James Sunderland

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Silent Hill character
James Sunderland
Gender	Male
Age	29
Hair colour	Dirty blonde
Eye colour	Green
Occupation	Clerk
Appearance/s in Silent Hill Series	Silent Hill 2
Voice by/ Protrayer	Guy Cihi

James Sunderland is the main protagonist in Silent Hill 2. At the game's beginning, his narration states that his wife, Mary, has been dead for several years, but he has just received a mysterious letter, apparently from Mary, saying that she is waiting for him at their "special place", Silent Hill. When he arrives at the town, he finds it under the control of strange and dark forces.

[edit] Before Silent Hill

James was married to a woman named Mary Sheperd. His life was apparently content, until, following a vacation to Silent Hill, Mary fell ill with a terminal disease. The disease made Mary suffer violent mood swings, most of which were directed at her husband, and the disease had severely weakened and disfigured her body. James, not wanting to see his beloved suffer, as well as hating her for what she had become (angry, ugly, etc.), ends up smothering her to death with a pillow. He then repressed the memory of killing her, convincing himself that her disease killed her.

Konami's Silent Hill site states that James was a clerk for a small company and Mary was a housewife, although their occupations are never mentioned in the game itself. We don't know what James did during the three years that (he believes) have passed since Mary's death, if he's been on the run or if he covered up her death successfully and has been trying to lead something like a normal life. In any case, when the game begins James is already haggared, exhausted, confused, sad and afraid, and this hardly improves once he enters Silent Hill.

[edit] Retribution in Silent Hill

No more than several days have passed since James has killed his wife (although in his mind, he thinks that it's been three years) when he receives a letter in his dead wife's handwriting.

"In my restless dreams, I see that town.
Silent Hill.
You promised you’d take me there again someday,
But you never did.
Well I’m alone there now...
In our 'special place'...
Waiting for you..."

Thinking that Mary is alive, James hops into his car and drives all day and all night until he reaches the outskirts of the town. The way into the city is blocked so he is forced to take the path through the forest. The path goes through a graveyard with a small chapel nearby. It is there that he meets another person, a young woman by the name of Angela Orosco, who is looking for her mother. Angela warns him that there is something 'wrong' in the town and that he should stay away. James, however, won't be swayed and continues on his journey.

The town itself is deserted, and permanently enveloped in fog. Several streets have caved in, thus blocking James' attempt to taking a straightforward route to Rosewater Park. However, he does find blood on the streets and sees someone (or something) in the fog-enshrouded distance. James follows it and comes to a construction site, abandoned like the rest of the town. He finds a pocket radio that is emitting static... and the thing that he was following earlier.

The 'thing' is a humanoid monster, vaguely resembling a person in a straitjacket, and it attacks by spewing acid from its midsection. James defends himself by yanking a wooden board with several nails sticking out of the end and bashing the abomination to death. James keeps the radio handy, since its static acts as a sort of alarm when monsters are nearby.

With nowhere else to go in order to get to the park, James ducks inside an abandoned apartment building. Inside he finds a better weapon - a handgun - and a flashlight so that he can see in the dark. He also encounters a young girl, who is also looking for Mary, but doesn't think too highly of James (she steps on his hand and kicks a key away), and mysterious figure with a pyramid-shaped head on the other side of the bars. James has a close call when he comes across the aforementioned figure assaulting several of the monsters inside the room, but manages to drive it away.

Inside the other apartment building, James finds a man inside a bathroom, vomiting into the toilet. His name is Eddie Dombrowski, and he is quick to defend himself against the bullet-riddled corpse inside the living room. James leaves him alone for the moment and several rooms later, he comes across Angela. She is inside a room studying a butcher knife intently as if she is prepared to commit suicide. We also see that Angela has some serious issues, as she might be suffering from dual personalities. James talks her into handing over the knife and she leaves.

James manages to find the exit to the apartments, but unfortunately, the Red Pyramid, which James calls 'the Pyramid Head,' has found James. The executioner is armed with an oversized knife which he manages to drag along behind him. James defends himself with his handgun, until a siren sounds, causing the monster to retreat, allowing James to exit the building. Outside, he finds the little girl from earlier. After a brief dialogue, she runs off, yelling that he didn't love Mary. James, baffled as to why the child knew his wife's name, continues onward to Rosewater Park.

James arrives at Rosewater Park, which was one of the places where he and Mary had spent their vacation together. Walking along the pier, he comes across a woman that could just as well be Mary's twin. Her name is Maria, and unlike the little girl, Angela or Eddie, Maria - as James will find out later - is not real. Instead, she is an embodiment of lust and selfish desire that Silent Hill has made real in order to torture the hapless hero.

James allows Maria to follow him and they chase the girl from a local bowling alley to Brookhaven Mental Hospital. Inside the abandoned place, they find demonic nurses who are armed with steel pipes. Maria stops in one room and lies down on the bed, claiming that she is suffering from a hangover, forcing James to go on alone. James finds the little girl, whose name is Laura (after learning her name from Eddie, who was inside the bowling alley), who after claiming that she has a letter from Mary inside one of the rooms, traps him inside with a strange type of monster.

James fights them off, but then everything starts to shift around him. When he comes to, he finds himself in the dark version of Brookhaven Hospital (some people call it the Otherworld, others call it the Nightmare world). Laura, as well as Maria is nowhere to be found. Maria however, finds him and she is not too pleased with James ditching her and she chews him out for it. On their way out of the hospital, the Red Pyramid appears, this time armed with a spear and gives chase to James and Maria. James manages to escape, but Maria wasn't so lucky. James watches in horror as the Red Pyramid impales Maria, killing her.

James escapes Brookhaven Hospital, but laments over not being able to protect Maria. He sees Laura and goes after the little girl. After acquiring a wrench and later, a key hidden inside Rosewater Park, James heads to the one place he hasn't checked yet: the Silent Hill Historical Society. The building has an underground passageway that leads to the infamous Toluca Prison. Inside the prison, James encounters Eddie once again, and just like their first encounter, there is a corpse full of bullet holes, and Eddie is armed with a revolver.

Eddie leaves James alone and James explores the prison. After James procures another weapon and shoots his way through the prison, James then takes a leap of faith (in fact, several) and enters the Labyrinth. James explores the maze and runs into Angela. James rescues her from a monster known as 'Abstract Daddy,' and he also runs into the Red Pyramid, who is patrolling the area around his lair. After avoiding the spear-wielding monster, James finds Maria alive and apparently unscathed following her encounter with Pyramid Head. However, the tone that she speaks to James with sounds a lot like Mary's, since she knows certain things that only Mary knows about. She goads James into freeing her from her cell and James agrees.

However, when James finally catches up with Maria she is once again killed, this time the side of her face was bashed in. Seeing that he has nothing left to do, James exits the cell. After exiting the Labyrinth, James comes across Eddie, who has by this time has clearly snapped. Eddie admits that he is a murderer and claims that James is no different. A shootout ensues with James killing Eddie in self-defense. Wallowing in his grief at taking a human life, James heads for the boat docks, where a boat is waiting for him. His final destination: the Lakeview Hotel.

James rows across Toluca Lake until he arrives at the hotel. Laura is inside the restaurant. She asks James if he found Mary yet and James says no. Laura gives him a letter that Mary had written to her shortly before her death before running off. James accquires a videotape which he had left from his and Mary's earlier visit and the key to room 312, where they both stayed in.

There, with the videotape as concrete proof, James realizes that he has been running away from his crime of murdering his wife and that was one of the reasons which drew him to Silent Hill. Upon exiting the room, James finds himself in the Nightmare world once again, since the hotel is cold, dripping with water. The basement itself is flooded as James wades through the area. He encounters Angela one last time on the stairs, while the entire area around them is burning. For Angela, there is no escape from her crimes, which was murdering her father after he abused her and she has resigned herself to her fate. She ascends the staircase as flames separate her and James and she is gone.

After exiting out of the stairwell, James finds himself in a burned-out version of the hotel. When he reaches the hotel lobby, he finds Maria tied down, and flanked by not one but two Red Pyramids. One of them kills Maria and James is helpless as to the events that transpire around him. However, he now understands why the Red Pyramid was constantly stalking him—in order to punish him for killing Mary—and decides to end the little game once and for all.

James fights off the two Red Pyramids, until they both walk into the center of the room and promptly impale themselves on their spears. Leaving the three corpses behind, James exits the lobby and out of the hotel. He finds himself walking down a long hallway, where a memory of him visiting his ailing wife in the hospital comes back to haunt him. After climbing a series of stairs, he finds himself in a large room, with a woman dressed as his wife waiting for him.

[edit] Outcome

A complete list of the games endings can be found at the main article for Silent Hill 2.

v • d • e Silent Hill by Konami
Game Development: Team Silent | Climax Studios
Games: 0rigins | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4: The Room | 5 (working title)
Media discs: Experience | Lost Memories
Soundtracks: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4: The Room
Film: Silent Hill | Soundtrack
Characters: Alessa | Cybil | Douglas | Eileen | Harry | Heather | Henry | James | Lisa | Maria | Walter
Creatures: Pyramid Head | Valtiel | Nurses
Organizations/Groups: The Order
Locations: Midwich Elementary School | Brookhaven Hospital