Sarah Carter is the main protagonist of the series and one of the six women who descended into the Appalachian Cave System and were pitted against cannibalistic monsters known as the Crawlers.
She is portrayed by Shauna Macdonald appearing in the first Descent surviving the advances of the Crawlers in the Appalachian Cave System but died at the hands of the blind beasts in the following The Descent Part II.
The Descent[]
She was the wife of Paul Carter and mother to six year old Jessica Carter, both perished in a car accident following Sarah’s white water rafting excursion that took place a year prior to the movie’s events.
Sarah experiences hallucinations of Jessica overlooking a birthday cake from her sixth birthday, and metal rods shooting out to impale her or others; much in the same way her family was killed by being impaled by pipes in their car crash.
Sarah was convinced into accompanying Juno Kaplan and other women to explore the Boreham Caves by her best friend Beth.
The women are led by Juno towards the cave entrance, they repel down one by one into the cave. Almost immediately they are met with obstacles that were unexpected and another experienced member of the group realizes that this can’t be the Boreham Cave.
While crawling into a small tunnel, Sarah begins to hyperventilate triggering a partial collapse of the tunnel, Beth crawls back in to help remove Sarah, during this process they are forced to abandon their ropes bag.
Sarah covered in blood
As the woman continue deeper into the cave, more and more odd sounds (Jessica laughing, strange growling, or sounds of movement) lure Sarah away from the group and she sees a pale humanoid figure in the distance. The figure disappears before Juno is there to see it.
The party is attacked by these creatures, causing the group to part ways, Sarah is left alone.
Sarah witnesses Holly being devoured by Crawlers but was not present for the accidental attack of Beth by Juno Kaplan.
Sarah later discovers that Juno killed Beth when she finds Juno’s necklace clutched in Beth’s bloody hand, before she accepts Beth’s request for Sarah to kill her.
Sarah and Juno are reunited and Sarah begins to confront Juno on the whereabouts of the other girls. When Sarah asks if Beth is dead, Juno nods her head; Sarah asks if Juno saw Beth die, Juno again nods her head.
Sarah shows Juno her necklace and they both stare at each other, indicating that Sarah knows what really happened to Beth and Juno’s affair with her husband Paul. They hear more crawlers approaching, Sarah cripples Juno with a strike from her pickaxe to the leg and leaves her behind. Juno pulls the pickaxe out of her leg and stumbles around to face multiple crawlers. As Sarah runs away she hears Juno screaming which suddenly fades away, Sarah assumes she's officially avenged Beth's death.
Sarah runs from Juno’s last location, ultimately tripping and falling into another feeding pit and passing out. Sarah is woken up by sunlight shining on her face and starts climbing a large pile of bones up to the surface.
After breaching the surface, Sarah climbs out and behind running back towards the groups two vehicles. She overcomes her fear of driving and speeds as far away from the cave as possible before pulling over and sobbing. The last shot if the movie is of a bloody image of Juno in the passenger’s seat next to Sarah,
In the UK version, Sarah's escape was imaginary, actually still being in the caves and hallucinating that her daughter is still alive and with her in the caves, the pair sat around a birthday cake and Crawlers fast approaching in the darkness. The US version, however, cuts out the hallucination scene, just showing Sarah escape the caves and running into the woodland.
The Descent Part II[]
Sarah then escaped ,crazed and delusional, and was found by a passerby in a pickup truck, and presumably checked into a local hospital.
Two days later, when Sarah was recovering, the local Sheriff and Ellen Rios, a deputy, forced Sarah to return to the cave system believing she is responsible for the disappearances of the other women, including Juno, who is the niece of a local senator.
Once there, she was joined by three other professional cave explorers, and the team entered through an old abandoned mine shaft. When at the bottom, they discover the bone chamber (a cave full of animal remains that appeared in parts I and II) and the women's camcorder (also from part I). The Sheriff uses a night vision-capable device to scan the dark cave, but is attacked by a Crawler. He then fires his gun, missing the Crawler, but causes parts of the cave to collapse, separating the team up. The Sheriff is alone, whilst Sarah is with Rios and two of the pro's are together, whilst the third is trapped in the rocks. The two pro's check the camcorder. On it was footage of them before the cave descent, taken especially for part II, and footage of them in the cave (reused from part I), including their first Crawler attack, from part I. This scene is also accompanied, ironically, by a Crawler appearance and attack. During the attack, one of the professionals is killed by a Crawler, and Sarah steals his rucksack whilst the corpse is being dragged away by the Crawler.
A short time later, Cath, the third pro, escapes from her small gap in the rocks after being chased by a Crawler, kicking a support from under a large boulder and crushing the pursuing Crawler's skull. She then reunites with Greg, the other remaining pro cave expert and friend. They are both eventually killed, when Cath and Greg discover their path is blocked by a large chasm and their only option is the remains of a woman from part I who is suspended from a rope across this chasm. They are confronted by two Crawlers, one male and the other female. Greg resourcefully uses a power drill from his rucksack on the Crawler's skull, killing it. Then, when he sees the other Crawler hanging onto Cath, he jumps and grabs it, sending them both into the chasm, but saving Cath. Cath, after swinging for the other side, is reduced to tears and shouts down into the dark chasm for Greg, but then hears a Crawler behind her and gets ripped to shreds.
In the meantime, the Sheriff Vaines is saved from a Crawler by Juno, who has survived in the caves, and also, Sarah and Rios were discovered in a tunnel by a Crawler and fought it off in the Crawlers' "shit pit".
Sarah, Rios, Juno and the Sheriff are reunited once more, and the Sheriff, figuring that Sarah might escape and leave them like she did with Juno, handcuffed himself to her. Then, after crossing a very unstable rock over another large chasm, it collapses under the Sheriff. Rios and Juno help Sarah, who is straining her arm with the Sheriff's weight, but Juno says the Sheriff must go, especially when the Crawlers climb up the rock face after him. Juno hacks through his arm with her trusty pickaxe, sending him and the Crawlers back down the chasm and saving Sarah's sore wrist.
The three find themselves in the last cave section before the exit, but this appears to be the Crawlers main feeding area and residence and is full of many Crawlers. They try to sneak to the exit, but Juno's leg is grabbed by Greg, who is alive at the last minute before he dies and screams, giving them away. They then fight the Crawlers, with Juno being landed with the Alpha male of the Crawler pack. When Sarah and Rios finish off their Crawlers, they assist Juno, with Sarah strangling it on what remained of her handcuffs. The Alpha male, as a last resort before death, ripped Juno in the abdomen, fatally wounded her. Sarah and Rios then saw more Crawlers arriving, and Sarah faces the fact that she has nothing to live for. She lost her family and all her friends whilst Rios has a husband and daughter, so Sarah sacrifices herself for Rios's escape by screaming and making the Crawlers run and kill her.
Sadly, Sarah's sacrifice appeared to be in vain. Just as Rios escaped and was about to call for help with her cellphone, she is attacked with a shovel by Ed, the man who saved Sarah at the start of Part II and led the team to the abandoned mine shaft. He then drags her body back to the hole just as she starts to come back around, and the camera zooms into the hole just as a Crawler pops up.
Quotes[]
'Add quotes'