Tommy Doyle

Tommy Doyle is a character featured in the Halloween film franchise. He first appeared as a child in the original 1978 John Carpenter film Halloween where he was played by Brian Andrews. The character was brought back for the sixth installment of the series, Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers. Played by Paul Rudd, this version of Tommy played a more pivotal role in the central plot points of the film. The character was revised in 2007 for Rob Zombie's remake of the original Halloween, this time played by eleven-year-old Skyler Gisondo.

Halloween I
Tommy Doyle was a young boy who lived in the town of Haddonfield, Illinois. On October 30th, 1978, Tommy was antagonized by a group of older boys who terrified him with tales of the "Boogey Man". They circled around Tommy (who was carrying a pumpkin at the time) chanting, "He's gonna get you", over and over. Tommy turned to get away from them, but tripped and fell, smashing his pumpkin in the process.

The following evening, Tommy's babysitter, Laurie Strode, came over to the Doyle residence to watch over him on Halloween night. Laurie knew of Tommy's problem with the bullies, so she bought him a new pumpkin, with the promise of helping him make a Jack-o'-lantern from it. Tommy asked Laurie about the Boogey Man, who insisted that there was no such creature, but Tommy didn't believe her. He continued to press her on the issue, and Laurie began to grow agitated with him.

As the evening wore on, Laurie's friend Annie Brackett, who was babysitting next-door neighbor Lindsey Wallace that night, decided that she would rather go out on a date with her boyfriend Paul, rather than sit around the house attending to Lindsey. Annie brought Lindsey over to the Doyle house and asked Laurie to watch over Lindsey. Tommy and Lindsey were watching movies together when Tommy decided to play a prank on her. He crept behind the curtains and began hissing Lindsey's name in a creepy voice. Turning around however, he looked out the window and witnessed an ominous Shape carrying the now-deceased Annie Brackett into the Wallace house. He screamed in terror and began yelling that he had seen the "Boogey Man". Laurie scolded him and told him to calm down because his antics were now frightening Lindsey. Having heard enough of this "Boogey Man" nonsense, Laurie decided to put the children to bed.

Laurie found out all too soon however, that Tommy's fears were warranted. The "shape" that he had seen entering the Wallace house was actually an escaped mental patient named Michael Myers. Myers had already killed off three of Laurie's friends and now set his sights on killing Laurie as well. Laurie had left the house and returned after learning about the grisly fate that befell her friends. As Myers stalked after her, Laurie pounded on the front door, begging Tommy to let her in. Tommy awakened, but sleepily took his time trodding downstairs to open the front door. Once Laurie was safely inside, she frantically instructed Tommy and Lindsey to lock themselves in their rooms. Myers soon broke into the Doyle house and continued chasing after Laurie. After seemingly putting an end to the madman's rampage with a knife to the stomach, Laurie instructed Tommy and Lindsey to leave the house and go to the McKenzies' house down the street. The children fled the Doyle house screaming in terror, but had luckily managed to avoid coming into further contact with Michael Myers.

Remake series
Tommy Doyle was a young boy who lived in the town of Haddonfield, Illinois. Whenever Tommy's parents were away from the house, they would hire teenager Laurie Strode to babysit Tommy for them. Tommy liked Laurie a lot, and may have even had a slight crush on her. On the morning of October 31st, 2007, Tommy caught up with Laurie while walking to school and began asking her a string of bizarre questions, such as whether or not she knew about the Mexican Wolf Man. As they continued walking, Laurie had to make a quick stop at old abandoned Myers house. Tommy didn't like her going there and called it the "Devil's House". Laurie teased him as she dropped off some paper work and then walked the remainder of the way to school.

That evening - Halloween night - Tommy's parents went out, leaving Laurie in charge of babysitting him. Tommy dressed up in skull-face makeup and wore a red hood. While Laurie was at the house, Tommy asked her about the Boogey Man and whether or not he was real. Laurie enjoyed teasing the boy, so she feigned screaming in terror as if the Boogey Man were inside the house, and Tommy reeled from her sudden outburst. Moments later, Laurie told Tommy that a girl his age, Lindsey Wallace, was coming over to the house. Tommy did not care for this at all, fearing that his male friends would make fun of him if they learned that he was hanging out with a girl. While waiting for Lindsey, Tommy entertained himself by watching The Thing from Another World.

After Lindsey came over, she sat on the couch with him and together they watched House on Haunted Hill. Tommy began pestering Laurie about the Boogey Man once again. When Laurie told him to cut it out, Tommy and Lindsey tackled her and began tickling her. Shortly thereafter, as the night wore on, Laurie walked Lindsey home, leaving Tommy by himself.

When she got to the Wallace residence, she found her best friend, Annie Brackett, lying on the floor in a pool of blood. A man, Michael Myers, had broken into the home stabbed her repeatedly. He had also killed Annie's boyfriend, Paul. Michael appeared in the room and lunged at Laurie. She ran screaming from the house and told Lindsey to get back to the Doyle residence. Laurie followed her soon after and told Tommy and Lindsey to go upstairs and hide in the bathroom.

Police arrived on the scene and entered the house, but they were not alone. Myers was on the premises as well. As one officer tried to get to Tommy, Lindsey and Laurie, Michael appeared behind him and stabbed him through the head with a knife. Tommy and Lindsey screamed even louder. They remained frozen in terror, sitting in the bat tub as Michael broke down the door and abducted Laurie.

After Michael and Laurie left, Tommy and Lindsey ran out of the house and took off down the street screaming. They ran directly into Doctor Sam Loomis, exclaiming that the "Boogey Man" was after them. Loomis told them to go stand next to a nearby ambulance and not to move.

Notes & Trivia



 * In the original Halloween, Tommy was dressed as an Alphan from the science fiction television series Space: 1999. In the remake, his disguise consists of a red hood and skeletal makeup.


 * The adult Tommy Doyle was also the central character featured in the Halloween one-shot comic book by Chaos Comics.


 * Scenes of Tommy Doyle from John Carpenter's Halloween were edited into the prologue of the first sequel, Halloween II.


 * Playing Tommy Doyle was actor Paul Rudd's first work in a feature film. He is credited as Paul Stephen Rudd in Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers.


 * Tommy shares aspects with Tommy Jarvis, a character from the Friday the 13th franchise. Both characters had their first confrontations with their respective killers (Michael and Jason Voorhees) when they were children and both grew up into disturbed adults that became obsessed with those killers and how to defeat them for good. The two characters also had an affinity for horror as children with Jarvis creating his own Halloween masks and Doyle's love of horror films.

Appearances

 * -|Films=
 * Halloween (1978)
 * Halloween II
 * Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers
 * Halloween (2007)


 * -|Television=


 * -|Comics=
 * Halloween 1


 * -|Novels=
 * Halloween (novelization)


 * -|Video games=


 * -|Short stories=


 * -|Other=