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Michael "Mike" Munroe is one of the eight main protagonists and the overall deuteragonist of Supermassive Games' Until Dawn.
Good looking, smooth as silk, and silver-tongued, Mike is the resident ladykiller. He's had more girlfriends than he's had hot dinners, which can cause a few problems when a few of them are in his immediate circle of friends. Mike is a man of action. He's always the first to volunteer, the first to make a suggestion. With a narcissistic streak, there's no denying that he likes the attention that comes with being the man who stands up and can get things done.
He was portrayed by Brett Dalton.
What Makes Him a Base Breaking Character?[]
What Do People Like About Him?[]
- It's almost unanimously agreed that Mike has some of the best character development in the entire game. For the first three chapters of the game, he's just your average douchebag jock. Afterwards, he suddenly has a ton of badass action sequences, especially during his visits to the sanatorium.
- He has some pretty funny, memetic lines.
- It's heartwarming how much he cares about Jessica, his girlfriend. Even if you make all the jerky decisions with him during the game's early chapters, his instant gut reaction is to run out of the cabin in a wifebeater with a rifle that he doesn't even know for sure works properly. He'll then spend the whole rest of the game seeking revenge against her supposed killer, and Jess actually did die in Chapter 4 but Mike survives, he'll blame himself for not getting to her fast enough in the credits.
- If you make the right choices, he'll get a pet wolf as a loyal sidekick, even possibly saving it from certain death in the sanatorium (and getting instantly upset if the wolf dies to save Mike instead).
- In Chapter 8, if Chris gets decapitated by the Wendigo after kissing Ashley, Mike will comfort Ashley as he leads her to safe basement. Likewise, if she leaves Chris to die, he’ll still be legitimately horrified at Chris’ death.
- He can also show concern for Matt if Emily makes it back to the lodge in chapter 8, even if their relationship has dropped to 0.
- At the end of the game, if Sam doesn't choose between following Mike or locking the door to halt the Wendigos in the lodge, Mike will back to help Sam as she's frozen in place due to fear. He'll also use himself as a human shield, saving her life at the cost of his own if she fails the first "Don't Move!"
- If Sam fails a certain amount of "Don't Move!" prompts in the lodge (resulting in her own death), Mike will use his lighter to blow up the lodge while he's too gravely wounded to escape on his own, killing himself in order to destroy all the Wendigos. This additionally counts as a self-sacrifice if Chris, Emily and/or Ashley are still alive by that point.
What Do People Hate About Him?[]
- For starters, while he wasn't the only participant, he was still the leading man in a fairly cruel prank on Hannah, which was the indirect cause of her and her sister Beth's tragic fates, and thus Josh's ensuing grief-fueled insanity. He can even victim-blame Hannah, saying it wasn't his fault they ran into the woods and his honesty bar will increase if he does, whereas it'll decrease if he pays respects instead.
- He can come off as bit of a womanizer for some people. During his interactions with Jessica, Mike's (already low) honesty bar decreases whenever he chooses the nice options like sympathizing with her insecurities, whereas it'll increase if he basically slut-shames her by saying she's a "what you see is what you get" sort of girl. It's also confirmed he dumped Emily for Jessica, seemingly because Emily wouldn't sleep with him and he thought Jessica was easier, with many pointing out he betrayed his ex by hooking up with her best friend.
- He has more than one instance of being something of a hypocrite:
- Chastising Jessica for jumpscaring him, saying it's scary in the middle of the woods, after using that same exact logic to justify jumpscaring Matt and Emily earlier.
- Calling Josh a murderer, only an hour or so after Mike has the option to murder Emily.
- Telling Chris to ignore Josh’s taunting only to point at gun at Josh’s face seconds later.
- Scolding Chris for knocking out Josh with a 2x4, even refusing to give him a gun to fend off the Stranger in the lodge if he does, despite Mike knocking out Josh with a pistol whip just minutes earlier.
- It was his boneheaded idea to tie Josh up in the shed outside of the lodge, despite there already being a crapton of room inside there. If only it wasn't for that, Josh wouldn't have gotten captured by the Wendigo and thus Chris wouldn't have felt the need to go on a suicide mission looking for Josh outside, resulting in the Stranger's death. Chris even has the option to point out to Mike that Josh couldn't possibly have killed Jessica on the way to the shed, but Mike's clearly too caught up in his own vengefulness to listen to reason.
- He can shoot and kill Emily out of sheer paranoia because of her Wendigo bite. Nobody else in the saferoom explicitly wanted Emily shot; Mike did that all on his own, Ashley and Chris only suggested kicking Emily out after Mike suggested it first, and their relationship meter with him will even go all the way down to 0 if he does indeed shoot Em. Even worse, Mike's honest, romance and funny meters will increase after shooting her, implying he enjoyed it deep down.
- To make matters worse, it’s Mike, not Ashley, who is both the first person that suggests Emily will transform into a Wendigo and the first person to suggest kicking her out to her almost certain death, making Mike entirely responsible for the incident that occurs.
- Plot armor makes him unable to die until the very end of the game. For many players, this makes Mike's playable segments a lot less fun due to the lack of any real stakes during replays.
- If Josh is still alive in the caves after he and Hannah (as a Wendigo) recognize each other, Mike does nothing to save Josh, instead running away and basically leaving him to die. Fans of Until Dawn have pointed out that not only did Mike have a lot to make up for in Josh's eyes, but also that Mike could've simply waited for Hannah to leave (which she did to go hunting for Matt/Jessica and then finish off the remaining survivors at the lodge), standing still if Hannah got too close to Mike.
- Many feel that Mike gets off way too easily for many of his actions throughout the game. Despite playing a central role in the original prank, he's never called out for it like character's like Ashley are and isn't targeted in Josh's prank. Even though he's the one who dumped Emily and betrayed her by hooking up with Jessica, Emily only ever targets the latter for their relationship. Even though he pointed the gun at Emily, Ashley gets more flack from Emily afterwards (although this is because Mike isn't around and she does report his actions to the police). Even if he kills Emily, Sam still will endanger the group just to go and warn him.
- Several fans didn't like the remake tying to make him look like an "reluctant" participant in the prank while making Emily and Jessica look worse, not feeling any sympathy because he still participated out of his own accord.
Trivia[]
- Mike's own actor, Brett Dalton, thinks he's a jerk who gets away with a lot.
External Links[]
- Mike Munroe on the Heroes Wiki
- Mike Munroe on the Until Dawn Wiki