Megalodon (2004 film)

Last updated
Megalodon
Megalodonmovie.jpg
Directed byPat Corbitt
Written by Stanley Isaacs
Gary J. Tunnicliffe
Starring Robin Sachs
Leighanne Littrell
Al Sapienza
Mark Sheppard
Release date
  • February 2004 (2004-02)
Running time
90 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Megalodon is a 2004 American horror film. It takes place out on a deep-sea oil rig. When a deep sea drilling platform penetrates the sea bed in Greenland, it unleashes a prehistoric shark of enormous power and proportions known as megalodon. It is known in the UK and other territories as Sharkzilla.

Contents

Plot

In the North Atlantic off the coast of Greenland, a highly advanced deep sea oil rig has been recently constructed by the company Nexecon Petroleum, and named "Colossus" for its immense size. This "new" type of oil rig can dig deeper and extract more oil than any other in the world. The fact that this huge rig has been built on fault lines alarms geologists, who are concerned that the delicate ocean floor fault lines in that region might be disturbed through deep drilling, with catastrophic consequences. A reporter, Christen Giddings, has been invited by the CEO of Nexecon, Peter Brazier, to the oil rig in an attempt to address the concerns of the geologists. Christen is accompanied by a trusted cameraman Jake Thompson, who will record their findings. The oil rig's crew seem to be convinced that nothing bad will happen, and are skeptical of the geologists.

Brazier hopes that a documented report on "Colossus" will reveal that his rig has all the necessary safety arrangements and that the region is stable enough for a drilling operation. As the drilling commences, a rich oil deposit is discovered. However, further drilling is not stopped and an "ocean floor fault line" gets ruptured, which opens a portal to a "mirror" ocean, hidden under the normal ocean for millions of years and containing prehistoric life. An explosion occurs and the drilling system collapses. A team of engineers descend through a glass elevator to assess the situation. A giant animal is spotted approaching, which turns out to be the most powerful and fearsome oceanic predator that ever lived, Carcharodon megalodon , a giant, 60-foot (18 m) prehistoric shark.

A struggle for survival ensues as the crew and geologists attempt to escape from "Colossus", during which several people fall victim to the beast. In a desperate move to stop the monster shark, one of the crew members, Ross, lures it to an open space with his small submarine and overloads the fuel tanks of the machine, resulting in a gigantic explosion that kills both him and the beast. The ordeal is not over yet as another megalodon ventures into open waters, passing below a boat with Christen Giddings on board, but she is unaware of its presence.

Cast

Releases

The film was released in Japan during October 2002, and in the United States during February 2004.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oil platform</span> Offshore ocean structure with oil drilling and related facilities

An oil platform is a large structure with facilities to extract and process petroleum and natural gas that lie in rock formations beneath the seabed. Many oil platforms will also have facilities to accommodate the workers, although it is also common to have a separate accommodation platform bridge linked to the production platform. Most commonly, oil platforms engage in activities on the continental shelf, though they can also be used in lakes, inshore waters, and inland seas. Depending on the circumstances, the platform may be fixed to the ocean floor, consist of an artificial island, or float. In some arrangements the main facility may have storage facilities for the processed oil. Remote subsea wells may also be connected to a platform by flow lines and by umbilical connections. These sub-sea facilities may include one or more subsea wells or manifold centres for multiple wells.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sea monster</span> Legendary sea-dwelling creature

Sea monsters are beings from folklore believed to dwell in the sea and are often imagined to be of immense size. Marine monsters can take many forms, including sea dragons, sea serpents, or tentacled beasts. They can be slimy and scaly and are often pictured threatening ships or spouting jets of water. The definition of a "monster" is subjective; further, some sea monsters may have been based on scientifically accepted creatures, such as whales and types of giant and colossal squid.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pacific sleeper shark</span> Species of shark

The Pacific sleeper shark is a sleeper shark of the family Somniosidae, found in the North Pacific on continental shelves and slopes in Arctic and temperate waters between latitudes 70°N and 22°N and in at least two places in the western tropical Pacific near Palau and the Solomon Islands, from the surface to 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) deep. The first evidence of the sharks in the western tropical Pacific emerged from a National Geographic video taken near the Solomon Islands in 2015. Its length is up to 4.4 m (14 ft), although it could possibly reach lengths in excess of 7 m (23 ft).

<i>Ocean Ranger</i> Offshore oil rig, sank in 1982

Ocean Ranger was a semi-submersible mobile offshore drilling unit that sank in Canadian waters on 15 February 1982. It was drilling an exploration well on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, 267 kilometres (166 mi) east of St. John's, Newfoundland, for Mobil Oil of Canada, Ltd. (MOCAN) with 84 crew members on board when it sank. There were no survivors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mumbai High Field</span> Oilfield in India

The Mumbai High Field, formerly called the Bombay High Field, is an offshore oilfield 176 km (109 mi) off the west coast of Mumbai, in Gulf of Cambay region of India, in about 75 m (246 ft) of water. The oil operations are run by India's Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transocean</span> Offshore drilling contractor

Transocean Ltd. is an American drilling company. It is the world's largest offshore drilling contractor based on revenue and is based in Vernier, Switzerland. The company has offices in 20 countries, including Canada, the United States, Norway, United Kingdom, India, Brazil, Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia.

<i>Sea Monsters</i> (TV series) 2003 British television documentary series

Sea Monsters, marketed as Chased by Sea Monsters in the United States, is a 2003 three-part nature documentary television miniseries created by Impossible Pictures and produced by the BBC Studios Science Unit, the Discovery Channel and ProSieben. Following in the footsteps of The Giant Claw (2002) and Land of Giants (2003), special episodes of the nature documentary series Walking with Dinosaurs, Sea Monsters stars British wildlife presenter Nigel Marven as a "time-travelling zoologist" who travels to seven different periods of time in prehistory, diving in the "seven deadliest seas of all time" and encountering and interacting with the prehistoric creatures who inhabit them. The series is narrated by Karen Hayley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Extraction of petroleum</span> Removal of petroleum from the earth

Petroleum is a fossil fuel that can be drawn from beneath the Earth's surface. Reservoirs of petroleum are formed through the mixture of plants, algae, and sediments in shallow seas under high pressure. Petroleum is mostly recovered from oil drilling. Seismic surveys and other methods are used to locate oil reservoirs. Oil rigs and oil platforms are used to drill long holes into the earth to create an oil well and extract petroleum. After extraction, oil is refined to make gasoline and other products such as tires and refrigerators. Extraction of petroleum can be dangerous and have led to oil spills.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Petroleum exploration in the Arctic</span> Industry in the Arctic

Exploration for petroleum in the Arctic is expensive and challenging both technically and logistically. In the offshore, sea ice can be a major factor. There have been many discoveries of oil and gas in the several Arctic basins that have seen extensive exploration over past decades but distance from existing infrastructure has often deterred development. Development and production operations in the Arctic offshore as a result of exploration have been limited, with the exception of the Barents and Norwegian seas. In Alaska, exploration subsequent to the discovery of the Prudhoe Bay oilfield has focussed on the onshore and shallow coastal waters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of the petroleum industry in Canada (frontier exploration and development)</span>

Canada's early petroleum discoveries took place near population centres or along lines of penetration into the frontier.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ocean Star Offshore Drilling Rig & Museum</span> Oil & gas museum in TX , United States

The Ocean Star Offshore Drilling Rig & Museum, located in Galveston, Texas, is a museum dedicated to the offshore oil and gas industry. Located next to the Strand National Historic Landmark District, the museum is housed on a retired jack-up rig set up in the Galveston harbor.

Deepwater drilling, or deep well drilling, is the process of creating holes in the Earth's crust using a drilling rig for oil extraction under the deep sea. There are approximately 3400 deepwater wells in the Gulf of Mexico with depths greater than 150 meters.

<i>Mega Shark Versus Giant Octopus</i> 2009 American film

Mega Shark Versus Giant Octopus is a 2009 American-British monster disaster film distributed by The Asylum, released on May 19, 2009, in the United States and on August 7, 2009, in the United Kingdom. It was directed by Ace Hannah and stars singer Deborah Gibson and actor Lorenzo Lamas. The film is about the hunt for two prehistoric sea-monsters causing mayhem and carnage at sea, and is the first installment in the Mega Shark series of films.

<i>Mega Shark Versus Crocosaurus</i> 2010 American film

Mega Shark Versus Crocosaurus is a 2010 horror disaster film by The Asylum, released on December 21, 2010, in the United States. The film stars Jaleel White, Gary Stretch, Robert Picardo, Dylan Vox, Hannah Cowley and Sarah Lieving.

The Undersea Adventures of Captain Nemo is a Canadian animated television series of five-minute cartoons produced in 1975 by Rainbow Animation in Toronto, Ontario. The series follows the underwater adventures of Captain Mark Nemo and his two young assistants, Christine and Robbie, in their nuclear-powered submarine, the Nautilus.

<i>Shark Attack 3</i> 2002 American film

Shark Attack 3: Megalodon is the second sequel to Shark Attack, released in 2002 direct-to-video. The film is notable for featuring John Barrowman, who later found fame in popular shows such as Doctor Who and Torchwood. Barrowman has said in an interview on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross that he only did the film for the money, and was rather embarrassed when a clip from the film was shown. Actress Jenny McShane from the first Shark Attack film has a starring role, albeit as a completely different character.

<i>Deepwater Horizon</i> investigation

The Deepwater Horizon investigation included several investigations and commissions, among others reports by National Incident Commander Thad Allen, United States Coast Guard, National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, National Academy of Engineering, National Research Council, Government Accountability Office, National Oil Spill Commission, and Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board.

<i>Jurassic Shark</i> 2012 Canadian film

Attack of the Jurassic Shark is a 2012 Canadian independent adventure horror-thriller film project directed by Brett Kelly. It parodies two Steven Spielberg-directed films at once: Jaws and Jurassic Park.

<i>Mega Shark Versus Mecha Shark</i> 2014 American film

Mega Shark Versus Mecha Shark is a 2014 direct-to-video monster/disaster film produced by the Asylum. It was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on January 28, 2014. The film is a sequel to Mega Shark Versus Giant Octopus and Mega Shark Versus Crocosaurus, and is the third installment in the Mega Shark film series. It is the directorial debut of Emile Edwin Smith and stars Christopher Judge and Elisabeth Röhm, with Debbie Gibson reprising her role as Emma MacNeil from the first film.