Written by Mr. Mouseburger 28th Feb 2006
Kindly submitted by Kooshmeister
Carnahan is the first mate of the Petrox Explorer, the ship that takes Fred S. Wilson's expedition to Kong Island. When Dwan is abducted by the natives and given as a bride to King Kong the giant gorilla, Jack Prescott mounts a rescue operation. Carnahan and four members of the ship's crew, Joe Perko, Boan, Garcia and Timmons, join Jack in his quest to get Dwan back.
After lots of fruitless searching, the group finally has the misfortune of catching up to Kong while they're halfway across a precarious log bridge which spans a deep canyon. Jack, at Joe's suggestion, had already gone ahead to see if it was safe, and so is able to climb down a vine to hide on a narrow ledge a few feet below.
Carnahan and the other four men, however, are still on the log and they stupidly decide to shoot at Kong, from this exposed position. Kong, in retaliation, stomps over, seizes the end of the log and begins to roll it back and forth.
The men can't hang on and they begin falling into the canyon. Carnahan, to his credit, manages to hang on the longest, but the outcome is inevitable. He eventually topples off the log, plummeting directly past where Jack is sitting, to his doom.
What was really stupid about Carnahan's demise was that he decided to get up while the log was being rolled. If he had clung on, he would have survived, but instead tries to be a Drawin Awards candidate.
I really need to re-write this death. And, also, I think "Tempting Fate" might be a potential category, because, as Matt noted (and I failed to mention in my writeup, Carnahan tries to stand up on the rolling log. XD
EDIT: In fact, I'll go that right now.
New version written. I lowered the rating considerably and also added "Unsatisfying," because, as I explain at the end, this could've been the best death scene in the movie (besides Kong's), because I think that shot of him falling right past Jack is so awesome.
Despite the poor special effects, I've come to regard it as one of the more beautifully depressing moments in the movie; all Jack can do is just watch the guy fall right past him, completely unable to help him. Granted, that's true of the other three guys who fall off, but only Carnahan's fall hammers this home.
But Carnahan's sudden, inexplicable stupidity that led to such an awesome shot totally ruins it.