Sally Hardesty

Sally Hardesty is the main protagonist and the final girl in , a mentioned character in the sequel , and a supporting character in the 2022 film . She is a young, strong-willed teenager who had escaped Leatherface and his cannibalistic family.
She was portrayed by the late in 1974, and by in 2022.
She is the first person to encounter Leatherface and survive. Marilyn Burns' performance as Sally has been compared to Sandra Peabody as Mari Collingwood in and ' performance as Laurie Strode in .
==Biography==
===The Texas Chain Saw Massacre===
Sally resided with her brother Franklin in Texas. She and Franklin travels with Kirk and Pam, along with her boyfriend Jerry, to Texas to visit the grave of their late grandfather and to investigate reports of vandalism and grave robbing. Afterwards, they decide to visit the old Hardesty family homestead.
Along the way they pick up a hitchhiker named Nubbins Sawyer. Nubbins acts very strange and suddenly slashes both himself and Franklin with a straight razor before the group forces him out of the van. Pam and Kirk went missing after they left for a local swimming hole. It gets late and Jerry decides to look for them while Sally and Franklin stay behind at the van. Darkness falls and Jerry hadn’t returned so Sally and Franklin decide to look for him. After fighting over a flashlight Sally shoved Franklin through the hilly woods while they scream for Jerry.
Still looking for Jerry, Franklin hears something and tells Sally to stop. Before she could react, Leatherface appears and kills Franklin with his chainsaw while Sally watches in shocked horror. She runs into the woods with Leatherface chasing her. Due to her small stature and Leatherface's large body she is able to slip through the dense woods with ease while Leatherface has to pause to cut through limbs.
After coming out of the woods Sally discovers a house and she goes inside hoping to get help (unknowlingy for her, she ran into the killer's home). She runs upstairs and finds two dried-up corpses sitting in chairs. She panics and runs downstairs to try and get out, but Leatherface comes in through the door starting chasing her upstairs. Sally jumps out of an upstairs window, falls to the ground and begins running through the woods again. 
Once more, Sally gets chased by Leatherface throught the woods. Ultimately she arrives at the gas station where she and her friends had been before. She runs inside the station, barely escaping Leatherface, and meets the gas station manager from earlier. The man goes out to go get his truck and leaves Sally inside, saying everything is gonna be okay. The man comes back with a large sack and ropes and Sally realizes that the man isn't good. She tries to defend herself with a knife but ultimately gets beaten and kidnapped by the man. 
The man takes her to the house from earlier where she sees both Nubbins Sawyer and Leatherface. The Sawyer Family ties her up to a chair, cuts her finger and feeds the blood to Grandpa Sawyer. Sally faints and after waking up finds herself seated at a dining table (together with the Sawyers), with her hands tied to the arms of the chair. She screams, cries, pleads and begs for her life, only to be mocked and laughed at by her tormentors. The family tries to get Grandpa Sawyer to kill Sally with a hammer, but before they are done Sally manages to escape by jumping out of a window.
While escaping, with a limp, she gets chased by Nubbins and Leatherface. Nubbins catches up to her and starts slicing her back. Suddenly a truck comes and hits Nubbins with Sally narrowly jumping out of its way. The truck driver tries to help her but they both gets chased by Leatherface. Suddenly, a blue pickup truck comes and Sally climbs onto the bed. The driver drives away from Leatherface and Sally laughs maniacally, having barely survived.
===Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III===
In the opening narration of the third film, it's revealed that she died in a mental institution in 1977. This would be retconned in the next film however.
===Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation===
Sally briefly appears in the hospital, appearing catatonic on a gurney. She catches the eye of the film's protagonist and final girl, Jenny.
===Texas Chainsaw Massacre===
After surviving the Sawyer family's massacre, Sally would tell of the recent events before leaving from the public. She would become a ranger during the five decades and started to search for Leatherface and his family, but was unable to find him since he was wearing a mask. Leatherface would return after the death of his mother figure from the orphanage, Sally would learn of this from Ruth's message, and decided to go to Harlow to find him. Reaching Harlow in the night, Sally encounters Lila and Melody, and locks the sisters in the car so she can lure out Leatherface. 
She then goes into the orphanage and demands Leatherface to remember the pain he inflicted on her and her friends, but he silently walks away to kill the siblings. Before he could kill Melody and Lila, Sally returns and shoots him before being mortally wounded by Leatherface with his chainsaw. Despite her wounds, Sally manages to shoot Leatherface, which makes him escape. Before dying, Sally tells Lila to not run away as he will haunt her forever. Though Lila heeds her warning, she would witness the death of her sister by Leatherface, making her the sole survivor.
==Gallery==
Sally-TCM.png
File:Sally_TCM.jpg|Sally escaping the Sawyer Family.
Sally-Laughing.jpg|Sally laughing from escaping from Leatherface.
==Trivia==
*She is the first in the series to escape Leatherface.
*She has the longest chase scene in the series.
*Her nightly chase scene is voted the best of all time by many horror film fans.
*Sally Hardesty is one of the earliest examples of the "Final Girl" trope.
*Marilyn Burns couldn't physically run faster than Gunnar Hansen (Leatherface) which explains the many close calls with him.
*Marilyn Burns had to do her own stunts due to the low budget.
*Marilyn Burns returns as a different character Verna Carson in Texas Chainsaw 3D after 38 years.
Pl:Sally Hardesty
Category:Movie Heroes
Category:Horror Heroes
Category:In Love
Category:Female
Category:Martyr
Category:Presumed Deceased
Category:Controversial
Category:Live Action Heroes
Category:Strong-Willed
Category:Siblings
Category:Pure Good
Category:Victims
Category:Honorable
Category:Dreaded
Category:Merciful
Category:Tragic
Category:Status Dependent on Version
Category:Pessimists
Category:Deceased
Category:Fighters
Category:Teenagers
Category:Weaklings
Category:Damsels
Category:Scapegoat
Category:Determinators
Category:Supporters
Category:Mentally Ill