Plot Theories

[HorrorElementFilms]

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WARNING - All that I'm about to say might have already been said. And, I'm not claiming any of this to be true. I could be WAY off, for all I know.
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While many could say that it's just a little bit too early to come up with theories, I however think that it's right at this point right now, where interesting and crazy theories can emerge.

Now, my theory is rather long, so I've divided it via Spoiler tabs.

oh, and any spoiler tabs inside the "Theory" section, it means that it might be true and would be extremely spoilerish if it were true. everything else, is just pointing out what we already know and my opinion.

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Spoiler below!

Now, I think it's safe to say that this game will focus mostly on the perception of reality. The reason I say this, is this:

"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away."

This shows a lot, including many of the themes this game may likely touch upon.

"The radio has gone silent on PATHOS-2. As isolation bears down on the staff of the remote research facility, strange things are happening. Machines are taking on human traits and alien constructions have started to interfere with routine. The world around them is turning into a nightmare. The only way out is to do something unimaginable."

Here, we can infer what PATHOS-2 might be. While I have seen people point out that it could be some sort of underground facility, I think "alien constructions have started to interfere with routine" hints at an outerspace game.





at 0:30, it's obvious that the character doesn't remember how he got onto the medical bed. But, at 0:45 he identifies the character just well.

At 0:50, the device he inserts could either be one of two things. A receiver to his separated brain to his original body, or a receiver to an entirely different body, or clone (sort of like avatar). But of course, this technology seems to be very prototype-ish, as it fails only seconds after.

I would've assumed, that this brain-device was going to be the "something unimaginable", referenced in the description. But, I don't think Frictional Games would show something that spoilerish.

At 2:12, we (sort of) see the "monster". While I don't see it being as much of a threat as what we might see in the game, it slightly hints as to a very subtle version of what we may see. What I believe the monster to be, is either the "Machines taking on human traits" or the aliens.

At 3:27, the tentacle robots stab what is presumed to be his brain. But notice how even after they stab it multiple times, he remains stable. His motor functions remain functional, even if he does stumble once. That might be his brain, but I don't think it is. He still continues to speak, or at least think what he wants to say. But when he says "Am I still here?", it again reinforces the point of what "Themes" this game seems to follow.

If you recall the 2 Live Action trailers, the second one shows how the robot "thinks" it's Adam Golaski, but sees itself to be human, even though it is clearly a robot. The "copy" almost seems to deny the fact that it's a robot, in the same way that an amputee would deny that they lost their limb or appendage. It doesn't appear to be copying Golaski though, it would appear as if Adam's mind was copied or transferred to the robot directly (see where I'm going with this?).

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My Theory

I believe that the "researchers" who may have been testing with this brain-to-body technology, had some kind of malfunction where the machines "steal" the minds and personalities of the people. Or, (if you've ever seen "The Almost People" episode of Doctor Who) there are duplicate people who sincerely believe that they are a person that they are not.

Spoiler below!

This would actually be a really interesting plot twist, especially if you played the entire game only to find out that you weren't even truly human.

My first thought was that perhaps the "aliens" has something to do with this. but, if I know anything about the sinister plots of Frictional Games' minds, I believe that this was the researcher's doing. You know, because pinning tragic event on evil and menacing aliens is too easy, it's more devilish to make the seemingly "nice" people the truly evil ones.

I really don't have anywhere else specifically where you could go with this theory, but there are lots of possibilities. But, this is sort of my theory of what may happen.
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What's your crazy theory of what might happen? And/or what would you like to see in SOMA?

[VaeVictis]

Interesting theories, there. I don't have much to add, except that I thought it'd be interesting if the machines themselves not only took on human personalities and traits, but maybe began to turn into organic lifeforms themselves (somehow...). Maybe those wires are actually arteries, veins, neurons, etc. What if you damaged the machine and it bled? Not oil, but blood.
It's too early to tell how likely or not that is, but I think it's a cool thought.

[Alardem]

"Alien" means 'foreign', 'unfamiliar', 'unnatural'. That can easily be applied to inhuman presences like, say, the bog-standard angry AI.

I'm wondering if the Omikron organization (or whatever it is called) is dealing with objects of earthly origin, or whether they're discovering truly unearthly specimens. I can assume that the game will take place on the isolated "PATHOS-2" facility - but where did they find the objects? Who made them?

Frictional's games all take place in a world with Lovecraftian overtones - what if this is a futuristic take on human encounters with eldritch beings, inorganic beings that are nevertheless undoubtedly alive? I'm visualizing creatures reminiscent of Doom 3.

The gameplay trailer also appears to partly take place inside the body of some machine - perhaps a cybernetic representation of the trailer protagonist's mind.

[HorrorElementFilms]

I like where these theories are going.

[Quizerno]

I wonder if the setting will be left ambiguous until the inevitable climax.
The environments have us thinking it's a spaceship or space station so far, but we have nothing concrete to go on other than "remote research facility."

If you recall the 2 Live Action trailers, the second one shows how the
robot "thinks" it's Adam Golaski, but sees itself to be human, even
though it is clearly a robot. The "copy" almost seems to deny the fact
that it's a robot, in the same way that an amputee would deny that they
lost their limb or appendage. It doesn't appear to be copying Golaski
though, it would appear as if Adam's mind was copied or transferred to
the robot directly (see where I'm going with this?).

I like the amputee comparison, very insightful.
I find myself agreeing with the copying idea, I think there's other evidence that points to it.

In the first trailer, the woman sees herself on the monitor. So there's a couple theories you can come up with.

1. The machine is trying to communicate with her and/or show intent via her image

2. The machine is recreating her in a virtual environment from the known variables.

3. The machine has literally copied her conscience and is using the monitor as it's form of expression (face)

I talked with another guy and he noticed that the woman only panics AS SOON as the monitor-woman starts to move a bit.

So if we go by the 2nd and 3rd theories.

women on screen = the machine has copied her brain/mind/conscience into data

women on screen moves = the machine is beginning to emulate her mind and is about to act like her.

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If we compare it to the first trailer, the copies of human mind seem to have virtual motor functions. For example:

Adam-Machine says he's standing up, but physically he didn't even move.

If Woman-Machine stands up, she would be standing up on screen but the machine would not have changed.



So I guess we might have some machine constructs who are trying to understand humans by becoming them.

[Alardem]

Far as I'm concerned, I see the machines as creating virtual copies of people and containing them within themselves. Imogen Reed has a copy made of her in the first video, Golaski's copy is contained inside the robot in the second video, and the gameplay trailer shows the plight of someone copied into one of the machines.

So when 'Golaski 2.0' said he was standing up, he WAS - at the very least, he was standing within that particular machine's consciousness. Hell, the anonymous fellow in the gameplay trailer may actually BE 'Golaski 2.0'.

[Macgyverthehero]

Far as I'm concerned, I see the machines as creating virtual copies of people and containing them within themselves. Imogen Reed has a copy made of her in the first video, Golaski's copy is contained inside the robot in the second video, and the gameplay trailer shows the plight of someone copied into one of the machines.

So when 'Golaski 2.0' said he was standing up, he WAS - at the very least, he was standing within that particular machine's consciousness. Hell, the anonymous fellow in the gameplay trailer may actually BE 'Golaski 2.0'.

Wow. I never thought of that.

Also, Hi Thomas.

[Quizerno]

So when 'Golaski 2.0' said he was standing up, he WAS - at the very least, he was standing within that particular machine's consciousness.

That's what I meant by virtual motor functions, sorry if I didn't make that clear.

[Alardem]

So when 'Golaski 2.0' said he was standing up, he WAS - at the very least, he was standing within that particular machine's consciousness.

That's what I meant by virtual motor functions, sorry if I didn't make that clear.

Yeah, I looked after your post after writing mine and realized we'd hit upon the same idea. :p

Could it be that, in the vein of Inception, we could have our characters existing inside nested layers within layers of virtual realities? That is to say, the people we see in the live-action trailers interacting with copies of themselves are, in turn, copies of the original person.

I like the irony of Imogen Reed dismissing the consciousness of the robotic Adam when she and the 'real' Adam are actually just replicas within another virtual reality.

[EnDash]

reading this thread made me think a little. specificly about that tablet device she used for "marking"(?) in the recordings.

in the "vivarium" video, she uses the device 3 times, each time with a diffrent symbol.

the first symbol, a plus sign:

Spoiler below!

the second symbol, a triangle:

Spoiler below!

the third symbol, i think it's a 3 dimensional box:

Spoiler below!

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in the "mockingbird" video, again she uses the device but marks only two times. also the camera blurres in the first symbol (pretty creepy if you ask me).

the first symbol is blurred, like the camera intentionally didn't record it:

Spoiler below!

the second symbol, again a triangle:

Spoiler below!

and no third symbol, instead she puts the device on the table.

at this point it doesn't tell us much, but the fact that the camera blurred at the moment of the first symbol might mean that at this point more systems became self aware, not just the robot. either the camera itself or the entire system of the base.

edit: there was a limit of 4 pictures, but this requierd 5. i hope you can forgive me for double posting.