Sharks in Stories, Media, and Literature 211
flop. Bill Murray as oceanographer Steve Zissou goes on a quest to find and
kill a “Jaguar Shark” that ate his best friend. Zissou’s beast is large and mythi-
cal, having the teeth of a White Shark, six gill slits (sixgill shark, Hexanchus?),
three dorsal fins (codfish?), and a unique spotted coloration. Misadventures
abound, but fortunately (warning: spoiler alert!) Zissou has a change of heart
in the end. Stingrays have a cameo role in the final chase scene.
Sharks play pivotal, villainous roles in other Hollywood productions.
In The Old Man and the Sea (1958), sharks tear apart the giant Blue Marlin
(Makaira nigricans) that Hemingway’s hero Santiago finally catches after 84
days without a fish. In The Deep (1977), sharks, among such standard vil-
lains as giant moray eels, add drama and opportunities for fast-paced musi-
cal scoring. The credibility of the shark scenes suffers because the movie is
set in the Caribbean, whereas the shark scenes clearly involved Indo-Pacific
species. (Wouldn’t you hate to go the movies with us?) Deep Blue Sea (1999;
scantily clad female researcher, spring break teenagers) featured mad sci-
entists who genetically engineer mako sharks and turn them into cunning,
deceptive, and vengeful killers that threaten the world. The sharks meet an
untimely end in several impressive explosions, including a finale that Myth-
Busters busted. In Open Water (2003), a pleasure scuba dive in the Bahamas
turns tragic when a husband and wife are left behind by the boat operators
because of a screwed-up head count. Sharks contribute significantly to the
unhappy ending, one that probably set the scuba diving industry back a
decade. Two James Bond films, Thunderball (1965) and The Spy Who Loved
Me (1977), gave sharks minor roles as disposal systems for Bond’s legion of
enemies.
Some of the best footage of free divers interacting with White Sharks,
including intimate underwater scenes of divers taking advantage of tonic
immobility (see “What is ‘tonic immobility’?” in chapter 4), occur in Dark
Tide (2012). The film is largely accurate biology-wise, except when Halle
Berry’s character informs Ralph Brown’s character that you can tell a shark
is a male because “I can see his claspers on his anal fins” (hint: reread “How
do sharks reproduce?” in chapter 6). If anyone stays for the credits, there’s
a shark conservation message tacked on at the very end. This one went
quickly to DVD.
On a more serious side is Soul Surfer (2011). The films retells the
story of champion surfer Bethany Hamilton, who was attacked by what
is thought to have been a 4.3-m (14-ft) Tiger Shark when she was 13 (see
“Can scientists estimate the size and species of a shark from bite marks?” in
chapter 9). Ms. Hamilton overcame the adversity of losing her left arm and
went on to be a successful professional surfer.
Some memorable lines in movies have involved sharks: “Beneath this
glassy surface, a world of gliding monsters!” (Deep Blue Sea), and of course,