Intro
Deep Blue Sea is a Sci-Fi film that attempts to answer the "age-old question"... what if sharks were smarter, faster, bigger and stronger? Deep Blue Sea poses this question and completely delivers an answer. A research team led by Dr. Susan McAlester are performing research at an underwater facility in the middle of the ocean aptly named 'Aquatica' on mako sharks with the goal of using the shark's protein as a means to reverse brain deteriorating diseases such as Alzheimer's since sharks seem to never develop brain diseases or get cancer. After a shark escapes from Aquatica and nearly eats a couple of teenagers partying on a catamaran, the research team's integrity is called into question. Dr. McAlester with the threat of losing funding makes a plea to the head of Chimera Pharmaceuticals, Russell Franklin. She remarks to Franklin that they are on the brink of success and he only needs to see for himself to change his mind. Franklin decides to visit Aquatica and is very impressed with the size and depth to which the facility goes. Susan, one of the researchers tells Franklin that the shark's brains had been increased by using a "hormonal enhancer" because gene therapy is against Chimera Policy. In reality, Dr. McAlester has secretly genetically engineered the sharks in every way in order to increase the size of the grey matter of the sharks. This, however, has adverse consequences. The sharks become smarter and gain knowledge that is essential on hunting the humans studying them. The main cast and audience are first made aware of the gain in intelligence when one of the sharks swims backward. Susan makes it abundantly clear that "SHARKS CANT SWIM BACKWARD ITS IMPOSSIBLE." The shark is then sedated and brought into the lab in order to harvest the protein made in the brain in order to test the protein on Alzheimer's brain cells. When the protein is added to the human cells, we see the brain cells start interacting with each other again. The audience believes that all is well and the scientists have found a cure for degenerative neural diseases. This is when the movie takes its fatal turn. The shark awakens from its anesthesia and promptly rips the arm off of one of the doctors. After releasing the shark, they call in a helicopter to come pick up the doctor while a major storm is hitting the base. When the helicopter winch fails, the doctor falls into the water where the sharks are. The shark grabs a hold of the doctor's stretcher underwater and proceeds to pull the helicopter into the above ground area of Aquatica causing massive damage and uses the doctor's body to break the glass in the main chamber of Aquatica. This causes flooding where sharks are able to take out the crew one by one until Preacher and Carter Blake are left in ruins to be picked up after taking out the last shark.
Fact or Fiction?
Deep Blue Sea has to be one of the most scientifically lenient movies I've ever seen. The first inaccuracy I want to point out is that no matter how intelligent you make a shark, that shark will never be able to swim backward due to their physiological nature. (http://www.sharkfriends.com/sharks/info6.html) Unless the bodies were changed as well, no gain of brain matter could allow the sharks to move backward. Instead, they use this as a glaring warning to the audience that there is something different with these sharks. They also view sharks as invaluable research material because of their invulnerability to cancer and degenerative neural diseases. This, however, is false because in 2013 a Great White shark was found to have a tumor on its lower jaw. (https://www.livescience.com/41655-great-white-shark-cancer.html) Gene therapy can work in increasing brain size but as of right now that's impossible in 2018 so it definitely was impossible in 1999. I also have a problem with the sharks gaining grey matter mass equals sharks gaining knowledge that they never had before. If you increased my brain mass somehow, I wouldn't automatically know theoretical physics, much like a shark wouldn't know to herd the research team in unknown corridors. I'm also confident that in 1999, one couldn't extract protein from an animal's brain while keeping it alive. I do believe however that blowing up the shark, in the end, is 100% accurate and refuse to believe anything else due to the sheer awesomeness that takes place. With gene therapy advancements being made daily, I'm sure that there might be an animal in the near future with enhanced neural capabilities. If we can use CRISPR on us, why can't we use it on other animals?
Personal Reaction
Personally, I liked the movie. I absolutely loved the scene where Russell Franklin is eaten mere seconds after giving such a powerful speech. It was a nice twist to a movie that relied on unknown actors which I think added to the suspense of the movie. I don't agree with us being able to use raw protein from a sharks brain in order to revitalize damaged human cells. But I do believe that even though the science of the movie is wack, I believe that an organization could very well be conducting illegal research for the sake of bettering the human race. I think that's already been done and will continue to be done. I also believe that cosmetic gene therapy is unethical for humans then gene therapy is unethical for animals like sharks. I also think Susan McAlester is stupid for jumping completely in the water instead of just splashing the water with her bloody hand. She's solely responsible for everyone's death and I'm glad she died even though she died in the most unnecessary way possible.
