Lurking in the water: The five worst aquatic movie death scenes
The ocean is one of humanity’s great mysteries, with its miles of open blue water tempting scientists, movie makers and adrenaline junkies alike to test its limits. Indeed, as the now iconic quote from researcher James Gardner goes, “We know what the surface of the moon is better than we know what the surface of the seafloor is,” with the ocean depths possibly still housing aquatic goliaths that could munch humans like M&Ms if they ever came so close.
Yet, despite its mystery, we are quite literally drawn to it, with cities and towns being built by coastlines where people frolic in its waves when it’s warm enough to bathe. Quite literally crucial to the upkeep of the human body, humans have an affinity to the water, much like seagulls are inextricably linked to nicking sandwiches or like how fairgrounds work in harmony with the sweet smell of candy.
As a result, the ocean has become the subject of movies throughout the generations, from James Cameron’s gigantic 1997 box office hit Titanic to Alfred Hitchcock’s early 1944 war thriller Lifeboat. It’s not just the sea filmmakers love. It’s swimming pools, puddles, lakes, streams, creeks and toilet bowls, with each one offering ceaseless opportunities for cinematic greatness.
From the depths of the ocean and the creatures it houses to the smallest bodies of water, cinema loves to stage dramatic deaths in and around the water, creating some iconic moments in the process.
The worst aquatic death scenes:
5. Ragdolled – Jaws (Steven Spielberg, 1975)
Steven Spielberg’s iconic blockbuster Jaws may be the most famous movie ever made about our beloved ocean. Sure, it doesn’t exactly paint it in a very favourable light, giving everybody who watched it a fear of sharks, despite the fact that the fish very rarely attack humans. Set in the fictional beach town of Amity Island, the film tells the story of a shark who lurks in the bay and kills anyone who sets foot in the water, sparking a major crisis.
While the classic has endless memorable scenes, one of its finest moments comes at the very start, when a poor young woman goes for a swim only to fall victim to Spielberg’s fishy friend. Ragdolled around the water, the death sets a gruelling tone for the ‘Best Picture’ nominee and brandished itself in the mind of every single viewer, making them think twice about ever going in the ocean again.
4. Resigned resignation – Open Water (Chris Kentis, 2003)
The death that opens Jaws by Steven Spielberg isn’t entirely unrealistic. Such a demise can indeed happen, but compared to Chris Kentis’ 2003 film Open Water, it seems like crazy fiction. A cult hit upon its release, Kentis’ independent flick, which follows two scuba divers who are mistakenly stranded in the middle of the ocean, was made for just $120,000 yet took a staggering $55million at the box office.
The 79-minute-long movie is agonising to watch and pure horror for anyone who suffers from thalassophobia, which likely explains why it made so much money, being a universal fear that everybody has had a nightmare about once. The film’s bleak finale sees the man fall victim to the sharks and the woman silently sink below the water, preferring to drown rather than be ripped apart.
3. Sucked to the Bottom – The Final Destination (David R. Ellis, 2009)
There aren’t a whole lot of great horror movie franchises in the 21st century, but the Final Destination series has long been overlooked, providing consistently entertaining movies ever since 2000. Granted, the worst of the five movies in the franchise so far is, no doubt, 2009’s The Final Destination, the fourth instalment in the series, which saw another group of friends cheat death and then proceed to fall victim to the Grim Reaper in a handful of bizarre ways.
Though even though it’s the worst, there remain several memorable moments from the film, including the moment when Hunt (Nick Zano) is sucked to the bottom of a swimming pool by a deviously malfunctioned drainage system. What starts off as a bit of fun ends up being a disarmingly disturbing sequence, being by far one of the most memorable moments from this half-arsed instalment.
2. Vesper’s demise – Casino Royale (Martin Campbell, 2006)
Speaking of disarmingly disturbing movie moments, let’s move over to the James Bond franchise, which is often known for its camp moments of violence and quick quips. Yet, 2006’s Casino Royale upended this style, making Bond a fallible human rather than a cartoon cliche, giving him shortcomings that made him feel entirely more relatable in this spy flick about the iconic secret agent taking down a terrorist ring.
Vesper Lynd, played by Eva Green, is the enigmatic love interest of the movie who ends up as a duplicitous double agent, yet, like Bond, she too is a fallible human being. Guilty that she betrayed Bond, whom she’d become incredibly close to, she prevents him from rescuing her as she drowns in a submerged elevator. Breaking the cliche that drowning is a pretty placid experience, the demise of Vesper is pretty grim viewing.
1. “Who does number two work for?” – Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (Jay Roach, 1997)
It was certainly unintentional to make this list rather bleak, so it seems only right to bookend it with a slice of levity. Indeed, one of the reasons why the aforementioned James Bond series had to revolutionise was because of the impact of the spoof trilogy Austin Powers, which directly picked apart the British spy hero and his abundance of cliches thanks to a fantastic central performance from Mike Myers.
But even the shagadelic titular jester had a killer instinct, preventing the henchman Patty O’Brien from strangling him with a lucky charms bracelet before giving him a piece of his mind. “Who does number two work for?”, Powers shouts as he plunges O’Brien down the toilet and into a watering hole of British faecal matter. It’s a horrible way to go for O’Brien, but just another day in the office for Powers.
