Timeline

March 10th... March 16th...

This is a timeline detailing the events of Hotline Miami and Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number. For practical reasons, the events of the digital comics, while not officially non-canon, are detailed separately due to several dating errors possibly reflecting an earlier stage in the writing process or a result of being simple promotional material commissioned out to different artists.

Rat Cassettes (Unspecified Year)

• March 10th - Richter saves a cassette tape.
• March 16th - Richter saves another cassette tape and continues doing this for an unspecified amount of time.

1985

March

• 17th - The Fans are eating at a military bar in Hawaii while Evan Wright, a war reporter, interviews their Commander outside. Barnes and Daniels have a drinking contest that Beard and Jacket duck out of to leave the bar and return to camp. Evan then requests his photographer to take a Polaroid picture of Beard and Jacket which Beard takes a copy of.
• 17th (night) - At camp, Beard is standing near an emptied-out personal possessions case near a stripped fifth bunk in his unit's tent. Jacket is chain smoking and the Colonel seems visibly drunk. Beard's unit attacks several Soviet outposts in the jungles of Hawaii and wipes out all enemy forces. Jacket and Barnes handle Russian prisoners, and Barnes severely beats one that reminds him of Daniels. Beard talks to Daniels in an intel fort featuring the corpse of a Russian intel officer, who has either been executed or committed suicide with a shot to the head. Daniels sighs that it'd be easier to let Barnes kill the Russian prisoners. Their fate is unknown.

October

• 25th - Jacket is sunbathing next to Beard while Barnes and Daniels play cards. The group discusses life outside war: Barnes was a bartender, Daniels a schoolteacher, and Beard expresses a desire to run a convenience store. A dejected Colonel has made the 50 Blessings logo out of animal bones in his room, and maligns his possible promotion to Lieutenant General as he believes America can't win the war. The unit's final mission before going home is to finally take a resort serving as a Russian stronghold that has been sieged for weeks by local troops. Beard and the squad take the Stronghold, finding a swimming pool full of body bags. The D Company Commander congratulates them on doing what his men couldn't.
• 30th - Beard's unit is given yet another "final mission" where local forces will actively hold back and let them capture a power plant by themselves. This prompts a cracked Colonel to kill and skin a panther, donning its face as a mask and drawing the 50 Blessings logo on the American flag's stripes in its blood. The next morning, Beard and his squad attempt to take a power plant in Hawaii from the Soviet military forces in a seemingly suicide mission. Barnes is killed in an explosion and Daniels stays behind with him, while Beard rescues a wounded Jacket and gives him the Polaroid picture during the evacuation, saying "it's on the house, you'd do the same for me, right?"

1986

April

• 3rd - Beard is working at his shop in San Francisco, consoling a recently dumped Jacket over the phone, before asking Jacket to send him a copy of the Picture. He ends the call to see what's going on outside his shop. As he exits, he, along with the rest of San Francisco, is obliterated by a nuclear bomb. A stylized version of this event is depicted as the cover art of Hotline Miami 2.

1989

April

• 2nd - Richter begins his work with 50 Blessings shortly after they torched his car and threatened his mother for not doing as they say. He assaults a Russian-owned cafe flying USSR flags.
• 3rd - Jacket begins his work with 50 Blessings and goes to a subway station to collect a briefcase. Jacket throws the briefcase away into a dumpster and kills a homeless man on the way back to his car.
• 8th - Jacket arrives at an apartment complex inhabited by the Russian mafia and kills all inhabitants.
• 10th - Richter attacks a well-guarded Russian warehouse of USSR imported weapons, which the Son will later use.
• 16th - Jacket assaults another apartment building and murders all mobsters inside.
• 23rd - Richter assaults a Russian apartment.
• 25th - Jacket attacks a film producer's villa and rescues a drug-addled young woman. Meanwhile, another masked vigilante known as Jake shaves his head and assaults a news station in the Russian mafia's pocket. Unlike Richter, he is shown to have 50 Blessings' newsletter.

May

• 5th - Jacket assaults a mafia-owned mansion and an explosion erupts from the second floor.
• 11th - Jacket performs another hit at a mafia-occupied house.
• 13th - Biker, having rejected a political hit job from 50 Blessings, follows a lead to the Blue Dragon, a Chinese restaurant, in order to find 50 Blessings and end his affiliation with the group. Meanwhile, under direct supervision of The Janitors, Jacket performs the political hit on the mob-protected Hotel Blue and kills three politicians, dealing a heavy blow to the Russo-American coalition.
• 16th - Biker attacks a mafia-inhabited casino and arcade.
• 23rd - Jacket invades an apartment complex before being tasked by 50 Blessings to stop Biker from tracing their calls. He drives to the local telephone company and hits Biker with a golf club, wounding him but failing to kill Biker.
• 24th - Biker discovers the heart of the operation, finds they're a national organization with political ties, and flees Miami.
• 27th - Jacket performs another hit at a night club.
• 31st - Jacket intercepts a massive cocaine operation before the building is raided by the SWAT team and he narrowly escapes.

June

• 3rd - Jake visits the 50 Blessings HQ and finds out from the Manager working there that they are behind the phone call operation. Jake later performs a botched hit on a mafia-run apartment complex used for cooking meth, where he is wounded and taken away to a bath house. Petrov and the VIP Guard attempt to interrogate Jake, but they get no answers from him and shoot him in the head. Later, Jacket invades the bath house and clears it out.
• 8th - Jacket performs a hit on a mafia-owned office complex, and withstands an attack led by a Russian van driving hitman. When he returns to his home, his girlfriend has been assassinated by Richter, tasked to kill Jacket for his failure to kill Biker. Richter shoots Jacket and places him into a coma, where he relives the past few months in a dream.

July

• Unknown Date - Jacket drowsily overhears a conversation about Girlfriend's death, his own coma, and Richter's arrest between a nurse and a police officer.
• 21st - Waking up from his coma, Jacket escapes the hospital he was staying at before the police could question him. He returns home and rests for an indefinite amount of time.
• Unknown Date - Looking for Richter, Jacket attacks the local police precinct and kills every officer inside, including the station's chief. Jacket finds and interrogates Richter, discovering that he receives the same phone calls sent out by 50 Blessings, and that his murder of Girlfriend was no personal vendetta in any way. Richter tips Jacket off with the police station containing more information on the case than that of Richter's own knowledge, and Jacket steals confidential police files on the murders before leaving.
• 23rd - Jacket follows a police file to the Golden Truckstop, a mafia-run nightclub. He receives the location of the mafia boss's mansion from the club manager. He brutally murders the club manager on the way out. Then Jacket kills off what is left of the Russian Mafia at The Father's mansion, mistaking them for the source of the calls, but primarily looking to make himself feel better by killing affluent Russians. He resumes his smoking from Hawaii and tosses the Picture to the wind.

1990

July

• 20th - While in prison, Richter gets a visit from The Janitors. Later he is forced by guards to fight a large inmate with 50 Blessings tattoos. During an ensuing riot, Richter escapes from prison via disguising as a security guard and being evacuated by the SWAT Team.

1991

October

• 25th - Manny Pardo reads a report on the protests outside Jacket's trial in the newspaper. Several armed criminals invade a local department store before he intervenes, killing all of them. He is almost arrested, but reveals himself to be a Detective. Later, he investigates a Miami Mutilator crime scene, who is now serial.
• 31st - The Fans throw a Halloween party but quickly become bored, deciding to go on their first job. They raid a gang-owned electronics workshop.

November

• 5th - After getting a lead from Detective Pardo as a way to return an unspecified favor, Evan accidentally beats a Russian bouncer to death and forces his way into a Russian bath house and casino to interview Petrov. Afterwards, he meets the detective at the bar and insists that Pardo still owes him the favor for putting his life in danger. Biker returns to Miami and stands outside the courthouse Jacket's trial is held in.
• 11th - Evan takes a subway train to visit and interview Richter's mother. On his way, he encounters a gang lead by a pipe-wielding thug and is forced to fight back. Upon arriving he gives her his information to give to Richter. In his room he finds the Rat Cassettes on Richter's desk next to an open book or journal and takes them. Another outro to the level features him attempting to interview a drunk Biker who is demanding $200 for booze money before writing Biker off as insubstantial. A newspaper mentions that the fifth Miami Mutilator victim has been found.
• 18th - During a briefing with The Henchman, The Son decides to declare a gang war against Colombians by assaulting their strip club.
• 21st - The Henchman decides to quit the mafia and conducts his last hit on a chop shop working with the Colombians. As a parting gift from his boss, he receives a sample of a new psychoactive drug. While on the hit, he comes across a large bag of money and spares the life of an unwitting employee, Andy. The money bag is later seen by his girlfriend Mary back at home. A newspaper reveals a massive wave of anti-Russian arsons.
• 22nd - The Henchman discovers that while he slept, Mary stole the money and his car. He is heartbroken.
• Unknown Date - Somewhere around this time, the Fans invade a drug den owned by a gang and brutally murder a heavily drug-intoxicated Henchman as revenge for his hit on the chop shop. After the killing, Ash steals the Henchman's phone off-screen. It is presumed that Andy had contacted the Fans to assassinate him.
• 27th - Evan, using the favor Detective Pardo still owes him, acquires access to police evidence locker to study Jake's possessions. A "bonus scene" of dubious context features him later that night visiting Copy Flash and 50 Blessings' trashed and abandoned Miami HQ / lead lined bunker, which is now inhabited by several homeless squatters who have gotten into some boxes of masks. They threaten him and Evan is forced to flee from the bunker now filled with anonymous Gang enemies.

December

• Sometime in December, Richter contacts Evan and relays to him his story in exchange for a plane ticket to Hawaii for his mother. Two separate newspapers reveal an increase in violent protest rallies and hint at an upcoming RAC presidential conference.
• 2nd - The Fans, as a favor to Ash's friend Jack, attack a small gang hideout in a dilapidated building in order to bring back a Jack's sister. They eventually leave without the girl, who was shocked by the brutal murder of her friends. On the way back their van breaks down. Ash tells Tony to run it by Andy at the chop shop, as he owes them a favor (referring to Execution). The Fans keep hold of an old newspaper detailing a report of the fourth annual memorial of the San Francisco Bombing.
• 7th - The Son and his gang rob a bank the Colombians use to launder their money.
• Somewhere around this time, the movie Midnight Animal is released (see Midnight Animal and Final Cut).
• 9th - The Fans have acquired media notoriety from Jack's sister. The Fans descend into the sewers to take on a local gang, but find it's also a location used to dispose of bodies.
• 10th - Detective Pardo visits the home of Alex & Ash and hides a wallet taken from Jack, who is bound in his trunk. Later, he assaults on his own a large group of armed Colombian mobsters aboard a moored ship, upsetting the officer called in as back up that he didn't wait for him. He later finds Jack's walletless corpse as a Miami Mutilator victim. A newspaper in Alex's house reveals that the Fans' rampages have caught the attention of the police.
• 14th - Detective Pardo seeks a meeting with The Son at Mafia's HQ, but is refused, as the latter is busy preparing for a hit. Shortly after, The Son kills off the rest of the Colombians and takes over what remains of the Colombian operation in Miami.
• 20th - Tipped by a phone call from The Son on the Henchman's stolen mobile phone, The Fans plan and conduct an attack on the new Russian Mafia's base of operations. In parallel, The Son overdoses on psychoactive pills, kills almost all of The Fans in a drug-induced haze and falls from the roof to his death. Tony, the last surviving Fan, is shot dead by Detective Pardo during the aftermath, where the SWAT Team arrives.
• Unknown Date - Some time after the events that occurred on December 20th, Detective Pardo has a nightmare in which he kills Phantom in a Miami Mutilator crime scene before being called back on set to the Police Chief's office where he's exposed as the Miami Mutilator. He then fights his way through a police station and gets shot down at the exit. Upon waking up, he presumably barricades himself in his apartment, as he is shown in this state in the ending. A newspaper reveals an increase in security on the RAC conference.
• 28th - The American and Russian presidents are killed by a group of armed men led by a US Army General, during a conference of the Russo-American coalition in Washington. Miami and Hawaii are destroyed by nuclear strikes sent by both the Russians and the Americans in retaliation. Richter and Rosa Berg, Evan and his family, an intoxicated Detective Pardo, Rachael Ward and Jacket are all shown being decimated by the nuclear explosions as America and Russia spiral into war. A sunset-colored slow motion sequence of Miami being nuked serves as Hotline Miami 2's main menu background.

Comics

The dates corresponding with the Ghost Wolves storyline and Jake's storyline are inconsistent and generally hard to reconcile with or deduce from the events of the games. For these reasons they're excluded from the game timeline above.

1986

June

• A prison near Waipahu is captured from the US and held by the Russian Military, as it's close to the capital of Honolulu.

July

• The Waipahu Prison is assaulted by the Ghost Wolves, who kill ~350 men and destroy seven attack helicopters. They then steal an attack helicopter and "nuke" the Russian base.

Unknown

• A Russian controlled base near Midway Atoll is captured by the Ghost Wolves. 10 days later another base is taken over by the Ghost Wolves.

1987

August

• 10th - The captured Paradise Resort is taken over by the Ghost Wolves. It is very similar to Stronghold, which takes place in an unnamed Hawaiian resort.

1989

April

• 27th - Jake signs up for 50 Blessings before quitting his job at a junkyard.

May

• 2nd - Jake attends an American pride protest rally which breaks into a riot. Jake kills a Russian woman before returning to his apartment to find a 50 Blessings package containing his Jake Mask.

July

• Mid July - The comics re-date Assault as occurring "last week" from Showdown instead of a day prior.
• 23rd - Jacket is apprehended by police on the morning at Lebedev's mansion. The filming of his arrest is broadcast during a news report about his series of crimes, which are viewed by Daniels and the Fans.

1991

September

• 23rd - The Pig Butcher is shown being filmed while "killing" a store clerk with a hammer on 196th Street.
• 24th - The Pig Butcher is watching horror movies in his apartment before being told by the Pig Phone to go to 188 63rd Street, where he "kills" a family. Several cameras and boom mics are visible in many comic panels. He returns to his apartment to eat beans and is again told by the Pig Phone to go to 188 66th Street, where he "kills" a group of teenagers. After he does, he removes his mask and is congratulated by the movie crew.

October

• 9th - A cargo shipment of Russian prostitutes is discovered by the Miami Port Authority. Ash and Mark express a desire to acquire a police radio.
• 9th - The Fans are on a patrol around a warehouse district. Ash discovers a warehouse that had its gate lock cut. The Fans decide to investigate and run into a group of masked thieves raiding the warehouse, before being killed by the Fans.