Halloween H20: 20 Years Later - Plot

Plot

Twenty years after the events of Halloween II, Marion Chambers Whittington (Nancy Stephens), Dr. Sam Loomis's colleague, returns to her home in Langdon, Illinois on October 29, 1998 to find it has been burgled. Before entering, she runs next door and lets her two teenage neighbors know that someone has ransacked her house. When arriving, Marion gets shaken up when she gets scared by one of the teens, Jimmy Howell (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) for he pops out in front of her wearing a hockey mask. Jimmy searches Marion's house, but finds nothing and Marion decides to wait for the police in her house alone. While in her house, Marion discovers her file on Laurie Strode (Michael Myers' sister who escaped the attacks twenty years earlier) missing and finds someone is still in her house and immediately rushes over to her neighbors house. When she arrives, she finds both teenagers murdered. The killer, Michael Myers, (Chris Durand), attacks her. After a brief confrontation with Marion, he manages to kill her. The police arrive as Michael leaves the house with the file on Laurie Strode.

Two days later on Halloween, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) awakens from a nightmare. Since 1978, she has tried to get to get her life together with the hope that Michael would never come after her again. To make sure that didn't happen, she faked her death in an auto accident relocated to Northern California under the assumed name "Keri Tate". Under her new identity, Laurie has a seemingly perfect life with a son, John (Josh Hartnett), a boyfriend, Will (Adam Arkin), and a great career as headmistress at Hillcrest Academy High School, a private boarding school. However, Laurie/Keri is far from happy. The tragic events from 1978 still haunt her and adversely affect her parental capabilities. To everyone, including Laurie's school secretary Norma Watson (Janet Leigh) this is "just another Halloween", however, Laurie still lives in constant fear from the attacks from twenty years ago, and partially believes that her brother is still alive and will one day return.

Later on that day, Michael manages to find her using the file, and starts stalking the school grounds. As school lets out for the weekend, most of the students leave for a weekend getaway and Laurie runs into Norma in the parking lot while she is leaving, wherein Norma gives her some motherly advice and tells her to "concentrate on today" Later that evening, John and his classmates are having an intimate Halloween Party in the basement when John's classmate, Charlie (Adam Hann-Byrd), goes to get a corkscrew and is attacked and killed by Michael. When Charlie's girlfriend, Sarah (Jodi Lyn O'Keefe), (who had been waiting on the next floor down) goes looking for him, she finds his body and is attacked. She climbs into the elevator to save her life but as she climbs out, Michael tries to bring the elevator down by cutting the rope, and it falls on her and partially severs her leg. Michael then heads up to the floor she is on and kills her as well. When John and Molly (Michelle Williams) (who had heard the elevator crash) go looking for their classmates, they find Sarah's body hanging in a pantry and are chased by Michael through the school grounds and John gets stabbed in the leg. Just as Michael is about to get Molly and John, they are saved by Laurie and Will, who open the door for them just in time, and just as the door closes Laurie and Michael come face to face for the first time since their last encounter twenty years earlier. Laurie and Will hide the kids and decide to try to kill Michael.

When Will sees a shape approaching from the far end of the hall, he takes Laurie's pistol (which she had secretly kept under her pillow at home during all this time) and shoots the shape five times, only to discover that it was the school's security guard, Ronny (LL Cool J). The real Michael then appears and kills Will. Laurie, Molly and John escape but she tells them to go for help while she chooses to go back to the school with a fire axe from the security house to challenge Michael in a fight to the death. She finds him and attempts to kill him several times, and finally after stabbing him multiple times, he topples over a balcony, similar to the first film. She approaches his body and pulls one of the knives out of his chest. She slowly raises the knife high above her head, preparing to bring it down on Michael and kill him, but before she can deliver the final blow, Ronny suddenly appears, apparently having survived the accidental shooting (the bullet had only grazed his head), and grabs her. He manages to restrain her from attacking the seemingly dead Michael and drags her out of the cafeteria.

The police come and put Michael's corpse in a body bag, loading it into a coroner's van. Laurie, knowing that Michael is incredibly hard to kill and not believing that he is really dead, grabs the axe from earlier and an officer's pistol and steals the coroner's van with Michael's body in the back. While driving away, Michael sits up and escapes the body bag, trying to kill her again. She slams on the brakes, throwing him through the windshield. She then tries unsuccessfully to run him over. The vehicle tumbles down a cliff but she escapes, while Michael gets trapped between it and a tree. Laurie recovers the axe and walks to where he is pinned. He reaches out to her, apparently seeking forgiveness and compassion. At first it seems she will accept this, and begins reaching out to him, but then she slowly pulls her hand back and with one swing decapitates Michael, finally killing him. Michael's head, still concealed by the mask, rolls down the hill. Laurie exhales, as sirens are heard approaching from the distance.