Laurie Strode
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Halloween character | |
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| Laurie Strode | |
| Gender: | Female |
| Ethnicity: | Caucasian |
| Location: |  Haddonfield, Illinois, United States |
| Family: | Donald "Don" Myers (father) Edith (Nordstrom) Myers (mother) Deborah Myers (mother) Michael Myers (brother) Judith Myers (sister) Jimmy Lloyd (husband) Jamie Lloyd (daughter) John Tate (son) Stephen Lloyd (grandson) John Strode (uncle) |
| Appearances: | Halloween Halloween II Halloween 4 (photo) Halloween H20: 20 Years Later Halloween: Resurrection Halloween |
| Status: | Deceased (Jamie Lee Curtis) Alive (Scout Taylor-Compton) |
| Portrayed by: | Jamie Lee Curtis Scout Taylor-Compton |
Laurie Strode is a fictional character in the Halloween horror film series, portrayed by actress Jamie Lee Curtis. She appears in four of the films and is referred to in most of the others. The character was Jamie Lee Curtis' first role in a feature film.
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[edit] Character History
[edit] Early life
Laurie Anne Myers was born in 1961 in Haddonfield, Illinois. Her biological parents were Donald "Don" and Edith (Nordstrom) Myers.[original research?] She had two older siblings: Judith Margaret and Michael Audrey. On October 31, 1963, she and Michael were being babysat by a neighbor, Mrs. Blankenship. Their parents went to Haddonfield's popular "Lost River Drive-In" to catch a showing of the film Psycho.[original research?] They were to be home at about 10:00 PM. Their sister Judith had gone on a date with her boyfriend Peter Greene. When Judith arrived home, Michael snuck out of Mrs. Blankenship's house and went across the street to his home.[original research?] When Peter had left the Myers' house, Michael went upstairs and brutally murdered Judith. Within days, Michael was placed in the Smith's Grove - Warren County Sanitarium under the care of resident psychiatrist Dr. Samuel J. Loomis and chief administrator Dr. Terence Wynn.
In 1965, Laurie and Michael's parents went to visit Michael at the sanitarium. They tried talking to their only son, but with no success. This was the last time Michael would see his parents. On their way home towards Haddonfield, they crashed their car and died. Meanwhile, Laurie was being looked after by the Myers' neighbors Morgan and Pamela Strode. When Laurie was orphaned, the Strodes requested to adopt her.
When she was age ten, the Strodes took Laurie to see her brother in Smith's Grove. She was instructed to just wait in the office until the family could accompany her. Michael was placed in a large room that was for family visits; he wasn't in his cell. This room had a capacity to hold scores of people. Patients who posed no real threat to visitors could congregate here. Laurie waited a while for her adoptive parents. She eventually went off on her own and located her brother. She entered the visitor's chamber and the two separated siblings saw one another. Laurie didn't really remember her biological family and possessed no fear in approaching Michael. She sincerely did want to speak with him. She said to her brother "please don't be mad at me. I'm your sister." But the Strodes found her alone with Michael, so they hurriedly grabbed Laurie and left the sanitarium. The Strodes soon after requested that the files of Laurie's biological family and her adoption be sealed for their protection. Laurie was only two years old when her brother killed their seventeen-year-old sister Judith, and was four when she lost her real parents. As Laurie grew up, she increasingly forgot about her real family. Sometimes she would have flashbacks of her early childhood and her one-time visit with Michael.
[edit] Halloween
Laurie Strode is now a seventeen-year-old senior who attends Haddonfield High School. She is a learned, but reserved bookworm spending her free time babysitting elementary and junior high kids. She has two wild friends her same age: Annie Brackett, the outspoken and confident daughter of Haddonfield's Sheriff, and Lynda Van Der Klok, a native of California and a popular cheerleader for the high school's Haddonfield Huskers.
On Tuesday, October 31, 1978 her adoptive father Morgan, owner and operator of Strode Realty, instructs Laurie to leave a key at the Myers' House on her way to school. When she leaves the key under the front door's mat, the Shape, unbeknownst to her, is watching from inside the vacant house. For most of the day, he stalks the innocent teenager, making her uneasy, but alert. Throughout the day, Laurie thinks her mind is playing tricks on her.
Later that evening around 6:30 PM, she leaves with her friend Annie. They kill time by riding through town smoking a marijuana cigarette before going to baby-sit in another neighborhood. Laurie sits for eight-year-old Thomas "Tommy" Doyle; Annie sits for "little" Lindsey Wallace. Later that night, Annie goes over to Tommy's house with Lindsey. Annie asks Laurie to baby-sit Lindsey while she picks up her boyfriend, sixteen-year-old Paul Freedman. Laurie reluctantly agrees. Annie never makes it to town to pick up Paul. Lynda and her boyfriend Bob Simms arrive at the Wallace house to continue their planned Halloween fun. Later on, after getting a strange call from the Wallace house, Laurie goes across the street to find her friends. She thinks they are playing Halloween pranks on her, but goes upstairs to find them all dead. From behind the shadows, Michael stabs Laurie's left shoulder. She falls down the staircase and fractures her ankle. Her escape on foot is difficult, but she succeeds.
The pursuit and attacks continue at the Doyle residence. Dr. Loomis, who had been on Michael's trail all day long, locates his deranged patient where Laurie is trapped. Loomis shoots Michael six times at close range causing him to fall from a second-story balcony. Laurie says, "it was the boogeyman." Dr. Loomis agrees that "as a matter of fact, it was." Loomis feels assured he shot Michael enough to render him immobile. But, when he looks over the balcony, he sees that Michael had survived and is still on the loose. Laurie sees Loomis' reaction and is now afraid for her life.
[edit] Halloween II
Laurie is transported to Haddonfield Memorial Hospital and is still living each moment in total trauma and fear. Dr. Loomis continues in desperate pursuit of his escaped patient. With the continuing assistance of Haddonfield Sheriff Leigh Brackett, the pair searches the streets. Michael himself is now again in search of his youngest sister Laurie. After hearing a radio announcement declare she was transported to the hospital, Michael makes his way to his newfound destination.
When at the hospital, Michael slowly kills off members of the staff. Laurie befriends Virginia Alves, the Head Nurse, and Orderly Jimmy Lloyd. Mrs. Alves further assists Laurie's wounds and tries locating her parents Morgan and Pamela Strode. Her parents had been at a party also attended by Dr. Frederick Mixter, the man whom doctored her injuries when she arrived at HMH. Jimmy places himself in Laurie's presence for emotional support and the two begin falling for one another. In a deleted scene of this film, Jimmy fulfills his promise of getting a Coca-Cola drink for Laurie.
When strange occurrences happen at the hospital, Laurie begins having flashbacks of her early childhood. She becomes even more frightened and has every reason to be; her tormentor is on the trail. That night, Jimmy had explained to Laurie that the radio and television broadcasts have identified her attacker: Michael Myers. Laurie doesn't admit Michael's true identity in front of Jimmy; he is her brother.
Laurie is nearly caught by Myers again, but is saved by Dr. Loomis and his colleague Nurse Marion Chambers. Loomis instructs Marion to call for help. While protecting Laurie at all costs, Dr. Loomis lures Michael to a rear operating room. With Loomis' gun, Laurie shoots Michael twice in the face, presumably in the eyes. While his eyesight is impaired, Loomis turns on nearby oxygen and ether tanks. This gets Michael's attention and he goes to the source of the tanks' hissing sound wherever he hears it. He tries to blindly slice his psychiatrist and sister with a scalpel, but misses each time. Loomis frees Laurie from the room. She runs out of the room and down the hall. Loomis says "It's time, Michael." He switches on a cigarette lighter igniting the gases.
Dr. Loomis practically blew up part of Haddonfield Memorial leaving him and Michael horribly burned. On the following morning of Wednesday November 1, Laurie is the quintessential survivor. She is pushed in a wheelchair by Nurse Marion to an ambulance outside. She apparently is to be transported to a bigger hospital for further physical and psychological treatment.
[An extended version of this film's epilogue proves Jimmy Lloyd to be another survivor.]
[edit] Laurie's presumed death
In the fourth Halloween installment Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, it is assumed Laurie Strode along with her husband Jimmy Lloyd had died in an automobile accident in November 1987[citation needed]. Richard and Darlene Carruthers, friends of Laurie, became the foster parents to Laurie and Jimmy's young daughter Jamie Lloyd.
A newspaper article as seen in the prologue credits to Halloween: Twenty Years Later reads as follows-
| “ | Survivor of Halloween Murders Killed in Auto Accident, By Mary - Austin Klein: Staff Writer
Longtime Haddonfield resident Laurie Strode, survivor of the so-called "Halloween" mass murders in 1978, was killed yesterday in an auto accident. Police estimate Miss Strode was traveling an excess of 80 miles an hour when she failed to navigate a curve on Highway 78 near Pantherville and slammed into a tree. The posted speed limit is 45. Eyewitnesses reported the late model sedan had been driving erratically before the accident occurred. Friends had no explanation for the reckless behavior of Miss Strode reporting that she had been "the happiest of her life" in recent weeks. This is the third incident this year on this stretch of highway. Despite that statistic, highway officials blame each accident on driver error. |
” |
[edit] Halloween 4, 5, & Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers
Michael Myers learned that his sister Laurie had died in an automobile accident. He then tracks down and pursues her daughter Jamie Lloyd when she is a child, leading to many deaths of her adoptive family and friends as well as anyone else who gets in Michael's path. The fourth and fifth films are the first introduction of a thorn rune (never mentioned by name) on Michael's wrist, and of the man in black (who bears the same rune and is identified in the sixth film as Dr. Wynn). Based on the installment Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers Jamie (although portrayed by a different and older actress) is finally killed by her uncle on the night of Monday, October 30, 1995 in the outskirts of Haddonfield at the Tower Farm by means of impalement. Earlier that night, Jamie had birthed a son. She was being held against her will in the subterranean levels of the Smith's Grove - Warren County Sanitarium by a psuedo-druidic cult headed by none other than Dr. Wynn. The cult believes in the Curse of Thorn and has been aiding and protecting Michael supposedly all along. Michael starts hunting Jamie's son but is unsuccessful in killing the child (due largely to the actions of Tommy, Loomis, and the female protagonist (played by Marianne Hagan)), and ultimately turns on the cult and kills most if not all of its members. After a final showdown with Loomis, the outcome and ultimate disposition of Michael is left to speculation (though an alternate ending provides a bit more detail). The child is now in the care of Tommy Doyle, whom Laurie babysat in the original film. This film marks the last time that Donald Pleasance performed the role of Dr. Loomis before his death.
[edit] Halloween H20: 20 Years Later
The movie features the return of Curtis's character from the first two Halloween films, Laurie Strode, now revealed to be living under the assumed name "Keri Tate". As Tate, Laurie has a seemingly perfect life with an intelligent son and a dedicated boyfriend, a great career (as a head mistress at a private boarding school in Northern California), Laurie Strode is far from happy. The tragic events from 20 years before still haunts her mind. But this year is different. To mark the 20th anniversary of the happenings of 1978, her big brother, serial killer Michael Myers, tracks her down and starts killing off her co-workers and students one by one in an attempt to hunt her and her seventeen year old son down. Eventually Laurie and her son manage to escape, but Laurie chooses to go back to the school to challenge Michael to a fight to the death for once and for all. In a final showdown she uses an axe to behead Michael after he becomes pinned and immobile between a fallen tree and a van Laurie drove off a hillside.
[edit] Halloween: Resurrection
It turns out that Michael is still alive. On the night of Saturday, October 31, 1998, Laurie relived another night of terror twenty years after her first horrible ordeal. While she was outside the school with the police, a Summer Glen paramedic had checked on Michael's body in the academy's dining room. When no one else was present, the killer arose. He didn't outright kill the paramedic, but he did crush his larynx, rendering him a mute. He then switched clothes with the now-unconscious medical technician. When Laurie had beheaded the man she believed to be her brother, she unknowingly killed an innocent man; in fact, he was a father of three. She was thereafter arrested for homicide. For three years, she has been locked away at Grace Andersen Sanitarium.
Laurie hasn't said a word during her entire incarceration, but has been patiently awaiting her brother's return. She is known to be a suicide threat by the psychiatric care facility's superior doctors. In truth, her times spent on the building's roof were to set traps for the eventual return of Michael. Ardent preparation has become her sole purpose while being in captivity.
It is now Wednesday, October 31, 2001. Michael does indeed come and he successfully falls under her trap. While being held from an ingenious rope trap, Laurie begins cutting the rope hoping he'll fall upside down from the roof to the ground. Michael clasps his face in a manner that would translate as "please don't do that." Laurie remembers a gesture similar to this from three years ago. She walks over to Michael to unmask him saying, "I just have to be sure." She doesn't want to make another fatal mistake. While attempting to unmask him, Michael grabs her hand. Laurie tries to drive the knife into his abdomen, but he grabs her other hand. The rope breaks and the two fall over the other side of the roof. Michael holds onto the edge with Laurie hanging on to her brother. Michael then plunges the knife into Laurie's back. Accepting her untimely death (at age 40), she gives him a sibling kiss on the lips of his mask and says her famous last words "I'll see you in Hell." Michael removes the knife from her back and Laurie falls onto the ground beside the sanitarium behind tall evergreen trees. According to this film, Laurie Strode had finally been killed by her brother and he is still at large.
[edit] Halloween (2007)
In June 2006, Dimension Films announced that musician/filmmaker Rob Zombie would write, direct, and serve as musical supervisor for a remake of the original Halloween. In various interviews, blog entries, and messageboard posts, Zombie has described the new film as "part prequel, part reimagining of the original." He has confirmed that many of the characters from the original would be included, including the character of Laurie Strode. All the previous installments in the franchise will be effectively ignored in this new film's plot line. For many months, it was unknown if Laurie's sibling relationship to Michael, a product of the second film, would remain in Zombie's retelling. But, based on the upcoming storyline and online clues, the sibling connection between Michael and Laurie remains. Michael returns to Haddonfield to track down his surviving sibling as he had in the 1978 original.
Laurie Strode in Rob Zombie's Halloween will be played by actress Scout Taylor-Compton.
[edit] Notes
- In Halloween II, Nurse Marion Chambers reveals to Dr. Loomis "...that Strode girl, that's Michael Myers' sister. She was born two years before he [Michael] was committed. Two years after, his parents died, and she was adopted by the Strodes." Michael was committed to Smith's Grove in 1963. Laurie was born in 1961.
- Some of the information regarding an expanded look on the original Halloween film- especially about what takes place before and on October 31, 1963- can be found in Halloween: A Novel by Curtis Richards. Published by Bantam Books, it was released in 1979 and re-released in 1982. (Amazon ISBN 0-553-26296-3).
- Background information on Laurie Strode (especially concerning her biological parents, foster parents, her two marriages and her two children) were once part of a "character information" page on the official Halloween Series website- halloweenmovies.com. This page was removed a few years ago for unknown reasons. Other characters included were Michael Audrey Myers, Dr. Samuel Loomis, Annie Brackett, Lynda Van Der Klok and Jamie Lloyd.
- According to the former Laurie Strode character page as mentioned above, Dr. Loomis was responsible for assisting Laurie in her going into hiding. Also, even while she was living across the country, he still maintained contact and kept watch over her.
- Laurie's biological parents were Don and Edith Myers. Her foster parents are Morgan and Pamela Strode.
- In Dr. Loomis' former character page, it revealed he was born in the United Kingdom and he had served during World War II. He could no longer fight in combat after some significant injuries. He soon afterward began studying medicine and moved to the United States. He specialized in child psychiatry and was placed on staff at Smith's Grove - Warren County Sanitarium with help from his medical colleague and friend Dr. Terence Wynn.
- In Annie Brackett's former character page, it explained that the seventeen-year-old was dating the sixteen-year-old Paul Freedman.
- In Lynda's former character page, it revealed Lynda's full name as Lynda Van Der Klok, not Lynda VanDerclorck. She was a native of California and was expected to be chosen as Homecoming Queen. She was the comical, popular cheerleader for the high school's Haddonfield Huskers. One major character trait of Lynda's was to take an ordinary word and say it repeatedly in every sentence. At school, she was known for her word of the week.
- In the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section of the official website, it is confirmed that while no date and story settings were in featured Halloween: Resurrection, Laurie's death took place on Halloween 2001, while the Dangertainment events took place one year later on October 30 and 31, 2002.
- Also in the FAQ, it explained what had happened to Laurie's son John Tate. Apparently, Laurie hid him somewhere safe to avoid being found. A picture of him can be seen above Laurie's bed in her cell. In the special features of the H8 DVD, one moment of Laurie's dialogue on the rooftop scene had her say to Michael "...but you won't find my son. I made sure of that."
