The Death Screen Has LORE? [ULTRAKILL]

Welcome all people coming over from BlooGoober!

I acknowledge I may not have been the first person to document this, and this whole theory of mine could be completely wrong, But I still think its fun to speculate on stuff like this!

#ultrakill

[intel_revenant]

Everyone saying its reused for convenience but we are forgetting who the developer is, this man does everything with intention and triple layers everything

[warmchoccy]

I think it’s probably just reused for convenience but if it does have lore implications, it could be hell acknowledging V1 dying and reviving it for more ‘entertainment’.

[ForgetfulHatter]

I always figured it was V1 giggling to itself as i think it plays after clearing a room too.

i was pitching and speeding down the swordsmachines laugh too and noticed it.

[Scragglerz]

There's even an octagon around the skull when you die.
What are octagons most commonly used for? Stop signs.
What makes you stop in the game? Locked doors.

Coincidence? Probably.

[vvvvallejo]

in that case, the swordsmachine sound modulator emulates the sound of this laughing entity. wonder where that thing even came from?

[NuclearPowerToaster]

Hakita be like, “The fuck It’s a door— I mean yeah you found the secret to Ultrakill!”

[lviathn]

Real talk, i had that same idea of hell bringing V1 back for its entertainment, hell can supposedly spawn enemies whenever it wants and it's all just a spectacle to it; to the point that it modified Strays into Soldiers and created Stalkers so it isn't too far fetched to think it is bringing V1 back to keep on watching it either struggle or pass whatever it's stuck on. Even Minos and Sysiphus having a voice line for when you respawn may indicate that you are indeed just instantly coming back to fight them again

[ajhintleman]

I bet they reused it here because when you get locked in a room and enemies spawn, that's usually when you die, lol

[realoofrian]

also the fact that the laughing death skull was also used as the door lock icon before

[bluebackground]

feel like reading too much into this but interesting theory either way

[earlywizard]

The door locking didn't use to have a red X with a crusty, low-detail skull icon on it, it had the skull and crossbones from the death screen in early builds of the game. Even more ties.

[idiotic_tl_]

could go in a different way, cus in the p-2 uhh terminal it says that the shop terminals uses machines as entertainment so there is a chance that the death screen AND the door locking comes from the terminals

[fbgws]

what if the doors aren't actually locking, but instead, V1 purposefully sees them closed to motivate itself to collect more blood than needed in the arenas?

[lightredragonwizard]

*SPOILERS BELOW (P1 & P2)*
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When you beat Sisyphus Prime (P2's boss), you get some lore on the computers at the beginning of each level. Turns out, the computers somehow gained sentience and the points you get from beating a level as well as the rankings are the computers essentially telling you "Good job! You entertained us!" (as the computers use these points and the weapons you can buy with them as a way to incentivize machines to do crazy fights for their amusement as it is implied they are bored because they are forced to be in one spot for all eternity). With this in mind, it could be that the computers are locking you in a room "forcing" you to fight for their amusement. When you die, the computers "laugh" at you using the only sounds they have available to them (i.e. the door lock). This would also explain the respawn mechanic as it is said in P1's terminal that the way things are transferred between the layers of hell is that physical object's information is converted to radio waves and then transferred to other computers to be reassembled back into physical objects. The computers could be storing radio waves so that they can have the ability to remake machines they like. Then, whenever a machine dies, they "resurrect" it via the stored waves. However, when the computers "resurrect" the machines they slightly alter this process (i.e. alter the radio waves to slightly change machine's memory storage system to include information that the machine had from its "past lives" which would also explain why the machines get better after every death as this would further help to entertain the computers) to include the "laugh" in the machine's memory as punishment for not being good enough to win the fight and entertain the computers. I think that P3 will either confirm or deny this for us (as each Prime Sanctum's reward is further lore about the computers at the beginning of the level).

There's also the possibility that Hakita is reusing assets to help reduce the amount of space that the game takes up as he's not a AAA game studio and actually cares about the people playing his game.

[ZesTofthelemon]

Pretty sure this same "ha" sound was used in the Swordsmachine's engine sound effect too.

[davetheaubergine]

Many things are done for convenience sake that later turn out to fit neatly into lore! I assume the revolver was first made to look cool and sci-fi-ish, with the little story of its invention and usage written after the matter, for example

[omegaultramax]

Probably convenience, but we have to remember that this is the same guy who canonized the game being in a PS1 aesthetic in the first place with the Sentry's lore entry, so I wouldn't be surprised if he leaned into the two being connected in some future level. Or possibly with the superorganism ARG going on at the moment.

[spinningninja]

Reversing the theory, this also implies that each time the door locks is Hell itself laughing at you.

[aeolianthecomposer]

It doesn't mean anything. Reusing sounds with different effects is a veeery common technique in sound design. Either way, good job on finding this one

[giojo]

I think this could very well be reused due to convenience, but remember who's the man who created this masterpiece of a eletronic video-game media

Outstanding find! I haven't seen anyone talk about this at all..

What makes this even more interesting is indeed the recent lore surrounding hell being a sentient force, and the fact that you're being watched for entertainment at all times. It could very well be, and I think it was probably reused due to convenience, but that doesn't instantly scrap this theory at all, which makes it even more fascinating