Will any animal ever approach the cinematic presence of sharks? There are movies about wolves, whales, crocodiles, snakes, lions, tigers, and bears, but none of those predators have the versatility of sharks. These hunters of the deep can be the central threat of any narrative, but the silliest examples stand out. Look no further than Deep Blue Sea for a film with smart sharks and stupid writing.
Samuel L. Jackson is one of the most prolific performers in Hollywood, for good and for ill. His willingness to say yes to almost anything gets him into many great projects and several terrible ones. The fact that fans never have to go more than a month without seeing him allows his worst decisions to roll off of him without leaving a stain. Jackson has that in common with sharks. As long as they appear in a good movie now and again, all is forgiven.
What is Deep Blue Sea about?
Deep Blue Sea takes place in an underwater research facility where a team of scientists is on the verge of curing Alzheimer's. Their work requires complex genetic engineering performed on mako sharks. Dr. Susan McCallister and Dr. Jim Whitlock lead the project. Shark wrangler Carter Blake, marine biologist Janice Higgins, and engineer Tom Scoggins aid the scientists. When one of Susan and Jim's sharks escapes containment and nearly kills a boat full of vacationing twenty-somethings, their financial backers grow suspicious. Susan and Jim's life's work is on the line as the company sends an executive named Russell Franklin to evaluate the facility.
In short order, Jim loses his arm to one of his sharks. A medevac arrives to fly Jim to safety, but a malfunction sends him hurling into the shark tank. With one mighty pull, the shark pulls the helicopter down, crashing it into the facility and causing a series of devastating explosions. Jim is killed, and the crew is forced to seek a way out of a rapidly sinking structure full of powerful sharks. As they struggle to reach a submersible and escape, Susan admits that her research has gotten out of hand. Against protocol, she and Jim were genetically enhancing their subjects, making them larger, smarter, and more violent. With the help of the facility's chef Preacher, Susan, Carter, Janice, Tom, and Franklin must outwit the enhanced apex predators and find a way to the surface.
Where does Deep Blue Sea fit into the shark movie genre?
Deep Blue Sea was initially dreamed up by screenwriter Duncan Kennedy, who has written very few projects. The spec script emerged after a reoccurring nightmare about mind-reading sharks. Warner Bros. picked up Deep Blue Sea and attached director Renny Harlin. Several unnamed writers took a crack at the story before it was passed to Donna and Wayne Powers for the final draft. It morphed several times throughout the process. Kennedy's stated goal was to create a new kind of shark horror movie in a world that had been dominated by Jaws ripoffs for years. Harlin saw Deep Blue Sea as a return to serious, high-production-value horror along the lines of Alien or The Shining. Though an infinitesimal amount of Kennedy's original work wound up in the final product, it's safe to say that he succeeded and Harlin failed.
Shark movies have always varied wildly in tone and presentation. Before Jaws, they tended toward tawdry exploitation horror films. Beaches full of women in bathing suits terrorized by barely-relevant footage of a deep sea predator was the norm at the time. Samuel Fuller's Shark came out six years before Jaws, and its most notable achievement was getting a stuntman killed by a shark during filming. A photo of the real death is captured on the film's poster. After Jaws, directors tried to capitalize on the idea by producing films like Orca. Similar ideas with a different animal. However, Deep Blue Sea was arguably the moment that sounded the starting gun for silly shark movies. The exact kind of tongue-in-cheek horror films that Harlin wanted to overturn was emboldened by Deep Blue Sea. The Meg, Sharknado, and every other Sci-Fi channel original has Deep Blue Sea to thank. Kennedy even returned to the sea with an additional writing credit on the 2014 film Bait.
How does Deep Blue Sea end?
The funniest moment in Deep Blue Sea comes when Franklin Russell delivers an inspiring speech about survival, only to be suddenly devoured. Tom and Janice are killed by sharks. Susan electrocutes a shark. This kills the threat and destroys her research. Carter realizes that the sharks are deliberately flooding the facility to escape into the sea. Though they swim to the surface, Susan sacrifices herself to distract the final shark. Preacher shoots it with a harpoon and electrocutes it to death. Carter and Preacher, the only survivors, watch as a boat approaches.
Deep Blue Sea is a fun action horror film and an important milestone in the shark movie genre. Fans of anything from Bait, to Sharknado, to The Meg will love Deep Blue Sea. See a film that promises intelligent sharks and delivers joyously dumb storytelling.