The Bear

"ARE YOU PREPARED TO SHOW YOUR COURAGE IN ORDER TO SAVE YOUR SON?"

- The Bear origami figure

"The Bear" is the eighteenth chapter in Heavy Rain.

Overview
In this chapter, Ethan Mars undertakes the first of the five trials that he has to complete in order to save his son Shaun.

Description
Written inside one of the origami figures in the shoebox is an address and instructions to go there with a pickup card. The address is for Joe's Garage and Parking Lot, at which Ethan presents the card to a mechanic who gives him the keys to a car. The car's GPS directs Ethan to a bridge over a highway and instructs him to drive against traffic for 5 miles. If he successfully reaches his destination in 5 minutes or less, he will receive a chip for his cell phone.

Unlike the other four trials in this game, the player has no option to decline this trial. There appears to be an option to do so prior to initiating the real trial, but if chosen nothing occurs and the only remaining option is to proceed. This is also the first chapter that has an impact on the game's ending.

Naming
Bears are typically a shy and easily frightened species; however, if a mother bear believes that her cub is threatened, she will violently and fiercely defend her young. This reflects Ethan's aggressive determination to save Shaun, as well as the drive against the traffic mirroring the bear's charge. Courage (the requirement of this chapter) is also needed to face bears.

Characters

 * Ethan Mars
 * Roy

Trophies

 * Kamikaze – Choose the perfect path on the highway.
 * Good Driver – Complete the Bear Trial successfully.
 * Trial Master – Completing this trial successfully contributes toward earning this trophy.

Trivia

 * There are several errors and plot holes in this chapter:
 * It is not possible for Ethan to put on his seat belt when entering the car in the garage, or when he arrives at the bridge. After the completed trial, Ethan will be shown regardless with his seat belt on, struggling to free himself.
 * There is also an error where interior shots of the car mid-level will show the gear shift still in the park position.
 * The mechanic says that the car was there for two years (and no one came for it). This is considered a plot hole, as would be impossible to have a memory card inside the glove compartment with "fresh" video on it unless the Origami Killer either had one of the garage employees place the memory card in the car or somehow accessed it without anyone noticing.
 * In another plot hole, later chapters definitively establish that at least one of the fathers of a previous Origami Killer victim attempted the trials. Unless other fathers who had attempted the trials had been given a different set of trials than Ethan or attempted them in a different order, he would have had to come to the garage to pick up the car. However, it's also possible that other fathers were directed to different cars, which is plausible given that items such as the shoeboxes weren't reused for each father and a later trial involves killing a specific person (who would have to be different for each subsequent father if one of them completed this trial successfully). This does raise the question of how much money the killer had to spend on the trials, but considering that the killer is able to afford his own apartment, a warehouse on the docks, a storage locker at Lexington Station and at least nine guns and nine cell phones for his victims' fathers, it's clear that he's at least reasonably well-off.
 * The car which Ethan drives is a 1995 Pontiac Sunfire.
 * The car itself may have been heavily modified as it was able to outrun a police car. It is also possible that the pursuing police cars were exercising caution given Ethan's speed and the poor weather.
 * It is completely impossible for Ethan to die in this chapter. No matter how long he remains in the car after it crashes, it will only explode after he gets out.
 * The police officers are shown to be armed with Beretta 90-Twos.
 * The police officer who shoots at Ethan's car after he breaks through the barricade is modeled after Moussa Cissé. He also appears in "Fugitive."
 * This is the first chapter whose outcome affects what ending you will get.

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