Michael Myers (Halloween)
 | This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. (September 2007) |
 | This article possibly contains original research. (September 2007) |
| Halloween character | |
|---|---|
| File:Halloween2.jpg | |
| Michael Myers | |
| Classification: | Character |
| Weapon of choice | Kitchen knife(Incision knife in Halloween II) |
| Location | Haddonfield, Illinois |
| Created by: | John Carpenter Debra Hill |
| Family (original series): | Donald "Don" Myers (father) Edith (Nordstrom) Myers (mother) Judith Margaret Myers (older sister) Laurie Ann (Myers) Strode/ Kerry Tate (younger sister) Jamie Lloyd (niece) John Tate (nephew) Stephen Lloyd (great-nephew/ possible son) |
| Enemies: | Dr. Sam Loomis Laurie Strode Jamie Lloyd Tommy Doyle Freddie Harris |
| Portrayed by: | Nick Castle (masked) Tony Moran (unmasked) Will Sandin (child) (Halloween 1978) Dick Warlock Adam Gunn (child) (Halloween II) George P. Wilbur (Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers - Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers) Don Shanks (Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers) Chris Durand (Halloween H20: 20 Years Later) Brad Loree (Halloween: Resurrection) Tyler Mane Daeg Faerch (child) (Halloween 2007) |
Michael Myers is a fictional character from the Halloween film series. The character has appeared in eight of the nine Halloween films, as well as in several comic books and other media forms.
One of the first slasher villains, his murders occur on Halloween, with some films depicting him active in the preceding day or so, targeting family members, but willing to kill everyone that comes in his way. Michael Myers is absent from Halloween III: Season of the Witch, although he makes a small appearance on a TV screen at a bar that the main character goes to.
Some fans and even cast and crew of the films sometime call the character The Shape, which is what some of the actors playing the character are credited as. This dates back to the script for the first film in which Michael Myers is referred to by name only twice, in the beginning and end scenes; at all other times, with the exception of dialogue, he is simply referred to as a "shape" due to his face not being visible.
The character was named Michael Myers after the head of Miracle Films, a now defunct distribution company that helped release John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13 in the U.K.
Halloween (1978)
I met him fifteen years ago; I was told there was nothing left: no reason, no conscience, no understanding; not even the most rudimentary sense of life or death, good or evil, right or wrong. I met this six year old child with this blank, pale, emotionless face and the blackest eyes; the Devil's eyes. I spent eight years trying to reach him, and then another seven years trying to keep him locked up because I realized that what was living behind that boy's eyes was purely and simply... evil. - Dr. Sam Loomis
The film opens on the year October 31,1963 with Michael coming back to his house and finding that his sister Judith and her boyfrend are kissing on the couch. He tells her when her parents are going to be home. They then decide to go upstairs to have sex. Michael (still dressed in his clown costume), enters the house, goes through the kitchen and pulls out a butcher knife and waits by the stairs. Judith's boyfriend then goes downstairs and tells Judith he will call her tomorrow. Michael heads upstairs with the knife in hand and finds Judith's boyfrend's clown mask he picks it up and puts it on. He enters the room to find that Judith is combing her hair and is almost fully nude. Judith tries to get Michael to leave the room but Michael attacks her and stabs her to death. Michael then rushes out of Judith's room, downstairs and out of the house down the front lawn when he is spotted by his parents. Michael's parents remove his mask and head towards the house as the film fades to black.
Fifteen years later, Michael hijacks the car meant for his court transfer. The car is driven by Loomis's medical colleague and assistant nurse, Marion Chambers. After attempting to attack Marion, Michael gets into the car and drives away quickly. His destination is his hometown of Haddonfield. When the sun rose, he pulled over, killed a tow truck driver, and then stole his clothes. He had, however, dropped a book of matches, originally belonging to Chambers, giving Loomis the vital clue that he had indeed been there.
On the following day, October 31, Michael returned to his childhood home, which was now vacant, run-down, and on the market under Strode Realty. Moments later, he heard voices and investigated, thus finding his target. He followed the young woman named Laurie Strode while she was in school, while she walked home from school, and when she went to baby-sit in another neighborhood along with her friend, Annie Brackett. Laurie was babysitting for Tommy Doyle while Annie was watching Lindsey. Later that night, Annie received a telephone call from her boyfriend Paul explaining that he needed to be picked up. Lindsey was soon thereafter taken across the street to continue watching The Thing from Another World with Tommy and Laurie. When Annie got to her car, she discovered it was locked, and returned to the house to get her keys. Annie then returned to the car, failing to notice that the door was now unlocked. After getting inside, she noticed that the windshield was fogged over. As she puzzled over this, Myers emerged from the backseat and began strangling her. Michael then slit her throat and carried her back inside the house.
Then, Lynda and Bob arrive at the Wallace residence, where they have sex in the empty house. Afterwards, Bob went downstairs for beer and discovered the back door hanging open. Thinking it was a prank by Annie and Paul, he searched the kitchen only to find Michael hiding inside the closet. Michael lifted Bob up by the throat and then stabbed him through the chest, pinning him to the wall, mysteriously staring at him, tilting his head back and forth. He then put a sheet over himself and placed Bob's glasses on top of the sheet. After creeping up the stairs, he approached Lynda, who believes he is Bob playing a practical joke. She attempted to call Laurie, just as Michael made his move. He strangles Lynda with the phone cord. Once she was dead, he props the bodies of the three deceased teenagers in the upstairs bedroom.
After receiving the strange call from Lynda, Laurie decided to go across the street and investigate. When she arrived, she thought her friends were playing pranks on her. To her horror she discovered the gruesome display of Michael's victims and headstone of Judith Myers. When Michael was within reach of Laurie, he stabbed her in the left shoulder and she fell down the stairs. Laurie fled and Michael pursued. Once outside, Laurie attempted to gain attention from the neighbors, only to have them think of it as another Halloween prank. Laurie finally made it back to the Doyle's house and was able to alert Tommy. He came downstairs and let her inside.
Michael stalked her all the way to the Doyle residence. Once inside, Laurie noticed one of the side windows was missing. They fought each other in the house, and Laurie eventually stabbed him in the neck with a knitting needle, then ran upstairs to hide in the closet. Michael then came up to the room and found her. He broke the door down and tried to kill her, but she stabbed him in the eye with a hanger then stabs him with his knife, thinking he is dead, Laurie then instructed Tommy and Lindsey to call the police from a neighbor's house. After they took off, Michael rose once again and went after Laurie, now attempting to strangle her. She fought back and pulled off his mask. Michael's face is revealed. Meanwhile Loomis, who had been on his patient's path the whole day, appeared in time and shot Michael six times at point-blank range. Michael then fell from the second-story balcony. Despite his seemingly fatal injuries, he was nowhere to be found on the lawn when Loomis looks just moments later from up above.
Halloween II (1981)
After the success of the first film, John Carpenter was contractually obligated to make two sequels. However, he had no interest and wrote the script reluctantly. One mythological aspect he inserted is the revelation that Laurie is in fact Michael's younger sister. Carpenter has admitted that this angle was written out of desperation of ideas and was not in mind during production of the first film; regardless, during the production of the sequel, Carpenter directed new scenes that would be integrated into the television version of the original film, which includes Loomis visiting Michael's room the night after his escape where the word "sister" had been written on the back of the door. This aspect has become integral in subsequent films. The film also touches upon the Druidic origin of Halloween, the ties to Myers being touched upon later in Halloween 5 before becoming a major plot line in The Curse of Michael Myers.
The film opens with a recap of the ending of the first film. After Michael's escape, Loomis begins a mad hunt while Laurie is taken to the hospital. When Michael discovers her whereabouts, he begins killing the hospital staff in his continued stalking of Laurie. During Loomis's search, he is ordered to return to Smith's Grove, but upon learning the connection between Laurie and Michael, he heads to the hospital to protect Laurie. In a final showdown Loomis gives his life to destroy Michael once and for all. Loomis fills a room with oxygen and proceeds to ignite a cigarette lighter, which causes a violent explosion. Michael initially seems to survive, although engulfed in flames, but then falls to the floor and is assumed dead.
The intent of this ending was to finally kill off Michael Myers because John Carpenter wanted to close this particular story. Following the film, and filling his contract, Carpenter was producer for Halloween III: Season of the Witch. This film was an entirely new story unrelated to the first two films, the idea that it was to be the first in a series of anthology films. However, the film was both a critical and box office failure, and both Carpenter and Debra Hill left the film series, which would resume the Michael Myers storyline in their absence.
The film also features a noticeable difference in Michael's body movement. This stems from the fact that "The Shape" is portrayed in the film by stunt man Dick Warlock. Michael's slower movements were Warlock basing his portrayal on a particular moment in the original film in which Michael, laying down after the closet attack, sits up and turns his head toward Laurie.[1]. This behavior has been criticized as being as being too robotic.[2] [3] There has also been issue with the mask, many believing that it was a different mask. Warlock, however, has stated that it is in fact the same mask and attributes the misconception to lighting or the shape of his face. Warlock has since sold the mask to a man in Ohio for use in his haunted house.[1]
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)
The film opens in 1988, Michael is seen bandaged and comatose in Ridgemont Sanitarium. On October 30, he is transferred to Smith's Grove, but during the transfer, Michael overhears that he has a niece, Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris), living in Haddonfield and wakes up and escapes.
Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence), who managed to survive the explosion at the end of Halloween II with major burns on his face and hands, hears about the transfer and Michael's subsequent escape. Despite skeptical reactions, Loomis knows that Michael is heading back to Haddonfield again to seek his niece. Along the way, Loomis stops off along a roadside gas station and cafe where he encounters Michael inside. Loomis tries to lure him out of going to Haddonfield, but ends up shooting at him. Michael evades him and proceeds to steal a tow truck and escape, nearly running over Loomis in the process.
Michael's niece, Jamie Lloyd, has been living with a surrogate family after her mother Laurie Strode was killed in a car accident three years after the 1978 killing spree depicted in the first two films. She has been having nightmares and even teased at school because of her uncle. The two meet for the first time while Jamie is shopping for a costume as Michael steals a white mask similar to the one he stole in 1978, though she escapes the encounter only frightened.
Meanwhile, Dr. Loomis arrives into town to warn the current sheriff, Ben Meeker, about the impending danger of Michael's arrival. The sheriff agrees to help Loomis find Jamie before Michael finds her. They find Jamie and Rachel in the streets of Haddonfield, deserted due to an emergency curfew. The sheriff and Loomis take them to the police station only to find Michael had been there and slaughtered all the officers in the building. In their absence, Loomis riles up several townsfolk to help them hunt down Michael.
When Jamie, Rachel, Loomis and the sheriff arrive at the Meeker house, they barricade themselves inside while awaiting the arrival of the state police. The sheriff leaves, shortly followed after Loomis, leaving only a single officer to guard them. However, Michael has managed to get inside the house, killing the officer, and stalks Jamie and Rachel. When Jamie escapes, Loomis takes her to the school where Michael has followed them, injuring Loomis. After Jamie is rescued by Rachel, the mob of townsfolk arrive and take Jamie and Rachel out of town. However, Michael has hidden under the truck they are in, and proceeds to take out the men, including the driver. Rachel gets behind the wheel and knocks Michael off into a mining field. There Meeker arrives along with some of the townsfolk and state troopers where they all shoot Michael repeatedly, causing him to fall down an abandoned mineshaft where he is presumed dead.
Jamie and Rachel return home, but shortly afterwards, Jamie stabs her foster mother, and is found holding a pair of bloody scissors while wearing the clown costume she had picked out for Halloween, an image clearly inspired by the opening scene in John Carpenter's original Halloween of a young Michael after having just stabbed his own sister.
Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989)
After Michael fell down the mine shaft, the state troopers tossed dynamite down the mine to make sure that Michael would die. But Michael somehow found his way out and crawled out in time. After floating downriver, he spotted a hermit's house in the nearby woods and passed out as he tried to strangle him. The hermit then nursed him back to health, but on Halloween 1989, Michael awakened, killed the hermit, and continued his insatiable quest to kill his niece.
Jamie, now in a mute state, has been put under doctor's care at a psychiatric home. She had been having nightmares since the events of part 4 and apparently, now shared some sort of telepathic link with her uncle; she knew exactly when and where he would strike next. This first explains the power of "THORN". Michael sneaks into Rachel's house, eventually killing her. Michael then killed off a group of teenagers (and two police officers) as he slowly built up to his main target, Jamie.
Loomis, who was slowly losing his mind, used Jamie's connection with Michael to set a trap for him at his house. Myers disposed of the police and even wounded Loomis as he stalked Jamie. When Loomis tried to take Michael's knife away, Michael hesitated and slashed him. Jamie ran into the attic, where she found her dead sister Rachel, her dog Max and couple of other bodies. When he finally had the opportunity to kill Jamie, he suddenly stopped when she says "Uncle?" Afterwards, Jamie says "Let me see". In a bizarre moment of humanity, Michael listened to his niece and eventually took off his mask, beginning to cry. When Jamie said "Let me" and tried to wipe away his tears, Michael recoiled in a rage and attacked his young niece again, lifting up the coffin and tossing it across the attic. He angrily stalked Jamie until he encountered Loomis, who caught Michael in a net of heavy chains, shot him with several tranquilizers and beat him into unconsciousness with a board from one of the broken windows.
For the first time in the series, Michael was captured and imprisoned. A policeman tried to assure Jamie that her uncle would die in prison, to which Jamie responded, "He never dies." A few minutes later, a mysterious stranger dressed in black blasted Michael out of jail, attacking and apparently killing the remaining police with an automatic weapon before explosively detonating Michael's cell door. Jamie then enters the prison and to her horror, finds signs of extreme violence and Michael's cell empty.
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995)
I always knew what he was, but I never knew why. - Dr. Sam Loomis
It is revealed that Myers was saved by a secret cult of Druids that existed to worship and protect him. This same cult also kidnapped Jamie, who was now 15 and pregnant with a son. When she gives birth to her son, the cult leader, the man dressed in black, takes it to fulfill the cult's own purposes. Jamie was able to escape with her newborn baby thanks to the help of one of the doctors. Michael however murdered the doctor and pursued Jamie, murdering a truck driver in the process. Jamie eventually calls a Radio broadcast network in hopes of contacting Dr. Loomis through the Radio. This method proves effective, but it was too late to save Jamie from her murderous uncle. Loomis hears the radio broadcast along with Dr. Wynn who had arrived at Loomis's house to ask him to come back to Smith's Grove where he originally worked.
Michael stalked and eventually killed Jamie by jamming her body into some farm equipment and then turning the machine on. Michael however, was unable to find where she hid the baby and goes back to Haddonfield to find the last of his bloodline. In his search for Jamie's baby, Michael began a new murder spree, targeting the new family that now occupies the serial killer's old house, the Strodes. Michael believes that anyone living in his house is his family and therefore will become his victims. Laurie Myers Strode's (Michael's deceased sister) adoptive Aunt and Uncle now reside in the house with a son. Kara, their daughter, and her son Danny, now live there until she graduates from college. Tommy Doyle, the child Laurie was babysitting in the first film, is now an adult and has been researching Michael, hoping to uncover the reason for his homicidal rage. In his search, he hears about Jamie and learns that she was at a bus station at the time she called the radio broadcast. There, he finds her baby, which he names Steven, and also meets Dr. Loomis. He tells Loomis about the Strode family that lives next to him and that they are in danger. Loomis later goes to the house to warn Kara's mother that Michael will return to the house as all his memories and rage are there. Though she believes him, Michael was already too close for her to escape.
One by one, Michael begins slaughtering the family until only Kara and her son are left. Danny, in the meantime, had been experiencing odd occurrences that are connected to the man in black, the same man who released Michael from his prison and kidnapped Jamie. It is soon learned that Michael is nothing more than a puppet for an ancient evil that makes him stalk and kill family members. Tommy explains that an ancient organization called Thorn, named after one of the worst plagues to befall the world, has inflicted Michael with the Curse of Thorn to make him kill family members on the night of Samhain, Halloween. The cult believes that this must be done in order to restore balance to humanity and save the rest of the community from death and the plague of Thorn. The cult is responsible for impregnating Jamie to make Steven Michael's final sacrifice and then pass the curse to Danny Strode, who the Man in Black has been haunting, to make him the next one to bring balance to the world in the years to come.
It is this curse that gives Michael his homicidal rage, strength, and immortality. The symbol of Thorn is also shown as a constellation of stars that appears on Halloween, whenever it appears Michael commits his murders. Loomis meets with Tommy as Michael's body count continues to rise. They save Kara and Steven from Michael only to be ambushed by the Thorn Cult. Here, it is learned that Dr. Wynn is actually the Man in Black and is the leader of the cult. They take Kara, Danny, and Steven, leaving Loomis and Tommy drugged. Loomis and Tommy go to Smith's Grove where Loomis learns from Tommy about The Curse of Thorn. Wynn is revealed to be Michael's guardian and he has an obligation to protect Michael at any cost, which is why he released Michael from his prison cell in the previous movie. This also hints that Wynn is the one who released Michael from Smith's Grove in the first film and was the one who taught him how to drive.
Wynn wants Loomis to join them. Whatever the case, Michael kills Wynn along with other doctors in Smith's Grove. As Michael pursues his victims, Tommy stabs Michael with syringes and beats him into unconsciousness with a pipe.
At the end of the movie, a loud scream was heard from inside the building in which Loomis and Myers were last seen in, and the mask of Michael Myers is found on the floor.
Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later (1998)
Laurie Strode had faked her own death and changed her name to Keri Marie Tate. She became the Headmistress and a literature teacher at a respected secluded private school called Hillcrest Academy in fictional Summer Glen, California. Myers discovered her whereabouts on October 29, 1998 as he ransacked Nurse Marion's house and killed her and two other teenagers, back in Langdon, Illinois; however, after all these years, Laurie has "visions", out of fear, of Michael (coming toward her, or seeing his reflection in a window). Her visions cause her to resist allowing her 17-year-old son John from attending a field trip to Yosemite, but she eventually breaks, feeling it would be good for him. Nevertheless, John and his friends have already made plans to stay on campus. He does not tell his mother. Michael comes to Hillcrest for Laurie and John. He sneaks past the guard at the entrance to the school. As this is happening, Laurie tells her boyfriend, Will, of her true identity and family history. It is then that she realizes that Michael attempted to kill her when she was 17, the same age as her son. Upon trying the phone and discovering it dead, she finds John's camping gear in the closet. She panics and arms herself with a gun while Will watches. The security guard comes to warn Laurie of the mysterious car at the gate (Michael's car).
Meanwhile Michael has killed John's friend and his girlfriend. John and his girlfriend run to get away from Michael as he chases after John trying to kill his girlfriend first, but fails in doing that. Once John saved his girlfriend, Michael stabs John in the thigh, but John and his girlfriend escape. As soon as the two kids meet up with Laurie and Will, Laurie sees Michael through the window, realizing her worst fears.
Everyone is in the building, and Laurie tells the kids to hide in a closet. Then, Laurie and Will, see someone walking in the shadows, and Will shoots the figure. Upon closer inspection, they find it was the security guard. Then Michael comes in and stabs Will, lifting him off the ground. Laurie finds the kids, and gets in the car and goes to the front of the school. She tells them to leave the school. Once this happens, Laurie destroys the gate-opener, locking her and Michael in. She grabs the fireman's ax, and starts shouting, "Michael", trying to lure him to her. Back in the school Michael and Laurie have a violent struggle. Laurie eventually stabs Michael several times, and sends him flying off a balcony into the cafeteria of the school. He lays there, seemingly dead, and Laurie prepares to stab him even more, when the security guard stops her saying, "he's dead, he's dead".
Police officers come, and everything seems to be okay. However, Laurie knows Michael's immortal "nature". She takes the axe she had earlier, steals a policeman's gun and orders paramedics to load Michael's body into a nearby van. She drives off, continuously checking to see if his body bag is moving. Once it does start moving and he gets out of the bag, Laurie suddenly stops the car, hurtling Michael through the windshield. Once he stands up, Laurie rams the van into him and sends the car down an off-road hill. She jumps out of the van, and the van, Michael, and her tumble down the hill, and Michael gets pinned between the van and a tree. Laurie walks over to him with the axe. Michael reaches out to her, and Laurie breaks out in tears, and goes to touch his hand. But before she touches his hand, she remembers his true nature, and decapitates her brother.
Halloween: Resurrection (2002)
Laurie Strode thought she had put an end to her evil brother once and for all. It turns out, while Michael was still in the Academy's dining hall, a Summer Glen paramedic came to inspect his motionless body. Just as he was about to unmask him, Michael arose and crushed the paramedic's larynx. Michael then switched clothes with the now-mute and unconscious paramedic. When Laurie hijacked the coroner's van, she believed her brother had been loaded in. After succeeding in crashing the van down a steep slope off a mountainous highway, Laurie beheaded the costumed and masked man, thinking it was Michael. But when it was discovered she killed an innocent man, she was arrested for homicide. Shortly afterward, Laurie was committed to the psychiatric care facility of Grace Andersen Sanitarium.
Three years later, on the night of October 31, 2001, Michael eventually found his sister at the institution. He broke into the facility, tracked down Laurie, and chased her as she made her way to the rooftop. Ardent preparation was the only thing left for Laurie in her captivity. She had planned an ingenious trap for her brother's eventual return. When he did fall for the trap and was hanging upside-down, Laurie wanted to make certain Michael was the man behind the mask. As she proceeded to unmask him, Michael grabbed her left hand. Equipped with his knife in her right hand, Laurie tried to drive it into Michael's abdomen, while Michael tried to grab her right hand. The rope suspending Michael broke and the two siblings were pulled to the other side of the roof. Michael grabbed the ledge with Laurie hanging on, he then drove the knife into Laurie's abdomen all the way through her back. Laurie, accepting her death, kissed the lips of her brother's mask and vowed that she would see him in Hell. Michael then released the knife, letting Laurie fall to her death. Coldly watching her as if admiring his handywork, he knew that he had finally won.
One year later on October 31, 2002, Michael was home in Haddonfield, living in a section of tunnels below his childhood house.
The abandoned house itself was later being used as the setting for an Internet reality show by Dangertainment owner and operator Freddie Harris along with his girlfriend and colleague Nora Winston. Six college students, three from Haddonfield University, have won as contestants to spend Halloween night in the 'now-famous' residence.
That night, Michael succeeded in killing five of the college students and two of its crew members. It ended when Freddie and the reserved college student, Sara Moyer managed to electrocute and burn Michael while the garage was engulfed with flames. Michael's body was thereafter taken to the morgue. As a female coroner was about to unmask his charred face, his eyelids open, leaving it open for a possible sequel.
Rob Zombie's Halloween (2007)
The story/film begins at the Myers home, where a young Michael Myers (Daeg Faerch), wearing a clown mask, is petting his rat named Elvis, which Michael later kills. At the breakfast table, Michael is taunted and insulted by his mother's obnoxious slacker boyfriend Ronnie White (William Forsythe). Later that day at school, two bullies mock and fight Michael after taunting the boy about his sister Judith (by portraying her as a slut) and showing him a flier showing Michael's mother Deborah (Sheri Moon Zombie), who is a star at a strip club. Deborah is called to the office where the school tells her that the mutilated bodies of several animals were found in Michael's locker, along with photos of Michael torturing them. Deborah is introduced to Dr. Samuel Loomis (Malcolm McDowell), who advises her to get professional help for her son for the torturing may be early signs psychotic behavior. Meanwhile Michael runs away. Wesley Rhoades (Daryl Sabara), one of the bullies who mocked Michael, takes a short-cut home through the woods, where Michael ambushes and beats him relentlessly with a tree branch, wearing his clown mask. Despite Wesley's desperate pleas for mercy, Michael proceeds to viciously finish his kill.
Later that Halloween night, Judith (Hanna R. Hall) neglects taking him trick-or-treating because her boyfriend Steven Haley (Adam Weisman) comes over, so Michael goes alone. But when Michael gets back, he brutally murders Ronnie with a knife (duct-taped to a chair and slit his throat), Steve with an aluminum bat (whacked him to death), and finally Judith (stabs her with a knife 17 times) while wearing Steve's William Shatner mask. But he spares his younger sister Laurie. Deborah Myers arrives home and finds Michael outside, covered in a little blood and with Laurie in his arms. Afterwards, Michael is taken into police custody.
Eleven months later, Michael is sent to a mental institution where Dr. Loomis tries to help him, but Michael claims to not remember any of the killings. Michael's mother comes to visit him every week. Michael slowly becomes repressed from the confinement, speaking less and less (in one of the workprints, Loomis and Michael are walking outside, and Michael tells Loomis that "he needs to get out of here." Loomis tells Michael that there is nothing he can do, and Michael says "Then I have nothing more to say." and never speaks again.), and wearing homemade masks at all times. While at lunch with Dr. Loomis and his mother, Michael refuses to eat, move or respond, his mother presents him with a picture of himself and his younger sister. Later when Dr. Loomis and his mother leave, Michael kills his nurse (Sybil Danning) with a fork for touching a photo of him and his little sister (in one of the workprints, the nurse insults Michael by looking at the photograph and saying, "Cute baby... couldn't be related to you."). An alarm sounds and guards, followed closely by Deborah Myers and Dr. Loomis, rush into the room to restrain Michael, who becomes feral when they remove his mask. Later at the Myers home, Deborah cries while watching old films of her and Michael. Unable to stand what her son has become any longer, she kills herself, leaving baby Laurie screaming in the house.
Fifteen years later, Dr. Loomis, who has since written a book about his unsuccessful treatment of Michael, titled The Devil's Eyes, is forced to resign from the hospital staff. That night, Michael is to be transferred to a new cell, but escapes, killing several guards including one who had befriended Michael since his incarceration (Danny Trejo). Michael goes to a truck station and confronts trucker Big Joe Grizzley. Grizzley taunts Michael for facing him before he is rushed into a bathroom stall and killed with his own knife, and Michael steals his boiler suit. Loomis is called and informed that Michael has escaped, and knows immediately that Michael will return to Haddonfield. Michael does indeed travel to his old home and retrieves his knife, and an old mask his sister's boyfriend was wearing from underneath the floorboards where he evidently hid them. He then hears Laurie Strode outside bringing a key to the front door to his old home. It is here he figures out that Laurie is his younger sister—-the one he's looking for.
The story shifts to Michael stalking his sister Laurie (Scout Taylor-Compton), who was adopted by the Strode family. On Halloween night, Michael managed to successfully kill Laurie's adoptive parents, Lynda van der Klok (Kristina Klebe), her two best friends' boyfriends (Max Van Ville and Nick Mennell), and mortally wound Annie Brackett (Danielle Harris). Near the end of the film, Laurie is taken off to the Myers' abandoned house where he shows her a picture given to him earlier in the film. She then buys some time and talks to him only to stab him with his knife and flees. As she flees, she falls into an empty swimming pool. As Michael approaches to finish her off, Loomis appears and shoots him down. He takes Laurie into his car and she utters the classic "Was that the Boogie Man?" line and he says "Yes. I believe it was" before Michael punches through the window and drags her out. Loomis convinces Michael to spare Laurie, taking the blame for Michael's mental state, claiming he "failed" Michael.
Michael then lets go of Laurie and attacks Loomis. Laurie runs into the house and hides in a closet. Michael seems to succeed in killing Dr. Loomis by crushing his skull, but it is unknown if he was killed. Michael then walks into the house searching for Laurie. She gets out of the closet in the nick of time and hides in the attic. Michael hears her, grabs a 2x4, and starts smashing through the ceiling. Laurie eventually falls out in the center of a room. Michael walks in and drops the 2x4. He charges her and they both fall out of the window and off the balcony. Laurie wakes up finding herself lying on top of Michael. Next to him lies Loomis's gun. She grabs it and tries to shoot it but the cartridges are empty. Just then Michael grabs Laurie's wrist and Laurie pulls the trigger and shoots Michael in the head. She starts screaming in terror of what she had done to her older brother and the scene ends with the credits which show home videos of Michael and his family as a child.
Characteristics and abilities
- Michael is tall, in Rob Zombie's re-imagining he is portrayed by Tyler Mane who is 6'8". In Halloween: Resurrection he is clearly taller than 6'1" Busta Rhymes (Fred Harris). He has scars from burns after being set on fire by Dr. Loomis at the conclusion of Halloween II. In the Zombie film, Michael has blue eyes and long blonde hair. In the original movie, young Michael is shown to have brown eyes and dirty blond hair, and later with black hair and brown eyes as an adult, during his unmasking. In subsequent films, mainly one eye is seen, due to being shot in both eyes, by his sister Laurie Strode in Halloween II. He is generally depicted in coveralls worn by automobile mechanics. He also wears a white mask (originally a William Shatner mask with the facial hair removed and spray painted white) during his murders with very few exceptions. In the 2007 remake, Michael, as a child, often wears masks to school and while at home. He wears a clown mask most often and tells his mother, after he is incarcerated for killing his sister, her boyfriend, and his mother's boyfriend, that he doesn't like his appearance and thinks he's ugly. He even orders her to put back a mask she took off of his face. As an adult, Michael, while not in therapy with Dr. Loomis, spends much of his time creating masks made out of papier-mâché that he hangs on the wall of his cell and is almost always wearing one of them.
- Michael also has a rudimentary and near-genius mentality. In the 1978 film, Michael is only six-years-old when he kills his sister, meaning he may not have been in school for long. He never receives any school while incarcerated. In his escape, he is able to commandeer the vehicle Loomis and Chambers were driving, and operated it well; he was never instructed how to drive a motor vehicle. There are also times he has been seen operating complex devices. One aspect writer Rob Zombie consciously removed from the mythology in his remake is Michael's inexplicable ability to drive, as he is seen traveling on foot.
- Michael almost never uses firearms or explosives to kill people. The rare exception is in Halloween 4 where he uses a shotgun to impale a victim. Typically, Michael prefers stabbing and cutting instruments like knives and scalpels (as in Halloween II) or blunt force such as his bare hands.
- Michael never runs no matter how fast his victims run when he pursues them. He usually walks with a distinctive gait[citation needed], but in the 2007 remake of Halloween Michael is seen charging at his younger sister, though he doesn't actually run. His primary weapon is a kitchen knife, but has also used several other weapons to accomplish his work, including a pitchfork in Halloween 5 and an axe in Halloween 6. In Halloween 4, he also appears to take a run up to jump/break through a door, which is somewhat out of character for Michael. He crushes the skull of victims with his bare hands in The Return of Michael Myers, Halloween (2007) and Halloween: Resurrection. He even drives his thumb through a victim's forehead in the beginning of The Return of Michael Myers. He often looks directly into his victim's eyes with his head shifted to the side as if to study them as they die or shortly thereafter. In the 2007 Rob Zombie movie, he kills his sister's boyfriend with an aluminum baseball bat and a nurse with a fork.
- While Michael is mute, he seems to understand what people say to him. There have been brief glimpses of hesitation or even remorse in Michael, an example of which is in Halloween II. Michael approaches Laurie with the intention of killing her, when she screams his name. Michael stops and turns his head slightly in confusion; this hints that Michael may not be entirely sure of his intentions. Many consider this a true interpretation of Michael's hesitation, as it is in a film made by John Carpenter, the creator of the character, and not a different writer who hoped to fill in the gaps of Michael's origin with their own ideas. Another example is Halloween 5 when Jamie climbs into the coffin, she cries out "uncle" and Michael stops his attack and then she says "let me see", at which point Michael removes his mask and a tear falls out of his eye. This seems to show remorse, or perhaps simply a moment during which Michael's true soul takes hold before the curse silences it once more, suggesting Michael is not a psychopath. In the 2007 remake, Michael displays psychopathic tendencies such as regularly torturing and killing small animals and is described in the film as being psychotic, however after brutalizing everyone he comes across instead of automatically killing his baby sister after finding her he first shows her a picture of him and Laurie when they were younger showing he still had a fondness for her.
- Michael has displayed limited psychic abilities with his family, most noticeably his 9 year old niece Jamie. He was able to mentally command his niece Jamie to attack her adoptive mother in The Return of Michael Myers. Also in Halloween 5, Michael and Jamie have developed a special psychic link, which allows Jamie to instinctively know when and where he will strike next.
- Michael has displayed many feats of superhuman strength including lifting large men off their feet by their heads. One of his greatest feats occurred in The Curse of Michael Myers; after pursuing a Thorn doctor through a tunnel and trapping him behind jail-like bars, Michael slowly presses the doctor's head into the bars, crushing it, causing the bars to fall to the floor in the process. In the 2007 remake, Michael demonstrates superhuman levels strength sufficient to lift a man off the ground by the throat with one hand, breaks steel chains, and lift and move his mother's tombstone, which is said in the movie to weigh over 1,000 lbs.
- Michael apparently eats food. In the first film, Michael fed on a canine. It is not known how often he needs to eat, but it seems very infrequent. It was insinuated he lived in part off rats in Halloween Resurrection. In The Revenge of Michael Myers, he is apparently catatonic for an entire year as he laid in the fisherman's cabin. It is unknown if he partook of any sustenance during that year.
- Michael possesses superhuman recuperative abilities. He has withstood being shot several times, including 6 times at point blank range in the original film. He has also withstood being burned, stabbed, beaten, hanged and electrocuted. In Halloween II, in the final scenes, he is shot in both eyes by his sister, Laurie; in later films he has regenerated both eyes, though most of the sequels only show one eye in close-ups. However, given the common occurrence of unlikely events in horror films, it is possible that Laurie's shots did not actually hit Michael in the eyes, but rather in a close vicinity to his eyes, and the flow of blood simply blinded him temporarily. After acting comatose for nearly 10 years, he displays no ill physical effects when he escapes from the ambulance in The Return of Michael Myers. In the 2007 remake, there is no mention of Michael being supernatural though displays superhuman levels of resilience throughout the film such as being stabbed in the chest, shot in the chest by a police officer and three more times later by Loomis. At the end of the film, Laurie shoots him in the face and is splattered with his blood, though the movie quickly ends without revealing if Michael survives.
- Michael is also quite cunning, able to sneak up on intended victims or trick them consistently. He has an uncanny ability to escape detection.
In mass media
The stop motion animated television show Robot Chicken episode nineteen, "That Hurts Me", Michael appears (voiced by Seth Green), this time a housemate of "Horror Movie Big Brother", alongside other famous slasher movie killers such as Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger, Leatherface, Pinhead, and Ghostface. There he plays Charades with the other mute killers and wages a practical joke war with Jason against Pinhead. Unable to win the veto in the Challenge, it was Michael and Ghostface who were voted on to be evicted. When pleading their cases, Ghostface gives a decidedly more heartfelt speech than Michael, who just stabs Freddy several times. Michael is evicted, and is revealed to be comedian Mike Myers before stabbing his interviewer to death while spouting Wayne's World quotes.
He also appears in an "Andy Milonakis" feature called "Andy goes to Hollywood" where Andy is attacked by Michael and Ralphie (another character) and it ends with Ralphie saying "I want a doughnut" and a group hug in which Michael Myers joins in.
References
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