Julie Hastings

Julie Hastings is a District Attorney and Peyton Westlake's love interest. She is portrayed by Frances McDormand.

History
Julie discovers an incriminating document known as the "Bellasarious Memorandum" proving that that corrupt developer Louis Strack Jr. has been bribing members of the zoning commission. Before she leaves, Westlake asks her to marry him, but she hesitates. When she confronts Strack, he confesses, but shows Julie what he's been planning: To design a brand new city which would create a substantial amount of new jobs. He also warns Julie to keep her guard up as mobster Robert G. Durant would do anything to get his hands on the document. She indirectly caused Peyton's misfortune due to her leaving the "Bellasarious Memorandum" back at Peyton's laboratory and was attacked by Durant along with his gang under the orders of Strack himself. Julie was standing outside of the lab when the lab exploded, Peyton is presumed dead, blown to bits because the biggest piece of him they found was an ear, she has a quiet funeral for him and continues her life. However Peyton was in fact alive, having been found by a fisherman and aken to a highly advance burn ward. The horribly disfigured Peyton would soon escape from the ward and use the synthetic skin that he has been researching of on himself. Julie was soon reunited with Peyton who stated that he was in a coma rather than being dead. He is aware of Julie seeing Strack after his supposed death and eventually confronts her, to which she responds that Strack only comforted her. Westlake does not tell Julie about his condition, but asks her various questions on whether she would accept him regardless or not.

The next time Peyton and Julie have a date at the carnival, an altercation causes Peyton to lose his temper and inadvertently reveals to Julie that there is indeed something wrong with him. She follows him as he flees (his 99 minutes were up,) and when she discovers that he was using masks to hide his true face, she calls out to Peyton that she still loves him regardless.

Julie later tells Strack that she can no longer see him, and after discovering the Bellasarious Memorandum on his desk while he was on the phone, she confirms that Strack was collaborating with Durant the entire time. She tells him that Westlake is still alive, but Strack tells her that as long as he has the memorandum, no charges can be filed. When Julie leaves, Durant enters and is told by Strack to kill Peyton.

Julie was taken hostage by Strack, however Peyton (now impersonating Durant who he believed to have killed) arrives to rescue her but his ruse is broken by Strack, who fights him on an unfinished building floor 650 feet from the ground. Julie subdues her captor by shoves him down to his death when he was about to shoot Peyton. When Peyton gets the upper hand, Strack calls his bluff by saying that killing him would not be something he could live with. Peyton then kills Strack, saying to himself: "I'm learning to live with a lot of things."

Unfortunately, when Julie tries to convince Peyton that he can still return to his old life, Peyton declines, saying that he has now become a monster and that the Peyton she knew was gone and runs away from Julie as they exit an elevator. Julie tries to go after him, but looses sight of him in the crowd.

Trivia

 * Julie doesn't return in the sequels, it can be assumed that she and Peyton ended their relantioship.