Director: Renny Harlin
Starring: Thomas Jane, Saffron Burrows, Samuel L Jackson, Jacqueline McKenzie, Michael Rapaport, Stellan Skarsgard, LL Cool J, Aida Turturro
In a remote research facility a team of scientists are trying to find a cure for Alzheimer’s disease by experimenting on sharks by making them smarter creating similar brain tissue as humans.
Lead by Dr Susan McCallister (Saffron Burrows) an ambitions character who has suffered the effects of the disease from watching parent going through it. She is assisted by Janice Higgins (Jacyueline McKenzie) Tom Scoggins (Michael Rapaport) and Jim Whitlock (Stellan Skarsgard) in the lab work.
One of the investors is set to see how the operation is run Russell Franklin (Samuel L Jackson) a man who has seemingly done every adventure he has wanted to. Upon his arrive he sees how good a shark wrangler Carter Blake (Thomas Jane) is showing off his ability to jump on the back of sharks with a clever little move.
Leading into a weekend the base is left with this skeleton crew along with Preacher (LL Cool J) who is the cook who has sinned in his life and found God and Bird his parrot. While the last member is Brenda Kerns (Aida Turturro) the communication tower officer. The main experiment is going on with this crew which involves place a shark to sleep and put a needle into the brain to remove tissue to see how it deals wit the disease. Only for this sleeping shark to bite Jim Whitlock’s arm off. With a storm brewing a rescue helicopter is sent out to take Jim off to a hospital. As the conditions worsen the helicopter fails to take off again crashing into the communication tower and one of the sharks to burst the glass filling the facility up with water. Now who will escape? How will they escape?
Being a shark movie it will always get comparisons to Jaws but giving this a claustrophobic atmosphere this called almost be Jaws meets Aliens. It gives us a question of how far would you go for the results to cure a disease which has such consequences.
All the characters have different motives and beliefs that are all understandable. Preacher is especially good character who spends most of the film walking the halls think he is being tested by God talking to himself. This is great action thriller worth a watch leaving people on the edge of their seats.
My rating 88%
