| “ | I was broke, okay? Yes, somebody died, but it wasn't my fault! | ” |
— Carly speaks about her past crimes[src]
| ||
Carly is a fictional character from the Saw franchise as well as a supporting protagonist of Jigsaw.
She was portrayed by Brittany Allen.
Quick Answers
What is the backstory of Carly from the Saw franchise?
Who portrayed Carly in the Saw series?
What criminal activity was Carly involved in within the Saw series?
What significant event led to Carly's change of heart in the Saw series?
How does Carly's character contribute to the plot of Saw 8?
Biography[]
The Robbery[]
Carly witnesses the death of her victim
Carly was a young woman and a criminal. Due to her bad financial condition, she began to steal purses to make ends meet. One day, she robbed a woman who sat at a table outside a café. Carly went by, grabbed her handbag, and immediately ran away. However, upon searching the purse, she found an inhaler inside. Feeling a pang of conscience, she intended to give it back to the woman. Unfortunately, the woman had suffered a sudden asthma attack while pursuing her. Upon her return, Carly witnessed how the woman died on the street. Therefore, she decided to flee and took the stolen money with her. (Jigsaw)
Abduction[]
John prepares the game
For her crime and the woman's death, Carly was eventually targeted by John Kramer, better known as the Jigsaw Killer. One day, he subdued Carly and took her unconscious body to an abandoned pig farm, which belonged to the family of his ex-wife, Jill Tuck, but had been closed down after an outbreak of Aujeszky's disease. Once they arrived there, John trapped her in a room along with four other people - Anna, Mitch, Ryan, and Dr. Logan Nelson - who were also abducted for previous misdeeds. John fettered each of them with metallic neck shackles, which were attached to long chains leading to five doors on the other side of the room. Additionally, he put buckets with eye slits on their heads. Those were connected to their shackles by two laterally attached metal pins. Finally, he injected Carly with a deadly poison. After finishing all of his preparations, John left the room through a hidden door. (Jigsaw)
First Test[]
Carly in the first trap
Shortly afterward, the prisoners were awakened by an audible alarm. As the lights turned on and they came back to their senses, they were initially confused, but quickly started to panic upon realizing that they were trapped. Anna desperately begged Ryan for help, as he stood right next to her. Ryan, however, angrily pushed her away. Driven by fear, Anna and the others tried to free themselves from their shackles. These attempts were eventually interrupted by John, who spoke to them over a loudspeaker. He accused all of them of having harmed other people with their lies and demanded that they had to confess their sins to save themselves. Furthermore, he explained that they all had to offer a sacrifice of blood if they wanted to get out of the room alive.
Carly is pulled towards the saws
Following John's speech, the chains were tightened, and the prisoners were dragged towards the five doors on the opposite side of the room. Attached to each of these doors were several rotating circular saw blades in various sizes. As they were pulled towards the blades, Carly desperately tried to wake up Logan, who lay next to her and hadn't regain his consciousness yet. After they initially tried to fight back, Anna finally realized that each of them had to sacrifice a small amount of blood and, therefore, reluctantly cut her arm on one of the blades. Thereby, she only suffered a superficial slash wound and was able to take the bucket from her head. As she told the others what to do, Mitch and Ryan followed suit and managed to get free as well. Only Carly made a stand against Anna, who tried to help her. Thereby, Carly was jerked into the blades. Although she was freed from her bucket as well, she received a flesh wound on her back. After that, their doors were opened, and they were dragged to the next room by their chains. Logan, however, who only woke up near the end of the game, couldn't react fast enough and was pulled into the blades, despite Anna's attempt to tell him what to do. (Jigsaw)
Death[]
Carly and the others in the second room
Moments later, the doors closed behind them, and the chains stopped to pull them forward any further. While Mitch tried to kick in another door nearby, Anna grabbed a cloth to take care of Carly's wounds. Even though Carly was highly distrustful and initially snapped at everyone who touched her, she ultimately allowed Anna to help her. When Mitch spotted a camera and demanded to know what their abductor wanted from them, Anna reminded him that they were told to confess their sins if they wanted to earn their freedom.
Carly and the others are pulled towards the pulleys
Suddenly, the group heard a noise and saw two red-glowing dots at the rear of the room. These dots quickly turned out to be the glowing eyes of a mechanical ventriloquist puppet, which slowly approached them on a red tricycle. Hanging around its neck were a tape recorder as well as a note with the word "Confess." written on it. Despite its frightening appearance, the puppet eventually came to a standstill, seemingly posing no threat at all. However, when Mitch decided to make another try at opening the door, which was secured by a combination lock, the puppet started to mockingly laugh at them. At the same moment, the chains were tightened once more, and the group was pulled forward towards a series of large, upright standing pulleys. Anna immediately tried to prevent this from happening by winding her chain around a nearby pillar. The pulling force, however, was too strong and she was pulled forward nonetheless, thereby receiving a minor slash wound from a string of razor wire wound around the pillar. When Anna desperately yelled at the others to confess their sins, Mitch made a start and told the others how he once sold a motorcycle to a young man who died in an accident about ten minutes later. However, he put all the blame on his customer, stating that it wasn't his fault that the latter wasn't able to handle the bike properly. Anna was the next one to confess and revealed that she and her husband, Matthew, had lost their child because her husband made a mistake. When Ryan angrily stated that marital problems were not the kind of sins that their abductor was aking for, Anna admitted that she let their marriage break apart.
As they were dragged even further, Mitch got close enough to the puppet to grab the tape recorder and, in doing so, he pulled on a hidden wire attached to it. This triggered a mechanism, which caused the pulleys to fall to the ground, stopping the chains from pulling the prisoners further across the room. Anna, while initially relieved, was shocked when she realized that their abductor seemingly intended to hang them. Just as they managed to calm down, Ryan told Mitch to play the tape when suddenly, a metallic contraption was lowered from the ceiling. The contraption held three syringes, each one marked with a different numerical sequence - 964583.4, 2034.23, and 3.53. Mitch played the recording, which introduced the group to their second test. Jigsaw's voice warned them that more blood would be shed, and all of them would be judged if they refused to confess their misdeeds. He accused one of them of being a purse snatcher, whose actions once caused the death of another human. This person had been injected with a deadly poison before the start of the game and would die if they didn't get the right medication. Jigsaw explained that one of the syringes contained the antidote, another one held a saline solution, and the last one was filled with an acid that would cause a painful death. If the purse snatcher chose the right one, all of them would be released from their chains. Otherwise, all of them would die. Jigsaw asked what a life was worth to them, thereby ending the tape and starting the game.
Ryan tells Carly to choose a syringe
As all of them remained silent, Ryan pointed out that they would all die if the person addressed by the tape didn't confess. Anna immediately told the others to check themselves for injection marks as Jigsaw had claimed that one of them had been injected with poison. As Carly was the only one who didn't do so, the others concluded that she was the purse snatcher. Therefore, Ryan picked up the syringes and told Carly to choose one, much to her dismay. As she started to panic and was too afraid to make a choice, Mitch and Ryan tried to convince her, with Ryan being much more aggressive. Hoping that a confession might be enough to free them, Anna asked her if Jigsaw was telling the truth about her. Carly admitted that she stole purses from other people years earlier, but claimed that she didn't kill anyone in the process. Just when Ryan angrily accused her of lying, Carly finally revealed the truth. She once stole a purse from an asthmatic woman, not knowing that it contained her inhaler. Even though this action resulted in the woman's death, Carly still claimed that it wasn't her fault. As their time was running out, Ryan aggressively yelled at her and threatened her with the needles, saying that he'd stick all three of them into her if she didn't choose one. The others tried to hold him back and, Mitch told Carly to look at the numbers on the syringes to see if they meant anything to her. Despite her panic, she ultimately realized that the syringe with the sequence 3.53 was referring to the amount of money she stole from the money, concluding that this was the answer to Jigsaw's question of what a life was worth to her.
Carly is killed by the acid
At this moment, the metal contraption formerly holding the needles was moved back to the ceiling. As their time was over, Ryan desperately begged Carly to tell him which needle she wanted. However, despite knowing which syringe was the correct one, she refused to choose one as she was too afraid that she might pick the acid. Eventually, the chains around their necks began to pull them upward, strangling them in the process. In an attempt to save their lives, Ryan grabbed Carly and tried to stab her with the syringes. Anna wanted to prevent him from doing so but was unable to hold him back. After struggling with Carly several feet above the floor, Ryan ultimately managed to stick all three of the needles into her neck. This action immediately released all four of them from their shackles, causing them to fall to the ground and allowing them to breathe. Moments later, however, Anna, Mitch, and Ryan witnessed the deadly effects of the acid as Carly started to bleed from her eyes and her neck. Although she ripped out the needles, the acid ate its way through her skin, killing her. (Jigsaw)
Post-Mortem[]
Carly's corpse
Shocked by Ryan's actions, Anna angrily attacked him for murdering Carly, although he pointed out that he had saved the three of them in the process. When Mitch eventually intervened, Anna managed to calm down again and remembered Carly's last words of a life being worth 3.53$. While she covered Carly's mutilated head with her jacket, Mitch examined the syringes and thereby found another sequence - L24R45L23. It was written on a metal piece inside the syringe but hadn't been visible until the piston was pushed. Assuming that this was the combination to the locked door, Mitch tried to open it once more and was finally successful this time around.
Sometime later, after the game had come to an end, John Kramer returned and saw the aftermath of the massacre. By unknown means, he disposed of Carly's body. The Metropolitan Police Department never found her body, and it took about a decade before they even discovered the barn. (Jigsaw)
Personality[]
Carly was a greedy and selfish person, enriching herself at the expense of others instead of making an honest living. Her early life as a thief showed that she had no respect for the property of others and primarily cared about herself in the first place. This selfish way of thinking ultimately caused a tragedy when Carly inadvertently caused the death of the asthmatic woman. Initially, Carly wanted to help the woman by returning her inhaler to her, showing that she wasn't entirely incapable of remorse. However, her greed eventually overweighed. Despite witnessing the deadly results of her actions, she kept the stolen money, thereby displaying not only her greediness but also her generally depraved morality.
Furthermore, Carly was a coward, too afraid to face her rightful punishment. Even when she was confronted with her impending death, Carly denied any responsibility for the woman's demise. Her fear and general distrust of others tended to cloud her judgment, especially in situations of distress. This trait of hers ultimately proved to be fatal when she was forced to play John Kramer's game and face the consequences of her dishonest deeds. Despite correctly identifying the right syringe that could save her life, Carly refused to inject herself with the antidote as her fear prevented her from thinking reasonably. Instead, she was more willing to let herself and her fellow prisoners die instead of taking any risks.
Trivia[]
- She shared some similarities with Amanda Young. Both characters committed a crime, which accidentally resulted in someone else's death. Additionally, both of them participated in a game involving needles. Furthermore, Amanda and Carly were both killed by an injury to the neck.
- Her death is also similar to William Easton's death in Saw VI, as both characters died from an injection with hydrofluoric acid.
Appearances and References[]
| Films | |||||||||
| Saw | Saw II | Saw III | Saw IV | Saw V | Saw VI | Saw 3D | Jigsaw | Spiral | Saw X |
| Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Flashback | Absent | Absent |
| Other Media | |||||
| "Saw" (2003 Short) |
Saw: Rebirth (2005 Comic) |
Full Disclosure Report | The Scott Tibbs Documentary | Saw: The Video Game | Saw II: Flesh & Blood |
| Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |