Editor’s Note: This list was originally published in July 2023 and has since been updated with new entries honoring Discovery Channel’s Shark Week 2024.
There are few human obsessions that fit our devouring fascination with sharks. They are one of the few animals that has a national commemorative anniversary (or a “holiday” depending on their investment in Shark Week) and their almost mythical prestige within the animal. The kingdom has provided endless possibilities for cinema.
The boneless cartilaginous arrangement of sharks places them in the classification of “elasmobranch” fishes, grouping them in combination with rays, sawfish, and rays. While it’s well known that sharks aren’t as keen to feast on human flesh as they are in the science fiction, adventure, and horror that paint them for who they are, most people would rather not risk getting close enough to confirm it. With films dating back to Jerry Hopper’s “The Sharkfighters” in 1956 (and in all likelihood before), filmmakers have been making shark movies for about seven decades and will most likely continue to do so as long as sharks exist. (Editor’s note: Sharks will definitely outlive directors. )
Discovery helped fuel the cultural phenomenon with the debut of Shark Week in 1988, making it one of the longest-running television programming events. Featuring stories from survivors of the attacks, the exhibit highlights moments when surfing, diving and other deep-sea activities went wrong.
While shark videos capture the unsettling killer instinct of the species, other animated videos add personality and a sense of lightness to their characters. DreamWorks and Disney have reinvented the nutrition of the wonderful whites, who live with respect among other sea creatures.
Read on for a list of the most notable and cult shark movies, in chronological order.
Santa Sardina, “Batman: The Movie!” The theatrical setting of everyone’s favorite caped crusader, precisely full of sharks and sea creatures. But its opening series perfectly illustrates the gleefully goofy, self-aware look that makes Adam West’s NBC TV series such a kitschy classic. Mounting a rescue project aboard a yacht, West’s stoic Batman discovers himself with a shark biting his leg. Luckily, he prepared himself with his trusty bat shark spray, which causes the sea creature to explode in the water. As for the story of the shark attack scenes in the movies, Batman’s brush with a great target is precisely as skillfully staged as “Jaws,” but the poor quality and absurdity of the whole encounter is what makes it so charming.
Steven Spielberg’s paintings in “Jaws” laid the groundbreaking groundwork for shark movies, while also scaring beachgoers in the ’70s. Authenticity was imperative for the director who chose to shoot in the middle of the Atlantic rather than in a controlled location and more convenient studio environment. Although the shots were more plausible than they would have been on a film set, this cost the film crew much more time, as the rough waters proved to be a hindrance to the production, soaking appliances and tilting the cameras. The mechanical sharks built for “Jaws” would break while filming, restricting their screen time. This would become a trademark of the hit film; Not seeing the monster that often, the worry and suspense increased.
“It’s my luck and I think it’s the audience’s luck too, because it’s a scarier movie without seeing so many sharks,” Spielberg said.
The second film in the four-part Jaws franchise had no fewer problems in its production than the original. He struggled with issues similar to those Spielberg faced years earlier, which is likely why the director turned down a sequel. However, despite filming difficulties and the replacement of the production director, “Jaws 2” was a box office success, making it one of the top 10 highest-grossing films of the year. year. It’s a minor film that intensifies the bloodshed with six human deaths: the most of any film in the franchise (not counting animal deaths).
Samuel L. Jackson had had some trouble with those sharks in this underwater laboratory years before he attacked the snakes on airplanes. His character, Russel Franklin, is partly to blame for this mania: investing in studies on mako sharks to apply them to humans. When one of them escapes and attacks a nearby ship, Franklin is sent to Aquatica: the experimental facility where genetically modified sharks have greater brain capacity, making them smarter and much more deadly.
An animated wonder target with an Aussie prop that promises to be a “good shark” and a “stupid eating machine” is a little less scary than some of the other cold-blooded killers on this list. Until Bruce’s murderous intuition kicks in and his three-week hiatus from eating fish is almost interrupted when he smells blood in the water. Fortunately for Nemo and Dory, Bruce’s less carnivorous partners, Anchor and Chum, keep him at bay while the two manage to escape.
Even before the monster is introduced to the public, the premise of “Open Water” leaves the audience impatient. After an organization of divers is stranded in the middle of the ocean when their excursion boat forgets about them, worry about danger slowly devours them. travelers before sharks to do the same.
Dreamworks didn’t abandon big-name actors for this admittedly average (perhaps mediocre) animated comedy about shark mobsters. Movie mobsters have played characters in their careers, with talents such as Robert DeNiro, Martin Scorsese and several stars of “The Sopranos. “The shark parody follows an organization of wonderful whites who rule the metropolitan underwater town of Southside Reef. When one of the sharks, Lenny, comes across as a vegetarian to his father and mob boss Don Lino, the father orders his other son to show Lenny the ropes and force him to hunt for his first meal.
Wes Anderson, Bill Murray, and other no-nonsense stars team up to create an action-adventure comedy that’s radically different from most of the other titles on this list. “Life Underwater with Steve Zissou” reverses the roles of hunter and hunted when oceanographer Steve Zissou sets out with his team of divers and cameramen to kill the jaguar shark that ate his spouse Esteban. Leaving aside his clinical professionalism, Zissou fortunately seeks revenge.
Robert Rodriguez’s eye-catching sequel to his hit “Spy Kids” franchise garnered negative reviews at the time, and it’s hard to argue that the ridiculous action-adventure story about a boy who enters his global dream to save the truth works exactly. But it’s a nostalgic favorite of those who grew up with it, and part of what makes it so adorable despite its flaws is how obviously it came from a child’s mind (Rodriguez founded the concept on his children’s ideas). ). A good example is one of the titular heroes, Taylor Lautner’s impulsive and temperamental Sharkboy. It’s a boy who was raised through a shark!And I’ve become a shark component because of it!Does it make sense? Not really, but still, Lautner’s Power Rangers-style shark uniform and mouth full of triangular fangs can elicit a sense of childlike joy. -BATH
If you’re sailing through shark-infested waters to Indonesia with a group of friends, a trusted captain is non-negotiable. The organization of the divers in “The Reef” is not so sensible, boarding a poorly steered sailboat that capsizes and leaves. They are stranded in open water. With no sign of land beyond miles of water, part of the organization swims aimlessly to a place where they hope to be on dry land while the others check their luck on the sinking ship. The film is based on Ray Boundy, a survivor of the crisis, who experienced events in 1983.
Staying out of the water is the most effective way to encounter a shark, but when a hurricane floods the city, making ground and air attacks possible, the fight against monsters can be relentless. This B-list Syfy movie garnered enough cult followings to get six more shark cyclone movies. Although the makers made no attempt to hide the visibly animated CGI sharks plaguing the city, “Sharknado” features epic homicide scenes on all fronts. From diving into the mouth of a wonderful target with a chainsaw to stepping out the other end and being crushed by the Hollywood sign, those heroes revel in a lot of blood.
Surfing and shark encounters go hand in hand in mystery movies. “The Shallows” centers on medical student Nancy Adams and a trip to Mexico that uncovers her fistfight with a wonderful white man. Most of the film takes place in the water, two hundred meters from the shore, after an attack left Nancy bloodied and injured. She paddles from rock to buoy towards the floating whale carcass, avoiding the shark circling in the water.
Johannes Roberts’ “47 Meters Down” is a classic survival movie about getting caught between a rock and a hard position; In this case, the “rock” is a shark and the “anvil” is a diving cage that detaches from its cable and sends its tourists several meters into the ocean. The deficient victims in this terrible scenario are sisters Lisa and Kate (played by Mandy Moore and Claire Holt), and Roberts follows well the duo’s desperation to escape the hell that their vacation in Mexico has. one where sharks circling around are the least important. It’s one of the few shark videos where the elements of the ocean as a whole are just as horrific as the wonderful white killers.
If there’s one mind-blowing action movie fighter you’d need on your side to fight a 75-foot aquatic killer machine, it’s Jason Statham. In the blockbuster “The Meg,” Statham’s rescue diving character, Jonas Taylor, descends into most of the ocean floor to rescue survivors trapped in the Mariana Trench. There, they are trapped and tormented by the megalodon that is believed to be extinct. Loosely based on Steve Alten’s 1997 novel, “The Meg” may have been directed through Disney, which bought the rights to the film shortly after the book was published. But in the end, it was Warner Bros. who stepped in to direct the film more than 20 years later.
It stands to reason that an animated shark voiced by Sylvester Stallone would have a tough build. Although Nanaue is a character of few words, her broad shoulders, large arms, crushing jaw, and webbed hands make her an unstoppable force, even in fending off gunfire. easily. Also known as King Shark, the marvelous white humanoid is the son of a shark god with the mutant ability to take the form of a human sea creature. Originally from the Big Island of Hawaii, Nanaue is an enforcer for The Suicide Squad (you know, the most productive one directed by James Gunn) swallowing enemies whole.