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| “ | Max you are not crazy. You are not dreaming. It’s time to be an everyday hero. | „ |
| ~ Max |
Maxine "Max" Caulfield is the main protagonist of the Life is Strange franchise. She is the main protagonist of the 2015 episodic video game Life is Strange, its sequel comic series, and the bonus episode, Farewell. After a five year absence from her hometown, Arcadia Bay, she returns to the small town in Oregon to attend a photography class and discovers she has the power to rewind time after her friend, Chloe Price, is shot and killed. Dreaming of an impending storm set to destroy Arcadia Bay, Max must discover how to with her time-travelling powers, as well as the help of her best friend, Chloe Price.
She is voiced by Hannah Telle.
Appearance[]
Max is the quintessential hipster, preferring an understated style that consists of simple T-shirts bearing logos and "generic jeans" (as Chloe calls them). She has brown hair, blue eyes, and freckles. She appears to wear eye shadow and eye liner, although this is also quite understated. She has no tattoos or piercings that we know of. She wears a set of three colored bangles on her right wrist that appear to be silicone wristbands.
Personality[]
| “ | Now that's what I'm talking about. I actually helped somebody! | „ |
| ~ Max after keeping Alyssa from getting hurt (the first time) |
Max is a geeky, quite introverted and slightly self-conscious girl, particularly when it comes to her photography. According to herself, she rather likes to observe the world around her than actually participate in it; that's why several students including Juliet Watson think she wouldn't really care for others. But on the contrary, she makes a genuine effort to show kindness to all of Blackwell's students. She's a clear, deductive thinker, smart and sneaky, but practical, reasonable, and mature for her age, especially compared to her best friend, Chloe. She is also brave, placing herself in harm's way to protect those she cares about.
She has a great affection for photography, always taking pictures of her surroundings, since she considers it a way to "be part of the world at a safe distance", and aspires to make it a career one day. She especially has a fable for old analogue cameras and instant camera selfies. She also seems to like obscure movies and anime, much like her friend Warren Graham. She has always dreamed of travelling and exploring the world, as well as going on "adventures" together with her childhood friend Chloe.
A defining trait of Max's shown throughout the game is that she is an excellent judge of character; not only is she one of the few friends of Kate Marsh, who is regularly bullied for being religious, but she is easily able to see that Frank Bowers, drug dealing notwithstanding, isn't quite the mean person he makes himself out to be, as he rescued a group of dogs from pit-bull fighting for no reason other than it was the right thing to do, and even took in one of them as his pet. It goes both ways as she also becomes suspicious when Kate tells her about how Nathan offered to help her at a party, as she knows Nathan isn't the kind of person to help someone without an ulterior motive. Additionally, while she admires Mark Jefferson, she doesn't put him on a pedestal and acknowledges that he has flaws (e.g. she finds him rather smug and pretentious) and any respect she has for him quickly disappears upon discovering the kind of person he really is.
Max becomes more confident and decisive as her adventure continues, probably due to Chloe's influence combined with her time-altering powers. This newfound strength and self-confidence reaches its full extent in Episode 5 when she is finally confronted with Jefferson and has to save Chloe. Right from the beginning, Max feels deeply responsible for her actions and does not take her rewind power lightly, but perhaps doesn't yet realize the full consequences of her power. At the end, Max appears deeply troubled with the consequences of her decisions and the responsibility she has to bear, as represented in her nightmare.
Some people regard Max as "nosy" - as revealed in her Blackwell student file. There are several instances throughout the game where Max is called that by other characters, including admitting to being nosy herself. It's obvious that Max is pretty interested in other people's stuff, but its up to Max how far her curiosity goes, such as to what extent she goes to nose around in other people's rooms. She refers to herself as being clumsy after breaking and spilling a number of items and having to rewind time.
Biography[]
Pre-Game Events[]
Maxine Caulfield was born September 21, 1995 in Arcadia Bay, Oregon. There, she spent most of her childhood and a young adulthood. As a child, Max had decided she wanted to be a photographer. Her parents indulged her dream and gave her an old Polaroid camera to play and take pictures with. As she got older, she adopted a fondness for analog cameras over digital cameras.
At some point she met a girl named Chloe Price and the two became best friends. They spent most of their time together, drawing fictionalized versions of themselves in self-made comic strips; pretending to be pirates roaming their homes and the forests of Arcadia bay, constantly searching for treasure that would lead them outside Arcadia Bay. They regarded Seattle as a "far away island" from a fable and dreamed of going there.Max shared a strong rapport with Chloe's father, William Price, who also used an instant camera to take pictures of her family. Max visited the Price Household frequently, often sleeping over and having breakfast with Chloe's family. On at least one Halloween, Chloe and Max dressed up as pirates.
In 2008, Chloe's pet cat, Bongo had been killed by a passing car. Max helped Chloe bury her cat in the Price's backyard. That same year, Max had visited the Price Household to spend the day with Chloe and William. The two were working on their comic books and helping William fix pancakes when he received a call from his wife,Joyce. He took his car to pick her so they go shopping and was later killed in car accident.
Around that time, the Max's parents decided to move the family to Seattle. Max, despite realizing she would be moving away from Chloe, was excited by the prospect of living in Seattle. The fate of their friendship was left in question when Max moved away.
Living a comfortable life in Seattle, she made new friends (Kristen and Fernando) and worked on improving her photography skills. Eventually, despite the value of Chloe's friendship, Max fell out of touch with her. When she reached the twelfth grade, she decided to to apply for a spot in Blackwell Academy, a well-to-do private school with a photography class taught by Mark Jefferson.
During the middle of the Summer, she received a letter from Blackwell Academy confirming that she was accepted into the school. Excited, the Caulfield family helped their daughter pack her belongings. They bid her farewell and remained in Seattle, while she returned to Arcadia Bay in September 2013.
Wanting to settle into her new environment at Blackwell, Max avoided the idea of contacting Chloe at all. She made friends with Warren Graham and Kate Marsh, a quiet religious girl who believed in abstinence. Though was she friendly and got along well with the teachers like Jefferson and Michelle Grant, Blackwell Academy's Principal, Ray Wells, was suspicious of her regardless.
Farewell[]
Max Caulfield is the main protagonist in the Bonus episode of Before the Storm, which focuses on the early days of Max's friendship with Chloe. Max and Chloe went through Chloe's room cleaning it up. As she is helping Chloe with the cleaning, Max finds several mementos of their friendship. All the while, Max was worried, as she was going to move to Seattle in three days, as her father recently got a new job there, and she still had not told Chloe yet. Max can choose whether to tell Chloe or not. Regardless of her choice, Chloe cuts her off when she finds a cassette tape of a message she ans Max made years ago when they played pirates and mention an amulet and treasure.
Max finds instructions to find the treasure in a textbook, which includes a telescope. Max heads to the attic to find the amulet while Chloe goes to find the telescope. As Max searches for the amulet, she can explore Chloe's parents' room to find emails about Chloe being recently enrolled in Blackwell Academy with a scholarship and others from Blackwell's principal, Raymond Wells and Chloe's parents addressing their concerns about regarding an incident that Chloe was involved in at Blackwell. Max eventually finds the amulet and meets up with Chloe, who had found the telescope. The two then use the telescope to find the buried treasure, which turns out to be a time capsule made by Max and Chloe when they were eight years old, as well as a cassette tape from William Price, Chloe's father. Later, when Max and Chloe are looking through the time capsule, Max can play a message on the answering machine from a student's mother about the incident Chloe and her daughter were involved in. Chloe reveals that the student called her a scholarship kid and made fun of her clothes, which made her so angry that she turned on a bunsen burner near her. Here, Max can also try to tell Chloe that she is moving to Seattle again after finishing looking through the time capsule, to which Chloe reveals that she was already aware of Max moving. Shortly afterwards, Joyce Price, Chloe's mother, arrives at the house in tears accompanied by a police officer and tells Chloe and Max that William was killed in a car accident, causing both Max and Chloe to break down into tears over William's death. Three days later, Max attend's William's funeral with Chloe and leaves with her parents afterwards. Max looks out the back window of her parent's car with tears in her eyes to see Chloe and her mother in mourning as she and her family drive away to Seattle.
At the end of the episode, when Chloe and her mother return from the funeral and Chloe heads up to her room, it is revealed that Max left a cassette tape behind for Chloe to hear. When Chloe turns on the cassette to hear Max's farewell message, the content varies depending on whether or not Max told Chloe she was moving.
Life is Strange: Before the Storm[]
Max is physically absent in Life is Strange: Before the Storm and is only mentioned a few times by Chloe to herself and briefly to Rachel Amber. When exploring Chloe's room, many mementos of their friendship can be found. In Chloe's second dream, a disturbing picture of Max hanging from a tree can be seen in the journal. Scrawled onto the tree are the initials MC and the date 26th January 2009. While the meaning of this date is unknown, it can be assumed that it's the date when Chloe assumed that Max cut off contact with her entirely. In Episode 2, Chloe mentions Max when looking at an old restaurant sign in the junkyard, commenting that the two of them used to go there "all the time". Chloe mentions that she is more jealous of Max "than anything" when looking at the smashed camera in the junkyard. Later in Episode 3, Chloe continues to write unsent letters to Max commenting on her abandonment of her. During the nightmare, the journal shows that Maxine Caulfield is the writer and director of the play involving her father William being killed. Eliot mentions that he is the only one who cares about Chloe after the death of her dad and the loss of Max.
Life is Strange[]
Chrysalis[]
At the beginning, Max finds herself lying on the ground in the midst of a storm with a weird looking lighthouse in the distance. When Max reaches the lighthouse, she sees a massive waterspout heading towards the town from the cliff overlooking the sea. As it spins towards Arcadia Bay, it lifts a fishing boat and launches it towards the lighthouse, which begins to fall on Max. Max awakes in her photography class, thinking that it was just a dream.
Later in the girls' bathroom, Max encounters Nathan Prescott, who gets into a heated argument with a blue-haired girl about drugs. Nathan eventually pulls out his gun and shoots the girl in the abdomen while Max reaches out to stop him. However, Max wakes up in her class again and discovers that she has the ability to rewind time. The first action that Max takes is to save the blue-haired girl from getting shot by sounding the fire alarm. Coming out of the bathroom, she stumbles upon David Madsen, the Head of Security at Blackwell Academy. He demands an explanation of what she was doing in there but Principal Wells intervenes and sends David off. Max then has a conversation with the Principal where she can either report Nathan or hide the truth.
After the incident at the girls' bathroom, Max heads to her dormitory to retrieve Warren's flash-drive. On her way to the dormitory, Max encounters Victoria Chase, a well-known Blackwell bully whom Max can't stand and her two cronies Courtney Wagner and Taylor Christensen at the entrance. When they refuse to let Max through, Max has to soak them with sprinkles and then, when Courtney and Taylor move away, drop a can of paint on Victoria in order to enter her dorm. Max can either take a photo of her in an act of revenge or take the high road and comfort her, which makes Victoria a bit more trusting towards Max in the future. Once inside the dorm, Max finds out that her friend Dana Ward has taken the flash-drive. She heads to Dana's room but encounters Juliet Watson, who locked Dana in her dorm and refuses to let her out, thinking that her boyfriend Zach was cheating on her with Dana. To convince Juliet, Max heads to Victoria's room and retrieves the proof that the whole prank was set up by Victoria. Juliet apologizes Dana for trusting Victoria over her best friend and lets Dana free.
Inside Dana's room, she grabs the flash-drive from her desk. If she chooses to snoop around, she'll find a pregnancy test kit inside Dana's trashcan. Doing so however will upset Dana, who'll think that Max is being nosy. Max can rewind time and choose to ask her about her pregnancy instead. With flash-drive now in her possession, Max heads to the parking lot to meet Warren. Along the way, she witnesses Kate Marsh being harassed by David. Depending on whether she intervenes or takes a photo of it, Kate will either thank her or berate her.
While at the parking lot, Max is confronted by an angry Nathan who somehow found out that she was in the bathroom during the incident and accuses her of spying on him. The argument is broken by an oncoming pick-up, which happens to belong to the blue-haired girl from earlier. She immediately recognizes Max and tells her to hop in while Warren is distracting Nathan. The blue-haired girl turns out to be none other than Max's childhood friend, Chloe Price. In the car, they discuss about Max's lack of communication with Chloe during her time in Seattle. They head back to Chloe's house, which Chloe describes as "Home, shit home" and talk about Chloe's friend Rachel Amber and her disappearance, as well as what has changed in Chloe's life since Max's departure 5 years ago. Max's camera is broken during her confrontation with Nathan so she leaves Chloe to smoke and explores the family garage to find the tools to fix it.
After grabbing the tools, Max heads back to Chloe's room and attempts to fix her camera but fails to do so. As a compensation, Chloe offers Max her late father's analogue camera in exchange for the butterfly photo Max took in the girls' bathroom right before Max saved Chloe. They celebrate by dancing to loud music, but Chloe's stepfather, who turns out to be David Madsen, complains about the noise. Chloe tells Max to hide so she won't get caught with a friend in the room. Max will have to make a choice here - whether or not Max hides, whether Max will take the blame for Chloe or whether Max comes out of hiding or not as the scene plays out. Chloe's mood will depend on Max's actions where she can either be mad (if she blames Chloe) or thankful (if she takes the blame) towards her. Either way, the girls will leave the house together and head to the lighthouse.
Max sits with Chloe for a while before passing out in another vision of the lighthouse. She makes her way past the obstacles and finds a newspaper depicting the date of the tornado is at October 11th, 2013, which is that Friday. Max jumps back to reality and tells Chloe about her ability to turn back time and the oncoming threat to Arcadia Bay, after which it starts snowing in the middle of Autumn.
Out of Time[]
The episode starts in Max's dorm room where she's getting ready for the new day ahead. She heads to the bathroom and talks to Kate, who's extremely upset over a viral video of herself kissing people at a Vortex Club party. Max is presented with several choices. She can either be supportive and take interest in her feelings or be non-chalant and dismissive. Doing the latter will upset Kate greatly however. After speaking with Kate, Max grabs a shower and witnesses Victoria tormenting the poor girl, much to her dismay. Max heads back to her room and grabs Kate's book to return it to her. Upon returning the book, she discovers Kate's living conditions reflect her state of mind perfectly. Kate confides Max about what really happened at the Vortex Club party; She believes that Nathan drugged her and promised her that she'd be taken to the hospital, which obviously was a lie. Kate asks Max's help and opinion whether she should go to the police about Nathan or not. Depending on what Max says, Kate will either be grateful or upset about it.
Max heads to meet Chloe at the Two Whales Diner but is interrupted by Warren on her way, who asks her to see a movie with him at the drive-through. Max can either accept or decline. When Max arrives at the diner, Chloe's mother, Joyce, takes her order and the two have a catch-up while they wait for Chloe. Chloe chooses to test Max's new power by asking about the contents of her pockets, and Max proves herself by predicting the items in Chloe's pockets and the future of the diner inhabitants.
Before leaving the diner, Max receives a phone call from Kate, which she can either take or not. If she chooses to take it, Chloe and her mother will get into an argument and Chloe will be upset. Ignoring it however will have negative consequences with Kate in the future. They head off to the American Rust Junkyard, where Chloe spends most of her time, calling it her "home away from hell". Chloe tasks Max with finding five bottles and make a makeshift shooting range so that she can practice with her gun. However, before Max can have her turn, she passes out after over-using her rewind power.
Max eventually comes to her senses, but before the two girls can leave, they are intercepted by Chloe's drug-dealer Frank Bowers, who demands Chloe to pay her debt to him before the week is over. Chloe notices Rachel's bracelet on Frank's wrist and flips out, getting into a fight. During the commotion, Max can try to shoot Frank or not. The weapon will not fire however but Max's intent of shooting him will piss Frank off, saying that he will remember this. Eventually, Franks leaves with the promise of his money being paid, and the duo finally leave the junkyard for the train tracks. They talk about Frank, Arcadia Bay and Max's strange power. Their chat is cut short when Chloe's foot gets stuck in the train tracks with an oncoming train in the distance. In a race against time (or not since Max can simply rewind time if she fails to save Chloe before the train kills her), Max manages to save Chloe yet again and the two head back to Chloe's truck together so that Max can go to class.
After arriving at the school, Max is texted by Warren, who asks for her help in a science experiment. Before meeting Warren, she can sing up for the next Vortex Club party. After talking with Warren, Max heads to the art class but sees Kate and her teacher Mark Jefferson talking in front of the door. He is unsupportive of her and she walks away swiftly. Max tries to ask what's wrong but Jefferson takes a phone call, leaving Max hanging. In the classroom, she confronts Nathan and Victoria, who are sitting on her desk and then has a quick chat with Warren as he joins her and thanks her for helping him before the start of class. After Max sees Kate heading to the dorms from out of the window, the class is interrupted as there's something going on at the dormitories.
Max sees that everyone in the school has gathered in front of the girls' dorms and notices Kate at the rooftop, ready to jump to her death. In an act of desperation, Max manages to stop time around herself entirely and manages to reach the rooftop before Kate can jump. Doing so however exhausts Max as she keeps getting nosebleeds and her powers temporarily fail on her way to save her, meaning there are no do-overs with Kate's fate. Depending on Max's answers and her relationship with Kate (whether she was supportive or dismissive earlier; being dismissive makes it harder to save her), Kate will either live or die. No matter the outcome, Max ends up in the principal's office after the incident to place the blame on whoever Max thinks is most at fault for Kate's suicide attempt. She can blame either Nathan, David or Jefferson with each their own consequences. At the end of the Episode, Max and Warren are seen discussing the day's events and marveling at the unscheduled solar eclipse which appears over Arcadia Bay.
Chaos Theory[]
Max is seen awaking in her dorm room by the sound of her phone in the middle of the night. Chloe texts her about meeting to discuss what has transpired earlier that day. Before leaving the dorms, Dana, who's clearly in shock about the Kate situation, calls Max into her room to have some chat. After talking to Dana, Max heads out to Principal Wells' office to meet Chloe. She has discovered her step-father's keys and the two girls enter the school to find information about Rachel Amber's disappearance and Nathan's involvement in it. However, they quickly discover that the keys to the office are gone and they have no spare. Chloe attempts to pick the lock while Max rings Warren to find a rather more explosive solution. Following Warren's instructions, who seems rather inquisitive about Max's motive, Max grabs the components to create a small makeshift pipe bomb from the science class. After placing the bomb on the door, Max detonates it but it also triggers the alarm. Max immediately steps into the office and uses her rewind power to turn back to before the explosion and safely opens the door from inside.
She and Chloe search the office for clues and discover some interesting things. Max finds the files of several students. She notices that Nathan has a GPA of 3.7 and Victoria a 3.9, which Max finds unbelievable. Max herself has a GPA of 2.8 and Rachel has a perfect 4.0. On the computer, they discover e-mails from Nathan's father, Sean Prescott to Blackwell's principal, threatening to cut off funding if his son is not treated properly with a spotless record. They also find several disturbing drawings from Nathan, proclaiming "Rachel in the Dark Room".
Leaving the office, Max and Chloe head for a dip in the school's swimming pool. They talk about their friendship and the whole Rachel Amber situation as well as Max's power. Before leaving, they are nearly busted by the Blackwell security. The two end up leaving the school in a rush in Chloe's car. They head back to Chloe's empty house and stay there for the night since Max cannot go back to her dorm right now.
In the morning, Chloe lends Max some of Rachel's clothes since her own clothes reek of chlorine after the dip in the pool. After heading downstairs and helping Joyce with breakfast, Max is given a photo from Chloe's past when William was still alive (actually, the photo was taken right before the events of "Farewell") and explores David's secret files in his garage. Soon afterwards, Max and Chloe are involved in a fight after David comes home angry at the paperwork he had to complete due to vandals in the school the night before. Max is presented with another choice: Take Chloe's side and berate David for his behavior towards Kate and his surveillance addiction or be forgiving and supportive instead. Supporting David will make Chloe angry but berating him will cause him and Joyce to break up.
Max suggest Chloe to search Frank's RV next to find more info about Rachel. While Chloe searches for a food item to distract Frank's dog, Max talks to other individuals around the diner for information before entering the diner to get the RV's keys from Frank. Inside, she may talk to Nathan and Officer Berry before talking to Frank. Frank lays out the keys on the table but when Max grabs them, he tries to attack her. Max immediately rewinds back to before Frank laying out the keys and leaves the diner. Before heading to the RV, Max may choose to warn Alyssa before a passing car splashes water on her. As soon as Chloe opens the RV's door, Frank's dog darts out and tries to grab the bone on Max's hand. She may either throw it to the road or towards the parking lot. Choosing the former will cause the dog to get hit by a lumber truck and Max will regret that choice immediately. Inside the RV, Max obtains Frank's coded logbook and evidence of Rachel having an affair with Frank with the latter causing Chloe to become extremely upset and enraged.
On the way back to Blackwell in Chloe's pick-up, Chloe has a mental breakdown. She blames her misfortune on the death of her father, William, and her mother's marriage to David, and lashes out at Max for abandoning her. Later that day, Max is alone in her room looking at the old photo of her and Chloe and contemplating the past. Much to her surprise, as she focuses on the photo, she hears voices from the past and travels back to the time the photo was taken. In her thirteen-year-old body, Max is faced with the prospect of saving William and changing the course of Arcadia Bay's history. After hiding his keys to prevent him from picking up Joyce, which would lead to the fatal car crash, Max manages to create and alternate timeline.
Changing the course of time however had some grave consequences. Max is now a member of the Vortex Club, is friends with Nathan and Victoria, and has an overall less friendly personality as seen by her text messages to her parents and other less popular students like Alyssa. The biggest shock however is that Chloe is now wheelchair-bound and heavily reliant on her parents. She also has blond hair instead of blue.
Dark Room[]
The episode starts on the beach, as Max spends time with Chloe in the alternate timeline, where animal deaths and strange weather are also existent. She learns that Chloe was in a car accident; William gave her a new car for her 16th birthday and she was hit by an oncoming SUV, which broke her spine and causing her to become paralyzed from the neck down. It is also revealed that Chloe never met Rachel, probably due to Chloe not grieving and needing someone to talk to when Max left. Rachel is still missing in this timeline and Chloe was friends with a girl named Megan Weaver.
Chloe starts to feel cold and they head back to Chloe's home. Her parents have turned the garage into a ground floor room for Chloe with an adjoining bathroom. Max discovers that most of her friends have cut off contact with her after the accident and that Max herself was distant after moving to Seattle, despite sending a few texts, letters and a selfie of her on a road trip. Max's parents were also considerate enough to send a postcard wishing Chloe well after her accident. Chloe asks Max for a drink of water, saying that it's probably the most she's talked all year. Max can also wipe sandy tears out of Chloe's face with a tissue. Max comments about how "such a small grain of sand can cause such a big mess". Chloe then quotes a Chinese proverb and talks about the butterfly effect.
Max asks Chloe what she wants to do, and she comments that she feels like watching a movie like in the old days. When looking for a film, Max can explore Chloe's room to find some stuff that differ from the original timeline. Chloe's report card shows that she was a Grade A student at Blackwell before her accident. She also finds that Chloe was still a punk at heart as evident by the magazines lying around and has been collecting snow globes. Max puts on the Blade Runner DVD and the girls watch together. Max warns Chloe that she had better not fall asleep as she used to when they were kids. Ironically, its Max who falls asleep, while Chloe stays awake all night. Max wakes up and begins talking to Chloe again about their childhood, and how much Chloe appreciates her friendship. She begins to get a headache and asks Max to get her morphine injector from the bathroom for her. Her parents purposely keep it upstairs so she cannot get to it herself.
Max leaves the room and receives a text message from Victoria, who got worried after Max got up and left all of a sudden. She can also look at the old messages from that timeline, which emphasize on her friendship with the Vortex Club members and her being a disappointment for others such as her mother and Alyssa. Alternative Max also seems to be the polar opposite of the original one: She has a more outgoing but less friendly personality, is more of a troublemaker and involves herself in drugs and frivolous spending. Before heading upstairs to grab Chloe's morphine, Max can talk to Joyce and William, who are clearly struggling with Chloe's medical bills and hold multiple jobs. Joyce now has a second job in the new Pan Estates belonging to the Prescott family. However, they remain very family-centered and solely focused on their daughter and her well-being. A doctor's report in Joyce&William's room reveals that Chloe's respiratory system was gradually failing and she might not have much time left. Letters from the relatives of the Price family confirm that their troubles are significant and they are struggling to find financial help. Also, Chloe is truly alone now since no one ever came to visit her and Rachel was obviously not around since they never met.
Max can also discover that the family finally achieved their dream of going on a trip to Paris and that Chloe would have liked to go to school there had it not been for her accident. If she explores Chloe's old room, she can see that it's now completely empty with nothing but boxes full of Chloe's old stuff.
Returning to Chloe with the morphine, Max gives it to her to alleviate her headache. Chloe then says that she's well aware of how dire her situation is and feels that her time will come to an end soon, despite her parents not telling her about the doctor's report. She requests Max to increase the morphine's dosage to euthanize her and permanently end her suffering, keeping Max beside her as her last good memory.
After finding the original photo, she uses it to return to the moment in which she saved William. This time however, Max burns the said photo in the fireplace and lets William leave the house. She has a heartfelt moment of apology with Chloe who doesn't understand the situation, and the timeline corrects itself. Max ends up in Chloe's room and discovers that she and Chloe made up after the latter's sudden outburst earlier. They are now working together to find out the truth behind Rachel's disappearance and Kate's drugging and suicide attempt.
To proceed with their investigation, the two girls are going to need information from David, Nathan, and Frank. Max heads downstairs to check with David's garage for clues. If Max took his side during the fight with Chloe earlier, she will find him in his garage working on a surveillance camera and has the option to talk to him. David says that he's the only one who knows what is happening and all he wanted to do was to protect future students from ending up like Rachel Amber and Kate Marsh with his surveillance system plans. David ends the conversation by warning Max that she's swimming in treacherous waters now since she knows way too much of what's really happening at Blackwell. Max can use various methods to get David's files from his locker. She can enter a code from earlier or use a crowbar. After grabbing the photos, coordinates and files, she calls Chloe downstairs and they leave the house.
If Max was able to save Kate, the girls visit the hospital first with Max entering Kate's hospital room and Chloe staying outside. Kate seems to have improved greatly and is drawing illustrations again. The mass of "get well soon" cards and balloons seem to have encouraged her to get better. She talks to Max about Blackwell and Nathan. If Max brings Nathan into conversation, Kate will agree that Nathan has to suffer the consequences of his actions and the pain he caused her. She will also mention that she feels sorry for Victoria, who sent her an apology postcard showing remorse for her bullying.
Max and Chloe head to Blackwell with Chloe where she sees Jefferson and Principal Wells talking in front of the dormitory. After Wells leaves, Jefferson greets Max while she stands with Chloe. Max immediately acts shy around him, and this is noticed by Chloe who shoots her with an intrigued look. After she introduces Chloe to Jefferson, the latter asks why somebody as cool as her is not attending Blackwell. Chloe responds that she's too cool for this school and actually has files there to prove it. When Jefferson tells Max to come to the End of the world party, Chloe will say that she'll be there as "Max's date". After he takes his leave, Chloe tells Max that he's "Hot for a teacher", much to Max's displeasure, which - given Chloe's shocked glance at Max earlier - was likely said for Max's embarrassment. Chloe then heads off to talk with Justin about Nathan's whereabouts while Max talks to several students and faculty around the grounds. She learns that Nathan is off-campus, so it's safe to search his dorm.
While Chloe watches the door, Max starts searching for Nathan's room. If Max spoke to Kate earlier, she'll text him Nathan's room number, which is 111. She uses the nearby fire extinguisher to break into his room and can begin her search. If Max rewinds to undo the damage she did to the door, Nathan will not notice that she was snooping in his room. Nathan's room appears to be like something out of a nightmare. There are many disturbing objects in there which are unsettling, including the incriminating photo of Chloe, and Nathan's other tortured photography images. There will also be a photo of Frank's dog after he got hit by a truck on Nathan's coffee table if Max threw the bone towards the road earlier. After looking at his PC, Max discovers that he is close to his sister, who seems to have escaped the Prescott way of life and is highly pressured by his father to conform to the expectations of his family. His couch can be pulled away to reveal a bag with his phone inside. Max takes it and returns to Chloe.
As they examine the phone, Nathan returns to the dorm and flips out as soon as sees the pair. He tries to attack them, but Warren shows up and headbutts him. Nathan tries to pull out his gun, but Warren kicks it out of his hand and starts beating him to a pulp. Max can either stop Warren of do nothing. If she lets Warren beat up Nathan, she will think of it as the right decision but find Warren's behavior scary. If not, Nathan will get up and curse at them as he heads to his room. Warren will later thank Max for stopping him from stepping down to his level.
The girls leave the dormitory and pay a visit to Frank on the beach. Seeing the beach again blow Max's mind as she was just there with Chloe in the alternate timeline. They approach the RV and start a conversation with him. Frank initially shrugs them off after they ask for his codebook but eventually gives up and listens to them. Depending on how they conversation goes, there will be three possible outcomes:
- No one will get hurt and the girls will have both Frank's codebook and his well wishes, leaving on friendlier terms.
- If Pompidou was injured earlier, Chloe will either shoot or stab Frank in the leg.
- If Pompidou was not injured, Chloe will kill both Frank and Pompidou in an act of self-defense.
Also, if Max mentions Pompidou's name, Frank will say that he never told her his dog's name and attack her, which will result with Chloe either killing him and his dog or wounding him.
After obtaining all three evidences, the girls head back to Chloe's home to finally discover the truth. By selecting the correct evidence, Max is able to discover that Nathan visited an abandoned barn in the outskirts of town during the night Kate was drugged. The girls then head out to the abandoned building. Discovering fresh tire tracks, they realize that there was some recent activity there. Entering through a hole in the side of the wall, Max discovers a trapdoor on the floor of the barn. After using an old motor and rope-hook to bust the lock, she and Chloe enter down a flight of steps to a high-security door. After unlocking it, they discover the Dark Room.
Originally built as a storm shelter, the bunker is full of food and water supplies but was modified to look like a studio. There are many disturbing photos on the wall, some are enough to give Max nightmares. Most importantly, one of the cabinets contain several red binders with names written on each of them. All of them contain incriminating photos of drugged victims. The last binder is tagged "Victoria", meaning that she's the next victim. Recognizing the junkyard in one of Rachel's photos, Chloe rushes out of the bunker with Max coming from behind and runs to her pick-up. They leave the barn and head to the junkyard. They discover the spot on the photo and as they dig it up, they discover Rachel's body. While the body itself was hard to identify since it had been there for over 6 months, Chloe was able to recognize Rachel from her clothes. Chloe immediately bursts into tears while Max tries to comfort her. As Rachel's body is unearthed, the ghostly doe appears. After observing the scene, it fades out in reverence for the discovery of the body signifying the end of Max's innocence.
The "End of the World Party" hosted by the Vortex Club is in full swing when Chloe and Max arrive to find Nathan. On the way in, they meet Warren, who takes a photograph with Max "for prosperity". He walks off, and Max tries to catch up with Chloe in the party. After speaking to Stella, Max heads to the VIP section of the party to find Nathan. If her name was on the guest list, she can enter the VIP section without any problems. If not however, she'll have to sneak in from behind. Max talks to everyone in the VIP section but turns out that no one has seen Nathan or know his whereabouts. Since Nathan is missing from the party, Max talks to Victoria, which can, depending on Max's choices, turn into a meaningful conversation. Max is then presented with a choice to warn Victoria about the Dark Room. Depending on Max's relationship with Victoria, she will either believe Max or not (this is affected from Max mocking Victoria or comforting her from Episode 1). After talking with Victoria, Chloe shows up at the side of the room and says that Nathan is nowhere to be found. They decide to head to Nathan's dorm room but are intercepted by Jefferson, who talks briefly to the girls before getting on stage to announce the winner of the "Everyday Heroes" contest. He picks Victoria as the winner, and Max stops Chloe to stand and listen to the speech. She dedicates the award to Kate and leaves the stage to a mixture of cheers and boos.
As Max and Chloe head to the dormitory, they get a message from Nathan saying that there will be no evidence left once he's finished. Chloe panics and the girls make a run for it to the junkyard to check if Rachel's body is still there. Once they reach the junkyard, Max can do some exploration instead of following Chloe directly. If Max wrote her name underneath Rachel's and Chloe's in the hideout, her and Chloe's names will be circled with a message next to them saying "YOU'RE ALL GONNA DIE". Also, "Rachel was here" was changed to "Rachel IS here".
The two girls head towards the spot where Rachel's body is buried. Although they discover that the body is still there, Max gets drugged from behind and, before she can do anything, witnesses Chloe being shot in the head. She then sees Jefferson standing over her with a gun in his hand before she passes out. It is revealed that the true villain was Jefferson all along.
Polarized[]
Max wakes up in the Dark Room, tied to a chair with Jefferson taking pictures of her and tormenting her. If Max has warned Victoria and she believed her, she will be lying unconscious on the floor next to her. As he leaves, Max uses the photo she took in Jefferson's class to travel back in time. This time, she texts David Madsen and tells him everything about Jefferson and the Dark Room. Jefferson is arrested shortly afterwards alongside Nathan, preventing him from shooting Chloe and Max is awarded the opportunity to go to San Francisco and her photograph displayed in an art gallery. During the event, Max gets a phone call from Chloe, telling that a massive tornado is on its way to Arcadia Bay. Realizing that despite all her efforts, the tornado still exists and is about to destroy Arcadia Bay and kill Chloe, Max uses her photo on the display to travel in time and destroys that photo, which eventually leads her to sojourn alternative realities as they devolve into a dreamscape nightmare.
Waking up from her nightmare, Max finds herself in the Dark Room again and sees that Jefferson has burned her diary. If Victoria was in the Dark Room with her, she's no longer there and was killed by Jefferson. Before Jefferson can kill Max by overdosing her, David appears, having successfully located the Dark Room from Max's text earlier, but he's assaulted by Jefferson. Max uses her rewind power and warns David, which distracts Jefferson. After asking Jefferson for water (or to take her photo for the optional photo album), alerting David of Jefferson's gun and knocking down a light stand, David successfully knocks Jefferson unconscious and ties his hand from behind. He rushes over to untie Max from the chair and asks where Chloe is. Max has the option to lie to David or tell the truth about Jefferson having shot Chloe. David will become so enraged and upset if he hears the truth that he will shoot Jefferson dead in front of Max in an act of revenge. Otherwise, he will leave Jefferson be and investigate the Dark Room.
Suddenly, Max remembers the photo that Warren took of her at the End of the World party and realizes that it's the only photo that survived in the timeline which would allow her to save Chloe for one last time. Max grabs Jefferson's car keys and phones Warren, who says he's holed up in the Two Whales Diner. Determined to save Chloe, Max ignores Warren's warning and makes her way to the diner. On the way, she receives a voicemail from Nathan who sounds tearful and apologizes Max for everything he has done, such as accidentally overdosing Rachel and drugging Kate. He also says that Jefferson used him for his own machinations and is now coming for him and tries to warn Max that she is next. The voicemail was obviously left from before Max's capture by Jefferson and she saw it too late. As she makes her way through the debris, she can help various people like the trucker, Evan, Alyssa and the fisherman. As she nears the diner however, a trail of fuel from Frank's RV ignites and blows up the whole diner. Max immediately rewinds and uses sand from a nearby sandbox to soak up the fuel to prevent it from exploding.
Max enters the diner from the side door since the main entrance is blocked by Frank's RV. If Frank was kept alive earlier, Max can speak with him and if she wishes, tell him the truth about Nathan killing Rachel. Frank will have a breakdown after realizing that it was his own drugs that killed Rachel and also mention that his dog, Pompidou always hated Nathan for some reason. She can also talk with Joyce before speaking with Warren sitting by the counter. Max tells Warren about her time-travel powers and explains that the storm is actually the result of her messing around with time and space. Warren will then give Max the photo she asked for. Max has the option to kiss him if she accepted his invitation earlier. If not, she can either hug him or do nothing before concentrating on the photo to go back in time.
Going back in time, Max ends up at the End of the World party where she's outside with Warren and Chloe. Max immediately gives a very confused Chloe a hug and a dejected Warren excuses himself and leaves them to it. Max tells Chloe about everything she has done so far to keep her alive and even seeing her father William again, in which she ended up messing up various alternate realities. She also says that Nathan is dead and Jefferson hurt her but David managed to save her in time. Chloe tells Max that she believes her and Max warns her that in a few minutes she won't remember any of this conversation so Chloe has to make sure they both go back to her room and do nothing, explain everything to David, and let David handle things regarding Jefferson and the Dark Room.
Max finds herself on the beach with Chloe next to her. Chloe says that they left the party to avoid Jefferson just as she suggested but then the storm got even crazier and Max said they'd be safer at the lighthouse. Before they start their climb towards the lighthouse, Max passes out and finds herself inside Jefferson's class again. But this time, there's something horribly wrong with everything with birds flying towards the windows and splattering blood all over them. Soon after, everyone disappears and Max is alone in the classroom and the windows are blood-free. She notices that everything in the classroom has a more nightmarish look. As she tries to leave, Jefferson appears out of nowhere and asks her if she'd like to spend the rest of her life in his Dark Room. Max is presented with replies which she'd never say, like "I love you, Mr. Jefferson" or "Thanks for killing Chloe". When she says one of those replies, Jefferson disappears and she can leave the classroom. This time, she finds herself in the girls' dorm where the corridor is eerily lit with candles. Max approaches Kate, who's standing in front of her dorm room. Kate blames Max for saving her or letting her die and jumps into what looks like a bright white void. Max finds the key to Room 218 and follows after her and finds herself in the corridor again but is now dressed in Rachel Amber's clothing. The corridor is now filled with missing posters and the occupants of the rooms have different names. Max heads to Room 218, which is Rachel's former room and unlocks it with the key she found. As she enters, she finds herself at the dormitory entrance once more but in Victoria's body this time. As Victoria, she heads towards Victoria's dorm room. Upon entering Victoria's room, Max changes back to herself and sees that the corridor is now plastered with small polaroid pictures that were once part of her "Max Caulfield Photo Memorial Wall". She enters her own dorm room and suddenly finds herself outside Mr. Jefferson's classroom, leaning against the wall and observing her fellow students in the same manner as she did earlier in the week. Except this time, everything is backwards. Max heads to the girls' restroom like she did earlier that week and finds herself in a nightmarish version of the Zeitgeist Gallery.
Max encounters several individuals here like Jefferson, Principal Wells, Warren, Frank and Nathan, who are all out searching for her. Max has to avoid them and reach the lighthouse in the distance. Max uses he rewind power several times to sneak past them and, after finally reaching the lighthouse, sits on the bench and finds herself trapped in a snow globe which rests on the mantelpiece at the Price Household when she was last there, aged 13 years old. From here, she is forced to watch herself facing the fireplace as she burns the photo that allows William to remain dead in that timeline. The scene jumps back to the Dark Room where Max is tied to a chair again. She sees Chloe and Jefferson appear with Chloe posing for the latter. They disappear and Chloe appears again, this time with Warren. They joke about Max before kissing each other. The scene then transitions to Chloe and Nathan sitting on the couch together. Afterwards, Max sees Chloe dancing on the couch with her underwear. Then Victoria appears on the couch with a fully dressed Chloe, and Chloe says spiteful things about Max before they start kissing each other. Max then sees Chloe from the alternate timeline, who questions Max's rewind powers and if she even knows how to use them. Then the Chloe from the original timeline appears once again, this time taking pictures of Max and wishing that she never should have come back to Arcadia Bay and that she's the real storm.
Max suddenly finds herself in the Two Whales Diner with everyone gathered and begging Max not to let them die. Max encounters a doppelganger of herself, who's also the only person in the diner that can move. The "Other Max" berates the original one for her selfishness and accuses her of being Chloe's puppet, telling that she doesn't really care about her. Suddenly, Chloe appears and lambastes the doppelganger for trying to mess with Max's head. Max suddenly ends up in a gallery of memories which she experienced throughout the week. At the end, Max sees the lighthouse and after reaching it, finally wakes up from her nightmare. The two girls see the storm approaching the town and Max tells Chloe that the storm is her own doing. Chloe then realizes that it is because Max saved her from being shot and killed earlier that week. She hands over the photo of the blue butterfly which Max took before Chloe's untimely demise and tells her to finish the job. Max is now presented with the biggest choice of her life: Sacrifice Chloe to save Arcadia Bay from destruction or sacrifice Arcadia Bay to save Chloe for good.
If Max chooses to sacrifice Chloe, she'll use the photo to go back in time. Instead of intervening, she just lets Nathan shoot Chloe dead as she sits down on the floor with tears running down her face. This changes the timeline again, with all the events involving Chloe being changed: David will immediately arrest Nathan, Nathan is being interrogated by the police where he'll confess everything about Jefferson and Rachel Amber, which leads to Jefferson's arrest, discovery of Rachel's body and the Dark Room. After the changes are made, Max finds herself near the lighthouse alone with no sign of the storm or animal deaths. Sometime after the events, Max attends Chloe's funeral alongside Joyce, David, Warren, Principal Wells, Victoria, Kate, Justin and Trevor. Even Frank and Pompidou will are in attendance, albeit from a distance. The blue butterfly from before flutters down from the sky and lands on the coffin. Max sees it and smiles, knowing its significance and the part it has played.
If she chooses to sacrifice Arcadia Bay, Max tears the photo and throws it to the wind while promising that she will be with Chloe forever. Then they watch in despair as the storm annihilates Arcadia Bay, killing everyone. Max is unable to watch Arcadia Bay's destruction and cries on Chloe's shoulder while Chloe looks on. After the storm passes, Arcadia Bay is shown in ruins, with many buildings severely damaged and dead bodies scattered around as they pass through the town in Chloe's truck, still depressed over the casualties and destruction the storm has caused. The two girls finally leave Arcadia Bay behind to start their new life.
Life is Strange 2[]
Wolves[]
If you have chosen to sacrifice Arcadia Bay, it turns out that Max and Chloe have visited David in the desert community where he now lives and that Max continues to do photography.
Abilities[]
Photography[]
Max is a practicing photographer. Since childhood, she has practiced to perfect her skills using analog camera equipment, preferring "old school" over the much improved technology of digital cameras. She owned a prized Polaroid camera before it was broken in the altercation with Nathan Prescott. Her teacher, Mark Jefferson, often encourages her to put her skills out to the public, but her lack of confidence in her own photography often prevents her from submitting her photos for critique.
Unique Abilities[]
Initially unaware, Max learns during the course of the game that she has the ability to travel through time by rewinding it. The event, triggered either by the "nightmare" of the storm she experienced in class, or the death of her friend Chloe, allows Max to manipulates moments in time to work in her favor or in the aid of others if she so chooses.
When witnessing Kate Marsh's suicide, Max's desperation pushes her power to the point that time freezes completely and she can move freely. However, this ability leaves Max drained physically. Additionally, Max can use her ability to manipulate time to travel further into the past through the use of photos to alter the present.
Quotes[]
| “ | Wowzer! | „ |
| ~ Max's catchphrase |
| “ | Are you cereal? | „ |
| ~ Max in "Chrysalis" |
| “ | Ready for the mosh pit, shaka brah. | „ |
| ~ To Chloe in "Chaos Theory" |
| “ | I wish I could stay in this moment forever. (...) But then it wouldn't be a moment. | „ |
| ~ At the diner in "Out of Time" |
| “ | Max. Never Maxine. | „ |
| ~ To Victoria after waking up in the alternate timeline |
| “ | If that tornado came right now, I would just sit here and watch for a while. | „ |
| ~ At the Vortex Club party in "Dark Room" |
| “ | With great power comes great bullshit. | „ |
| ~ To Brooke in "Dark Room" |
| “ | The past... within the past. Ugh. Am I pushing myself too hard? | „ |
| ~ Between realities in Mr. Jefferson's class in "Polarized" |
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- She may have been named after Maxwell Caulfield.
- Max is quite similar to Homura Akemi. Both are young, withdrawn girls who gain time-travelling powers after the death of their best friend (Chloe Price and Madoka Kaname, respectively) and travel though multiple timelines in an attempt to save them. The main difference between them is that Max tries to help as many people as she can and is overall much more idealistic than Homura, who prioritizes saving Madoka over everyone else and can't grasp the concept of "good feels good".
See also[]
[]
 Heroes
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Life is Strange Life is Strange: Before the Storm Life is Strange 2 Life is Strange: True Colors | ||