The film premiered on Syfy in the United States on July 31, 2016.[1][2] Though the film title, poster, and intro are a parody of the 2015 film Star Wars: The Force Awakens, it is not a mockbuster.
Tech company Astro-X has used their revolutionary energy system to prevent the formation of sharknadoes, using cheap, clean reactors dubbed Astro-Pods. To celebrate the five year anniversary of the eradication of sharknadoes, Astro-X founder Aston Reynolds announces that he will be hosting the grand opening of a shark-themed hotel in Las Vegas.
Fin Shepard has moved to a farm in Kansas named "April's Acres," where he lives with his mother Raye and his young son Gil. Fin travels to Las Vegas with his cousin Gemini to meet up with his son Matt, who has recently returned from deployment in Iraq. When Matt and his fiancée, Gabrielle, marry and skydive from a plane, a sandstorm develops, which cannot be defused by Astro-X. It absorbs the water and sharks from a giant tank located in Reynolds' hotel, creating a sharknado that floods the streets of Las Vegas. Fin, Gemini, Gabrielle, and Matt work together to survive the storm until it retreats into the desert.
At Astro-X, Colonel Shepard works on a weaponized mech suit with his granddaughter Claudia and head scientist Wilford Wexler. However, Fin and his family are unaware that Wilford has reconstructed his daughter and Fin's wife, April, into a cyborg in order to save her life, following her death in the previous movie. Fin and the group take a train back to Kansas, but the Las Vegas sharknado follows them. They meet with Reynolds at an Astro-X facility, where Reynolds unsuccessfully recruits Fin to his side in order to recover from the negative publicity created from Astro-X's failure to stop the Las Vegas sharknado.
Meanwhile, April learns of Wilford's lies and escapes his lab. A "lavanado" forms in Yellowstone National Park, while a "hailnado" touches down at Astro-X's headquarters in San Francisco. April rescues Shepard and Claudia and reveals she's alive. Fin and the group travel to April's Acres, where an approaching sharknado forces Raye and Gil into their underground bunker. Fin and the group arrive to fend off the sharks, but Gabrielle is killed. Fin, Gil, Gemini, and Matt seek shelter in the farmhouse, which is carried by the sharknado to Chicago. Reynolds uses new isotopes in his Astro-Pods to destroy the lavanado and the hailnado.
Reynolds flies Shepard, Claudia, and April to Fin's location in Chicago, where they rescue everyone from the rubble. April reunites with her family, allowing her to meet Gil for the first time. Meanwhile, Reynolds struggles to diffuse a "lightningnado" due to its electricity blocking their attempts. The situation worsens when the lightningnado strikes the Perry Nuclear Power Plant in Ohio, transforming it into a deadly "nukenado" filled with radioactive sharks. Reynolds realizes that the only way to diffuse the nukenado is to transform it back into a regular sharknado so that the Astro-Pods will work on it.
Reynolds suggests that the engines of Colonel Shepard's mech suit can be used to power a device to remove the radioactivity from the storm by drawing massive amounts of water into it. Fin realizes that the only location with enough water to work is Niagara Falls, in New York, so they travel there with the nukenado on their tail. Reynolds volunteers to jump from his jet in a squirrel suit to set off the device, which will reverse the water flow upward into the nukenado and cool it down. However, the device fails to have sufficient power, and the land below Reynolds cracks, sending him off the cliff into the water below to his death.
Shepard volunteers to pilot the mech suit to complete the plan, but he, Claudia, and Matt are swallowed by sharks. Fin puts on the suit and flies into the storm to reach the device. He uses the suit's power supply to activate the device, but he is severely injured. Niagara Falls is reversed into the nukenado, neutralizing its radiation and rendering it a normal sharknado. The Astro-Pods are activated, destroying the storm. Fin is swallowed by a shark, which is swallowed by three more sharks and a blue whale in quick succession. Gil uses a chainsaw to cut open the whale and sharks, revealing Shepard, Claudia, and Matt all alive.
They pull out an unconscious Fin, who they revive using April's power supply and two sharks as an improvised defibrillator. Suddenly, the Eiffel Tower falls from the sky. Nova, who was earlier mentioned to be vacationing in Paris, emerges from the tower, causing the Shepards to realize that the sharknado crisis may now be global.
The film was confirmed to follow upon Sharknado 3's premiere.[15]Sharknado 3 concludes with a cliffhanger regarding whether or not April is killed by falling wreckage. An ad after the film promoted a Twitter campaign offering fans the chance to decide her fate with the hashtags "#AprilLives" or "#AprilDies", with the results revealed in the forthcoming Sharknado 4 which aired in July 2016.[16]Ian Ziering, Tara Reid, Ryan Newman, and David Hasselhoff were announced to reprise their roles from previous films. New cast members include Masiela Lusha as Gemini, Fin's cousin, Cody Linley replacing Chuck Hittinger as Matt Shepard, Imani Hakim as Gabrielle, a soldier and Matt's girlfriend, Gary Busey as Wilford Wexler, April's rich father, Cheryl Tiegs as Raye Shepard, Fin's mother, Tommy Davidson as Aston Reynolds, playboy tech billionaire and Astro-X, Kenya Moore as Monique, a hotel manager working for Reynolds, Cynthia Bailey as Addison, a tech analyst, and Maya Stojan as Romy, Wilford's assistant and Anthony Rogers as Gil Shepard.
The film received mostly negative reviews. Rotten Tomatoes reports a 14% score with an average rating of 3.4/10, based on 14 critics. The consensus reads: "Sharknado: The 4th Awakens loses the ridiculous charm of its predecessors, leaving only clumsy social commentary and monotonous schtick that's lost its bite."[19] On Metacritic it has a score of 35% based on reviews from 7 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[20]
Rumors of a fifth film, to be titled Sharknado 5... Earth 0, first surfaced in October 2016. On February 2, 2017, The Asylum confirmed via their official Facebook page that the fifth film had entered production under the working title Sharknado 5, with Ian Ziering, Tara Reid and Cassie Scerbo reprising their roles as Fin, April and Nova, respectively. In Sharknado 5, Fin and his wife April travel around the world trying to save their young son who is trapped inside a sharknado. On June 1, 2017, the title was unveiled to be Sharknado 5: Global Swarming with the tagline "Make America Bait Again".[22] A year later, The Last Sharknado: It's About Time! was announced.
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Ian Andrew Ziering is an American actor best known for his role as Steve Sanders on the television series Beverly Hills, 90210, which he played from 1990 to 2000. He is also the voice of Vinnie on Biker Mice from Mars. From 2013 to 2018, he starred as Fin Shepard in the Sharknado film series. In 2019, he played the DC Comics character Blue Devil on the series Swamp Thing.
Masiela Lusha is an Albanian-born American actress and author. She gained recognition for playing Carmen Lopez on the globally syndicated ABC sitcom George Lopez, a role that earned her two consecutive Young Artist Awards for Leading Young Actress in a Comedy or Drama. After transitioning into film, she starred in Sony Pictures’ Blood: The Last Vampire. Lusha also starred alongside David Hasselhoff and Ian Ziering in SyFy's television movie Sharknado: The 4th Awakens.
Tara Donna Reid is an American actress and model. Her film roles in the late 1990s and 2000s established her status as a sex symbol.
Ryan Whitney is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Ginger Falcone in Disney XD's Zeke and Luther, Allison in The Thundermans, Cindy Collins in Zoom and Emily Hobbs in See Dad Run.
Cassandra Lynn Scerbo is an American actress, singer and dancer. She was one of the members of the all-girl pop band Slumber Party Girls in the CBS children's music variety series Dance Revolution. In acting, she starred as Brooke in the film Bring It On: In It to Win It (2007), as Lauren Tanner in the ABC Family comedy-drama series Make It or Break It (2009–2012), and as Nova Clarke in the Sharknado film series alongside Ian Ziering and Tara Reid (2013–2018).
Chuck Hittinger is an American actor. He is known for playing Sean Ackard in Pretty Little Liars (2010–11), as Van Dyke Tosh in Jonas, and as Matt, the son of Ian Ziering's character, in the 2013 Syfy television movie Sharknado.
Jack Davis Griffo is an American actor. He starred as Max Thunderman on the Nickelodeon series The Thundermans (2013–2018). Griffo also had starring roles in the network's original movies The Thundermans Return, Jinxed, and Splitting Adam, and the Netflix original series Alexa & Katie.
Sharknado is a 2013 American made-for-television science fiction comedy disaster film directed by Anthony C. Ferrante. It tells about a waterspout that lifts sharks out of the ocean and deposits them in Los Angeles. It is the first installment in the Sharknado film series. The movie first aired on the Syfy channel on July 11, 2013, and stars Tara Reid, Ian Ziering, and John Heard. It was also given a one-night-only special midnight theatrical screening via Regal Cinemas and Fathom Events, where it earned $200,000 from 200 screenings. The over-the-top premise and theatrics of the film quickly earned it a cult following.
Sharknado 2: The Second One is a 2014 American made-for-television film and a sequel to the 2013 television film Sharknado and the second installment in the Sharknado film series. It was directed by Anthony C. Ferrante, with Ian Ziering and Tara Reid reprising their roles from the first film. The film premiered on July 30, 2014, and was the highest-premiering film on the Syfy Channel.
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.
Anthony C. Ferrante is an American film director, producer, and writer, known for directing the Sharknado series, the 2017 thriller Forgotten Evil and the 2005 ghost story Boo, which was his feature film writing and directing debut.
Sharknado: The Video Game is a 2014 endless running video game developed by Other Ocean Interactive and published by Majesco Entertainment. The game is based on the 2014 film Sharknado 2: The Second One.
Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No! is a 2015 American made-for-television science fiction action comedy disaster film and the third installment in the Sharknado film series, following Sharknado and Sharknado 2: The Second One. The film was directed by Anthony C. Ferrante with Ian Ziering, Tara Reid, Cassie Scerbo, and Mark McGrath reprising their roles from the previous installments. Also joining the cast are David Hasselhoff, Bo Derek, Ryan Newman, and Jack Griffo.
Sharknado is an American six-film made-for-television science fiction action comedy horror disaster film series released by Syfy between 2013 and 2020. It has since been expanded into video games and comics, including a spin-off film, Sharknado: Heart of Sharkness, that was released in 2015. The first two films received mixed to positive reviews from critics, while the others received negative reviews.
Lavalantula is an American 2015 science fiction comedy horror thriller television film that takes place after a series of volcanic eruptions in Los Angeles unleashes a swarm of gigantic, lava-breathing tarantulas from which the film draws its title. It was directed by Mike Mendez and stars Steve Guttenberg, Nia Peeples and Patrick Renna. Ian Ziering appears as Fin Shepard, tying the film into the Sharknado universe. It premiered on Syfy on July 25, 2015.
Sharknado 5: Global Swarming is a 2017 American made-for-television science fiction comedy disaster film and the fifth installment in the Sharknado film series, following Sharknado, Sharknado 2: The Second One, Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No!, and Sharknado: The 4th Awakens.
The Last Sharknado: It's About Time is a 2018 American made-for-television science fiction comedy disaster film and the sixth and final installment in the Sharknado film series. The film was directed by Anthony C. Ferrante with Ian Ziering, Tara Reid and Cassie Scerbo reprising their roles from the previous installments. In the film, Fin and his gang use time travel in order to prevent sharknadoes from ever happening.
Fin Shepard is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Sharknado film series. He is a former surfer and shark hunter, who is played by Ian Ziering in all the films. He is a positive hero, protecting his family and the rest of the world from the evil sharks and hurricanes that bring sharks from the sea to land.
Thunder Levin is an American screenwriter and director, most famous for writing the first four Sharknado films. Levin's work was largely responsible for the resurgence of sharksploitation films.
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