The Descent is a 2005 British adventure horror film written and directed by Neil Marshall. The film follows six women who, having entered a cave system, struggle to survive against the humanoid creatures inside.
Filming took place in the United Kingdom. Exterior scenes were filmed at Ashridge Park, Hertfordshire, and in Scotland. Because the filmmakers considered it too dangerous and time-consuming to shoot in an actual cave, interior scenes were filmed on sets built at Pinewood Studios near London designed by Simon Bowles.
The Descent opened in cinemas in the United Kingdom on 8 July 2005. It premiered in the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and released on 4 August 2006 in the United States. The film received positive reviews and was a box-office success, grossing $57.1 million against a £3.5 million budget.
A sequel, titled The Descent Part 2, directed by the first film's editor Jon Harris, was released in 2009.
Plot[]
Thrill seeker friends Sarah, Juno, and Beth whitewater raft together. Afterward, Sarah, along with her husband Paul and their daughter Jessica, are involved in a car accident when Paul is distracted. Paul and Jessica are killed, but Sarah survives.
One year later, Sarah, Juno, and Beth, as well as friends Sam, Rebecca, and newcomer Holly reunite at a cabin in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina for a spelunking adventure. The next day, they hike up to a mountain cave entrance and descend. While in the cave, Juno apologizes to Sarah for not being there for her after the accident, but Sarah is distant. After the group moves through a narrow passage, it collapses behind them, trapping them. After a heated discussion, Juno admits that she has led the group into an unknown cave system instead of the fully explored cave system that they had originally planned to visit, and so rescue is therefore impossible. She then tells Sarah that this adventure was in the hopes of restoring their relationship.
As the group presses forward with hopes of finding an exit, they discover aged climbing equipment and a cave painting that suggests an exit exists. Holly, thinking she sees sunlight, runs ahead, but falls down a hole and breaks her leg. As the others help Holly, Sarah wanders off and observes a pale, humanoid creature drinking at a pool before it scampers away. Later, the group comes across a den of animal bones and is suddenly attacked by a creature known as a "crawler." Holly is killed when a crawler attacks and bites through her throat. Sarah runs and falls down a hole, where she is knocked unconscious. Juno, trying to prevent Holly's body from being dragged away, kills a crawler with her pickaxe but then, startled and in shock, accidentally strikes Beth through the neck. Beth collapses with Juno's pendant in her hand and begs Juno not to leave her, but a traumatized Juno flees.
Sarah awakens to find herself in a den of human and animal carcasses, witnessing Holly's body being mauled and eaten by crawlers. Juno discovers cave markings from previous explorers that point to a specific path through the caves. Juno locates Sam and Rebecca. Sam has deduced that the crawlers are blind and rely on sound to hunt. Juno tells them about the markings, but she will not leave without Sarah.
Meanwhile, Sarah encounters Beth, who tells her that Juno wounded then abandoned her. Beth gives her Juno's pendant, which Sarah recognizes as a gift from Paul, and realizes that Juno and Paul had an affair before his death. Beth begs Sarah to euthanize her, which Sarah reluctantly does by bashing her head in with a rock. Sarah then encounters several crawlers and manages to kill them all, falling into a blood-filled pond in the process and emerging covered in blood.
Elsewhere, Juno, Sam and Rebecca are pursued by a large group of crawlers. They reach a chasm and Sam tries to climb across, but a crawler scaling the ceiling attacks and rips her throat out. Sam stabs it before bleeding to death in front of Juno and Rebecca. Rebecca is then dragged away and eaten alive as Juno escapes. Juno encounters Sarah and lies to her about seeing Beth die. After defeating a group of crawlers close to the exit, Sarah confronts Juno, revealing the pendant and her knowledge of Beth's fate and the affair with Paul. Sarah then strikes Juno in the leg with a pickaxe and leaves her to die as a swarm of crawlers approaches. Juno is last heard screaming as Sarah escapes. Sarah falls down a hole and is knocked unconscious.
US Ending: When Sarah awakens, she sees sunlight and clambers up a slope covered in bones to escape the cave. After exhaustedly running to her car, she speeds out of the woods before she pulls over to the side of the road, breaking down in tears. After a truck passes her, she vomits out the window. When she sits up, she sees a hallucination of a bloodied Juno sitting next to her and screams.
UK Ending: Following the events of the US ending, Sarah awakens in the cave after hallucinating her escape. She sits up to see Jessica sitting across from her, holding a birthday cake. As Sarah smiles the shot widens to reveal that the cake's birthday-candlelight is actually the light of her torch. The camera slowly backs out as the crawlers are heard closing in on Sarah, revealing that she is still trapped in the cave.