Highlights
- Death Stranding's narrative left some important character stories underdeveloped, particularly that of Sam Bridges' wife. The planned film adaptation could address this and provide more insight into their relationship.
- The game's storytelling had a tendency to tell rather than show, revealing important plot points through phone calls with Deadman. The film could offer a visual medium to fill in these gaps and enhance the storytelling, despite how cinematic the game already is.
- Similar to successful adaptations like The Last of Us' HBO series, the Death Stranding film has the potential to expand and flesh out characters and relationships, such as Sam and Lucy's, providing a deeper understanding of the story.
In 2019, Death Stranding hit the PlayStation 4 and confused gamers all over the globe. While there was some controversy over the gameplay, the game's narrative fascinated audiences and critics and was arguably its strongest element. However, Death Stranding did leave a few holes in the stories of some of its most important characters.
Death Stranding's main character, Sam Bridges, is something of an emotional enigma. He doesn't talk much, clearly has a strained relationship with his family, and generally seems closed off from other people. As it turned out, one of the biggest reasons behind this was a tragic story involving his wife and child which was surprisingly underdeveloped in the game. This is something that the planned Death Stranding film could fix.
The Narrative Shortcomings of Death Stranding
The story of Death Stranding has been praised as one of the best of the last console generation, but it did have some shortcomings. The biggest problem with the story is that it had a tendency to tell rather than show. Players discover that the Chiral Network was originally created using the BBs, for example, as a kind of power source. The issue with this is that it's revealed through phone calls with Deadman, who discovers it behind the scenes despite being one of the game's most mind-blowing and horrific twists. The story behind Sam's wife is another example of this.
Deadman shares what happened to Sam's wife. Specifically, she died while she was pregnant and while Sam was away. Her body remained undiscovered until it was too late, and became one of Death Stranding's BTs, destroying the town the two lived in with the protagonist as the only survivor of the event. It was later revealed that she had committed suicide following the revelation that The Beach was real and the connection her child had to it. After this event, Sam disconnected from everyone and remained in this asocial state when he was introduced. This is an event that probably could have used a bit more screen time and could, in theory, be fixed in the film.
How the Death Stranding Film Could Flesh Out Lucy Strand's Story
In late 2022, it was revealed that a film adaptation of the game was in development. Hideo Kojima said that the Death Stranding film would be unlike any other film adaptation of a video game. As with all adaptations, things will likely have to be changed and altered in order to fit the medium and a more limited runtime. Hopefully one of these changes will be to flesh out the story of Sam's wife, Lucy, and give fans more insight into their relationship.
Likewise, the story of Bill and Frank in The Last of Us HBO series was altered and fleshed out. The original game implied that they were an item, but the show opted to explicitly flesh out their tale into a sweet but ultimately tragic love story. Further, the relationship between Tess and Joel was further expanded upon in the show, and are both fine examples of how adaptations can flesh out a story for the better. Hopefully, the film adaptation of Death Stranding can do something similar with Sam and Lucy.
It's still too soon to say what the people behind the film or the developer of the games has planned. The first trailer for Death Stranding 2 seemed to indicate that there would be a few flashbacks and players may get the chance to see this story play out in it anyway. Nonetheless, the film adaptation would also be a logical place to tell this particular story as the tale of Lucy Strand is one that could help flesh out Sam's character more.
Death Stranding 2 is currently in development.
