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Max Caulfield

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This article is about the video game character. For the actor, see Maxwell Caulfield.
Max Caulfield
Life Is Strange character
A portrait of a girl with short brown hair. Her back is turned as she looks towards the camera; surrounding her are various blue butterflies. A photo of a lighthouse and surrounding trees are overlaid on her white shirt.
Promotional art of Max Caulfield for Life is Strange: Remastered Collection (2022)
First appearanceLife Is Strange (2015)
Created byDontnod Entertainment
Portrayed byHannah Telle[1]

Maxine "Max" Caulfield is a fictional character from the Life Is Strange video game series published by Square Enix. Created by French developer Dontnod Entertainment, she is the player character in Life Is Strange (2015) and its sequel Life Is Strange: Double Exposure (2024). She is portrayed by Hannah Telle.

Concept and creation

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In 2015's Life Is Strange, Max Caulfield is portrayed with the ability to rewind time to supplement the game's core gameplay mechanism.[2] While the lead character rewinds time, visual effects such as post-processing, double exposure, and overlapping screen space particles were employed as an artistic approach to be portrayed.[3]

The characters were created using well-known archetypes, initially to establish a player access point and subsequently to subvert them.[4] The supernatural elements were developed as a metaphor for the character's inner turmoil in order to serve the realism.[5]

As a teenager, Max resonates with contemporary youth, allowing the players to connect with her experiences. She grapples with being "stuck in-between time", a metaphorical limbo where past and present intersect. Her old-fashioned camera symbolizes nostalgia and a longing for the past, while her reluctance to make decisions reflects the weight of consequence. Christian Divine, one of the game's writers, crafted Max's dialogue with occasional older expressions. Through Max, players explore the tension between relatability and the enigmatic forces that shape her existence.[6]

Name

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Max's surname references Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger, and his personality as an "iconic rebel" is echoed by Max's spirit of defiance and characterization as an outsider in her community.[7]

Character design

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Key art of the character for episode five of Life Is Strange, from rough concept to final version

Max was the second female protagonist in a Dontnod Entertainment title. Most prospective publishers were unwilling to publish a game unless it had a male protagonist, according to a developer journal provided by Dontnod.[8][9] Most publishers objected to Dontnod's first project, a female protagonist in Remember Me.[10] Oskar Guilbert, CEO of Dontnod, was similarly skeptical at first.[11] Square Enix was the only publisher with no intention to change the female protagonist.[12] Dontnod co-founder Jean-Maxime Moris has claimed that the gender equality in video games was "a great debate to have",[13] but actually "we're not pretending to address the issue or use the issue to stand out from the rest."[14]

Portrayal

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It was decided that the majority of the funding would be spent on character writing and voice actors, such as Max.[15] Christian Divine and Cano were then entrusted with fine-tuning it in English.[16] In July 2014, Hannah Telle auditioned for Max Caulfield and was cast; Ashly Burch auditioned for both Max and her assigned role, Chloe Price. The sessions took place in Los Angeles, California, with the French developer joining through Skype.[17][18]

Appearances

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Life Is Strange

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Maxine "Max" Caulfield, is the main protagonist of the game, and is a twelfth-grade student attending Blackwell Academy during October 2013.[19] During photography class with her teacher Mark Jefferson, Max experiences a vision of a lighthouse being destroyed by a swelling tornado. Leaving for the restroom to regain her composure, she witnesses classmate Nathan Prescott (Nik Shriner) kill a young woman in a fit of rage. In a single, sudden effort, she develops the ability to rewind time[20] and rescues the woman, revealed to be her childhood best friend, Chloe Price.[21] The two reunite and go for a walk at the lighthouse, where Max reveals to Chloe her capacity to travel back in time. It is established that the vision is rather the reckoning of a future event: a storm approaching the town.[22] The next day, Max observes fellow student Kate Marsh being bullied for a viral video depicting her kissing several students at a party.[23]

Max uses her time travel ability. The timer display is visible on-screen.

Meeting Chloe at the diner where her mother Joyce works, they decide to experiment with Max's power at Chloe's secret scrapyard hideout.[24] However, strain causes Max to have a nosebleed and faint. Chloe takes her back to Blackwell, but class is halted when everyone is called out to the courtyard. Kate commits suicide by jumping off the roof of the girls' dorm. Max manages to rewind and time stops unexpectedly as she reaches Kate, giving Max the opportunity to convince her to come down. Max ultimately resolves to uncover what happened to Kate and Chloe's missing friend Rachel Amber.[23] Max and Chloe break into the principal's office that night to investigate and enter the pool for a swim before evading David Madsen, head of security at Blackwell and Chloe's stepfather, and fleeing back to Chloe's place. The next morning, they sneak into the motorhome of Frank Bowers, drug dealer and friend of Rachel, and learn that Rachel was in a relationship with Frank and lied to Chloe about it, causing Chloe to storm off feeling betrayed. Max returns to her dormitory and examines a childhood photo of her and Chloe, but is suddenly transported to the day the picture was taken. Max prevents Chloe's father William from dying in a traffic collision, which inadvertently creates an alternative reality where William is alive but Chloe has been paralysed from the neck down as a result of a collision in her own car.[25]

Max uses the photo to undo her decision and returns to the present day, restoring Chloe's health. Continuing their investigation, Max and Chloe obtain clues leading them to an abandoned barn owned by the influential Prescott family. They discover a hidden bunker containing pictures of Kate and Rachel tied up and intoxicated, with Rachel being buried at Chloe's secret hideout. They hurry back to the scrapyard and find Rachel's grave, much to Chloe's despair. Max follows Chloe at the school party to confront Nathan, believing he will target fellow student Victoria Chase. They receive a text from Nathan threatening to destroy the evidence, returning them to the scrapyard. The two are then ambushed by Jefferson, who anaesthetises Max and kills Chloe. Max is kidnapped and held captive in the "Dark Room", a makeshift photography studio and torture chamber hidden underneath the Prescott barn where Jefferson has been drugging and photographing young girls.

Jefferson also reveals that he took Nathan on as a protégé, but was recently killed after accidentally giving Rachel a fatal overdose while trying to mimic Jefferson's work, and intends to do the same to Max after he has the photos he wants. Max escapes into a photograph and emerges back at the beginning in Jefferson's class. She alerts David, getting Jefferson (and Nathan) arrested.[26]

Max is given the opportunity to go to San Francisco and have her work displayed in an art gallery. She calls Chloe from the event, realizing that after all her effort, the storm has reached Arcadia Bay. Max travels back to the moment in which she took the gallery photo, which eventually leads her to sojourn alternative realities as they devolve into a dreamscape nightmare. Max and Chloe finally return to the lighthouse and the duo confront the possibility Max brought the storm into fruition by saving Chloe from being shot by Nathan earlier in the week.

After being presented with the option to go back in time once more, Max must make a choice: sacrifice Chloe's life to save Arcadia Bay and undo the previous week's events, or sacrifice Arcadia Bay to the storm to spare Chloe.[27]

Life Is Strange: Before the Storm

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In the downloadable content bonus episode of Life Is Strange: Before the Storm (2017), "Farewell", a 13-year old Max Caulfield struggles to break the news to Chloe that her family is moving to Seattle in three days. The two find a recording of their 8-year old selves speaking of a buried treasure. After finding the map and an amulet in the attic, Max and Chloe discover the treasure's spot, only to find that Chloe's dad, William, had put their time capsule in a keg, along with his own recording, for safekeeping. Max can choose to either tell Chloe the truth or hide it; regardless of her decision, their plans for the rest of the day are cut short when Chloe's mother, Joyce, returns home with the news of William's death. Max attends William's funeral days later and leaves for Seattle with her parents immediately after, leaving Chloe in grief.[28]

Life Is Strange 2

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In Life Is Strange 2 (2018), Max is mentioned by David while talking to the game's protagonist Sean Diaz.

If Arcadia Bay was sacrificed in the first game, Max is seen in a photograph kept in David's trailer, which shows both her and Chloe sometime after 2013. During David's phone call with Chloe, it hints that she and Chloe either live in or visited New York and had a bad experience with a local, as David reminds Chloe that "New Yorkers are assholes". It is also implied that she and Chloe had visited him sometime ago.[29]

Life Is Strange: True Colors - "Wavelengths"

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In the bonus chapter of Life Is Strange: True Colors (2021), "Wavelengths", Max is mentioned by Steph Gingrich, the story's main character, during a tabletop game with Mikey if Arcadia Bay was sacrificed in the first game. Steph only states that Chloe was gone without any contact with her and the only thing she heard about Chloe is that she's wandering around with another "weirdo" (referring to Max).

Life Is Strange Remastered Collection

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Max and Chloe reappeared in the Life Is Strange Remastered Collection (2022).[30]

Life Is Strange: Double Exposure

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Max returns in Life is Strange: Double Exposure, which was released on October 29, 2024. Set years after the events of the first game, Max, now an adult and photographer-in-residence at Caledon University, discovers her friend Safi has been murdered. Max attempts to rewind time to save her, but instead travels to a parallel timeline where Safi is alive. Max realizes the killer will soon strike again in both realities and attempts to both solve and prevent the same murder. She soon discovers that the killer is her future self, who did it to end a chaotic time vortex and also learns that Safi possesses the ability to shapeshift. Eventually, Max and Safi's powers create a storm similar to the one from Arcadia Bay, leading Max to journey through a transformed Caledon University and past visions of her time in Arcadia Bay before eventually reuniting with Safi and returning to the real world, merging both timelines together in the process. In the aftermath, Safi leaves to search for others who have supernatural powers like her and Max while Max herself reveals her powers to everyone.[31]

Life Is Strange comics

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The Life is Strange comic series follows Max and Chloe in the timeline where Max chooses to save Chloe and sacrifice Arcadia Bay.[32] Max and Chloe are living in Seattle and befriend a band for whom Chloe does artwork. Max and Chloe find themselves returning to Arcadia Bay after it becomes apparent that Max can no longer control her time powers. The two return to Arcadia Bay and Max realizes that she is drifting in and out of different realities, a phenomenon that she refers to as “flickers.” After a conversation with Chloe about their romantic feelings towards each other and multiple experiences in different realities, Max decides to fully jump into a different timeline and abandon her original one in order to stop the chaos of the flickers. Doing so puts her in a timeline where Rachel Amber is still alive and in a relationship with Chloe.[33]

Max then lives in that timeline for years and becomes close with Rachel and Chloe, who are unaware of her time traveling capabilities. Eventually, Max meets Tristan, a man who possesses the ability to become invisible. This prompts her to begin to make efforts to return to her original timeline with Tristan's help after revealing to Chloe and Rachel the truth about who she is. Tristan is able to jump to Max's original timeline and communicate with Chloe there that Max is attempting to return. Max then accompanies Rachel and the Chloe in her current timeline on a cross country road trip that coincides with a cross country road trip the Chloe in her original timeline is taking. Through Tristan, Max and her original Chloe are able to communicate with each other and Max begins to prepare herself to make the jump back to her original timeline.[33] In Miami, Max is able to go back into her own timeline with the help of Tristan, who also comes into Max's timeline. Max and Chloe then return to a rebuilding Arcadia Bay, where she discovers Chloe has rebuilt the Two Whales. With Max coming to terms with the tragedy and loss caused by the storm, she is able to speak at Victoria's memorial exhibition, honoring the resilience of the town.

Reception

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Life Is Strange reached both commercial and critical success and was highly praised for its character development in particular.[34][35] For their work with Max Caulfield, Dontnod received an award nomination from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences for Outstanding Achievement in Character at the 19th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards.[36][37] In 2018, IGN published an article by Seamus Mullins where he lauded Max as the most complex video game protagonist he has ever experienced.[38] Max was ranked by PC Gamer staff as among the most iconic characters in PC gaming.[39] Peter Paras of Game Revolution complimented Max's character beats, who he said "really comes into her own as [a] fully-formed character."[40] Metro commented that Max Caulfield has it all, claiming that "She's witty, intelligent and her outlook on life is perfectly characterised via her music taste."[41] Game Informer ranked Max among the best female characters from the year 2015, with Elise Favis calling Max a "rarity, and not only because she’s a teenage female lead."[42]

Along with Chloe Price, Polygon staff named Max as one of the best video game characters of the 2010s.[43] Though Chloe is often considered the more pivotal character for the story arc, there is interest in seeing more of Max's story.[44][33]

Some critics have argued that Max's character and development felt generic and inauthentic, perhaps because she is a female character created by male writers.[45][46] Jean-Maxine Moris, a creative lead in Life is Strange, argued against this criticism by stating that extensive research was done before creating the characters in the game and that it is backed by Square Enix because it was the only publishing partner that did not try and change critical aspects of the game such as the gender of the main characters.[45]

Further reading

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  • Boccher, Mike (September 4, 2015). "Interview with Hannah Telle: The emotional task of playing Life is Strange's Max Caulfield". GameZone. Retrieved December 11, 2021.
  • "Dontnod Talks Leaving Behind Chloe and Max for Life is Strange 2". PlayStation LifeStyle. September 12, 2015. Retrieved December 11, 2021.
  • "Life Is Strange Director Talks About The Theme Of 'Identity' And Visual Novels". Siliconera. 6 February 2015. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  • "Life is Strange 2 should have been a tale of two sisters, not brothers". PCGamesN. July 3, 2019. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  • "Life Is Bleak (in Particular for Women Who Exert Power and Try to Change the World): The Poetics and Politics of Life Is Strange". Game Studies. December 1, 2019. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  • "Female Protagonists in Games From Victim To Tragic Heroine". Goethe-Institut. September 1, 2018. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  • "Introducing Lindsay's month of games that exclusively feature female protagonists". Digitally Download. September 1, 2016. Retrieved December 12, 2021.

References

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  1. ^ "Max Caulfield Voice (Life is Strange) - Behind The Voice Actors". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved 15 July 2023. Check mark indicates role has been confirmed using screenshots of closing credits and other reliable sources.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  2. ^ Webster, Andrew (19 May 2015). "How adventure game Life is Strange blends time travel and teen drama". The Verge. Archived from the original on 20 May 2015. Retrieved 19 May 2015.
  3. ^ Makuch, Eddie (23 January 2015). "Watch: Life is Strange Dev Talks Time-Travel Butterfly Effect in New Video". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 25 January 2015. Retrieved 24 January 2015.
  4. ^ Serrano, Zulai (23 March 2015). "'Life is Strange Episode 2' Dev Talks To Us About What's Next For Max In Arcadia Bay [EXCLUSIVE]". iDigitalTimes. Archived from the original on 24 March 2015. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  5. ^ Lemne, Bengt (26 January 2015). "Life is Strange – "Supernatural things merely metaphors"". Gamereactor. Archived from the original on 6 February 2015. Retrieved 26 January 2015.
  6. ^ "Life is Strange's second season would star a new cast (if it happened)". polygon.com. 24 June 2015.
  7. ^ Peter Tieryas (November 24, 2017). "Life Is Strange's Literary References Give Deeper Meaning To Its Journey". Kotaku. Retrieved December 11, 2021.
  8. ^ Maiberg, Emanuel (10 January 2015). ""Other Publishers Told Us to Make It a Male Lead Character," Life is Strange Dev Says". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 19 July 2015. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
  9. ^ LeBoeuf, Sarah (11 January 2015). "Publishers Wanted Life is Strange Devs to Make Leads Male". The Escapist. Archived from the original on 6 February 2015. Retrieved 12 January 2015.
  10. ^ Makuch, Eddie (19 March 2013). "Publishers said 'You can't have a female character,' says Remember Me dev". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 29 December 2013. Retrieved 12 November 2014.
  11. ^ Barnes, Ben (June 2016). "Edge #293". Edge. p. 94-97: Future plc.{{cite magazine}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
  12. ^ Rougeau, Mike (11 January 2015). "Publishers Wanted To Change Life Is Strange's Protagonists Into Men". Kotaku. Archived from the original on 17 November 2015. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
  13. ^ "Life Is Strange Creative Director Jean-Maxime Moris Talks Atmosphere, Choices, and Female Leads". Dualshockers.com. 9 October 2014.
  14. ^ Ovalle, Carlos (12 October 2014). "Life is Strange A Brief yet Delightful Look at the Next Game Behind the Developers of Remember Me". The Game Fanatics. Archived from the original on 12 November 2014. Retrieved 12 November 2014.
  15. ^ Phillips, Tom (18 March 2015). "Life is Strange dev talks lip-syncing, release schedule and publisher demands". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on 18 March 2015. Retrieved 18 March 2015.
  16. ^ Phillips, Tom (18 April 2016). "Life is Strange team talk fan theories, that season finale and more". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on 20 April 2016. Retrieved 20 April 2016.
  17. ^ Adnan Riaz (September 12, 2015). "Hannah Telle: Involvement in Life Is Strange is the 'Greatest Honor'". Hardcore Gamer. Retrieved December 11, 2021.
  18. ^ Jayne, Jeremy (18 June 2015). "Life Is Strange: Episodic Heartstrings – Kinda Funny at E3 2015". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 3 November 2015. Retrieved 22 November 2015.
  19. ^ "Life is Strange being adapted into live-action series". Polygon.com. 27 July 2016.
  20. ^ Dassanayake, Dion (3 May 2018). "Life is Strange - New comic returns to Arcadia Bay and reveals MORE about that ending". Express.co.uk.
  21. ^ Fogel, Stefanie (19 July 2018). "Life Is Strange Is Now On Android With Full Controller Support". Variety.
  22. ^ Dontnod Entertainment (30 January 2015). Life Is Strange (Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360). Square Enix. Level/area: Chrysalis.
  23. ^ a b Dontnod Entertainment (24 March 2015). Life Is Strange (Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360). Square Enix. Level/area: Out of Time.
  24. ^ "Life is Strange Gives Us the Video Game Heroine We Need". Complex. October 19, 2015. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  25. ^ Dontnod Entertainment (19 May 2015). Life Is Strange (Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360). Square Enix. Level/area: Chaos Theory.
  26. ^ Dontnod Entertainment (28 July 2015). Life Is Strange (Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360). Square Enix. Level/area: Dark Room.
  27. ^ Dontnod Entertainment (20 October 2015). Life Is Strange (Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360). Square Enix. Level/area: Polarized.
  28. ^ Wales, Matt (18 January 2018). "Life is Strange: Before the Storm's bonus Farewell episode is dated for March". Eurogamer.net.
  29. ^ Smith, Callum (December 9, 2019). "Life Is Strange 2: Fans react to David Madsen cameo and phone call from Chloe". HITC. Archived from the original on December 14, 2021. Retrieved December 14, 2021.
  30. ^ "'Life is Strange: Remastered Collection' will arrive on February 1st, 2022". www.engadget.com. 27 September 2021.
  31. ^ Shepard, Kenneth (2024-06-09). "Max Caulfield Returns In New Life Is Strange Game". Kotaku. Retrieved 2024-08-29.
  32. ^ "Syndicated Comics". Comicsbeat. 2018-07-21.
  33. ^ a b c Chiu-Tabet, Christopher (2020-12-15). "Where is Life is Strange's Max Caulfield?". Medium. Retrieved 2021-11-16.
  34. ^ Pötzsch, Holger; Waszkiewicz, Agata (2019). "Life Is Bleak (in Particular for Women Who Exert Power and Try to Change the World): The Poetics and Politics of Life Is Strange". Game Studies. 19 (3). ISSN 1604-7982.
  35. ^ de Miranda, Luis (2018). "Life Is Strange and "Games Are Made" : A Philosophical Interpretation of a Multiple-Choice Existential Simulator With Copilot Sartre". Games and Culture: A Journal of Interactive Media. 8 (1): 825–842.
  36. ^ Pereira, Chris (18 February 2016). "The 2016 DICE Award Winners [UPDATED]". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 22 February 2016. Retrieved 19 February 2016.
  37. ^ "19th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards Finalists" (PDF). Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. Archived (PDF) from the original on 31 January 2016. Retrieved 13 January 2016.
  38. ^ Seamus Mullins (February 26, 2018). "Why Max from Life is Strange Is the Most Relatable Video Game Character I've Ever Played". IGN. Retrieved December 11, 2021.
  39. ^ Rick Lane (November 12, 2021). "The 50 most iconic characters in PC gaming". PC Gamer. Retrieved December 10, 2021.
  40. ^ Paras, Peter (19 May 2015). "Life Is Strange: Episode 3 – Chaos Theory Review". Game Revolution. Archived from the original on 12 October 2015. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
  41. ^ "Games Inbox: Is Life Is Strange's Max gaming's best female character?". metro.co.uk. 8 February 2016.
  42. ^ Favis, Elise (March 8, 2016). "Our Picks For Best Female Characters From The Past Year". Game Informer. Archived from the original on March 11, 2016.
  43. ^ Staff, Polygon (2019-11-27). "The 70 best video game characters of the decade". Polygon. Retrieved 2021-11-16.
  44. ^ Ben Lee (May 18, 2017). "Life Is Strange sequel is officially confirmed – but will Max Caulfield be back?". Digital Spy. Retrieved December 11, 2021.
  45. ^ a b Diver, Mike (February 5, 2015). "The Unexpected Girl Trouble of 'Life Is Strange'". www.vice.com. Retrieved 2021-12-09.
  46. ^ Campbell, Colin (2015-01-26). "Can gaming's great women characters be written by men?". Polygon. Retrieved 2021-12-09.
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