Sidney Prescott and Gale Weathers were at one point, enemies during Scream (1996 film). After Sidney was attacked by Ghostface for the first time, Gale who was a Top Story and hungry journalistic reporter and in Woodsboro (having visited prior from New York City, due to being from there, supposedly during the Sharon Stone stalker case) and who had tried her hardest to report and get a comment on Sidney during the infamous 1996 Woodsboro Murders, and who found her in an empty alleyway behind the Woodsboro Police Department (due to police barricade), due to former Deputy Dewey Riley leaving to get his patrol car to drive them away alongside other reporters behind her, which led to Sidney punching her on the side of her face, after Sidney's former best friend Tatum Riley (who would've been Gale's sister-in-law prior to her marriage with Tatum's older brother), much to their feud.
Sidney and Gale
However, it lasted temporarily due to the showdown occuring at 261 Turner Lane, and Gale's arrival to the party being held there, with Dewey alongside her due to their budding romance, and their separation (after their discovery of Neil Prescott's aka Sidney's dad. car not far from Stu's house) as the murders began to roll out after the guests left, who set up a secret camera which recorded everything as well as the reveal of the killer of the recent murders, as well as Sidney's mother the year prior, having been Sidney's boyfriend Billy Loomis and their friend/Billy's accomplice, Stu Macher; which Gale witnessed their confession, sometime after arriving to the party after she tried to flee via the crew van of her former cameraman, Kenny Brown, who fell from above the van, much to Gale's shock as she tried to drive off. However, Sidney tried escaping the house after supposedly witnessing Billy's murder prior to his reveal, and tried to get Gale to stop but was instead led off the road and crashed upon a tree. Further inspection by Stu as Ghostface seemingly thought she was dead, but came back and found Dewey's gun (after he had stumbled out and headed towards the party but was stabbed in the back and seemingly dead) and tried to shoot at Billy but the safety of the gun was on, which led to Billy headbutting the gun from Gale and knocking her out, supposedly, on top of Dewey; this however was a diversion due to Sidney escaping once Billy and Stu had their backs turned.
Gale was knocked out and faked it, who got up as Sidney bravely took down her attempted killers and the killers of her mother a year prior. In the years that followed, especially during the copycat Windsor College Murders, committed by an avenging Mrs. Loomis and Sidney's college friend, Mickey Altieri, the feud between Sidney and Gale didn't last long once the showdowns occured, as well as Gale changing through the course of her career as a journalistic reporter in her own-being. Gale's thirsty journalistic persona would still persist, but who was much friendlier to Sidney and vice versa due to their survival in each event of a Ghostface murder spree, and who alongside her relationship with Dewey, culminated into Sidney and Gale now being officially friends (and Gale, who would be an older maternal sister-figure to Sid, just as Dewey was to Sidney a brother-figure).
Scream (1996)[]
In mid-September 1996, nearing in on the date of the one year anniversary of Sidney's late mother's murder, Maureen Prescott; which Gale had written a book about the tragedy (who Gale claimed during her confrontation with Sidney was the year's hottest court case, due to Sidney testifying in court against an innocent/framed Cotton Weary, who was back then, known as Maureen's lover, which Gale wrote and who was trying to prove Cotton's innocence), titled Wrongly Accused: The Maureen Prescott Murder, prior (but which was promoted concurrent) to the Woodsboro Murders. Gale was a relentless opportunist in her occupation as a Top Story journalistic reporter and in general, who was shown prior to her first confrontation with Sidney, to be reporting after the murders of the first two victims, Casey Becker and Steven Orth. She was shown outside Woodsboro High School the day after the first two victims murders, and who Sidney, alongside her best friend Tatum, managed to see, amongst other reporters, who stood out due to her bright light-green jacket and skirt.
Once Sidney and the others were at school, Gale outside had tried getting comment with law enforcement, eventually talking to one of the former Woodsboro Sheriff Burke's many deputies, Dewey Riley, on commenting about the situation, which started the respective flirtation between the two. Meanwhile, Dewey as the deputy, had tried to look after Sidney and his sister, Tatum, after Sidney was called in for questioning that school day. Gale, alongside her allegiant cameraman Kenny Brown, sought out leads per Gale's demands, as she reported on the news. The night of Sidney's attack on her house and the arrest of Billy Loomis, Gale was one of the first reporters on the scene, who tried to get a comment on Sidney and if the event correlates to her mother's murder from the year prior. Gale was denied by Tatum, as they each boarded Dewey's patrol car and went off to the station, much to Gale's annoyance.
Soon after the interrogation and Sidney's testimony at the police station, Gale and other reporters and their camera crew, tried desperately to get a comment on Sidney and the police, who were barricading the front entrance of the station. Gale then sought out her cameraman and tried to go through the back entrance, where to her delight, she found Sidney and Tatum standing who were waiting for Dewey to pull around in his patrol car. As other reporters followed behind her, Gale has held up the microphone towards Sidney, who was denied by Tatum again to comment before Sidney, in hidden anger, sarcastically agreed to comment due to Gale only doing her job, which she agreed with. Sidney then makes a sarcastic comment on Gale's book, and that she'll look for it, before turning around as Gale gladly states she'll send herself a copy of it before Sidney then turns around and punches Gale on the side of her face, causing her to fall onto her cameraman Kenny's arm who grabs her, much to the shock of Gale as she notes Sidney's contempt face, before Sidney is then pulled away, with various other reporters, their camera crew, and photographers capturing the moment.
Sidney talking to Gale
The next day, Sidney arrives to school after deciding to sleep and stay with Tatum's family meanwhile her father returns, and who takes the high road to apologize to Gale, who she approaches in the morning who's inside her crewvan applying makeup to where Sidney punched her. Gale tells her to stop as Sidney claims she wants to talk off-camera and off-record, as Gale halts Kenny from grabbing his camera as each talk about the possible death row sentencing of Cotton Weary, the affair and secret lover of Sidney's mother, Maureen, much to Sidney's denial of her mother's alleged affairs and with him being her killer and rapist. Gale denies this and concludes how it doesn't matter what she thinks when Sidney asks for her opinion and thoughts of Cotton's innocence, as she claims how she's talked to him and how Cotton's never changed one word in his testimony of not having been Maureen's killer. However, Sidney claims it was due to that night of seeing Cotton leaving with his coat. However, Gale claims that Maureen seduced a drunken Cotton before and how he left his coat and how she instead saw someone leave wearing his coat, the same unknown person who placed it inside his car, framing him. Gale then looks towards Sidney's expression and claims she doesn't really know anymore and what to think and asks if she thinks they're related as Tatum then arrives to shade on Gale and pull Sidney away, who looks towards Gale meticulously before sarcastically apologizing for mangling her face before she then leaves, as Gale tells her to wait before Sidney departs. Gale then holds back on Kenny and asks him to ask if she's dreaming, rhetorically, due to an innocent man on death-row and a killer on the loose, much to Kenny's confusion on what to say.
Following Sidney's near attack at school by Ghostface, and two pranksters having run prior to her attack in the bathroom in the hallways dressed in the costume, Principal Arthur Himbry cut classes and the town of Woodsboro per police enforcement, enacted a curfew. After Principal Himbry's secluded death in his office at the high school, and who would later be hung up on the school's football field post later, unbeknownst to anyone, Sidney and Tatum were shown grocery shopping for the night of Stu's party. Gale, per Dewey, had gotten to overhear of the party and Sidney being there, and so who then alongside Dewey leading them, planned to set up hidden cameras and broadcast them over with Gale doing so with the intention of perhaps leading clues on catching the killer. Meanwhile, Sidney at the party, was wooed back by her boyfriend Billy, whom she had sent to jail prior after her first attack with Ghostface due to his suspicious timing in arriving and trust issues she had with him, due to Billy looking over Sidney's mother's death and comparing it to his mother leaving him, much to Sidney's disapproval of it not being the same, which they had a conversation of back at school in the hallways and prior to Sidney's bathroom scare. They each left to Stu's parents bedroom upstairs, where Sidney allegedly believed she and Billy were losing their virginities to each other for the first time and had sex. Meanwhile, after Tatum left to get beer, and Randy explaining horror movie rules to the party as they all watched Halloween (1978) and prior to Billy having come to the party, Tatum was alone in the garage where she was attacked and later killed by Ghostface via a cat door in the garage door, unbeknownst to anyone. Gale, meanwhile as she attended the party and having talked briefly to Sidney and Tatum, as well as Stu, left with Dewey to investigate and who each flirted and stumbled upon Neil Prescott's car.
Back at the house, the party had died down as people left to go find the Principal's announced dead body at the football field, leaving only a drunk Randy watching the movie alone in Stu's living room. Meanwhile, after dressing up and leaving the bed with Billy, Sidney still contemplated trusting him much to his disapproval, which led to Stu as Ghostface entering and seemingly killing Billy in front of her, as Sidney narrowly dodges the killer and runs upstairs and in the hallways, locking doors and going towards the attic before she manages to escape as Ghostface appears and who stumbles upon Tatum's corpse, much to her horror. Meanwhile, after finding the car, Gale had tried managing her way back to the house, but whom was stranded.
Sidney cried out for help and who found brief refuge inside the newsvan with Kenny, who was unaware of what was happening as each saw the recording of Randy getting creeped up by Ghostface, but who was unaware of the delay, who as Kenny left to go inside, was throat slit by Ghostface who appeared in front of Sidney, who she escapes yet again from the inside and crawling through a slot. Afterwards, she runs off again as Gale arrives sometime after Kenny's murder and Sid's brief hiding, who tries to drive off in the newsvan and is startled by the discovery of Kenny's dead body and Sidney trying to stop her, leading Gale to swerve off the road and crash the van onto a tree, presumably knocking her out. Sidney then finds Dewey as he approaches the outside of the front porch, much to Sidney's relief, before it's revealed Dewey was back stabbed with the knife still lodged in, much to her terror as Ghostface appears as Sidney tries and find refuge in the cop car where Ghostface taunts her with Dewey's keys to it and who startles her by climbing inside and who manages to escape yet again and who gets Dewey's gun after she heads to the front and locks Randy and Stu outside, who come out of nowhere, and who finds a supposedly alive Billy coming down the stairs and who Sidney hands over the gun as Billy opens the door to Randy, who claims Stu's gone mad before Bily shoots Randy and presumably kills Randy (who was only knocked out) as he then reveals himself to Sidney, alongside Stu who entered from another point in the house as they then reveal their plans to Sidney as they corner her in Stu's kitchen.
As this occured, Gale had managed to awake from the crash and found herself back to the house and who managed to witness half of to Billy and Stu's confession and grabbed the gun from the counter after Billy shot Randy, as she hid back at the front door as she opened it slowly and who cocked it at them after Stu turned around to hand the gun to Billy and who stood defiantly and claims she's got an ending for them that ends up her saving them, which Sidney agrees to.
However, she failed to or didn't know/notice that the gun's safety was off, which allowed Billy to walk up to her, take the gun off her hand and headbutt her with it, as she fell seemingly unconscious next to Dewey, which happened to be a diversion, due to both Billy and Stu having had their backs turned and Sidney escaping briefly.
As Billy and Stu left to find her, Gale seemingly gained consciousness as Sidney meanwhile ambushed Billy in the costume and had given them a phone call hidden and in the costume/voice changer prior about having called the cops on them and reported them, much to Billy's anger. As soon as Sidney knocked Billy down and stabbed him with an umbrella on his chest, Stu came in to attack Sidney, whom she managed to fight off in his own living room and killed him by sending the television onto his head, killing him almost instantly.
However, Billy slowly came back and each fought down as he gained the upper hand on her before Billy was then shot by a now-awake Gale, who had managed to turn off the gun's safety. A now awaken Randy joined them as they each stood above Billy, as Gale handed over Sidney the gun and who head-shot Billy as he came back, as Sidney claims "not in my movie".
Gale, now awake and sporting injuries, as well as with a new cameraperson, begins to report in true reporter fashion, of the murders as the authorities arrive to the scene at dawn of the now finished events. This would then lead to Gale to write a book about the events, which would get her fame, as well as tarnish and somewhat brand Sidney's legacy in infamy and go on to be repeated in subsequent events in the following years, more specifically 2 years and 15 years after the events. The survivors include Sidney, Gale, Dewey, and Randy.
Scream 2[]
Just two years after their initial survival, both Gale and Sidney would face off again sometime in June 1998.
Sidney was a freshman at Windsor College in Ohio, alongside her fellow survivor, Randy Meeks, and was thwarted back into the spotlight afterwards from the deaths of two college senior students and couple, Maureen Evans and Phil Stevens, during a sneak-preview of the first Stab film, which was based on Gale's second book about the events of the murders, titled The Woodsboro Murders.
Scream 3[]
Sidney and Gale are by now former acquaintances. After the killer locating her and Sidney fleeing the area, Sidney find Gale and Dewey after they’ve been attacked at Jennifer’s house taking refuge at the LAPD precinct. They greet each other with an awkward hug, however, Sidney genuinely is glad she is alright, and they come to better terms. At the end, they come to better terms having survived again and Gale showing concern for her when she is fighting Roman, her half brother.
Scream 4[]
In the near decade since their last encounter, Sidney and Gale's relationship has blossomed from former frenemies to friends, especially after Gale's marriage to Dewey in 2001. Gale shows signs of jealousy of Sidney’s fame for her new book, Out of Darkness, due to her zest for reporting and journalism.
When the killer strikes again, she bonds with Sidney more through attempting to find out the killer and once again surviving the killer again together as they’ve done previously.
Scream (2022)[]
Following 25 years since the initial killing spree, as well as a decade since the divorce and split from the former Sheriff of Woodsboro, Dewey Riley, and the previous Second Woodsboro Murders, a now single and national news reporter Gale Weathers has made a name for herself in a morning day show which she works from as an anchor in New York City.
Meanwhile, Sidney has settled following surviving the wrath of her cousin, Jill Roberts, during Sidney's book tour, and her killing spree and moved from Woodsboro to Monterrey, California and reconciled with Detective Mark Kincaid and had children with him and is now a mother, living away from the town that started her infamy.
Unfortunately, due to a rebound killing spree returning, and the death of Gale's ex-husband and Sidney's brother figure, both women, heartbroken (especially Gale) and in mourning. Sidney comes back to Woodsboro grieved of the news and concerned for Gale.
Unlike during the events of Scream 3, where they reuniting was reluctant yet genuine, they fully embrace and comfort each other over the loss of Dewey like sisters.
Sidney returned with the goal to avenge Dewey's death and take down the crazed killers, just like they've done before as both women now work as both friends and a hunter duo.
Scream VI[]
Gale calls Sidney to warn her of another ghostface killer which Sidney and Mark take their family and go into hiding (off screen.)
After pulling a similar endeavor with the Carpenter sisters, affronting them for a story on the attacks, an anguished Sam attempts to punch her and Gale dodges only to be punched by an equally anguish and traumatized Tara; much like Sidney reacted to her years prior.
After the confrontation, Gale informs Sam and Tara about Sidney and that she has gone into hiding with Mark and the kids and she deserves her happy ending which they all agreed.
Gale gets attacked at her penthouse, and Sam and Tara arrive before the killer could finish her off. The killer evades Sam’s gunshots and vanishes. Before Gale goes unconscious, she begs Sam to tell Sidney to keep her from coming and putting herself and family in danger. She says, “He never got me.” Before she slips out on consciousness.
Trivia[]
- Sidney and Gale are arguably the first two leading protagonistic characters, who ended up despising one another, but soon became friends. Each would also lose their significant others, as well.
- This theme would be shared similarly with the TV series characters and females, such as Brooke and Audrey, as well as Emma and Audrey. Despite not hating one another intensely, each do become friends in surviving as well as each losing a significant other, such as Brooke with Jake to Audrey with Rachel, and Emma to Will.
- They share a degree of a sisterly bond through Dewey. Its earliest foundations were built in Scream 1-3 when surviving the killing together, Scream 4, they are solid friends, (however Gale is envious of Sidney being free and having success in her book.) and Scream 5, they are very concerned for each other and their bond is thick through Dewey and survival. Scream 6, Gale is concerned for Sidney so much as to tell Samantha that she wasn’t killed so that Sidney wouldn’t come to New York and out herself in danger.
- In Scream 1996, a traumatized 17-year-old adolescent Sidney having survived an attack by the killer is affronted with Gale, the journalist that essentially called her a liar and affronted her with an interview. She punched Gale due to overall built up stress and anger with her exploiting her family for what Sidney deemed was a false story..
- In Scream 2, Sidney doesn’t punch Gale because she is still angry about the past (however it doesn’t help with tension still there), but because Gale was obnoxious and affronted her trying to get a story which Sidney took offense to, and still sensitive to what they both survived.
- In Scream 2, They both killed Mickey together with several gunshots each.
- In Scream 3, she makes a comment to Dewey about how she leaves them and says she works better alone saying, “I can see nothing has changed.” Dewey agrees with her. At that moment, Sidney is coming to accept that part of Gale’s personality of journalism is her and doesn’t take it personal like she once did during 1995, and the event of Scream 1996.
- In Scream 4, Gale was once again diversion in order Sidney to get the upper hand against the killer. Gale attempts to comfort Sidney from her wounds.
- In the deleted scene of the conclusion of events of Scream 4, when Sidney is receiving treatment at Woodboro Hospital, Dewey suggest Gale and Sidney to write a book together. They book jokingly disagreed As they both had different purposes for writing; Gale being too independent in her journalism and Sidney writing for that sole purpose of her experiences of survival and coming out of her darkness and helping people.
- In Scream 5, Sidney puts a tracker on Sam’s car and says, “Something Gale Weather’s would do.” and Gale takes it as a compliment. Sidney is not only influenced by Gale in writing, but even more resourceful than she originally was due to Gale’s influence.
- In Scream 5, after Amber states enjoyment in killing Dewey, Gale punches Amber right in front of Sidney before the struggle happens. It’s a call back to when someone affronts someone obnoxiously concerning slandering the death of a loved one; Sidney with her mother, now Gale with Dewey.
- In Scream 5, as Gale is attacked by Amber, Gale is inspired by Sidney recovering from her injuries as to muster the strength to fight Amber back. Gale and Sidney stand once again and fatally wound Amber practically killing her completely to avenge Dewey. (Tara delivers the final shot to her head avenging her rescuer, Dewey, as well as herself when Amber attacked her several times.)
- In Scream VI, Gale speaks to Sidney despite Sidney not being on screen within the movie. She warns her of the killer and tells her take her family and to go into hiding.
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