Sally Hardesty

Appearances

In The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Sally and her paraplegic brother, Franklin, travel with three friends - Jerry, Kirk, and Pam - to visit the grave of the Hardesty's grandfather after reports of grave robbing in the area. Afterwards, they decide to visit the old Hardesty family homestead. Along the way, they pick up a hitchhiker who talks about his family who worked at the old slaughterhouse. He borrows Franklin's pocket-knife and cuts himself, then takes a Polaroid picture of the others and demands money for it. When they refuse to pay, he burns the photo and slashes Franklin's arm with a straight razor. The group forces him out of the van and drive on. They stop at a gas station to refuel, but the proprietor tells them that the pumps are empty. They continue toward the homestead, planning to return to the gas station on the way back when it has received fuel delivery. When they arrive, Kirk and Pam find a swimming-hole dried up but hear a generator running. They stumble upon a nearby house. Kirk, Pam and Jerry are soon killed by Leatherface. Sally and Franklin become concerned when they can't find their friends. Leatherface appears and kills Franklin with a chainsaw and Sally runs to the old house. She runs up stairs and finds the desiccated bodies of an old couple. She jumps out of the second story window to escape Leatherface and runs to the gas station. The proprietor ties Sally up and forces her into the back of his truck and drives to the house. Sally is tied to a chair at a dinner table and Leatherface and the hitchhiker bring the desiccated body of the old man downstairs who sucks the blood from Sally's cut on her finger. They decide that he should be the one who should kill her. After several failed attempts of the old man trying to hit Sally with a hammer, she manages to escape and jump through the window and flee. She reaches the road and a semi-truck stops to help her but Leatherface attacks the driver. She jumps into the back of a pickup truck that stops to help her, escaping Leatherface.

Although she doesn't appear in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, Sally is mentioned in the beginning. It is said that she described the traumatic experience as feeling like she had "broken out of a window in hell", and that she had went into catatonia after her ordeal to the police.

In the intro speech for Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III, it is said that Sally died in a private health care facility in 1977. The events of the first sequel happens in 1986 and Sally seems to still be alive at that point. This movie retcons the events of Part 2, so no error is caused with this statement.

In Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation, Sally has a cameo appearance. She is briefly shown being wheeled through a hospital on a gurney while still in a coma. Marilyn Burns reprises her role for this film. Despite the third movie ignoring the events of the sequel and establishing Sally's death years prior, they are briefly mentioned in the movie's opening text happening in the same continuity, causing a plot hole.

Sally appears in a flashback scene in Texas Chainsaw 3D.

Reception

The character has been regarded as one of the greatest and earliest examples of the final girl trope. Jonny Hughes praised her toughness, saying:

"Few Final Girls go through as harrowing of experiences as Sally Hardesty in Tobe Hooper’s enormously influential The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. First her, her brother and friends encounter a rather troubling hitchhiker who makes them fear for their lives, but this is nothing compared to what follows. Leatherface brutally kills her friends, and then kills her brother in front of her. She then flees in terror as she is chased by a chainsaw-wielding Leatherface, but after thinking she is safe, she is then dragged back to the house. She is then tortured and tormented by the deeply disturbing cannibal family, but, being a fighter, Sally manages to escape for a second time and narrowly gets away in the back of a truck. The awful events she goes through, the fact that she escapes twice, and her fierce determination to survive make her one of the genre’s toughest Final Girls."

Lisa Fermont also praised the character's toughness, calling Sally her favorite final girl: "Everything that Sally is put through is mentally, emotionally and physically draining, but the girl manages to survive." Rob Galluzzo said that Sally isn't a final girl but a survivor, saying "Sally wasn’t a “final girl.” She wasn’t a “scream queen.” She was a character that faced the most difficult of challenges and through pure sheer will somehow managed to survive the most horrific ordeal anyone should ever have to face. She’s a survivor".