Return to Silent Hill

Artist James Sunderland has a chance meeting with Mary Crane as she is leaving her hometown of Silent Hill. When he inadvertently causes her to miss a bus, she decides to go back. James offers her a ride, and they spark a romance, eventually moving in together in Silent Hill.

Years later, James has moved away and become an alcoholic following the end of his relationship with Mary, while a concerned psychologist attempts to rehabilitate him. He receives a letter from Mary urging him to come back to Silent Hill, and he hastily returns. Upon arrival, he discovers that the town is covered in fog and falling ash, and has been almost entirely abandoned due to an unspecified illness that killed many. He meets a woman named Angela and is later attacked by a monstrous entity.

The town transforms into a twisted, unearthly version of itself and James is forced to flee to the Wood Side Apartment building where he and Mary once lived. Inside, he meets a violent and mentally-unstable man named Eddie and a young girl named Laura. James learns that Mary was taken to Brookhaven Hospital and then encounters a ghoulish figure known as Pyramid Head who frightens Eddie away. After a tense encounter with Pyramid Head, James wakes up back in the "real" Silent Hill where he again encounters Angela and Laura; Laura claims that she knows Mary.

While chasing Laura, James meets a woman named Maria who looks near identical to Mary and offers to tag along with him to Brookhaven. Along the way, James recalls several memories where he witnessed Mary's involvement with a cult operating in Silent Hill, one founded by her father. After seeing her being drugged and taking part in an arcane ritual, he and Mary broke up, abandoning her in Silent Hill.

Shortly after arriving at the hospital, Maria discovers an audio tape explaining that Mary was poisoned and left with permanent injuries. The hospital transforms into a nightmarish version of itself and Maria is stabbed by a grotesque nurse mid-escape. James momentarily leaves her and is lured into a room by Laura where he encounters a giant, monstrous moth-like version of Mary.

James suddenly awakens in Brookhaven where his psychologist explains that Mary died shortly after their breakup, and he has become delusional and obsessed with "saving her". The hospital transforms back into the Otherworld and James is able to deduce that Maria isn't real but actually a doppelgänger of Mary. He finds himself in a gallery made up of dozens of paintings of Mary and declares that he doesn't need Maria anymore. Pyramid Head suddenly appears behind Maria and kills her; James briefly sees a version of himself under Pyramid Head's mask.

James awakens outside of the Lakeview Hotel, which he and Mary used to frequent. Inside, he encounters Laura, who explains that she, Maria and Angela are all figments of James' imagination based on aspects of Mary's personality and life. James also sees a vision of Angela being attacked and enveloped by a ferocious monster resembling Mary's father.

James makes it to the roof of Lakeview Hotel, where he has a final flashback. James recalls that he returned to Silent Hill several months prior to find Mary dying of a prolonged illness caused by the cult drugging her; Mary asked for a mercy killing to end her incurable suffering, and James smothered her to death. The moth-like version of Mary appears before James and he tearfully apologizes to her. It transforms back into Mary's body.

James places Mary's body in his car and drives off a pier in an apparent suicide. He suddenly wakes up in the moment where he and Mary met, and relives their first encounter. However, this time he chooses not to take her back to Silent Hill, instead driving away with her.