The Meg (2018)

The Meg is a 2018 science fiction action film^[5][1] directed by Jon Turteltaub with a screenplay by Dean Georgaris, Jon Hoeber, and Erich Hoeber, loosely based on the 1997 book Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror by Steve Alten. The film stars Jason Statham, Li Bingbing, Rainn Wilson, Ruby Rose and Winston Chao. The film follows a group of scientists who encounter a 75-foot-long (23 m) megalodon shark while on a rescue mission at the floor of the Pacific Ocean.

Walt Disney Studios originally purchased the film rights to the book in the 1990s, but spent several years in development hell. The rights eventually landed at Warner Bros. Pictures, and the film was green-lit in 2015. Turteltaub and much of the cast joined by September 2016, and filming began the following month in New Zealand and Sanya, China, ending in January 2017. The Meg was released in both countries on August 10, 2018, in RealD 3D. It was a box office success and grossed over $530 million worldwide and received mixed reviews from critics, with some describing it as entertaining and others calling it "neither good enough nor bad enough" to be fun. A sequel, titled Meg 2: The Trench, is in development.

Rescue diver Jonas Taylor is attempting to save the crew of a damaged nuclear submarine when he sees the hull of the sub being rammed by an unidentified creature. Two of his crew are trapped in the damaged sub; Taylor is forced to flee, realizing that attempting rescue would result in the death of everyone on the deep-submergence rescue vehicle. Moments later, the nuclear sub implodes. Taylor's account of the story is dismissed by fellow survivor Dr. Heller, who believes that Taylor turned coward due to induced pressure psychosis.

Five years later, billionaire Jack Morris meets Dr. Minway Zhang at a $1.3 billion underwater research facility called Mana One, which Morris has financed. Zhang and his daughter, Suyin, an oceanographer, supervise a mission to explore what could be an even deeper section of the Mariana Trench, concealed by a thermocline of hydrogen sulfide. The mission submersible is piloted by Lori, Taylor's ex-wife, accompanied by scientists Toshi and "The Wall". Their theory proves true as they discover an abundance of never-seen flora and fauna below the thermocline. A large, unidentified creature collides with the submersible and causes it to lose contact with Mana One.

An old friend of Taylor's, Mana One operations manager James "Mac" Mackreides, suggests sending Taylor down to attempt a rescue. Despite Heller's objections, Zhang and Mac venture to Thailand to recruit Taylor. Taylor is initially skeptical and reluctant but relents after listening to a taped recording which contains dialogue between Lori, her crew and Mana One. Suyin attempts the rescue in their absence but is attacked by a giant squid. Before the squid can crush her submersible, it is killed by a gigantic 25-meter (82 ft) long, 150-tonne (170-ton) shark. Taylor, having agreed to help, reaches Mana One and saves Lori and The Wall, but Toshi realizes he needs to sacrifice himself if he wants his friends to live. When the shark returns, he shuts the hatch to the bigger sub, allowing the others to escape while he diverts the creature's attention.

Back at Mana One, the crew discovers that the giant shark is a megalodon, the largest shark ever discovered and thought to be extinct for two million years. While discussing how to deal with it, Suyin's daughter Meiying witnesses the shark outside the observation ring, as it bisects a humpback whale in one bite. The crew realizes that it followed them through a temporary break they caused in the thermocline, allowing it to escape. The team resolves to go out and first track the meg and then kill it with poison. After the megalodon destroys three ships nearby that were capturing sharks then cutting off the fins for shark fin soup, Taylor enters the water by himself to shoot the megalodon with a tracker on its fin. After barely escaping the jaws of the meg, Heller tells Taylor he is no coward. The team then puts Suyin in a shark-proof tank with a hole so she can shoot the meg with poison. However, the mission goes awry when after the shark is injected, the meg begins to swallow the cage and in doing so, cracks Suyin's mask, making her lose oxygen. Taylor then gets her out as she blacks out only to have the meg return. However, it gets snagged on the wire connecting the cage to the ship, stalling it long enough for the poison to kill it. In their moment of triumph, a second much larger megalodon emerges, killing The Wall, devouring the dead megalodon and fatally wounding Zhang as it destroyed the ship. Heller sacrifices himself to save Jaxx by distracting the meg in the open water.

Morris tells the team that he has informed all the local governments about the meg who will handle it now, but instead enlists a mercenary team to depth-charge the shark, but falls overboard in the failed attempt and is killed. Receiving no assistance from surrounding governments due to their disbelief, Taylor and the remaining Mana One crew resolve to track and kill the shark on their own. The megalodon is revealed to be en route to a crowded beach on Sanya Bay in China. It kills several beachgoers before the Mana One crew projects audio of a whale call to divert the shark's attention toward them. Taylor then chooses to sacrifice himself to kill the Megalodon after Suyin is put out of action to save the others. Taylor manages to cut the megalodon's abdomen with his sub after the shark damages it, as well as stab it in the eye with a shaft from the damaged craft, killing it. Smaller sharks, attracted by the megalodon's blood, approach and devour the dying megalodon. One of the sharks (a hammerhead shark) starts swimming towards Taylor. Before the shark can attack him, Suyin hits it with her sub. Taylor rejoins Suyin, Lori, Mac, Jaxx, Meiying and DJ, and he, Meiying and Suyin consider taking a vacation together.