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Open Water (2003)
In writer/director Chris Kentis' effectively suspenseful,
low-budget, indie film shark tale:
- the relationship between a vacationing and stressed-out
married couple, Susan Watkins (Blanchard Ryan) and Daniel Kintner
(Daniel Travis), before signing up for an ill-fated diving expedition
in the Caribbean - on their first night on vacation, she wasn't
in the mood for sex due to stress: "A little stressed still,
l guess...Yeah, work, life"; when he asked: "Maybe l
can get you to think of something else," she replied: "l
might not be in the mood...Yeah, l'm not in the mood...Sorry. l'm
just tired"; after he agreed that they had had a long day,
she suggested that they just talk, but then he responded that they
probably should get to sleep
- after a fun and carefree dive near their Reef Explorer tour
boat at a dive site known as Magic Kingdom, they realized - in an
incredibly realistic situation that they had been left behind ("Daniel,
where's the boat?"); when an improper head count had been taken
before leaving, the couple found themselves (after surfacing) stranded
in open Bahamas water about 15 miles off-shore: (Susan: "You've
gotta be kidding me") - they vainly attempted to wave at the
boat far in the distance
- as the sun began to set about two hours later, they
saw a quick glimpse of a fin slice through the water ("Daniel,
was that a shark?") - Susan's first view of an entire shark
was terrifying ("Oh, Jesus Christ. l thought he said they never
come that close"); Daniel tried to be reassuring ("It's
gone. lt was probably just curious. A couple of bodies floatin' out
in the middle of nowhere, l'm sure that's not something he sees every
day")
- problems multiplied - Susan was stung by jellyfish,
and then Daniel was also bitten on his legs and hand ("the f--ker
really stung me. lt hurts"); they realized their predicament:
(Susan:
"l've just never heard of anything so f--ked up in my entire life.
Who's ever heard of two people getting left in the middle of the ocean
before?" Daniel: "I have actually...Dive magazines. It's
a lot more common than you think"); they soon became nauseous
in the waves and dehydrated, and after dozing on the surface, they
drifted apart
- after seven hours in the water, Susan felt pain from
a cut on the back of her left leg (through her wetsuit), causing
blood to seep into the water and small "cleaner fish" to
peck at the wound; although Daniel knew it was a shark bite, he jokingly
told Susan: "lf it was a shark, your leg would be gone...At
most, it was a teeny, little barracuda just checking to see if you
tasted good"
- and then, predatory sharks ("big ones")
began to circle them for the majority of the rest of the film; in
a great jump-scare, Daniel saw one up-close when he looked underwater;
the climax came when Daniel was also seriously bitten (he exclaimed: "l'm
bit. The f--ker bit me...God, it f--king hurts"), and Susan
tied her weight belt around his leg as a tourniquet; but then during
a night-time thunderstorm (with the screen totally dark except for
a few flashes of lightning), Daniel bled to death after he recited
the Lord's Prayer; Susan screamed: "You don't leave me out here
by myself"; soon after, sharks attacked his corpse and ripped
it apart in a feeding frenzy
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Circling Shark
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Jellyfish
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Inspecting Susan's Cut Leg Underwater
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- faced with the inevitable for herself, Susan removed
her scuba gear and deliberately and calmly suicidally sank to drown
herself before the sharks attacked her too
- in the final ironic sequence during the scrolling
of the closing credits, a curious fisherman cut open a dead shark's
belly on a wooden table on the dock; when Daniel's yellow underwater
diving camera was discovered, he commented innocently: "Check
it out (laughter)...Man, they really do eat anything. l wonder if
it works") - the film's final line of dialogue
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The Night Before
Fun Dive
"Where's the boat?"
Fear of "Big Ones" in the Water - Jump-Scare
Blood in the Water After Daniel's Fatal Shark Bite
Susan's Deliberate Suicide
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