Death Stranding is a game announced at Sony's June 2016 E3 conference. Kojima Production's (the company founded by video game designer by Hideo Kojima; famous for the Metal Gear Solid stealth game series.) The release date is yet to be confirmed, though actor Norman Reedus (the Walking Dead) is set to be the main protagonist of the open world, action video game. After his work with Kojima in Silent Hills (a game where Kojima also collaborated with director Guillermo del Toro) was cancelled, fans are evermore excited to find out more about the cryptic teaser Kojima left them with during the conference.
The teaser begins with a simple fade-from-black image of a paradoxical though metaphorical William Blake quote. An already cryptic start keeps the audience wanting to know more as the quote fades back to black.
The opening shot is accompanied by the shackled sounds of Low Roar's non-diegetic track "I'll Keep Coming" which follows on from the opening card; the eerie music adding to the ominous pan of an extreme close-up of black sand.
Title credits appear in a minimalist font reading 'Sony Interactive Entertainment Presents' before strands fall from the text, and bones of an animal carcass can be seen in the foreground. A droning sound can now be heard becoming increasingly louder, as the camera continues to pan over close-ups of the bones scattered across the sand. As these credits appear, more close-ups of crustacean remains are presented to the audience, and it is clear now that we are on a beach shoreline (though obscured due to the dark and monochrome palette of colours).
As soon as the lyrics of the music begin to play ('faintly...') a hand-print is made in the sand though the subject is not present. Already, such enigmatic symbolism is shown to the audience to create both confusion and curiosity alike. This mold is slowly filled by a viscous black liquid; which emerges from the sand. The prints continue forward along a tracking shot, until we're met with a man laying naked in the sand.
We see a slow pan over Reedus' naked and scuffed body before the camera focuses on a pair of handcuffs; one cuff shackled to his wrist, whilst the other to nothing, though glowing with a blue flickering light inside. This suggests a sci-fi genre to the audience, as the iridescent glow of weapons is a signature feature of many if not all games which fall under the action/sci-fi cover. All the while, the hand-prints appear beside him.
As Reedus gains consciousness, we see a black cord, which after a short pan, is attached to a baby as if it were an umbilical cord. After the camera tilts, the cord cleverly disappears and Reedus brings the child close to his chest in an embrace. His emotions are a mixture of distress, grief and angst, although, reunited with what appears to be his child, those expressions could also be of happiness and long-awaited joy.
We now have a close-up view of Reedus, and can see that he has several hand-prints marked onto his skin, as well as scruffy hair and a slight beard; around his neck are six metal tomes hanging from a chain. His surroundings are bleak and dark; a further close-up of his face is displayed before his eyes suddenly shoot open with a straight-cut to the next shot, showing us that the baby has disappeared from his arms; leaving the audience to wonder if it was ever there in the first place. The camera is shaky and hand-held, going in and out of focus to symbolise his confusion and disarray.
He slowly raises his hands to his face, and another straight-cut shows us that it is covered in the same black liquid which emerged from the sand earlier on.
A close-up of his hands is followed by a pan down to his legs, where we see black hand-prints (smaller this time) that appear to have come from the baby. These head towards the ocean, revealing heaps of dead fish, and in reference to the title, links to cetacean stranding (the occurrence of cetaceans such as whales stranding themselves on land and beaches), suggesting that the plot has something to do with otherworldly creatures being stranded on earth, or something visceral and death-like having found its way to earth.
After a continuous shot of him standing up, the camera focuses on his abdomen, which has a cross-shaped scar on it in place of where his belly-button should be; this suggests that perhaps he isn't human after all, and that he may not even be on earth, but a macabre planet similar to earth, or even earth in the future.From this shot we also see that he has a tattoo on his inner-right bicep, though we cannot yet distinguish exactly what it is.
An extreme close-up of his eyes through incredibly high quality facial rigging and animation shows Reedus squinting and looking around, further presenting his confusion through a way the audience can understand. We have not yet seen beyond Reedus and so there is still a mystery of where exactly he is.
A straight-cut shows an extreme long-shot from behind him, and we can finally see the beach he stands on, along with the stranded cetaceans which lie in masses along the shore with similar black cords coming from them into the water. We hear sounds of whale song which ominously drone over the music, as the audience can see that all whales within the shot are dead.
Five human figures in the sky present a religious theme found in many of Kojima's other games and works; similar to seraphic figures, these could be angels of death, or have something to do with the six tomes around Reedus' neck; him making the sixth human figure we can see in the shot.
The figures slowly come forwards before dissolving into the air, and the end credits fade in over a shot of the ocean waves. The game title appears over the screen which quickly turns to black, and some cast and crew members are presented beneath it in a final title card.
