The Shallows

Plot synopsis:
Nancy Adams (Blake Lively) is a college medical student headed toward a beach for a personal vacation. The beach was a favorite spot of her mother, who recently passed away from cancer. Nancy is driven there by a man named Carlos (Oscar Jaenada). She is supposed to be there with her friend Anna, but she claims to have gotten sick, leaving Nancy to take the trip alone. She offers him some cash for his services, but he declines.Nancy gets into her surf gear and hits the waves on her board. She comes across two other surfers who know she is a visitor. Nancy joins the two of them as the waves get nicer.Later, Nancy has a video chat with her sister Chloe (Sedona Legge) to tell her all about the beach and how their mother was right about how it's like paradise. Nancy then talks to her father (Brett Cullen), who knows she is taking the trip for her mother. He expresses concern to Nancy over her grief and actions.Nancy swims out past the shallows of the ocean to catch some more waves. As she gets further from the shore, she sees a whale carcass floating up top. Sensing trouble, Nancy tries to head back to the shore on a wave, but as she rides it, a large great white shark slams into her and knocks her off the board. Nancy climbs back on and tries to paddle back, but the shark bites deep into her left leg, spilling a lot of blood into the water. Nancy struggles to escape and swims to a rock where the shark can't reach her. She takes the ankle strap from her board and uses it as a tourniquet to stop the bleeding. Nancy sees the other two surfers and tries calling to them for help, but they don't appear to hear or see her. She wraps her wetsuit around her leg.It starts getting darker as Nancy tries to get an opening away from the shark. Her only companion is a seagull with an injured wing. Nancy tries to eat a tiny crawling creature, but she quickly barfs it up.On the shore, she sees a drunk man passed out in the sand. She calls out to him and manages to get his attention. Nancy points toward her bag for her to call for help. The man just steals her phone and wallet. He sees her board floating in the shallows and he walks into the water to get it. Nancy yells to him to get away from the shark. She then sees the shark attack the man as he heads back to the shore. The shark tears the man in half, and the top half tries crawling away until he dies.Nancy gets colder as the night falls. She puts her suit back on to keep warm. She also loosens the tourniquet to allow blood flow in the leg. Nancy then tries to stitch herself up using her earrings and necklace chain, but it's too painful for her.In the morning, the other two surfers return to the ocean. Nancy calls to them as they ride their boards into the water. She warns them about the shark, but one surfer assures her there isn't one. He's proven wrong when the shark jumps up and takes eats him. The other surfer rushes toward the rock, but the shark pulls him down. He resurfaces quickly by the rock where Nancy tries to pull him up. The shark pulls him down, leaving only his helmet with a camera on top, which captures him getting eaten.Nancy observes the shark's movements as it circles the rock, estimating that it swims about 32 seconds around another rock, which leaves her with time to swim and reach the helmet. She takes that chance and makes it to the little rock, but she misses the helmet before the shark returns. As she goes back to the bigger rock, she sees the helmet again. Nancy reaches for it as the shark lunges toward her. The shark hurts itself as it scrapes against the coral. Nancy manages to get the helmet. She makes a video for anyone that finds the helmet. She shows how bad her leg has gotten, with gangrene setting in, and she leaves a message for Chloe and their father. Nancy then tosses the helmet toward the shore.Nancy pops the seagull's wing back into place and then lets it float away on a broken piece of surfboard.Nancy sees a buoy several feet away. She makes her plan to reach it and try to bring attention to herself. As she prepares herself, the shark swims toward her. A school of jellyfish rises up. Nancy thinks the shark can't harm her if it runs into something that can hurt it. Nancy jumps into the water and swims toward the buoy, and the shark follows closely. She gets stung on her shoulder, while the shark eats some jellyfish and gets stung too. Nancy reaches the buoy and finds a flare gun. She grabs the shots and fires a few in the air as she spots a boat in the distance. Unfortunately, the boat is already turned away, and it never sees her.The shark starts to circle the buoy. Nancy fires a flare directly at the shark. Now pissed off, the shark starts slamming into the buoy, breaking the chains that keep it up. It manages to loosen the buoy and starts chomping into it. Nancy struggles to keep herself at a distance and to hold onto the buoy. While underwater, she notices the chain holding the buoy to a spiked base on the floor of the bay. At the right moment, Nancy gets the chain on a hook stuck in the shark's side. This pulls her down toward the base as the shark chases her. She pulls out at the right moment, causing the shark to swim directly onto the base and it gets impaled.On the shore, a little boy finds the helmet camera and sees Nancy's video. He runs to get his father, who is Carlos. The two find Nancy washed up on the shore, dehydrated and weak. They run to help her. Nancy sees the seagull standing close to her. Before she passes out, Nancy sees a vision of her mother smiling down on her. Nancy simply says, "I'm okay."One year later, Nancy is doing better, albeit with a big scar on her leg. She returns to the beach with Chloe and their father. Nancy brings Chloe into the water to teach her how to surf.

Tags: comedy, murder, violence, horror, flashback, suspenseful

Review:
What The Shallows does so well is establish this sense of isolation and hopelessness for our main character, and her situation of being so close yet so far from safety.Blake Lively is great in this role.
But then you have someone like Jaume Collet-Serra, who knows a thing or two about framing a scene, getting good performances from his actors, and above all, making an entertaining movie.The Shallows could have been an otherwise conventional and forgettable thriller without Collet-Serra's strong and stylish direction.
For example, the scene when Blake Lively's character first gets attacked by the shark is beautifully composed - in one unbroken take, no less - and legitimately nightmarish, with the red blood slowly overtaking the blue screen.
I can suspend disbelief with the best of them, a shark becomes vengeful towards a human, no problem, an exhausted woman can ride a turbo charged chain to extreme depth, fine, mobile phone coverage on an isolated beach in Mexico, sure, they have great infrastructure.What I absolutely cannot accept is that high tide does not follow low tide by a little over six hours.
It first I didn't know what to expect from this movie, as it has become so hard to take shark movies seriously, however The Shallows not only surprised me, it is the best shark movie since Jaws and honestly the best creature feature in ages!At only 85 minutes, this movie absolutely makes the most of that run-time and its 17 million dollar budget and delivers a tense, gripping, stress inducing movie that will constantly keep you on the edge of your seat.
Director Jaume Collet- Serra will have no problem landing a future big budget Hollywood Blockbuster and Blake Lively will soon find herself as a leading lady more often.The Shallows is the biggest surprise of the year, with gripping tension, a career performance from Blake Lively, beautiful scenery, an amazing story of will and survival and one big, mean, scary shark, The Shallows is a Summer movie that you don't want to miss!
I have a couple of issues with this film (occasionally too much CGI, and a weird ending) but for the majority of its brief, 86-minutes-long run, this is a riveting film, exquisitely filmed in the Gold Coast of Australia, about a survivor of a shark attack clinging to life, figuratively and literally, on the side of a rock 200 feet from shore, with the shark still circling the waters.
yes, there's the main character (Blake Lively - who is also very beautiful) coming to terms with her own past and decisions she's made.I felt that once the story got going, everything slowed down to a standstill; and I'm afraid to say that I started feeling bored - far from what I expected after seeing the trailers and hype.I'm not saying The Shallows is a bad movie - Blake does a decent job, the CGI/shark scenes/SFX are more believable than most films in this 'genre', and the acting isn't anything to complain about.
I was very much looking forward to this film; am just a little disappointed there wasn't more to it - jump scenes, shark scenes and perhaps a slightly better story line.Finally...I wouldn't be surprised if Steven Seagull gets his own movie next year!Overall: 5/10...
As I was watching Lively fighting for survival against this War of the Worlds beast that happens to have a fin - one that gobbles a fellow surfer like Godzilla - I thanked the Gods of filmmaking that decimated Spielberg's mechanical shark and forced him to rely on the basic elements of suspense to create a masterpiece in JAWS.
This smart little thrill ride may not make you afraid to get back in the water like the one-and-only Jaws...because it does something on a much more conscious level than Spielberg's very fictional tale, and for that, I applaud the director and writer for coming up with a story that is more about self-empowerment than it is about painting sharks as man-eating monsters -- they're not, and that's why this movie is a shark movie done right.
If you want to watch a GOOD shark attack horror/thriller that has a well crafted story, good character development, and much better acting then watch Jaws.
It has been a while since a decent shark movie was made and I like Blake Lively as an actress so I was quite looking forward to this movie however, through no fault of her own, this was an atrociously bad film.
With all the knowledge we now have of shark behavior through research over the decades since jaws was released, you just can't get away with making something that completely goes against everything we know.jaws was a masterpiece and still stands the tests of time so to see people comparing it to this movie, it baffles me.
Less is more, the most unsettling thing about jaws was the fact you didn't see the shark for the majority of the movie whilst in "The Shallows" you see far too much to the point nothing can shock you.All in all, if you're thinking of watching this movie,don't.
Likes : WOW...............never have i ever watched a film that pull my emotions left , right & center by the end of the film i was in tears , this is such incredible film to watch Blake lively was certainly the best casting choice for this film , god dam she look hot in a bikini.
Woman vs nature for survival & omg god does Blake lively pull this off with a convincing role as Texan medical student Nancy who trip turn's in to a nightmare when she heavy stalked by a 25 foot great white out blood.This is where this film turn into intense moment with brutal & shocking scene of death that make jaws ashamed ,iam not kidding this film manages to keep that concept of peril like there is no hope of survival through out the film which bring you to tears because you don't know if she gonna survive or die at any moment which is good for the film because it keep you grip to the screen just wait for the next scene to happen.
Blake lively performance is perfect she show perfect survival instincts being alone trap on a small rock the tides coming in she has over 200 meter to the shoreline with a shark that can swim faster, she pull this off perfect with charisma, vulnerability, and resourcefulness that is ideal character concept for a heroine of this genre of film.
With a bold and plucky attitude that seems to say, "gimme your best shot." as riveting to the points watching her scramble to stay alive, determined not to lose to what appears to be the very hand of Fate itself.This is how you make a shark film, kept the casting to a minim, cast a brilliant act or actress that can keep the concept going through the whole film just like this film you have the making of an outstanding shark movie that seriously made jaws less frighting & step up the food chain intensiveness & frighting moments that will truly make you fear the water again.This film seriously does this, its not only intense, bloody, foreboding & thought provoking it seriously put the fear of the water back in the audience like jaws once did, i highly recommend watching this film as you wont be disappointed as there is a references to jaws..
The Shallows is a survival thriller film directed by Jaume Collet-Serra and stars Blake Lively in the lead as Nancy Adams.
The film follows Nancy, a surfer who gets stranded away from the shore and attacked by a great white shark.
I liked it a lot, and Blake Lively does a fantastic job on the role, especially considering that she is pretty much the only actress on the entire film.
It does get a bit too get going until the shark attack, but overall this movie is really well made and the director Jaume Collet-Serra keeps on making really entertaining thrillers over and over again.
While Nancy paddles into shallow water waves, a great white shark (à la "Jaws") emerges without warning.
The action is pretty good although totally predictable and it looks great up until the use of CGI underwater when it starts to look like a scene from a Sharks Tale.
At a pleasant running time of 84 minutes , The Shallows is good bit of escapism but like every other shark film , it's no Jaws..
Honestly at times her lines sounded like she was in a b movie and yes she has great boobs and a nice butt but we saw less of the naked lady in jaws and thought we saw a whole heck of a lot more!
and then its all downhill.Sure the "actress" is Young and beautiful and have a touch of Britney Spears, but do you really wanna see Britney swim around chased by a dumb as f shark that defies all Logics of physics and are behaving like a "smart" techno shark that lures People into behaving as it wants?Sure, if the point is to scare Your mom from going into the water and she has about never seen a Movie With a good story line before, this is the Movie.
Starring as Nancy is Blake Lively in a horror movie that goes by the name of 'The Shallows'.
Her surfing trip takes a turn for the worst however when an enormous white shark appears that traps her on a tiny island.The story of 'The Shallows' is not all that original, movies where a shark is tormenting a group of surfers have come and gone in the past.
During the different action moments and surf scenes it is very obvious that Blake Lively's face is plastered onto a stunt women causing a disconnect between the viewer and the character.In the end 'The Shallows' is a very disposable horror movie as deep as the title suggest.
The dour tone in the background adds a more suspenseful imagery if you have the time to meticulously watch the movie, the double 10 mins would surely suck you into the world, thinking if you're that girl, what would you do?Highly recommend this to people who are loving the idea to generate powerful survival skills, if you love to surf or wander into the deep of the sea.
The Shallows is a perfect example of how to make a perfectly competent and thrilling shark movie from the moment the camera opens onto the beautiful Mexican beaches to the very end once the last of the credits has rolled.
The Shallows is directed by Jaume Collet-Serra and is the story of a young girl (college, to be exact) named Nancy, played by Blake Lively, who visits Mexico in order to go to a hidden beach that her mother used to go to.
However, when the men leave earlier than expected, a gigantic great white shark attacks her, wounding her leg, and leaving her stranded on a small rock just 200 yards away from shore with no help in sight.After the disappointment that was Independence Day: Resurgence (2016), I wasn't too excited to go back to the theater, but I'm sure glad that I did.
All of the acting was good (even though one of the two characters with the most screen time being a seagull), the direction was amazing, and the special effects were fantastic.Blake Lively does excellent in her role, playing a strong female character (which isn't a common phrase in most films nowadays) with a will to survive.
Many other moments like the one mentioned are in The Shallows, which, alone, make this movie worth seeing.The direction, by Jaume Collet-Serra, is amazing, especially in the underwater shots.
Once the tension starts, and the shark comes into play, learning more about our protagonist no longer seems like a way to lazily establish the character anymore, it just feels like a break from the suspense, which is the exact way scenes like such should be filmed.Before my overall conclusion, I must give props to Steven "Sully" Seagull, the seagull who played the seagull.
The film stars Blake Lively who takes on a daunting task of carrying the movie on her shoulders with not much support other than a few minor characters who each only get a finger scoop of screen time.
Every time you see a underwater shot hinting a close proximity between the main character and the shark, it leaves you squirming in your seat, and scenes don't need a suspenseful music score to complete the scariness.
The ending might be a little more sudden and random than what you wold expect, but it works within the just-under-90 minute running time.I wouldn't recommend it for kids younger than 10, as the climactic scenes might be a little too intense for them and as the main character lets out one f-word as she tries to scare the shark away.
With a simple goal in mind (DON'T GET EATEN), The Shallows is the best shark movie since Jaws.
The Shallows is a nice change of pace by going back to a simple goal in shark movies; don't get eaten.Off of the coast of Mexico, a medical student Nancy (played by Blake Lively) is being taken to a secluded beach by a resident who refuses to say the name of the beach, only calling it paradise.
As time runs out on the increasing tide, she has to use her wits to save herself.I cannot believe that after forty years after Jaws, we finally have another good shark movie!
yer that was okay ,and yes from what i surmised the tide times were correct IE 5pm in evening =6-7 hours roughly to bottom of tide =1hr at bottom then 6-7 hrs to top again as her watch said 6am in morning ,so its near as dammit ,being a boat fisherman.besides the usual nit picks the film was OK i enjoyed it ,even the lighting at night was done OK so you could still see the film.it had a decent atmosphere ,and not to many soppy flashbacks of her mum ,being the reason she was there.its a tension builder and blake lively was great .its no jaws but well worthy of a look ,graphics were OK and film quality was spot on .factually probably a bit over the top ,and the end leaves a lot to be desired in my opinion ,but overall ,yep a decent film,not to deep just entertaining..
Much of the film rests on Blake's performance, as most of the movie is the character Nancy stuck on a small rock.
Way above the cheesy movies we have had since Jaws.Blake Lively is likable, beautiful and believable as a surfer.
It movies (for the most part) like a real animal and it's nothing but scary when it attacks.The Shallows keeps you on the edge of your seat wondering what's going to happen next and how is Lively going to escape from being Shark meat.
it doesn't feel like a B movie it feels like a glossy and well produced film with some genuine time and effort put into it's effects.the only real negatives I can think of here are the lack of truly BRUTAL shark attack sequences, better choices of music and a more memorable score.
Not filmed with 3D camera's.Movie Review:I was immediately brought into the story as the main actress, played by Blake Lively, is on her way to a remote beach she had never been, but always dreamed of going to.
And I mean shine.Though I love any film shot on a beach, and had a feeling I was going to like this movie, I am still slightly shocked as to how good The Shallows is.
If you've been scared of sharks because of the media and movies like The Shallows, watch Sharkwater.
The Big Screen really allows the shark scenes to jump out at you, the music rumbles in the theatre, and Blake Lively gives a great performance.
I like shark movies pretty good as I'm a big "Jaws" fan like most so anytime I see a shark in a movie I try to watch it's just something about a great water and deep water when they both surround a human it's so common to be found with fear and drama so when it's put on the big screen it entertains.This story sets around a woman named Nancy(Blake Lively)who takes a trip to a private secluded like tropical beach to just get away and relax and enjoy some free downtime of fun sun, surf, and riding the waves of the deep ocean.
Some of the ocean wave and shark attack scenes of the film are top notch shots with great camera work which is a treat to this survival tale of the desire to live and return to the open land of life and freedom..
There are some interesting visual choices on how the characters communicate with each by phone, but it does feel a bit gimmicky.The story is the familiar man (or this case woman) vs nature scenario which is a solid foundation to build a film, but on occasion the plot tends to veer into some questionable Syfy movie of the week territory like finding safety on top of a dead whale :) Blake Lively does a fair job of playing a woman at a crossroads in her life.
The Shallows is one little surprisingly good horror flick with a great performance by Blake Lively and - a shark.
I was excited for this as it was one of the first shark movies to come out at the theatres for a while.I am not a big fan of Blake Lively but I thought she played the role of stranded victim brilliantly.
I can only think of two scenes where the CGI wasn't great, but 99% of the time the shark did indeed look real.So don't let some of the negative reviews away you, check it out for yourself.