Corrected entry: The girl that survives was maybe about, what, 10ish? I would think she would have been tall enough that if all the adults got sliced just about in half, she'd probably have been decapitated.
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Correction: If you watched, the captain ducked her down so she wouldn't get sliced. That's why he was sliced through his mouth.
Play the opening scene slowed down on YouTube and you can see the Captain simply hugging the little girl (Katie) as the wire makes its way towards his face. The wire started moving at waist height through most of the passengers, the only explanation of this error would be that the wire had some sort of spasm midway through its travel and found its way up high the second half of its trip, thus cutting the Captain from the mouth. If the wire would have remained at waist height, Katie would have definitely been killed, maybe not cleanly decapitated from the neck, but for sure anywhere around the head.
If you watch it again in slow motion, the Captain and the girl were in the middle of the dance floor so there's simply no way to explain it other than the fact the creators wanted the girl to survive while providing a shock factor (i.e. camera pans onto the Captain's head bisected horizontally). In the original script, there was no cable mass bisect scene but the girl had a fate different from the rest of the guests as well, so the girl surviving the initial massacre was always intended.