Travis Grady

Travis Grady is the protagonist of Silent Hill: Origins. He is a troubled and lonely truck driver with a dark past. Travis is running late on a delivery to Brahms and decides to take a shortcut through the town of Silent Hill. In doing so, he remembers the horrible tragedies that took place years ago, as well as digging into a religious conspiracy occurring within the town.

Biography
Travis was born to a married couple named Richard and Helen Grady. During Travis's early childhood, his mother started suffering from severe psychological delusions, claiming beings from a mirror world told her that her son was a "devil child", ending in her attempt to try to gas herself and Travis.

Police broke into the house and both were moved to the hospital, and Richard later transferred Helen to the Cedar Grove Sanitarium, which is an important location in game. While she was there, Travis, missing his mother, snuck into the sanitarium, most likely to give her the "Daddy, Momma & Travis" drawing found there later. However, Travis was found and was brought home by his father. The two of them later checked into Riverside Motel, and Richard, on the advice of a doctor, told his son that his mother had died, but kept writing letters to her. Richard, while at the motel, moved deeper into a state of depression and finally hung himself in Room 500. Travis, having been out playing at the motel's arcade during his father's suicide, locked himself in the room with his father's corpse and stood there talking to it until the cleaners found them the next morning.

What happened to Travis in his childhood after this incident remains unknown, but the events most likely would have taken a heavy toll on his sanity and mental health and may allude to his questionable past.

Silent Hill: Origins
About 15 years later, Travis is a truck driver haunted by nightmares of his past. On a routine drive to Brahms one day, he decides to take a shortcut through the town of Silent Hill. Driving on an unusually foggy road, he immediately stops his truck to prevent hitting an unknown cloaked pedestrian. Upon exiting the truck, he notices the figure is gone.

Trying to find the person, he wanders down the foggy road on foot, eventually coming to a burning house. He briefly sees Dahlia Gillespie skulking in the shadows, but she backs away. Hearing a scream inside the house, Travis becomes concerned and heroically searches the house. He soon discovers the charred and badly burnt body of Alessa Gillespie. He carries her body out of the house, and shortly after, passes out in the front yard to the sounds of sirens. Travis wakes up on a bench in Silent Hill itself, and leaves to make his way to Alchemilla Hospital to inquire about Alessa's health and see if she survived the fire. Shortly after entering, he meets Michael Kaufmann, but is simply told Alessa isn't at the hospital. However, Travis takes an elevator to the second floor and encounters an unharmed Alessa behind a large mirror, which she "teaches" him how to use; by touching the mirror with his hands, he himself can shift the town into its foggy and hellish counterparts. Travis finds a piece of the Flauros and meets a nurse, Lisa Garland, who tells him that she plans to meet Kaufmann at Cedar Grove Sanitarium. He travels through the town, including Cedar Grove Sanitarium, Artaud Theater and Riverside Motel, discovering that his father killed himself and that his mother went insane and was placed in the Sanitarium. All the while, Travis is stalked by the Butcher, and entity that represents his inner demons. Travis defeats the evil incarnations of his deceased parents, and defeats the Butcher as well, finally gaining solace from his past.

Due to his troubled past, Alessa targets Travis as her unwilling aid in fulfilling her desire to prevent the birth of God. Travis unknowingly helps her by traveling throughout the town and collecting the Past, Present, Future, Falsehood, and Truth pieces of the Flauros, which has the power to expel Alessa's Dream at the climax of the story. Although Travis wants to leave the town as quickly as possible, he later realizes the importance of his role and stays to finish the job of his own free will. Depending on the ending the player receives, Travis has a different fate, though only the Good Ending is canon.

Silent Hill: Homecoming
Having only a brief cameo in Silent Hill: Homecoming, Travis gives Alex Shepherd a lift home to Shepherd's Glen. Travis left Silent Hill in the normal world, but was once again in the Fog World as he drove Alex to his hometown, although it's possible that he, just like Laura in Silent Hill 2, only saw the Real World, not the Fog World. The reasons for this are unknown.

Also, despite being decades older, Travis still has the same style in clothing, as he sports a vest and flannel shirt. He also sports a full beard.

He seems to have some friendship with Alex, who he believes is a soldier. This may symbolize, along with him still being a trucker, that Travis has not moved on from his past and that he is still tormented. However, seeing as how he does not seem to recognize Shepherd's Glen being in the Fog World, it could very well mean that he has moved on with his life, and may just enjoy being a trucker.

Silent Hill: Revelation
Travis makes a brief cameo at the end of Silent Hill: Revelation. After Heather Mason and Vincent Cooper leave Silent Hill, they hitch a ride with a truck driver, who mentions their luck as he "hasn't been out this way in a long time" and states his name is Travis Grady. He asks the two where they are heading, to which Heather answers: "Just take us as far away from here as you can". He is played by actor Peter Outerbridge.

Quotes

 * "Late on a gig, bud. I'm taking the shortcut past Silent Hill. Stopping for coffee as soon as I hit Brahms. I'm beat."
 * "Guess I just don't meet the right girls, bud."
 * "Hey, chill. You don't see me bringing up your issues."
 * "Safe now... Hey, someone help her! Where is... everyone...?" (Travis faints)
 * "Why did nobody help her? You all left that girl to burn!" (Travis confronting Dahlia Gillespie)
 * "They're all crazy..."
 * "Lisa? You're here too? Can you see all this stuff? Is it all... dark for you too?"
 * "Momma? Daddy said you were dead. Are you dead?"
 * "Daddy... I won the game... I still got a quarter left. You want the quarter? Daddy... wake up. Please, Daddy."
 * "How is this even possible? Dad... How could he DO that to himself?"
 * "The lonely moon... you've always been there for me, haven't ya?"

Trivia

 * An early image released for Origins suggests that Travis was originally supposed to have his own younger child manifestation in the town, similar to Walter Sullivan and Anne Marie Cunningham.[1] In the final version, however, young Travis is only seen in flashbacks.


 * Travis can cosplay as Mira and Vincent Smith. See Silent Hill: Origins Secrets and Unlockables.


 * Helen Grady tried to kill Travis because the people in the mirror told her to kill "the devil child". This may have not entirely been the ramblings of an lunatic but her seeing the truth of what her son was destined to become considering the "Bad" ending of Silent Hill: Origins.
 * Considering the parallels between Travis and Alessa regarding abuse and suffering inflicted by the mother figure and a personality split taking place thereafter (as implied in this note), and knowing that the ramblings Helen gives with regard to the mirrors is actually somewhat true as they are portals to the Otherworld, it is possible that the Order's God influenced Helen to do this knowing it would cause Travis this suffering. With the God being nurtured by hate, pain, and said suffering, and Travis having come into contact with it at the end of the game, this could have been a plot for Travis to bring God into the physical realm. This would put quite the spin on the "Bad" ending.


 * Travis seems to have some knowledge of firearms, as he was able to determine that the assault rifle was a knock-off of an AK-47, instead of the genuine article. He can also distinguish between a model replica and an actual working gun. He mentions that the Target Pistol is "the type of thing you would see at a shooting range", although whether this is just passing knowledge or indication that he visited a shooting range in the past is unknown.


 * Travis is one of three protagonists to canonically appear in more than one Silent Hill game; the others being Harry Mason and Heather Mason.


 * Travis is currently the oldest living protagonist in the series.


 * Travis used to like ice cream as a kid, but when he grew up, he lost his sweet tooth.


 * In Silent Hill: Homecoming, there was originally a hunter character that Alex meets and helps out in the woods. The character was scrapped, but the model itself was modified and used instead for Travis Grady.


 * In Silent Hill: Homecoming, Alex can cosplay as Travis.


 * Travis is the only protagonist who can willingly travel between the Fog World and the Otherworld.


 * Travis appears briefly in the joke ending of Silent Hill: Book of Memories. He is seen sitting on the sidewalk alongside a sign that says "$ for gas".


 * Travis is the first of two protagonists who can brawl with monsters empty-handed, the second being Murphy Pendleton.


 * Travis's truck makes a cameo appearance in Silent Hill: Downpour, although Travis himself is nowhere to be found.