Laurie Strode

Character

4-6 Timeline

H20 Timeline

2007 Remake Timeline

2018 Timeline

Gallery

Laurie Strode/H20 Timeline
Gender	Female
Location	Haddonfield, Illinois
Known relatives	Donald "Don" Myers (birth father; deceased) Edith Myers (birth mother; deceased) Judith Myers (older sister; deceased) Michael Myers (older brother) Morgan Strode (adoptive father) Pamela Strode (adoptive mother) John Tate (son) Unnamed ex-husband
Birth	1961
Death	October 31, 2001 (aged 40)
Portrayed by	Jamie Lee Curtis Nichole Drucker (child)
First appearance	Halloween

"One day you'll come and see me. One day, I'll be free."

―Laurie Strode as she waits for Michael

Cynthia Myers, better known as Laurie Strode, is a character and primary protagonist in the Halloween franchise. She first appeared in the original Halloween.

In the movie Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later, a retcon was established which removed Halloween 4, 5, and 6 from continuity. As a result, the biography of this Laurie is drastically different to the one who appears in the previous version. This incarnation of the character appears in Halloween, Halloween II, Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later, Halloween: Resurrection, Halloween: 30 Years of Terror, and Halloween: The First Death of Laurie Strode.

Biography

Early years

Laurie Strode was born Cynthia Myers on February 22, 1961. She was the youngest of three children of Donald and Edith Myers. When Laurie was only two, her six-year-old brother, Michael, brutally murdered their older sister, Judith, with a butcher knife. Michael was sent away following the incident. At some point, when Laurie was very young, Edith took her to visit Michael at Smith's Grove Sanitarium, but warned her to never speak of this to her father. Laurie slipped this information one day and Donald whipped her with a belt. After this, Laurie did not even dare think of Michael anymore.

In 1966, her parents were killed in an automobile accident and to protect her identity, it was reported that Cynthia had died in the accident as well. In reality, Laurie went into the foster care system where she was soon adopted by the Strode family and her name legally changed to Laurie Strode. The governor of Illinois kept her records sealed so that no one would further connect Laurie Strode with her psychotic older sibling. Laurie eventually forgot about her birth family.

1978

By 1978, seventeen-year-old Laurie was a kindhearted yet introverted girl who attended Haddonfield High School with her friends Annie Brackett and Lynda Van der Klok. Laurie was shy and bookish and did not share her friends' overt personalities. She always claimed that her brainy ways scared boys away, which accounted for her sparse dating history.

On October 31, her adoptive father Morgan Strode, owner of Strode Realty, asked Laurie to drop off a set of keys to the old Myers house, which had been on the market for quite some time. Laurie had no idea that this was in fact the house she was born in.

During literature class, Laurie glimpsed a man staring at her across the street. After school, Laurie and her friends were walking home when she spied the same strange shape peering at them from around a corner. Annie went to investigate, but found nothing. She teased Laurie, saying that she "scared another one away". At home, she thought she saw the same strange, masked man in her neighbor's backyard behind a clothesline.

After taking a shower, Laurie was visited by a frantic Lynda, who claimed that someone had been following her. Laurie worriedly assumed that Lynda's stalker was the same man she had been seeing, and became increasingly paranoid.

Later that day, she went out with Annie and learned that someone had broken into Nichol's Hardware Store and stolen some rope, a knife and a Halloween mask. As Annie and she drove around town, Laurie expressed an interest in going out with a boy named Bennett Tramer. Annie decided to take matters into her own hands and surreptitiously contacted Ben without Laurie's approval. Laurie was deeply embarrassed when she heard the news and begged Annie to call him back and break it off.

That evening, Laurie went to the Doyle residence to babysit young Tommy Doyle. She brought along a jack-o'-lantern and entertained Tommy by reading him some of his comic books and watching scary movies. As the evening wore on, Annie came over to the house with her own charge, Lindsey Wallace, in tow. She asked Laurie to keep an eye on Lindsey for the next few hours so she could go out with her boyfriend Paul Freedman. Laurie disliked the idea, but agreed after Annie told her she would cancel her pending date with Ben.

What Laurie was unaware of at the time was that her psychotic half brother Michael Myers had broken out of the mental institution at Smith's Grove and had returned to Haddonfield to kill again. It was Michael that Laurie had seen earlier at school, on the sidewalk and in her neighbor's backyard. While Laurie was watching over Tommy, Michael was killing her friends off one at a time, including Annie, Lynda and Lynda's boyfriend Bob Simms.

"He won't die..."

Laurie went over to the Wallace residence to check on Annie, but instead found the bodies of Annie, Lynda and Bob placed in key positions throughout the house. Michael Myers emerged and attacked Laurie, slicing her arm with his knife. This caused Laurie to fall over the second-floor landing, and she fell down the stairs, cracking her ankle in the process. Screaming in terror, Laurie limped back to the Doyle house and screamed for the children to let her inside.

Tommy eventually opened the door and Laurie quickly entered the house, locking the door behind her. Michael got in through the window and attacked Laurie again. She kept him at bay by stabbing him in the neck with a knitting needle then ran upstairs. Michael was undeterred and followed her up the stairs. He cornered Laurie in a bedroom closet and tried stabbing at her with his knife. Laurie straightened out the end of a clothes hanger and jabbed Michael in the eye, forcing him to relinquish his blade. Laurie picked it up and stabbed Michael in the stomach. He slumped to the floor and Laurie believed he was dead.

Tearfully, she exited the closet and issued instructions to the children to leave the house. Moments later however, Michael rose and attacked Laurie again. He began strangling her and Laurie managed to pull his mask away, seeing his face for the first time. At this moment, Michael's former psychiatrist Doctor Samuel Loomis burst into the house and fired a bullet into Michael's body. He followed it up with six more shots, which drove Michael through the bedroom window, out over the balcony and down onto the ground. When Loomis looked over the balcony however to check on Michael's body, he was gone. A shocked Laurie meekly stated, "it was the Boogey Man," to which Loomis replied, "As a matter of fact... it was."

Massacre at Haddonfield Memorial

Laurie was taken to Haddonfield Memorial Hospital, but she was in too much of a state of shock to provide the EMT's or hospital staff with any pertinent information regarding her assailant. A young ambulance driver named Jimmy took a liking to Laurie and promised to watch over her as she recuperated. Jimmy told Laurie the name of the man who had been trying to kill her.

Laurie was terrified about being put to sleep out of fear that the "Boogeyman" would get her. The chief of medicine Frederick Mixter dismissed her concerns and kept Laurie heavily sedated. After awakening, Laurie was alarmed to learn that the man who had pursued her was in fact Michael Myers, and worried when head nurse Virginia Alves told her that her parents could not be contacted. Later, Laurie learned from Jimmy that Myers had apparently died in a car accident, although the victim in question was actually Laurie's crush Ben Tramer. Laurie panicked, trying to escape, causing the staff to sedate her once again. While unconscious, Laurie had a dream wherein she saw images of her brother at a young age and she recalled her mother telling her that she was actually adopted. Waking from this dream, Laurie began to slowly grasp her connection to Michael, though she had yet to realize that he was in fact her brother.

Meanwhile, having survived his initial encounter with Dr. Loomis, Michael had tracked Laurie to the hospital and sought to finish her off. One by one, he cut his way through each member of the attending hospital staff until nothing stood between Laurie and him. When Laurie realized that Michael was still hunting for her, she left her hospital room and began shambling down the empty corridors. Michael eventually discovered her and gave chase, but Laurie managed to escape by climbing through a window in a storeroom. She then hid in an unlocked car that happened to belong to Jimmy, who joined her shortly. He told her that they were going to get away but he soon passed out due to an injury he had sustained earlier. Laurie tried to start the car but failed to and was forced to get out.

At this time she saw Dr. Loomis, his assistant Marion Chambers, and a Federal marshal enter the front doors of the hospital. Laurie tried to call out to them, but her voice was too hoarse. Myers appeared before her, yet Laurie managed to get back inside the hospital. Loomis pushed Laurie behind him and temporarily halted Michael by firing several more shots into his chest. This only slowed Michael down by a matter of seconds however, and he quickly got back up and began chasing them.

Laurie survives Halloween 1978

Loomis and Laurie sought shelter inside one of the empty examination rooms. He handed Laurie a gun and locked the door. Michael broke through the door and critically injured Doctor Loomis, then Laurie fired the gun given to her, hitting both of Michael's eyes. Though blinded, Michael continued to slash away at the air, hoping to connect with Laurie. The bleeding Dr. Loomis and Laurie then began releasing the valves on several canisters of ether. As Laurie vacated the room, Loomis ignited the ether, causing a massive explosion. Laurie turned around to see Michael still trying to walk towards her until he finally fell down and was assumed dead.

Laurie was then taken into an ambulance. Laurie stared outside until she was surprised by Jimmy, who had also survived. She grabbed his hand and told him that they had made it.

Aftermath

Although she witnessed Michael burning, Laurie learned that his body was not found and, unlike the rest of Haddonfield, Laurie knew that he was not truly dead and so she started to became more rebellious. She no longer considered the Strodes as her parents and blamed herself for what had happened to her friends. She had also grown closer to Sally Winters who had also lost her friends, Alice Martin and Bennett Tramer. She made visits to Jimmy but they were always cut short by his mother.

On her birthday, Laurie went by the Myers house and wondered what she did to make Michael want to come after her. For a moment, she thought she saw Michael standing on the porch and was scared when Sally came up behind her. She told Laurie that she figured she could use some company on her birthday and they could smoke. As they were walking back towards Laurie's house, they reminisced about Ben and when Laurie told Sally that she liked him, Sally was about to tell her something about Ben but decided it was not the right time to and dropped the subject.

As soon as they arrived at the Strode home, they were greeted by Morgan and Pamela who asked Laurie why she didn't use the new car they had gotten for her. She told them to leave her alone and explained to Sally how she didn't want their presents and how her father sent her to the Myers house on Halloween. She told Sally that she could not believe that they lied to her all those years and that she could no longer trust them. Sally tried to reason for them by telling Laurie that maybe it was hard for them to tell the truth. Laurie then asked to change the subject.

Sally handed Laurie the marijuana joint while she discussed how it was crazy for the two smart good girls to be doing that and also how easily she could get drugs. When Laurie asks how she could hide all the stuff, she explains that she hid it in a doll that, coincidentally, Laurie also had.

Sally then changed the subject to Michael. She asked why he wanted to ruin their lives. At this time, Laurie brought out Judith's diary that the Strodes had planned to give to her at some point. She told Sally that she learned that Michael wanted to kill her even before she was born. While Sally read more of the diary, Laurie wishes that Annie was with them and looked out her window. She then saw Michael watching her like he did back on Halloween. Laurie backed away and, when Sally looked outside, she saw Mr. Riddle, the Strodes' neighbor, dead. Laurie ran outside and into Dr. Loomis.

A few days later, Laurie and Loomis met at a coffee shop where they discussed the possibility of Michael's return. She asked Loomis why the town did not believe her when she told that Riddle was killed by Michael. Loomis told her that they only wanted to believe that he died of a heart attack and leave it at that. Laurie asked more questions such as what Michael is, why he would not die and why he wanted her. Loomis could only respond that he did not know any of those answers. Loomis went on to tell her that he had followed her on her birthday, hoping to find anything on Michael. He also told her that Michael was evil without reason and that is why he did not kill her outright. Laurie then handed him Judith's diary, hoping that it would help Loomis understand.

By May, Laurie had made it to graduation day but had been drinking and using drugs often. Sally tried to give her allergy pills to help her feel better and told her that they were doing this for their dead friends. Jimmy saw that Laurie was not feeling well and yelled at her to get her attention. Laurie snapped at him, telling him that he was making people look at them. Later just as the Dean was handing Laurie her diploma, Laurie spotted Michael watching her from a car. She briefly fainted at this and when she came to, she saw that Michael was no longer there.

Michael returns on graduation night

Later that night, she and Sally attended a costume party hosted by their classmate Mike Aspinwall. Laurie still was not feeling alright and went outside with Sally. Sally sat her down on the back step and told her that she had to "take care of a couple of things" and then they could go home. Laurie apologized for ruining Sally's night, who tried to tell her that she had not. Sally then went on to pay for her drugs with her body while Laurie rested.

When she glanced beside herself, she saw a man dressed up in a clown outfit holding a knife. Laurie believed it was Michael and fled, just as the clown tried to stab her. She began to wonder if she was going insane and began to remember her life as Cynthia Myers as Michael nearly ran her over with his car. Managing to dodge the vehicle, Laurie noticed that he had stopped pursuing her and then saw the car stop at Jimmy's house. Laurie ran towards the house window and witnessed Michael snap Jimmy's neck and throw his body onto the glass table. Laurie picked up a rock and smashed the window. She then cried at the sight of Jimmy's dead body.

On October 31, 1979, Laurie faked her death, leaving Doctor Loomis and Marion Chambers as the only people with the knowledge that she was still alive.

20 years later

Laurie Strode as Keri Tate, 20 years after 1978

Following her traumatic experiences, Laurie faked her own death, relocated to California and changed her name to Keri Tate. She had at one point gotten involved with a man whom she married and had a child with in 1981 named John. Based on how she referred to John's father as an abusive, chain-smoking methadone addict, it is clear they had a bad relationship. Following her divorce, she and John moved to Summer Glen, California where she became the headmistress of a small private prep school called Hillcrest Academy. The two of them lived on campus with the rest of the students. Laurie still struggled with the events of Halloween 1978. Her past trauma, as well as the stress of living under false pretense, had turned her into a functioning alcoholic. She was also heavily dependent on medication for her emotional condition. Eventually, Laurie got into a secret relationship with the school's guidance counselor, Will Brennan.

On October 31, 1998, twenty years to the day after the original Haddonfield murder spree, Laurie had a nightmare. In the sequence, her classroom was empty and the closet opened, her seeing a flashback of her encounter with Michael in the Doyle house. The closet closed by itself and she saw a knife stabbed through a picture of John and her real name was written on the chalkboard. Laurie awoke from the dream screaming, loud enough for John to hear her and rush into the room. He called her name as she continued shouting and grabbed her arms to calm her down. John asked her if she needed something and Laurie confirmed this, so John walked out of the room and to a cabinet. He grabbed some pills to combat Laurie's nightmares and later announced he was making toast when Laurie walked into the kitchen after getting dressed. Laurie declined to have some, adding that caffeine was not a food group. Laurie handed John an envelope from his father and he opened it to find a birthday card. Laurie noted that it was only two months late and that she was impressed.

John pointed out that the card also contained cash and that he would need it when he went to Yosemite. Laurie replied that he was not going as she shut the refrigerator and John rebuffed her by saying that he was. Laurie again said that he was not and John said that he would with her full blessing, asking if she wanted to know why. Laurie asked why and John explained that today was the day she was going to realize he was seventeen and her overprotection and paranoia were prohibiting his growth process. Laurie said that she would take him camping if he wanted to go camping and John said he did not want to go with her, Laurie apologizing as John claimed his father would let him go. Laurie remarked that his father was an abusive, chain-smoking, methadone addict and John sarcastically asked who would attract someone like that.

Laurie replied "Ouch" and John noted that he left her. Laurie, closing the fridge and turning to him, told John that she knew he got his smart mouth from her side of the family and that she would give him a break, but told him he was going too far. John retorted that he was going to Yosemite and Laurie said he was not, John requesting that she help him out and that he has earned more open air. John came closer as he said he knew today was the day and Laurie asked him what day it was. John answered that it was Halloween and Laurie claimed to have not noticed. She put on her glasses as John left the room. As John was with his friends, Laurie looked out the window and closed her eyes as she envisioned Michael.

Later that day, Will and Laurie decided to have lunch together. During their date, she revealed that she was scared that she was losing her son and that she had a horrible background. She also revealed to him that, despite seeking many recovery methods, her past continued to haunt her. After her lunch date, Laurie found John and his friend Charles Deveraux roaming around town against school rules. She and John argued about what he was doing as John felt he had enough of being so over-protected all the time. He told her that Michael Myers was dead and was not going to come back. Laurie returned both boys to Hillcrest and expressed disappointment in Ronald Jones, the security guard at the school. Unknown to them all, the resurfaced Michael Myers was following Laurie back to the school.

After contemplating John's words, Laurie decided to grant her son permission to go on the school trip to Yosemite. However, John had already made plans to spend the weekend at school with his friends and stayed behind in secret. Meanwhile, Laurie and Will returned to her house, where she shared her secrets with him. While talking, Laurie made a sudden connection - Laurie and Judith had been attacked on the Halloween after turning seventeen, and John had recently celebrated his seventeenth birthday. Even though Laurie's logic was flawed - as Judith had died at age fifteen - she turned out to be correct in that Michael was after John.

Upon returning to the school, Laurie and Will found and rescued John and his girlfriend Molly Cartwell from Michael, who had already killed Charlie and their friend Sarah. After hiding John and Molly in a closet, Laurie and Will proceeded through the school and spotted a shape in the distance, who Will shot. Unfortunately, the person turned out to be Ronnie, and Will was killed by Michael as he knelt over Ronnie's body. Laurie, John and Molly escaped from the building and drove to the gates, where Laurie sent the teenagers to the nearby Becker house to call the police. Once John and Molly were gone, Laurie locked herself inside the grounds, got a fire axe and went hunting for her brother.

Michael attacked Laurie when she returned to the building. The siblings inflicted wounds on each other as they fought through the school, with Laurie emerging seemingly victorious as she stabbed Michael several times in the chest and forced him off a balcony in the cafeteria. Laurie approached the killer, intending to finish the job, but Ronnie, who had recovered, dragged her away from the scene. The police soon arrived and officials came to take Michael away. Knowing her brother could not have died so easily, Laurie took the fire axe and drove the medical van with Michael in it away, keeping an eye on the body bag.

Laurie kills the wrong man

While Laurie drove frenetically, the masked man began to wake, prompting her to step down on the brakes and knock him through the windshield. Once he stood up, Laurie drove right into him, sending the van off the cliff. Laurie fell out of the van, but he was pinned to a tree by the tumbling vehicle. Laurie retrieved the fire axe and walked over to her enemy. He reached out, seeming desperate for mercy. Breaking down, Laurie reached out as well, before realizing what she was doing and beheading the masked man with a single chop.

Final fight

"You failed, Michael. You wanna know why? Because I'm not afraid of you. But what about you? Are you afraid of me? Are you afraid to die, Michael?"

―Laurie Strode

Halloween Resurrection - The Death of Laurie Strode

Laurie's Death

Laurie thought she had finally killed her brother and ended the nightmare, but the man she had killed turned out not to be her murderous brother. Laurie learned that Michael had switched clothes with a paramedic while he was still in the school, knocking him out and crushing his larynx so he would be unable to cry out. Laurie was sent to Grace Andersen Sanitarium for killing an innocent man, where everyone believed her to be in a catatonic state. This proved not to be the case as Laurie had been stuffing the pills the nurses gave her in a rag doll she carried with her.

Laurie waited three years for Michael to come for her and watched her window constantly. She had also gone up to the roof several times to set up a trap for Michael, while the doctors thought she went up there to attempt suicide. Finally, on October 31, 2001, Michael made his appearance and looked up at Laurie in her window, allowing her to know he was coming. Michael came to her room and was hit over the head with a lamp by Laurie who led him up to the roof, where he found nothing but her coat billowing in the wind.

Michael watches as Laurie Strode falls to her death

Once Michael got close enough to the roof's edge, Laurie revealed herself and sprung the trap, leaving Michael dangling by his ankle. Laurie assured Michael that she was no longer afraid and Michael had thus failed in his mission. However, Michael took advantage of Laurie's doubts and grabbed his mask in feigned agony, leading Laurie to hesitate for fear of killing another innocent. When she approached to remove his mask, Michael seized her, causing the added weight to break the rope and send both siblings tumbling off the roof. Michael then drove his knife through Laurie's back. As she hung dying, Laurie kissed Michael's mask and promised he would see her in hell. Michael tore the knife out and let Laurie Strode fall to her death, finally allowing her freedom.

Notes and trivia

• According to screenwriter/producer Debra Hill, the character of Laurie Strode was named after John Carpenter's first girlfriend.
• Jamie Lee Curtis wears a wig in Halloween II that resembles her hair from the original film, this being due to Curtis cutting her hair short in the years since filming Halloween. Her only appearance with short hair is in the next film in this timeline, Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later.
• Halloween II is the only installment in this timeline where Michael does not cut Laurie.
• Laurie is the second character in the franchise to have a nightmare sequence about Michael, the first being Jamie Lloyd.
• Laurie sees Michael kill someone twice, with the first time being when he murders Nurse Jill Franco in the second film and the second time being his killing of Will in H20. In both instances, Michael sneaks up behind the person and stabs them in the back and Laurie watches as he lifts them in the air.
• Halloween H20 is the only film in the entire franchise to depict Laurie in a romantic relationship, with her being in a relationship with Will.
• While this one of three versions of Laurie to have children, this is the only incarnation to have a son instead of a daughter.
• When asked about H20 jumping over Laurie's marriage to John's father, Curtis replied that she believed "some of the dialogue was pretty much supposed to give you the answer. It was supposed to let you know that that marriage was a doomed marriage."<ref name=anglefire>
• Along with Loomis and Michael Myers from the 4-6 Timeline, Laurie is one of three characters to retain physical scars from Halloween 1978 that are carried over to subsequent films: those incarnations of Loomis and Michael have burn injuries, while Laurie has a scar on her shoulder from being attacked by Michael after discovering her friends' bodies.
• Laurie's secretary Norma Watson is portrayed by Janet Leigh, the mother of Laurie's portrayer Jamie Lee Curtis.
• The scene of Laurie telling John and Molly to go to the Becker house in H20 mirrors her telling Tommy and Lindsey to go to the Mackenzie house in the original film.
• She is the second character to run over Michael, after Rachel Carruthers.
• Laurie and Michael are the only characters to appear in every film in this timeline.
• Along with Tina Williams, Laurie is one of two characters to kiss Michael while he is wearing a mask. While Laurie did it on purpose, Tina kissed Michael while under the impression that he was her boyfriend Mike.

Appearances

• Halloween: Charlie (vision)
• Halloween
• Halloween (1978 novelization)
• Halloween (Extended Edition)
• Halloween II
• Halloween II (novelization)
• Halloween II (Television Cut)
• Trick or Treat
• Masks and Grotesque Figures
• Demons Tormenting Me
• Halloween: Sam
• Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later
• Visiting Hours
• Halloween: Resurrection
• Halloween: One Good Scare (flashback)