Deep Blue Sea

Analysis of the film Deep Blue Sea

The film starts with a scene about two young couples who are partying onboard a boat. Unfortunately the boat gets attacked by a shark which immediately evokes an atmosphere that gets me expectant, in a violently bloody and gruesome way I’m afraid.
And then the whole story starts off when Carter harpoons the shark and brings it back to Aquatica. Though, in one way you could say that the story leaps into action already when the shark starts to attack the boat.

That whole situation creates, or at least blows up not only one but several problems that are all related to each other in one way or another. The obvious problem is of course the sharks massively increased intelligence, focus and manipulative skills. Then we have the thing that caused it to happen; the illegal gene manipulation of the sharks’ brains which was deliberately performed by the researchers at the station.

Even though it might not be the intended problem I do see somewhat of a sub meaning to this film. That also creates another problem on a completely different level; the hubris that permeates the researchers actions when they decide to break the rules of gene manipulation. But also they hubris that they show by taking on the part as God which they do by transforming the creatures that He has created into new forms and thereby putting themselves on his throne as the Makers.

I do believe that there is more than one main character in this film. Carter, Franklin and Preach; they all play the key role at some point. But the one who I think of as the real leading character is Dr. Susan McAlister. That is because she’s the one who started the project from the beginning and without her there wouldn’t be a story to tell, no problems in the matter of over intelligent sharks with gene manipulated brains.
She has an enormously important function in this film since she’s the one who creates the problem and then has to die for it. She is the brain behind it all and therefore she IS the story. It’s a bit hard to explain but she plays that extremely significant role that appears in all (especially American) films that contain, a more or less, hidden message. The character that has really good intentions, she wants to save mankind or at least several hundreds of people from suffering a slow death. But yet, the very same intentions are the ones that make her refuse to face the consequences of her actions. She’s driven by the idea of “the end justifies the means”.
Then she realises that this time the pros are smaller than the cons and decides that they have to kill the sharks once and for all. But at that point it’s already too late and instead she has to die for her sins. That fact she realises herself which is why she jumps into the water to face the shark, the monster she has created.

I suppose you could say that Franklin is the one who in some ways take on the part as the mentor in this film. When he makes his speech right before he becomes one of the sharks’ late night snack, in which he talks of the importance of trust and unity he certainly tries to teach them something.

The enemies are extremely easy to point out; it’s the sharks together with a pinch of human science-hubris. To be honest there’s also a pinch of divine interference in a quite unpleasant way; the storm that came at the “right” moment and all of that.
And then we have the fantastic parrot called “bird” that plays the clown. A part he somewhat shares with Brenda, the partying, cheerful girl who works in the control tower at Aquatica.

Susan (who is one of pretty few women featured in this film) has, besides from being one of the main characters also got the “desirable” part as the one who changes opinions, and really alters her moral and ethic opinions right in the middle of the story.

The assistants in this film are all the workers on Aquatica and the men in the chopper that do everything to save themselves as well as, if it’s possible, the others around them too.

The Outer Shadow (I don’t know what else to translate it into) is definitely the storm that affects their problems thoroughly. I have to classify it as an outer shadow even though I suspect it to be a deliberate action taken in the line with the “divine interference”.

The story mainly takes place at Aquatica, a research station out at sea, in the present-day USA and the people and atmosphere at the station is strongly scientific even though they too can let themselves go sometimes.

The whole story is like one giant hindrance but to point at a few I could say; the fire caused by the explosion, the water that forces the survivors to take the long way round just to get up to the surface and of course the biggest obstacle of them all; the chock and decreasing hope and all the other psychic problems that starts to emerge among the few survivors while they fight for their survival.

The turning points (main events) in this story are for example when the shark bites off Jim’s arm, when the tower explodes and when the whole station starts to fill up with water. The scenes in which Preach and Susan kill two of the sharks can also be called turning points as well as when Susan finally leaps into the water.
That last scene, where Susan jumps into the water to face the shark and when Preach at last is able to kill the shark, is not just a turning point like all the others. It is the climax after which two of the main characters, Preach and Carter, are finally victorious even though it might not be the ultimate victory since all too many were forced to die just so that the sharks could be killed. The positive side of it for Preach and Carter is of course the fact that they soon will get away from Aquatica, and that they actually succeeded to escape with their lives. Briefly you could say that they are able to have a life after the victory, or perhaps I should call it a life after Aquatica.

Most of the women in this film are being portrayed as hysterical, nutty people with a weak mentality. Either they refuse to give up their project, even though it could kill both them as well as many others, or they are so terrified and hysterical that they won’t even think about doing anything else than follow the strong, male leader. If he wasn’t there they would simply wait for death to come and get them.
The whole story completely stinks of the opinion “males are the stronger sex, women are only meant to follow and obey them”, if a woman does anything by her own she either ends up getting everyone killed or literary jumps into her own deathbed. Really encouraging for girls I must say.
And then we of course have the scene where Susan takes off all her clothes but the underwear. I’m of the opinion that the only reason for that action is that she’s a woman and that it was a situation in which they could squeeze in it without seeming too skin-desperate.
I also believe that it’s an attempt to get a bigger audience, especially in the male department.
But I guess that there’s also a deeper more subliminal meaning with the scene and to me that is that she finally has accepted that her idea came with much worse cons than good pros. She realised that it wasn’t worth it, to let the sharks live that is. You could say that she faced “the naked truth” and gave up her former goal in that scene.
(In the matter of the more practical meaning with her strip scene it probably happened because the wet suit on which she was meant to earth her and therefore she wouldn’t be electrified along with the shark when she threw the wire into the water.)
The white colour of her underwear is meant to symbolise that she isn’t a truly evil person but someone who actually had admirable, good intensions all from the beginning. She was just so focused on saving mankind that she refused to see that her attempts to do so hurt the people around her and in the end became more dangerous for mankind than the disease she had tried to stop with the attempts.

I don’t find any reason to why only (two) men survive but I have an idea to why Carter and Preach are the chosen survivors. They’re, apart from those who died in the explosion, the only ones who aren’t involved in the scientific parts of the shark tests. The persons who died in the explosion were more like innocent victims that happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time and therefore died.
But back to Carter and Preach and my theory about a religious meaning with this film; there is a scene in which Preach grabs the cross/crucifix he wears around his neck and then Carter comes and grabs it too and also bends down his head so that his forehead touches the hands that holds the cross. A typically religious scene and isn’t it a bit odd that the only two people that seems friendly towards God are the only ones who survive? All the others put there trust and believes in science and they all end up dead; punished for their believes in science (that must be Scoggs only mayor sin as far as I can see), or for the gene manipulation of Gods creatures (Susan, Jan and Jim stand for that sin) and then there’s the punishment of old sins and mortal sins. Franklin has both; the fact that only five of the seven survivors from the avalanche in the Alps returned to civilisation can definitely be put up as an old sin.
His unwillingness to continue to support Susan’s project if it could hurt his reputation and risk his other investments show that he’s quite greedy and greed is one of the mortal sins. To return to my other proofs of this, partially hidden religious message:
- Franklin forms a cross with his body when he lays on the floor right after the shark bit his arm off. It almost looks as if he has been crucified.
- The explosion and the burning inferno that it creates. Together with the scenes in which water breaks through the underwater windows and starts to overflow the station (a situation I would like to call the Deluge) I’m reminded of a certain Armageddon that has been written and warned about in the Bible. The famous idea that the world shall be destroyed with fire and water.
- The shark let Preach go after being stabbed with a cross. I get reminded of vampires and such creatures in this matter; the sharks were Gods creatures that had been turned evil by the researchers and then, by stabbing that evil creature with a Gods characteristic a believer in God survives…

All in all I believe that this film sends out the message that science could be dangerous since it gives humans a chance to play God and therefore we should be careful with it and have strict ethic and moral rules when it comes to dealing with living beings.