Rachel Keller

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Rachel Keller is the main protagonist of The Ring and The Ring 2. She is an investigative journalist who sets out to solve the mystery of the "cursed videotape" that killed her niece, and in the process becomes ensnared in Samara Morgan's rampage.
She is portrayed by , who also portrayed Ann Darrow in the 2005 remake of King Kong.
== In the films ==
=== The Ring ===
Rachel is an investigative journalist and single mother who lives in Seattle, Washington, with her young son, Aidan, a troubled child who seems attuned to unseen forces, and who calls her "Rachel" instead of "Mom". Her ex-boyfriend, Noah, is Aidan's father, but rarely sees them as a result of their difficult breakup. 
When the sudden, unexplained death of Rachel's teenage niece Katie Embry, Rachel investigates and discovers that three of Katie's friends died on the same night of indeterminate causes, all with a postmortem look of terror on their faces. She then travels to a resort where Katie and her friends had recently stayed, and finds a videotape containing strange, unsettling images. After Rachel watches the tape, her phone rings, and whispered voice says, "Seven days." Rachel shows Noah the tape, and makes a copy. To her horror, however, she catches Aidan watching it, and they both begin to experience strange visions related to the image on the tape.
Rachel's investigation leads her to Anna Morgan, a horse breeder who committed suicide after her prize-winning horses drowned themselves in a fit of terror. She takes a ferry to Anna's home on Moska Island to interview her widower Richard. She sees a horse on the ferry and pets it; it then jumps overboard and drowns. She then goes to the hospital where Anna's autopsy was performed and looks at her medical files, which reveal that she and her husband Richard had adopted a young girl named Samara shortly before Anna's death. Rachel tries to ask Richard about the girl, but he refuses to speak to her.
Rachel speaks to Anna's doctor, who explains that Samara was briefly institutionalized in a psychiatric facility for antisocial behavior; Rachel goes to the hospital and watches a video of one of Samara's therapy sessions, in which the girl says that she has powers she cannot control. Rachel confronts Richard, who says that Samara was an evil child with unnatural powers, and telepathically forced the horses to drown themselves; he then commits suicide right in front of Rachel by electrocuting himself. Rachel becomes convinced that the Morgans misunderstood Samara's abilities as malevolent and murdered her, and that she is trying to tell Rachel to bring her justice. 
With Noah's help, Rachel finds the barn where the Morgans kept Samara chained up, and see that the image of a burning tree - one of the images from the tape - is burned into the wall. They go to a nearby inn, where they find a stone well with the lid slightly open; the final image on the tape is of a well. Rachel falls into the well and sees a vision of Samara's death: Anna pushed her into the well and then jumped off a cliff to her death, while Samara died in the well seven days later - the last thing she saw being a ring of light disappearing as Anna closed the lid. Sure enough, she and Noah find Samara's skeleton at the bottom of the well, and call the police, who identify the child's remains and give it a proper burial. 
When Rachel returns home, she assures Aidan that the curse has been lifted now that Samara has been laid to rest. To her surprise, however, Aidan is terrified, saying that Samara is evil and "never sleeps". She realizes that Noah, the last person to have seen the tape, is in danger, and races to his apartment. When she arrives, however, she sees it is too late: Samara has risen from the tape and killed Noah, leaving him with a look of terror on his dead face. She realizes that she and Aidan are momentarily safe because she made a copy of the tape, which Aidan watched, thereby continuing the cycle. She then makes another copy of the tape.
=== The Ring 2 ===
Category:Female
Category:Horror Heroes
Category:Rescuers
Six months later, Rachel and Aidan are living in Astoria, Oregon, where there has been another mysterious death linked to the cursed videotape. Rachel inspects the victim's corpse, only to see a vision of Samara, who says she has been waiting for Samara. Terrified, Rachel breaks into the victim's house, finds his copy of the tape, and burns it. It is too late, however; Samara has returned and is set on killing Aidan. Samara attacks Aidan in a dream in which she drags him into a TV set, which results in Aidan developing hypothermia and suffering unexplained bruises in the real world. He and Rachel encounter Semara at a county fair, and are ad by a herd of wild deer on their way home. 
Fearing that Samara may have possessed Aidan, Rachel takes him out of their house, holding up with her boss, Max Rourke. While giving Aidan a warm bath to treat his hypothermia, Rachel experiences a vision of Samara appearing in Aidan's place, terrifying her so that she tries to drown Aidan, believing him to be Samara. Max stops her and insists they take Aidan to a hospital, where Aidan telepathically sends Rachel a vision of Samara changing forms. Aidan's doctor believes that Rachel is abusing Aidan, and social services bars her from seeing her son. Samara later possesses Aidan once more and telepathically forces his doctor to commit suicide.
Determined to learn Samara's origins so as to protect Aidan from her, Rachel discovers that Samara's birth mother, Evelyn, was committed to a psychiatric hospital after she tried to drown her daughter. Rachel goes to visit Evelyn, who knows immediately who she is and says she has been expecting her. Evelyn offers no explanation, but says that Rachel "let the dead in" and that she must "listen to my baby". 
Rachel returns to Max's house, where an uncharacteristically cheerful Aidan calls her "Mom" and hugs her. Sensing something is wrong, Rachel looks around the house and finds that Max is dead, and realizes that Samara has possessed Aidan and killed Max through him. That night, she has a nightmare in which Aidan tells her to exorcise Samara. She reluctantly drugs Aidan to sleep and non-fatally drowns him, forcing Samara to leave his body. Samara flees into the TV, dragging Rachel in with her.
Rachel awakens in the well where Samara died, and looks up to see the lid closing. She climbs up the well, pursued by Samara, until she reaches the top and climbs out. Samara cries out "Mommy!" as she claws at Rachel, but Rachel replies, "I'm not your f---ing mommy!" and slams the lid shut. She then goes to the cliff where Anna committed suicide, and jumps, transporting herself back to the real world. She is reunited with Aidan, their ordeal finally over.
Category:Live Action Heroes
Category:Movie Heroes
Category:Parents
Category:Jerks
Category:Bond Protectors
Category:Big Good
Category:Bond Creators
Category:Protectors of Innocence
Category:Protectors
Category:In Love
Category:Chaotic Good
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Category:Honorable
Category:Insecure
Category:Loyal
Category:Merciful
Category:Nurturers
Category:Damsels
Category:Thrill-Seekers
Category:The Hero
Category:Sophisticated
Category:Virtually Resourceful
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Category:Rebellion Heroes
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Category:Disciplinarians
Category:Anti-Heroes