Open Water is a 2003 American survival horror thriller film. The story concerns an American couple who go scuba diving while on vacation, only to find themselves stranded miles from shore in shark-filled waters when the crew of their boat accidentally leaves them behind.
Shark cage diving is underwater diving or snorkeling where the observer remains inside a protective cage designed to prevent sharks from making contact with the divers. Shark cage diving is used for scientific observation, underwater cinematography, and as a tourist activity. Sharks may be attracted to the vicinity of the cage by the use of bait, in a procedure known as chumming, which has attracted some controversy as it is claimed to potentially alter the natural behaviour of sharks in the vicinity of swimmers.
Rodney Winston Fox is an Australian film maker, conservationist, survivor of an attack by a great white shark, and one of the world's foremost authorities on that species. He was inducted into the International Scuba Diving Hall of Fame in 2007. He was born in Adelaide.
The 1992 cageless shark-diving expedition was the world's first recorded intentionally cageless dive with great white sharks, contributing to a change in public opinions about the supposed ferocity of these animals.
Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror is a 1997 science fiction horror novel by American author Steve Alten, and the first novel in the MEG series. The novel follows the underwater adventures of a Navy deep-sea diver named Jonas Taylor.
Jesús Vidaña is a fisherman from Mexico. He, together with Lucio Rendón and Salvador Ordóñez, left a Mexican fishing port in October 2005 and survived nine months adrift in a fishing boat in the Pacific Ocean before being rescued in August 2006.
Shark tourism is a form of eco-tourism that allows people to dive with sharks in their natural environment. This benefits local shark populations by educating tourists and through funds raised by the shark tourism industry. Communities that previously relied on shark finning to make their livelihoods are able to make a larger profit from diving tours while protecting the local environment. People can get close to the sharks by free- or scuba diving or by entering the water in a protective cage for more aggressive species. Many of these dives are done by private companies and are often baited to ensure shark sightings, a practice which is highly controversial and under review in many areas.
Open Water 2: Adrift is a 2006 German English-language psychological horror thriller film directed by Hans Horn, starring Eric Dane, Susan May Pratt, Richard Speight, Jr., Niklaus Lange, Ali Hillis, and Cameron Richardson. The film was inspired by the short story Adrift by Japanese author Koji Suzuki, from which it took its original title, but promotional posters claimed the film is based on actual events.
Michael Rutzen is a South African conservationist, film maker, and cage diving operator.
Dougal Robertson (1924–1992) was a Scottish author and sailor who with his family survived being adrift at sea after their schooner was holed by a pod of orcas in 1972, one of many documented orca attacks.
The Reef is a 2010 Australian survival horror film, written, directed and produced by Andrew Traucki in his second feature film. The film is about a group of friends who capsize while sailing to Indonesia and are stalked by a great white shark as they try to swim to a nearby island.
Shark Attack 2 is a 2000 direct-to-video horror film. The film follows the mutant sharks from Shark Attack who attack Cape Town. In the film, a shark expert and a flamboyant Australian marine hunter team up to destroy a group of white sharks mutating into a deadlier breed. The film was directed by David Worth and stars Thorsten Kaye and Nikita Ager.
Dark Tide is a 2012 American action horror thriller film directed by John Stockwell, produced by Jeanette Buerling and Matthew E. Chausse and written by Ronnie Christensen and Amy Sorlie. The film is based on a story by Amy Sorlie and stars Halle Berry, Olivier Martinez, and Ralph Brown. The film was a critical failure and a box-office bomb.
Blue Water, White Death is a 1971 American documentary film about sharks, which was directed by Peter Gimbel and James Lipscomb. It received favourable reviews and was described as a "well produced odyssey" and "exciting and often beautiful". It screened theatrically and was broadcast on television at various times during the 1970s and 1980s. The film was re-released on DVD in 2009.
47 Meters Down is a 2017 survival horror film directed by Johannes Roberts, written by Roberts and Ernest Riera, and starring Claire Holt and Mandy Moore. The film uses the American spelling of the metric unit of measurement, elsewhere spelled as 'metre'. The plot follows two sisters who are invited to cage dive while on holiday in Mexico. When the winch system holding the cage breaks and the cage plummets to the ocean floor with the two girls trapped inside, they must find a way to escape, with their air supplies running low and great white sharks stalking nearby.
Adrift is a 2018 survival drama film produced and directed by Baltasar Kormákur and written by David Branson Smith, Aaron Kandell, and Jordan Kandell. The film is based on the 2002 book Red Sky in Mourning by Tami Oldham Ashcraft, a true story set during the events of Hurricane Raymond in 1983. The film stars Shailene Woodley and Sam Claflin as a couple who are adrift in the middle of the Pacific Ocean after a hurricane, and must find their way to Hawaii with a damaged boat and no radio.
47 Meters Down: Uncaged is a 2019 survival horror film directed by Johannes Roberts and written by Roberts and Ernest Riera, and a sequel to 47 Meters Down (2017).
Capsized: Blood in the Water is an American biographical natural horror-survival film, based on a true story from 1982. Roel Reiné directed the film, from a script written by Stephen David, with the story co-written by David, Tim K. Kelly and Jonathan Soule. The film plot centers around a small boat crew aboard a private yacht who are stranded in shark infested waters, following a storm that overturns their vessel. Debuting as the first scripted Discovery's Shark Week feature film, Capsized: Blood in the Water was released on July 31, 2019 as an exclusive to the network's week-long yearly event.
Open Water 3: Cage Dive is a 2017 Australian found footage survival horror film directed and written by Gerald Rascionato and released by Lionsgate as part of the Open Water film series, although the film is a stand-alone sequel and only connects to the other films in theme, not continuity. It follows a trio of Americans on vacation in Australia who are also filming an audition tape for an extreme reality TV show on a cage diving excursion. Before they know it, a rogue wave capsizes and sinks their boat leaving them stranded in the ocean. The film is presented as a mockumentary and perpetuated as true events; though most of the film is first person footage from the characters with time stamps throughout the film, in the vein of Paranormal Activity. The film bears similarities to another 2017 shark attack survival film featuring a cage dive excursion gone wrong, 47 Meters Down. The method of "cage dive disaster" in each film differs with Open Water 3: Cage Dive involving a rogue wave capsizing the boat while the former film sees a rusty winch break, trapping the protagonists underwater within the cage. The notable difference between these two films is that Cage Dive does not keep its protagonists within the cage, but rather leaves them in the open water among hungry sharks.
