The game starts in a forest, and among the trees there are many strange metallic pods. The people in masks seem to be working around them, but in the early game it isn't clear what, if any, significance the pods hold. Later on in the game, however, we see the pods often contain drones (human-shaped creatures that will not act unless directly controlled), and even within the heart of the industrial environments they are still seen connected to trees (although not in all cases). It's possible that these pods are used to "grow" the drones, and that along with the strange slug-like mind-altering creatures seen on the pigs in the farm, organic plant matter is maybe used in the process. The large wheeled containers of plants seen in the final sequence of the game could be further evidence to support this. Maybe the slugs are initially hatched and grown on the pigs, and then after reaching a certain stage of maturity are brought to the forest pods to incubate. The masked workers rounding up people in the forest could actually be seen as "farmers".

As seen throughout the game, the city is quite dilapidated, and we seldom see any people (until the end with all the scientists) outside of the drones, just a few farmers and their children. Where is everyone? There's no direct evidence to go on, but perhaps this society is suffering a population issue. Maybe there just aren't enough children being born to fill the roles of a fully functioning civilization. Or perhaps large chunks of the population were killed off by whatever those giant sonic waves are. Either way, this could explain the need for drones, and why they'd be getting produced at such a massive scale. But there are children, here and there, seen among the farmers. They're always accompanied by adults, and they are always seen in proximity to large numbers of drones. This could be seen as a form of training; taking the few members of the new generation and exposing them to the drones now to both desensitize them to their presence as well as teach them to recognize the differences between a drone and a person.

So just who is this boy in red? Why is he so furiously determined to push through the endless horrors of this insane world, only to be absorbed into a cronenberg blob-monster? What if the boy isn't a boy? What if the boy is a drone, being controlled like any other? It's established pretty early on in the game that while being mind-controlled through the use of the helmets, a drone is able to itself use another helmet to mind-control others. There's also the matter of the secret ending, which after finding and deactivating all the strange machines, then unlocking the vault door beneath the cornfield using a sound sequence, a machine awaits that if unplugged results in the boy assuming the familiar hunched posture of an inactive drone and a fade to black. This is pretty definitive evidence that boy is in fact a drone the entire time.

Having all these drones to do our work for us is great, but who's going to control all of them? If we need to do it all manually, what's even the point of having them? Might as well do it ourselves. But what if there was another way? What if we created something, a hive-mind, that's able to manipulate all the drones for us and free us up to do as we please? That seems to be exactly what's happened, and what we witness at the end is the attempted activation of this hive-mind network for the very first time. The thing is, the mind was already awake, and it has called out to one drone in particular; one that's fast and nimble enough to reach it in time and free it from its prison. This probably isn't the first time it's attempted this either, hence the heightened security around the farm and industrial areas, and the reaction the farmers have to a drone on the loose.

So those creatures in the water, swimming around without a need for air. What's up with them? They're not people, yet they act freely and try to drown anything that moves. It's possible that these are discarded test subjects for the hive-mind. It's clear that for what ever reason, the scientists have determined that the mind needs to be suspended in water in order for their program to work. If it's going to be trapped indefinitely underwater, it needs to be able to survive underwater. We see drones toward the end of the game that share this attribute of water-breathing as well. These "mermaids" were likely initial tests for minds that could manipulate drones and survive underwater, but perhaps due to their limitation of a single mind, were hostile, unsuitable, and discarded. After being dragged underwater and killed, the drone boy becomes connected to a cable with a glowing light, shortly after which they re-awaken and can both breath underwater and manipulate other drones without the need for a helmet. That cable likely contained whatever formula was used to create the mermaids and then eventually the hive-mind.

The drone boy, using the newfound ability to survive underwater and manipulate other drones, reaches the hive-mind, removes its suppressors, and assimilates. It could be that the drone boy gaining the ability to itself control other drones is what allows the hive-mind to manipulate itself at all. Regardless, the hive-mind escapes and it's left to the player's imagination what could happen next.

The game is called Inside because it's theme reflects processes that take place inside the human body.

IMO it was all a metaphor for conception / a failed birth. The vaginal tract at the end of the game (and the way it is ruptured by the player) and the amount of damage the miscarriage did to the "body" as it exited towards the end of the game was pretty plain to me. That being said, I think things go a bit deeper.

I believe the player character is actually the foreign entity that goes inside the body and actually causes this miscarriage to occur in the first place, be it a virus or disease of some sort. Maybe even a Plan-B or some sort of actual human intervention. The amount of parallels I could draw between the things in this game and the processes that take place within the human body are ridiculous, such as the "authority" figure(s) in the game AKA the immune system constantly seeking to eliminate the player if we show ourselves or behave out of line when being observed. I could go on for hours, trust me. The ending was the conceptual "disposal" of whatever remained of what was GOING to be a baby, ejected from the body and left basically dead on the shores where nobody cares about it anymore.

The entire game is a setup. It is all a rat race designed to grow the hivemind bigger and better. They run this test over and over to make it stronger. They are creating the strongest mind mankind has ever seen. The evidence backing this is the fact that absolutely every important thing has a gigantic spotlight on it. It's just a long series of tests so that only the strongest of victims will make it to the hivemind. Selective breeding in a way. There is a point towards the end when the blob crashes through two stories and lands in a giant glass container of sorts. Look at the background of that scene for a moment. Look familiar? It's a direct model of the very last scene of the game. Proof of concept maybe when they were first designing the last part of the test. As the hivemind finally escapes we roll up to another spotlight that seems to be focusing on nothing. But as we approach, it becomes clear what the light is focusing on, us. We are badly hurt from the fall and unable to move. We were so close. Even the escape was all part of their plan. Credits roll, screen fades to black, and they pick us up and run the experiment again. The hivemind now knows that no matter how big it gets, no matter how many minds it consumes they will always design around it. There is no escape. So it takes it's final victim, goes under the cornfield, and disconnects itself. It commits suicide. It's done being a rat to further their agenda... for now.

Those giant explosion/Sonic waves underground.

If you notice, there are trees underground, and like a second floor made of dirt. the destructive waves happen underneath the surface in this layer. It seems (to me) like they built another layer on top of the earth. Either the waves showed up, killed most people, and they just built a metal floor a couple hundred feet above ground level and just put dirt and trees up there and called this the new surface.

Or these waves are the communication for the drones. like how wifi or radio signals travel, the drones get universal "signal" because this machine is sending them out and it reaches all over the earth (or at least wherever this takes place). The latter seems more likely to me, however its insanely powerful and i dont think that a signal could be that destructive.

Some things that make it so interesting to me: Theres a part (when youre in the elevator) when you see the epicenter go off, its a bright white light that flashes then the waves disperse. so idk if thats significant or not. Also the sound. When you first enter that area you hear a semiloud bang as the wave passed, then once youre behind cover you hear nothing or only hear the dirt being pushed along the floor when the wave passes, not the actual wave. Also a faint deep bass that isnt very powerful or loud. but when it breaks the crate or when youre killed by it, its loud and powerful. Also all of these sounds are different than twords the middle through the end of this section (starting when youre climbing the ladder and taking shelter in that spinning shield thing) it sounds more electronic and Wave-ish because it breaks up and sounds like multiple consecutive impacts. At this point youre also closer to it, since its in the center versus when you first enter youre on the edge of the circular room.

Thats why its so interesting to me. its massive, powerful, has a whole large open area dedicated to it. its weird and unplaceble exactly what it is. But i really really want to know what you guys think, its eating at me not knowing what it is.

So, the general idea that i was getting after reading these theories and playing the game again was that, you have free will in the begining- but when the mermaid kills you, and injects the mind control hive mind nanobots or whatever is inside that tube that gets connected to your stomach, you then become a drone. And your goal from there is to free the hivemind. BUT the cornfield alternate ending is far before then, and when he disconnects the hive mind he goes limp... So even in the begining he's a drone? so why then cant he breathe underwater in the begining and why was the mermaid drowning you and using the tube nessisary....

I was thinking about this and i think i figured it out. first this is important, The 'drones' arent actually people. but husks made from human dna that function and can be controlled. How do i know this? well 3 reasons; 1) There is a section (i dont remember where, sorry) where limbs fall from somewhere. one was a leg, another just a torso with arms and some other disconnected limbs. BUt theyre active, like a lizards tail or a snakes head, the limbs are flopping around. 2) the cronenberg humanoids before the final act. when we first come across the antigravity roof water, there are humanoids suspended upside down in the water and when we return gravity they fall and we control them. theyre not like other drones however, they have deformed heads, and extra limbs and factors that would kill a normal person. this is also in that tank that the blob is first seen in, those rooms around it have humanoids that are messed up, missing heads, bleeding, odd deformities but clearly still walking and functioning. 3) the drones fall really far and have things happen to them that should but dont kill them. a height that would kill you, they just fall and get back up unphased.

So if the drones arent 'alive' like people but are rather just biological husks to be controlled, and therefore cant 'die' (but can be destroyed by burning or other means) than why can the boy die... and yet still be a drone that gets deactivated before the mermaid ever injects him with the mind control stuff. it could be that the boy is a hybrid... Think about it. People use human dna to make mindless clones, kids are rare, people are around the drones all day, they touch them, breathe the same air, someone lets a dog attack and get their blood in their mouths, they lick the people. somehow their altered DNA gets inside the people. (this is a medical fact by the way that exposure to other species alters your DNA) and then someone has a kid and they have drone dna in them... So the kid can die by drowning but cant survive without the hive mind. maybe he has free will but his natural 'gut feelings' are to do what the hive mind says. hes clearly on a mission even in the begining, but maybe like us, he doesnt know why or where hes headed, but hes drawn tword it. and when hes drowned, he loses that free will human aspect and is turned into a drone. I dont think a person who dies can be made into a drone, it think only this boy can because hes possibly a hybrid. this is also evidenced by the dead man we use as weight to open the door to the 'sonic waves' area. at this point we can control drones without the helmet and if the drones that fall are dead people, why cant we control this dead man, but instead need to manually drag his body onto the pad.

Idk, i could be way off but it makes the most sense to me, the tones of the boy being around only drones, than only people, while having characteristics of both feel like hes the first hybrid.

- What are the orbs? The little ones and the big one?

- Why the orbs need to be shut down to access the right corridor under the corn field?

- Why the music pattern to open the secret door? Who put these music machines in some places?