Escape Pod

The Escape Pod.

The Escape Pod is a red capsule modeled after life-saving capsules generally used during emergency situations. The escape pod encountered in-game seems to be just large enough to transport a single person to safety, and appears to be the only pod present in the Office by the time Stanley reaches it.

Information

Escape Pod Banner.

The escape pod makes its only appearance in the Escape Pod Ending, where the Player manages to foil the Narrator by quickly stepping and then backing out from the office, causing the doors to close in front of the player and trapping the Narrator in the Boss's Office.

The previous doors will reopen and allow the player to backtrack all the way back to the starting office area and enter Employee 428's door, which leads them to an area with repeating corridors and staircases leading upward until reaching the escape pod at floor 760. However, just before Stanley can make it to the pod, the game switches to black and restarts. The reason for the escape pod not functioning as intended is explained in a large warning banner the player sees in one of the previous floors. The banner states that both the Narrator and the Player must be present for the pod to activate and the ending to play out as intended, and if one of them is not present, the pod will not activate, rendering the ending "unachievable".

Escape Pod Banner in-game.

Within the game, the text written near the bottom of the banner is intentionally obscured by some sort of residue on the wall, as none of the corners of the previous floors have this texture present. This forces even the keen eyed to be left wondering what it says until the texture for the banner by itself is checked, stating the following: "WARNING: ENTERING THE ESCAPE POD WILL INITIATE A RELAY THAT ONCE TRIGGERED, CAN NOT BE DISABLED OR PAUSED. BOTH THE NARRATOR AND THE PLAYER MUST BE PRESENT IN ORDER FOR ESCAPE SEQUENCE TO PLAY OUT AS INTENDED. DO NOT PROCEED. DO NOT PROCEED. DO NOT PROCEED. DO NOT PROC"

The escape corridors, and by association, the escape pod are mentioned by the third Observation Protocol papers present on desks in the Monitor Room, stating that the escape corridors will open in the case of a "Class 1" event where a System Wipe of the regular employees is deemed pointless.

In The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe

In the corridor leading up to the Achievement Machine exhibit in The Stanley Parable 2 Expo, an Escape Pod can be spotted to the right in an open but blocked off garage.

In the bucket version of the Escape Pod Ending, Stanley will place The Stanley Parable Reassurance Bucket into the Escape Pod instead of himself in a cutscene where he reassures the bucket by gently caressing its "cheek" before sending it off. The song playing in the duration of this cutscene being titled "Stanley's Sacrifice". This ending affects the office - as the bucket will now be absent on the next restart, the Narrator providing Stanley with a Replacement Bucket in the restart after that, commenting "And try not to lose this one too, you dolt."

If the Epilogue is played at any point after the Bucket Escape Pod Ending in the current session, an Escape Pod can be seen to the right of the Memory Zone building, containing the bucket inside, which can be picked up and brought throughout the rest of the area. Aside from its appearance, the bucket doesn't affect anything else in this area.

Trivia

• A user-created mod exists that modified the Escape Pod Ending to have the pod be fully functional, allowing Stanley and the Narrator successfully escape the office. (See: Escape Pod Ending Overwrite Mod)