Is Deep Blue Sea Scary? The Verdict and the Whole Plot
Barely, 3 out of 10. It's a shark movie where the sharks are smarter than the crew.
🐱THE SCARE SIGNAL
SCARE SCORE
3 /10
🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱
DREAD LEVEL
Low
You'll be fine by the credits, though you may not want to dangle your legs over water.
DOG
Dog: fine
no dog, but the cook's parrot is eaten.
Ruling: Fine for a loud night with friends, as long as you can watch sharks go after people.
Deep Blue Sea runs 105 minutes and takes place in an undersea lab called Aquatica. The researchers there have made sharks smarter for medical reasons, and a storm is about to find out how that went.
The premise, briefly
Scientists at a remote undersea lab enlarge the brains of captive sharks to find an Alzheimer's cure, and a storm leaves everyone trapped with sharks that got smarter.
How much do you want to know?
🐱
The verdict above is spoiler-free. Everything below, including the ending, stays hidden until you pick a depth.
🐱CUT TO THE CHASE
How it ends
Only Carter and Preacher live. Susan sacrifices herself to lure the last shark, a harpoon accidentally pins Carter to it, and the shark blows up as it breaks through the fence. A rescue boat approaches at the end.
The scene you're dreading
Russell's death, in the middle: he is giving a speech about sticking together when the largest shark pulls him into the submersible pool and eats him.
The dog
There is no dog, but a pet parrot belonging to the cook is eaten by a shark.
It is a gory shark movie with jump scares that kills most of its cast along the way.
THE SHORT VERSION IS HIDDEN
How it ends, the scene you're dreading, what happens to the dog, and the bottom line. About twenty seconds to read.
What actually happens
Sharks with an Alzheimer's side project
At a remote underwater facility, Dr. Susan McAlester and Dr. Jim Whitlock study mako sharks for a cure for Alzheimer's disease. They collect a protein complex from the sharks' enlarged brain tissue to wake dormant human brain cells. One of the sharks gets out and goes after a boat of young people, so the financial backers send an executive named Russell Franklin to inspect the place. Susan and Jim demonstrate their work with the protein from their biggest shark, which bites off Jim's arm as soon as it wakes. The tower operator, Brenda Kerns, calls in a helicopter, which flies through heavy rain to evacuate Jim. The cable jams as he is being lifted, and Jim falls into the shark pen. The big shark grabs the stretcher and drags the helicopter into the tower. The explosions kill Brenda and the pilots and damage the facility.
Susan, Russell, shark wrangler Carter Blake, marine biologist Janice Higgins and engineer Tom Scoggins watch the shark smash Jim's stretcher against the lab window until it breaks, which drowns Jim and floods the facility. They head for the wet porch to take a submersible up, and Susan admits that she and Jim enlarged the sharks' brains, against protocol, which made them smarter and more dangerous. In the flooded kitchen, the cook Preacher hides in an oven while a shark eats his parrot, and then he blows the shark up with a lighter and a gas leak. The submersible is damaged. While Russell gives a speech about sticking together, the largest shark drags him into the submersible pool and eats him. This is the scene to brace for, in the middle. The rest climb an elevator shaft, a ladder breaks, and a shark pulls Janice under despite Carter's attempt to grab her.
Climbing toward the surface
The survivors find Preacher. Carter and Tom head into the flooded lab to drain a stairway to the surface, and Susan goes to collect her research from her room. The largest shark bursts in, kills Tom and wrecks the controls. Susan meets another shark in her room and electrocutes it with a power cable, which costs her the research she came for. Carter, Susan and Preacher meet at a decompression chamber and swim up, using oxygen tanks to lure the last shark. Near the surface the shark grabs Preacher's leg and lets go when he stabs its eye using his crucifix necklace. Carter then works out that the sharks have been herding the humans, flooding the facility on purpose so they can ram through the fences at the surface and reach the open sea.
The ending, explained
To stop the last shark, the three plan to shoot it with a harpoon wired to a battery and an explosive charge. Susan feels guilty and offers herself as bait without telling the others. She cuts her hand and dives in, draws the shark with her blood, and is eaten before she can get out. Carter grabs the shark's fin, and Preacher's harpoon pierces Carter's thigh and pins him to it. Carter orders Preacher to connect the wire anyway and frees himself seconds before the shark rams the fence and blows up. Carter swims to shore and reunites with Preacher, and they see a rescue boat approach the sinking facility. Preacher dryly tells Carter to pull his legs out of the water, and Carter does at once.
The post-credits ruling
Nobody has confirmed whether there's a scene after the credits.
✓ Spoiled safelyDog status: no dog, but the cook's parrot is eaten.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is Deep Blue Sea scary?
Deep Blue Sea is a 3 out of 10 with low dread. It has jump scares and graphic shark attacks.
How does Deep Blue Sea end?
Susan uses herself as bait and is eaten, and Carter and Preacher blow up the last shark as it breaks through the fence. Carter and Preacher are the only survivors.
Does the dog die in Deep Blue Sea?
There is no dog in Deep Blue Sea, so no dog dies. A pet parrot is eaten by a shark, though.
Is there a post-credits scene in Deep Blue Sea?
Nobody has confirmed whether Deep Blue Sea has a scene after the credits.
Why are the sharks so smart in Deep Blue Sea?
Susan and Jim genetically engineered them to have bigger brains so they could harvest more of the protein complex. It also made them much smarter, and the sharks start planning how to escape.
BLURRED FOR YOUR PROTECTION
The whole plot of Deep Blue Sea is hidden, ending included. It stays that way until you ask.
You can skip the 105 minutes of Deep Blue Sea and still know who gets out. Install Scaredy Cat and it will blur horror before you see it.
