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''Mega Shark Versus Giant Octopus'' is a 2009 American-British monster disaster film distributed by The Asylum, released on May 19, 2009, in the United States and on August 7, 2009, in the United Kingdom. It was directed by Ace Hannah and stars singer Deborah Gibson and actor
Lorenzo Lamas Lorenzo Fernando Lamas (born January 20, 1958) is an American actor. He is widely known for his role of Lance Cumson, the irresponsible grandson of Angela Channing—played by Jane Wyman—in the soap opera ''Falcon Crest'' (1981–1990), for ...
. The film is about the hunt for two prehistoric sea-monsters causing mayhem and carnage at sea, and is the first installment in the '' Mega Shark'' series of films.


Plot

Off the coast of
Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...
, oceanographer Emma MacNeil is studying the migration patterns of whales aboard an experimental submarine she took without permission from her employer. Meanwhile, a military helicopter drops experimental sonar transmitters into the water, causing a pod of whales to go out of control and start ramming a nearby glacier. In the chaos, the helicopter crashes into the glacier, and the combined damage breaks the glacier open, thawing two hibernating, prehistoric creatures. MacNeil narrowly avoids destruction as, unknown to her, a giant shark and
octopus An octopus ( : octopuses or octopodes, see below for variants) is a soft-bodied, eight- limbed mollusc of the order Octopoda (, ). The order consists of some 300 species and is grouped within the class Cephalopoda with squids, cuttlef ...
are freed. Some time later, a drilling platform off the coast of Japan is attacked by the octopus, which has tentacles large enough to wrap around the entire structure. After returning to Point Dume, California, MacNeil investigates the corpse of a beached whale covered with many bloody wounds. Her employer Dick Richie believes them to be from a tanker propeller, but MacNeil insists they appear to be from a creature. Later, she extracts what appears to be a shark's tooth from one of the wounds. Elsewhere, the huge shark leaps tens of thousands of feet into the air from the ocean and attacks a commercial aircraft, forcing it to crash into the water. A review board convenes and fires MacNeil from the oceanographic institute for stealing the submarine. She brings the shark tooth to her old professor, former U.S. Navy pilot Lamar Sanders, who believes it belonged to a megalodon, an enormous species of shark believed to have become extinct 1.5 million years ago. The duo is visited by Dr. Seiji Shimada, a Japanese scientist trying to determine what attacked the drilling platform. The three review a videotape recorded during MacNeil's submarine voyage, finding images of both the megalodon and a gigantic octopus. MacNeil reflects on the polar ice caps melting due to man-made global warming, and wonders if the creatures are mankind's "comeuppance". Meanwhile, a U.S. " naval destroyer" engages the megalodon, but is destroyed after its guns fail to destroy the shark. MacNeil, Sanders, and Shimada are arrested by a team of soldiers and taken to government official Allan Baxter, a rude and racist man who demands their help in destroying the creatures. The three agree to help, in exchange for the government trying to capture the creatures for study rather than destroy them. While working at a naval laboratory to develop a method for luring the creatures, MacNeil and Shimada become attracted to each other and have sex in a utility closet. The incident makes them realize they can attract the creatures using chemicals. MacNeil and Sanders agree to place a trap for the shark in San Francisco Bay, while Shimada returns to Tokyo to attract the octopus. MacNeil and Sanders barely escape the shark after placing the trap with a mini-submarine. The plan fails, however, when the shark destroys another destroyer sent by Baxter. The shark then resurfaces and bites off a large portion of the
Golden Gate Bridge The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. The structure links the U.S. city of San Francisco, California—the northern tip of the San Francisco Penin ...
, killing many civilians on the bridge. Later, Shimada contacts the Americans and says the Japanese trap, having the same disaster, only succeeded in angering the octopus, which has escaped despite multiple artillery and missile hits. Baxter suggests using nuclear weapons against the creatures, which MacNeil, Sanders, and Shimada strongly oppose due to the risk of marine devastation, coastal damage and human casualties. As an alternative, MacNeil suggests using the same pheromone traps to create a "
Thrilla in Manila Muhammad Ali vs. Joe Frazier lll, billed as the "Thrilla in Manila", was the third and final boxing match between WBA, WBC, and '' The Ring'' heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali, and Joe Frazier, for the heavyweight championship of the world. T ...
" by drawing the two creatures together. She believes that because the two creatures were frozen in ice locked in combat, they must be natural rivals and their aggressiveness towards one another will cause them to fight to the death if they're lured together. MacNeil, Sanders, and Baxter are assigned to a submarine to find the shark and lure it to the
North Pacific Ocean North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north'' is ...
. After a short search, the submarine brings both the shark and the octopus to an ice trench off the Alaskan coast, where MacNeil first encountered the creatures. Sanders himself ends up piloting the sub after the original pilot loses his nerve and pulls a gun on the captain before he is overtaken. As the creatures meet, the octopus wraps itself around the shark and tries to suffocate it, but the shark bites its tentacles to escape and attacks the submarine. MacNeil, Sanders, and Baxter man a mini-submarine and detach just as the shark bites the larger submarine in half, killing the rest of the crew. The shark gives chase, but the mini-sub and its crew are saved when a Japanese submarine with Shimada on board fires torpedoes at it. The octopus grabs the Japanese submarine and nearly destroys it, but the sub is released after the octopus is attacked by the shark. The two creatures engage in a fierce battle, at the end of which, the octopus strangles the shark after the shark dismembers some of its tentacles, causing it to bleed to death. The two sink, dead, still locked from their battle. McNeil and the others, after watching the showdown between the two monsters, discover Shimada and his sub survived the octopus attack. The film ends with MacNeil, Sanders, and Shimada deciding to visit the North Sea after receiving infrared images of mysterious organic life there.


Cast

* Deborah Gibson as Emma MacNeil *
Lorenzo Lamas Lorenzo Fernando Lamas (born January 20, 1958) is an American actor. He is widely known for his role of Lance Cumson, the irresponsible grandson of Angela Channing—played by Jane Wyman—in the soap opera ''Falcon Crest'' (1981–1990), for ...
as Allan Baxter *
Vic Chao Victor Chao is an American actor. He is best known for portraying Dr. Seiji Shimada in ''Mega Shark Versus Giant Octopus'', Dr. Shinji Shimada in '' Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 - Uprising'', Eric Tsu in '' The Crew'', Kenshi, Sektor, Goro and ...
as Seiji Shimada * Mark Hengst as Dick Richie *
Sean Lawlor Sean Lawlor (25 January 1954 – 10 October 2009) was an Irish character actor and playwright. He was best known for his portrayal of Malcolm Wallace in ''Braveheart''. He also appeared in ''Titanic'', '' In the Name of the Father'' and '' On B ...
as Lamar Sanders * Dean Kreyling as US Submarine Captain *
Stephen Blackehart Stephen T. Blackehart (born December 1, 1967) is an American character actor, author, and producer. Education Blackehart began his artistic education at the University of South Florida under BAFTA-winning character actor Paul Massie, before ...
as US Submarine Sonar Chief * Larry Wang Parrish as Japanese Typhoon Captain * Douglas N. Hachiya as Japanese Sonar Tech * Jay Beyers as Pilot Officer * Stefanie Gernhauser as Submarine Commander Francoise Riley * Jonathan Nation as Vince *
Russ Kingston Russ Kingston is an American film and television actor, editor, cinematographer and filmmaker. Kingston is best known as an actor for such films as ''I Come with the Rain'' starring Josh Hartnett, '' Transmorphers: Fall of Man'', ''Mega Shark V ...
as Admiral Scott * Cooper Harris as US Destroyer Sonar Tech * Dustin Harnish as US Submarine Helmsman * Colin Broussard as Radioman


Production

Efforts to convert the movie into 3D were scrapped when the studio failed to acquire adequate funding for
3-D film 3D films are motion pictures made to give an illusion of three-dimensional solidity, usually with the help of special glasses worn by viewers. They have existed in some form since 1915, but had been largely relegated to a niche in the motion pict ...
. Principal photography took place over the course of twelve days in January 2009. Much of the film was shot at the AES Alamitos power station near
Long Beach, CA Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporated ...
, and at Laurel Canyon Stages in Arleta, CA. Other locations included the Long Beach pier and Leo Carillo State Beach in Malibu, CA.


Release and reception

The theatrical trailer released in mid-May 2009 became a viral hit, scoring over a million hits on
MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
.com and another million more on YouTube upon launch, prompting brisk pre-orders of the DVD. The film was met with mostly negative reviews, with an 18% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and an average score of 3.34/10. The consensus reads, "With shoddy FX, acting and directing. This isn't so bad it's good. It's just so bad it's terrible." Peter Whittle of '' The Sunday Times'' gave the film one out of five stars and considered it "Unwatchable, almost unreviewable, this stupid monster movie makes the
Béla Lugosi Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó (; October 20, 1882 – August 16, 1956), known professionally as Bela Lugosi (; ), was a Hungarian and American actor best remembered for portraying Count Dracula in the 1931 horror classic ''Dracula'', Ygor in ''S ...
swan song ''
Plan 9 from Outer Space ''Plan 9 from Outer Space'' is a 1957 American independent science fiction-horror film produced, written, directed, and edited by Ed Wood. The film was shot in black-and-white in November 1956 and had a theatrical preview screening on March 15 ...
'' look like a masterpiece." Philip French of '' The Observer'' said in his review that "The risible special effects and the clumsy acting recall not
Roger Corman Roger William Corman (born April 5, 1926) is an American film director, producer, and actor. He has been called "The Pope of Pop Cinema" and is known as a trailblazer in the world of independent film. Many of Corman's films are based on works t ...
productions but the ineptitude of
Ed Wood Edward Davis Wood Jr. (October 10, 1924 – December 10, 1978) was an American filmmaker, actor, and pulp novel author. In the 1950s, Wood directed several low-budget science fiction, crime and horror films that later became cult cl ...
, though the result is far less endearing." Kim Newman of ''
Empire An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...
'' magazine gave it two out of five stars, calling it "Daft, plain daft. With a few daft but spectacular stunts." Scott Mendelson of '' The Huffington Post'' also gave the film two out of five stars, saying that "the actors are all appropriately terrible and the story is completely absurd." Bill Gibron of '' PopMatters'' gave the film an 8 out of 10, saying that "'' Schlock'' may be an acquired taste, like caviar, foie gras, and
Arby's Arby's is an American fast food sandwich restaurant chain with more than 3,300 restaurants system wide and third in terms of revenue. In October 2017, ''Food & Wine'' called Arby's "America's second largest sandwich chain (after Subway)". Arb ...
, but it's hard to see how anyone wouldn't enjoy this extremely tacky dish." He also praised Gibson's performance in the film. Despite criticizing the overall film quality, Stephen of ''The Three Rs'' gave the film a 7 out of 10, calling the plane attack scene "the epitome of monster awesome."


Sequels

Following the buzz generated by the release of the film's trailer, Gibson hinted on an interview that a sequel may be in the works. "Because God knows what else is in the ocean", she said. "I thought maybe a Seahorse? Maybe a 500-foot (150 m) Lobster would be good. But yes, there is the potential for a sequel, and I would absolutely love it." In mid-2010, The Asylum updated their catalog with ''Mega Shark Versus Crocosaurus'', which was released on December 21, 2010. The cast and director of ''Mega Shark Versus Giant Octopus'' did not return in the sequel; instead, the film was directed by Christopher Douglas-Olen Ray and featured a new cast led by
Jaleel White Jaleel Ahmad White (born November 27, 1976) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Steve Urkel on the sitcom ''Family Matters''. The character was originally intended to be a one-time guest appearance on the show; however, he wa ...
,
Gary Stretch Gary Stretch (born 4 November 1965) is a British actor, model, and former boxing champion. During his boxing career, Stretch won 29 of his 31 fights, 20 of those by KO. He became the WBC International Super Welterweight Champion. In his modelli ...
and
Robert Picardo Robert Alphonse Picardo (born October 27, 1953) is an American actor. He is best known for playing the Cowboy in ''Innerspace'', Coach Cutlip on '' The Wonder Years'', Captain Dick Richard on the ABC series ''China Beach'', the Doctor on '' St ...
. Originally, Mega Shark's opponent was going to be a dinosaur called ''Gigantosaurus'' as revealed in a poster for a film festival. The Asylum released the third chapter in the series titled '' Mega Shark Versus Mecha Shark'' on January 28, 2014, with Gibson reprising her role as Emma MacNeil. The fourth Mega Shark was confirmed in February 2015 '' Mega Shark vs. Kolossus'', had a premiere date on July 7, 2015.


See also

*
List of killer shark films Natural horror is a subgenre of horror films that features natural forces, typically in the form of animals or plants, that pose a threat to human characters. Though killer animals in film have existed since the release of '' The Lost World'' in ...
*
List of killer octopus films Natural horror is a subgenre of horror films that features natural forces, typically in the form of animals or plants, that pose a threat to human characters. Though killer animals in film have existed since the release of ''The Lost World'' in 1 ...


References


External links


''Mega Shark Vs. Giant Octopus''
at The Asylum * * * {{Jack Perez 2009 direct-to-video films 2009 comedy horror films 2009 independent films 2009 films 2000s monster movies The Asylum films American comedy horror films American disaster films Films about cephalopods Films about sharks Films set in Alaska Films set in California Films set in Japan Films set in the Pacific Ocean Films shot in Los Angeles Giant monster films American natural horror films American monster movies Submarine films Films about shark attacks Fictional sharks Fictional octopuses Film and television memes Films set in San Francisco Films set in the San Francisco Bay Area Films directed by Jack Perez Syfy original films Internet memes 2009 comedy films Japan in non-Japanese culture American horror television films 2000s English-language films 2000s American films