Clay Miller

Clay Miller was a central character featured in Marcus Nispel's 2009 remake of Friday the 13th. He was played by actor Jared Padalecki. Clay was presented as a "lone wolf" desperately searching for his missing sister only to discover that something even more terrible lurked within the shadows of Camp Crystal Lake.

Biography
Clay Miller was the brother of Whitney Miller. Though the two had once been close, they had a falling out shortly before the death of their mother. The hadn't spoken to each other for several months. When Whitney failed to attend their mother's funeral, Clay knew that something was terribly wrong. He tracked her activity to Camp Crystal Lake where he learned she had gone camping with her boyfriend Mike and several other friends. All of them disappeared and were never heard from again. Clay inquired with the local sheriff, a man named Bracke, who sent a team of men in search of Whitney and her friends. They combed the woods surrounding Camp Crystal Lake, but turned up nothing. Eventually, the search was called off. Clay however, was unsatisfied with this turn of events and continued to search for her on his own.

Clay began distributing missing persons' posters featuring Whitney's photograph all throughout the area. He stopped at a gas station and asked the attendant if he had seen her, but the man told him he had not. It was at this time that Clay encountered a college student named Trent Sutton and his friends Jenna, Bree, Nolan, Chelsea, Chewie and Lawrence. The group were on their way to Trent's family's summer home for a weekend of partying. Clay and Trent didn't exactly hit it off, and Trent rudely accused him of taking up too much time at the counter. Sarcastically whispering, "I guess I'm just an asshole.", he then got onto his motorcycle and left.

Shortly thereafter, Clay came upon Officer Bracke. Bracke was sympathetic to Clay's plight, but speculated that Whitney likely just took off somewhere with her boyfriend. Clay tried to convince him that such a thing wasn't possible, but the cop had no other useful information for him. He suggested trying someplace else.

He continued on his way, making stops at various homes and businesses to pass out flyers. At one house, a strange old lady told him that his sister was not missing, but was in fact dead. She punctuated the gruesome comment with the equally strange warning, "People just want to be left alone... and so does he". When Clay pressed her for more information about the mysterious "he", she closed the door on him.

The next stop he made was at a large farm house. The owner, Mister Garrett, wasn't available, so Clay had to talk with a marijuana-smoking farmhand named Donnie. As with the others, Donnie did not recognize the woman in Clay's fliers, though admitted that he had liked to have known her (though probably not in the most innocent of fashions). As Clay turned to leave, Donnie offered to sell him some marijuana, but Clay politely declined.

The next stop on his journey turned out to be the summer home owned by Trent Sutton's family. Clay was surprised to see Trent's girlfriend Jenna answer the door. Jenna tried to be nice and invited Clay inside for a beer. Once again, Trent behaved rudely and indicated that Clay was not welcome in his house. Clay restrained his growing dislike of Trent and left. Jenna followed after him and asked if he would like some company. Clay agreed and they both rode off on his motorcycle.

As darkness fell, they arrived at the old closed down campground. They came upon the dilapidated ruins of a seemingly abandoned house and began inspecting the rooms. The house was filled with various clutter and bric-a-brac, which made both Jenna and he feel uneasy. As they left the house, they saw a mysterious masked individual walking up the trail carrying a body inside a tarp. This was Jason Voorhees (the "he" that the old lady referred to). Clay and Jenna found a hiding spot and watched in fear as Jason unceremoniously dumped the body onto the ground. Jason became aware of their presence, but didn't know where they were. He switched on the floodlights and began pulling canoes down from the canoe wrack in his efforts to find them. Clay and Jenna managed to sneak away and ran down the trail.

They eventually got back to Trent's house and tried to warn him and the others about Jason. Trent, already despising Clay, elected to not take him seriously. Bree made note of the fact that Nolan and Chelsea had gone out to the lake earlier and had failed to return. Jenna supported Clay's claims that a madman was on the loose, but it wasn't until they all heard the death cries of their friend Lawrence out in the distance that they decided to take him seriously. When the group discovered that Jason Voorhees had access to the house, they all decided to leave. Clay and Jenna tried to use his motorcycle, but someone stole the keys. Left with no other options, they escaped from the house on foot. They ran deeper into the woods towards the campground area and eventually returned to Jason's house. They discovered a tunnel passageway that ran beneath the house and covered the entire expanse of the campground. While taking shelter inside the tunnel, Clay found Whitney. Miraculously, she was still alive and chained up inside a dungeon room. Clay scooped up a heavy tool and used it to break Whitney's chains. Jenna warned them that Jason had found them and they all began running. They found an access hatch that took them to the surface, but Jason managed to catch up to Jenna and killed her. Covering the top of the hatch was an overturned tour bus. Clay and Whitney crawled through the hole into the bus, but Jason caught up with them, smashing Clay's face through a glass window. Clay survived and Whitney and he kept running.

They ran to the adjacent farmhouse where Donnie had worked. Jason burst through a glass window and grabbed Clay and the two began grappling with one another. Jason likely would have ended him right there, but Whitney distracted Jason by holding up a cameo containing a picture of Jason's mother (apparently Whitney and the late Pamela Voorhees bore a strong resemblance to one another). While Jason remained fixated on Whitney, Clay attacked him from behind with a bear trap. Together, Clay and Whitney managed to rope a length of chain around Jason's neck. The other end of the chain was fed through a woodchipper, which tightened the chain, ultimately breaking Jason's neck. Just to be certain though, Whitney took up Jason's own machete, shouted "Say hi to Mommy for me... in Hell!" and ran him through. Clay and Whitney then took Jason's body and dumped it in the lake. As the sun rose over the lake, they breathed a sigh of relief confident that the nightmare was finally over. Suddenly, Jason burst up through the boards of the dock and attacked them. Whether Clay or Whitney survived this renewed assault is unknown.

Notes & Trivia

 * Clay's surname, Miller, is derived from Victor Miller, screenwriter of the original Friday the 13th.


 * Actor Jared Padalecki is better known for playing the role of Sam Winchester on the CW Network television series Supernatural.


 * Aside from Corey Feldman, Jared Padalecki is one of the few male leads to survive a Friday the 13th film.


 * Jared Padalecki described the character of Clay Miller as "a real hero", because when his sister goes missing he sets out "to do the right thing", and tends to go about it as this "lone wolf" who wants to take on this responsibility of finding his sister himself.