"Main Protagonist"
Most of us call him Jacket, but just to be nice to those of us who like things to refer to strictly canon things, lets refer to him as Bob because of the "B" on his jacket (that and its pretty damn funny).This all starts out, as we all know, when Bob finds a message on his answering machine and a mask at his door, why he listens at first is probably because he signed up for it (50 blessings) but who knows, its later known that he lost his girlfriend earlier, maybe he expected to be caught (suicide by police?) this is supported by him going on dangerous missions all the time and not really caring. its not explicitly shown that he takes drugs alot and, to be honest, maybe either the losing his girlfriend bit was somehow massively traumatic or he just went plain insane, so maybe he takes alittle bit just to deal with stress, Due to the fact that he has a higher end sports car, takes drugs on the side to deal with the emotional pain/stress/killing, wears a varsity jacket, along with the fact that he has a videogame system in the 80s and no cooking skills, its assumed he is a rich highschool dropout. This is also reinforced by us assuming he has to have had firearm experience because he can use them effeciently, Now, on to the shops.

We all kind of assume the first cashier is an old friend of his, while I agree with this, the theory that the second shopkeeper is the would-be assassin spying on him I do not, since later on you find that Bob awakes from a coma, I think that its always been in a dream and the closer you get to him awakening the more unstable the dream gets (i.e. the murdered mobsters alive and walking occasionally) and he has associated the assassin with people who have treated him horribly, (i.e. the second shopkeeper).Now, as for the dreams.

The dreams, or technically the dreams within dreams (coma) when he is within a filthy room with three other masked personas, i see these personas as people, the horse being the girl he loves, the rooster being who he is in the dream, and the owl is either his concience, who he is outside of the coma, or who he was before the masks. (it could possibly be him trying to decide whats right and whats wrong by having different sides/people tell him what he thinks theyd say.)

"Biker"
We first meet Biker at PhomeHom after he killed all the employees and tries to find out what's happening on the pc, and fails after Bob kills him. We then take control of him after Bob's storyline, some of us prophecize that Bob never killed Biker and its all a dream or something weird, personally, I believe we just take part in what would've happened had Bob never killed Biker, just to flesh out in the story, maybe they're the same person and its jsut a confusing twist in the story thats never explained, maybe we'll never know, but one thing can be sure, Biker is like Bob but he tries to find out what is happening rather than following orders or trying to break out of it, as in Bob's and Richter's case. He seems to be saner than Bob despite the fact that at times he is a complete ♥♥♥♥ and thrill junkie considering he joined 50 blessings out of "boredom" and wants out because "its not exciting enough".

Here we will look at some of the insubstantial but nonetheless essential characters in the game.

Bum
He teaches you how to fight, thats about it, and thats probably not even true in reality.

Hooker/Don Juan
To be Completely honest I believe that they are the same person, Don Juan just being the dream version, But just incase, I am going to do two different analyzes of both.
We first meet Hooker at the end of Decadence and instead of killing her, Bob brings her to his apartment where she lives with him until Richter kills her, as the game progresses the flat becomes neater and its assumed its been Hooker cleaning up. Other characters refer to her as Bob's girlfriend and this probably true, being reinforced by them sleeping in the same room later on in the story.

Don Juan (the horse-masked girl in the dreams) is probably Hooker as well due to the fact that she is wearing the mask he finds in Decadence, and is the only one who cares about him and knows he kills.She also wears the same clothes as Hooker in the box art and sits the same way as she does on Bob's sofa, although the sitting may be just coincidence.

Richard
Richard is the Rooster in the dreams and the name of the first mask you aquire. it is a theory that Richard is Bob because he seems to know who Bob is in the dreams and its his first mask. I personally believe thats half true, Richard being who Bob is in his mind, but that not being his name or who he really is.

Rasmus
Rasmus is the owl in the dreams, I believe him to be either what Bob thinks of the Russian mobsters or who he was before 50 blessings, this is because Rasmus pretty much hates Bob's guts and all-in-all doesnt want him to be there, the Russian mobster theory is also supported by Rasmus's clothing and the blood that is only near him.... maybe Bob was a mobster before the game's events?

Richter The Rat
Richter is the would-be assassin of Hooker and almost Bob. Alot of people assume he is literally the evil shopkeeper later in the story. I personally believe that, as mentioned earlier, everything pre-coma is a dream version of what actually happened and since the dream is not the stablest of things, he associates the evilest of people with his assassin, hence the look-alike.
He is last seen on the final floor of Chapter 13 where you can either kill him or spare him, here he reveals that he as well does not have any answers.

Beard
Beard is the nice shopkeeper before richter, alot of people assume that he is literally every shopkeeper, I think, like richter, he is a nice old friend that Bob has associated with all nice people, although he seems to care about Bob as he brings up him being sad earlier about losing his girlfriend early in the game.He is later killed and replace by Richter the Rat, whether the death was metaphorical, literal, or a hallucination, i do not know.

The Old Man
The Old Man is the guy you kill after the final boss that Bob beats, not much is known about him except he probably is the leader of the russian mafia.

The Janitors
The Janitors are the leaders of a mysterious group called 50 blessings who leave the messages on the answering machines for Bob, Richter, Biker, and the others.

There are several factions that play a part in Hotline Miami's story. These are their stories.

The Russian Mafia
This is just your average run-of-the-mill russian mafia, money, death, hookers.

50 Blessings
50 Blessings is a small group started by two janitors hell-bent on destroying the russian mafia, fearing another cold war.other than this nothing else is known except that they are beginning to set up all over America.

PhoneHom
other than your average phone company PhoneHom is revealed to be a hidden cover for the russian mafia and/or 50 Blessings, other than the hidden ending its only ever mentioned during the level Bob kills Biker and when Biker kills Bob (alternate storylines, it gets messy).

"Ambiguity is deliberate. There are no answers here. Questions are all I have to offer a man like you"
I wonder if Denaton did this deliberately or in trying to find a way to describe "drugged out murder trip" stumbled across insanity.
We may never know the truth of the story.
But either way, this concludes my theories of Hotline miami's story



(also sorry for any inconsistencies i wrote half of this tired as hell late at night and the other later during the next day)