A24 have a hard-won reputation for weird and surreal horror, but even their fans are going to be tested by Death Stranding. The newly announced movie sees the studio teaming up with legendary game designer Hideo Kojima for a film based on the world seen in his critically acclaimed 2019 game of the same name.
So, what should we expect from a live-action Death Stranding movie?
What is Death Stranding?
Hoo boy this is going to take a hot minute. Death Stranding is set in a post-apocalyptic world struggling to recover from a cataclysmic event (the titular Death Stranding) that “blurred the boundaries between life and death”. Among other things this means that rain is now “timefall” that rapidly ages anything it touches, meaning the surviving humans remain within bunkers sealed away from the world outside.
Even if rain didn’t kill you, the landscape is teeming with invisible murderous ghosts (BTs) that can only be detected by unborn fetuses extracted from the wombs of brain-dead mothers. These “Bridge Babies” live in simulated wombs you must carry about in order not to be eaten by ghosts.
Naturally, this is going to translate into solid Hollywood gold.
In the game, you play as Sam Porter Bridges (Norman Reedus) a deliveryman transporting supplies and equipment across the ruins of the United States. Along the way he encounters characters played by Mads Mikkelsen, Léa Seydoux, and Margaret Qualley, underlining Kojima’s inclination to put big names into this games. And, trust me, things get weird!
What will the movie be like?
In the announcement Kojima underlined that this project “is not just a direct translation of the game” and that he and A24 are setting out to create “a Death Stranding universe.” This almost certainly means that this movie will be an entirely new story set in the Death Stranding world, which may or may not feature characters and locations from the game.
Kojima is also developing Death Stranding 2 at the moment, so perhaps this movie will dovetail into that new story.
Release window
Death Stranding has only just been announced so it’s early days for the project yet. That said, the world is already established, Kojima doubtless has a firm creative vision for the movie, and A24 tend not to waste time before getting things into production.
Even so, we’d be surprised to see Death Stranding on the big screen before 2026, or late 2025 at the very earliest. More on this extremely cool-sounding movie as we hear it.
