Final Girl: Laurie Strode

 Think of the term ‘final girl and the first character that comes to mind is Laurie Strode. 

Laurie Strode is the main character in the Halloween franchise and has appeared in at least nine Halloween movies, although Jamie Lee Curtis (who currently plays Laurie) has appeared in only seven of them. 

The first Halloween movie was released in 1978 and now 44 years later we may just get to see the end of the franchise with Halloween Ends due for release on October 14th, 2022. 

Laurie’s Journey

In the original Halloween movie, Laurie was only seventeen years old and is tasked with babysitting Tommy Doyle on Halloween night. Michael Myers, an escapee from a sanitarium, stalks Laurie and manages to kill most of her friends before finally confronting her in the climax. 

However, his psychiatrist manages to defend Laurie and shoots Michael several times until he falls off the balcony. 

But in true villain fashion, Michael Myers does not die. How will it be a franchise otherwise? 

Michael Myers returns in the sequel and we find out that the reason he has been stalking Laurie is that she is his sister. 

Gasp!

It then begins to make sense why Michael has chosen Laurie and stalking her. Perhaps he never wanted anyone to grow closer to his sister and was being overprotective. Or perhaps he resents her for abandoning and forgetting about him. 

Laurie continues to live in fear, not knowing when Michael may pop up and kill her loved ones. She does try to defeat Michael but at the last moment, he always manages to give her the slip. 

Finally, Michael manages to trap Laurie and throws her off the balcony, thus killing her. 

Or is she really dead? 

Nope. Final Girl Rules…the Final Girl doesn’t die no matter what. 

Laurie fakes her own death and changes her name. She even has a son that she keeps trying to warn to be careful, but of course, he never does and thinks his mother is just paranoid, possibly a symptom of drinking too much.

Laurie, being the best final girl there is, keeps trying to save people and her son and his girlfriend too. 

In the climax, when she tries to remove his mask and stab him, he turns the tables on her and kills her instead. 

Is she dead, now? 

Nope. 

The franchise is passed on to Rob Zombie who made two films featuring Scout Taylor-Compton. In these movies, it is already understood that Laurie is Michael’s sister and he is trying to get in touch with her by killing people off, starting with her adoptive parents. 

In the sequel, it is hinted that Laurie also suffers from mental illness, thus establishing a connection with psychotic Michael. 

But towards the end, Laurie manages to kill Michael, She then dons his mask and walks out. In the end, she’s seen in the psychiatric ward, grinning as she sees her mother come to visit her in a hallucination. In an alternate version, she is shot dead by the police. 

When we see Laurie next, she is Jamie Lee Curtis again and we are supposed to forget that any other movie existed after the original. Laurie is older now, an alcoholic, and trying to reconnect with her daughter who has a daughter of her own. 

Michael is back but it isn’t established that he’s her brother. Rather, he is mindlessly killing everyone in sight. Laurie, her daughter, and her granddaughter manage to trap Michael in a basement and set it on fire. 

Ah, safe at last. Michael is going to burn to death now. Right? Right? 

Nope. 

Michael is enforced with superhuman strength and manages to get out of the trap and immediately kill all the firefighters. 

Laurie is taken to the hospital and undergoes surgery while her daughter and granddaughter try to protect her after learning that Michael is alive. 

This time, the survivors from the other movies are shown, including the boy Laurie babysat in the original film, Tommy Doyle. He along with the others amass a mob to hunt down Michael. 

Michael has only one agenda, to get to Laurie. He immediately gets to slaughtering everyone, including Tommy, and reaches Laurie’s daughter. He kills her. 

The movie ends and we must await the final chapter in the Halloween franchise to see if Michael will survive or not. Most importantly, what will happen to Laurie? 

Will she finally live a peaceful existence, free from Michael’s terror? Or will she too perish with him? 

In the trailer for Halloween Ends, we see Laurie explicitly state that the only way Michael’s terror will end is if she dies too. 

In the last scene of the trailer, we see Laurie challenge Michael and at one point, pinned him down with knives. Just as she is about to remove his mask, he recovers and attacks Laurie. 

Just how is Halloween going to end? 

We will have to wait until October 14th to find out just what happens to Laurie and Michael. 

Okay, chances are, there is going to be a spin-off or a prequel. Or a requel? 

Which studio will actually allow a popular franchise to end just like that?