Murphy Pendleton

Murphy Pendleton is the main protagonist of Silent Hill video game, Silent Hill: Downpour. In the beginning of the game, little is known of his pact except of the fact that he's a prisoner to be transferred into another prison. However, he makes an escape while the transfer is being held. As a result, he is chased by police officer, Anne Marie Cunningham.
He was voiced by David Boyd Konrad in Silent Hill: Downpour, and Troy Baker (who also voiced James Sunderland in Silent Hill HD Collection and Silent Hill: Book of Memories, Alec Mason in Red Faction: Guerilla, Snow Villers in the Final Fantasy series, and Joel Miller in The Last of Us series) in Silent Hill: Book of Memories.
==History==
===Background===
Murphy spent his childhood in an orphanage, which impacted him greatly. Murphy states that he and all the other orphans were extremely grateful for the nuns that ran the place. It is also known that he worked in a cinema as a juvenile, revealed while he is in the movie theater.
After he left the orphanage, it is implied that he was involved in criminal behavior (as seen in his thoughts on Carol), but eventually stopped, got married and had a child. Murphy was a happy family man, married to Carol Pendleton, and a loving father to Charlie Pendleton. They used to enjoy flying kites, playing ball, and Murphy taught Charlie about cars, a passion shared by both father and son.
Based on a Missing Child poster, Police Report and BOLO Alert, it is evident that Murphy and his family lived in or around Boston, Massachusetts at the time of Charlie's kidnapping and murder. However, other articles (Missing Child Article and Patrick Napier Article) inexplicably mention Brahms, leading to ambiguity whether the Pendletons lived in Boston or Brahms.
Murphy's life changed when his son was abducted by a lurking pedophile by the name of Patrick Napier. He was, unfortunately, a neighbor of the Pendleton's and showed a remote interest in young boys. Napier kidnapped Charlie, and then forced him into his van and drove away to a lake. Once there, Napier put Charlie inside a canvas sack, and threw him into the water, drowning him.
The loss of their child was too much for the parents. Blaming Murphy for her son's death, Carol divorced him, and sent him a letter telling him to never contact her again. Upset by the loss of his son and wife, Murphy's desire for revenge overwhelmed him. During a night in February, he hijacked a police patrol car and proceeded to evade arrest for ten hours before being stopped in Ashfield and arrested the next morning.
===Silent Hill: Downpour===
Murphy has been incarcerated for several years at Ryall State Prison after stealing a police cruiser. Seeking revenge for unspecified reasons he strikes a deal with George Sewell, a corrupted corrections officer, at Ryall. Sewell secretly grants Murphy access to a sequestered inmate, Patrick Napier, in the prison shower room. After reminding a confused Napier that they used to be neighbors, Murphy savagely beats him and the scene cuts to black before Murphy lands the finishing blow.
Sometime later, following a riot at Ryall, Murphy and a few other inmates are scheduled for transfer to Wayside Maximum Security Penitentiary. They are accompanied on the transport bus by Anne Marie Cunningham, a Wayside corrections officer, who seems to hold particular disdain and prejudice against Murphy. The bus route passes just outside of eastern Silent Hill. The road suddenly drops off into nothingness, forcing the driver to sharply turn the wheel, which sends the bus through the road barriers and cascading down the mountain.
Murphy regains consciousness in a forest next to the wrecked bus, and decides to make a run for it. Anne finds him in the wilderness and attempts to apprehend him, but slips above a deep ravine barely managing to hold on. Murphy may try to save her or simply do nothing, but either way, Anne still falls into the ravine.
Murphy continues on, winding up on the outskirts of Silent Hill. He meets Howard Blackwood, an eerily calm mailman. During their brief cryptic conversation, Howard tells Murphy that the roads are all out and that the best way to leave town is via the nearby sky-tram. Suddenly, Murphy glimpses a mysterious wheelchair-bound creature in the window of a nearby house. Apparently not seeing the figure, Howard excuses himself to go deliver the rest of his mail.
Somewhat confused, Murphy makes his way to the abandoned Devil's Pitstop. In the kitchen Murphy finds a gas leak and tries to turn it off, but accidentally starts a fire in the process. He activates the sprinklers to put out the fire but as the sprinklers fill the room with water, the diner transforms into a water-filled hell. Exploring this new environment, Murphy encounters the Void which rapidly sucks in everything around it. Realizing he can't fight the entity, Murphy flees and eventually finds himself back in the normal version of the diner.
Murphy surveys the area surrounding the diner and enters an abandoned motel finding a fellow prisoner, Sanchez, attacking what seems to be a helpless woman. Murphy intervenes, but the "woman" turns out to be a Screamer who then kills Sanchez. Horrified, Murphy attacks the monster and defeats it. He decides to explore further, eventually finding a change of clothes and a police badge. The badge is a mourning badge because of the black mourning band around it, indicating that its owner is mourning the death of a fellow officer. After changing out of his prison attire, Murphy plays the arcade-puzzle Jail Break, and gets a ticket for the sky-tram. This takes him to the Devil's Pit gorge in southeastern Silent Hill.
There he meets John P. Sater, a depressed former tour guide for the Devil's Pit's various attractions and tours. JP tells Murphy of an old railcar train in the mines that can take him into the main town. In the caverns Murphy discovers an accident article, detailing a train derailment in the Devil's Pit that resulted in the deaths of eight children. Soon after Murphy finds a suicidal JP, hanging over a lookout rail, and the player is given the choice to either console him or taunt him. JP will jump, regardless of the decision made. Murphy finds and powers up the railcar, but his ride through the mines turns into a hellish tour populated by Weeping Bats that try to kill him. The train derails, and Murphy loses consciousness.
Murphy awakens near an exit, but runs into a bloodied Anne who tries to apprehend him. Despite Murphy's pleas to cooperate, Anne remains adamant. While making the arrest, Anne inspects his person and finds the mourning badge. She becomes distraught, having apparently owned it. In a fit of rage she nearly shoots Murphy, claiming that people like him do not deserve to live, but is unable to bring herself to do it and breaks down into tears instead. Anne tells him to leave her alone, and Murphy reluctantly agrees.
Murphy wanders Silent Hill's main streets and encounters more hellish monsters. When it begins raining, he takes refuge in an abandoned building, where a nearby radio picks up broadcasts from DJ Bobby Ricks. Some of the broadcasts are song requests specifically made out to Murphy; others are quiet pleas for help from anyone who's listening. When the rain dies down, Murphy begins searching for Ricks and runs into Howard Blackwood. He tells Murphy that the WLMN FM radio station is located in the Centennial Building, before walking off again into the fog.
At the Centennial Building, Murphy has a vision of Ryall Prison, where Sewell goes over their plan to kill Napier and ominously tells Murphy, "You owe me one."
Murphy finds Ricks, who initially behaves in an unusually casual manner, but soon starts speaking in hushed tones as if somebody or something is listening in. Ricks reveals that he has been operating the radio station for a very long time, waiting for help. He tells Murphy of a boat docked at the marina, that they can use to escape the town. He goes on to say that they must first find the keys to his boat, which was apparently stolen by an intruder. When Murphy suggests hot-wiring the boat, Ricks says that it won't work as the town has "rules" that must be followed. Before they can leave, Anne walks in, and is once again determined to arrest Murphy. However, as an apparent punishment for Ricks breaking the "rules," Screamers ambush the studio. Murphy is left all alone, as the building shifts to a prison-like Otherworld. Murphy flees the Void, encounters the Wheelman again, and ends up falling off the exterior of the building's clock tower.
Waking up on a bench back in the Fog World, Murphy once again meets Howard, who gives him a letter requesting his presence at St. Maria's Monastery. Confused and frustrated, Murphy originally refuses to accept the letter, but after Howard explains that it isn't about what Murphy wants (suggesting that Howard knows more about the goings-on of Silent Hill than he initially let on), given no other choice, he accepts the letter and continues on. Murphy passes through the stormy town and arrives at the broken-down monastery, where a nun cryptically tells him, "You were the only family we were able to locate." She asks Murphy to look around the place, and to come to the building's morgue whenever he's ready.
Murphy finds the monastery in a very dilapidated state, and must take an alternate route to the morgue. On the way he encounters a small boy on the other side of a locked door. The boy refuses to unlock the door because he believes that Murphy is the Bogeyman, as he's been told by an unnamed crying girl. The only way Murphy can prove he isn't the Bogeyman is by reciting a poem that the children of the monastery's orphanage recite to make the Bogeyman disappear. As he treks through the monastery to gather the pieces of the poem, flashbacks reveal that Murphy's son Charlie drowned in a lake a few years ago. In the present, Murphy returns to the locked door. The real Bogeyman appears in the room and slowly approaches the boy. Murphy desperately struggles to recite the poem, but the Bogeyman kills the boy before he can finish. The Bogeyman then drops the boy and places a finger to the mouth of his mask, shushing Murphy, as he concludes the poem.
The door unlocks and Murphy approaches the boy, now in the form of his son Charlie. He mourns his death, but is interrupted by a young girl who accuses him of killing the boy. She runs, and Murphy gives chase, scared that the Bogeyman will get her too. The monastery transforms into the Otherworld during the chase, forcing Murphy to dodge the Void and at one point even the Bogeyman himself. Murphy eventually winds up in the morgue with the nun from the entrance standing next to a covered gurney. Murphy tells her that there has been a mistake, and that he buried his son years before. The nun replies that everyone grieves in their own way, and removes the sheet from the gurney revealing a "dead" Bogeyman underneath. Angered, Murphy cries that it isn't his son; it's the murderer, but the nun insists that Murphy accept him as his own, and calmly informs him of the perils of revenge and the path that Murphy has set himself upon by pursuing it. Murphy admits that what he did to Patrick Napier did not solve anything, but still attempts to rationalize his behavior. She simply says that the answers are right in front of him if he chooses to look.
Murphy notices a key with a silver keychain labeled "freedom" around the Bogeyman's neck, matching the description of Ricks' missing boat key. The nun tells him that they are his if he wants them, but only if he accepts the Bogeyman as his own. Murphy takes the keys, but the Bogeyman springs to life and attacks Murphy. They are both transported to a forest area by a lakeshore, where they engage in battle. Murphy gains the upper hand and defeats the Bogeyman with its own hammer. He then finds himself back in the morgue with the Bogeyman dead and unmasked on the gurney, with it's face alternating between those of Murphy and Napier. Charlie appears and congratulates his father on defeating the Bogeyman. Murphy tells him that it doesn't matter and that it won't bring him back, to which Charlie comforts him by saying that that isn't his fault.
Now with the boat keys, Murphy makes his way out of the monastery through the sewers and goes to the marina. He starts Ricks' boat and departs from Silent Hill, but Anne soon appears behind him with a gun, and orders him to turn the boat around and return to Silent Hill. She tells him that the town showed her things, that it knows her, and that the town won't release either of them until they settle their unfinished business. Murphy refuses to return, and tells her "You may as well shoot me.": Anne obliges.
A flashback shows a meeting between Sewell and Murphy back at the prison. Sewell reminds Murphy that he set up the meeting between him and Napier, the man who killed Charlie, and looked the other way. Now it's time for Murphy to return the favor to Sewell. Sewell tells Murphy that his job is to kill an unnamed individual, assumed to be an inmate, who "deserves it." He then explains that there will be a riot at the prison that evening, allowing Murphy to slip away to the showers where he will find this person.
Murphy wakes up inside a prison cell in Overlook Penitentiary, with the Wheelman sitting right outside the bars watching him. After a few seconds he wheels off and the doors open, allowing Murphy to explore the prison. He finds a floating note addressed to him, telling him to meet someone in the showers. Progressing through the prison and fighting enemies, Murphy eventually makes his way to the showers. Inside are four crime scene markers, indicating a pool of blood, a shank, a mourning police badge, and a bag of evidence. After examining all four, a voice calls out behind him followed by the glow of a flashlight. Murphy approaches the light which shuts off as soon as he nears it, and blood begins to seep underneath the doors. Opening them, Murphy finds another shower section with a bagged body lying in the center of the floor.
As Murphy approaches the body, the world around him transitions to the Otherworld. Murphy races through it, avoiding enemies and the Void yet again, and eventually reaches a large door with two giant Scales of Justice hanging before it. Murphy places the prison shank, the bag of crime scene evidence, and the mourning badge on one scale and the doors open. Inside, surrounded by platforms and prison cells, is a much larger version of the Wheelman who has been haunting Murphy throughout the game. The monster quickly becomes hostile and Murphy must run around the room, pulling out the monster's life support tubes to defeat it.
After the Wheelman is defeated, Murphy finds himself back in the showers with the feeble version of the monster's body lying dead at his feet. Anne enters, and is horrified at what Murphy has done. Confused, Murphy looks down and finds in place of the Wheelman's body, the body of Frank Coleridge, a friendly police officer from Ryall who had persistently warned Murphy about socializing with Sewell. A flashback reveals that when Murphy made his way into the showers the night of the prison riot, armed with a prison shank hidden behind his back, Coleridge was the one waiting for him. He tells Murphy that Sewell was supposed to meet him there, before noticing that Murphy is concealing something behind his back. Sewell enters the room and tries to convince Murphy to kill Coleridge and uphold his end of the bargain, while Coleridge attempts to talk Murphy into dropping his weapon.
In the present, Anne reveals that Coleridge was her father. She tells Murphy that he was a good man and that she idolized him, even following in his footsteps to become a police officer. After he was attacked, he fell into a vegetative state; having to rely on a wheelchair and life support until the day he died. Because at this point, Anne is unaware of Sewell's involvement in her father's murder, she tells Murphy that every time she looked at her father in his deteriorating physical state she only saw a monster: Murphy. Murphy then transforms into the Bogeyman before her as she describes how she had to pull strings, call in favors and do "sick things" in order to have Murphy transferred to the prison where she worked, presumably so that she could kill him herself. After concluding her speech she shoots Murphy, who then pursues her in his Bogeyman state. Depending on whether the player survives this encounter or not, along with the moral choices they have made throughout the game and whether or not they decide to kill Anne or spare her, the conclusion of the battle and Murphy's fate varies.
==Appearance==
Physically, Murphy has medium-length brown hair asymmetrically parted in the middle and brown eyes. He has slight stubble and a bloody horizontal cut on his right upper cheek. It is unknown how the laceration happened. If Murphy becomes injured, he becomes bloodier until he is healed.
Upon entering Silent Hill, Murphy is in his normal prison jumpsuit. However, in a bedroom, he soon changes into a light green buttoned up over-shirt and a black undershirt with blue jeans and black shoes. These clothes are identical to those he wore on the day his son died. It could be that the town is actually manifesting his clothing. He also wears a heavy belt that can hold his flashlightin.
He can later obtain another set of clothes if the player completes the "Stolen Goods" sidequest, consisting of a dark blue zip-up "Route 95" hoodie, a red undershirt and dark jeans.
In the final area of the game, Murphy automatically wears an orange prison jumpsuit that has the label "OP11-752" on the back. He wears this jumpsuit for the remainder of the game.
==Personality==
Murphy's personality is left largely ambiguous, however, as many aforementioned decisions of Murphy's (such as saving Anne and consoling JP) are left up to the player and ultimately affect the telling of critical events of Murphy's past. One must take this into account before trying to accurately understand Murphy's true personality and nature.
Anne's Story confirmed that Murphy choosing to try to save Anne from falling off the cliff is the canon choice, as well as the Truth and Justice ending. However, whether Murphy consoled JP is not revealed though the player can still get the canon ending if they did console him.
Considering the conversation he has with Howard Blackwood, it would seem that he is indeed a hardened criminal, but he is far from a bad-natured person and is really not looking to hurt anyone — that is, unless he needs to. Frank Coleridge believes him to be different from the other inmates at Ryall because of his good-nature and clean record.
He appears to be soft spoken, mild-mannered and even distant at times, much like James Sunderland of Silent Hill 2. However, also like James, he appears to have a darker side to his personality, shown at the beginning of the game when he brutally attacks Patrick Napier to the brink of death, despite his defenselessness and pleas for Murphy to stop. Murphy seems to have a great deal of pain, self-blame, self-pity, and self-loathing, caused by the death of his son. The real motive behind his actions is enacting revenge on the person responsible: Patrick Napier.
He displays benevolence and even nobility at times, such as when trying to save a Screamer (whom he thought was a woman at the time) from Sanchez's abuse. Perhaps this is a way to atone for his sins, or just to make him feel more like a good person. Murphy appears to think aloud or analyze things and talks when he wants, possibly as a way to assuage his loneliness. He is also shown to have trust issues as upon meeting Howard, he was blunt and did not shake his hand (although, considering the fact that he was an escaped prisoner, it was understandable.)
Murphy is also shown to have somewhat of a short temper, losing his patience when Howard and Bobby Ricksrefuse to give him a straight answer and in his dealings with the Nun. He is prone to frustration when confronted with many obstacles ("Where am I supposed to find a security card?!")
==Gallery==
Murphypendletonnew.png
==Trivia==
*In the E3 2010 trailer, Murphy has golden brown hair. In the final version, his hair is darker and with a different texture.
*In the early demo builds of Silent Hill: Downpour, Murphy's placeholder name was "Jack". His model's textures are named "Charles", also suggesting that was another possible name. "Charles" could have inspired the name of Charlie. Anne's concept name was Denise.
*Anne's Story confirmed that Murphy choosing to try to save Anne from falling off the cliff is the canon choice.
*Murphy is the second protagonist who can fight monsters using his bare fists, the first being Travis Grady.
*Murphy is the only protagonist known to be imprisoned for offenses committed.
*Murphy is the second protagonist to transform into a monster (The Bogeyman), the first being Alex Shepherd in the "Bogeyman" ending of Homecoming. Murphy is playable in his Bogeyman form as it is necessary and pertains significantly to the story.
*In Silent Hill: Revelation, Murphy's prison bus is seen driving towards Silent Hill, West Virginia.
*Murphy makes a cameo appearance in the joke ending of Silent Hill: Book of Memories. He appears in Cybil Bennett's police car. After Cybil arrests Trevor, he finds Murphy in the car, and asks why he was arrested. Murphy answers he doesn't know why, and then adds: "Lady cops just have it out for me, I guess...", in a reference to Anne Cunningham.
Category:Silent Hill Heroes
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Category:Horror Heroes
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Category:Pawn of the Villain
Category:Tragic
Category:Falsely Accused
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