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| “ | What's that? Bridget Strand is dead? America's last president. Burned and dead. Oh, and now the girl's been chosen to take Mommy's place. Well that won't wash...she's not cut out to politics, is she?. Oh, but don't worry, I'll find her. I'll keep her real safe. You see, I've come to understand the truth of the Death Stranding, oh, there's so much you people don't know. The girl for instance-she's not like you and me. DOOMS ain't her thing...she's more into destruction worldwide scale, an Extinction Entity. Oh, it's so hard to form connections when you can't shake hands. Fortunately, I've got a good connection to the other side...now you? You're no bridge. But me? I'm bound to all of it-this world, that world and our sweet little angels of death. Now, you're on the menu! All it'll take is one itty-bitty voidout to blow us all kingdom come! So how 'bout it? Aren't you getting tired of the grind? Isn't this what you have been waiting for this time? A game over?! | „ |
| ~ Higgs' long speech to Sam, claiming Amelie was an Extinction Entity, before summoning a Catcher to kill him. |
| “ | (Singing) I've got the whole world... (normal voice) in the palm of my hand. | „ |
| ~ Higgs quoting song "He's Got the Whole World in His Hand", but replacing God with himself, displaying his god complex. |
Higgs Monaghan, also known as The Man in the Golden Mask, is the main antagonist of the 2019 sci-fi open world action adventure video game Death Stranding by Hideo Kojima, and will return in some capacity in its upcoming sequel Death Stranding 2: On the Beach.
He is the supreme leader and a part of the militant separatist organization known as the Homo Demens, which is bent on seeking to maintain the independence of Edge Knot City, and, they oppose the United Cities of America as well as the Porters, mainly Sam Porter-Bridges who works for the company Bridges.
Claiming to understand the truth of the titular Death Stranding event, Higgs is stating it is hard for people to create "connections" as they are unable to shake hands. He also possess the ability of controlling and manifesting a gigantic four-legged Beached Thing, making the cargo delivery man face a challenge; avoid being eaten to death. In addition, he also possess the ability of teleportation.
He was portrayed and voiced by Troy Baker, who also voiced the Joker in Batman: Arkham Origins, Pagan Min in Far Cry 4, Joel in The Last of Us, Revolver Ocelot in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Magni in God of War, and many others. In Japanese, Higgs was voiced by Satoshi Mikami.
Biography[]
Origins[]
Higgs is coming from an entirely unknown origin, as nothing is truly known of his last name or even if his name really is Higgs.
However, it is known that in some point following the cataclysmic event of the Death Stranding, as a child, he was raised by his uncle, who was physically and emotionally abusive to him, and would keep him trapped in their shelter due to raving about how the outside world and everyone left were dangerous and couldn't be trusted.
One day, he either intentionally or unintentionally killed his uncle, also learning that the man may not have been his uncle at all; while waiting with the dead body, he realised that he could see the souls of the deceased. Thus, he left the bunker, and became a porter, since he could see Beached Things and so could avoid their notice.
Despite him becoming a successful porter, and even forming a partnership with Fragile, he met the Extinction Entity, whom changed his entire mentality and granted him vastly stronger powers far beyond just his ability to see BTs; he went to lead the militant separatist organization known as the Homo Demens, taking to wear a black hood with a golden mask of chiral matter on it, which he could remove to summon BTs and control them, even giant versions, such as an octopus-like BT he is able to manifest, in addition to his capability to teleport himself.
Death Stranding[]
On a routine corpse disposal with two disposal men and Sam, whose repatriate abilities allowed him to sense beached things (known as BTs), Higgs ambushed the group with a swarm of BTs and caused a timefall storm (which causes everything it first touches to age). The disposal vehicle crashes, injuring the driver; the unhurt man, Igor Frank, hands their BB over to Sam, to boost his sense to sight of the entities, and so Igor can pull the driver to safety. However, the BTs discover the injured man, dragging him away; Igor executes the driver to spare him a worse death. Igor prepares to commit suicide, but likely Higgs flips him upside down, carrying him high into the open maw of a giant BT; this triggers a voidout. Sam and the BB are the sole survivors.
While Sam visits his dying adopted mother, President Bridget Strand, in Capitol Knot City, Higgs supposedly kidnaps Amelie Strand, the President's daughter. Bridget begs Sam to continue the expansion and completion of the chiral network, a communication network that will unite the divided settlements, however, Sam refuses. After Sam completes the delivery to cremate Bridget, he returns to Capitol Knot City, in which the Vice President, Die-hardman, and through a hologram (chiralgram), Amelie, discuss how the latter was kidnapped and held by the Homo Demens in Edge Knot City, but she is able to communicate freely. In order to save Amelie, so she can become the new President, Sam agrees to the westward expansion of the chiral network.
Sam completes numerous deliveries, eventually arriving at a hub to transport further, Port Knot City. Higgs introduces himself to Sam; Higgs has teleportation powers that he uses for emphasis and to taunt Sam by triggering his aphenphosmphobia. Higgs jokes about the deceased Bridget, as well as taunting the nearby Fragile, while also noting that Amelie isn't a good replacement, alluding to some fact about her being unfit for politics due to her being a danger of causing worldwide annihilation, because she is an Extinction Entity. Higgs mentions he has "connections" to every side of life and death, after which he summons a large, unique BT to battle Sam. Higgs vanishes, but Sam is able to defeat the BT.
Higgs later disguises himself as a BRIDGES employee, handing a package to Sam, which was a nuke; Higgs planned to trick Sam into delivering it to Lake Knot City. However, Sam realises the deception, and with the help of Fragile (who had suffered the deception in the past), they dispose of the nuke in a lake of tar, Crater Lake, which sinks deep enough to the other side that the detonation is harmless.
In one of Sam's vivid dreams with Amelie - which may actually be her communicating to his mind - Higgs stabs Amelie, and steals the quipu that Sam made for her. Later, Sam needed to escort Mama from her lab; outside Higgs appears again, mockingly noting he didn't expect two people. Nevertheless, Higgs summoned a giant lion-like BT, giving Sam the challenge to avoid being eaten.
When Sam overcomes the vast ocean of tar to reach the shores of Edge Knot City, Higgs materialises behind him, wearing Amelie's quipu. Sam questions Higgs, yet also tries to attack him; Higgs effortlessly dodges the punches, while expounding upon the upcoming mass extinction. Higgs uses humanoid BTs to restrain Sam, and continues to monologue down at him; Higgs licks his face, then takes a drop of chiral matter from Sam's eye, drawing a pharaoh-like line from his own eye. Higgs final taunt is that it will be race to Amelie, and whomever reaches her first gets to usher in the apocalypse. He releases Sam and vanishes again with cruel chuckle.
Sam connects the Edge Knot City hub to the chiral network, thus completing the network from coast to coast, reconnecting the remnants of America. Sam has a haunting dream of Amelie, wearing Higgs' gold mask, and saying that she is the Extinction Entity; she removes the mask to show a deranged grin. Sam awakens due to the dream and an alarm.
Sam exits the facility, greeted by Higgs; he summons a colossal BT and, with a seemingly "possessed" Amelie trapped inside, Higgs repeats to Sam the truth about Amelia, that she is an Extinction Entity; Amelie appears in front of Sam, before speaking Higgs plants his gold mask on her face. Amelie haltingly confirms Higgs' assertions that she is the sixth Extinction Entity, and that she must be the one to start the Last Stranding. Higgs reappears, explaining that she is the cause of the DOOMS and the nightmares that comes with the condition. While Sam is astonished, Higgs takes control of the colossal BT and confronts him, with him and Amelie implanted in different parts of its chest. However, Higgs is defeated again. Despite this, Higgs damages BB's pod and wounding Sam, albeit the BB that Sam called Lou was - thanks to their bond - able to use the Odradek to block some bullets to Higgs' disgust; however, enough shots get through to kill Sam, who then comes back to life as he is a repatriate, yet Higgs had already absconded with Amelie to the beach.
Thanks to the BRIDGES crew and Fragile, Sam is able to jump to the beach that Higgs and Amelie are located. Sam awakens on the beach, and to his confusion, Higgs is kneeling in reverence to Amelie. When Amelie notices Sam, Higgs jumps up; Higgs is stunned, but seems to take control by telekinetically gripping Amelie. Higgs hovers her into a space between boulders on the beach, creating a black spiderweb-like net that cocoons Amelie and holds her in suspension. Sam interrogates Higgs about his plans, which Higgs retorts that he "protect" Amelie and will usher in the sixth extinction, arguing that humanity has no more than a few hundred thousand years left, therefore believing the inevitability may as well be reached now.
Higgs mentions that if one of them die on this beach, there will be no repatriation, as death here will take one straight to the afterlife; he challenges Sam one last time with a final fourth wall-touching tirade. Higgs teleports around Sam, firing his machine gun, however, Sam is able to use destroyed deliveries that manifest on the beach, throwing them at Higgs to throw him off-balance, after which Sam beats and ties up Higgs to weaken him. In a rage, wanting to prove himself, Higgs discards his gun, relying on a chiral blade; again, Sam is able to dodge his attack, then retaliate with fists and kicks.
Sam appears to defeat Higgs, so he goes to rescue the restrained Amelie. Yet once again, Higgs intercepts him, ranting about how they have DOOMS, which means they are doomed to fight and die. Below Amelie, Higgs and Sam engaged in a brutal fistfight, Sam gaining the upper hand; Higgs continues to rave about how is the "particle of god," while the normally stoic Sam vents about traversing the continent, back and forth. A final punch from Sam makes Higgs collapse into the water.
Sam drags Higgs to shore, to save him from drowning due to a promise to Fragile, who wants her own revenge against the man that ruined her life and body. In exhaustion, Sam collapses on his back, adjacent to Higgs on the sand. Higgs laughs about how Sam had to touch him to drag him to safety, making fun of his aphenphosmphobia. Higgs, defeated, requests to be finished off, however, when Sam gets up he leaves, and a shadow appears above Higgs - the Homo Demens leader is surprised to see Fragile.
Amelie is lowered from the black web into Sam's arms. Higgs, now denying his defeat, tells Fragile that his bond is "made of stronger stuff." Higgs reaches out, attempting to telekinetically pull Amelie towards him, however, she only removes the gold mask herself, and nothing else happens, except the usual sound his powers made now becoming a broken groan. Fragile now gets to taunt Higgs, mockingly noting that she might not have revenge because he is "already broken." Higgs spits a rejection at this claim, insulting her as "damaged goods." Fragile removes a glove, then rubs her elderly hand up and down Higg's face; Fragile then punches him, retorting his own insult back at him.
With Amelie rescued, Fragile offers to teleport Sam back to Capitol Knot City, however, Amelie rejects the offer on behalf of Sam, noting that Amelie herself will use the chiral network to take Sam home. Fragile seems hurt, which Sam tries to console, yet they part at this point, leaving Higgs, bound, and in her custody.
Death Stranding 2: On the Beach[]
It is revealed that Higgs survived his confrontation with Fragile and Sam, and he returns in the sequel as the alleged main antagonist.
Personality[]
Ever since that he was existing, Higgs is mostly known as an extremely intelligent, dark, cold, manipulative and often destructive individual, whose seeking nothing but maintaining the independence of Edge Knot City, believing that the United Cities of America and the Bridges Company led by Die-Hardman, is doing anything wrong and causes further damage to the rest of the world like it has not suffered enough before, that is why he is always making such dark usage in the Homo Demens against Bridges and the UCA.
Higgs is proven to be a gifted and powerful anarchist, who would use any kinds of murderous or savage actions to carry out his actions, and, he is even a ruthless sadist as he manifests his Beached Things in order to make the cargo man facing a challenge; avoid being eaten alive to death. He is claiming of knowing the titular Death Stranding event, and attempts manipulating people into joining him to "know the truth", doing so to Sam.
Additionally, Higgs is shown to be an extremely flamboyant, charismatic, and sarcastic when speaking with Sam, taunting Sam by asking "Sound like fun?" after throwing a perilous challenge the deliveryman's way, with also being shown as an extremely smug and prideful toward his work and his actions, evidenced when he brags about his connection to the "other side".
More evidence to his ruthless sadistic nature is shown, as he holds Amelie on his shoulder and forcefully licks Fragile's and Sam's faces, in addition to being a near-predator-like individual.
He commands the Homo Demens, but didn't actually create the group; he was originally recruited by its founder, Coffin, who is also the mother of Fragile. The group's initial purpose was to stop the UCA from undertaking their bridge baby experiments, albeit after taking control, Higgs twisted it into a terrorist organisation that sought to destroy the UCA itself. Before her death, Coffin asked Higgs to look after Fragile, however, he instead ended up betraying and maiming her daughter; his choice to betray the request of his mentor may simply be indicative of his cruel psychopathy, although it is plausible he felt jealous and resentful that he wasn't considered the most important person to Coffin, thus became obsessed with tormenting his "rival." This is a similar to his obsession with Sam, as he feels insecure that his "God" shows real affection for Sam, but not him, her acolyte.
Higgs was implied to have been driven mad by meeting Amelie, who revealed that she was the sixth Extinction Entity (or technically the soul of one), a being born to exterminate all life on Earth; his rule of Homo Demens seemed to be originally a genuine attempt to avoid what they perceive as subjugation from the UCA, but after becoming Amelie's prophet of sorts, he abandoned any support to his people, merely using them as tools to spread chaos. Due to his pre-existing mental health issues, stemming from trauma, the state of the world after the Death Stranding, and learning his nightmares from DOOMS were actually potential futures, all contributed into making him into a cruel terrorist. In spite of the madness, he remained highly intelligent, manipulative, and charismatic.
Higgs patterned his uniform on Egyptian pharaohs, which is likely due to Egyptian mythology in which the pharaohs are worshiped in life, but are also considered gods in death; thus his commitment to usher in the sixth extinction is possible inspired by this belief, and by enacting it, he will be granted eternal greatness. Despite his arrogance and self-aggrandising, Higgs seemed to also suffer from extremely low self-esteem; this bled through his torture of Fragile, as he notes he wears a mask due to disliking his own face, and while it was tied to emotionally destroying her, it was a case of him being honest, thus even his eccentric persona of the apocalyptic herald can't completely diminish his prior insecurity. Part of his self-aggrandising may be from overcompensation, as despite being confident as Amelie's "champion," he shows signs of being threatened by Sam and Amelie's emotional intimacy.
Quotes[]
| “ | I don't care for my face; that's why I hide it. But you? I bet you just love yours, don't you? Your daddy must've been real proud. | „ |
| ~ Higgs taunting Fragile before giving her a choice between terrorism or self-mutilation |
| “ | Oh, Sam Bridges. Careful, contents are fragile. Like the world and everything in it... Me? (chuckles) I'm no exception. (licks Sam's face) | „ |
| ~ Higgs taunting Sam, while keeping him restrained by BT's |
| “ | Poor, sweet Amelie. She's holed up in the Beach nearby. Tell you what, let's see if we can make it a race. Whoever wins gets to usher in the end of days... Nothing like the Eve of Extinction to bring focus to the mind... Makes folks honest. There'll be no need for masks soon. But I wonder? When you look Death in Her eye, will you blink? | „ |
| ~ Higgs coaxing Sam to continue into Edge Knot City by reinforcing Amelie's dire situation |
| “ | Sam: What are you gonna do to her? Higgs: What I'm supposed to do: keep the Extinction Entity safe until the slate is wiped clean. There's no stoppin' the Sixth Extinction. No matter what you, me, or anybody else does, humanity has a few hundred thousand years left... tops. Why don't we just cut to the chase? Accept our fate, like the creatures before us? We all know what's comin', why delay the inevitable. Those of us with DOOMS, her; we're all bound here for a reason. We are - all of us - a part of the Death Stranding. This place, this fucking Beach... there's no repatriation here, no. One of us dies, that's it; he goes to the other side. It's nice, huh? Lucky loser gets to put an end to this rinse and repeat bullshit once and for all. So, no BTs, no voidouts, no bull shit. Just a good ol' fashioned boss fight. Stick vs. rope. Gun vs. strand. One more ending before the end. One last game over. |
„ |
| ~ Higgs delivering a nihilistic monologue before beginning the final fight against Sam Porter Bridges |
| “ | I don't need the gun, Sam. I can beat you. I can beat you!! | „ |
| ~ Higgs experiencing denial over Sam's persistence |
| “ | You just don't get it, do ya? ... We can't stop this thing. No one can. We got DOOMS, Sam. This was only ever gonna end one way. Now COME ON! | „ |
| ~ Higgs descending further into insane rage |
| “ | You gettin' a little touchy-feely there, Mr. aphenphosmphobia... (chuckles then coughs repeatedly) Well, congratulations. You won the game... Too bad it didn't stop shit.... Well, get on with it. | „ |
| ~ Even defeated Higgs mocked Sam, yet his nihilism making him indifferent, thus insisting that Sam just kill him already |
| “ | Higgs: Fragile? Fragile: Guess I left a lasting impression. I'm Fragile, but not that fragile... This time, you're the one who is going to break. |
„ |
| ~ Despite Higgs accepting his loss to Sam, upon finding someone he judged as worthless as Fragile loom above, he attempted to siphon more power, only to find that Amelie had cut him off. He petulantly taunted Fragile instead, who knocked him down as a prelude for revenge. |
Powers & Abilities[]
- High Intelligence: Higgs is a gifted intellect, so wise and sophisticated that he is knowing how to utilize his intelligence against Sam and other people he comes across.
- Leadership: Higgs is also an extremely gifted and powerful leader to the Homo Demens, using them as sort of "pawns" to advance his agenda.
- Psychological Warfare: Thanks to being so manipulative and cunning, Higgs is known to be a very skilled psychological warrior, demonstrating it when licking Fragile's and Sam's faces or using his Beached Things as an obstacle to others.
- Master Strategist: Higgs is using his men and his intelligence to know when and how to carry out his actions, doing so in almost every point in the game.
- Teleportation: Higgs is having the superhuman ability to teleport himself.
- BT Manifestation Ability: Higgs is able to create, control and even merge into his own colossal humanoid Beached Thing.
Weakness[]
- The Extinction Entity: As the majority of his powers were granted by the EE, they could also be taken away by her.
Trivia[]
- This is Troy Baker's second collaboration with Hideo Kojima, the first was Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, where Baker voiced Revolver Ocelot. Ironically, Satoshi Mikami had also voiced Ocelot in the Japanese version of the same game.
- He is named after the Higgs boson.
- It's possible that his real name is Peter Englert, as that's the name of the account that offers pizza delivery jobs to Sam in what is likely an attempt to delay or simply mock him.
- While he leads the Homo Demens, he was actually originally recruited by a woman who named herself Coffin, who is also the mother of Fragile.