James Sunderland

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Silent Hill character
James Sunderland
Gender	Male
Age	29
Hair color	Dirty blonde
Eye color	Green
Occupation	Clerk
Appearance/s in Silent Hill Series	Silent Hill 2
Voice by/ Portrayer	Guy Cihi

James Sunderland is the main fictional protagonist in the Konami video game Silent Hill 2. As the game begins, James states that his wife, Mary Shepard-Sunderland, has been dead for three years. Strangely, James has received a mysterious letter, apparently from Mary, informing him that she is alive and awaiting him in their "special place," Silent Hill. When James arrives at the town, he becomes ensnared in a series of bizarre and nightmarish events which force him to question his sanity and face a repressed, traumatic memory.

[edit] Prelude

According to the Konami publicantion "Book of Lost Memories", James was a clerk prior to his arrival in Silent Hill. Three years prior to the game, his beloved wife Mary is struck with a terminal disease, and in said three years deteriorates significantly both physically and mentally, suffering violent mood swings which were presumably all-too-often directed at her husband. Finally, in what is believed to be a short period before the game's events, James smothered Mary with a pillow to end both their suffering.

James then drives to Silent Hill, with "Lost Memores" suggesting he came to kill himself in the town they cherished, but before he arrives his mind snaps from the trauma of killing Mary and he represses the memory. Instead, he becomes convinced not only that Mary has been dead for three years but he has inexplicibly received a letter from her, which is itself a delusion despite apparently being an abbreviation of a real letter Mary had written to be read posthumously, calling for him to find her in the town. It is at this stage that the player takes control of James, to discover the real events leading up to this point during gameplay.

[edit] Silent Hill 2

James Sunderland in the Silent Hill 2 opening sequence.

James enters the town, disregarding the warnings of a nervous teenage girl named Angela he meets in a cemetery that there is "something wrong" with it, only to discover it is covered in fog and filled with zombie-esque monsters. James uses a wooden plank as an improvised weapon against them and presses on regardless, seeking the "special place" that the "letter" says Mary is waiting for him. He also finds a portable radio which emits static whenever the creatures approach that he takes with him in his trek.

Finding all outdoor routes to his first destination, Rosewater Park, either blocked, collapsed or barricaded, James ducks inside an abandoned apartment building. Inside he locates a 9 mm semi-automatic pistol and a flashlight attached to a mannequin, eerily dressed in Mary's clothing. James also encounters a young girl who appears openly hostile towards him (stamping on his hand through a barred hallway and kicking a key out of his reach), and a mysterious figure, commonly called "Pyramid Head", wearing a large pyramid-shaped helmet over its head, standing idle behind another barred hall. James later comes into direct contact with the aforementioned figure as it assaults a pair of the many creatures occupying the apartment building, and hastily ducks into a nearby closet, avoiding it as it exits the room.

After managing to cross into the adjacent apartment building, James finds a man inside one of the rooms, vomiting into a toilet. His name, as he reveals, is Eddie Dombrowski, and he is quick to defend himself when questioned by James regarding the corpse in the kitchen. James leaves Eddie where he found him and, upon further exploration, once again comes across Angela, who is sprawled across the floor and staring intently at a kitchen knife in her possession. As James converses with her, he senses Angela's behaviour and mood to be somewhat unstable. Convinced that Angela may be contemplating suicide, James convinces her to give the knife to him.

James locates an exit from the apartment building. This exit, however, is blocked by "Pyramid Head", who is now dragging with him a Zweihander shaped like an over-sized knife. James' cache of weaponry proves unable to stop him, and must resort to simply avoiding the creature's attacks until he retreats. Once again back on the streets of Silent Hill, James locates the mysterious little girl whom he had encountered earlier. Her situation and motives only become further convoluted with each question James asks, and she eventually runs away, shouting to James that his love for Mary was never true. James, baffled as to how the girl would know his wife's name, presses onward towards Rosewater Park.

Finally arriving at Rosewater Park, the location most fondly remembered by James during he and Mary's vacation in Silent Hill, he finds the area to be just as ominous and foreboding as each previously encountered area of the abandoned town. Making his way towards the lakeside observation deck, James comes across a familiar-looking woman. Rushing towards her in disbelief, he finds that, although this woman appears physically identical to Mary, her name, as she explains, is actually Maria. James does not accept this, finding Maria's uncanny appearance, and the overall situation, far too strange for mere coincidence. Maria eventually convinces James that she is not his wife, although he still believes that he is trapped inside some sort of perverted nightmare or joke. Unknown to James, Maria is not real, but an illusion created by the evil within Silent Hill to further torment and confuse him. Maria, herself, is also unaware of this, only learning the truth pertaining to her existence later.

James allows Maria to accompany him as he continues his exploration of Silent Hill. Once again locating the mysterious young girl in an abandoned bowling alley, he and Maria track her to the Brookhaven Hospital. Inside the derelict building, they find more nightmarish creatures - twisted and faceless humanoid nurses - armed with steel pipes. Maria stops to rest in a patient's room, claiming to be suffering from a mild hangover, and forcing James to continue alone. James finds the little girl, Laura (James is informed of her name earlier by Eddie in the bowling alley), who, after claiming that she is searching for a letter from Mary somewhere inside the hospital, locks him in a room inhabited with several monstrosities intent on ending his life.

James fends off his attackers, and following this, the very fabric of his existence seemingly contorts and melts away with the sound of a second air-raid siren. When James regains consciousness, he finds himself still inside Brookhaven Hospital, but somehow different, as though older and more decayed, with walls and chain link sections caked in rust and blood. Both Laura and Maria have vanished, leaving James to attempt to ascertain and comprehend his situation alone. Eventually, the terrified and angry Maria locates James, and accuses him of abandoning her to her own fate. Although this is not true, James strongly apologises, promising not to leave her again and placating her enough for the pair to continue searching for Mary. As they move to exit the building, the pyramid creature appears behind the them and, armed with a spear, pursues them through a narrow hallway. James locates and enters an elevator, turning around to see Maria impaled by the creature only steps away from the door. As the elevator door closes, James falls to his knees and grieves Maria's death.

Lamenting Maria's fate, James spots Laura through a window, walking along the darkened streets of Silent Hill alone. Acquiring a wrench and returning to Rosewater Park to obtain a buried key, James fumbles through the pitch black night, locating hints and notes which direct his attention towards the Silent Hill Historical Society. Within this building, is a recently dug tunnel which stretches quite some distance. James, following the tunnel, finds himself within Toluca Prison, an isolated facility, unsurprisingly, not featured on Silent Hill's guide map. James once again encounters Eddie in the prison cafeteria, armed with a revolver and, once again, sitting within close proximity of a human corpse. Now with little doubt regarding Eddie's murderous nature, James attempts to reason with him, explaining that "You can't just go around killing people!" Eddie then asks James why not, explaining to him that "You just put a gun to their head and... Pow!" Eddie then exits the room, leaving James in a state of disbelief.

As James explores the empty prison facility, he acquires more weaponry and finds himself within a strange labyrinth of hallways and rooms. As he wanders aimlessly throughout the maze, he locates Angela, rescuing her from the "Abstract Daddy," a creature representing Angela's torment and anguish, although Angela is far from impressed. In fact, with each passing encounter, Angela appears to become ever more hostile towards James, and after a briefly insulting him, leaves him alone and confused in the room. Pressing on, James finds Maria, locked inside a cell, alive and unscathed following her death in Brookhaven Hospital, much to his disbelief. However, as James sits and speaks with her, separated by a wall of bars, he begins to notice a dramatic difference in her personality. Unable to explain or comprehend the person in front of him, be it Maria or Mary, James is completely lost. This confusion only increases further as Maria fondly begins to recall "their" stay at the Lakeview Hotel, and James' absent-minded nature, reminding him of the videotape containing all of their holiday footage and memories that he had forgotten when they had left Silent Hill. James informs her that he intends to find a way of releasing her from the cell and helping her escape.

Eventually, James locates an alternate route to the cell, and upon entering, finds Maria's corpse butchered and covered in blood. Unable to endure any further torment, James exits the cell, and stumbles upon Eddie, surrounded by bullet-riddled corpses and completely psychotic. Eddie then admits that he killed them all and is indeed a murderer, proclaiming James to be no different. James then tries to calm Eddie, but fails, with Eddie growing increasingly enraged and finally attempting to shoot James, too. James then kills Eddie, lamenting having done so. As James locates an exit, he finds himself at the edge of Toluca Lake on an old pier, directly opposite a bright light which is visible from the northern shore. The light is emanating from the Lakeview Hotel.

Finding a row boat docked at the edge of the pier, and having nowhere left to turn, James commandeers it and begins slowly rowing towards the opposite shore, guided through the fog by the light across the water. Entering the Lakeview Hotel, James finds Laura playing the piano in the restaurant, and wonders how it is that she isn't afraid of the nightmarish creatures wandering the town. Laura then asks James if he has been able to find Mary yet, to which James replies that he has not. Laura then gives James a letter, written by his wife shortly before her death, and leaves James alone in the room. James locates the old videotape mentioned earlier by Maria, and finds his way to Room 312, where he and Mary had stayed on their holiday.

Inserting the tape into a player, James finds that the film does not contain the vacation footage that he had recorded in Silent Hill, but instead is video evidence of the moment when he smothered Mary to death with her pillow. No longer able to hide from his crime, James slumps over in his chair, defeated. Exiting the room, James finds that reality has once again shifted into the nightmare world, with the once grandiose hotel interior rotting away and inhabited by a handful of twisted monstrosities. James wades through the flooded bar in the basement, finding Angela on the stairwell and surrounded by fire. Angela informs James that she is unable to escape her crimes, having murdered her abusive father before entering Silent Hill. She ascends the stairway and is engulfed in flames.

Exiting the stairwell, James finds that the hotel has once again altered in appearance, and is now a burned out shell. Entering what was once the lobby, James spots Maria, alive and tied down, screaming for James' assistance and flanked by two pyramid creatures. Once again, Maria is killed by the pyramids, although James no longer feels sadness or remorse, only rage. Refusing to flee from his opponents, he turns and attacks the pyramids, but finds that his weapons are ineffective. However, the pyramid creatures are a part of James own being, created subconsciously by himself to punish and torture him for murdering his wife. With James now seeking vengeance as opposed to punishment, the pyramid creatures' existence is no longer necessary, and the pair deliberately impale themselves on their spears.

No longer understanding or caring for anything Silent Hill has left to offer, James leaves the corpses of Maria and the pyramid creatures where they fall. Exiting the lobby, he ascends a staircase, haunted by the memories of his ailing wife in hospital. Eventually, James reaches a large room, and in front of him stands a woman appearing to be Mary...

[edit] Outcome

Depending on the player's actions throughout gameplay, there are several separate endings which can occur. A complete list of the games endings can be found here.