Hideo Kojima is notorious for writing extremely complex narratives filled with numerous twists and turns, as well as so many subplots that one would have to make playing his games a full-time job in order to fully grasp them. But “full-time job” might not even be enough for his latest project, Death Stranding, as star Mads Mikkelsen doesn’t even really know what it’s about.
“He was trying to tell me the full plot of the game, and it’s so elaborate that, I mean, I got lost but I really wanted to learn more,” Mikkelsen said at Saudi Comic Con. “It’s a big honor to be there.”
Mikkelsen likely knows significantly more than we do regarding the game’s narrative, which seems to involve an army of beached whales, infants connected to men via umbilical cords, and enough oil to expedite global warming by a few hundred years.
The game’s second trailer, which was shown during 2016’s Game Awards show, only further complicated things. Legendary director Guillermo Del Toro, who was previously working with Kojima on Silent Hills, makes an appearance with another baby, and Mikkelsen then shows up connected to a group of skeletal soldiers with what appears to be a series of artificial umbilical cords. His face is covered in ink. Elsewhere, we see a tank covered in intestines and a baby winks at the camera.
We were hoping to get some sort of explanation for at least a few of these individual pieces from Mikkelsen, but perhaps it’s best that we go into Death Stranding just as clueless as he is. Metal Gear Solid V‘s half-baked ending aside, letting Hideo Kojima just “do his thing” and iterate on his own brand of insanity has always paid off for players.
