Dr. Rougeot Melillo, better known as Deadman is a Bridges member appears to be involved in the medical field, who support Sam in his westward expedition. He is an artificial human, created from a combination of cadavers and stem cells.
History[]
Background[]
Truth[]
Deadman was born via in-vitro fertilization, by fertilizing an egg with sperm whose donors are unknown, but grown in an artificial womb. After his "birth" due to a defect, probably genetic, some organs were absent or did not function as they should, leading doctors to replace them over time with those of compatible donors, to keep him alive.
Fabricated History[]
In the story fabricated by himself, Deadman told a different version of his birth: that 70% of his body was harvested from cadavers, due to a failure in his vital organs that did not manifest the "spark of life", while the remaining 30% was grown from pluripotent stem cells.
Bridges[]
Not having been born in the traditional way, Deadman was born without a "ka" (soul), and therefore without a Beach, therefore develops an obsession for the dead, becoming a coroner, and for this he enters the Medical Team of Bridges. When President Bridget's cancer reappears, Deadman leads the team that looks after her health, doing what he can to keep her alive. When Bridges brings Sam, the President's adopted son, back to Capital Knot City, Deadman is the first to speak to him.
During this first meeting, Deadman tells the porter what happened in his two days in a coma: the destruction of Central Knot City, the loss of CDT 6, the disposal order of the BB, etc. Deadman also orders him to deliver morphine to the dying President. In the Isolation Ward, Sam hands the morphine to Deadman, who invites him to meet the President, none other that his adoptive mother. Upon the death of President Strand, Deadman and Die-Hardman try to persuade Sam to embark on the expedition to west, and take the body of the deceased to the nearest incinerator. When Sam refuses to dispose his BB, which saved his life from the BTs at the incinerator, Deadman is worried about the BB + DOOMS combination, but eventually takes it to prepare it for the future expedition.
Supporting Sam's expedition[]
When Sam arrives in the private room of the Distribution Center West of Capital Knot City with BB in auto-toxemia, Deadman guides him to insert the capsule into the incubator, where a simple alignment with a stillmother solves the problem. Here Deadman explains to the porter that the connection between the BB and the stillmother accentuates the connection of the baby with the world of the dead and Sam, connecting in turn, is able to "see" the BTs. Eventually Deadman reminds Sam not to get attached to the BB as it is simple equipment, unpredictable and prone to failure.
During the expedition, Deadman and Heartman discover that Sam's blood is lethal against BTs, with Mama working to produce a type of grenade they can use. As the Chiral Network expands, Deadman discovers that the BBs were used by terrorists three years earlier, during the Amelie expedition, to oppose the expansion of the UCA. Consequently, Bridges decided to use BBs themselves, most likely BB-28 was created for the purpose. Deadman also discovers the records of the first experiment with a BB and its catastrophic end, however Deadman continues to have doubts.
Realign Lou[]
After connecting Mountain Knot City to the network, Sam discovers that Lou is not present in the private room incubator. Suddenly Deadman appears with the BB in his arms, thanks to Fragile's abilities, telling Sam that the BB has a serious problem: having been conceived as tools in the middle of the worlds of the living and that of the dead, the BBs need to connect to a stillmother through incubators, but the BB-28 now seems to tend for that of the living, so much so that it is "growing". The two argue having opposite ideas about the situation of the BB-28 and Deadman, fearful of the consequences, intends to "reset" the BB to reconnect it to the afterlife, an operation that however could erase the memories of the BB. Deadman forcibly takes BB-28 from Sam who, despite Sam being against it, agrees to part with his colleague, and in response BB urinates in Deadman's face. Needing a shower, Deadman walks into Sam's, waiting for him. In the active shower, so as not to be heard by the HQ, Deadman reveals to Sam the result of his investigations: the experiments with the BB, banned after the Death Stranding, continued in secret under the orders of the then President Strand. However, the BBs also had to be integrated into the terminals of the Chiral Network to facilitate entry to the Beach, despite the fact that the technology is now also used by terrorists. After notifying him that they are watching him, Deadman takes the BB and exits the room.
Deadman instructs Sam on how to connect the preppers in the zone in order to help him reset the BB. Once Deadman is done, he instructs Sam to meet him at a cabin above Mountain Knot, due to the nearby supercell he cannot move, to reconnect him to the porter and avoid problems. Once there, however, the supercell sucks the trio into it. Awakened in the war-torn Beach, scared and chased by the Combat Veteran and his skeletons, Deadman hides in the sewers and connects to the BB while waiting for Sam. When he finds him, Sam notices how "Lou" has grown fond of Deadman and that they no longer share memories. Once the veteran is defeated, Deadman returns to the world of the living. Deadman has Sam and Lou taken to the private room and returns to Capital Knot, where he discovers that "Lou" was the name that Sam and his wife, who committed suicide ten years earlier, had chosen for their unborn child, thus discovering the truth about Sam and Bridges. When he confesses this to the porter, Sam denies it and Deadman tells him his true story and how he does not have a soul, as he is born artificially, but now he feels connected to him and to the BB. Deadman then reveals to Sam the true identity of his pursuer on the Beach: he is Clifford Unger, a former Special Forces soldier of the United States military.
Post Death Stranding[]
After the Death stranding, a final interview with Deadman reveals the truth about his origin. His story of being created from pluripotent stem cells was a fake (more of an exaggerated truth): he was born via in-vitro fertilization but in an artificial womb. However, he did acquire lacking organs from cadavers. He also reveals that during his time with Lou, he was able to visit a Beach, though not his own. Despite not having his own Beach, he is able to traverse the Beaches through connections with others, and has thus "put a great many worries of mine [Deadman] in perspective."
Personality[]
Deadman is affable and well-meaning. However, he is ashamed of his nature as an artificial human, calling himself "Frankenstein's monster", installing a great deal of loneliness in him, and he reaches out to Sam as a result. Because he has no birthday and no "Ka", he views himself as a "soulless meat puppet". However, it is precisely his condition that prompted him to study the dead, and the knowledge acquired made him enter Bridges, starting to create those connections he did not have and feeling accepted for the first time.
However, Sam was the first with whom he initially felt connected, either through the porter's past or by sharing the experience of escaping the Combat Veteran, so much so that on several occasions he worries about him. Another character Deadman feels connected with is BB-28. Although at first Deadman thinks of the BB as an instrument and property of Bridges, so much so that he is "urinated" on by the baby for the way he treats it; in the end Deadman becomes attached to it, a feeling that is strengthened when he connects with it in the war-torn Beach. Deadman is, among other things, the first to be hugged by Sam at the end of the Last Stranding, and it is Deadman himself who suggests to the porter to free "Lou" from her pod.
Notes[]
In-universe[]
- Deadman expresses his loneliness to Sam saying he has no wife, no children, and no friends, but only until he meets Sam things start to change. Deadman is "Frankenstein's monster, I have no soul, no Beach. that's why I try to connect myself with you. I am a Deadman."
- Deadman is categorized as a "Homo religiosus" by Heartman due to his "transcendental, sublime" relationship with death, saying that it is "his faith".
- Deadman real name, Dr. Rougeot Melillo, is only visible in his ID badge and is an anagram for Guillermo Del Toro, a Mexican filmmaker, author, and makeup artist on whom Deadman was modeled.
Out-of-universe[]
- Deadman was first introduced in Death Stranding's TGA 2016 teaser trailer.
- At TGS 2018, Ishizumi revealed that Deadman "is quite funny, and may be the character with the most lines in Death Stranding".[1]
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