Henry Stillman

Henry Stillman was a radio newscaster for the fictional 'Radio USA', who was trapped in a building in Philadelphia during the Chimeran invasion in Resistance 2. He gives the player a view of what it is like for refugees in gray territory not knowing what attacked them and if anyone else is out there.

Resistance: The Gathering Storm
In Resistance: The Gathering Storm, Henry Stillman was present during President Noah Grace's public presidential address in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. on November 27th, 1951. During the address, Stillman represented USA News and questioned Grace over fellow newsman Arthur Norton's account of the then under construction Liberty Defense Perimeter being vulnerable to the Chimera, in which he recounted of a Protection Camp in Montana that was outside of the defense perimeter being overrun by the Chimera the day before yesterday. His question was rebuked by Chief of Staff William Dentweiler, who strongly blamed the resistance group Freedom First for indirectly allowing the protection camp to go unprotected due to their recent raids on raw materials that were meant for the LDP. Grace seconded Dentweiler's notion.

Not too soon later that Stillman witnessed and experienced a Spire attack in front of the memorial. Stillman and several fleeing people took shelter in the memorial from the Spinners that were released from the Spire. On the way up the memorial, Stillman helped cameraman Abe Bristow from a Spinner that had latched onto his back in which Stillman grab and threw the creature away. Safely behind the memorial's barrier, Stillman was able to recorded the events from his hand-held recorder just before a arriving Black Ops contingency unit started eradicating the Spinners.

Once the eradication had been done, Bristow shared his relief with Stillman that the two were lucky to be alive; however, Stillman remained doubtful.

Resistance 2
Henry can be heard many times on radios throughout the game. He tells listeners about how he is surviving and how he had a wife, Beverly, who he cherished and loved, and having witnessed her on the last SRPA convoy truck escorted by "men in black masks" that was meant to bring her to a refugee camp. But, the convoy was attacked by Spinners and Beverly Stillman, as well as the rest of the convoy, was infected and wrapped into a cocoon. In her last moments, she looked at Henry, who was watching from a window at the top of a hotel, and begged him to rescue her but he hid instead. The event made him feel incredibly shameful and guilty, and started to think of himself as a complete coward.

In Twin Falls, Hale heard another speech by Stillman: this time he is excited to discover two other people, alive in a world where Henry thought himself as a sole survivor; the two people are a father and a son, looking for food when Grims attack them. They ran for safety and Henry started cheering for them but both were killed as the father was dragged down by the horde and the son overwhelm by Spinners, which made Henry feel even more depressed, especially because the boy reminds of his wife as they had the same eye color. One night Henry got himself drunk and went down to visit the boy and he almost fell to his death twice. Eventually, he saw the boy's corpse and just looked at it wishing that he could have done more. Henry gave his last broadcast when Hale was in Louisiana. Henry, after being traumatized by the events, finally talked of "taking a walk" outside. Given the previous references he made, it is likely that he meant he would jump off of the high iron bar he had previously used in his "walks".

Quote
"For radio USA, this is Henry Stillman".

"Today our country shudders in the wake of cataclysmic devastation. Torn by war with a brutal and terrifying enemy, the likes of which we have never seen. This morning, I awoke to the sound of thundering crashes that I thought could only be an earthquake, but as I looked outside I saw their battleships looming over the city. Each one wider than Forbes Field, and each leaving nothing but burning disfigured wreckage in its wake. Former friends and neighbors, now lie in storm drains, limbs twisted in ways I can't begin to describe. This struggle, for the very survival of mankind... this struggle that has now reached across the shores of our homeland. This struggle, ladies and gentlemen, may now be forever lost".

Trivia

 * Henry Stillman was voiced by Marc Mailand, a sound designer at Insomniac.


 * Henry's surname may be a pun saying that he is 'Still Man'.


 * Several of Henry Stillman's radio broadcasts can be heard in San Francisco, Orick, Twin Falls, Chicago, and Cocodrie, Louisiana.


 * In one of Resistance 2's previews, Insomniac stated that Stillman is the only surviving man in Philadelphia.