Static marking the transition from the Dennaton Games logo to the Hotline Miami main menu screen.
"Hey, man! I gotta tell ya something important... This... All of this is not really happening. Take a look... [gestures to Biker's corpse gurgling]. What you saw just now, did not actually happen. You don't look like you believe me... Then, allow me to demonstrate!" -- Beard, Push It outro
Static, or Dream Static, is a storytelling device in Hotline Miami and Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number that apparently indicates events aren't real or are just a dream.
Hotline Miami[]
Static accompanies the transition from the Dennaton Games logo to the main menu upon start up, possibly a gag about how Hotline Miami is a dream sequence until Trauma.
As Jacket relives the events of May 27th in his coma, in the outro to Push It, a dream version of Beard gestures to Biker's exploded head and writhing body and says that didn't happen and none of this is real. He then seems to consciously summon the static, erasing Biker's body (but leaving the blood) and causing an assassin and 50 Blessings tag to appear in the bathroom. Beard also seems to completely reset and re-greets Jacket as normal. Static pops in intermittently until Jacket returns to his car.
As Jacket relives the events of June 8th, Dream Static appears over him severely mutilating and setting ablaze the Van Driver. As he returns home and relives his attempted murder, Dream Static returns along with Richard telling Jacket he needs some rest. Jacket then appears in a hospital gown and head bandages, his head exploding upon seeing himself in a hospital bed. Another flash of static erases his body.
On July 21st, after escaping from the hospital and returning to his apartment, a flash of static dresses Jacket, possibly implying he passed out or rested and that the undated Assault takes place on July 22nd.
Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number[]
The nightmare interview in Final Cut is sectioned off by static.
Evan's inspection of Jake's clothes in the November 27th outro to Withdrawal and his exiting of the evidence locker room is bookended with static, which is absent if Casualties is started on its own. This may imply the events of The Abyss are Evan's nightmare.
Manny Pardo's nightmare level Caught is sectioned off with dream static.
Trivia[]
- Not all dreams are accompanied by static, notably the Henchman's nightmare in No Mercy, the Death Wish intro hallucination (listed as Fan Dream in the files), Evan's hallucinating that a hobo is his wife Sharon in the intro to Subway, and the Son seeing the murdered characters from Showdown, the dream of the Father actively telling the Son it isn't really happening, much like Beard did for Jacket.