Max Caulfield

Origin

Maxine Caulfield was born in 1995 and is the only child of Ryan and Vanessa Caulfield. Her best-friend while growing up in Arcadia Bay, Oregon was Chloe Price. The pair of them were nearly inseparable as kids. However, shortly after the death of Chloe's father, Max's parents uprooted and moved to Seattle. She lost touch with Chloe for five years as she cultivated her love of photography.

In 2013, Max was drawn to move back to Arcadia Bay for her senior year at Blackwell Academy to attend the photography class of the renowned photographer Mark Jefferson. During much of her time back in her hometown, she troubled over building the courage to get back in touch with Chloe and face the consequences of her years of neglect.

Creation

Max Caulfield is the main protagonist from the Life is Strange game franchise developed by DONTNOD Entertainment and published by Square Enix. Max's first appearance was in Life is Strange - Episode 1: Chrysalis which was originally released digitally to PSN, XBox Live, and Steam on January 29, 2015.

She is voiced by Hannah Telle in the English production, voiced by Kumi Tanaka (たなか久実, Tanaka Kumi) in the Japanese version, and motion capture was performed by Serena de Mouroux.

Character Evolution

While character interaction and relationships can be altered by the choices of the main player, Maxine Caulfield, some plot developments remain set throughout this episodic game.

As the source of power in the game, Max can quite literally shape her relationship with nearly all the characters of the game through actions and words. If the outcome of many events aren't to the player's liking, they could simply rewind time to sample different realities. No actions are truly set until the player leaves a scene. This could be attributed to either an interest to truly help others or the character's desire to not upset others with their actions. The designers appeared to have taken this into account, as some potentially helpful events can have either positive or negative results down the line.

As events of the story unfold, many of the characters in the later episodes remark on the noticeable change in Max over the past few days. Often noting her raise in self confidence and bravery.

The sexuality of Max is left as ambiguous and fluid to the player's choice. She does begin the story with a rather apparent crush for her photography teacher, but there are two main romance options left open to the player. One being Warren Graham, by accepting many of his offers, and the second option is Chloe Price. In Episode 3, Chloe dares Max to kiss her, and the two will kiss again if the player has neglected Warren and chose the Sacrifice Chloe ending, providing they also accepted the earlier dare.

Major Story Arcs

(Note: Since "Life is Strange" is a story-based game where player choices and time alteration are major factors to the plot, there is no singular story line of any individual character. There are still some plot elements that will remain as constant.)

Life is Strange - Season 1

Episode 1: Chrysalis

Max wakes up in class from a terrible dream of a monstrous storm crashing into Arcadia Bay. Later while in the girls bathroom, Max is surprised when Nathan Prescott bursts in while she was taking a photo of a blue butterfly in the corner. He's followed by a blue-haired girl, who starts to blackmail Nathan about drugs. When he pulls out a gun and shoots the girl, Max panics and suddenly finds herself back in her photography class. She slowly dawns upon the realization that time has jumped backward as events from class repeat, and she can control it when she focuses to fix the camera she breaks by knocking it from the table. Insistent on trying to save the girl from Nathan, she hides back in the bathroom and triggers the fire alarm to allow her to escape.

With classes out, Max heads back to the dorm and uses her powers to set things to her advantage and witnesses David Madsen, the school security officer, harassing Kate Marsh. She's later attacked by Nathan as she talks with Warren Graham, and she escapes by leaping into the truck of Chloe, the blue-haired girl from earlier. Chloe brings her back to her home to find the tools to repair the camera broken in the scuffle with Nathan, and learns that Chloe is the person who's been hanging the missing person posters of Rachel Amber all over Blackwell.

After a confrontation with David, who's also Chloe's step-father, the two girls run off to the local lighthouse. Chloe admits that she was attempting to blackmail Nathan for money after he drugged her in his dorm and attempted to assault her. Soon after, Max has another vision of the storm, and a nearby paper shows the date of the coming Friday. She tries to tell Chloe about her powers and what she has witnessed, but her friend doesn't seem to believe her until it begins snowing in eighty degree weather.

Episode 2: Out of Time

While talking with Kate the next morning, Max learns that she was another of Nathan's victims, and tries to advise her on what to do. Max then heads out to The Two Whales diner to meet with Chloe, who's still skeptical of Max's powers. She proves herself by naming all the objects in Chloe's pockets then predicting the events of the diner's patrons. Impressed with her abilities, Chloe drags Max out to her junkyard hangout to play with these abilities, using the gun she stole from her step-father. After shooting bottles and various junk, Max passes out with another vision. She wakes up with her head in Chloe's lap. They're then approached by Frank Bowers, who's looking for the money Chloe owes him. After noticing the bracelet of Rachel Amber on his wrist, he threatens Chloe with a knife, then Max raises the gun at him.

With Frank gone, Max and Chloe chat as they walk then lay over the tracks. However, Chloe's foot gets trapped in the rails just as a train approaches. Max rushes to get what she needs to free Chloe by using her powers, and the train nearly misses her.

Back at school later in the day, Kate attempts suicide by dropping off the Blackwell dorms before the entire class. Max's powers begin to fail her as she struggles to hold time still and walk to the roof to try and talk Kate down. In the aftermath of this, Max is brought to Principle Ray Wells' office, and he asks her who's responsible for pushing Kate to the point of taking her own life.

Episode 3: Chaos Theory

Max sneaks out of her dorm at night to meet up with Chloe. They go to search the principle's office for Nathan's real files but find it locked. With some help from Warren, Max crafts a small bomb to blow open the door. When this triggers an alarm, Max enters the room and rewinds time to before even making the bomb. With some evidence finally in hand, Chloe entices Max to join her for swimming in the school's pool. After spotting campus security roaming around the school, they rush out, and Max spends the night at Chloe's.

The next morning, Max borrows some of the clothes Rachel Amber left behind, and Chloe teases her by daring her for a kiss. A search of David's files give Max clues that lead to Frank. At The Two Whales, Max uses her powers to trick and steal the keys to his trailer. A search finds proof that Rachel Amber did have a romantic relationship with Frank before her disappearance. This hits Chloe hard, and she lashes out about everyone lying to her or hurting her. Even Chloe's deceased father isn't spared.

Sitting in her room, Max discovers a new power while focusing on an old photo taken of Max and Chloe. She finds herself in the past on the day Chloe's father died. In an attempt to save him, Max hides his car keys and convinces him to take the bus. Max finds herself back in present day, but the world has changed. She's a member of the Vortex Club, and Chloe's father is still alive. Although, Chloe is a quadriplegic.

Episode 4: Dark Room

Talking with this alternate history Chloe, Max learned she had been paralyzed during an accident in the car her father bought her for her birthday. Max thought that Chloe was at least happy and stayed overnight watching Blade Runner. Unfortunately, Chloe's family was drowning in debt, and Chloe's respiratory system was failing. To end her pain, Chloe asked Max to overdose her on morphine to end her life for her. Seeing how this version wasn't helping Chloe, she went back in time to allow Chloe's father to die and destroyed the photo that allowed her to travel back to that day. She woke up back in Chloe's normal bedroom.

Back at Blackwell, they searched Nathan's dorm but were set upon by Nathan while trying to leave. Warren helped them get away, then they went to Frank to get the information they needed to put the clues from Nathan's room together. This led Max and Chloe to an old barn outside of town and found an expensive bunker hidden beneath it. In the bunker, they found binders with photos of women, including Kate and Rachel. Upon seeing pictures of Rachel in a shallow grave at the junkyard, they rushed to the same spot and found Rachel's body. Max tried to comfort the devastated Chloe.

With Chloe looking for revenge, they went to the school's Vortex Club party to find Nathan. Just outside, a drunk Warren pleaded for a photo with Max, as it seemed the world was ending. Now Max was trying to find both Chloe and Nathan in the party, but asking around gave her no clues on Nathan's whereabouts. Before leaving with Chloe, Max watched as Mr. Jefferson awarded the Every Day Heroes photography award to Victoria Chase. After a warning text from Nathan that all the evidence will be gone soon, they made their way back to Rachel's body, but she was still there. Suddenly, Max was drugged with a needle to the neck, and her attacker shot and killed Chloe. It was Mr. Jefferson.

Episode 5: Polarized

Max woke up in the underground bunker.Max attempted to time jump into some of the photos Jefferson had left behind. By the second attempt, she was in a past where she was more aware. During the session of Jefferson taking photos of Max, he attempted to justify his style of art and how Nathan had been his apprentice but got carried away when he overdosed Rachel. From this point in the picture of the past, Max attempted another time jump with the selfie she took in Jefferson's class the day she discovered her powers. She sends a text to warn campus security of Mr Jefferson, and finds herself in a future where she won the everyday heroes contest and goes to San Francisco. However, whilst mingling with the other artists she recieves a call from Chloe, who is trapped by the tornado from her visions. She time travels again to her taking a picture for the contest, and destroys the picture hoping for everything to be the same except she doesn't win the contest. Although she attempted to change the past to catch Jefferson and return to Chloe, she woke up back in the chair, and he had burned all the photos in her journal. She manages to escape with the appearance of David and runs off to find the picture Warren took with her before the party. She struggles through the massive storm and seeing the death and destruction it causes.

Jumping back, Max warns Chloe, and they're able to capture Jefferson and Nathan by waiting things out and warning David. However, no matter how many ways Max tries to change time, the storm still appears to wipe out the town. She passes out next to Chloe and goes through a surreal and twisted vision of her life. She wakes up back at the lighthouse and realizes that it was her own powers to change time that was the cause of the storm she had hoped to stop. Chloe then suggests to Max that she could use the blue butterfly photo from the bathroom to go back but not use her powers to save her.

In the Sacrifice Arcadia Bay ending, Max destroys the photo in an act of defiance, and she watches as the storm levels much of the town with Chloe comforting her. The pair later drive through the devastation as they ride out of the city.

In the Sacrifice Chloe ending, Max travels back but stays hidden in the corner and crying as she listens to Chloe dying. Nathan is arrested, Mr. Jefferson is taken in, Rachel's body is recovered, and Joyce gives Max a box of Chloe's possessions. Several of the Blackwell students attend Chloe's funeral.

Stats

• Hair: Brown
• Eyes: Blue
• Height: 1.65m (5' 5")
• Distinguishing Marks: None
• Occupation: Blackwell Academy Student

Powers & Abilities

Time Control

Max's ability to rewind and change time is from an unknown origin. She discovered it completely by accident when trying to prevent Chloe's death. Max and her possessions are the only things that are left unchanged as she turns time backward. She'll remember all the following events, but no one around her will notice any change.

Time Rewind

Max can focus her thoughts to rewind time to significant points of current events as she raises her hand. Use of this ability can shift events into Max's advantage and test the consequences of her actions and words with people and objects.

A side effect of this power is Max's ability to teleport herself in time and space. She will remain present where she uses her powers while everything in time changes around her. This can open paths to her that were once closed or break into a room then repair any damage or evidence of her presence.

The effects of overuse of this power to Max's body isn't fully understood. Significant fatigue and nosebleeds are the most prominent symptoms. Moving while holding time back in unison creates a great physical strain to Max, as she discovered while trying to prevent Kate's suicide. It is later discovered that the local climate is substantially altered by changing time, and she created the very storm she had hoped to prevent by use of her abilities.

Time Alteration

After using the ability to rewind time, Max discovers an evolution to her powers as she is focusing on an image of herself and Chloe in an old photograph. By focusing on any photo with herself in the image, Max can leap back into the body of her past self to alter events and change the future.

The limitations of this power is that while in this space between time she can't move beyond the realm the photograph was taken within. The boundaries can be seen as a bright light at the horizon or film burn exposure along the borders. While Max can travel into another time line while already within a separate photo, this causes a more intense strain upon both her physically and on the fabric of reality.

Upon completing her tasks and altering past events in the photo, the past Max will lose all of her current knowledge as time is allowed to flow naturally up until she catches back up to the current time line from which she originally left. For example, after altering the past to save William, she returned to her future time line with no memory of the previous five years of that new reality, including her actions within those years. This is why Max wound up back within the dark room after going back to destroy her Everyday Heroes submission, because the Max of that time line had forgotten that Mark Jefferson was the culprit and followed her original time line that led to Chole's death and her capture by Jefferson.

Precognition

The power of precognition was the first aspect of Max's powers to become present. She foresaw the giant storm that was going to crash into Arcadia Bay several days before it would appear. Her time rewinding powers still persist in these out of body experiences. In her current time during visions, Max appears to have blacked out and is vulnerable.

Weapons & Equipment

Instant Camera

Max is hardly ever seen without her instant camera. She grew up using these style of cameras, after she was given one as a gift as a child; and she grew up to prefer it over more modern digital cameras. After Max's camera is damaged beyond her ability to repair it, Chloe gives her the camera of her deceased father.

Journal

Max's journal works as both her personal diary for recent events and organizer for her photographs. Through the game, the player can use the journal to catch up on events, as written from Max's personal perspective, character bios, also written by Max, seeing the collected photos taken throughout the game with hints of any missing photos, and in this menu the player can read Max's text messages.

Smart Phone

On top of being Max's source of communicating through texts and phone, Max also uses her mobile phone's flashlight app as she searches through dark surroundings.