Shark Movies, Ranked

Ten films that agree the water was a mistake.

Entries
10
Category
Film
Updated
  1. A gray funnel cloud over a palm-lined city street with dozens of sharks spinning inside it, a chainsaw lying on a car hood.

    10. Sharknado

    Anthony C. Ferrante · 2013

    Syfy spent about $2 million on a tornado full of sharks hitting Los Angeles. Only 1.37 million watched the premiere, but the internet would not let it go and it got five sequels. Ian Ziering with a chainsaw. Art requires no further explanation.

  2. Green river water lapping over a stone quay under an ornate Paris bridge, a dorsal fin circling between floating café chairs.

    09. Under Paris

    Xavier Gens · 2024

    A mutated mako named Lilith adapts to fresh water and moves into the Seine, which is the most believable part. Netflix logged 84 million views in about a month. The ending floods Paris, a bold stance on triathlons.

  3. A massive fossil shark tooth larger than a diver's helmet lying on the floor of a deep-sea submersible bay, glowing blue light outside the porthole.

    08. The Meg

    Jon Turteltaub · 2018

    Steve Alten's 1997 novel about a prehistoric megalodon sat in development for two decades before Jason Statham got to punch the ocean. It made $529 million worldwide. A 75-foot shark, a man who scowls at it, and nothing else required.

  4. A steel shark cage resting on a dark seafloor, a dive-tank pressure gauge needle near empty, bubbles rising into blackness.

    07. 47 Meters Down

    Johannes Roberts · 2017

    Mandy Moore and Claire Holt sink to the seafloor in a shark cage with dwindling air. It was headed straight to DVD until a distributor bought it for theaters, where it made $62 million on about $5 million. The ending has a nitrogen-narcosis twist.

  5. An overturned white yacht hull on a vast blue sea, a tiny island on the far horizon.

    06. The Reef

    Andrew Traucki · 2010

    An Australian yacht capsizes and the survivors decide to swim for an island. Based on the 1983 case of sole survivor Ray Boundy, and shot with real great white footage instead of effects. Watching people vote to swim is the horror.

  6. A cluster of capsized sailboats around a lighthouse on a choppy bay, a broken water-ski rope floating in the foreground.

    05. Jaws 2

    Jeannot Szwarc · 1978

    The first director got fired a month in, and the sequel still became briefly the highest-grossing sequel ever. It gave us the tagline about it being safe to go back in the water. It was not. It is never safe. That is the whole genre.

  7. A lonely surfboard and a jagged rock poking out of turquoise water, a seagull perched on the rock, a beach visible 200 yards away.

    04. The Shallows

    Jaume Collet-Serra · 2016

    Blake Lively, 200 yards from shore, a rock, a buoy, and a great white with a grudge. Her only co-star is an injured seagull named Steven Seagull. Cost under $20 million, made $119 million. A tight, mean little movie with a bird in it.

  8. Two empty scuba tanks and a pair of fins floating on endless open ocean under a hot sun, no boat on the horizon.

    03. Open Water

    Chris Kentis · 2003

    Made for about $500,000 with real sharks instead of rubber or pixels, it grossed $55 million. Based on a couple left behind on a dive trip in 1998. Two people floating and arguing is somehow the scariest thing here. Count heads on the boat.

  9. A flooded underwater research lab corridor with a cracked glass wall, sparking ceiling lights and a brain-shaped specimen jar drifting past.

    02. Deep Blue Sea

    Renny Harlin · 1999

    Scientists make mako sharks smarter to cure Alzheimer's, which goes as well as you'd think. Samuel L. Jackson gets eaten mid-motivational speech. LL Cool J recorded a closing-credits song called Deepest Bluest (Shark's Fin). The cook survives. Of course he does.

  10. Three yellow wooden barrels floating on a gray sea beside a small wooden fishing boat at dusk, a rope trailing taut into the water.

    01. Jaws

    Steven Spielberg · 1975

    The mechanical shark, nicknamed Bruce after Spielberg's lawyer, kept breaking in salt water, so Spielberg showed barrels and a fin instead. It became the first summer blockbuster and won three Oscars. Every movie below is chasing a broken robot.

Honorable mentions

  • A vintage steel diving cage hanging off the side of a wooden boat, an old film camera in an underwater housing on the deck.

    Blue Water, White Death

    Peter Gimbel and James Lipscomb · 1971

    A documentary that went cage diving with great whites off South Australia, with divers Ron and Valerie Taylor. Spielberg cited it as an influence on Jaws. The real sharks were already doing the job, without a lawyer's name.

Dishonorable mentions

  • A tropical harbor at sunset with a cheap rubber shark head jutting from the water, its jaws open, a wooden pier splintered beside it.

    Jaws: The Revenge

    Joseph Sargent · 1987

    A shark follows the Brody family to the Bahamas for personal reasons and roars like a lion. 2% on Rotten Tomatoes. Michael Caine said he never saw it but had seen the house it built, and it was terrific. The only character who profited.

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