An automotive hood hinge assembly is adapted to act as a safety device in the event of a collision with a pedestrian. The hood hinge assembly is constructed from a series of linkages and an energy storage actuator that is configured to raise the rear of a vehicle hood in response to a pedestrian collision. The deployed system forms a rigid structure that restrains rearward movement of the hood while providing a vertical motion path and resistive force capable of efficiently dissipating the energy imparted by the pedestrian and therefore significantly lowering injury levels. The linkages are configured to provide conventional rotary opening and closing motion of the hood when the system is in the retracted position and also provide a reset function so that a simple opening and closing motion of the hood when the system is in the deployed position resets it to the retracted position.