Samuel L. Jackson has one of the best filmographies in cinema history. He played Mace Windu in Star Wars and Nick Fury in the MCU, appeared in most of Quentin Tarantino’s movies, has popped up in Die Hard, Jurassic Park, and Unbreakable, and has 150 movies in total under his belt. But there’s only one time in his long career where he was consumed by a giant superintelligent genetically modified shark. That’s right folks, I’m talking Deep Blue Sea.
This 1999 sci-fi horror romp sees Jackson play Russell Franklin, who plays a corporate executive sent to find out what’s going on at a secret underwater laboratory. It transpires that they’re conducting research on mako sharks in an attempt to cure Alzheimer’s disease, a process which makes them bigger, smarter, and more deadly. Soon after comes the swimming, the screaming, and a tonne of shark-based terror.
While I don’t want to spoil things too much, Jackson’s character has an incredibly memorable death that comes when you least expect it. A quick glance at YouTube viewing figures indicates it’s the most popular moment of the movie, so check it out there if you like, but I’d honestly recommend watching Deep Blue Sea for yourself.
Fortunately that’ll be easy very soon as it’s going to be available to stream on Netflix as of next month. Now I’m not going to try and argue that Deep Blue Sea is some kind of classic of the genre: it’s a trashy late-90s creature feature with some rough CGI, a corny script, and a ludicrous premise. But beyond all that it’s a whole bunch of fun, eventually boiling down into a weird mashup of Jaws, Aliens, and Jurassic Park.
Two recent sequels have followed, with last year’s Deep Blue Sea 3 continuing the story of these smart sharks as they head for open waters and consume various jobbing actors. If you’ve got fond memories of the original let us know in the comments.
Deep Blue Seas will be added to the Netflix library on August 1st.
