Who dies whines, who dares wins… (my review is here)
There’s a lot of scrapping and moaning in Great White, followed by some screams and bubbly glugging. I should probably have titled this The ending of (the) Great White, as the poor maligned, five-metre murderous creature does die. As does the second great white (yikes, there are two). I’m trying to remember a shark movie where the killer beast doesn’t cop it at the end but I can’t think of one.
Here then is the order of deaths, from Boyfriend blogger to Sharky McSharkface:
Boyfriend (blogger)
The first victim, he’s caught and killed as he and his girlfriend desperately try to swim back to their boat.
Girlfriend (blogger)
She outlives her boyfriend by only a few seconds; not even long enough to draft an Instagram caption let alone a blog post. She makes it to the boat, climbs up and is then hit by the tiller which swings towards her after the already-frayed rope holding it suddenly snaps. She falls back into the water, and is either killed instantly, or drowns, or is knocked unconscious then killed by the shark. When Benny goes to investigate their upturned boat, which they find after a search using Charlie’s seaplane, he discovers her partially eaten inside.
He returns to the seaplane, which is then attacked by the shark and sunk. The five on board — Benny, Charlie the pilot, his pregnant partner Kaz, and clients Joji and Michelle — make it into the seaplane’s life-raft, though Joji nearly refuses to go as he’s terrified of water.
Charlie doesn’t know if his mayday call got through, but he thinks that the current will eventually take them to land if they simply sit tight. The shark (and eventually its friend) have other ideas though.
Benny (cook)
During the night, Michelle drops her paddle and Kaz swims off to get it. She’s nearly killed by the shark but makes it safely to the life-raft with the oar. Benny is then pushed overboard by Joji during an argument. Joji has disliked Benny from the first, when the cook smiled at Michelle at the start of their trip, and now reacts aggressively when Benny goes to help Michelle put a survival suit on. They fight and Joji pushes him overboard. Benny tries to swim back to the life-raft but at the last moment is dragged under by the shark and killed.
Joji (client)
Later the shark deliberately flips over their life-raft and all four fall in. Joji is attacked by the shark which leaps out of the water then sinks with Joji beneath the waves. After a couple of minutes Joji resurfaces, alive and begging for help, before the shark takes him again. The next morning Michelle scatters the ashes of her grandfather over the side, asking him to look after Joji. (Michelle’s pearl diver grandfather had as a young man been the only survivor of a shipwreck on the reef. She and Joji had come there to scatter his ashes.) The life-raft is now losing air, but two sharks approach and Kaz falls into the water. She makes it back and they huddle in the centre of the raft before falling asleep.
Great White 1
Michelle wakes first and spots land nearby, but the life-raft is now deflating and the two giant sharks are swimming towards them. Charlie tells the women to head to shore but Kaz says she and Charlie will kill the sharks together. He and Kaz head into the water, telling Michelle to try to swim to safety. Kaz manages to fire the flare gun directly into its mouth, then Charlie stabs it repeatedly on a vulnerable section of its head until it dies.
Charlie (pilot)
He and Kaz try to kill the second shark the same way. He manages to fire the flare gun but misses, and the shark grabs and eats him. Kaz makes it to a rusting shipwreck on the way to the shore, where she joins Michelle.
Great White 2
The second sharks lurches up out of the water, and both women fall in. Kaz sends Michelle to shore and attracts the shark’s attention. She drops underwater and the shark comes for her, but gets stuck. She falls unconscious but Michelle appears and breathes into Kaz’s mouth, rousing her. Kaz manages to dislodge a rusting metal spike which impales the shark, killing it. The two women swim to the beach and sit there together.
The final girls: Kaz and Michelle!
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