Anne Marie Cunningham

"My father was a good man. He didn't believe in revenge. But I do.
 * —Anne, confronting Murphy"

Anne Marie "Annie" Cunningham (née Coleridge) is a corrections officer at Wayside Maximum Security Penitentiary in Silent Hill: Downpour and the protagonist of Anne's Story. She is one of the game's main characters and antagonists. She is the daughter of the deceased Frank Coleridge, who is believed to have been murdered by Murphy Pendleton. This explains her hostility and prejudices against him. She follows Murphy through Silent Hill, often showing up at the most inconvenient of times.

Anne embarks on her own journey of self-discovery through Silent Hill during the events of Downpour and her experiences in the Otherworld are unique to her character. Anne is searching for answers to combat her own personal demons which led her to Silent Hill.

Similar to Walter Sullivan, Anne's child form appears as a manifestation in the game, created by the powers of the town. She is a manifestation of Anne's hatred of Murphy.

Background


Her father being an officer played a strong role into Anne becoming one herself at Wayside.

Anne was married to a man named Mark Cunningham.

One day (years prior to Downpour), her father ended up in a vegetative state during a huge riot at Ryall State Prison after being beaten by an inmate. Anne looked after him, and this caused a rift between her and Mark. Frank spent years in a wheelchair as a vegetable. Unfortunately for Anne, Frank eventually died.



Suspecting Murphy Pendleton because he was apparently involved with the riot and Frank's death (despite the fact that George Sewell was actually responsible), and wanting revenge (murder) for her father, Anne slept with the warden of Wayside, Leonard B. Trent, for a transfer. However, word got out, and her reputation was diminished, ending her marriage with Mark. Anne never told Mark what truly happened because she had to keep her word to Leonard Trent. Anne was sent in a spiral of guilt and shame, but she got what she wanted: a chance to kill and seek revenge on Murphy. Eventually, the transfer to Ryall was successful.

Silent Hill: Downpour and Anne's Story


During Murphy's transfer from Ryall State Prison, Anne oversees his boarding of the prison bus and supervises the prisoners during their transfer. The road suddenly ends and the bus crashes. Anne and Murphy both survive the bus crash, and she begins relentlessly pursuing him through Silent Hill. Soon after the crash, Anne threatens Murphy with a gun and tries to apprehend him before losing her footing and grabbing onto a ledge above a deep ravine. The player is given the choice of trying to save Anne or leaving her to her fate. Regardless of the players' choice, she falls anyway. Anne's Story confirmed that Murphy choosing to try to save her from falling off the cliff is the canon choice.

Anne survives the fall and has a hallucination of M. Koons turning into a monster. She enters the Devil's Pit mines and finds a wheelchair and a nametag with "F. COLERIDGE" on it. Soon, Anne has a second hallucination of Murphy Pendleton beating a body, but it turns out to be Freddie Gates, one of the inmates from the bus transfer, beating Willis, another officer. Freddie points a gun at Anne, but is immediately killed by a Weeping Bat. John P. Sater comes to Anne's rescue from a hoard of Weeping Bats. Anne recalls Sater's involvement in the train accident causing the deaths of eight children and notices their ghosts on the train. Anne attempts to make Sater stop the train, but he tells her that the children will not let him. As the ghost children turn monstrous, they attack Anne and she wakes up in the train with no one else around. Anne then sees Murphy.



Anne forces Murphy against a wall and proceeds to search him, only to find her mourning police badge, which Murphy found earlier in his new clothes. Shocked by the discovery, Anne angrily asks Murphy where he got the badge, and states that "people like him" don't deserve to live. She positions her gun with the intent of shooting Murphy, but is unable to do so and drops to the ground. Anne then instructs Murphy to go away, demanding he leave her alone.

Anne sees the Wheelman, the manifestation of her father's memories, together with a Nurse. As Anne approached them, the Nurse stabbed at her. Devil's Pit shifts into the Otherworld. Behind her was a monster, manifested from her sexual experiences with Leonard B. Trent. She ran away from it and again, approached the Wheelman, which she told "him" that she was good and sobbed, lying on the floor.

At that time, the world instantly shifts back to the Fog World, and what shocked her was Howard Blackwood, who was suddenly beside her. As she looked around, what she realized that she was now in the town of Silent Hill. Howard told her that he knew all about the bus crash because of Murphy, who told him. He also told her that he was going to the radio station in the Centennial Building, other than to be cautious about the "rain" which was about to come. Before Anne could ask him further, he disappeared. Anne then heads to the radio station, which foreshadowed her third encounter with Murphy, together with Bobby Ricks.

Anne makes her way into the WLMN FM station, interrupting a conversation between Murphy and Bobby Ricks over finding a way out of town. Anne once again draws her gun on Murphy and asks Bobby to hand her his phone, only to realize that it doesn't work. Seconds later, a pack of Screamers ambushes the radio station, splitting the group up.

Meanwhile, in Murphy's perspective, young Anne appears very briefly in the Centennial Building Otherworld, running across a bridge above the water slide. Soon afterward, the adult Anne is seen running across a second bridge.

Young Anne is seen at St. Maria's Monastery towards the end of the visit, but is alluded to when Murphy encounters the manifestation of his son Charlie. He claims she is "always crying" and "knows things", and also believes that Murphy is the Bogeyman and warns the boy not to go anywhere near him. She also tells the boy that Murphy killed his son. Murphy often sees her wandering around the monastery before running away from him and locking the door behind her, sometimes laughing or gasping in the process. On one instance she can be seen sitting in a chair and singing the nursery rhyme "Itsy Bitsy Spider".



After the boy is killed by the Bogeyman, Murphy mourns his death and calls out Charlie's name, realizing the boy represents his son. Young Anne finds the two and screams, accusing Murphy of killing the boy before running off in terror. Murphy chases after her, fearing that the Bogeyman will kill her too. He eventually finds her in the monastery's loft, tending to the Wheelman. Murphy approaches them and tries to save the girl from the creature, but the floor beneath him breaks and he falls.

Back in Anne's perspective, Anne and DJ Ricks found themselves in a large hanging cage, in front of the clock of the Centennial Building, with Screamers approaching. In the cage, Screamers appear and kill Bobby Ricks. The cage falls into Toluca Lake.



As Murphy leaves Silent Hill on a speedboat, Anne appears behind him holding a gun to his head and orders him to turn around. Murphy refuses and tries to convince Anne that going back is not in either of their best interests. Anne states that they have unfinished business, and that their presence in Silent Hill is not coincidental—the town "knows her," and it "showed her things," and it won't let them go until they "finish what they started". Murphy still refuses to turn around and adamantly tells her that she will have to shoot him. Anne obliges.



However, lightning strikes the boat and Anne falls into the lake again. She wakes up in Overlook Penitentiary and sees the Bogeyman by Frank Coleridge's body. She has a flashback of the riot which left her father in a vegetative state and finds Murphy.



Anne claims that Coleridge was a good man while reprimanding Murphy for his actions. Anne readies her gun once more to shoot Murphy and avenge her father, explaining how she had to take care of Coleridge, who was left a vegetable after Murphy's alleged attack. She says that when she looked at him, she could only see a monster: Murphy Pendleton. Anne then reveals that she is Coleridge's daughter and gives a brief eulogy for her father, stating how he was a benevolent person who cared a great deal about other people and how she looked up to and respected him. In this instance, Murphy transforms before her eyes into the Bogeyman. Anne elaborates on how she had to pull strings, call in favors, and do "sick things" in order to have Murphy transferred to her prison, presumably so that she could kill him herself. Anne finally pulls the trigger and shoots Bogeyman Murphy.

In the game, there is a boss battle between the player (as Bogeyman Murphy) and Anne. The player can opt to save Anne or kill her, resulting in different endings.

In the canon Truth and Justice ending, however, through a spiritual flashback (Coleridge appears as a spirit and tells her, "Annie, please... wake up."), it is revealed that while Murphy was present when Frank was beaten into his wheelchair-bound state, it was actually George Sewell who beat Frank and left him in his vegetative state.

Fate

 * Forgiveness - After Bogeyman Murphy decides to spare her, he reverts back to his original human form and Anne forgives him, realizing that he is innocent and was not, in fact, her father's killer. The two embrace, and reappear at a serene lake shore, back in reality. The police contact Anne via radio and ask her for her location and whether or not she knows the whereabouts of Murphy Pendleton. Anne lies for Murphy and tells them that he died in the accident. She then tells Murphy that he'd "better go" before the police arrive, and the scene ends with Anne looking out over the lake at the clear skies after the storm.


 * Truth and Justice - After Bogeyman Murphy decides to spare her, he reverts back to his original human form and Anne forgives him, realizing that he is innocent and was not, in fact, her father's killer. The two embrace, and reappear next to the crashed bus, back in reality. Murphy tells Anne that he must leave before the police arrive on the scene. Anne thanks Murphy for telling the truth, and the two bid each other farewell. Later on, back at Ryall Prison, Anne, having figured out that Sewell was the person truly responsible for Coleridge's death, confronts him in his office so that the two can "have a little talk." She's holding a loaded gun behind her back, and the scene fades to black, implying that she took her revenge and murdered Sewell. The epilogue of Anne's Story confirmed that this is the canon ending but does not reveal what happens to Anne after her confrontation with Sewell, but heavily implies she murdered him because she believes in revenge.
 * Full Circle - Bogeyman Murphy decides to execute Anne and crushes her head with his sledgehammer, instantaneously killing her. Murphy reappears in his cell with the Wheelman outside the door, having come Full Circle.
 * Execution - Bogeyman Murphy decides to execute Anne and crushes her head with his sledgehammer, instantaneously killing her. Murphy is then seen on a gurney about to be executed for the murders of his son and Frank Coleridge; Anne is unseen and not mentioned.


 * Reversal - Anne shoots and kills Bogeyman Murphy. She then wakes up in a cell within Ryall State Prison. This ending appears to be a recreation of the intro scene, but this time, Anne replaces Murphy (including the green jumpsuit), and instead of Officer Sewell, Murphy appears in his place. She has come Full Circle (in this case sentenced to another journey to Silent Hill) for embracing vengeance instead of forgiveness.
 * Surprise! - Anne is one of the guests at Murphy's surprise birthday party.

Quotes

 * "I wanna beat up the bad guys everyday just like you do. Pow!" (Young Anne to Frank)
 * "Shut the hell up! I said lock it up, damn it!" (to Sanchez)
 * "Stop right there! And just where were you planning on going? This whole thing's turned into a friggin' mess." (to Murphy in a trailer)
 * "That's far enough! Get your ass down on the ground, NOW."
 * "Hands where I can see 'em. Do it!"
 * "And you just happened to lose your cuffs in the process? Save the bullshit!"
 * "Dammit, Koonts. You had ONE job: drive. Just drive. How the hell'd you fuck THAT up so badly? What the FUCK?!"
 * "You heartless bastard. You don't deserve to live. You're not fit to walk this earth while good, decent men..."
 * "You think this is funny, don't you? Well let's see how funny it is with a fucking BULLET in your head."
 * "AHHH! Why did you hurt him? He never did anything to you!" (Young Anne to Murphy about the dead boy)
 * "This town... It KNOWS me... It showed me things. It wants me to finish this. Don't you understand? It'll never let us go until we finish what we started. What YOU started."
 * "You know, he was a great man, my dad. Didn't matter who you were... family, friends, even prisoners, he treated everyone with respect, always looking for the positive side of people. I wanted to be just like him..."
 * "He didn't die right away, you know. After you were done beating the life out of him, he spent years in that wheelchair, a... a fucking vegetable! Did you know that? And I had to watch this... this wonderful man, shit and piss all over himself, day after day after day. And every time I looked at him, you know what I saw? I saw a monster. I saw you."
 * "Die you son of a bitch!" (to the Bogeyman)
 * "Murphy, wait. Thank you... for the truth."

Trivia

 * Murphy's comment on Anne is "Why is she so angry with me? She's not the abusive guard type who is turned on by bullying inmates. No, she doesn't enjoy it at all, and yet no guard has ever pointed a gun at me the way she did."
 * Young Anne's appearance was changed during production. In the debut trailer, she wore a red dress and had dark brown hair, but in the final game, she wears a gray-green dress and has lighter shade of brown hair, which is also styled differently.
 * It is possible that young Anne was originally supposed to be the same character as the missing girl on the milk carton in the "Ribbons" side-quest due to how she looked in the debut trailer.
 * According to Tomm Hulett, Downpour was originally intended to be a co-op game with Anne being the second player; however, this idea was scrapped due to time constraints. This would have made it similar to Resident Evil Zero, a survival horror game with a female officer and a male prisoner working together to survive.
 * Something notable and odd is that even after Mark left Anne, she kept his surname Cunningham instead of reverting back to Coleridge. There is no official explanation as to why this is. It could be theorized that if Anne changed her surname to Coleridge, Murphy would discover she's related to Frank, suspect she plans revenge, and he would prepare to refrain from any possible situation where he is in a one-on-one confrontation with her. Of course, it's also possible Anne simply got used to the surname Cunningham.




 * In Anne's Story, Anne and Mark Cunningham are seen in a house or apartment that looks very similar to Room 302, possibly implying that they moved into Room 302 after Henry Townshend, or lived in South Ashfield Heights at the least. This would give an in-universe basis and reason for Room 302 manifesting itself in Downpour - a part of Anne's Otherworld.
 * Anne is the fourth human enemy to be fought in the Silent Hill franchise, after Eddie Dombrowski, Curtis Ackers, and the Order Soldiers.
 * Her name may be a reference to fictional character Walter Cunningham in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird. In the book, Walter forms a mob to hang an innocent convict the day before his trial, but realizes that the man could be innocent and disbands the mob, similarly to how Anne initially believes that Murphy killed her father and, in certain endings, she realizes he didn't.
 * Her name is possibly based on Arnold Cunningham from the movie Christine. The Silent Hill series often references Stephen King and his work.




 * Her name may alternately be a reference to Chris Cunningham, who directed a music video for musician Aphex Twin called Rubber Johnny. This video has been stated as an influence on the game; the Wheelman boss representing Anne's father is heavily based off the humanoid featured in the video.
 * Anne's model textures are named "Denise", suggesting that was her concept name.
 * Anne's uniform could be purchased in the now-defunct PlayStation Home.

Anne's Story
ენ მერი კანინგჰემი Энн Мэри Каннингем Anne Cunningham