Death Stranding EXPLAINED: All Ending Questions Answered

1. Lou, Sam And The Future

While Amelie's world might be over at that point though, the land of the living is going to exist for another couple thousand years, and the question returns to just what humanity is going to do in the face of inevitable doom.

Essentially, the answer is to live.

Just because the end of the world has been postponed doesn't mean a utopia has come out the other side though; humanity might be reconnected and together, but hierarchies are still in place, some information isn't made public knowledge after Die-Hardman becomes President, and even Sam, while he's learned to embrace some personal connections, hasn't shaken off his nomad ways. The point isn't about things being perfect though, but individuals - individuals with dark pasts - trying to be better and now having the time to be better.

This comes through perfectly in the game's final mission: taking Lou to the incinerator to be disposed of. All the way through the story the BB's days have been numbered; because of the state they exist in, they're not expected to last more than a year, and because they're viewed as equipment, they're disposed of as soon as they've served their purpose.

Of course Sam, the player, and even Deadman have formed a connection with Lou over the course of the journey, and aren't going to let her go so easily. A handy flashback quickly reminds the player that taking a BB out of its pod has a 70% chance of failure, but against the odds Lou survives, and Sam takes her with him to raise her as his own in place of the daughter he lost years ago.

Lou's survival kind of sums up Death Stranding's entire point: the odds were overwhelmingly not in favour of this going well, but it was the hope in that 30%, and the desire to gamble on a successful outcome despite knowing tragedy was more likely that, makes the human spirit destined to overcome anything.