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There are certain movie moments that become bigger than the movies they came from. Sometimes it’s a line of dialogue. Sometimes it’s an incredible action sequence. And sometimes it’s a scene so unexpected that people who have never seen the movie still know exactly what you’re talking about.
One of the best examples is Deep Blue Sea, now streaming free on Tubi. Released in 1999, the sci-fi horror film follows a team of scientists working inside an isolated underwater research facility where genetically engineered sharks are being studied in hopes of finding a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. Instead, the experiment creates predators that are smarter, stronger, and far more dangerous than anyone anticipated. Directed by Renny Harlin, the film stars Samuel L. Jackson, Thomas Jane, Saffron Burrows, LL Cool J, Stellan Skarsgård, and Michael Rapaport.
More than 25 years later, Deep Blue Sea is still remembered for one reason above all others: it pulled off one of the boldest fake-outs in modern sci-fi horror. But that famous scene is only part of the reason Deep Blue Sea has endured. Beneath the surprise is one of the most entertaining creature features of the late 1990s, packed with inventive shark attacks, a fun ensemble cast, and enough twists to keep audiences guessing.
The biggest twist of all, however, comes with a startling death that’s so shocking and gruesome it’ll have you guffawing.
[Ed. note: Spoilers follow for the first half of Deep Blue Sea.]
By the late 1990s, Samuel L. Jackson had become one of Hollywood’s most recognizable stars. Whether audiences knew him from Pulp Fiction, Die Hard with a Vengeance, A Time to Kill, or Jackie Brown, Jackson had developed the kind of screen presence that naturally made viewers assume he’d be one of the movie’s heroes — long before he assumed the role of Nick Fury in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Deep Blue Sea cleverly uses that expectation against its audience.
About halfway through the film, Jackson’s Russell Franklin delivers an impassioned speech during what appears to be the movie’s emotional turning point. It’s the kind of monologue that disaster movies have conditioned audiences to expect. The survivors have lost hope, so someone steps forward to offer words of inspiration as the heroes prepare to fight back.
The big speech
“That’s enough now, from all of you!” Franklin yells, getting everyone’s attention. “You think water moves fast? You should see ice. It moves like it has a mind. Like it knows it killed the world once and got a taste for murder.”
Franklin then begins recounting an avalanche mentioned earlier in the film, strongly implying that the only reason he survived was because he resorted to cannibalism. It’s exactly the kind of larger-than-life story that disaster movies use to establish a hero moments before the tide turns.
“We’re going to pull together, and we’re going to find a way to get out of here!” he bellows. “First, we’re going to seal off this pool—”
Then a shark erupts from the water mid-speech, drags Franklin under, and proves it has absolutely no respect for motivational speeches.
The sequence instantly became one of the defining moments of late-’90s genre filmmaking because it ignored one of Hollywood’s oldest unwritten rules: the biggest stars are supposed to make it to the end of the movie. Even if you’ve never watched Deep Blue Sea, there’s a good chance you’ve seen the clip, the memes, or another movie referencing it.
Jackson asked to be killed off
One reason the scene works so well is that it almost didn’t happen. In a 2019 interview with industry VFX website Befores & Afters, Deep Blue Sea visual effects supervisor John Okun revealed that Samuel L. Jackson actually wanted his character killed off because he didn’t want to deliver a seven-page speech.
“When we got the script pages for this scene, it was seven pages of the worst dialogue you’ve ever heard in your life,” said Okun. “And it was a monologue. At this point I’d done Long Kiss Goodnight and Sphere, and this was the third in a row with Sam. So, we became friends. The night before, Sam called me up, and he goes, ‘Have you read this?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, I did.’ And I go, ‘I’m going to really be interested in how you’re going to make this one work.’ He said, ‘You know, why don’t you just kill me?’ And I said, yeah, I can kill you. I can kill you much earlier than the end of the seven pages.”
Director Renny Harlin initially wanted to film the speech as written, but after roughly 20 takes, he and Jackson still weren’t satisfied. Okun ultimately put together a new version that ended with the now-iconic shark attack, a change that completely transformed the scene.
“When we tested the movie, the new version of the movie, the audiences loved it,” said Okun. “Sam being killed became the talked about scene, because it was so unexpected, and it was out of nowhere. Sam called me up and goes, ‘Best. Death. Ever. It is my favorite death.'”
Today, it’s almost impossible to talk about Deep Blue Sea without talking about Franklin’s death. The scene has been memed, parodied, and referenced for more than 25 years, but it’s endured because the movie surrounding it is every bit as entertaining. With clever set pieces, memorable performances, and sharks that never stop escalating the chaos, Deep Blue Sea is still one of the most satisfying creature features of its era. Now that it’s streaming free on Tubi, there’s never been a better time to dive back in.
