Decrypting (or trying to) the Death Stranding trailers together

[Deleted member 6730]

Ok so here's my theory:

Norman Reedus says there came "the next explosion" comparing it to cosmic events like The Big Bang. At the end of the trailer he says the explosion "will be our last" and the last shot is that of a crater. This makes me think that not only does this take place on earth but a post-apocalyptic earth that brought a meteor or other object (or possibly man made) that brought about those beings. The way the being work is that they can turn invisible and can posses/capture/harm (it's still really vague) including possibly Mads. But what we've seen looks so dreary that it could take place after the end.

Norman Reedus and co. are part of a science team sent to basically research this shit. Hence why they have the suits on. It's potentially dangerous to go out without one.

The baby is created by the aliens and it's possibly how it reproduces or it's an alien/human hybrid. Hence the powers and it's also the team's job to find and protect him in order to study how this species works.

I don't know but it makes the most sense to me.

 

[Captain Blue Skies]

Honestly I've got nothing. I just can't really get into these trailers that tell you nothing (I presume, maybe it's going over my head) about the characters you are seeing.

 

[Wintermute]

let's talk explosions.

"once there was an explosion, a bang which gave birth to time and space"

the beginning of space/time - the big bang.

"once there was an explosion, a bang which set a planet spinning that space"

planets are thought to be formed out of the remnants of supernova, the collation of clouds of gas and dust.

"once there was an explosion, a bang which gave rise to life as we know it"

this probably means the cambrian explosion, a short period of history in geological time where a huge amount of animals began to appear, according to fossil records https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambrian_explosion

"once there was an explosion, a bang which gave rise to life as we know it - and then, came the next explosion, an explosion that'll be our last."

we have a story of the birth of the universe, the creation of the solar system and earth, of our crawl out of the sea and evolution, and now finally of our extinction.

this is a story of how we went extinct.

 

[Olaf]

I like this.

 

[Mars People]

Hasn't the mechanic of not breathing so as not to alert monsters been done in a few games?

Does it have some sort of cultural real world significance?

 

[Alienous]

I like this.

Click to shrink...

I'd happily take this. It's a more coherent explanation than the one I'm expecting.

 

[Sylmaron]

I like this.

Click to shrink...

Damn that's dark. But great.

 

[Debiddo]

Man, the OP and a lot of the theories up in this thread are really neat to read through. I'm new to the world of Hideo Kojima since I've never seriously played any Metal Gear games but Death Stranding has me incredibly intrigued.

 

[Bancho]

I had a thought about what the game could mean and posted my thoughts in the main thread.

The baby represents life at its purist form - its neutral. It's a key element in all the videos. Something so vulnerable is the key to the balance It's a battle between life and death.

Death takes precedence after life. Birth is the beginning, death is the end. Maybe its about death trying to establish the dominance over life, not knowing it doesn't exist without life

Click to shrink...

Then i thought a bit more

Thinking more about this and what the game could be trying to project.

Science is progressing all the time. Science and religion (or belief) are the fighting factors. One tries to disprove the other. Death is an entity, something that exists and provides a purpose, its the fact after life. The Beginning and the end. Death is stranded, Life has found a way to mitigate death and continue without it at a different level through science. Death is trying to bring back the balance and maintain its existence. Mads is death at a form that can interact with life (The Grim Reaper in essence and why he can control the dead). The baby represents the key to establishing life's progression to the higher level.

The interesting thing is the entities (or death) trying so hard to grab what is alive bring to a point of death. The part when the large figure uses a live person to establish the explosion.

(Please understand I've been thinking about this whilst being drunk so may well be out there and completely irrelevant!)

Click to shrink...

 

[Ichtyander]

I posted some thoughts in the new trailer thread:

Damn that late TGA show and having a power outage for most of the day.

I think you're very much onto something, but seeing this new trailer has made me see some things in a new light, and while I still think a theory I have is kinda correct, it seems the game has a much more fleshed out world than I previously expected (but seeing it's Kojima, there was bound to be lots of sociopolitical themes anyway).

So I think that the game is set in a post singularity event world (or the event is still ongoing), and what we see in the trailers is a completely new ecosystem where a significant fraction of humanity has "ascended" into basically a new form of life, possibly becoming extradimensional beings, feeding on organic matter. Also possibly, and with Kojima being purposefully symbolical, overcoming death, or rather "death" being a new state of existence, possibly where these post-humans naturally reside.

Due to the singularity event (or maybe even the reason for it), mankind might have lost the ability to procreate (from genetic damage to straight up controversial Kojima stuff like the giants all actually being transcended women) so the human remnants have developed the technology to survive by rapidly growing your own clones (possibly even using your own body as an incubator), effectively making everyone immortal, which creates all sort of sociological and environmental changes to how we perceive and treat life in general. Life as we know it is over, and mankind struggles to keep their humanity (whatever that means).

The post-humans are now so far beyond our understanding that humanity only perceives them as a threat, and with good reason, because it seems the only thing they constantly need is more organic matter (but knowing Kojima's previous work, it might go even further than that, toying with the idea of what intelligent life and consciousness really is etc.). For all intents and purposes, the post-humans are these extradimensional, horrific monstorsities that defy the known laws of physics (i.e. ghosts, death itself), sucking the life out of reality, leaving only their mark as the black oil, a residue of their cancerous, radioactive influence on matter itself and grotesquely manifesting as mere echoes of humanity (signs of the former level of intelligence and consciousness, human palms, bodies, arms, heads etc.), but they are our never ending reminder of what we've done (the large palm inside the crater at the end of the trailer is a great symbol of this idea).

BRIDGES, the United Cities of America and other similar governmental bodies are struggling to keep what's left of humanity alive and are constantly fighting against the nightmarish post-human threat. They're using any means necessary to keep the post-humans at bay, skulking away in their somewhat defended cities. They use environmental suits to survive Earth's, and the slowly decaying reality's destroyed ecosystem, using special radars/comms devices to detect the threat (pinging, interpreting post-human sightings etc.), disguise themselves or lure the threat (like Dune's thumpers) as well as use them as a communication device to send each other soundless signals. They also have corpse disposal teams, because not only that all organic matter is food to the post-humans, they possibly seek sentient life to feed on, so disposing of dead people is a must-have in the long losing battle. These governments are dabbling in kind of forbidden, but necessary technology in order to survive, but are keeping it in check, out of fear of they themselves crossing over into the horrific next evolutionary step.

Others however have gone a bit too far and have become much less human, themselves becoming "monsters" in order to fight the threat, survive or other selfish agendas. Remember, this is a world where, for some fraction of the population, technology has become indistinguishable from magic. These individuals, like Mads' character, are a different kind of abomination, able to transform organic matter and bend it to their will, seeking power, fulfilling their dreams, conquering what's left of this world or whatever other selfish desire they have. While the post-humans operate on a level we can't really comprehend, these abominations retain their worst bits of humanity and cling to this material plane, trying to turn the world into their personal version of hell. But because they're so far gone, they also need organic matter to survive, making them another threat to the rest of humanity. Mads mentioned his character isn't the antagonist, so it's possible he just represents one side of this new world.


With all of this being said, what I think might be happening in the game, gameplay-wise, isn't only that it has some rogue-light elements in terms of dying, resurrecting and using your body/stash as resources, but also having the "death" state as a whole other gameplay layer. Kojima mentioned that for players accustomed to action games, the first couple of hours will be very familiar, but then something happens that introduces something hopefully never before seen. It might be that the last trailer we saw actually depicts that moment where the player dies for the first time. It might be that every dead player continues to play in an "afterlife" world where the "death stranding" gameplay happens, being stranded in a hostile world of the post-humans (kind of like night time in Minecraft or traversing the anomalous regions in STALKER), an alien ecosystem where dead people try to retain their humanity (funnily enough, kind of like Dark Souls), survive the horrors and create connections with other dead people so they could grow stronger once they are resurrected. On the other hand, the living players are given the burden of protecting their comrades' genetic offspring, and it's even possible there's some weird representation of the "afterlife" existing within the baby's unconscious mind, where in fact the player carries a baby inside their body, which holds in it the main reality, which has players with babies in tanks etc. Babyception, maaaan. Players might even choose on how they approach the gameplay, how much humanity they will sacrifice each time they die, will they cling to their humanity until the end, corrupt themselves (other kind of black goo and stuff comes to mind with the new Prey) or even transcend into post-human.

Yeah, I need a drink.

EDIT:
Forgot to mention something about the whole baby ecosystem. In gameplay terms (and also presented in a very literal, if not grotesque fashion), the player "dies" and wakes up in the "death" plane. He carries in himself the potential for "resurrection" (the baby in the guts), but might need to feed it (in any case, fill up a bar) and possibly "do an action" (cut it out of his body) and "birth" the baby, then choosing to either send it "back to the living" or keep it, possibly consume it or give it to someone else as help, so they can resurrect faster, while the original player needs to find a new way to "make a new baby". Hooof. Something like that might explain all of that baby teleportation (Sam dies the first time in the new trailer and has "baby potential", he's shown "dead" in the first trailer and "looses" the baby (possibly even something like showing his "30th death" or something), which then appears in del Toro's tank in the second trailer).

Click to shrink...

But I've also read more theories and ideas since then, so I'm not too sure. There are some things I think work well with what we've seen so far, but it just as well can be demons, an alien/extradimensional/eldritch horror invasion or who know's what else.

I really like the idea though of a baby being the actual player, so a carrier character is kinda "possessed" by us (characters might have different purposes or "jobs"), and even though Sam is the protagonist of the story, we, the players, don't actually control anyone directly in the game.

 

[Ciphyde]

let's talk explosions.

"once there was an explosion, a bang which gave birth to time and space"

the beginning of space/time - the big bang.

"once there was an explosion, a bang which set a planet spinning that space"

planets are thought to be formed out of the remnants of supernova, the collation of clouds of gas and dust.

"once there was an explosion, a bang which gave rise to life as we know it"

this probably means the cambrian explosion, a short period of history in geological time where a huge amount of animals began to appear, according to fossil records https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambrian_explosion

"once there was an explosion, a bang which gave rise to life as we know it - and then, came the next explosion, an explosion that'll be our last."

we have a story of the birth of the universe, the creation of the solar system and earth, of our crawl out of the sea and evolution, and now finally of our extinction.

this is a story of how we went extinct.

Click to shrink...

The next explosion...death itself, an occurrence where life is going extinct. The monsters/entities arent real - theyre just a visual representation of death that reigns upon the living, I have no idea what i'm saying..
Why is sea life safe though? They cant destroy sea life? We see crabs fish and whales living well off. Maybe because sea brought upon the first form of life?

 

[Leonard Spiddles]

Considering the Del Toro connection, I'm assuming the game is going full Lovecraft. The dreamcatcher adds to that theory. Something I never knew is that apparently a dreamcatcher was traditionally hung over a baby's cradle.

Also, there's dreamcatcher folklore that links it to spiders. Bridges logo is a web.

 

[Deleted member 1722]

I just picked up on the Dreamcatcher he has on his belt. And when scene turns into underwater; as the camera pans down to Reedus on the ocean floor you can spot the Dreamcatcher floating away. Not sure if discussed yet.

 

[JehutyRunner]

I like this.

Click to shrink...

Yes please.

 

[SilkySm00th]

The literal apocalypse would be but i think I would much rather the story be something along the lines of us discovering another dimension, opening a door way and the contact of matter from our dimension with matter form this new dimension causes an explosion which kills a huge chunk of the human population on earth and also semi-merges these two worlds together. The beings form the other side of this door are actively trying to merge the two realities together for whatever reason and they can only do this by consuming human minds/life force/whatever. That's our last explosion at the end.

I would just rather see a lovecraft cosmic dimensional horror action game than a revelations story. No matter how Kojipro'd out it would be.

But I'm so past caring at this point. I'm in 100% day 0 and i dgaf what the actual story is.

 

[Paquete_PT]

My feeling is that the game will (metaphorically) approach the topics of environmental pollution/destruction and corporal greed.

Everything about the black liquid seen in the trailers makes me think about oil, and oil spillages. In the second trailer you can see dolphins stranded on the land, covered in oil.
Then there's the Bridges company (as seen on a pin on Del Toro's character jacket and painted on a destructed door that passes the camera under water on the last trailer). The company logo is a web engulfing the USA. The tentacles that seem to be attached to and control every "enemy" seem to allure that as well, the way corporations extend their "tentacles" and mindlessly control all of us.
The baby represents humanity's purity and sustainability and they try to protect it at all costs.

This is my main "feeling" from the trailers. I still don't understand what I'm seeing but I have a feeling that these two topics will be central to the plot (and it's a nice break from the military stuff from MGS). It could all mean nothing, of course.

Other stuff that I noticed (and others must have as well) that feel will be important but still can't figure out what it means: On the second trailer baby can't open left eye, same with the baby doll and Mad's character as more black goo coming out of his left eye.
The fact that there are babies involved and we're yet to see a woman presence makes me think that a plot similar to Children of Men could also be a possibility.

 

[Malkier]

I kind of saw the baby asking of like a representation of a soul and gameplay wise it's like an extra life after you lose a group member by killing them before being taken. Only reason I think that is the baby only shows up shortly after the first guy does. And the baby giving the thumbs up (extra life) is when it seems Reedus may have died/is in another realm or dimension. I'm kind of getting a vibe there will be some kind of global goal similar to the hidden MGSV worldwide nuke disarm cutscene but in a heaven/hell aspect. I guess im trying to make sense of what I saw and how it could fit in with playing with ropes....

 

[Dr. Dre's Dr.]

Regarding OP

Baby is obviously very important but probably mostly symbolic in game. I would disregard most of what you saw in the first trailer. I bet it was a tech demo and won't be feature in game. GDT at one point was confirmed to NOT be in the game. So I don't think Mads character is hunting him.

 

[TropicalSalad]

So Kojima said if we rewatched the old trailers we might find some clues, so I watched all three of them synched and I have a few observations, it's probably nothing but I had fun doing it.

I made quite a few images so you'll have to click links.

1. https://i.imgur.com/rG8iEKB.jpg
All three trailers starts camera to the ground, the first and second trailers have dead things on the ground, but there is actually grass in the third one.

2. https://i.imgur.com/PZSl9FD.jpg
At exactly the same time, both Normans and GDT have their body over something else (a baby in the 1st and 2nd, the corpse in the 3rd).

3. https://i.imgur.com/iuuvgVK.jpg
This one is interesting, the aging process happens when Norman has the black goo on his hands.

4. https://i.imgur.com/ByD68qL.jpg
The handprints on the knocked down vehicule appears at the exact time GDT plug in the cable in the baby machine.

5. https://i.imgur.com/2sdrkJn.jpg
When the fake baby floats away, the handprints leaves too.

6. https://i.imgur.com/qZvOML1.jpg
There's actually nothing special about this screen here but it seemed to just all "click" in motion.

7. https://i.imgur.com/usP8Xru.jpg
When the corps seems to go underwater (undergoo?), the fake baby lights up red

(ignore the top left screen from now on as the first trailer finished)

8. https://i.imgur.com/SNBX7B9.jpg
This is definitely reaching but the red light on the skeleton squad disapear when the .. ghost thingy shift its attention from Norman to the two other guys.

9. https://i.imgur.com/krAhe0w.jpg
I found it interesting that shit is going down the instant the skeleton squad arrives on scene

10. https://i.imgur.com/JEC27lB.jpg
The wounded guy gets grabbed the instant Mads removes his googles, also just after that the guy shot his partner in trailer 3, Mads do his little shot pose in trailer 2, and flying Mads do his pose on trailer 3, almost right one after another.

The next one (and last one) is super interesting, I divided it into parts.
11.
https://i.imgur.com/x3PfxhM.jpg
Here the baby becomes afraid when Mads seems to feels something, then
https://i.imgur.com/3YuNB2k.jpg
the fake baby gets on his boot and its eye starts twitching, at the same time the guy shoots on the creatures
https://i.imgur.com/CmFtAq2.jpg
Then the fake baby keeps its eye wide open here as if he found something
https://i.imgur.com/rIhnUSg.jpg
And the creatures grab him, Mads smile like he did something cool

If anyone wants to check the trailers in synch, you can do it here : https://viewsync.net/watch?v=UcaMw4aCz4c&t=0&v=H2Hy96sOnq8&t=0&v=XcuFJXgU6cA&t=0&mode=solo

Here's my interpretation (assuming there is indeed a link between the synched trailers) :
The most interesting part with Norman was point (4) and the aging process. Right after that there are small handprints going away from Norman (the camera in trailer 3 cut away at the same time), speculating, I can think of the aging process as the beggining (small handprints) of the virus(?) affecting the humans. We don't actually see the large prints until after the aging.
And then the we see the large prints, and the fake baby. I'm positive the two are connected. The fake baby lightings up when the corpse get dragged under, also I forgot to mention it but large prints appears just as the skeleton squad lights up too. When that light goes away, the two guys are attacked, and the last part where everything is synched is just too much.

So I thought of a theory.

What if both scenes actually happen at the same time?
First note how in the first and third trailer, there's no sign of civilisation, like none at all. No buildings, no roads, no nothing (there's also no sun but it's really cloudy), however in the second trailer, we're clearly in some kind of city. There is also a sense of emptyness in the first and third trailers not present in the second one (there's a lot of people, but they're probably all skeletons). Talking about skeletons, there are none in the first and third trailers, and there is no invisible creatures in the second one. I'm thinking that the first and third trailer take place in the same "space", and the second one happens somewhere else. I'm talking about "spaces" but I could be talking about "planes", there is just so much difference here I doubt the GDT trailer is even on the same "world" as the other two (I'm not speaking alternate worlds tho). I believe Mads is linked to the creatures on the third trailer, or can even BE the creatures. This goo stuff seems to be everywhere (and seems to be the common point between the two "places", that and the babies), so they could be linked "somehow".

I'm just jolting ideas, but I'm interested in what you people think.

 

[Venom]

Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth.

 

[NegativeCero]

I'm just glad that people like you exist to analyze things like this because I know I'm way too impatient to do it. I'd like to think that this will somehow come together and make sense.

 

[nel e nel]

Considering the Del Toro connection, I'm assuming the game is going full Lovecraft. The dreamcatcher adds to that theory. Something I never knew is that apparently a dreamcatcher was traditionally hung over a baby's cradle.

Also, there's dreamcatcher folklore that links it to spiders. Bridges logo is a web.

Click to shrink...

Or the Bridges logo is a close up representation of a dream catcher.

 

[Deleted member 8561]

Here is a stupid crazy theory I whipped up.

What ever cataclysmic event that introduced the aliens into our world took place in DC.

I think this is a symbol of the cataclysem that took place, you can see the same type of "webs" from the giant being that Reedus sees before getting fully taken into Limbo.

I think this explains why we saw World War II troops during the second trailer.

If we're dealing with an ability to control matter and reanimated corpses, Arlington Cemetery would be a prime location to literally raise an army of deceased soldiers, ranging from all eras of warfare.

The solders use the equipment they died knowing how to use, they can't "learn", hence the dated gear as well as the dated World War II planes flying above during the trailer as well. There are clear limits on how much "The Great Ones" can interact with our world. They can produce matter on the fly, which allows them to arm the dead soldiers with gear and technology from their own era.

 

[Leithkorias]

I simply can not believe mads is a villain in the strictest sense of the word. He may be a character that operates in a gray area but Kojima loves him far too much to make him the bad guy. Think about how much he loved Big Boss. Big boss was always believed to simply be the evil villain but we find out there was Duality to that character and it wasn't black and white.

 

[Miniature Kaiju]

What if the baby is the player character?

Click to shrink...

Not the player character. The player. The baby is a diegetic representation of the player within the game universe.

 

[Deleted member 28461]

I think I'd like it if nothing was fully explained, and a lot of it was just strange, unnerving situations. Like a David Lynch video game.

I don't really think that will happen, though.

 

[Hoo-doo]

This thread is blowing my mind.

 

[Anya7890]

I like this.

Click to shrink...

Similar to my own theory but I think the demons are aliens whom feed on the corruption of humans. other then that, my thoughts are the babies are used for thier innocence to ward them off as well.

 

[Metanoia Prime]

This tweet lmao

 

[Kazuhira]

This trailer is the kind of weirdness/mindfuckery i expected from The Evil Within 2 tbh.
I'm not even gonna try to theorize about this game,it's a lost cause even if it's fun to do it.

 

[Protome]

I like the apocalypse theory.
My other guess though would be that each of the explosions talked about in the trailer are of creation. Big bang created time and space, explosions created planets, explosion created life. The last explosion being one that wipes out life doesn't really fit that pattern, so I think it's going to be an explosion created a new life which is replacing humanity and wiping it out.

 

[Japanmanx3]

So Kojima said if we rewatched the old trailers we might find some clues, so I watched all three of them synched and I have a few observations, it's probably nothing but I had fun doing it.

I made quite a few images so you'll have to click links.

1. https://i.imgur.com/rG8iEKB.jpg
All three trailers starts camera to the ground, the first and second trailers have dead things on the ground, but there is actually grass in the third one.

2. https://i.imgur.com/PZSl9FD.jpg
At exactly the same time, both Normans and GDT have their body over something else (a baby in the 1st and 2nd, the corpse in the 3rd).

3. https://i.imgur.com/iuuvgVK.jpg
This one is interesting, the aging process happens when Norman has the black goo on his hands.

4. https://i.imgur.com/ByD68qL.jpg
The handprints on the knocked down vehicule appears at the exact time GDT plug in the cable in the baby machine.

5. https://i.imgur.com/2sdrkJn.jpg
When the fake baby floats away, the handprints leaves too.

6. https://i.imgur.com/qZvOML1.jpg
There's actually nothing special about this screen here but it seemed to just all "click" in motion.

7. https://i.imgur.com/usP8Xru.jpg
When the corps seems to go underwater (undergoo?), the fake baby lights up red

(ignore the top left screen from now on as the first trailer finished)

8. https://i.imgur.com/SNBX7B9.jpg
This is definitely reaching but the red light on the skeleton squad disapear when the .. ghost thingy shift its attention from Norman to the two other guys.

9. https://i.imgur.com/krAhe0w.jpg
I found it interesting that shit is going down the instant the skeleton squad arrives on scene

10. https://i.imgur.com/JEC27lB.jpg
The wounded guy gets grabbed the instant Mads removes his googles, also just after that the guy shot his partner in trailer 3, Mads do his little shot pose in trailer 2, and flying Mads do his pose on trailer 3, almost right one after another.

The next one (and last one) is super interesting, I divided it into parts.
11.
https://i.imgur.com/x3PfxhM.jpg
Here the baby becomes afraid when Mads seems to feels something, then
https://i.imgur.com/3YuNB2k.jpg
the fake baby gets on his boot and its eye starts twitching, at the same time the guy shoots on the creatures
https://i.imgur.com/CmFtAq2.jpg
Then the fake baby keeps its eye wide open here as if he found something
https://i.imgur.com/rIhnUSg.jpg
And the creatures grab him, Mads smile like he did something cool

If anyone wants to check the trailers in synch, you can do it here : https://viewsync.net/watch?v=UcaMw4aCz4c&t=0&v=H2Hy96sOnq8&t=0&v=XcuFJXgU6cA&t=0&mode=solo

Here's my interpretation (assuming there is indeed a link between the synched trailers) :
The most interesting part with Norman was point (4) and the aging process. Right after that there are small handprints going away from Norman (the camera in trailer 3 cut away at the same time), speculating, I can think of the aging process as the beggining (small handprints) of the virus(?) affecting the humans. We don't actually see the large prints until after the aging.
And then the we see the large prints, and the fake baby. I'm positive the two are connected. The fake baby lightings up when the corpse get dragged under, also I forgot to mention it but large prints appears just as the skeleton squad lights up too. When that light goes away, the two guys are attacked, and the last part where everything is synched is just too much.

So I thought of a theory.

What if both scenes actually happen at the same time?
First note how in the first and third trailer, there's no sign of civilisation, like none at all. No buildings, no roads, no nothing (there's also no sun but it's really cloudy), however in the second trailer, we're clearly in some kind of city. There is also a sense of emptyness in the first and third trailers not present in the second one (there's a lot of people, but they're probably all skeletons). Talking about skeletons, there are none in the first and third trailers, and there is no invisible creatures in the second one. I'm thinking that the first and third trailer take place in the same "space", and the second one happens somewhere else. I'm talking about "spaces" but I could be talking about "planes", there is just so much difference here I doubt the GDT trailer is even on the same "world" as the other two (I'm not speaking alternate worlds tho). I believe Mads is linked to the creatures on the third trailer, or can even BE the creatures. This goo stuff seems to be everywhere (and seems to be the common point between the two "places", that and the babies), so they could be linked "somehow".

I'm just jolting ideas, but I'm interested in what you people think.

Click to shrink...

Been waiting on a breakdown like this!

 

[Landford]

My take is that The Handprints on Norman on the first trailer are the players controlling him. The Ludens character has a "Extra Vehicular Creative Activity Suit" written on it, and the character looks like Norman. A vessel for creative activity would be a playable character. I dont think its aliens , I think its players that are "stuck" on the world, controlling living things.

 

[Animal Liberation Ⓥ]

I like this.

Click to shrink...

Whoa, that sounds pretty creepy and awesome all at the same time!

 

[Truant]

My guess is that there's been some sort of event that has caused reality to break, or at least some form of inter-dimensional inconsistency.

If the dog-tags that Reedus wears have a bunch of physics equations on them, maybe they act as some sort of grounding or constant that protects him from all the crazy stuff that's obviously breaking the laws of physics around him. He didn't seem as affected by all the weird happenings as the other people in the trailer, and I think that's why.