47 Meters Down was a big surprise for me, although it shouldn’t have been. It’s my kind of movie. When characters are trapped in a confined location, how do you keep it going for 90 minutes?
The first film was all in a cage at the bottom of the ocean. 47 Meters Down: Uncaged is outside a cage, but still confined to the flooded caves under Yucatán, Mexico.
Sasha (Corinne Foxx), Mia (Sophie Nelisse), Alexa (Brianne Tju) and Nicole (Sistine Stallone) go scuba diving in an uncharted water hole. Alexa is the only one with enough scuba experience to know how dangerous it is and how conservative they should be underwater.
Nicole doesn’t listen at all and really causes all the problems with her irresponsibility. When there’s a cave in, they don’t even know how bad they have it yet, but the audience gets a glimpse of the sharks.
Every failsafe in place fails these girls, in most cases due to human error. Panic kills more than sharks but the sharks eat them real good too.
When it’s so early in the movie, you know an easy rescue will quickly be ruled out. The paths to safety don’t pan out and the girls have to fend for themselves. They’re all down to 40% air reserve or lower, giving their escape a nice ticking clock besides simply avoiding sharks.
Writer/director Johannes Roberts created some nasty new sharks. They’re blind sharks who evolved in the caves without the need to see. There are plenty of good shark jump scares where they pop out of the dark drink too.
Roberts escalates the action cleverly. After all the basic calamities it becomes how else can we send sharks after these girls? It was all set up organically in the beginning, but by the end it’s relentless. Surviving ain’t easy.
It’s cool that the cast are all new faces. You can’t rule out any deaths due to top billing. They’re all likable women who you theoretically wouldn’t want any peril to befall but since this is a shark movie, they really make it fun to see who gets eaten.
47 Meters Down: Uncaged really took scuba survival to new depths. Get it? Depths because they’re 47 meters deep in the water!
The working title was actually 48 Meters Down. I guess they couldn’t afford the extra meter but now they proved they don’t have to. They can keep finding thrills exactly 47 Meters Down every time!
47 Meters Down: Uncaged is in theaters now.