The Descent

The Descent (2005)

13 corrected entries

(7 votes)

Corrected entry: As the woman is driving away from the cave at the end of the movie, the license plate on the front of the Bronco is from North Carolina. The license plate on the back is from Montana.

Correction: The plates on the front and back of the Bronco are both Montana plates. It is very hard to see them, but they are definitely not the "First in Flight" North Carolina plates.

Rochelle McCarty

Correction: They are absolutely the NC plates.

Corrected entry: In the second half of the film, after the remaining cavers are trying to escape the creatures, there is a scene where one of the girls attempts to slide through a hole. She hears something behind her, turns and shines her torch around the cave and discovers that several of them are there watching her. She then jumps in the hole and starts to crawl away as quickly as possible. The mistake is to do with the lighting. In the shots which face her, with the small hole behind her, the cavern is bathed in green light from the fluorescent tube. However in the shot showing the torch moving around her and revealing the creatures, there is no green light - it is pitch black, obviously for dramatic effect. The green light is very strong and lit up one of the caverns earlier, why not this one.

Correction: This is more of a question than an actual mistake, and you've pretty much answered it yourself. The shot revealing the creatures does not have the green light for dramatic effect. This is also a deliberate mistake, not a continuity error.

THGhost

Corrected entry: When Sara is running through the hospital hall at the start of the film and Beth stops her, no medical personnel even give her second glance or offer help.

jACKAROOBEAR

Correction: Why is this a plot hole? Sarah is distraught and her friend is comforting her. The medical staff would most likely be fairly used to seeing upset relatives of their patients and would therefore not approach them unless they were doing something that required their intervention.

Corrected entry: Sara falls into a "pool" of blood presumably created by the creatures eating habits. The issue with this is that when blood is released from circulation it coagulates. This means the blood "pool" she is in should be more of a gelatin-like texture.

Stefanie

Correction: The "pool of blood" doesn't just contain blood. If you look carefully you can see a small waterfall in the background of the shots. This is just a pool of water that the blood from the monsters "feeding ground" has run off into. It is essentially extremely bloody water, which wouldn't completely coagulate but would still be rather thick. (On a side note, you can see chunks of coagulated blood on the surface of the pool)

Nick Bylsma

Corrected entry: When the girls reach the cave, the blue truck parks and the BMW parks on its left side. When the last girl reaches the surface, she gets it the blue truck. When she goes to the truck, the beamer isn't there, But when she pulls out its on the left again.

Correction: This scene is a hallucination of Sarah's, as in the final scene we see she is still in the cave. She can be misremembering where the vehicles were parked, and as she is not thinking, remembering them at one point both being present, and at another only the Bronco II.

rswarrior

Her still being in the cave is in the UK release but not the USA version-in the latter, she escapes but hallucinates that Juno is in the vehicle with her as she tries to get away.

Erik M.

Corrected entry: Obviously these girls are amateurs, I do not believe any responsible caver would throw flares in a first descent, or that a seasoned climber would place a cam upside down (second cam placement shown in first hole crossing) and last but not least, not lock off a belay resulting in her partner's fall and hand injury.

jACKAROOBEAR

Correction: They are amateurs, or at best, novices, who think they are more experienced than they are. How is this a mistake? All the things you mentioned are character mistakes, and things to be expected from spelunkers who get in over their heads.

They regularly mention their "climbing days." Locking off the belay is the most important rope technique in climbing. The cam is used implying it's gear that's been used before and buying used active protection is not a thing anyone does.

Corrected entry: In order for there to be a gene pool diverse enough to allow the creatures to breed successfully for more than a few generations there would needs to be hundreds of them. From their eating habits they are primarily carnivores. It is highly unlikely that there would be enough food for a population of this size within range of the caves.

Correction: Although it isn't ideal, species are in fact able to exist whilst lacking a diverse genepool. Indeed a number of species exist today that are descended from either a single breeding pair or a very small number of individuals. Examples include the Golden Hamster, of which the vast majority are now descended from a single litter, and Cheetahs, who are now all descended from a small number of individuals who managed to survive extinction and indeed are now highly genetically inbred. The creatures in the caves could therefore easily have all been descendants of very few indivduals.

jet

Corrected entry: When the girls rap down to the base of the entry hole, no one has a Dewalt hammer drill hanging off their harness. At the traverse across the first hole Becca lugs one across which disappears in future scenes.

jACKAROOBEAR

Correction: The extra equipment is in a bag that one of the girls is carrying. It's the same bag that they lose when the cave-in happens. However, they did retrieve a few items from the bag before it was lost, including the hammer.

Jazetopher

Corrected entry: Near the start of the movie when the guy is driving, he crashes into the van and the copper pipes go through the windscreen. Blood appears on the back of the seat before the pipes even touch him.

philip hollyoak

Correction: The first pipe actually passes the man's seat just to his left and even though you don't see it, the pipe has hit the little girl, who was sitting in the very middle of the back seat. The blood you see on the back of his seat is her blood splatter. The second pipe hits his head, and his blood comes through the headrest. If you watch in slow motion, you can see this happen at 03:54.

Rochelle McCarty

Corrected entry: When one of the girls is looking for climbing equipment, but doesn't have any with her, she says, "Oh f***." but her mouth doesn't move.

Correction: Sam's hands are in the way for us to be able to see her mouth when she says this.

Corrected entry: After the girls get caved in they travel through the cave and come to a drop, one of them throws a rock down to see how far down the drop is and it makes a "Clang" sound. At the end of the film the three of the girls are chased back to that point, two of them are killed by the creatures and one jumps off the ledge but she hits water. Water doesn't make that sound.

Correction: Already listed and corrected.

Corrected entry: Near the beginning when the girls reach the first large cavern lit by the red flares, a crew member can be seen in the lower left hand corner hiding behind one of the rocks. It is not one of the monsters, as you can see a well trimmed beard and mustache on their face.

Correction: I looked very hard and I couldn't see anybody hiding in the rocks.

Corrected entry: After the girls are caved in they come to a huge drop, one of them throws a rock down to see how far down the drop is, when the rock eventually hits the bottom a loud clang sound is heard. Later a few girls are chased back to that point, two of them are killed the other chooses to jump off the ledge, but she hits water. water doesn't make loud clang sounds.

Correction: It's not the same drop.

Visible crew/equipment: In the shot of Holly falling and breaking her leg, a wire can be seen at the top of the frame suspending her down. (00:48:35)

THGhost

More mistakes in The Descent

Sam: Trying to set this watch is impossible, the buttons are too fucking small.
Holly: Why do you wear that thing anyway?
Sam: My boyfriend gave it to me, it's sentimental.
Holly: It's fucking mental, any guy who'd give that to me I'd dump him on the spot.

More quotes from The Descent

Trivia: Due to the potential dangers of filming in a real cave the entirety of the film was shot on sets. Twenty one "caves" were built for the shoot.

Jack Vaughan

More trivia for The Descent

Question: Can someone explain the end. Does she go insane and go back to the mountain, or did she never escape?

Answer: She does escape, as seen in the Descent Part 2.

Answer: This depends on which version you have watched, as the UK and US versions have different endings. In the US version, after Sarah abandons Juno, she continues running through the cave, slips and is knocked unconscious, then sees daylight and escapes the cave. If it is the US version you are referring too, then the movie ends with her escaping the cave, and the sequel The Descent: Part 2 continues the story with her going back to the cave. If it is the UK version you are referring to, she is shown awakening back in the cave after escaping, revealing that the scene where she escaped was all a dream and she is still trapped in the cave. In this version, Sarah has lost her mind, brought on by the fact that her friends have all died and all hope of escaping has been lost. She succumbs to her insanity and chooses only to see something that will bring her happiness, which in this case is her daughter with a birthday cake. (Anything that happens in The Descent: Part 2 is irrelevant to the UK version as it follows on from the US ending).

Casual Person

More questions & answers from The Descent

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