Immortality, the third FMV-based game from Sam Barlow (Her Story, Telling Lies) is the developer's most ambitious game yet. But in being so ambitious, it can also get pretty confusing, as you match-cut between three different movies set across three different decades to try and figure out what happened in the movies, why none of them ever released, and - crucially - what happened to their lead star, Marissa Marcel.
The story unfolds in a non-linear fashion, so there's a good chance that even if you complete the game, you won't have seen all 200+ clips in it. In addition, rewinding over certain clips flips the scene into an alternate reality (which we'll refer to as 'the subverse'), there are countless spooky clips depicting a blonde, androgynous-looking woman and man (credited as 'The One' and 'The Other One,' respectively). These two are critical to the plot, and here we'll also explain what they're about as well.
Piecing the Immortality story together is a bit complicated, because there are not only the events that unfold on camera or are directly referred to, but also the backstory and supernatural events that are enigmatically revealed to us by the One and Other One in the secret clips.
So let's get started.
Who are the Creepy Blonde Man and Woman?
The two creepy blonde people who appear in the subverse scenes are The One and The Other One. They can be seen as demons, entities, or muses, and have existed for thousands of years, if not forever. They are parasitic - capable of "devouring" the hosts they become. that exist beyond human perception. The One is fascinated by humanity, and wants to explore its extremities like sex, violence, and art; it turns out that being Marissa and performing in the medium of cinema become the perfect way for her to do this. Even though she and The Other One are parasitic, The One builds up a certain affinity towards humanity, which could explain why she oscillates so often between being weepy and creepy during her scenes.
The Other One, meanwhile, is apathetic - even disdainful - towards humanity, and simply wishes to use human vessels to continue existing. Even though The One and Other One are very intimate with each other and clearly a unit, their divergence on this point leads to a critical conflict later on.
Throughout the game, The One and The Other One 'devour' two people each: The One devours Marissa and John Durick (the DoP on Ambrosio, and later the director of Minsky and Two of Everything). The Other One devours Carl Greenwood (the actor who plays the detective in Minsky) and Amy Archer (the dark-haired woman in Two of Everything).
The Muse Theory
Whatever their species, we know that there used to be "many more" of The One and The Other One's kind, but by the time humanity came along there were only a few - or even just the two of them - left. This has given rise to the theory these two are the last remaining Muses of Greek tradition, of which there were nine in total.
This would certainly chime with the fact that Marissa is very clearly a muse for John, and also why they're so drawn to the medium of cinema, given Muses' mythological association with poetry, theatre, and other art forms (you can bet that if cinema was around back in ancient Greece, they'd have been all over that too!). The One even mentions at one point that she was Jesus when he was crucified, and orchestrated the crucifixion as some kind of great art piece.
Pretty extreme, but you have to admit that the whole Jesus-on-the-cross imagery caught on pretty well).
Immortality Plot Synopsis
Marissa Marcel is a young woman from France. As a girl during World War II, she was left for dead and possibly sexually abused by German soldiers (this is alluded to by The One, who talks about discovering Marissa as a little girl, as well as a rehearsal scene for Two of Everything, in which we hear the sound of German soldiers as Marissa's character is being sexually assaulted). When The One 'saves' Marissa, she essentially becomes her, using her body as a vessel through which to integrate with the human world.
The One is drawn to the extremities of human expression - art, sex, violence which is why she/Marissa are drawn to kind of movies they end up starring in.
Marissa's first feature film is Ambrosio - a bloody, deliciously sacrilegious Giallo-style film about a Catholic priest who abuses his position to indulge in his basest desires. It turns out that he's being manipulated by a woman posing as a fellow monk, who's entered a pact with Satan.
During filming, the Director of Photography John Durick and Marissa/The One get romantically involved. The movie is never released, and we learn from The One that this is because the film's director, John Fisher, stole the negatives.
Marissa's next shot at cinematic stardom was the 1970 movie Minsky, a sexual neo-noir movie starring Marissa as Franny - a former lover of a renowned artist who is discovered dead with his penis cut off. A hotshot New York detective, played by actor Carl Greenwood, is tasked with solving the mystery, which leads him through a sexually liberated, drug-fuelled underground art scene and into a romantic relationship with Franny.
During the filming of Minsky, Franny and John are seemingly 'grooming' the comparatively traditional Carl Greenwood (who is also The Other One) for the role, plying him with alcohol and drugs. During the filming of Minsky, The Other One begins playing Marissa off against John, saying that John doesn't value her input on the movie (which she's co-writing this time). It seems that The Other One is jealous of The One's connection with John.
During filming, Carl Greenwood dies in an 'accident' when a prop gun goes off and kills him. While in the real world this was a tragedy, the tension between The One and Other One in the subverse make it clear that The One killed The Other One/Carl. Later, the actress Amy Archer (who will star in Marissa's final movie, Two of Everything) somehow gets her hands on the footage of Carl/The Other One dying, watches it, and by doing so becomes a host for The Other One to return.
Because of Carl's on-set death and Marissa's disappearance, filming gets halted on Minsky.
Another key event that happened during the filming Minsky is that Marissa/The One reveals her true self to John, who doesn't take so positively to the idea that he's cavorting with some kind of parasitic demon. Subsequently, The One strangles and devours John, becoming him and making Marissa disappear. Some solid evidence for this is in the talk show interview with John Durick shortly after Minsky, when watching the subverse version of the scene shows The One in his place.
We then hear nothing from Marissa for 30 years, which can be explained by the fact that she doesn't exist during that time, as her existence is dependent on The One. When Marissa returns to star in the final movie in Immortality, Two of Everything, it's because The One does something that her kind doesn't normally do, which is to be two people - Marissa and John - at the same time. This, as we learn, will cause problems for The One.
Two of Everything is a typically shlocky 90s thriller is about a body double for a famous pop star, Maria, (both played by Marissa) who seeks revenge after discovering that Maria was murdered. Notably, the movie also stars Amy Archer, who is romantically involved with John Durick at this point, which is no doubt influenced by the fact that Amy and John are The Other One and The One at this point.
Throughout the movie, it becomes clear that something is off with Marissa/The One. She seems distracted and even suffers from nosebleeds. In the subverse scenes, we hear The One complaining that "it's too much." It seems she's unable to shoulder the burden of being two people at once, and in a particularly disturbing bar scene late in the movie, Marissa starts bleeding profusely from the head and passes out. We're literally witnessing The One's host breaking at the seams. At this point, someone off-screen shouts "Where's John?" which suggests that John could have disappeared at this moment due to The One being unable to hold onto both hosts. As Marissa bleeds, Amy holds onto her calmly, which is most likely to The Other One (who resides within Amy) understanding what's happening.
It appears that at this point Marissa is either dead or in a kind of vegetative state. There is only one more scene that features her, and in that scene she is completely still, suggesting that she as a vessel may be 'expired.'
Immortality Ending Explained
Once you've watched enough clips, you'll eventually discover what can be called the final scene. With The One no longer able to live through Marissa, and with John gone, she expresses a desire to become 'immortalised' by dying on-screen like The Other One did previously. Amy/The Other One douses Marissa (now vegetative) in gasoline, then sets her alight. Watching the few different subversive layers in this clip will lead to the game's ending.
After this scene, the menu from which you navigate the clips slowly gets taken over by the face of The One. Once she fills your screen, she simply says "I'm part of you now," implying that she's now using you, the player, as a host!
Pretty cool, eh?
What About All The Other Stuff?
There are various subverse scenes that depict things that don't quite seem to make sense. For example, at one point we witness The One killing Ambrosio, and in another rather hilarious subverse scene, we see everyone in a reading session for Ambrosio naked while The One has sex with the Robert Jones (who plays Ambrosio) on the table.
These scenes most likely don't exist in our reality, but rather a parallel one in which The One places herself more directly into the scenes. This parallel reality could be borne of her fantasies to integrate with humans through sex and violence (those lovely human traits), and is mostly tangential to the main plot.