You can’t deny these 9 moments from The Shallows prove it is one of the best shark movies

The Shallows is a movie about survival and solitude.

Starring Blake Lively, The Shallows is a horror film showcasing a lone woman braving all odds and giving her all to survive a horrific shark that is set on making her its prey. With a minimalist setting, the movie focuses sharply on the predator and its prey, making the plot quite realistic and in the process also doubling its horror impact.

If you like watching Man vs. Wild movies and are planning to watch a shark film other than Jaws, here is a list of 9 moments from The Shallows that prove why it is one of the best shark movies.

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You can’t deny these 9 moments from The Shallows prove it is one of the best shark movies

1) The Opening Discovery of the Helmet Camera

The tone of The Shallows is set in the opening scene, where we see a young boy finding a damaged helmet camera. He picks it up and sees the footage of a violent shark attacking somebody. There is screaming, there is shouting, there is blood in the water, and ultimately, cold silence. This scene is perfect for setting an environment of terror, without actually showing any real action, and sets the pace of the film, highlighting the theme that the ocean holds many secrets, and most of them are truly deadly.

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2) The First Shark Attack

The protagonist of the movie is Nancy, a med school student on vacation in Mexico, who loves to surf. While surfing she sees a massive whale carcass floating. As she begins to inspect it, she is pulled underwater by a massive shark that bites her leg. The suddenness of this attack, without any warning and without any foreshadowing leaves the audience shocked. This scene confirms that the antagonist of The Shallows is not a human, but a highly intelligent shark, whose nature is that of a predator. Nancy is left without any means of safety and is forced to swim towards some rocks nearby, surrounded by the ocean on all sides, leaving her trapped.

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3) The Seagull Companion ("Steven Seagull”)

A little bit of comic relief is found in the movie in the form of a seagull. As Nancy is left stranded on the rock, she finds companionship in a seagull that seems to have dislocated its wing and is also trapped with her. She names him - Steven Seagull, and forms a bond with him. The juxtaposition of this scene is how both Steven Seagull and Nancy are reflections of each other, as both are injured and trapped in the middle of the ocean. Moreover, the seagull also provides psychological support to Nancy and becomes a beacon of hope for her, motivating her to fight for her survival. We also get to see some bits of Nancy's personality through her interaction with the seagull and how she uses humor as a means of endurance.

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4) Makeshift Medical Self-Treatment

Trapped alone on the rocks, after being bitten by the shark, Nancy has to find a way to stop the bleeding, and she does so by using her earrings and necklace as a makeshift sewing equipment and suture her leg. In this scene we get to see her training as a medical student come into play, as instead of letting herself bleed out, she takes the situation under her control and tries to make a makeshift medical treatment for herself. She uses the support leash of her surfboard to stop the bleeding, and after suturing her leg with her earrings and necklace, she puts compression on it with the sleeve of her surfing suit. While this scene may be quite painful to watch, it sets a very realistic tone and helps build empathy for her. We also get to see a brave protagonist, who is intelligent and capable enough of surviving in the most physically and mentally enduring conditions, instead of simply giving up and leaving her fate up to chance.

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5) Underwater POV Shots

Another very important scene of the movie that adds to the tension and storytelling is the underwater shots from the point of view of the shark. In these scenes, we see Nancy swimming without realizing that the shark is looking from below, watching her and planning its next attack. This scene is very important as it gives the shark character and builds its presence, and in the process also manages to show the amount of unrealized threat Nancy is under. It reinforces that the ocean is the sharks' territory, and Nancy is surrounded by danger. It was a very clever way of building psychological tension in cinematic style.

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6) The Flare Gun and Fiery Showdown

Till this moment in the movie, the shark was the predator who had the upper hand. But in this scene for the first time, we see the offensive position shifting from the shark to Nancy. Escaping from the rocks, Nancy is now stranded on a buoy. But she has yet not lost hope. She is intelligent, she is hyperaware and she is looking for solutions left and right. She finds a flare gun and when she sees a distant cargo ship, she uses it to draw the ship's attention. Unfortunately, she fails to do so, but again, she does not lose hope. Instead, she uses the flare gun to ignite the floating whale carcass that sets the shark on fire. But the shark is in its own territory and losing so easily is simply not the answer. Engulfed in flames, we see the shark become more relentless, and in a spectacle, it jumps out of the water, leaving the fire in its trail.

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7) Timed Escape to the Buoy

In the scene where Nancy escapes to the buoy, we see her strategic thinking and her observation skills. She simply could have given in, to the panic of the shark circling her while she was trapped on the rocks. Instead, Nancy started planning how to outsmart this deathly predator and analyzed and calculated its movements. She studies the patterns of the shark and calculates the timing of its rotations. She takes a calculated risk and jumps into the water, swimming towards the buoy and manages to outsmart the shark, showcasing how intelligence is the sole advantage that humans possess when facing nature’s worst predators.

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8) The Final Battle

The final battle between the shark and Nancy is epic. Nancy has hopes to survive by drawing the attention of a nearby ship using a flare gun, but she misses the chance. Now left completely on her own, Nancy once again reclaims her will to live. She gathers the last ounces of energy left in her and gets ready to fight the shark once again, and one last time. As the shark keeps on attacking the unarmed Nancy, she uses her brain and anchors herself to the chain of the buoy, stuck to the ocean floor. Then she lures the shark into attacking her, and as she is pulled towards the ground, the shark chases her. As both of them, at great speed, approach the protruding debris, Nancy manages to dodge it, but the shark impales itself on it and finally dies. This scene shows that the only person capable of outsmarting a predator is a survivor.

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9) The Rescue and Surface Scene

The film could have abruptly ended with the death of the shark but it provides a full emotional and narrative closure when Nancy is saved by a young boy who finds her on the beach. Then, after a time skip, we see that Nancy is now a fully qualified doctor and instead of developing a fear of the ocean, after her dreadful encounter, she braves it, and once again is back at the ocean with her sister doing the thing that she loves the most – surfing. It brings the film to an impactful end, showing that our mind is our ultimate weapon not only for surviving physical threats but also for braving the traumatic memories they leave in their wake.