Laurie Strode

Laurie Strode is the provincial heroine in both the original Halloween franchise as envisioned by director John Carpenter, as well as the relaunch series directed by Rob Zombie. The role of Laurie Strode was initially played primarily by Jamie Lee Curtis in the Carpenter films and by Scout Taylor-Compton in the remake series. Several other actresses have filled in playing younger versions of Laurie at different parts in her life.

Laurie's fate depends on the three timelines found in the series: In the 4-6 timeline, Laurie is established as being dead; In the H20-Resurrection timeline, she is killed by Michael Myers while in the final timeline, which is a direct sequel to the original 1978 Halloween (effectively retconning Halloween II through Halloween: Resurrection) she is alive.

Early years
Laurie Strode was born Cynthia Myers in the year 1961. She was the youngest of three children sired by Donald and Edith Myers. When Laurie was only two, her six-year-old brother Michael brutally murdered his older sister Judith with a butcher knife. Michael was sent away following the incident and Laurie grew up never knowing about her brother. In 1966, her parents were killed in an automobile accident and Laurie went into the foster care system. She was immediately adopted by the Strode family and her name was legally changed to Laurie Strode. The governor of Illinois kept her records sealed so that no one would connect Laurie Strode with her psychotic older sibling. It is unclear whether Laurie knew about her family heritage growing up, or if she repressed the memory as she grew older. It is possible that Laurie may have even met her older brother at a point when she was still very young.

1978
By 1978, Laurie was a kind-hearted yet introverted girl of seventeen 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 31st, her adoptive father Morgan Strode, owner of Strode Realty, asked Laurie to drop off a set of keys to the old Myers place, 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.

After school, Laurie and her friends were walking home when she spied a strange shape peering at them from around a corner. Annie went to investigate, but found nothing. She teased Laurie, saying that she "scared another away". The image haunted Laurie all day however. At home, she thought she had seen the same strange, masked man in her back yard behind a clothes line.

Later that day, she went out with Annie Brackett 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 surrepticiously contacted Tramer 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 Brackett 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. Laurie didn't like the idea, but agreed after Annie told her she would cancel her pending date with Ben Tramer.

What Laurie didn't realize at the time, was that her psychotic 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 on the sidewalk and in her back yard. While Laurie was watching over Tommy, Michael was methodically isolating her from her friends by killing them off one at a time including, Annie, Lynda and Lynda's boyfriend Bob Simms.

Laurie went over to the Wallace residence to check on Annie, but instead found the bodies of Annie, Lynda and Bob strategically placed in key positions throughout the house. Michael Myers emerged and attacked Laurie, slicing her arm open with his knife. The impact pitched Laurie 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. Somehow, Michael managed to get inside the house and attack Laurie anew. She kept him at bay by stabbing him in the neck with a sewing 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 and Laurie managed to pull his mask away, seeing his face for the first time. At this moment, Michael's former handler, psychiatrist Doctor Sam Loomis burst into the house and fired a shot into Michael's body. He followed it up with five 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. Loomis cradled the hysterical Laurie Strode who meekly asked him, "Was that the Boogey Man". 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 EMTs or hospital staff with any pertinent information regarding Michael Myers. 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 "Boogey Man" would get her. The chief of medicine Doctor Mixter dismissed her concerns and kept Laurie heavily sedated. 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 understand her connection to Myers, though she had yet to realize that he was in fact her brother.

Michael meanwhile, having survived his initial encounter with Doctor Loomis, 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 he. 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 made it outside just in time to see Doctor 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, and Laurie managed to get back inside the hospital. Doctor 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.

Loomis and Laurie sought shelter inside one of the empty examination rooms. He handed Laurie a gun and locked the door to the room. Michael broke through the door and critically injured Doctor Loomis. Laurie fired the gun Sam had given her, taking out both of Michael's eyes. Though blind, Michael continued to slash away at the air, hoping to connect with Laurie. The bleeding Doctor 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. As far as Laurie knew, both Michael and Doctor Loomis died in the fire.

A new identity
Following the Halloween night massacre of 1978 wrought by her brother, Michael Myers, as well as the slaughter at Haddonfield Memorial Hospital. It was her fervent wish that by going through this pseudonym, Michael Myers would not be able to track her down. Its unclear exactly when Laurie adopted this alias, but it was no later than 1981, which is when Laurie gave birth to her son, John, who carried the Tate surname. Laurie was plagued with nightmares about Michael and was taking medication, as well as becoming an alcoholic. Her paranoia over Michael caused her to be overprotective of John, refusing to allow him out of her sight.

Final showdown
Unbeknowst to Laurie, however, she decapitated a paramedic who had come across Michael's unconscious body at Hillcrest and had his larynx crushed. This act caused her to be admitted to Grace Andersen Sanitarium where she anxiously waited for Michael's arrival by hiding her sedation pills inside of a Raggedy Ann doll. On October 31, 2001, Michael infiltrated the facility, killing two security guards in the process. Laurie lead Michael outside to the roof where she caught him in a rope trap, dangling him over the edge of the facility.

As she cut the rope to send Michael falling to his death, he grabbed his mask and feigned confusion and struggle. This caused Laurie to second guess if the person was really Michael or another innocent civilian. Reaching for the mask, Michael grabs her just as the rope breaks and the two are sent over the edge (though Michael holds onto a bar.) Michael stabbed Laurie in the back as she kisses her brother's mask and says "I'll see you in Hell" before falling to her death below, leaving Michael successful in the mission he attempted 23 years ago.

Family

 * Donald Myers (father, deceased)
 * Edith Myers (mother, deceased)
 * Judith Myers (sister, deceased)
 * Michael Myers (brother)
 * Morgan Strode (adoptive father)
 * Pamela Strode (adoptive mother)
 * Debra Strode (aunt, deceased)
 * John Strode (uncle, deceased)
 * Kara Strode (cousin)
 * Tim Strode (cousin)
 * John Tate (son)
 * Jamie Lloyd (daughter; apocryphal)
 * Stephen Lloyd (grandson; apocryphal)

Notes & Trivia



 * Playing Laurie Strode is the first film work for actress Jamie Lee Curtis.


 * Playing young Laurie Strode in Halloween II (1981) is the only film work for actress Nichole Drucker.


 * At the time of filming Halloween II, actress Jamie Lee Curtis had short hair, necessitating a prop wig to make her more closely resemble the character from the previous film. In the original ''Halloween, Jamie Lee Curtis had long hair.