Shark Attack 3: Megalodon

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Shark Attack 3: Megalodon
Directed by	David Worth
Produced by	Boaz Davidson Danny Lerner David Varod
Written by	Scott Depoop and William Hooke
Starring	John Barrowman Jennifer McShane Ryan Cutrona
Music by	Bill Wandel
Cinematography	David Worth
Editing by	Kristopher Lease
Distributed by	Nu Image Films
Release date(s)	26 November 2002
Running time	94 min
Country	Israel / South Africa / USA
Language	English
Preceded by	Shark Attack 2
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Shark Attack 3: Megalodon is a 2002 direct-to-video South African film directed by David Worth. This movie is the latest sequel of the Shark Attack film trilogy. The story of this movie is based on the belief in the continued existence of an ancient super-predator called Megalodon, although most scientists agree that it is unlikely that the species still exists.

Contents 1 Synopsis 2 Plot 3 Reception 4 Prequels 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Synopsis

A shark has been terrorizing the workers trying to install an underwater cable off the coast of Mexico, so a resort security diver, Ben (John Barrowman), decides to put a stop to the killing. He finds a fresh tooth of a creature that he thinks might be the culprit and sends it for identification to the researcher Cat Stone (Jennifer McShane). After careful examination, she realizes that this tooth does not belong to any shark of modern days, but is that of a prehistoric predator called Megalodon, a shark thought to be extinct for thousands of years. When several tourists end up mutilated along the coast, the marine biologists (paleontologists) are finally convinced that the Megalodon isn't extinct after all and sets out to take action against the deadliest of creatures.

[edit] Plot

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In a deep water trench, divers from the company Apex Communications construct a pipeline. One of them, Dave Porter, dives deeper into the trench to do some maintenance. In the ship above the radar operator spots a dot on the radar heading towards Porter’s position. He tries to tell Porter but the radio cuts out, coming back at the last minute. A shark grabs Porter and his head is severed.

It is six months later. Ben Carpenter, the film's hero, is introduced at a playful beach resort in Colima , Mexico, as a security guard who is genuinely concerned for the safety of the resort patrons. Ben convinces his friend and co-worker Esai to skip out on work with him to go scuba diving for some lobsters. Esai waits in the motor boat while Ben swims to the bottom not far below. He then investigates a thick wire and pries a large shark's tooth from it. He encounters two other divers. They resurface together, and Ben learns that these divers were sent by the Apex company to check out the frayed cables. Ben tells them about the shark's tooth he found on the cables below, but they dismiss him and tell him to keep away from the cable.

Later, at a natural science museum, a security guard bumps into a staff member still there. They have a quick chat, then the staff member, Cataline (Jenny McShane), goes on one of the computers, and opens an email and the attached photograph of the tooth which Ben found. Cataline rushes to Mexico to inform Ben of the significance of his find. She arrives to find Ben in the middle of routine shark attack protocol. Upon inspecting the tooth, Cat immediately identifies it as belonging to a Megalodon, a prehistoric shark which is believed to be the largest predatory creature to ever exist. She radios two members of a film crew, Davis (Nikolai Sortirov) and Friedman (Atanas Srebrev), and instructs them make the trip to Mexico to begin a documentary on this shark.

The shark makes its way toward the beaches but is headed off by Ben, Cataline and the rest of the crew only to redirect it toward a para-sailing group. The shark makes hasty work of them, traumatizing Cataline, who accepts responsibility for the killings. After what seems to be hours of hard work and research, Chuck, an ex-navy submariner who works for Apex, realizes that the company somehow knew about these killer beasts. Chuck and Ben realize that the giant shark is attracted to the power lines. After a night full of hacking into the communication company's systems, Chuck discovers that there have been several incidents in which men working for the company have been obliterated by sharks while installing new fiber optic cables on the ocean floor. Chuck becomes enraged that the company has been covering up these shark attacks, and not alerting their employees to the risk of being eaten when installing the cables. In a fit of righteous indignance Chuck breaks into the office of the CEO of Apex Mr. Tolley, and confronts him. He is then fired after being assured that no one would believe him.

The decision is made to kill the giant shark with a tremendous amount of explosives. Cataline offers to attach the homing device via crossbow so the Mark-44 torpedo, owned by Chuck, can lock onto the shark. It turns out Chuck grifted a torpedo from the ship he was serving on when it was de-commissioned. Chuck and Ben resolve to plant a homing device on the great fish so that the torpedo can lock on to it. In a fit of rage, Ben resolves to kill the Megalodon while Cataline keeps her composure and desires only to research and document the creature. However, the Megalodon continues to attack people. It attacks the research vessel, plowing its way through the stern and trapping both Cataline and Ben in the boat's cabin until Cataline grabs a shotgun and shoots it in the head, killing it. However, the Megalodon was only a young shark. A larger adult Megalodon, presumably the young shark's mother, then arrives, capsizes their research boat, swallows Esai and his motorboat, and later Davis and Friedman at the same time.

Upon completion of the trans-pacific fiber optic cable network, Mr. Tolley decides to celebrate its completion with a yacht party. Although restrictions had been placed on boating traffic by the harbor master, the hotel owner grants Tolley permission to embark and even attends the party. After an ominous toast by Tolley, the yacht is rocked by several blows by the Megalodon. Many people fall into the water. A few people make their way onto two blow-up safety rafts. The hotel owner runs past his girlfriend, stealing her lifejacket, and jumps off the boat, where he is caught mid-air. The Megalodon then devours an entire raft of 6 men. During the carnage, Tolley manages to procure a jet ski and attempts to leave. The Megalodon swallows Tolley and the jet ski whole.

During the events taking place on the surface, Chuck and Ben are preparing to eliminate the shark. When Cataline is unsuccessful in her only attempt to secure the homing device to the Megalodon, Chuck decides to put on his scuba gear and leave the relative safety of the submarine to take care of business on his own. Meanwhile, two women who fell into the water successfully manage to climb aboard to safety.

Chuck secures the homing device to the shark. After receiving radio confirmation that the homing device was planted from Cataline, who is monitoring the situation from a helicopter, the homing device however falls off. Ben realizes the only thing the torpedo can home onto is the submarine and tries to get into position. The Megalodon's enormous jaws clamp down on the submarine and it violently thrashes it about. Ben has no choice but to fire the torpedo while the submarine is still in the grasp of the Megalodon. He opens the main hatch and swims through the water as the torpedo closes in. The Megalodon is hit and explodes. Ben is knocked unconscious by the shockwave, and Cataline and Chuck fish him out of the water. However, there is another danger in the waters: another Megalodon is shown hunting for food in the ocean depths.

[edit] Reception

The movie was received poorly, widely panned as derivative and low budget. Scott Weinberg of efilmcritic.com stated "...Shark Attack 3 is simply inept in every way." ^[1] Many reviewers took issue with the bad dialogue, particularly a scene where John Barrowman delivers the dead-pan line, "I'm really wired. What do you say I take you home and eat your pussy?" This was later revealed (on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross) to be an ad-lib by Barrowman intended to make his co-star laugh, and for some reason it was left in the movie's final cut.^[2] Some subsequent TV broadcasts of the movie, however, replace the line with "What do you say I take you home and we watch I Love Lucy^{[citation needed]}?"^[3]

The film has risen to prominence^{[citation needed]}, particularly in the UK, thanks to Barrowman's subsequent success on British television, stemming from his semi-regular role as Captain Jack Harkness in the revival of Doctor Who, and starring as the same character in its spin-off, Torchwood. This has led to the film becoming cult viewing among fans of the shows^{[citation needed]}, with Barrowman eagerly joining in whenever the film is mocked.

During a February 2008 episode of Al Murray's Happy Hour, Murray lambasted Shark Attack 3 to his guest John Barrowman stating "...88 minutes of my life has vanished, disappeared never to be retrieved." Further quipping, "this went straight to the land fill didn't it?" ^[4]

[edit] Prequels

• Shark Attack
• Shark Attack 2

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Shark Attack 3 at the Internet Movie Database

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