A group of friends go sailing towards Indonesia, but their boat capsizes in the middle of the ocean when it hits a shallow reef. The group decides that their best option is to swim to Turtle Island, which is located 10 miles away. To get there, they must swim through shark-infested waters, with a great white taking a special interest in them.
Not to be confused with the CG- animated film from 2006.
This film includes the following tropes:
- An Arm and a Leg: We aren’t shown it, but Matt loses a leg to the shark and bleeds out shortly after.
- Based on a True Story: In real life, there were three people, they were attacked by a tiger shark, not a great white, and the survivor was a male. Said survivor reported that one of the others did pull a Heroic Sacrifice after having his leg mostly bitten off so Luke doing the same in the film pulls this into Ripped from the Headlines territory.
- Big Bad: The Great White shark eating everybody.
- Bittersweet Ending: Leaning very heavily on the bitter. Kate is able to swim onto an island and escape the Great White, but she's left weeping and traumatized after witnessing the shark kill Luke because she couldn't pull him up fast enough. In addition, the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue reveals that the authorities rescued her, but that Warren is almost certainly dead, meaning she's the only survivor.
- Bolivian Army Ending: Warren refuses to go in the water because he's terrified of the sharks he knows live there, and remains onboard the sinking yacht to wait for rescue. The last time he's seen, Warren is still waiting on the yacht and watching in horror as sharks surround the boat. The "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue reveals neither he or the boat were ever found by the authorities.
- Cat Scare: A moment comes where they think they're being attacked by the shark, but it turns out to be a dolphin.
- Decomposite Character: Matt and Luke are respectively based on the Real Life shipwreck victim who lost a leg to a shark and swam away from his companions as he bled out to draw it away from them.
- Developing Doomed Characters: The opening scenes establish that Luke and Kate are a couple that broke up years ago, with some clear sexual tension.
- Final Girl: Kate ends up playing this very straight.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Luke sacrifices himself so that Kate survives the final attack.
- I Will Only Slow You Down: Matt urges the group to leave after the shark bites off his leg. It's a moot point because he dies of blood loss shortly after.
- The Load: Warren, a sailor and Luke's only crew mate, contributes absolutely nothing to the situation. He doesn't impede the group, but he's too scared to go in the water and only panics the rest of the group with his fear of sharks. He ultimately chooses to remain behind on the sinking yacht.
- Men Are the Expendable Gender: Three male characters in the movie. None of them survive.
- Nice Guy: Something that makes the film all the more horrific is that the characters are quite kind and empathetic towards each other. Luke, Kate, Matt, and Susie all do their best to comfort each other and prove quite selfless, risking their lives for each other numerous times. Warren, despite being The Load, makes a deliberate effort to not fight with the rest of the group and makes sure to warn them of the sharks living in the waters, while never trying to forced anyone to remain aboard the sinking yacht.
- The Place: The Reef.
- Scenery Porn: Early on, there are some lovely shots of the ocean.
- Super-Persistent Predator: The shark just will not leave them be at all.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Unusually for this type of film, and for Andrew Traucki’s films in general, after the last shark attack, the shark simply swims away and is not seen again. No final confrontation, it does not die, it just…leaves. The titles say Kate is rescued from the rock, and boom, credits.
- Technology Marches On: In-universe example. The boat's EPIRB is an older model that can only be picked up if a plane happens to fly over it.
- Threatening Shark: A large great white shark stalks the group throughout the film.
- Too Dumb to Live: Moments after being attacked by a shark, Matt swims away from the group to retrieve Kate's bodyboard. Guess who's the first to die.
- Vasquez Always Dies: Inverted. The more feminine and hysterical Suzie dies, while the tomboyish Kate survives.
- Very Loosely Based on a True Story: The movie is based on the events of Ray Boundy
, a survivor of a shipwreck that left its crew struggling swim to a reef for safety. Ray found his group being stalked and killed by a shark, leaving him as the sole survivor. - What Happened to the Mouse?: The end titles state that nothing was ever found of Warren and the yacht.