Telekinesis

Telekinesis (or Psychokinesis) is the paranormal ability to move or manipulate objects or people with power of one’s mind. It is a power utilized in the Carrie franchise.

The most well-known user of telekinesis is Carrie White, who has studied to control and harness the power after suffering intense humiliation and bullying at the hands of her classmates and physical and verbal abuse at the hands of her religiously fanatic mother, Margaret. On the night of her high school prom, she suffers a vicious humiliating prank by her classmates that results in disaster and the deaths of many of the students.

In the original novel, in the aftermath of prom incident, people begin to treat telekinesis and other forms of ESP serious to avoid something similar from ever happening again in the future.

Occurrences

In the novel

In the original novel, Carrie inherited her powers from her grandmother Sadie Cochran. Her psychokinetic abilities are often consequent to her emotions. Carrie displays telekinesis while still a baby in her cradle. At one point, Margaret sees a bottle floating over Carrie and is made aware of her daughter's supernatural nature .This would gravely and deeply affect the way Margaret, a religious fanatic, treated Carrie as she grew up. During a traumatizing experience while having her first period at school, Carrie thinks she is bleeding to death while her classmates throw tampons at her. Desperated, she causes a light bulb to explode.

Ewen High's principal, Morton, is negligent towards Carrie's identity and refers to her as "Cassie". Irritated, she telekinetically breaks his ashtray. She later used her powers to overturn Danny Erbter's bike, hurting him. During the following days, Carrie practiced and understood better her abilities. She accepts Tommy Ross's invitation to prom, unaware that Chris Hargensen has planned a vicious prank onto her. Carrie uses her abilities to stand up against her mother, when assuring that she is going to prom besides her Margaret's exaggerated control.

Chris and her boyfriend Billy dump pig's blood on Carrie as she is coronated prom queen. Humiliated once more, Carrie runs off the school gym. Her teacher Rita Desjardin attempts to contain her and is mentally pushed aside.

Carrie then remembers her abilities and snaps, unleashing them in retaliation. She telekinetically locks everyone inside the gym and induces panic on them, much for her delight. Carrie ends up electrocuting the prom attendees and setting the gym on fire, later destroying her school. She moves onto her whole city of Chamberlain, exploding gas ducts, breaking electrical wires. Carrie also visits a church, in which she also causes telekinetic mayhem.

Back home, Margaret tries to murder Carrie, believing her powers to be an actual manifestation of the Devil. Carrie then induces a cardiac arrest on her mother, after being stabbed in her shoulder. On the street, she finds Chris and Billy, and telepathically attacks Chris. Chris tries to run Carrie over, but she pushes his car against the motel's wall, killing Billy and Chris and destroying the place.

Her telepathy, which makes everyone aware of her responsibility on the massacre and the subsequent destruction of Chamberlain, makes her psychich abilities and other forms of ESP known to the public.

1976 film

When having her first period, Carrie causes a light bulb to explode, which surprises her bullies Chris Hargensen and Norma Watson. Carrie's powers are not known to Margaret up until she manifests them when telling her mother about the prom night. Carrie stands up against Margaret, who accuses her of being a "witch". After being dumped pig's blood, Carrie is taken by her inner fears and distrust, believing everyone to have set the prank.

Enraged, Carrie enters an apparent state of trance and locks the gym's doors and turns on the fire hose, inducing panic and murdering several students and teachers, including her bullie Norma and her P. E. teacher, Miss Collins. She then sets the Bates High School gym on fire, killing 73 people and destroying the whole campus. Sue Snell, who intended to help Carrie by having her at the prom, witness the massacre. Back home, Margaret tries to murder Carrie, believing her to be a witch, and is repeatedly stabbed by her daughter. Horrified, Carrie accidentally destroys their own household, drying in the process.

1999 sequel

Carrie's younger sister Rachel Lang, born to her father's affair with Barbara, is a Carrie of telekinesis, which manifests at a very young age. Like her sister, Rachel's abilities were consequential of her emotions. Having no complete control of her powers, Rachel would repeatedly scream "stop" whenever they manifested. When her best friend Lisa committed suicide at the rebuilt Bates High School, Rachel accidentally unleashed a telekinetic wave on the school lockets.

Survivor Sue Snell, working as a counselor at Bates High, tries to help Rachel and first witness her telekinesis during a session. Suspecting of her abilities, Sue attempts to bring the subject out of a reluctant Rachel. Irritated, Rachel explodes Sue's snow dome, horrifying the counselor and bringing up her traumas of the night of the prom.

Sue visits Rachel's mother Barbara at Arkham and discovers the truth, that Rachel and Carrie are sisters and both carriers of telekinesis. In vain, Sue takes Rachel to the original high school remains, intending to prevent a new massacre. An outcast, Rachel ends up a victim of Mark Bing and Tracy's prank, and has her sexual encounter with Jesse exposed during Mark's party.

Taunted with memories of Lisa and enraged, Rachel causes the house to tremble before violently breaking the glass doors onto her classmates, fatally wounding many of them. Rachel impales Brad Winters in the head with a coal spear, accidentally impaling Sue. She is powerful enough to do the same with Deborah, with CD disks. Rachel also psychically explodes Monica Jones' eyes and glasses, and drowns Mark to his death. When Jesse and Tracy arrive, she kills her last bully alive and discovers the truth about Jesse not being involved in the prank. Rachel ends up crushed with the piece of concrete she telekinetically had unscrewed to kill Jesse. She uses her powers to throw his body up and dies at the fire.

2002 version

In the 2002 film, Carrie enters a seizure-like state when her powers manifest. After the Senior Prom prank, she accidentally unleashes her telekinesis on her prom attendees, setting the gym on fire and destroying the entire school facilities. The outburst continued as she headed home, destroying her city and presumably killing other people in her path. At home, Margaret tried to drown her in the bathtub, and Carrie wrenched her heart, killing her.

2013 version

Carrie first understand her abilities as "miracles" - heavenly protection from the abuse she suffers from everyone around her. However, she later realizes what telekinesis is through research. Besides telekinesis, Carrie also displays minor pyrokinetic abilities, sealing her mother in the closet before going to prom. With the school in flames, Carrie levitates away from the campus. She is powerful enough to hold Chris and Billy's car even under in high speed.

Known telekinetics

• Sadie Cochram
• Carrie White (Novel)
• Carrie White (1976)
• Rachel Lang
• Carrie White (2002)
• Carrie White (2013)

Notes and trivia

• The "miracles" to which Carrie initially attributes her own powers is an original plot point from all the film adaptations of Carrie. It is not present in the novel.
• Amy Irving herself portrayed a telekinetic in the supernatural thriller The Fury, directed by Brian de Palma. That movie featured effects that could not be performed on Carrie (1976) due to its budget limits - such as the forehead veins on the psychics.
  • Carrie (1976) would spawn several thrillers concerning telekinesis in the later 1970s and early 1980s, such as The Fury, Patrick, Tourist Trap, Jennifer, The Spell, The Medusa Touch and Scanners.
• Rachel's psychic outburst in The Rage: Carrie 2 could be understood as more than a manifestation of telekinesis. Deborah and Monica's deaths could be a result of a deeper projection of her thoughts, motivated by the title rage.
• In the 2012 off-Broadway production of Carrie: The Musical, the climatic prom massacre is performed in a dance sequence simulating Carrie's powers. In one show, she chokes Chris Hargensen to death. In another performance, she forces Chris to snap her own neck.