Revealing mistake: When the shark first attacks and bites off Jim's arm, you can briefly see his real arm under his shirt as he's screaming in pain. (00:34:10)
Deep Blue Sea (1999)
Directed by: Renny Harlin
Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Thomas Jane, Stellan Skarsgard, Michael Rapaport, Saffron Burrows, Jacqueline McKenzie
Factual error: Near the beginning when the boat pulls up and the guy on the boat tells the blond convict he's got a beauty 13 foot "Tiger shark" that's up in some sort of sling, the so called tiger shark is actually the same robot mako shark from the rest of the movie, just with stripes on it. Tiger sharks have a blunt rounded nose, not a pointed one like a great white. (00:07:35)
Revealing mistake: As soon as the three survivors are coming out of the lab through the hatch underwater, they all signal each other to rise to the top. Look at Saffron Burrows, her cheeks are full of air and you can almost see the surface above her head. You can also see the exact same shot when she is about to be eaten by the last shark. And what's with that hand gesture - to cut or for the shark to stop? (01:26:30 - 01:33:10)
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Suggested correction: Her cheeks are like that because when we all take in a big breath of air and hold it so not to breathe, that's what happens. The hand gestures when she goes in the water is so the blood can mix with the water so the shark can smell it.
The hand gesture the entry is referring to is just before she is eaten by the shark, the actress waves her hand across her neck area, allegedly to indicate to the director that she was running out of air.
I think she is giving the shark a sign... like stop or don't attack or something like that. So I think she is giving the shark a sign because right after she does that the shark stops swimming towards her.
Maybe in the context of the film you could argue that, but for scenes in which actors are performing underwater, they use that gesture to let the director know they are running out of air.
If you look EXTREMELY closely in one shot with the girl at a close distance and the shark far away you can tell the girl is actually computer animated. So I think she is giving the shark a sign cuz right after she does that the shark stops swimming towards her. But I could be wrong... that's just what I think.
Yes, Saffron Burrows' character, Dr. Susan McAlester, used the hand gesture to lure the shark by mixing her blood in the water, rather than signalling that she was out of air. While she was holding her breath with puffy cheeks, this action demonstrated her intelligence and scientific understanding of shark behaviour. Her strategy aimed to draw the shark closer, allowing her colleagues a chance to kill it, even though it ultimately led to her tragic fate of being eaten.
Trivia: In both Jaws and Deep Blue Sea there is a scene involving a license plate. In Jaws it is removed from the belly of the dead tiger shark. In Deep Blue Sea it is removed from the teeth of a tiger shark. Not only are both sharks the same kind but both plates are from Louisiana. The license plate number is the same in both films: 007 o 981 Exp 72-73.
Trivia: Director Renny Harlin has a cameo as one of the employees of Aquatica who are leaving the facility for their weekend break in the opening scene.
Russell Franklin: Just what the hell did you do to those sharks?
Dr. Susan McCallister: Their brains weren't large enough to harvest sufficient amounts of the protein complex. So we violated the Harvard Compact. Jim and I used gene therapies to increase their brain mass, a larger brain means more protein. As a side effect the sharks got smarter.
Janice Higgins: You stupid bitch!
Tom Scoggins: They're big, real big.
Carter Blake: What's that?
Tom Scoggins: The size of your brass balls!
Russell Franklin: You think water moves fast? You should see ice. It moves like it has a mind. Like it knows it killed the world once and got a taste for murder. After the avalanche, it took us a week to climb out. Now, I don't know exactly when we turned on each other, but I know that seven of us survived the slide... And only five made it out. Now we took an oath, that I'm breaking now. We said we'd say it was the snow that killed the other two, but it wasn't. Nature is lethal but it doesn't hold a candle to man.
Question: Was there supposed to be some more of the scene between Carter and Susan after she had killed the third shark?
Answer: I assume you are referring to the scene after Susan killed the second shark (she was killed before the third shark was killed). The comments LL makes to finish that scene do seem a little out of place with what they were talking about but the film does have a number of scenes cut out. Most of the deleted scenes on the DVD deal with character development and dialogue but there is no evidence the scene was cut as the DVD's deleted scenes dont have any extra footage on that scene or alternate dialogue.
Answer: Yes, Susan and Carter actually share a kiss in the original ending. They grew smitten with one another in unreleased deleted scenes leading up to it. The kiss is interrupted by Sherman "Preacher" Dudley clearing his throat, who's still recovering from his wounds. This, of course, was part of the unreleased original ending that was changed at the last minute due to test audiences wanting Susan to die. The footage was never released but there are stills from said kiss and this was how it was scripted to end. Fans started a petition on the Change site asking Warner to release the original ending and even Thomas Jane is promoting it on his Instagram account. But as of now, the ending has yet to be released.
Question: I know that Susan was originally supposed to survive and kill the last shark but the test audience greatly disapproved of this. Why did the test audience hate the original ending? And why is this ending unavailable to watch?
Answer: They viewed her as a villain because it was her research that backfired and caused all of the chaos, even though none of it was intentional and it was a mistake. But audiences can be ruthless and unforgiving at times. However, the ending did feel like a cheap cop-out that created more plot holes. And many do feel she should have survived and completed her character arc. I don't know why they never offered the ending as a bonus feature on the DVD, but fans started a petition on the Change site calling for Warner to release the original ending. Thomas Jane is on board as well, as he's promoting it on his Instagram account. So that's probably the best way to get Warner's attention if you want to see the original ending.
Answer: Audiences viewed Susan as a villain of sorts, because all the mayhem and deaths in the film are a direct result of her breaching protocol, so they decided to rewrite the ending to have her die. As for why it's unavailable to view, perhaps the filmmakers didn't think people would be interested in seeing it.
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