The Meg

***The Meg*** is a 2018 science fiction thriller film directed by Jon Turteltaub with a screenplay by Dean Georgaris, Jon Hoeber, and Erich Hoeber, loosely based on the 1997 book *Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror* by Steve Alten. The film stars Jason Statham, Li Bingbing, Rainn Wilson, Ruby Rose, Winston Chao, and Cliff Curtis, and follows a group of scientists who encounter a 75-foot-long (23 m) Megalodon shark while on a rescue mission at the floor of the Pacific Ocean.

Disney originally purchased the film rights to the book in the 1990s, but after several years in development hell, the rights landed at Warner Bros. Turteltaub and much of the cast joined by September 2016, and filming began the following month in New Zealand.

An American-Chinese co-production, *The Meg* was released in both countries on August 10, 2018, in Real D 3D, Dolby Cinema, and IMAX. It has grossed $141 million worldwide and received mixed reviews from critics, with some describing it as an entertaining B-movie and others calling "neither good enough or bad enough" to be fun.

## Plot

Jonas Taylor, a rescue diver, attempts to save a group of scientists in a nuclear submarine, among them Dr. Heller, from a massive, underwater shark attack. Taylor is able to rescue some of the scientists but refuses to go back to save the rest, having realized that going back for the rest would mean the death of them all.

Five years later, Jack Morris meets Dr. Minway Zhang at an underwater research facility called "Mana One", which Morris finances. Zhang and his daughter, Suyin, an oceanographer, are supervising a mission to dive further into the depths of the Mariana Trench, where a warm water pocket has been discovered beneath a cold water thermocline in the trench. The mission is being conducted by Lori, Taylor’s ex-wife, Toshi and The Wall in a submersible. The mission appears to be going well, until a very large object first attacks the sub's ROV rover and hits the submersible, causing it to lose contact with Mana One. Lori is impaled and badly injured by a piece of equipment as she, Toshi and The Wall try to get the submarine operational again.

James "Mac" Mackreides, another crew member at the station, suggests sending Taylor down to attempt a rescue after he suspects the object to be the same creature that Taylor said attacked the nuclear submarine. Despite Dr. Heller's objections, Zhang and Mac decide to travel to Thailand to recruit Taylor anyway. Agreeing to help upon hearing his ex-wife is in danger, takes a submarine down to rescue her, preceded by Suyin, who also intends to mount a rescue. During her attempt, she is attacked by a large squid, which nearly crushes her sub until something kills and eats it. Peering through the water, both she and the newly arrived Taylor recognize it as a megalodon. Drawn to the lights of the submersibles, the shark attacks again, with Taylor distracting it using flares. During the rescue process, Toshi sacrifices himself by closing the hatch door, allowing Jonas, Lori and The Wall to escape safely.

Back at Mana One, the crew makes the discovery that the megalodon has escaped from the depths of the trench after it leaves bite marks on Mana One's viewports while trying to attack Suyin's daughter, Meiying, and it kills some of the local whales. It is also revealed that the shark destroyed an underwater seamount during its attack, allowing it to swim out of the deep by swimming through the warm-water pocket. The group decides to track and poison the megalodon after seeing it has attacked several shark-finning boats. After several attempts to track and kill the shark, Suyin enters a specially designed shark cage and manages to poison the megalodon, which is prevented from killing her thanks to the efforts of Taylor and the others when they lasso the shark. However, as they celebrate a second, much larger megalodon emerges and kills The Wall, Dr. Heller, and Zhang as it devours the dead shark. They are able to finally escape the pursuing shark in two dinghies when Morris' security forces manage to drive it away with bullets and a helicopter.

After regrouping at Mana One, Zhang, Dr. Heller and The Wall are mourned for, while Taylor discovers he is beginning to develop feelings for Suyin, something which both Lori and Meiying suggest he act upon. When nightfall arrives, Morris attempts to destroy the Megalodon himself by ordering a helicopter crew to chuck modified depth charges at it. However, he is unsuccessful when he discovers they killed a whale instead and he is killed and eaten by the megalodon after being accidentally thrown out of the boat as the shark returns to feed on the carcass. Taylor and the remaining Mana One crew successfully put another tracker on the shark, and realize that the megalodon is en route to a crowded beach on the Chinese mainland in Sanya Bay.

The shark attacks the bathers, killing dozens as it tries to devour as many people as it can. The Mana One crew manages to divert the shark’s attention by projecting audio of a whale call to divert the shark's attention away from the beachgoers during its attack and toward them. They attempt to kill the shark with torpedoes, but Taylor loses his before he can fire and his sub takes sever damage, while Suyin's torpedoes only slightly injure the shark as it swims out of range. Suyin attemps to rescue the Mana One crew, who are forced into the water by helicopters crashing as a result of trying to film the fight, while Taylor manages to cut open the shark with shrapnel from his damaged submarine and then stab it in the eye with a large spear full of poison. The megalodon's blood then attracts other sharks to it, which devour the dying shark alive.

Afterwards, Taylor and the Mana One Crew are reunited aboard a wealthy couple's boat, where they celebrate the shark's defeat and their survival, with Jonas and Suyin deciding to take a vacation together.

## Cast

* Jason Statham as Jonas Taylor
* Li Bingbing as Suyin Zhang
* Rainn Wilson as Jack Morris
* Ruby Rose as Jaxx Herd
* Winston Chao as Dr. Minway Zhang
* Cliff Curtis as James "Mac" Mackreides
* Shuya Sophia Cai as Meiying
* Page Kennedy as DJ
* Robert Taylor as Dr. Heller
* Ólafur Darri Ólafsson as The Wall
* Jessica McNamee as Lori
* Masi Oka as Toshi

## Production

The rights to the novel were initially acquired by Disney's Hollywood Pictures in 1996. However, by 1999 the project had stalled and the rights reverted back to Steve Alten, the book's author.

In 2005, reports surfaced that the project was being developed by New Line Cinema, with a slated release of summer 2006. Names attached to the production included Jan de Bont as director, Guillermo Del Toro as producer and Shane Salerno as screenwriter. However, New Line later cancelled the project due to budget concerns. The rights reverted to Alten again, but the film remained in development hell.

In 2015, it was announced that the film was now moving forward at Warner Bros., with a new script penned by Dean Georgaris. By June of that year, Eli Roth was reported to be in talks to direct, but, due to creative differences, was replaced by Jon Turteltaub in early 2016. Jason Statham and much of the cast joined in August and September 2016.

Principal photography on the film began on October 13, 2016 in West Auckland, New Zealand. Filming ended on January 11, 2017.

## Release

Released by Gravity Pictures in China and by Warner Bros. Pictures in the United States, *The Meg* was originally scheduled to open March 2, 2018. Warner and Gravity then said that the film would be released during the 2018 Chinese New Year period in China, a week-long annual holiday that kicked off on February 16, 2018. The film was later pushed back to its eventual date of August 10, 2018, in 3D and IMAX.

The first official trailer was released on on April 9, 2018. The studio spent $140 million on global prints and advertisement for the film.

## Reception

### Box Office

As of August 12, 2018, *The Meg* has grossed $44.5 million in the United States and Canada, and $97 million in other territories, for a total worldwide gross of $141.5 million. With a production budget between $130–178 million, and another $140 million spent on advertisement, the film will need to gross at least $400 million to break-even.

In the United States and Canada, *The Meg* was released alongside *Slender Man*, *BlacKkKlansman*, and *Dog Days*, and was originally projected to gross $20–22 million from 4,118 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $4 million from Thursday night previews, leading analysts to predict it would outperform its low-$20 million projections. After making $16.5 million on its first day, weekend estimates were raised to $40 million. It went on to debut to $44.5 million, topping the box office and marking the best solo opening of Statham's career.

In other territories, the film debuted to $96.8 million from 96 countries, for a worldwide opening of $141.3 million. In China, a co-producer of the the film, it grossed $50.3 million from 12,650 screens. Other top openings were Mexico ($6.2 million), Russia ($5 million), the United Kingdom ($4.4 million) and Spain ($2.4 million).

### Critical Response

On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, *The Meg* has an approval rating of 49% based on 152 reviews, with an average rating of 5.4/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "*The Meg* sets audiences up for a good old-fashioned B-movie creature feature, but lacks the genre thrills—or the cheesy bite—to make it worth diving in." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 45 out of 100, based on 42 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.

Owen Gleiberman of *Variety* gave the film a mixed review, calling it "neither good enough or bad enough," and writing, "*The Meg*, a rote sci-fi horror adventure film that features a shark the size of a blue whale, comes on like it wants to be the mother of all deep-sea attack movies. But it's really just the mother of all generically pandering, totally unsurprising *Jaws* ripoffs." In a more positive review, Alex Hudson from *Exclaim!* said the film succeeded nicely on modest terms; "As pulpy action films go, this is the best blockbuster about prehistoric monsters you'll see this summer. Sorry, *Jurassic World*." Scott Mendelson of *Forbes* was impressed by the film's special effects and called it "a polished B movie that delivers the goods," while IGN's William Bibbiani praised the performances of the cast, particularly Statham and Li.

## Sequel

in April 2018, Jason Statham said a *Meg* would happen if the film did well with the public, saying "I think it's like anything in this day and age — if it makes money, there's obviously an appetite to make more money. And if it doesn't do well, they'll soon sweep it under the carpet. But that's the way Hollywood works." That August, Steve Alten said "My feeling has always been that this is a billion dollar franchise if it was done right. But to be done right you had to get the shark right, get the cast right, get the tone right. And Warner Bros. have nailed it completely. The producers have nailed it." In October 2018, executive producer Catherine Xujun Ying announced a sequel was in the early stages of development.

## Trivia

* Megalodon has been extinct for 2 million years. While many theories surrounding its survival by hiding in deepwater trenches have been proposed, none have withstood scientific scrutiny.
* The megalodon shown in the film are far larger than what is realistic; real megalodon might have reached a maximum length of 60-65 feet, no evidence has shown that they can reach the 75-93 foot lengths described and shown in the film.
* If megalodon had survived in the deep ocean, its entire morphology would have had to change as a result of staying at great depth.
* Several scenes in the film pay tribute to Jaws; among them, the megalodon trailing three rafts behind it like the great white does in Jaws and the young boy asking his mother if he can go out in the water, much as what happened with Alex Kitner in the 1975 film. However, where Alex Kitner dies, his counterpart in The Meg survives.
* In real-life, megalodon likely would not have bothered eating humans due to how small they were and the negative energy yield that would have resulted in hunting them. However, a large group of people like the bathers in the film might have interested a megalodon into lazily gulping them down.
* Jason Statham's method of killing the shark probably would not have worked; shark skin is incredibly tough, and would have been extremely hard to cut as a result of the denticles lining it. The thickness of a megalodon's skin probably would result in the shark having superficial wounds instead.
* In the novel, Jonas Taylor is a paleontologist and marine biologist, not a rescue diver.
* The megalodon's body design was based in combination off of porbeagle and great white sharks.