I believe inside is about, from a sociologist’s point of view, people as a whole being ‘controlled’ by a higher level of power. If you’re seeing this from an obvious standpoint the game takes place during a dystopian future. This dystopia was probably largely prompted by the sudden outbreak of a parasitic strain that controlled its host. This follows the theme of having your mind controlled by an alternate entity. This is evident during the scene where we see a seemingly deceased pig jump back to life in aggression. After the pig is stunned against a metal barrier, we see a worm like creature protruding from the pig’s… anus. After the boy grabs the worm and effectively pulls the entirety of the parasite out of the pig, it seems to go into a dormant, semi-catatonic state. Similarly we can see the comparison between the people who are in a similar zombie-like state of movement and the dormant state of the pig who was aggressive seconds ago. Later in the game (and by later I mean a few seconds after we get the pig underneath a strange head shaped plug hanging from the ceiling), we are introduced to the concept of mind controlling the zombified strangers. This approach in my opinion is rather symbolic of power and control. This game, as previously stated, follows many repeating themes of mind control, deception, and penultimate looming mystery. This concept of mind control repeats several times in the story, becoming a crucial puzzle aspect. It is ultimately linked to follows a much larger picture involving the philosophical idea of hard determinism. Thinking about this game from an idea of that everything is controlled by an all-powerful source, I can come to acknowledge the ideas behind the game’s plot and overall meaning. I believe that the child is meant to represent making your own choices; picking your own future that is meant to separate you from the rest. The child decides to rebel and break free from the rest of people who are unwillingly being mindlessly controlled. The people are unaware of their puppetized, hypnotic state, comply to conform with the rest of society. The child doesn’t fit in with the rest of the people, instead heading away from the trucks that would bring the people to their dystopian destination. The people’s origin is unknown, much like their destination. It’s almost as if it’s meant to represent the people that the child has met along the way, and their deception that follows. The next point I would like to make is the idea of the people who were chasing the boy from the beginning, and the people waiting next to the conveyer belt. These people appear to be normal human beings, only with one piece of clothing on their face. Their masks (the masks doesn’t make them any less of a human mind you). In most of pop culture and things in general we symbolise a mask to be either covering one’s identity, or portraying it to be another. In one of my favourite films, V for Vendetta, the main character is a freedom fighting hero named V, who wears the mask of Guy Fawkes. He wears the mask to not only cover his identity, but to also give himself symbolism. Francis Bacon on the 5th of November 1605 tried to blow up the parliament of England. His attempt failed when he was caught and arrested on sight. A few months later he was executed by noose, but his idea and message lived on to this day. In saying this, the men chasing the boy could represent anonymity, or something entirely different. Although an exception is these people were certainly not freedom fighters. The scientists, the flesh abomination, and the boy’s apparent mind control from the start may in fact be all linked. Obviously some people have already stated this, but it doesn’t hurt to restate some information. The alternate ending to Inside shows the boy pulling out the last yellow wire to some strange machine. In the background we see a single hanging mind control device, dormant and standing out. Following the disconnection of this device, the boy ragdolls to the ground, and the lights cut out. What people have stated from this is that the boy is being mind controlled, and is in fact not free from the imminent idea that everything is predetermined, and is being controlled by a higher force. In the actual ending, the boy makes his way into some deep underground facility populated by scientists experimenting on zombified people. The boy notices some commotion of observation, and peeks through the glass for a better look. The scientists notice the boy, but don’t regard him as anything other than what it is. A boy looking at what everyone else is looking at. He eventually makes his way into the water filled enclosure, and proceeds to disconnect the large flesh monster being contained inside it. While he is trying to break it free, he is pulled inside the creature, and the player gains control of it. This creature could actually represent anything, but I feel like it is meant to symbolise some aspect of society, and the boy joining this aspect. During the creature’s escape, it appears that the scientists try to help it. Willingly the creature complies with the scientist’s gratitude, and enters a large facility filled with many other scientists. A steam driven box hangs below a spotlight, dangling like a carrot on a stick. Before the creature gets proper hold of the box, it falls into yet another water based enclosure. Thinking that it’s once again trapped, the creature rips off some padding and makes a break through the frame, into a carpark, and finally outside. The exit from the facility is met with a lot of crashing through trees, and finally on top of a beach. The creature, lying on the ground, slows its breath to the point where it stops breathing all together, and dies. Obviously there has to be some symbolism here, and yes in fact there is. The creature believes it’s escaped, and has died thinking it has finally made it outside the facility it was held captive in. What it doesn’t know was that the trees were fake, the beach was an illusion, and that the water was the same sewage based sludge the child was swimming in all this time. The symbolism behind this is fairly obvious. There can never be any escape from the idea that you make your own choices in life. People could be helping you, but eventually they trick you and you end up right back where you started. You try and escape the media, the conformity, the issues, but you end up trapping yourself into a stage where you think you’re free from everything higher up, but you can never be free. The boy tried to escape the people, mind controlled by some form of power. He thinks he’s free, but he always ends up following a breadcrumb trail. He tries to let the creature free, but he does nothing to aid in the succession of this goal. I believe the moral behind this is that no matter how hard you try to make your own choices in life, while also escaping from the people who give you deception (the media), you’ll never be completely free from the fact that there will always be a bigger power controlling your intentions. The boy it seems was mind controlled from the beginning, and that says he was never free from anyone else to begin with. All his trying to escape the people chasing him and giving him the impression he’ll end up zombiefied was in vain. Perhaps he accumulated something from that experience, but I’m sure it’s not just that idea in its entirety. Well that was my theory on what I believe Inside could possibly be about. It’s obviously going to have some flaws and exceptions, but I think it could work in theory. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it. If you want to add anything, or speculated otherwise, please feel free to comment! Thanks :P