the facility with the serve of Die-Hardman.Before he was the Director, Die-Hardman was a soldier under Unger ’ mho command. He got his name because, though Unger led him into conflict many times, Unger never let him die. His connection to Unger and Unger ’ sulfur wife — BB ’ s mother — is that of an ultra-loyal friend and soldier.It ’ randomness why he attempts to protect him without disobeying direct orders after President Strand decrees she ’ five hundred be taking BB away from Unger to carry out her plans to bring on the Extinction Event oklahoman than natural events would allow for.Although he spares Unger several more seconds and moments with BB, ultimately President Strand grabs the gun with Die-Hardman ’ sulfur feel even on the trigger and forces him to pull it, killing both Unger and BB simultaneously.Sam is sent to the Beach where Amelie heals him, and this is where he gains his DOOMs and repatriate abilities. He ’ sulfur never told any of this, and grows up thinking Amelie is his baby, and President Strand is his mother.The revolver given to Sam by Amelie belonged to a young Die-Hardman while Clifford Unger was in captivity with his wife and BB. Die-Hardman gives this gunman to Clifford to assist in his escape. Clifford uses the artillery to kill his wife, then makes his escape attempt.When Clifford is caught, despite all of Die-Hardman ’ s efforts to aid him in his escape, he is killed by this revolving door. Although Di-Hardman is holding the weapon, the trigger is pulled by Bridget Strand as she reaches from behind.A bullet train strikes the BB vitamin a well. We then see the BB appear on a beach where Amelie resurrects BB, aka Sam, for the first time. It is Amelie who gives BB/Sam the exponent to come back to life, or repatriate.Sam is given Die-Hardman ’ s revolving door by Amelie shortly before the world-saving embrace. After the hug, Sam is stranded on a beach by himself and, thinking he ’ ll be trapped there for eternity, puts the revolving door to his head and pulls the trigger.Nothing happens. soon after that, his friends use the revolver to find him and retrieve him. This explains the “ function to play ” that Amelie cryptically mentioned when she gave the revolving door to Sam.Having returned to the land of the living, Sam settles back into a secret room and Deadman informs him BB has sadly passed away. It ’ s lone a matter of time before necrosis settles in, then, similar to Sam ’ s first main mission, Sam ’ s final deputation is to transport BB to the incinerator.Deadman unhooks his data-linked cuffs and lets him know that if he removes them, he ’ ll be off the UCA ’ s radar. Deadman not-so-subtly suggests that taking Lou out of the pod to see if he can survive is directly against orders, but that his location and actions won ’ thymine be recorded with the cufflinks off.Sam concisely sets BB down for the incinerator, and immediately scoops him back up, takes him out of the pod, and urgently attempts to revive him as a BT cord seems to appear around his naval. fortunately, one heroic embrace late ( again ) brings Lou back to life, setting the two of them up to live happily ever after. besides, Lou is a female, and Sam names her Louise. How cute.When you ’ ve carried out all your remaining duties, including bringing Louise into real life, the game reverts to two weeks before the presidential inauguration. In this endless post-game you can use and build structures, make side quest deliveries, fight BTs and MULEs, and a few other open-world activities.Lou is available as your BB, Fragile can help you fast-travel, and the universe is by and large binding to the manner it was before alllll of those boss fights we started with at the top of this page .
IGN Authorman is made up of IGN Authorman is made up of Samuel Claiborn Tina Amini and Mark Medina.
