AJuno leads Sarah and Rios toward where she thinks the crawlers have an exit they use when hunting outside. Within sight of the exit, they encounter two crawlers feeding and a third crawler hauling in a dead elk. As quietly as possible, they attempt to skirt around the crawlers, but Juno's leg is grabbed by a dying Greg (the crawlers dragged his body to their feeding ground), and she screams, alerting the crawlers to their presence. Sarah and Rios kill a few crawlers, but Juno is losing her battle with a very large crawler. Sarah attempts to strangle the crawler using the chain on the handcuffs still attached to her arm, but the crawler reacts by ripping into Juno's stomach. Juno collapses, leaving Sarah to finish off the crawler. Juno dies in Sarah's arms as the roaring of several crawlers can be heard coming closer. Before they head toward the exit, Sarah closes Juno's eyes and places Paul's pendant in Juno's hand. Rios turns away and comes face-to-face with four crawlers. Four more crawlers begin descending from above. In a heroic last-ditch effort, Sarah screams loudly, alerting a dozen or more crawlers to her whereabouts and giving Rios enough time to crawl through the exit. Rios lifts herself out of the hole, screams, and takes off running. She stops to phone for help and is suddenly knocked out with a shovel carried by the same man who picked up Sarah at the beginning of the movie. He drags Rios' body back to the exit and places her just outside of it. In the final scene, a crawler leaps up inside the hole and reaches for Rios' body.
QWhy did the old man hit Rios with a shovel and dump her back at the mouth of the cave to be eaten by the Crawlers?
AThis is not revealed, but several theories have been offered. (1) He does not want the locations of the cave entrances revealed to outsiders lest they start swarming the area with sightseers and spelunkers who may then become prey to the crawlers, (2) he knows about the crawlers and feeds them either to protect them or to stop them from feeding on locals, or (3) he is a sociopath and killed Rios because he likes to kill people. Perhaps he's done this many times before. Dumping the bodies at the mouth of the cave, where he knows they'll be eaten, could be part of his enjoyment. (4) He is using her as bait to trap a Crawler. Also, evidence supporting (2) and (3) is lacking, since he readily aided Sarah when he picked her up on the road and assisted the officials when they tried to figure out where she came from.
QWhat do the creatures look like?
AThe humanoid creatures, referred to as "Crawlers" in the credits, are, according to Neil Marshall, director of The Descent, "cave men that never left the cave; they evolved over thousands of years, living down there in families. They've lost their eyesight; they have better hearing; and they function perfectly in the pitch black."
However, the Crawlers do come to the surface to hunt animals such as wolves, deer, etc and carry their carcasses back into the caves for food. A photo of one of the creatures can be seen here.
Share this