Nancy Thompson

Nancy Thompson is a fictional character featured in the original 1984 horror film A Nightmare on Elm Street where she was played by actress Heather Langenkamp. Langenkamp reprised the role of Nancy for the third installment in the series A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors. The character was referenced extensively in the non-canonical sequel New Nightmare, which was intended to reflect the "real world". In the 2010 remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street, the character was re-imagined and renamed as Nancy Holbrook. The Holbrook iteration of the character was played by actress Rooney Mara. Nancy Thompson is notable for being the first character to defeat psychotic dream demon Freddy Krueger.

A Nightmare on Elm Street
Nancy Thompson grew up at her modest suburban home at 1428 Elm Street in the town of Springwood, Ohio. Up until the time she was fifteen, Nancy was unaware that Springwood had once been the site of a series of brutal child murders perpetuated by the serial killer Freddy Krueger. The parents of Springwood, deciding to dispense their own privatized justice, tracked Freddy down in his lair and set the building on fire where he burned to death. Though Freddy's body was gone, his spirit survived and was transformed into a demonic entity that stalked his victims through their nightmares.

In 1984, Freddy's soul sought revenge against the families responsible for his death - in particular, the Thompson family. He began invading Nancy's dreams, subtly at first, but with each successive nightmare, his presence became more domineering. Nancy told her best friend Tina Gray about her dreams and was shocked to discover that Tina had been dreaming about the same man as well. The dreams had been extremely harrowing for Tina and she didn't want to stay in her house by herself. Nancy and her boyfriend Glen Lantz volunteered to spend the night with Tina so that she wouldn't be alone. As it turned out, Tina's boyfriend Rod Lane showed up and the two decided to have sex in her mother's bedroom while Nancy slept in Tina's room. That evening, Freddy Krueger made his first kill since his mortal death. He savagely attacked Tina Gray, slicing her body numerous times with a custom-made razor glove.

Everyone Tina knew, including Nancy, were questioned extensively about the cause of Tina's death. Without any other clear evidence, it appeared as if Rod Lane was guilty of killing Tina. Nancy could not bring herself to believe that Rod had anything to do with it however. The experience provoked even more disturbing dreams for Nancy herself and she fell asleep during English class, at which point, she was tormented by the image of Freddy Krueger. In the dream, Nancy awakened herself by pressing her arm against a hot boiler pipe. When she awakened in class, a dark burn was found upon her arm. Her teacher allowed her to take the rest of the day off.

Walking home from school, she came upon Rod Lane - now a fugitive. Rod tried to convince Nancy that he had nothing to do with Tina's death. What Nancy soon came to realize was that her father had his officers tailing Nancy in the hopes that it might lead them to Rod. The cops circled Lane and he was taken to jail. Nancy was furious at her father for using her as bait to catch this alleged criminal.

Later that evening, Nancy had a second dream. In this one, she saw Freddy Krueger attacking Rod at the jail house. Waking up, she knew that she had to rush down there or else Rod might die. Nancy and Glen both went to the police station and begged Officer Garcia to let them see Rod. Nancy and Glen were too late to save him however, and they found Rod hanging from a bed sheet having apparently committed suicide.

That night, Nancy had a third dream wherein Freddy attacked her in her own bath tub. She narrowly escaped death when her mother began pounding on the bathroom door, forcing her to awaken. Nancy was convinced that somebody was using people's dreams to kill them. She tried to explain this to her alcoholic mother, but Marge suspected that Nancy was starting to lose her mind from lack of sleep. The following day, Marge took Nancy to a dream clinic in order to see if her daughter was merely disturbed by the deaths or whether or not she was really going crazy. Once again, Nancy entered the dream state where Freddy attacked her anew. Doctor King woke her up to find a startling result. Nancy had actually succeeded in pulling something back with her from her dream - Freddy Krueger's hat. The shock of the experience began to turn Nancy's hair gray.

Glen decided to research dream phenomena on Nancy's behalf. He told her that if one were to encounter a monster in their dreams, the only recourse open to her was to turn her back upon it, stealing away all of its power. This did little to cheer Nancy up and her day grew worse when she learned that her mother had placed iron bars on all of the doors and windows to their house.

That night, Nancy decided to take the offensive for a change. Using Glen as the go-to guy, she went to sleep with the intent of bringing Freddy Krueger back into the real world with her. This plan failed however since Glen falls asleep himself and was unable to stir Nancy out of her dream state. She nonetheless survived, but was extremely angry at her boyfriend.

Marge Thompson brought Nancy down into the cellar and told her the truth about Freddy Krueger. She revealed that Krueger was a notorious child murderer who had terrorized the neighborhood, killing at least twenty different children. He was finally captured and his arrest made headline news. But the search warrant papers were not filled out correctly and Freddy was released on a technicality. Enraged, a group of the townspeople, including Donald and Marge Thompson, hunted Freddy down. They trapped him in the boiler room where he used to bring the children and set fire to the entire facility. Freddy died and Marge collected his finger knives. Now his ghost has become some sort of dream demon, taking his revenge on the children of those who murdered him.

While Nancy pondered the severity of her situation, Freddy Krueger struck again, murdering Glen Lantz in his bed. Police arrived quickly on the scene, but as soon as Nancy saw the flashing red police lights outside her bedroom window, she knew that Glen was dead.

She called her father and told him of her plan to go after Krueger. She believed that if she could pull him out of her dream, then she would stand a fair chance at defeating him. She needed her father to be there to arrest him after she woke up. Donald Thompson did not believe any of this, but agreed to come to the house in twenty minutes, if for no other reason than to humor his daughter's emotional distress. Not willing to take any chances, Nancy set various booby traps all around the house.

Nancy went to sleep and began to dream. In the dream, Freddy appeared, but this time it was Nancy who took the offensive. The two fell through a rose trellis and continued their struggle outside as the alarm clock sounded, waking Nancy up. Her plan worked. Freddy was now in the real world and he began to chase Nancy throughout the house. His attacks were delayed as he fell into each of her booby traps one by one. Trapped in her own house, Nancy shouted through the window to her father across the street. Before anything could be done however, Freddy entered her mother's room and killed her in her sleep.

Freddy emerged from the glowing bed to attack her, but Nancy recalled Glen's advice from the previous day. She turned her back on Freddy and stole back all the energy he required to maintain his presence in reality. Freddy attempted one final lunge, but with his power gone, he disappeared back into the dream world.

Notes & Trivia



 * Nancy Thompson fills the role of the "Final girl" archetype for the Nightmare series.


 * Archival footage of Nancy Thompson has also been featured in the documentaries Boogeymen: The Killer Compilation, Boogeymen II: Masters of Horror and Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film.


 * Archival footage of is included in a recap in the beginning of Freddy vs. Jason.


 * Playing Nancy Thompson is Heather Langenkamp's fourth work in a movie and her third feature film role. It is also her first work in the horror genre.