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The Halloween franchise has gone through countless reboots, revivals, and reimaginings with numerous timelines and stories that contradict one another. The recent release of Halloween Ends and its conclusion is just one final chapter of many. Yet, through all of these different timelines, two things have almost (almost) always stayed the same.
There is a Michael Myers, and there is a Laurie Strode. While Michael’s status as a slasher villain inevitably means he’s destined to die and revive over and over again, Laurie herself has also impressively defied the grave, dying countless times only to return and fight another day. Halloween has had many different stories over the years, and Laurie Strode has had a unique fate in all of them.
7/7 The Original Timeline – Alive
Laurie Strode’s most straightforwardly “happy” fate in the franchise occurs in its first two films, Halloween and Halloween II. Though Laurie suffers horrible trauma and violence from her murderous brother Michael Myers, first while babysitting on Halloween Night and then a few hours later at the Haddonfield Memorial Hospital she was taken to, she ultimately survives the ordeal. She assists Dr. Loomis in his sacrificial play to explode Michael Myers, seemingly killing the monster and freeing her from this nightmare.
While these first two films act as the basis for the timelines to come, they also exist as a timeline to themselves, as the Halloween franchise initially planned for the Michael Myers saga to only span the first two films before shifting to new stories of horror in subsequent installments.
6/7 Halloween III: Season Of The Witch Timeline – Is A Fictional Character
Halloween III: Season of the Witch trades in the slasher antics of Michael Myers for killer androids and merchandise-based witchcraft. The film’s unique nature and complete lack of connection to any other film in the franchise meant that there would be no returning characters to pop up, not even the iconic Laurie Strode. However, the highly-rated Halloween sequel took this one step further and made it so that no prior Halloween characters ever existed in its timeline.
At one point in the film, Dr. Dan Challis watches television at a bar, one that briefly advertises the airing of the original Halloween film. Not just a mere meta-joke, this fun little nod makes it so that in one of the franchise’s official timelines, Laurie Strode is nothing but a fictional character who has never truly existed.
5/7 4-6 Timeline – Deceased
When the franchise decided to return to its roots and bring back Michael Myers for the appropriately titled Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, Jamie Lee Curtis declined to return to her iconic role of Laurie strode. Rather than recast the character of Laurie, the film decided to create a new main protagonist with the introduction of Laurie’s orphaned daughter, Jamie Lloyd.
As to exactly how Jamie ended up orphaned, Laurie suffered a fate unsatisfying to many, especially Michael Myers himself. Rather than die battling her evil rival Michael Myers, Laurie simply died in a fatal car accident along with her husband. It was a shocking, though perhaps realistic, fate considering all that she had endured previously.
4/7 H20 Timeline – Deceased
While the previous Michel Myers-based Halloween films could all feasibly connect to one another with no trouble, the release of Halloween H20: 20 Years Later officially created the need for different timelines with its decision to directly connect to Halloween II and entirely bypass the fourth, fifth, and sixth films of the franchise. This complete retconning of the franchise’s events meant that Laurie Strode was no longer dead, but, unfortunately, it also meant that Laurie Strode would have to face her murderous brother once more.
While Laurie survives Michael’s first attack and seemingly kills the monster by beheading him, Halloween Resurrection reveals this to all be a cruel ruse, with Michael having switched clothes with an injured paramedic. Now committed to a psychiatric facility because of the murder, Laurie is visited and finally fatally stabbed by Michael after a rooftop fight, her fear of killing the wrong man again causing her to hesitate when given a chance to finish Michael. She kisses Michael and tells him that she will see him in hell, then falls to her death.
3/7 Remake Timeline – Alive
In 2007, the Halloween franchise was officially rebooted with the 2007 Rob Zombie remake Halloween. Now played by Scout Taylor-Comton, the character of Laurie Strode was once again given new life, and yet, of course, all new misery as well. The films, not merely shot-for-shot remakes, but original takes on the Halloween mythos, saw many changes from the original films. One of the largest was that while Michael was still a brutal slaughterer, his intentions with Laurie were not (entirely) based on murdering her.
Michael seems desperate to reconnect with his sister, capturing her over and over and eliminating anyone standing in his way. Halloween II (2009) provides an ending for its version of Laurie Strode that could be considered bittersweet at best. While Laurie finds herself free from Michael, killing him after being shot by Sheriff Brackett, the trauma she has endured has left her in a psychiatric ward and seeing visions similar to the ones Michael had.
2/7 Remake Timeline (Director’s Cut) – Likely Deceased
It wouldn’t be Halloween without some confusing storytelling and determinant fates, and the remakes are no different in this regard. Director Rob Zombie also filmed an alternate ending, one that is included in the film’s unrated Director’s Cut. In this version, Michael is shot to death by the entire Haddonfield police force after killing Dr. Loomis in front of them.
Afterward, Laurie emerges from the shed she was held captive in and picks up a knife. She stands over Dr. Loomis’s corpse and, despite the pleas of Sheriff Brackett, is shot to death by the Haddonfield police. The film then fades into Laurie at the psychiatric ward and the vision she has of her mother and a horse, seemingly implying this to be her final thought as she passes away.
1/7 Halloween (2018) Timeline – Alive
The most recent, and as of now, final timeline, the David Gordon Green trilogy of Halloween films connects only to the first Halloween film from 1978 and entirely ignores any subsequent films and their plots (most majorly forgoing the idea of Laurie and Michael being related to one another). The trilogy begins with Halloween (2018), which sees Laurie Strode in 2018 having spent the last forty years preparing herself and her family for Michael’s eventual return, much to the destruction of her personal life. Michael does come back, and though Laurie, along with her daughter Karen and granddaughter Allyson, put up a good fight against Michael, they are unable to kill him.
Michael kills Karen in Halloween Kills and then disappears for the next four years, and Laurie and Allyson both move on with their lives by the beginning of Halloween Ends. That is up until Allyson’s new boyfriend Corey Cunningham becomes the murderous protégé of Michael and reunites the rivals. Their fight ends with Corey dead, and Laurie and Allyson gruesomely kill Michael and destroy his body in an industrial shredder to be done with their nightmare once and for all.
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