How do you all think Walter died?

[Nuclear Catsplosion]

He couldn't have been hit by a train, considering they live on a tiny island and those train tracks fall away into the *ocean.* Could he have gotten scared and fallen off the cliff?

[TheKillerNacho]

I too found it a little odd that the train suddenly fell off a cliff, but didn't think much of it. Where was it going before? Why did they discontinue it? Its weird, fo rsure.

[Saint.Million]

The whole walter story is one of the most implausible things about the game. And that's saying something, since most of the game is kinda pushing the limits of "suspension of disbelief".

- Living in secrecy and isolation below the house? Not likely... but w/e.

- Edith actually giving the secret away by telling people about the "mole man"? Doesn't seem likely...

- Being hit by a train after leaving isolation? WTF... How would he not hear it coming and get out of the way in time? It's not as if trains were particularly fast back then... (in fact why would there even be a train line there anyway?).

This game really takes the pee with what it expects the player to 'buy into'.

[Space Zombie]

Originally posted by D.Rich:

How would he not hear it coming and get out of the way in time?

I dunno, try to live for 30 years in a basement and tell us! :D

Originally posted by D.Rich:

It's not as if trains were particularly fast back then...

Back when? In 2005? Mkay...

[NO THIS IS HATTRICK]

I think he walked off the cliff at the exact spot where you later saw the tracks had eroded off. The train probably hadn't been running for years by 2005, even though you as Edith Finch still heard the distant sounds of a train in 2016.

Basement dwellers aren't that implausible. But I doubt he was actually hit by a train, as it's established time and time again that the experiences you relive through the books tend to be embellishments of the truth. Miniature trains were his hobby, so it's poetic to say he died by a train even though that wasn't true, he merely died near the tracks (recall similarly how Edie liked to say that Sven was killed by a dragon when he died building a dragon slide).

In the end, how he (or any of the Finches) died ultimately doesn't matter. I think the point of Walter's story was to illustrate an absurd and ironic twist of fate - the moment he decides he no longer has reason to be afraid and ventures out from his self-made prison ready to live life to the fullest, he meets his untimely end. It's like that Twilight Zone episode "Time Enough at Last" where the protagonist, upon finally having all the time in the world to read, breaks his glasses and is thus unable to do so.

[starrtennis]

Originally posted by NO THIS IS HATTRICK:

I think he walked off the cliff at the exact spot where you later saw the tracks had eroded off. The train probably hadn't been running for years by 2005, even though you as Edith Finch still heard the distant sounds of a train in 2016.

Basement dwellers aren't that implausible. But I doubt he was actually hit by a train, as it's established time and time again that the experiences you relive through the books tend to be embellishments of the truth. Miniature trains were his hobby, so it's poetic to say he died by a train even though that wasn't true, he merely died near the tracks (recall similarly how Edie liked to say that Sven was killed by a dragon when he died building a dragon slide).

In the end, how he (or any of the Finches) died ultimately doesn't matter. I think the point of Walter's story was to illustrate an absurd and ironic twist of fate - the moment he decides he no longer has reason to be afraid and ventures out from his self-made prison ready to live life to the fullest, he meets his untimely end. It's like that Twilight Zone episode "Time Enough at Last" where the protagonist, upon finally having all the time in the world to read, breaks his glasses and is thus unable to do so.

Thanks for an accepting interpretation, Hattrick. Everyone's so critical of all of this and seems to overlook the poetry and humanity behind it all.

But yes I did notice that the tracks went into the ocean.

And if they did, what was the "monster" outside his basement hideout? Must have been the train?

[NOCTURNE]

For me it seems much more reasonable that there was a railway bridge. I mean the rails are clearly there... It just destroyed since Walters death. The old lady mentioned a story about an earthquake out in the ocean. The one that caused the water to dissappear. And that is a clear sigh of an incoming tsunami. It might just destroyed the bridge. Thats all.

[Devorlast]

Originally posted by NOCTURNE:

For me it seems much more reasonable that there was a railway bridge. I mean the rails are clearly there... It just destroyed since Walters death. The old lady mentioned a story about an earthquake out in the ocean. The one that caused the water to dissappear. And that is a clear sigh of an incoming tsunami. It might just destroyed the bridge. Thats all.

The earthquake happened in 1999 when Edith was born, Walter died in 2005. The tracks look like they have been broken for a while but remember that it has been 11 years between Walters death and your trip to the house. There are more tracks around the bend so its possible they were in use until 2005 and that would account for the daily shaking of Walters hideout. What doesnt make sense is how he didnt hear the train, and how a set of traintracks ran under the house which in itself is so shabby it would have fallen appart if a train was to travel under it daily. Remember that his death happened after he wrote his note so what you see in the "memory" is Ediths imagination.

[Dead Gerard]

I've just 'completed' Walter's story so the whole question is very fresh in my mind. Initially I was satisfied that yes he'd been hit by a train and the tracks had since crumbled into the sea, but now thinking about it I believe the train was the monster he was so scared of, amplified in his mind after his encounter with Barbara's 'killer', but that the train stopped running due to the earthquake. Looking at Walter's grave it has him just looking out to sea and I believe he either fell by accident following the destroyed railway, or threw himself into the ocean.

Really enjoying the game though! Needed another mystery after completing Outer Wilds.

[Petrichor]

I think the game has been updated since you played it last, I just finished it and Walter was definitely hit by a train, there's no doubt about it. The tracks appear to have fallen away after he died, if you go right to where they end and look to the right of the cliff you can see the remains of the tracks on the other side.

[starrtennis]

Yeah but remember, there's a long gap between Edith's time and Walter's time. At Walter's time the train was working, so there must have been a bridge.

[Majikthise]

There wasn't a bridge over the ocean. The tracks curve around the side of the cliff to your right as you face the part where they're broken.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2472457711
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2472458624

[Petrichor]

Originally posted by Majikthise:

There wasn't a bridge over the ocean. The tracks curve around the side of the cliff to your right as you face the part where they're broken.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2472457711
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2472458624

Big necro, but this is correct.

[reapermaan85]

I assumed that the rumbling was the cliffside crumbling over time which eventually lead to the destruction of the railway. Walter had been underground for a long time so he didn't know the railway had collapsed. Since he had been underground for such a long time when he started leaving the tunnel he was blinded and unknowingly stepped off into open air when he thought he'd be stepping onto solid ground.

[kangirigungi]

Walter hears rumbling every day, which I think is supposed to be the train. When the train stops coming for a week, Walter escapes through the train tunnel, and the train does indeed come. At least this is the straightforward version of the story. You can only say that Walter "definitely" got hit by a train the same way you can say Molly turned into an actual sea monster. You have to take every story with a grain of salt, some easier to decipher, others less so. Maybe Walter didn't get hit by the train. Maybe he was blinded by the sun (remember he was living underground for 30 years) and fell off the cliff.

But I have a better question. Why did Walter leave through the train tunnel in the first place? Why not just enter the house through the basement?

[reapermaan85]

Originally posted by kangirigungi:

Walter hears rumbling every day, which I think is supposed to be the train. When the train stops coming for a week, Walter escapes through the train tunnel, and the train does indeed come. At least this is the straightforward version of the story. You can only say that Walter "definitely" got hit by a train the same way you can say Molly turned into an actual sea monster. You have to take every story with a grain of salt, some easier to decipher, others less so. Maybe Walter didn't get hit by the train. Maybe he was blinded by the sun (remember he was living underground for 30 years) and fell off the cliff.

But I have a better question. Why did Walter leave through the train tunnel in the first place? Why not just enter the house through the basement?

Maybe his fear of what happened in the house made him want to avoid it.