Yes, it's officially Shark Week. Discovery Channel's made up holiday has influenced much of how we view these ancient creatures. But, even more, it has inspired an entirely new genre of films. Kevin Maher of AtomicAbe.com goes deep into the genre, from classic tales to CGI tactics as well as educating us on some lesser known remakes you can't wait to sink your teeth in to.
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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - Hi y'all, welcome to Live Science
00:09 where we live, laugh, love science.
00:11 Today we are celebrating Shark Week,
00:13 happy Shark Week to everyone.
00:15 And we are going to be talking about shark movies
00:18 with, welcome to the stage, Kevin Maher.
00:21 Hello, Kevin.
00:22 - Hello everybody, how you doing?
00:24 (laughing)
00:25 What's up, Judy?
00:26 - I'm good, how are you?
00:27 Happy Shark Week, sir.
00:28 Oh, I see your shark in the back.
00:29 Nice.
00:30 - I got the shark in the back and I wore my shark shirt.
00:33 It's covered with a little,
00:35 which somebody pointed out to me,
00:36 it's simultaneously like it's shark heads from "Jaws"
00:40 but then it also is like Mayor Larry Vaughn's anchor jacket
00:45 in the first "Jaws" film.
00:46 So, serves a couple of purposes.
00:49 - Oh, well, I mean, it does look like
00:52 the regular great white that we see in all.
00:54 Is that the same shark you have behind you there too?
00:56 - I'm not sure what kind of shark that is.
00:58 I'm gonna guess it's a tiger shark,
01:00 the one behind me, I'm not sure.
01:02 - Listen, I wish I had any of my colleagues
01:04 here for their too busy covering the Shark Week.
01:07 But I-
01:07 - It's a busy week for everybody.
01:08 (laughing)
01:10 Whether you're coming out of San Diego Comic-Con
01:12 or going into Shark Week, it's a busy, busy July.
01:15 - Yeah, so listen, you love shark movies.
01:18 Well, first of all, you're a movie aficionado.
01:21 Kevin here is part of Atomic A Productions
01:24 where you can actually watch a fun shark super cut
01:27 of different techniques that we're gonna be covering today.
01:29 But right now we have him to our exclusive
01:33 to talk about his favorite shark movies
01:35 and the best of all time, of course.
01:37 What are your greatest shark movies that you would like to?
01:41 - I mean, everybody names "Jaws"
01:43 and it's like, yeah, I can't argue with that.
01:45 That is the Citizen Kane of shark movies.
01:48 There's no question.
01:50 But I do have some deep cuts
01:51 that I'm not gonna call them the best.
01:53 I'm gonna call them some of my favorites.
01:55 Thank you for that, favorites.
01:56 (laughing)
01:58 And the first one is from 1981.
02:00 It's an Italian movie
02:01 that is just shamelessly ripping off "Jaws."
02:05 It was released in the United States
02:08 under the title "Great White."
02:11 And then Universal saw the movie and the poster
02:14 and they sued and took them to court
02:16 and it disappeared after one weekend.
02:18 So around the world, this movie is known,
02:21 in other places, as like a big blockbuster film
02:23 and most Americans never saw it.
02:26 I meant to do a check to see if it's streaming.
02:29 It had been streaming on Amazon.
02:30 I don't know if it is,
02:31 but let's take a look at "Great White."
02:33 Here we go.
02:34 So every movie has the mayor who won't close the beaches.
02:39 - Sure. - Here comes the shark.
02:40 Get ready.
02:41 There it is.
02:42 It's pre-CGI, right?
02:44 - That's a real shark?
02:46 - That's a practical, that's a puppet, basically.
02:49 It's a big, big, pony, plastic shark
02:52 coming up to get the mechanical shark.
02:54 But then they intercut with real shark.
02:56 And in this scene, what's happening is
03:00 every movie has the mayor who won't close the beaches,
03:03 but in "Great White," the mayor sees
03:06 that no one has caught the shark,
03:08 so he decides he's gonna go capture the shark himself.
03:12 I'm not sure what the plan was.
03:13 Is it just like, get it to eat the bait
03:15 and then fly it away?
03:16 - Yeah, it's just like big fishing, right?
03:19 Just like-- - This is like
03:20 wily coyote shark hunting.
03:22 And in Italian, it is (speaking in foreign language)
03:27 - Ooh, yes.
03:29 - And one of the things I love is
03:30 we're gonna see a pretty great special effect coming up,
03:33 so stay tuned.
03:34 He falls in the water, the helicopter struggles.
03:38 And I'm guessing it was, you know,
03:42 these are Italian actors, they were dubbed in English,
03:44 so we're not hearing their dubbed voices.
03:46 But he hangs on as the shark comes back,
03:50 and it's a very fake shark.
03:52 Look at this.
03:54 - Ooh! - Oh!
03:54 - This is why I don't like these movies.
03:58 - You couple the fake shark with the fake human.
04:01 You get a stunt body in there,
04:05 a dummy to get ripped apart, chewing on the legs.
04:09 - Man, I thought for sure the shark was gonna, oh no.
04:13 - Here it comes. - Oh no!
04:16 - And this is part of why "Universal" sued,
04:18 'cause that's very similar to the shark attacking
04:21 the helicopter scene in "Jaws 2."
04:23 This came out in 1981, so it's like three years
04:26 after "Jaws 2" came out.
04:28 - Okay, so, you know, somewhat of a reference movie
04:32 to the great, the great. - "The Touchstone," yep.
04:35 And then, we'll get into the science of it,
04:38 but some of the other ones I love are,
04:40 there's a Bollywood film.
04:41 You know, we have to look internationally
04:42 to how "Jaws" influenced cinema around the world
04:45 and how they came back with their own version.
04:47 So, Atank is the Bollywood "Jaws."
04:51 And Judy, do you remember the opening scene of "Jaws,"
04:54 how it begins?
04:55 - Yeah, the kids are swimming.
04:56 Oh no, it's the two people swimming, right?
04:58 - Two people go out to the beach,
04:59 a guy and a girl just met, right?
05:02 Just met at a campfire. - Right.
05:05 - Okay, so there's the shark in Atank,
05:06 big, again, big, phony, practical shark.
05:09 - So, Atank is the shark?
05:11 - That's a very good question.
05:13 - This is- - I don't know.
05:16 - This is Bollywood "Jaws."
05:17 - Bollywood "Jaws."
05:19 - Oh, goodness.
05:19 - But what they did story-wise to raise the stakes
05:22 is that instead of just being a campfire,
05:26 the scene where the shark attacks is that it's a wedding.
05:31 It's a bride and groom are celebrating,
05:35 they're getting drunk.
05:36 She swims out into the water in her wedding dress
05:40 and the guy watches on the shore
05:42 and sees his bride get killed by this shark.
05:45 So they actually one-up Spielberg and Jaws
05:47 by making it such a much more powerful revenge movie.
05:51 - They're like, "What's better than new lovers
05:53 is married lovers."
05:55 - Well, they're about to be married
05:56 or they just were married.
05:58 And yeah, now the shark is gonna come out of the water.
06:03 And this is, I think culturally,
06:06 it's just things are heightened.
06:08 The shark kind of flies and goes over the boat,
06:11 which we can question the science.
06:15 Could an enormous shark not just breach,
06:19 but actually go out of the water?
06:20 I don't know.
06:23 And like you said, science people are covering other
06:26 (laughing)
06:27 more important stories than a Bollywood film from 1996.
06:30 - You told me there was a Bollywood film
06:34 and I was like, "There can't possibly be in that clip."
06:37 - We just saw a clip.
06:38 - That's fantastic.
06:40 And then my, I guess I have to add this clip.
06:43 - We have to watch Jersey Shore Shark Attack next.
06:45 This is one of my true favorites.
06:48 Will it be on screen with us or will it be on full screen?
06:52 - What if they wanna bury him regular like?
06:54 Like they don't care more than the corpus.
06:56 - So they just found a body that was killed by a shark.
06:59 - Sure, obviously.
06:59 (dramatic music)
07:02 (screaming)
07:05 - They're everywhere.
07:09 - Donnie, post the truck.
07:11 - So they're based on characters from MTV's Jersey Shore.
07:14 And I think this is from the year 2012
07:18 when the show was still pretty popular.
07:21 And I just really admire that the sharks look
07:25 very fake and very cheap.
07:29 So they invested in the characters
07:31 and the character relationships and the dialogue.
07:35 And I think when you look back at Jaws,
07:37 there are so many scenes without the shark.
07:39 And it's about people on Amity Island
07:41 and the relationships and the community
07:43 and the culture and the conflicts and the tensions.
07:47 And this movie does a really good job
07:49 of making it like yuppie gentrifiers
07:52 versus Jersey Shore guidos and guidettes.
07:55 - Oh, poor Snooki, poor shark Snooki.
07:58 - Nookie, Nookie.
07:59 - No.
08:00 - Her name, I swear is Nookie.
08:04 - I just feel like.
08:06 I forget the guy, instead of being called the situation,
08:09 he's called like the circumstance.
08:11 So that's- - Well worth checking out.
08:16 - I might actually mess with that movie tonight
08:19 to like celebrate shark week even more.
08:21 'Cause I've already watched Jaws.
08:22 I watched, you know, "Finding Nemo."
08:23 I love the shark scene in that.
08:25 You know, fish are friend, not food.
08:27 So those are your obscure favorites.
08:31 - Those are some of my obscure favorites.
08:32 - Love it, love it.
08:35 So actually I wanted to point out to everyone
08:39 because this is live science where we live, laugh,
08:41 love science that we actually just came out
08:44 with a awesome story about whale sharks.
08:48 They're the biggest omnivores.
08:49 We thought that they, you know,
08:51 were carnivores like most whales.
08:52 They just are not like most whales like most sharks,
08:55 but because they're like most whales, they also eat seaweed.
08:58 And, you know, we have this lovely story here
09:01 written by my colleague, Ben.
09:03 And it just came out today, just four hours ago.
09:07 So it's, you know, shark week, more shark stuff.
09:12 But I'm curious if there's any whale shark movies.
09:15 - This has come up.
09:17 It's a species of shark that does not get a lot of love
09:20 in the shark movies.
09:21 And I'm, this is just my theory is that a whale shark
09:25 seems a little docile compared to the aggressive nature
09:29 that, you know, doesn't even necessarily exist,
09:31 but was assigned to great white sharks,
09:35 tiger sharks, bull sharks.
09:36 Whale sharks do not have a dedicated film that I know of,
09:41 but there is a whale shark scene in the movie called "Kiki",
09:45 a Norwegian film.
09:46 And you see it's just passing under the boat.
09:49 - That's why I see the flag.
09:51 - It's enormous, right.
09:53 - But don't worry, it's eating seaweed, guys.
09:55 Don't worry about it.
09:56 - Yeah, they got nothing to worry about.
09:57 The concern in the film is that it's gonna flip the boat
10:00 'cause it's so big.
10:02 So even if it isn't going to attack them and eat them,
10:07 it could still cause a lot of damage to the boat.
10:11 - This is like nice production value.
10:13 This is like, is this a good movie?
10:15 - Yeah, this is like a quality drama film.
10:17 It's like a seafaring adventure based on a true story.
10:21 And this is really, I think,
10:24 the only scene with the whale shark.
10:26 - Goodness.
10:29 - But it's so beautifully, the CGI here,
10:33 look, when it goes under the boat.
10:34 - I was like, that can't be CGI.
10:37 Oh my Lord.
10:38 - I'm guessing that's CGI.
10:40 I don't know.
10:42 I don't think they wrangle the whale shark.
10:45 - Wow.
10:46 - But that's, yeah, look at that.
10:51 That's the whale shark scene in "Kon-Tiki".
10:54 - That's a whale shark.
10:56 But I mean, so "Jaws" is the base level.
11:01 And I was saying this to my colleagues
11:04 when we were coming up with our roundup
11:05 for the "Bed Stark" movies.
11:07 I was like, well, we have to have "Jaws".
11:08 And it's like, I mean,
11:09 there must've been movies before "Jaws".
11:11 So I'm posing you this question.
11:13 - There were.
11:13 There were a lot of them that were just these kind
11:15 of seafaring adventures,
11:17 probably had more in common with "Moby Dick"
11:21 than with "Jaws".
11:23 And that it's just about these masculine seafaring
11:27 adventure stories of like being macho on land.
11:30 There's even one, I think it might be called "Tiger Shark"
11:34 with Roddy McDowall, where he plays like a well-to-do
11:39 college boy who gets insulted.
11:41 So he has to prove himself by going to sea
11:45 and encountering sharks along the way.
11:48 - And he survives, I'm guessing.
11:50 - And he survives.
11:51 And it's like, he's not just up against.
11:54 Yeah, not just, he's not just up against the sharks,
11:58 but like the tough guys on the ship.
12:00 So it's about like, it's a rite of passage of going to sea
12:02 and becoming a man.
12:04 - Sure.
12:05 - And sharks are very symbolic.
12:06 And, you know, they show up as one of,
12:09 sharks in those movies are often one of many things
12:12 you encounter, but the movie, "The Shark Fighters",
12:17 I think that's from what, 1956.
12:19 (shark growling)
12:22 The military has filled the water
12:27 around our main character here, Victor Mature.
12:31 He's surrounded by an experimental potion
12:35 that they're hoping will keep sharks away.
12:37 So they're trying to come up with shark deterrent,
12:40 kind of like in the '60s, Batman,
12:42 the shark repellent spray.
12:44 - Oh my God, yeah.
12:45 - This is real.
12:46 (laughing)
12:49 (dramatic music)
12:50 - So dramatic.
12:52 - Very serious, very dramatic.
12:54 And you know, that's the thing about these pre-Jaws movies
12:57 is that they are not giant sharks or smart sharks
13:02 or super sharks that can come out of the water.
13:06 It's terrifying enough just that they are sharks,
13:09 that they are man-eaters.
13:10 - I mean, honestly, it's why I don't watch shark movies.
13:14 'Cause I feel like sharks are, you know,
13:17 I went to Australia recently and just researching,
13:19 oh, you can't go into the beach there
13:20 because there'll be sharks there.
13:22 And here's a nice story of a woman
13:23 who went swimming late at night and got dragged out
13:25 and her friend watched her get dragged out to her death.
13:27 And I'm like, real life terrifying,
13:29 don't need to play with sharks
13:31 or I don't need to go in a cage and swim near sharks.
13:35 I mean, I can go to a zoo for that, right?
13:37 - Yes.
13:38 (laughing)
13:41 - Not for me, not for me, not for me.
13:45 - That's totally fine, I get it, I get it.
13:47 And I mean, maybe that's like the, what is it?
13:49 That thalasophobia, thalassophobia?
13:53 - Thalassophobia is the fear of the water, yeah.
13:56 And what lurks in it and that there's so much unknown.
14:01 And I think one of the interesting things we see
14:06 in a lot of modern 21st century CGI shark movies
14:10 is that the sharks are not necessarily in the water.
14:14 They're not limited to the ocean.
14:15 They can be in a river, they can be in a pond.
14:18 There's one movie where a shark comes out of the toilet.
14:22 It's just the idea that anywhere there's water around,
14:27 always look, always gotta look.
14:29 So it's the kind of thing where the fear
14:34 is not just the sharks, but just the unknown
14:36 of what could be in there.
14:37 And that when we, as the dominant species go on,
14:42 on land where the dominant species,
14:43 when we go into water, we could become prey.
14:47 So it's a big trade-off.
14:49 And I think that's what people are afraid of.
14:50 And I think we had a, do we have a thalassophobia clip
14:54 we wanted to look at?
14:56 - From the depths, I believe.
14:57 - From the depths, yeah.
14:58 This is a very low budget movie from just 2020.
15:01 And I think this is every childhood fear
15:05 most of us have had.
15:07 This is just a swimming pool.
15:08 - I'm like, no, they're not even in the ocean.
15:10 - They're not even in the ocean.
15:11 - Oh dear God, no, what's gonna happen?
15:13 - But the woman in the robe survived a shark attack.
15:15 So she has trauma.
15:17 - Oh my God, my heart is pounding.
15:19 I'm so scared for her.
15:20 - She's on high alert.
15:22 And she hasn't been back in the water
15:27 since surviving a shark attack.
15:29 So this is her first time back,
15:31 literally dipping a toe into the water.
15:34 And she thinks she sees something.
15:42 - Oh, I know I would regret this livestream.
15:44 What, what, no.
15:47 - I mean, it's such an irrational fear,
15:59 but the fear is real.
16:01 Like the feeling and the sensation of being afraid
16:03 of a shark in the deep end of a pool,
16:05 even though my brain knows it's impossible,
16:08 I've completely had that fear.
16:10 So the movies that have sharks appearing everywhere else,
16:13 they're just appealing,
16:16 they're playing to real fears that people have.
16:19 - Yeah, yeah, yeah.
16:20 I mean, spoiler alert, was that just a dream clip?
16:23 - I mean, it ends up being kind of a hallucination.
16:27 I hate to spoil anything,
16:29 but "From the Depths" is a very low budget movie
16:30 that's dealing with the idea that the water
16:34 is the subconscious mind and the shark is the trauma.
16:38 So even though it's this like low budget movie
16:41 that you would find at Walmart,
16:42 Walmart is a great place.
16:43 If you ever wanna look at what are the newest shark movies,
16:46 there's always new DVDs that seem to go directly to Walmart.
16:50 And it's shark movies you've never heard of,
16:52 like "Blood in the Water," "Nine Headed Shark Attack."
16:55 You know, they'll have so much stuff.
16:57 I'm not promoting Walmart, I'm just saying,
17:01 this is where they end up, this is where they're available.
17:03 - And the $5 bid.
17:04 - I picked up that one from "The Depths" at Walmart
17:09 expecting very little.
17:11 And I was like, oh, this is a really thoughtful essay
17:14 on trauma and the mind and that the shark is a symbol.
17:17 So I was very surprised by the film.
17:21 I don't necessarily recommend it, Judy.
17:23 I'm just saying I was surprised that it's
17:25 not as bad as I thought.
17:27 - And also, you know, we learned about, you know,
17:29 water fear and all that.
17:30 We're getting some comments in here.
17:32 People also love shark movies.
17:33 And one that I don't believe we're covering
17:36 because we've actually covered it on "Live Science Plenty,"
17:38 "Megalodon," or "The Meg," I guess I should say.
17:42 - "The Meg" is terrific, very fun movie.
17:44 And somebody mentioned "Open Water," which is great.
17:47 I mean, the story of making "Open Water" is fantastic.
17:50 And it's also just really visceral response that like,
17:53 oh, they are legit in the water with real sharks.
17:58 And again, as we see more and more CGI coming up,
18:02 it's kind of a thing of the past
18:05 that people don't mess around with sharks.
18:07 - Yes, yes.
18:09 - Could that bring us into my love of the practical sharks?
18:13 - Oh, sure.
18:14 - Okay.
18:15 - We have the real sharks versus practical,
18:17 which is another way of saying like electrical sharks.
18:19 - Mechanical shark, or even just a puppet.
18:21 It might not have any wiring in it.
18:23 - Very true, actually, yes.
18:24 - We made a video people can see at atomicabe.com,
18:27 which contrasts the different methods of making a shark.
18:31 But I think the early 2000s was just the last era
18:36 where we saw practical sharks.
18:38 And we're gonna take a look at one of the last
18:42 practical sharks of its day.
18:44 And it does look really hokey,
18:45 but I find it personally very charming.
18:48 I really enjoy the practical shark effects.
18:50 - Which one do you want me to show, sorry?
18:54 - Whichever one we can do in the split screen,
18:56 'cause I think one of them is too long.
18:58 - Like red water?
19:01 - We can watch red water, sure.
19:02 This is 2003, this is the last.
19:06 As far as I know,
19:07 this is one of the last practical shark movies.
19:10 And they can't get up the ladder
19:13 and the shark's coming for them.
19:15 Yes, that's Christy Swanson.
19:20 Yes, that's Lou Diamond Phillips.
19:23 And yes, that's a practical shark.
19:25 Oh!
19:26 - That is beautiful looking.
19:28 - Isn't it great?
19:29 I mean, I'm just appreciative of the quality.
19:32 - I totally became a sucker for this movie.
19:34 I was so won over just by the shark effects
19:37 that are in there.
19:39 And this is a rare example
19:40 where they're not gonna blow up the shark.
19:42 They're gonna kill it with a underwater drill
19:45 that I guess they use to like drill for oil.
19:48 I forget, this movie is set in the bayou.
19:58 And yeah, they go full practical.
20:02 And also you gotta give some credit here
20:05 to Lou Diamond Phillips.
20:05 He's got it as a leading man.
20:07 I think he-
20:09 - I've heard this is really tough
20:10 when you're in the water and you're cold
20:11 and you're holding,
20:12 and then there's a shark attacking you.
20:14 It's a whole story.
20:15 - Oh, there it is.
20:17 So instead of blowing up the shark,
20:19 yeah, they use the drill.
20:22 And that's all happening right there in front of them.
20:25 Christy Swanson has something to play opposite.
20:28 - Plus they're hard, poor sharks.
20:30 They're just trying to get theirs.
20:33 - I think that's a non-ocean movie.
20:39 That's a bayou where it took place.
20:42 So we can speculate as to whether or not
20:47 a saltwater creature like a shark
20:50 could actually survive outside of the ocean.
20:53 A lot of speculation.
20:55 We also have "Shark Attack 2."
20:58 - And this one is set in the ocean
21:00 and it's got a nice,
21:01 see if you can catch the Jaws homage coming up.
21:04 - I mean, this already looks pretty Jaws.
21:07 Oh, well, that's it.
21:10 That's her right there.
21:12 - So he's gotta alert the surfers that are way out
21:17 and tell them that sharks are coming.
21:19 And I just want you to pay attention to,
21:21 yep, the big puppety looking shark head that pops out.
21:25 And very good editing that they work
21:28 to incorporate real footage of sharks
21:32 with the phony looking shark heads that pop up.
21:36 - Good quality, I appreciate it.
21:37 I mean, just, there, oh, well, no, okay.
21:42 - Here it comes.
21:44 - That looked like literally a puppet.
21:49 - It really does look like just a big old shark puppet.
21:52 - It almost feels like they probably
21:54 just got like Barbie dolls and then just like the puppets.
21:57 No, no.
21:58 - And this is one of the last ones you'll see.
22:02 This is from the year 2000.
22:04 - Okay.
22:05 - So even though there were developments in time
22:07 with what computers could do and what they could animate
22:11 and what kinds of sharks they could create,
22:13 they went with the big old practical puppets.
22:16 - And the music, and the music, oof.
22:21 I mean, that's--
22:22 - In the comments, we're hearing
22:24 that it's a bull shark in there.
22:26 And I can't remember if that's right,
22:28 but I think it might be a bull shark.
22:30 - Well, Infinite Monkey is one of our main followers,
22:32 so I appreciate their input, thank you.
22:34 - Thank you, Infinite Monkey.
22:36 - We hope it is a bull shark
22:37 and you're not spreading some fake news here.
22:39 (laughing)
22:40 They also added that ocean water is certified
22:43 'cause recreational divers.
22:45 I mean, like, I would love to go diving,
22:48 but this is all keeping me from a distance
22:51 from these beautiful creatures that, you know,
22:53 most of the time sharks are not that bad to people
22:57 unless, you know, we're provoking them,
22:59 but that's what happens.
23:02 So continuing on with CGI, you wanna--
23:06 - So there's some bad CGI.
23:08 Do we have Cyclone?
23:09 Can we look at Cyclone before we move on to CGI?
23:12 - Oh, here it is right here.
23:13 - So Cyclone is from 1978, and this is,
23:15 it's also known as Terror Storm.
23:19 It's basically a disaster movie
23:21 where there was a plane crash and people are on a boat,
23:23 and the majority of the movie is people being miserable,
23:26 being stranded in the ocean,
23:28 and debating whether or not they would resort to cannibalism.
23:32 It's a very talky disaster movie
23:34 in the tradition of like the Poseidon adventure
23:37 or the Towering Inferno.
23:40 In the final eight minutes of the movie,
23:41 they introduce the sharks,
23:44 and the sharks start eating people,
23:45 and you can see they filmed this with real sharks,
23:48 and one of the workarounds that's used here
23:52 is this was filmed in Mexico,
23:56 and from what I have read,
23:58 and I have not fact-checked it 'cause that's not my forte,
24:02 but from what I read,
24:04 cadavers were purchased for the film.
24:07 - I was about to say, that looks like a real person.
24:09 - It looks like people.
24:11 So they have real actors in the water with real sharks,
24:15 but then they also put body parts and intestines in the water
24:20 for the sharks to eat, and they filmed it.
24:21 So it just was so visceral.
24:23 It was so real.
24:25 And these movies, they'll film in Mexico
24:28 and foreign countries where you can get blue,
24:33 beautiful water and actual sharks,
24:35 but then you can also probably work around things
24:38 that like in the United States with film production,
24:40 you probably couldn't take some of the same risks
24:43 or harm a shark.
24:44 - Harm a shark.
24:45 But also they're feeding them.
24:46 So I feel like that's nice for those sharks, right?
24:48 - Yeah, but in the States,
24:49 I don't know where you would buy a cadaver.
24:51 I feel like-
24:53 - From your local cadaver guy.
24:54 - In 1978 in Los Angeles, I'm not sure what-
24:58 - Oh, they'd just go to the ocean then.
25:00 You know, that's when the mobs all, right?
25:02 (both laughing)
25:05 Yeah, no, I mean, you're mentioning Mexico,
25:08 and I was like, well, I hope they didn't just like
25:09 throw body, I hope that would be okay.
25:11 I mean, I was just researching the murder movies
25:13 and I learned about snuff fields and all that.
25:15 And we can't even go into that with shark movies,
25:20 but yeah, I, oh, and then thank you.
25:24 Thank you, tiger sharks.
25:25 - And it looks like those who are tiger sharks.
25:27 Thank you, infinite monkey.
25:28 - Appreciate it.
25:30 - So yeah, that's one extreme of the real shark
25:32 with real actors and real corpses.
25:34 But then what I think most of us have seen
25:37 over the last 20 years is more CGI.
25:39 Like you don't see a lot of real sharks in movies.
25:41 So we have some CGI examples.
25:44 And the first one we're gonna take it as "Blue Demon,"
25:46 which shows where things were at in 2004
25:50 for a low budget movie.
25:51 That's supposed to just be a computer thing,
25:53 but now this is supposed to be a real shark
25:55 or it's supposed to be the main shark from the movie.
25:58 - Oh, yeah, no, that's a video game shark.
25:59 I appreciate that.
26:01 - It's like a screen shaver, screen saver.
26:04 - Yeah. - Video game shark.
26:06 - Yeah, yeah.
26:07 - But anytime we see the shark in the movie,
26:10 that's what you see.
26:11 And it has an unreality to it,
26:15 but not in a way that they were playful about
26:18 or having fun with.
26:19 And I think as the CGI got better,
26:22 it changed what sharks could do in the movies.
26:25 And a big budget example, or I think mid-budget,
26:30 but they put the money into the sharks,
26:33 was "Shark Night 3D," that they had CGI,
26:37 because you can have sharks do things
26:39 that a real shark could never do,
26:41 a practical puppet mechanical shark could never do.
26:44 So this is an impressive moment.
26:46 - So moody and dark.
26:50 - Very dark, which is probably good
26:52 for special effects purposes.
26:53 - Totally, smart thinking.
26:56 Oh, no, he's almost made it.
26:57 He's almost making it.
26:58 - He's good, he's made it.
26:59 He's escaped the shark.
27:00 Oh, no.
27:01 - And the sound design, that real foley.
27:07 - Yeah, the water coming up on the camera.
27:09 And then look, uh-oh, there's his jet ski.
27:12 - And now the shark's just gonna get on the jet ski, right?
27:16 - In a more recent movie,
27:18 that probably is a possibility of the shark.
27:22 Jet ski shark coming soon to SyFy.
27:24 - We just gave him a, I mean, that's easy.
27:28 That's easy.
27:30 - But yeah, that's one of the things
27:31 that the technology changes over time
27:33 where you could do things in 2004
27:35 you couldn't have done in 1978,
27:37 'cause the science is the way the movies are made.
27:40 So we're looking at some of these examples.
27:44 But then the movies get a little playful,
27:47 a little snarky, a little imaginative.
27:49 And in something like "Megashark" versus "Giant Octopus,"
27:53 I don't wanna reveal what's gonna happen,
27:56 but it's a scene with an airplane.
27:58 - What?
28:00 I feel like of all the places
28:01 we should be safe from sharks, airplanes.
28:03 - Good.
28:04 - I mean, snakes, sure.
28:06 But sharks?
28:07 Challenge.
28:09 - Oh God.
28:11 - Or the sun. - Holy shit.
28:13 (dramatic music)
28:16 - It's bigger than the plane.
28:19 - It's bigger than the plane,
28:20 and it can achieve the height of a plane.
28:24 - Wow.
28:25 - Again, the CG is being used to allow sharks
28:28 to do things that if, I'm no scientist,
28:31 but I'm pretty sure that couldn't happen.
28:35 - I defer to the experts.
28:36 - I was gonna say, let "Infinite Monkey" weigh in.
28:39 (laughing)
28:40 What kind of shark was that?
28:41 Was that an airplane shark?
28:43 I just, yeah.
28:45 - It's just in the movie known as a "Megashark."
28:47 - This is how I wanna watch scary thriller,
28:50 monster movies, I guess I should call them.
28:52 But no, it's...
28:54 This is just entertaining, I love it.
28:58 - You make a really good point
28:59 that monster movie is really where it's at,
29:02 that it's less concerned with being a real shark
29:06 the same way Godzilla isn't concerned
29:10 with being a real lizard.
29:11 It's just like, oh, this is a giant monster, movie monster,
29:16 who can do whatever we need him to do in a given film
29:19 that serves the plot and is exciting and fun to watch.
29:21 So that's what you get with "Megashark"
29:24 versus giant octopus attacking the planet.
29:27 And we have one more ridiculous CGI shark
29:31 where just again, just a shark is no longer enough.
29:36 You have to up the ante.
29:38 And that gave us this movie "Toxic Shark."
29:40 (water splashing)
29:44 - Did it work?
29:45 I don't know.
29:47 - So this has kind of an environmental message
29:49 that toxic shark was born. - Poor toxic shark.
29:52 - Born of toxic waste.
29:54 - Oh, born.
29:56 (screaming)
29:59 (water splashing)
30:01 - Actual, Kevin, why would you?
30:06 I thought we were friends, man.
30:08 - It's terrible, it's terrible.
30:09 - Yeah, don't pollute the oceans
30:13 'cause then sharks are gonna snot at you.
30:16 I guess they're not attacking, they're just,
30:18 we'll just, yeah, that's the news.
30:21 Sharks don't even have to bite you anymore.
30:22 They're just spewing their toxic waste at you.
30:24 - Right. - Yeah, that's pretty awesome.
30:27 - So yeah, as more of these movies come out,
30:30 they're doing things that normal sharks don't do.
30:34 And either they've been genetically altered or mutated,
30:39 like in the Samuel L. Jackson movie
30:41 where the sharks got smarter.
30:43 - Yeah, I mean, would you even call these sharks, right?
30:48 Like if they're shooting radioactive snot out of their nose.
30:53 - Well, here's the thing.
30:55 I have this device and I call it a phone.
30:59 - Yeah, I see numbers on there.
31:00 That's just a phone, right?
31:01 - So the thing is I use this as a flashlight
31:06 and I play music and it's a wallet.
31:11 And I listen to music and podcasts and I text people
31:15 and I do a step count and it does so many things.
31:20 And I still call it a phone,
31:23 but when you think of a phone.
31:25 - Right, right.
31:26 - That's an outdated idea.
31:28 A phone can't do all that.
31:29 And I feel like movie sharks are like iPhones
31:33 that they do things that we never would have thought
31:36 a phone could do.
31:38 - They eat planes in the sky.
31:39 - They eat planes in the sky.
31:41 They have multiple heads.
31:43 They're not limited to the ocean.
31:46 So it's the weird thing where like,
31:47 at what point does the shark in the shark movie
31:50 stop being a shark?
31:52 And then it's just like a big movie monster like Godzilla.
31:55 - Right, right.
31:56 Well, you mentioned the multiple heads.
31:59 - Right, so here's three headed shark attack,
32:03 which is the sequel to, Judy, it's the sequel to?
32:08 - Two headed shark?
32:10 - Two headed shark attack.
32:12 And it was followed by?
32:13 - Four headed?
32:16 No.
32:17 - Either four or they might've jumped right to five,
32:19 but they keep making these shark attack,
32:22 multi-head shark attack movies.
32:25 And it keeps coming back with more heads.
32:28 - 'Cause one, I mean, one is fine.
32:30 - I think one shark is very, very scary.
32:35 But I guess you're twice as likely to be eaten
32:40 by a two headed shark.
32:41 Three times as likely to be eaten.
32:43 - The middle one got it.
32:45 He was gonna get it anyways if it's a shark.
32:47 That just.
32:48 - It seems a little unfair.
32:51 - So. - To the science.
32:53 - Yeah, I welcome scientists to weigh in
32:58 on how realistic some of the multi-head shark
33:02 attack movies are.
33:03 - No, I mean, you were telling me earlier
33:06 about the Mecha, Mecha, Mecha.
33:09 - Mecha shark, yeah.
33:10 And that again is, it's a sequel to the one
33:13 where the shark comes out of the water to eat a plane.
33:17 Yeah, the one shooting the laser is a Mecha,
33:22 which really shows that it's in the tradition
33:25 of the Godzilla movies.
33:26 That Godzilla fought Mecha Godzilla in one of its sequels.
33:32 So it's really telegraphing and signaling
33:35 that these movies are in the tradition of Kaiju,
33:39 giant monster movies, and that they should not
33:41 be taken seriously as science.
33:45 Thank you, it's a genre of Japanese films and TV
33:48 featuring giant monsters.
33:50 And the giant monsters will often battle Mechas,
33:55 which are controlled by human beings for the most part.
33:58 They're not sentient robots.
34:01 So the Mecha shark is being used to fight the Mega shark.
34:06 And in the trailer, they show the Mega shark
34:08 is about to take down another plane.
34:11 And Judy, guess what happens?
34:13 - I feel like there's no surprises anymore with sharks.
34:16 They're just like, okay, I guess.
34:18 - They can do anything.
34:18 - They can fly, they are everywhere.
34:20 They are everywhere.
34:22 I guess I was thinking that it's always gonna be
34:25 somehow in the cockpit and just slither down
34:27 and be like, but like jumping out of the water,
34:30 I guess makes sense.
34:31 - I guess.
34:32 - Yeah, I was wondering this too about the three headed shark
34:37 is there one stomach, it looked like it had one body.
34:39 So, we're following the science.
34:41 - It has one body, that's a good point.
34:43 Now, if it had been a four headed cow,
34:45 then you've got a head to stomach ratio.
34:49 - That's, we should maybe think of contacting
34:53 the science on this.
34:54 Let's contact NASA about this.
34:57 All right, so what else do we have?
34:59 - I think it's just the one clip left.
35:02 - Our most favorite.
35:07 Actually, I guess before we get there.
35:10 - It's not a shark movie,
35:12 but it's a movie with a shark in it.
35:14 - I just wanna see if there's any questions
35:18 before we put up this last one.
35:21 I think we've covered everybody.
35:22 If you wanna mention any shark movies
35:24 that we have forgotten about
35:25 and educate me and Kevin on this, feel free to.
35:28 - Yeah, let us know.
35:29 I'm always on the lookout for a good shark movie
35:32 or even a bad shark movie.
35:34 - Especially a bad shark movie, I think.
35:36 Or, you know, a bad shark.
35:39 (water splashing)
35:41 - Or a great shark scene in a non-shark movie.
35:44 - Oh, no.
35:44 - Robin.
35:49 (Kevin laughing)
35:53 - Again, the fully.
35:53 - I love punching shark sounds.
35:56 Oh, that poor shark.
35:58 It's just trying to get his.
35:59 - Pat me down, the shark repellent back spray.
36:06 (shark horn blaring)
36:09 - He takes the cap off.
36:12 - Did he have to shake it?
36:15 - Oh, I hope so.
36:16 Otherwise you don't get the best part of the repellent.
36:20 - Well, luckily, "Batman" is still around
36:22 and we've yet to see "Batman," you know,
36:25 mess with some sharks in the new movie.
36:26 So maybe this will also inspire.
36:28 'Cause "Shark Week" is still a huge thing.
36:29 It's been around since 1988.
36:31 They haven't really had hosts since the late '90s.
36:33 And I mean, this year it's "The Rock,"
36:35 Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, which is like levels.
36:39 You know, we're getting there.
36:41 But I feel like this has been so fun.
36:46 I just, I can't believe there's this many genres of sharks.
36:50 - There's so many.
36:51 We've barely scratched the surface.
36:53 - I know, like we didn't even cover the best ones
36:55 because we've all like, yes, open water, terrifying.
36:59 The shallows, I don't even.
37:01 But no, I really appreciate you, Kevin.
37:04 Thanks so much for educating me.
37:06 - Oh, it's been my pleasure.
37:07 - And everybody, please,
37:09 I wanted to show you your home screen on this.
37:13 Make sure to check out Atomic A Productions
37:16 where you can watch this wonderful,
37:18 we call it a super cut, but it's also educational.
37:22 It's a nice-
37:23 - It's a video essay.
37:24 It's maybe one of the most thorough
37:26 shark movie video essays out there.
37:28 - Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
37:29 - Not really. - A lot of media,
37:31 a lot of clips.
37:31 (laughing)
37:33 - Well, thanks so much, Kevin.
37:35 And keep it to Life Science where we live, laugh, love science.
37:40 Bye, guys.
37:41 - Bye, everybody.
37:42 (upbeat music)
37:44 (upbeat music)
37:47 (upbeat music)
37:50 (upbeat music)
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