I know not everyone shares our vision for the future. If we Americans don't come together again, humanity won't survive.
– Amelie
Samantha America Strand, widely known as Amelie, is the "ka" (soul) of the sixth extinction entity, publicly recognized as the daughter of her counterpart "ha" (body), President Bridget Strand and "adoptive sister" of Sam Strand.
Story[]
Early History[]
Truth[]
Bridget Strand, the sixth extinction entity, developed uterine cancer in her early twenties. During surgery, her "ka" and "ha" separated, with her "ka" waking up on the Beach. Strangely, both halves of her essence were aware of each other's existence and worked in tandem. Due to the timeless nature of the Beach, Bridget's "ka" did not age, and the age gap between the two grew to a noticeable degree. Eventually rumors began to spread of a younger version of Bridget wandering the White House. In order to deflect suspicion, Bridget created the persona of Amelie for her "ka", fabricating a cover history.
Fabricated History[]
In the story fabricated by Bridget, her daughter, Samantha America "Amelie" Strand, was born with "locked-in syndrome", a condition that caused her soul to be born on the Beach. This separation of body and soul caused her to be hospitalized for her entire childhood. However, her DOOMs abilities were unprecedented, and by the age of twenty she developed the ability to transport herself to and from the Beach, where she ended up spending the majority of her time. Due to her condition, Bridget kept Amelie's existence secret but Amelie chose to move in with her mother upon her recovery.
Causing the Death Stranding[]
During her time there, Bridget/Amelie discovered that the Beach housed numerous biological archives as far back as the creation of the Earth, and both halves worked in tandem to put in place the Chiral Network in order to extract and study the information contained within those archives with the hope of preventing a future mass extinction event she foresaw in her nightmares.
Shortly before the Death Stranding, both conducted experiments on Clifford Unger's wife and baby, chosen for its potential as a first sacrifice for the future network, but Cliff discovered the nature of these experiments and tried to escape the facility with his son. As Bridget, she ordered her special advisor and security guard John Blake McClane, an old comrade of Cliff, to kill him and recover the BB, but Cliff released him from his pod. When John hesitated, Bridget decided to pull the trigger herself, but accidentally killed the BB along with Cliff. Feeling immense guilt at killing the baby, Amelie found the child's body on the Beach. She restored and sent him back to the world of the living, where Bridget then chose to raise him as her own child and named him Sam, making him a repatriate in the process. However, in doing so, she upset the balance of life and death, and set the Death Stranding in motion.
During Sam's youth, as a sufferer of DOOMS, he had severe nightmares and would find himself stranded on the Beach unable to find his way out. Always there for him in such moments, Amelie would arrive to calm Sam and help him make his way out. At some point Sam fashioned a quipu for her in the world of the living and was able to bring it with him to the Beach, where he gifted it to Amelie as a representation of their bond. However when Sam left Bridges, caused by the suicide of his pregnant wife and the related voidout, Amelie lost the only true connection to the outside world.
Bridges I[]
Carrying on her "mother's" legacy, Amelie embarked on an expedition to bring her message of unity to survivor communities across America, convincing many of them to join the UCA and connect to the newly created Chiral Network. She protected the expedition team while they looked for survivors using her preternatural ability to anticipate craters and BT-occupied territories in order to circumnavigate the areas. Three years into the expedition, Amelie and her team reached Edge Knot City, whereupon the team was wiped out. Amelie was captured and held within the city by the separatist leader Higgs Monaghan as an insurance policy against the UCA, but was allowed to use Edge Knot City's facilities and communicate with her UCA allies in Capital Knot City.
In truth, Amelie intended to use Higgs and gave him a fake Bridge baby that would allow him to enter Amelie's beach and detect BTs. She then taught him part of the truth of the Death Stranding and tasked him to destroy humanity as fast as he could in order to precipitate the Last Stranding, as she realized that no matter what humanity attempted to try and prevent it, they would only delay the inevitable.
Sam's expedition[]
While carrying out the Last Stranding implementation plan, Amelie also plays the part of the daughter who inherits her mother's will after Bridget's death: to complete the Chiral Network and thus reunite America. For this she makes sure that Sam, recently brought back to Bridges, accepts the mission to the west. This leads Higgs, in full jealousy, to attack Sam several times during his journey. At some point Higgs take the quipu from Amelie, preventing her to independently comunicate with Sam. Whether this action is the result of Higgs' will or part of Amelie's plan to speed up the expedition is not certain, however.
When Sam finally reaches the terminal at the Distribution Center North of Edge Knot City he is attacked by Higgs, who puts Amelie under his control and manifests a colossal BT to combat Sam. Sam eventually wins the battle, after which Higgs takes Amelie to the beach. On the Beach, Amelie speaks to a kneeling Higgs as Sam arrives (via Fragile's jump) and she is promptly locked in a net as Sam and Higgs fight hand-to-hand. Following Higgs' defeat, Amelie is rescued and confirms to Sam her status as an extinction entity who can "end it all". Furthermore, she confesses to him that she slipped out of the Beach to visit him on one occasion while he was still back east, having lied to him about being held hostage to coerce him into embarking west, a plan concocted by Die-Hardman. The two then briefly run blissfully along the Beach's shore before stopping to witness Die-Hardman attempt in vain to shoot down Bridget and Cliff's subsequent arrival. Amelie then pushes Sam away into the Seam.
The Last Stranding[]
Unbeknownst to Sam, reconnecting America via the Chiral Network has also connected all the Beaches to that of Amelie, which is the main one. This triggers the Last Stranding that begins to scourge the world.
Upon arrival on Amelie's Beach, Sam searches for Amelie until she appears to him and reveals the full truth. She then presents Sam with two choices: watch the swift ending of the world together with her "until the last flame winks out", or use the revolver Die-Hardman left behind to sever his connection to her and her Beach to postpone the Last Stranding. Sam chooses instead to embrace her, assuring her he would always be there for her as she has for him. As an extinction entity, she has been fated to usher in the Last Stranding, and that after an agonizingly long span of solitude on the Beach, she opted to set the Last Stranding in motion but, after Sam's actions, she chooses to remain on the Beach, to spare humanity the Last Stranding for the moment, in the hope of providing life an opportunity to come out stronger from the extinction.
After sharing one last embrace with Sam, Amelie pushes him out of her Beach and into his own to return to his allies, thus remaining forever alone.
Personality[]
Amelie's personality is difficult to describe due to her status as an extinction entity. She is usually kind yet condescending, though she also exhibits sadness from having to live alone on the beach. Mostly, however, Amelie has a manipulative nature to get what she needs.
Amelie was somewhat possessive of Sam, as after Higgs' defeat, Fragile offered to take Sam back east, but Amelie rejects the offer in his stead, saying that she and the chiral network would do it; her tone was dismissive, arguably jealous, emphasizing Amelie's attachment to Sam.
Physical description[]
Amelie is a young white woman with an appearance between 25 and 35 years old, blue eyes and mid length blonde hair. She wears a red blazer dress with heel shoes of the same color. Sometimes the color of her dress changes to black, expressing a certain emotion.
The other relevant aspect in this appearance is the use of the quipu on her necklace.
Abilities[]
Amelie is able to sense BTs to great effect and can circumnavigate craters and BT-occupied territories entirely.
Amelie, as an extinction entity, is ultimately the one responsible for bridging the gap between the living world and the Beach and is therefore the cause of the Death Stranding. She can potentially force all beaches to merge with her own via the Chiral network. This would allow untold numbers of BTs to pass onto Earth and ultimately cause a chain reaction of Voidouts that would permanently end life on Earth, an event called the Last Stranding. Amelie has resurrected dead beings, such as Sam. She is the one responsible for DOOMS abilities; by sharing her visions of potential extinctions with others she allows them some measure of her connection with the other side.
Notes[]
- Amelie first appeared in the E3 2018 trailer, where she is briefly seen in the same setting of the E3 2016 trailer.
- Amelie's appearance is based off of a younger Lindsay Wagner.
- In pre-release materials and in-game credits, Lindsay Wagner is not credited as "Special Performance", unlike other characters where a real-life person only served as the model like in the case of Deadman (Guillermo del Toro) and Heartman (Nicolas Winding Refn). This is most likely done to hint at Amelie's true identity and connection to Bridget.
- Her/Bridget's last name "Strand" is the German, Dutch, Swedish, Danish and Norwegian word for "beach".
- The name "Amelie" itself was a portmanteau of "âme" (the French word for soul) and "lie", an admission of sorts that Amelie was "a soul that's a lie".
- In the Japanese localization, Amelie's name is spelled Ameri (アメリ). Since she is the "ka", together, that makes "Amerika", or America in Japanese.
- It is unknown if she is the one who resurrects Lou, making the ex-BB a repatriate like Sam, or not.
Gallery[]
