Halloween (2018) Theory: How Michael Myers Survived

While we’re playing around with possibilities and embedded ulterior motives of Halloween 2018, how about this morsel: Laurie never intended for Michael to die in the house fire, there was a secret exit out of the basement, and she left a trail of breadcrumbs for him to find it. Halloween night 2018 was just the first round of her multilayered plan. The original ending backs this theory. Remember the first trailer for the film, when Laurie and Michael are shown facing off in Laurie’s backyard? That sequence did not make it to the final cut of the film.

But that shot was the beginning of what was originally going to be their final fight. Having chased Alyson through the woods, Michael would find himself in Laurie’s backyard, surrounded by all those creepy mannequins. Laurie was to rescue Alyson by positioning herself between her granddaughter and Michael. The two go head-to-head, no doubt engaging in a bloody waltz of mutual stabbing.

Laurie was to somehow knock Michael unconscious, and then she, Alyson, and Karen all run off to safety - wait, what? Yes, that was the original cut of the ending. The Strodes leave Michael unconscious in the backyard. Not as ambiguous, but it does support the idea that Laurie didn’t intend to kill him during their first encounter. This theory holds water (H20, maybe?).

Maybe Dr. Sartain wasn’t the only one with a masterful plan for Michael. Laurie had been waiting 40 damn years to face off against her tormentor, fighting him endlessly in her head as it were. It’s been said online ad nauseam that the Michael Myers in Halloween 2018 was never targeting Laurie Strode - she isn’t his sister in this version, after all. It was Dr. Sartain who arranged for their face-off.

Up until the film’s climax, Michael had been going about his happy way, trick-or-treating with no end goal in sight, other than to mutilate a bunch of unsuspecting people in his old neighborhood. So it’s feasible that Laurie knows that Michael has no special memory of her, not even close to the way she has been psychologically tormented by him ever since that fateful night in 1978 when he murdered her best friends, and nearly murdered her. It could be that all along, her plan wasn’t to just snuff him out, but to instead make him remember her and set this all up for another, more fitting final confrontation.

So there you have it. These are several ways that Halloween 2020, or Halloween Part 2, Part 4, or whatever they end up calling it, could go forward. What will the future hold for Laurie Strode and Michael Myers? Did Laurie have a big multipart plan for her nemesis all along? Will the next two films be about Laurie steadily handing Michael’s ass to him? Will he find his way out of the basement, or will we get to see good old coveralls lounging in a bathtub?

Let’s hope that’s not how the next one starts. Actually regretting even writing that into this theory. That kind of reeks of Indiana Jones 4, doesn’t it...? Let’s hope David Gordon Green knows better than to tread down that path...

What do you think will happen in the next installment of the Halloween franchise? Let us know in the comments.