''Sharktopus'' is a 2010 SyFy original horror/

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

film produced by

Roger Corman Roger William Corman (April 5, 1926 – May 9, 2024) was an American film director, producer, and actor. Known under various monikers such as "The Pope of Pop Cinema", "The Spiritual Godfather of the New Hollywood", and "The King of Cult", he w ...

, directed by

Declan O'Brien Declan Timothy O'Brien (December 21, 1965 – February 16, 2022) was an American film and television writer and director. He was known as the director of three films in the ''Wrong Turn'' series (2009–2012). Biography His work with Syfy ...

, and starring

Eric Roberts Eric Anthony Roberts (born April 18, 1956) is an American actor. He has amassed more than 700 film and television credits since his debut in 1978, making him one of the most prolific English-speaking screen actors of all time. Roberts' career ...

. It is the first film in the ''Sharktopus'' franchise.

Plot

Geneticist Nathan Sands and his daughter Nicole are hired by the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest displacement, at 4.5 million tons in 2021. It has the world's largest aircraft ...

to create a new weapon; they create an intelligent shark that has the tentacles of an octopus, dubbed S-11, controlling the creature using electromagnetic pulses with a device attached to its head. During one of the test missions, S-11 discards the device before traveling to Mexican waters to find food. Sands and his daughter are then assigned to catch S-11 and travel down to Mexico, where they meet up with fishermen Andy Flynn and Santos, who work for Sands to help capture S-11. Andy, Nicole and Santos track S-11 on Andy's boat as Sands and his men follow in a yacht behind them. Several sightings occur as S-11 kills tourists and locals in the area. Fisherman Pez sends a photo of the creature to a news station, and news reporter Stacy Everheart and her cameraman Bones arrive to find the creature, enlisting Pez's help in the process. Stacy researches Sands and deduces that S-11 is a biological experiment. She, Bones and Pez record it killing a few people on a beach before heading into the ocean on Pez's boat to capture more evidence. Andy and a group of his diver friends go into a cave to find S-11, although the creature attacks them, killing everybody except Andy. He, Nicole and Santos then encounter Stacy, Bones and Pez, although Pez is killed by S-11 before it runs off. Andy, Nicole and Santos pursue it, resulting in Santos being killed. An enraged Andy radios Sands and tells him he's going to kill S-11 despite his orders. Andy and Nicole track S-11 to the mainland, where it kills a few people before Sands and his men arrive and hold Andy hostage. Nicole reprimands her father for wishing to further the experiments, although S-11 arrives and kills Sands's men before Sands himself is killed saving Nicole. Andy and Nicole encounter Stacy and Bones again, who drive them to a resort which S-11 is attacking. Nicole creates a plan to shoot S-11 with a device that will allow her to blow up a computer chip in its brain using her computer. The group arrives at the resort and Bones soon quits as Stacy attempts to put his life in danger to record S-11. However, S-11 then kills them both. Andy manages to shoot S-11 with the device, and Nicole hacks into the chip before overloading it, causing it to explode and kill S-11. Andy and Nicole reunite, and walk off to safety.

Cast

as Dr. Nathan Sands *

Sara Malakul Lane Sara Malakul Grove () is a Thai-American actress and former model. She has appeared in numerous Thai and Hollywood films. She most notably featured in the ''Kickboxer'' action film franchise across several films as the female lead. Early life Sa ...

as Nicole Sands *

Kerem Bürsin Kerem Bürsin (born 4 June 1987) is a Turkish actor, known for his work predominantly in films, television and streaming series. After graduating from Emerson College in Marketing Communications Department, Bürsin began his acting career. He g ...

as Andy Flynn *

Héctor Jiménez Héctor Jiménez Gudiño (born December 13, 1973) is a Mexican actor and producer. He played Esqueleto in ''Nacho Libre'', Mr. Tumnus in ''Epic Movie'' and the cashier in ''Wild Hogs''. He worked in a theater company in Tijuana for eight years ...

as "Bones" * Liv Boughn as Stacy Everheart *

Shandi Finnessey Shandi Ren Finnessey (born June 9, 1978) is an American actress, model, TV host and beauty pageant titleholder. She is best known for winning the Miss USA title, as Miss Missouri USA. She previously held the title of Miss Missouri 2002 and com ...

as Stephanie "Stephie" * Megan Barkley as Lisa * Peter Nelson as Commander Cox (credited as Calvin Persson) * Elgar Horowitz as Ellie Loveshaft * Greg Norte as Gordon *

as Man On Beach (uncredited) *

Ralph Garman Ralph Garman (born November 17, 1964) is an American actor, comedian, musician and radio host best known as the host of ''The Joe Schmo Show'', for his voice work on the Fox animated series ''Family Guy'', former entertainment reporter and impress ...

as Captain Jack

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, ''Sharktopus'' has a 50% approval rating, based on 6 reviews, with an average score of 7.0/10. Kevin Carr of ''7M Pictures'' described it as "cinematic junk food" and gave it 3.5 out of 5. Annalee Newitz of

io9 ''io9'' is a sub-blog of the technology blog ''Gizmodo'' that focuses on science fiction and fantasy pop culture, with former focuses on science, technology and futurism. It was created as a standalone blog in 2008 by editor Annalee Newitz under ...

wrote "''Sharktopus'' represents both your guilt, and the assuaging of it, all in one tasty morsel" and called it the ''

Inception ''Inception'' is a 2010 science fiction action heist film written and directed by Christopher Nolan, who also produced it with Emma Thomas, his wife. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a professional thief who steals information by inf ...

'' of giant monster movies. And the review site ''Bloody Good Horror'' said of it: "Sharktopus” is absolutely not a good film. The acting is slightly above amateur-level, the plot is pretty formulaic and predictable... and the CG is the absolute worst I’ve ever seen. (...) But you know what? It all works. Despite its flaws, or perhaps because of them, “Sharktopus” is an insanely entertaining film and easily the best thing I’ve watched for BGH so far in 2011."

Home video

''Sharktopus'' was released to

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

and

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

on March 15, 2011. A limited edition soundtrack album containing Tom Hiel's musical score to ''Sharktopus'' was released by BSX Records in 2012 and is available on CD and digital MP3.

Sequels

A similarly themed movie, ''

Piranhaconda ''Piranhaconda'' is an American science fiction horror B-movie film premiered on June 16, 2012, on the Syfy Channel. It is directed by Jim Wynorski, produced by Forest King and stars Michael Madsen, Rib Hillis, Rachel Hunter and Terri Ivens. ...

'', was released in 2012. Two official sequels were made: '' Sharktopus vs. Pteracuda'', which was released on August 2, 2014, and '' Sharktopus vs. Whalewolf'', which premiered on July 19, 2015, during Sharknado Week on the SyFy Channel.

Remake

In 2023 the film was remade in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

References

External links

* *
Interview with Tom Heil about scoring ''Sharktopus'' at Cinefantastiqueonline
{{Roger Corman 2010 horror films 2010s monster movies 2010 science fiction horror films 2010 television films 2010 films 2010s English-language films American monster movies American science fiction horror films Fictional sea monsters Fictional hybrids Films about sharks Fictional cephalopods Films produced by Julie Corman Films produced by Roger Corman Films set in California Films set in Mexico Films about genetic engineering Giant monster films American independent films American mad scientist films Films about shark attacks American natural horror films Syfy original films Sharktopus films Films directed by Declan O'Brien 2010s American films English-language science fiction horror films