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Biden warns you
This page contains spoilers, go back to the game coward. |
| “ | I've always felt alone. My whole life. For as long as I can remember. I don't know if I like it or if I'm used to it, but I know this; being lonely does things to you. Feeling shit and bitter and angry all the time just... eats away at you... | ” |
— Simon in the intro of Cry of Fear
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Simon Henriksson or simply known as Simon is the protagonist of Cry of Fear.
He is voiced by Stig "DragonNOR" Sydtangen, who also voiced the main character in the Half-Life 2: Episode Two horror mod Grey, in addition to several other projects. For more information, check out his website.
Overview
Little is known about his school or personal life - something his doctor notes as topics Simon refuses to discuss. Simon has been known to self-harm, as indicated by the cuts on his left wrist when the player heals using the morphine syringes in the game. It is suggested in the game that Simon lives with his mother (the significance of this could be that she helps support him when he visits Doctor Purnell); however, this is not made fully clear and real life cutscenes show him living in a different apartment on his own, and almost no mention is made of a father or other relatives has been made. It is known that Simon is suffering with depression, with his only friend outside his home appearing to be Sophie, whom he harbours romantic feelings for, which are unfortunately not reciprocated.
Background
Simon's life before the events of Cry of Fear is hinted through dialogue and flashbacks. Simon grew up in Kirkville his hometown with his Mother. Nothing is mentioned about his father however, and it is unknown if Simon even met him. Through Simon's introduction quote, he claims that he has felt alone his entire life, which indicates that he felt as though he did not have many friends and lived alone most of the time with the only company coming from his Mother. It is hinted that Simon's Mother is overprotective as proven by the text messages she sends him throughout the game, likely meaning Simon did not socialize often in his younger years.
During his lifetime, Doctor Purnell states that Simon has lived with mental problems for a long time, which has proven to be anxiety and depression, which Simon claims to be generated by his loneliness (in Simon's words from the IRL trailer he claims that "Anxiety and Depression controls my life everyday"). Simon would occasionally take a train to Stockholm and take lonely walks around the city, most likely to help him take his mind off being lonely. Simon is shown to be an occasional smoker – seen clearly in his apartment where he has an ashtray on his table and in the cigarette easter egg, which might prove the stress he endures. From the appearance of Simon's bag it is implied that he is a fan of heavy metal music, and from the logo on the back of his hoodie he either has attended concerts, or instead it is merely a miscellaneous detail.
When Simon started college, he met a girl named Sophie, who he became fond of. Simon became close to Sophie after helping her with the problems she had endured, going as far as to say that Simon was the only male at college who would help her through her troubling times, making her life "more bearable." Eventually, Simon became so attached to Sophie that he came to conclusion that he loves her and eventually built enough courage to confess his love to her, but she rejected him, and even after Simon insisted that he loved her, she backed away from him, telling him that she "had leave for somewhere." Sophie's rejection debilitated Simon hard, he went as far as to blaming himself that she chose to reject him and was unable to move aside from the pain of her rejection. Depending on gameplay, Simon will either ignore his emotions, allowing them to fester to the point where it punished both Simon and Sophie, or despite being hurt, move on.
At some unknown point, Simon obtained a switchblade. It is unknown where he obtained it or his reason for wanting one, but it is very likely that he used the blade to cut his wrist, as seen throughout the game when Simon injects himself with morphine that he has scars on his wrist and in the Memories custom campaign he cuts his wrist with the switchblade in the beginning (although the Memories custom campaign is not canon), most likely due to the emotional turmoil that he felt from Sophie's rejection or the stress he feels from his loneliness.
Story
Simon is an individual diagnosed with anxiety and depression. Before the events of Cry of Fear (as seen in the first cutscene of the game), Simon was the victim of a hit-and-run in which he was pinned to a building by a car whilst trying to help an injured man late at night. While he surprisingly survived the incident, he was crippled from the waist down and confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life, subjecting him to further mental trauma which drove him into becoming reclusive and spiteful of his own life. Doctor Purnell was assigned as Simon's psychiatrist following the accident, and using Cognitive Therapy, Simon was instructed to write a book about his emotions and anxiety to get all the trauma out of his head that he had suffered from what he insists on calling the "The Black Day".
Purnell talking with Simon about his treatment
Simon authored the book as instructed and the events of Cry of Fear begin - the events unfolding being a metaphorical depiction of Simon's mind and his battle to purge his inner demons through writing, the actions taken during the game showing how well the therapy works. During the events of Cry of Fear, Simon is confronting his trauma directly by writing the events into the book, with each boss fight representing a major point in his life to where he has suffered some form of trauma, or the many metaphors in-game representing the state of his mind.
The Simon played as over the course of Cry of Fear is in fact a mental projection of Simon and what combats the trauma inside the real one's mind. The fate of both Simons depends on what ending is unlocked due to the actions made during the game.
His Fate
Simon finds his book
In the first three endings of the game, Simon commits suicide with slight variation on the fates of the other characters around him. The real Simon ending his own life is shown metaphorically in his mind as the projection that Simon is subjected to another nightmare, forced to work his way to Sick Simon still stuck in his wheelchair. A fight ensues that ends with the fake Simon mercilessly beating Sick Simon unconscious before strangling him to death, killing himself in the process and ending the game with one of the first three endings with Simon leaving a declaration in his book.
Simon as the final boss in the first 3 endings (bad endings)
Ending 1: This ending is unlocked if Simon spared the life of Carcass and refused to show trust in Doctor Purnell in the asylum. The therapy fails outright and Simon develops a deep hatred for the world around him. He begins to show signs of paranoid schizophrenia (evidenced by his false belief that the world was looking upon him negatively) as well as misanthropy, and falls into a deeply depressive spiral, leading to self-destruction. Believing Sophie, Doctor Purnell and every one who claimed to care about him, to in reality be looking down on him because of his disability, never caring about him all along. Writing the book does not help, and in fact makes Simon's depression even worse. The depressive spiral coupled with his growing levels of misanthropy and anger over both what he sees as his betrayal by Sophie, and his feeling that the doctor had both made his depression worse and was mocking him grew too much for Simon to bear, and his psychotic rage led him to murder both Sophie and Doctor Purnell. Before committing suicide, Simon leaves a very macabre and sinister suicide note in his diary, which expresses his belief that the world was laughing at him because of his disability, explaining in a justifying sense that he was in the right to kill Sophie and Purnell, he even confesses that if it wasn't for his disability that he would have committed worse atrocities and even goes on to attack whoever finds his remains, wishing for whoever found the suicide note to suffer and become haunted from his dead body.
Simon after committing suicide
Ending 2: This ending is unlocked if Simon spared the life of Carcass, but trusted Doctor Purnell and gave him the gun he requested. In this ending, Simon shows respect for Purnell and his efforts to help Simon - but ultimately believes it was futile, coming to the resolution that his life means nothing. Simon is unable to move past the pain he feels as a result of Sophie rejecting him, and he possessively murders her out of a selfish act, unwilling to leave her for anyone else to have. Before taking his own life, he leaves a suicide note in his diary, apologising to Purnell for the result of the therapy, but thanks him overall for actually trying to help him.
Ending 3: This ending is unlocked if Simon killed Carcass, but refused to give Doctor Purnell his gun. This ending is the reverse of ending 2. Although Simon feels pain due to Sophie's rejection of him, and feels extreme guilt because of the damage his slip into depression and psychosis has done to her, he is able to forgive her, and moves past the rejection that he endured from her, even coming to regard her as the only person who truly cared about him. However, Simon never really was able to trust Doctor Purnell, and in the end comes to the conclusion that his treatment, and the book therapy made him worse, stating that all the book therapy did was made him realise how broken he was, and so he murders Doctor Purnell in a fit of self-absorbed revenge. Before taking his own life, Simon leaves a suicide note, pleading with anyone who finds his remains to not show Sophie, showing how much he cared about her in the end.
Simon in ending 4, preparing to face his evil counterpart
Ending 4: Arguably the 'good' ending, unlocked by killing Carcass and trusting Doctor Purnell with the gun. In this ending, Simon did not taken the life of Sophie nor Doctor Purnell and does not commit suicide, instead being prevented from doing so by a psychosis-induced hallucination in which Book Simon arrives. The real Simon works his way through another nightmare whilst in his wheelchair and engages his mental counterpart in a running gunfight, before eventually triumphing and shooting his own nightmarish visage to death - showing that his mind longer needs it and that he has finally released the collected stress of his trauma.
The psychosis ends and it is revealed that Simon did not really shoot his twisted self - but rather two police officers who were entering his apartment. Doctors testify in court that Simon was having a psychosis, and although he feels great guilt for killing the officers, he is committed to a mental hospital for what is most likely the rest of his life. Doctor Purnell continues to act as Simon's counsellor and mentor, a service he is grateful for. Sophie regularly visits Simon in the hospital when she is allowed (the doctors saying that her visits are "destabilising" for him), and although Simon makes note of the fact that she has found a new male friend, he wishes her nothing but the best. Simon even gives himself a happy ending in the book, which represents him coming to terms with his depression and allowing himself to start being treated.
David in the secret ending
Secret Ending: Waking from the brute collision of the vehicle, Simon wakes up pinned to a wall with a man blaming his state of high (on drugs) being the reason of the crash. The man is then revealed to be none other than David Leatherhoff, the protagonist of Afraid of Monsters. Taking in the issue, Simon expresses anger towards David, uttering "What the fuck? You...?" in a memorial way, intending that Simon knows David. Simon then threatens David, saying he'll "regret this", which provokes David to run away from the scene. This ending can be achieved if the player mails the "Secret Package" to the mailbox located by the college.
It is notorious that David appears exactly as he appears in Afraid of Monsters, his model not being redesigned nor being a new model (which resembles Silent Hill 2 UFO Ending in which Harry Mason appeared before James Sunderland exactly as he appeared in the first game). Also, despite the fact that he apologises to Simon and talks to him, his voice is never heard. It is most likely that the ending is a joke because of the tone and the file names.
Simon's book burning
Doctor's Story: Simon is not seen or heard in Doctor's Story but only mentioned. Doctor Purnell enters Simon's apartment and destroys his book, it is unknown if Simon's depression and anxiety got better.
Arguably the happiest outcome in Cry of Fear
Co-Op: The Co-op Campaign serves as a final "epilogue" scenario, in which several police officers enter Simon's book/mental realm, intending for unknown reasons to change Simon's past and save him from the hit-and-run accident he suffered. The campaign concludes with a scene of the police successfully travelling through time and managing to reach the location where Simon was hit by the car prior to the events of the game. Having arrived just moments before Simon was going to be hit, they arrest the driver of the car before the accident can happen, and thus prevent Simon ever being crippled, and by extension, preventing the horrifying events of the game entirely. A short scene is then shown of Simon and Sophie, having apparently begun a relationship after all, walking down the sidewalk, holding hands.
Simon over the process of Cry of Fear
Simon has changed a lot
Simon progressively changed over the process of Cry of Fear, his model and his bag. At the beginning of Cry of Fear, Simon had a model with less polygons as of now. He had a more gloomy appearance and had dry tears on his face. He didn't have his bag at the time, even though the inventory was larger than now.
First Simon model, as seen in one of the first trailers released
The second model looks more like the actual Simon we all know of. He had his bag, better graphics, but he had a slight differ in appearance. He had sharp hair and looked very different on the face. Even though all models use ruMpel's face, this one has less red/pink lips and the skin tone is more tanned than the one now.
Trivia
The back of Simon's hoodie
- Simon's full name, Simon Henriksson, can be found on the Strange Package earned in Ending 4.
- In the IRL trailer Simon explains that he knows his mother is okay[1], but in the game when he arrives at his house he hopes for his mother to be okay.
- The back of Simon's hoodie appears to be the logo from a public event called the "Freedom Music Festival".
- Though it may be for user-friendly purposes, Simon dual-wields a hand-gun or a melee weapon in his left hand and another optional item (such as a light source) in his right hand. This could imply that Simon may be left-handed, or even ambidextrous.
- In real life the P345 is not an ambidextrous weapon, and is designed for right-handed shooters, so it is likely that Simon wouldn't find it easy or comfortable to use with his left hand.
- Simon's first model is still found in the first nightmare sequence, when he punches the mirror.
- Simon's first model can also be found in the depressed Simon easter egg.
- One of the hurt sounds of Simon is in fact cursing. The line is Aaah... Fan!, which translates from Swedish to Aaah... Damn!
| Simon's cursing. | |
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| Aaah... Fan! | |
References
- ↑ "I know mom's okay and that and that she's been trying to contact me." — Cry of Fear - IRL Trailer
| Characters | |
|---|---|
| Main | Simon Henriksson • Doctor Purnell • Sophie |
| Side | Unknown Caller • The Cops • The Apartment Predator |