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| “ | I've always felt alone my whole life, for as long as I can remember, I don't know if I like it... or if I'm just used to it, but I do know this: being lonely does things to you, and feeling shit and bitter and angry all the time just... eats away at you. | „ |
| ~ Simon Henriksson |
Simon Henrikson is the main protagonist of critically-acclaimed 2012 Swedish survival horror game Cry of Fear.
He is voiced by Stig Sydtangen from Moddb, who also voiced the titular main protagonist of the Source mod Grey.
Biography[]
Background[]
Simon Henriksson is a lonesome 19-year-old individual, plagued with severe anxiety and depression. Almost nothing is known about his educational or home life - something his doctor notes as topics Simon refuses to discuss. Simon has been known to self-harm, as indicated by the cuts on his left wrist. It is known that he lives with his mother, with no mention being made of a father or other relatives. His only friend outside his home appears to be Sophie, for whom he harbours a secret romantic interest.
Before the events of Cry of Fear, Simon was the victim of a hit-and-run, when he was pinned to a building by a car whilst trying to help an injured man late at night. While he surprisingly survived the incident, he was crippled from the waist down and was permanently confined to a wheelchair. This subjected him to further mental trauma and drove him into becoming reclusive and spiteful of his own life and others around him. Doctor Purnell was assigned as Simon's psychiatrist following the accident, and he made the decision to recommend Simon try a new form of cognitive therapy. Simon was instructed to write a book on his feelings and emotions, to get all the trauma out of his head. Simon set to work as instructed and the events of Cry of Fear begin - the events unfolding being a metaphorical depiction of Simon's mind and his inner struggle to purge his demons. The actions taken during the game highlights how the therapy unfolds within his mind.
Chapter 1[]
In the beginning of Chapter 1, Simon wakes in a dark alley in Stockholm, Sweden, equipped with only his mobile phone and switchblade in his possession. Unknown as to where he is, Simon explores the immediate area, only to find clues of a sort of conflict to be happening, clued by bloody messages written on the walls, inscribing concerns such as "help me". Continuing throughout the area, Simon is suddenly attacked by an insane, mutated man wielding a hammer. After killing him with his knife, Simon attempts to phone the police, only to have a failed signal in reaching them. Regardless of the issues surrounding him, Simon presses on.
He encounters several more men who attempt to attack him, and eventually comes across a deserted apartment complex. He receives an SMS message from an unknown number, telling him to hurry to the fourth floor so he could help the sender. Much of the apartment is blocked off, and Simon finds several disturbing notes from what seems to be some kind of deranged individual who delights in trapping, abusing and killing children who live in the complex. The deeper into the apartment Simon goes, the more creatures he begins to encounter, including bloodied children wielding knives, malformed women with blades in place of their hands and feet, twisted child-like creatures, and in the basement, eerie, floating women whose presence gives Simon an almost uncontrollable urge to kill himself.
While exploring, he finds the sender of the mysterious SMS - a man who is now dead in a bathtub full of blood with a bottle of pills next to him. He also finds a disturbing video tape showing footage of a man (seemingly the same man who wrote the notes located around the apartment) beheading another man with a pair of shears. Upon reaching the basement, he finds a tall, slim, humanoid creature wielding a chainsaw known as Sawer, which serves as the chapter's boss. Once Simon has caused enough damage to the creature, it decapitates itself, leaving Simon in a sickened state, causing him to vomit and pass out in fear and confusion.
Eventually, after escaping the apartments, Simon encounters a man wearing a gas mask. Threatened by his presence, Simon raises his gun towards the mysterious man, who quickly tells Simon that he is not "one of them", referring to the monsters Simon had encountered earlier. When Simon questions him further, the man says that he cannot trust him and that he doesn't know if Simon is real or not. He then flees, leaving Simon with the question of who he was.
Chapter 2[]
Simon travels through the town, progressing through an abandoned construction site. He eventually encounters the man beheading a man with a saw, cursing him for not telling him the location of a key he was seeking. Upon seeing Simon, he flees. Simon tries to chase him only to encounter a large creature called Mace, who swallows a key before lumbering towards him. After killing it, Simon retrieves a saw and cuts into the creature's stomach, retrieving the key to further progress. He uses the key to unlock a nearby decrepit door, only to come across a corridor which leads to a dead end. Upon turning back, the walls turn red, rusty, and bloodied. He progresses through the now warped corridor, sprinting as the floor gives way to a metal grating, with disembodied hands grasping up at Simon. When he exits the corridor, he is in a normal room, with no sign of what caused the nightmare behind him. After the nightmare sequence, there is a flashback to the hit-and-run accident, showing several police cars surrounding the scene.
Chapter 3[]
Simon continues further into town. Upon reaching Waspet Gardens, he receives a distorted phone call from an apparent stranger, who wants him to go to the rooftops of a nearby building. When he reaches the rooftops, he meets old schoolmate - and apparent love interest - Sophie. Simon frantically asks what is going on, but Sophie seems unaware of the city's chaos. Sophie steps off the edge of the building, leaving Simon in absolute shock. As he peers down, a deformed creature called Carcass is elevated up by chains. Simon screams at it, accusing it of causing Sophie's death. The player can then either choose to fight and kill it, or escape from it, ultimately impacting the ending. Simon leaves the building, but as he approaches Sophie's body on the ground, he has a flashback of him confessing his love to her, only for her to tell him to let her go.
Chapter 4[]
After Sophie's suicide, Simon decides to continue trying to get home, and heads for the subway station. The trains are offline and the main passage to the next station is closed off, so Simon proceeds through the ventilation shafts. When he reaches the next station, he finds the gas mask man, who shoots a man dead and calls him a "stupid psycho" before fleeing. Simon chases him, but finds the doorway he travelled through to the next subway station is offline, and to reactivate it, he must retrieve two fuses to power it. He traverses the town to find them, collecting one he found earlier, and the second by returning to the apartment of the child-killer.
After a disturbing, surreal experience in one of the flats of the victims (which is, in fact, Simon's own apartment), he finds the second fuse and returns to the subway. He passes through the active door and reaches the new station. The train there is functional, but in order to open the gate, he has to retrieve the fuses again. When back-tracking to get the fuses, Simon finds a secret passage, but upon entering it he finds himself in a twisted nightmare. A bloodied, twisted path leads through a seemingly empty abyss, the only things visible are cages filled with malformed humanoids, wailing as they harm themselves.
After passing through a door, seemingly escaping the horrors behind him, he finds himself in a padded cell, with four doors, his only clue being an abstract page entitled 'My Life'. After navigating through the puzzle, he finds himself in a twisted corridor with an open window on the floor. He drops through to find himself in a narrow, bloody maze, being pursued by Hangmen. As he finds the door to the exit, he has a flashback to his psychiatrist, Doctor Purnell, discussing Simon's condition, concluding that he was very lucky to still have upper body motion after the accident, but unlucky due to the paralysis of his lower body.
He also noted that Simon appeared to be a "deeply disturbed individual", whose issues existed long before the accident. After the flashback, Simon collapses to the floor, temporarily losing the use of his legs, but manages to escape the maze. But upon reopening the door, he sees only a harmless, empty corridor in front of him, leading him to the possible conclusion that he might simply be hallucinating.
Chapter 5[]
After escaping the nightmare, Simon arrives to the station that'll lead him home. After fighting through several Suiciders, he gets to his train, only to find that it isn't working. After checking inside the train, he finds an open, bloodied briefcase with the words "I want my foot" written in blood, as well as a sledgehammer. He takes it and breaks a fragile, crumbling wall and, after crossing a yellow door, he finds himself in another nightmare. After he passes through it, he retrieves a fuse to get the train working again. He boards the train to return home, and he hears a crash from the compartment behind him. Upon investigating, he finds that monsters have started to assault the train. He goes to the back of the train crossing through several wagons while fighting Spitters and, upon getting to the last wagon, he finds the foot and goes back to place it in the briefcase.
Chapter 6[]
In chapter 6, Simon is trapped in the crashed train, which is hanging off of the edge of a cliff, but manages to escape at the last minute before it falls. However, in the course of this, he loses his bag and all of his items. After the events of the crash, Simon must make his way through a dense forest, armed only with a tree branch and a lantern. He wanders aimlessly, encountering desolate houses filled with Crazyrunners, trees filled with hanging women, and gets chased by Sawrunner again. Eventually, he escapes into an underground passage, which leads to an abandoned insane asylum. He sees the gas mask man enter the asylum and decides to follow him inside, where he confronts him through a locked metal gate.
He tells Simon that he will give him the key to progress, if Simon gives the man his pistol back. If Simon refuses, he will still receive the key, but the man shoots him in the shoulder with a revolver, reducing his maximum health. If the player agrees to give him the gun, he thanks Simon for trusting him and gives him the key, but he loads the handgun and shoots Simon anyway, reducing his maximum health even further. Simon pursues him while avoiding droves of Psychos, eventually finding the man in the attic.
This leads to the two engaging in a gunfight. After defeating the man, Simon realises that the man in the gas mask is in fact Doctor Purnell, Simon's evil manifestation of his psychiatrist in his thoughts; Simon has a flashback where the "real" Purnell urges the paralyzed Simon to write a book about his feelings and anxieties, which is the cause of all the events of Cry of Fear. Blaming the doctor for what he had endured prior to confronting him in the asylum, Simon kills him by violently stomping and crushing his head, despite his plea for mercy.
Chapter 7[]
After leaving the asylum, Simon discovers that dawn is breaking. He continues on foot on reaching his home, rowing across a tranquil lake. When he reaches the other side, he finds a small abandoned shack, but upon entering, he is ambushed by Crazyrunners. He escapes through a sewer, finally emerging into his own neighbourhood of Kirkville. However, the streets are infested with monsters, and Simon must battle his way to his home. When he arrives, he finds that his house is empty, with no signs of his mother. Finally, he finds his book, where there are two possible outcomes depending on the player's choices throughout the game regarding Sophie and Purnell.
One of the first three endings will happen if Carcass is left alive, and/or Simon did not trust Purnell with the gun. Simon finishes his book, murders Sophie and/or Purnell, and commits suicide, depending on his choices earlier in the game. The game does not have the chase sequence between Sick Simon and Book Simon, and instead leads to Chapter 8, which reflects how the suicide occurs in his own mind.
Chapter 8[]
Chapter 8 leads to one of the first three endings, if Simon committed suicide; it is skipped if ending 4 is achieved. Simon awakens in his room, but there is a twisted abyss outside with flying book pages saying "SUICIDE". Simon progresses through, and ends up fighting with his true, wheelchair-bound self. Eventually, he breaks through to Sick Simon and knocks him out of his wheelchair, before beating him repeatedly then throttling him to death. This is a reflection of Simon's inner torment catching up with him and eventually killing him; murdering the weak and sick Simon is in fact his own committing of suicide.
- Simon fled Carcass and kept the gun from Purnell: Simon kills Sophie, then Purnell, and then himself. He leaves a suicide note stating that he would have killed more people if it weren't for his disability, and hopes that the people who find his body are haunted by it for life.
- Simon fled Carcass and gave the gun to Purnell: Simon kills Sophie, then himself. In his suicide note, he apologises to Purnell and thanks him for his help, explaining that he killed Sophie so that he could have her all to himself after failing to get over her rejection.
- Simon killed Carcass and kept the gun from Purnell: Simon kills Purnell, then himself. Simon's suicide note says Purnell's therapy only made things worse, and begs for Sophie not to know what he's done.
- Simon killed Carcass and gave the gun to Purnell: The real, wheelchair-bound Simon is preparing to commit suicide, but Book Simon (whom the player had been controlling the whole time) opens the apartment door. The real Simon chases after him in his wheelchair, slowly chasing him down and shooting him. The closing monologue reveals that he was experiencing a psychotic break, and shot two police officers who'd arrived at his apartment to check in on him. Simon is admitted to a psychiatric hospital for the rest of his life, where Purnell continues to look after him. Sophie, who since got a boyfriend, occasionally visits Simon. Hopeful about the future and finally at peace with his demons, Simon finishes his book.
There are also some other endings for players to find:
- Secret Ending: The fifth ending serves as a prequel to the events of Cry of Fear. This ending can be achieved if the player mails the "Secret Package" to the mailbox located by the college. Waking from the brute collision of the vehicle, Simon wakes up pinned to a wall with David Leatherhoff blaming his stoned state being the reason of the crash. This scene probably took place during the car ride in Afraid of Monsters: Director's Cut. Taking in the issue, Simon expresses anger towards David, uttering "What the fuck? You...?" in a memorial way, implying that Simon knows David. Simon then threatens David, saying he'll "regret this", which provokes David to run away from the scene.
- Co-op Ending: We see Simon coming to the aid of the injured man on the ground, but the police apprehend and arrest the driver of the car, thus preventing Simon from being crippled. Simon is then seen walking hand-in-hand with Sophie.
Quotes[]
| “ | Simon: What the? Sophie?! What the hell are you doing here?! |
„ |
| ~ Simon and Sophie. |
| “ | Purnell: Come over here, so we can talk... I want to talk. |
„ |
| ~ Simon and Purnell. |
Gallery[]
Models[]
Scenes[]
Trivia[]
- Simon's full name can be found on the Strange Package earned in Ending 4.
- Simon's first model is still found in the first nightmare sequence, when he punches the mirror.
- If Simon uses too many syringes at once, he will become dizzy from ingesting too much of the drug.
- One of the hurt sounds of Simon is in fact cursing; "Aaah... Fan!", which translates to "Aaah... Damn!"
- In a removed Easter egg, Simon finds a gold statue on a table very similar to one in Amnesia, named Stephano by PewDiePie.
- The co-op ending is the happiest ending in the game, with Simon and Sophie seemingly ending up in a relationship together and Simon not getting crippled.
- Simon is ambidextrous.
- When Simon dual-wields a weapon (melee weapon or handgun) with a non-lethal item (phone/torch/lantern/flares), he always holds the weapon in his left hand and the non-lethal item in his right hand. However, when wielding just one weapon or item, he always holds it in his right hand.
- The P345 is designed for right-handed shooters, so Simon would find it difficult to wield with his left hand.
- The back of Simon's hoodie is from a music festival called Freedom Music Festival.
- Simon's bag has some band logos on it, along with the word KVLT written on it. This may imply that Simon possibly listens to heavy metal music.
- The word KVLT is used mostly by metalheads to refer to old Black Metal recordings. This implies that Simon listens to Black Metal, possibly Black/Doom Metal given his depressive mood.
Licensing[]
This article contains content derived from the "Simon Henriksson" article on the Cry of Fear Wiki, licensed under CC-BY-SA.