Hello fellow detectives,
I have a pretty thorough thing to present here, after keeping a close eye on Rare Bird since the whole BB Japan debacle. The twitter account that I still to this day believe could have played a part in this, no matter how much downvotes I've gotten or will get for keeping that door open. I'm sticking with my gut feeling with this, and I also believe they possibly shut down when the account was done with it's specific task of leading us to Rare Bird. I guess that pretty much everyone knows the backstory by now but in case you don't, you can read my old post to catch up on what was mysterious about them in the first place: https://www.reddit.com/r/BlueBoxConspiracy/comments/o8b20b/bb_jp_dont_dismiss_them_just_yet/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
First let me just say this: I went in to this with a strong conviction of this being a Kojima ARG. That's the fun of it, so when investigating I of course use those glasses when looking for possible clues. With a different mindset than mine, I’m fully aware that some things might seem far fetched in what you’re about to read. But I hope you have the stamina and time to get to the end of this, where I will present a possible conclusion to this ”branch” of the mystery that's hopefully somewhat interesting at least. Or maybe a win by just learning some interesting trivia! This will be my last post on the matter, because I simply don't have the energy to keep obsessing about this anymore. But to quote our old friend Akira Yamoka: "I’m quite sure it will be the one you’ve been waiting for"
You can also use this post as a drinking game if you become bored, and take a shot every time you spot ”dualism” and see if you can make it to the end without passing out. There are also some spoilers further down, mainly on the horror films ”Us” and ”The Evil Dead” just so you know. And sorry for my english not being perfect. So with that out of the way, let's get on with it.
We must start with something that's gonna be important later on - A breakdown of the Sinfeld Remaster trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5YuS59sQe0 It has a lot of references, and strangely enough very few of them seem to point to Seinfeld. I find the odder elements and references immense in comparison, to a point where it’s not really fair to call it a ”Seinfeld horror spoof” imo. I have categorized the references I've manage to spot in two different blocks as you will see.
First, we have 3 famous Hollywood blockbuster references including Terminator 2, Ghostbusters & Spider-Man. So what more do these films have in common other than being super successful? Well, first of all they are all properties owned, and/or licensed by Sony Pictures (just like the TV-show Seinfeld itself btw.) But storywise, they also share one considerable element - Characters with hidden identities, blending in with human society in unique forms. T2 in the form of A.I (T-800/T-1000). Ghostbusters, in the form of paranormal possession (Zuul the gatekeeper). And Spider-Man, in the form of a real person (Peter Parker). A theme that can be linked to recent Kojima activities on twitter. Such as the ”They Live” t-shirt for example, a film that have this element too but with aliens. Kojima also tweeted recently about the history of alien invasions portrayed in fiction. How in the early days, it was straight up attacks. But in modern days he has noted a shift towards ”breeding” as he calls it. Meaning a more silent attack I guess, living and breeding among us without us even knowing it. Like a bug slowly eating us from inside.
Then we have 3 other totally different references: The anime series ”Neon Genesis Evangelion”, the famous manga ”Akira”, and lastly a Kaiju, most likely a reference to the King of Monsters himself - ”Godzilla”. And what does these have in common? Well, the most obvious is that they all share a Japanese origin of course, just like the man of mystery himself. But the IP’s also happen to share strong connections to Kojima. YES I KNOW, Kojima is a fan of billions of things, relax... But these I think stand out from the crowd a bit as they are also works that have influenced his past games. Pretty immensely in fact, not just on a fan/easter egg level so to speak. So let’s put on the Kojima glasses and see what we can find by looking at them individually.
Hideo is a huge fan of Neon Genesis Evangelion, and paid homage to the mecha aspect of the series with his own mecha game ”Zone of the Enders” You can also see many references in Metal Gear Solid, which you can see here in the video that describes it better than I possibly could: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOnmiG6bxYk&t=8s
Godzilla, another Kojima favorite. A fictional creature, born from the ashes of post-WWII Japan. From the fear and horrors of the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. At it’s core it was basically an anti-nuke message, a message that is also deeply rooted in Metal Gear Solid. References to Godzilla can be spotted all over the franchise for these reasons, perhaps most notably in MGS 3 with this phone call: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnsxSCuFt70 But if you want to dive in to the history even further, here’s a pretty good mini documentary to watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXYSqFr9bLU
If you for some reason feel the anti-nuke message in MGS is far fetched, just look at the secret ending of Phantom Pain, unlocked after players managed to disarm every nuke in the game years after the game’s release. One last goodbye from Kojima, with a very clear message: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4uSkAACoHc
Then we have Akira, the last in the bunch of Kojima favorites. Look at this copypaste from his wikipedia page about his game Snatcher, and not much more needs to be said really: ”He also received inspiration from anime. His early works, particularly the cyberpunk adventure game Snatcher, were influenced by cyberpunk anime, most notably Akira.”
So we end up with 2 separate piles of references, one Japanese and one American. And finally I can see a hidden meaning/reason to release the Sinfeld trailer both in english, and with google translated japanese like they did, as well as all other twitter posts from BBJP. Because all good things sure comes in pairs as they say... https://imgur.com/a/olSPC9E
Speaking of which, Rare Bird then suddenly announced from nowhere a second ”game” called ”The Last Video Store” for Playstation VR https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcz71RPKKm4 A very very fake thing that you can go ahead and believe if you wish, but I'm not buying it for a second.
And now the really interesting stuff starts to unfold. I start the trailer, and the Minnie Riperton song ”Les Fleurs” starts to play. And I thought, where have heard this song before? I searched it on google, and got the answer right away. Multiple hits with articles about it being used in the ending scene of Jordan Peels horror movie ”Us”. The scene is a reference to the 1986 campaign ”Hands across america” An event that figures significantly in the plot and also has Death Stranding vibes all over it. Peele has said the event was the ultimate symbol of dualism. And oh boy, that movie is basically one big duality piece. From the symbol of the scissor, all the way to the title itself. ”Us” as humans, and US as in united states as a whole. Even down to the red/blue poster itself from that old campaign: https://www.discogs.com/Voices-Of-America-Hands-Across-America/release/2237620/image/SW1hZ2U6MzYzNDQxNA==
The movies plays with the idea of underground doppelgangers (visualized in red, and beneath us, just like that campaign poster) Heck, even the main doppelganger villain goes by the name Red. Who of course is not really the villain in the end, and we’re left with figuring out who really was real or fake. In the name of dualism, like almost everything else in the film. (Also, yet another example of some entity blending in with society. How many unique examples of this do we have now, five?)
But anyway, let’s go to that last scene with the song and have a look https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCMacZNMYyc Skip to the very end of the clip, to the closing aerial shot of some hills where thousands of (red) doppelgangers are lined up all the way to the horizon. Holding hands to show that the doppelgangers have taken over, killed their counterparts and unites America in some freaky way. The movie ends.
Then go back and look at the beginning of The last video store trailer, that opens with a similar shot but with the sun removed from the top right corner and replaced with a moon on the top left. The warm and sunny day, inverted to the cold blue sky of night. And the same song starts, like it picked up exactly where ”Us” ended right? Panning down from the hills to this small ghost-like town surrounded by fog, and a Harry Mason-ish jeep comes driving in and… No, let’s not go there, FOCUS ON THE EXPERIMENT!
So after seeing those two scenes connect so well to each other, it made me think. What if this is the actual puzzle? So I tried a little experiment, simply by trying to tie together beginnings with endings like that. Pushing all the other references aside for a moment, and just look at imagery and setting. The last shots of every piece, and how it connects to the opening shots on something else and so on. Connecting them into something like a chain, just to see how long of a chain I can make. So in the spirit of Death Stranding, lets connect som friggin strands!
I started with the Sinfeld Remastered trailer of course, since it was the first thing to drop. And something hits me immediately which I’ve totally missed for some reason. Look at the last part of P.T https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ay_RAkE7bUY the teaser cutscene that unlocks with Norman Reedus walking down the street before the logo reveal. It plays out almost EXACTLY the same as the opening shot of the Sinfeld trailer. How the camera follows main character Donathans feet, moving up to the neck. How he turns his head just a little to a sudden stop, before finally turning around to reveal his face and spits out a Kojima reference on top of another Kojima reference: ”Kept you waitin, huh?”. Then how it cuts to a wider shot, as he keeps walking down the foggy street as the camera tracks backwards.
Which means I obviously had to throw P.T in the mix here as well, and connect it to the chain to the left of Sinfeld.
Okay so the ending of P.T became my new starting point, and the beginning of the Sinfeld trailer picks it up right where it left off 7 years ago. Great, then let’s move to the end of the Sinfeld trailer, where a camera tracks in to a close-up of some sort of test subject/experiment on someone/something in a tank. Trailer ends.
The movie ”Us” begins with a close-up of a rabbit inside a cage. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dm82qvn5Crs It’s basically a metaphor for the film, with the rabbit being the common symbol of test subjects and rebirth. Test subjects which in this film represents the lives of these ”Tethered” as an abandoned experiment. It was basically a cloning project that was run by the government to infiltrate and control the American people. It fits together pretty well with the last shot of Sinfeld right, so let’s skip the end with the shot on the hills that we've already gone through.
”The Last Video Store” trailer picks it up like I said, to finally end the trailer on the Evil Dead logo. So, no need for a new starting point here I guess, since the title itself is in the the last shot of the trailer? Ok, not much more to do than go straight to the end of Evil Dead then.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dZdGPNL5Bs
Ash walks out the door in the morning after the climax of fighting off the evil dead all night in the house. Then almost immediately, he get knocked out just a few feet from the door by an evil entity bursting through it. (We know he’s knocked out because he later wakes up in the same spot in the sequel, Dead by Dawn) Anyway, he gets knocked down, it cuts to black and the film ends.
P.T then starts with you waking up lying on the ground, a couple of feet from the door, which you go through to meet your fears… So, the chains suddenly connects with the other far end and forms a circle. Or more like a loop. An endless loop of nightmares? That very much reflects the gameplay idea of what we experienced in P.T/Silent Hills, which also turned out to be the final puzzle piece for this test to go full circle.
So my possible conclusion is this: ”The loop” itself is a metaphor for P.T which is also the answer to the puzzle. And within the P.T loop, smaller clues are scattered all over the place. Remember those two piles of references from the breakdown? A japanese pile, and an american pile. In what I believe translates to past project influences, and future project influences. And from the future pile, it looks like it probably involves something along the lines of a silent ongoing invasion around us or in ourselves. Some sort of entity blending in with society, making us question what/who’s real or not.
Yeah, that's pretty much it. Thanks for reading and hope you found something interesting.
Still haven’t passed out on the duality drinking game? Okey then wth, here’s a little bonus content: The Last Video Store, with the exception of Evil Dead itself of course which I believe was the ”real” clue, it highlights some films specifically that all happen to share the reputation of being carbon copies or some of them even straight up rip-offs of other box office hits and classics.
Mac and Me (1988) - E.T
Demon Wind (1990) - Evil Dead
Andre (1994) - Free Willy
And here I can finally also place one last reference that I couldn’t place from Sinfeld, which I believe is ”Alligator” (1980) - the beat for beat rip-off of Jaws.
Every great film has it’s counterpart I guess. The clone, hoping to blend in with the successful cool guys... :)
Good night! / おやすみなさい！
No comments:
Post a Comment