Death Stranding: 9 Steps To Understanding Hideo Kojima's First Trailer

3. The Name - 'Death Stranding'

It definitely sounds weird to say, but a quick Google throws up a Wiki page on a natural phenomenon called 'Cetacean Stranding', the act of whales accidentally (or otherwise) beaching themselves, before slowly dying.

The reasons are hypothesised to be manyfold, mostly boiling down to the whale's natural instincts to echo-locate leading them astray, or occasionally responding to another beached whale, only to get stranded themselves.

What can we take from this? Well, for me, it feels as though Kojima is making a comment on mankind's evolutionary path. Maybe we were never meant to grow and evolve this way?

Metal Gear Solid V dove into the ramifications of evolution in regards to language over time, and as we see Reedus stranded on a beach himself - before being joined by a slew of other creatures and whales specifically - there are definite parallels here.

Is humankind and all of our failings just a result of being 'beached' on landmasses we should never have populated? It's one hell of a thought.