The Shallows is a sea-horror survival movie released in 2016 in the United States. The movie is directed by Jaume Collet-Serra who is very much familiar with his movie Orphan (2009). There another excellent movie comes in theater in 2019 47 Meters Down: Uncaged, and the effective ending of the both films are so exciting and thrilling.

The Shallows (2016) Movie Plot & Ending Explanation

* * * Spoiler Alert – If you haven’t seen the movie yet, turn back now! * * *

Nancy Adams, a medical student, travels to a secluded beach in Mexico after her mother dies of cancer. During the pregnancy, her mother also visited this beach.

Nancy is given a ride by Carlos, a friendly resident, and dropped off at the beach. Afterward, she and a friend are staying at a hotel since they partied too hard. She joins two other locals and the three surf together for several hours.

In between surfing and video-chatting with her younger sister, Nancy takes a break from surfing. Her father speaks to her in an emotional and strained tone. Nancy’s mother’s death led her to consider dropping out of medical school.

Read more, In the Heart of the Sea [True Story].

Nancy notices a young humpback whale carcass nearby as she surfs one last time for the day. A large great white shark bites her leg as she rides the last wave back to the beach.

While climbing onto the whale carcass, Nancy is rammed from beneath by a shark, forcing her to swim to an isolated rock. To stop the bleeding, Nancy uses her surfboard strap.

After putting rudimentary stitches in her torn flesh, she uses her jewelry to hold it together. Locals leave Nancy alone when they are unaware of her injury. An injured gull joins her on the rock for the night. The shark also injured that bird, and he named him Steven Seagull.

Nancy’s belongings are stolen by a drunk local man on the beach the next morning. To steal Nancy’s surfboard, I waded out into shallow water. Unfortunately, he was killed by the shark. Nancy returned several hours later with the two locals she surfed with the day before.

Nancy does not have time to warn them away from the water, and they are also killed by the shark.

On the helmet of one of the local surfers was a camera. His helmet floated to the surface after he was attacked by the shark. The helmet was later seen floating in the water by Nancy.

She can retrieve it and notices in the footage that the shark has a large hook caught in its mouth after possibly encountering fishermen. Nancy uses the GoPro to leave her sister and father messages and to tell them where she is and about the shark attack.

Nearing high tide, Nancy realizes the rock will soon be submerged. A piece of the surfboard was used to send Steven Seagull toward shore. Time the shark circles from the whale carcass to the rock. Through a group of jellyfish, Nancy narrowly avoids the shark and swims to a buoy nearby. Both she and the shark are stung.

On the buoy, Nancy finds a flare gun. A flare is fired to draw the attention of a cargo ship far away. However, the ship has already turned away and does not see her. A second flare is fired at the shark, igniting the oil from the whale carcass and making it angry. Other than that, it has no effect.

After viciously attacking the buoy, the shark rips out the chains that secure it to the ocean floor. Despite being strapped to the last remaining chain, Nancy is pulled to the ocean floor by the shark as it rips the chain from the buoy.

The shark impales itself on rebar protruding from the boy’s anchor as Nancy pulls out of the dive at the last minute.

In the end, Miguel finds the action camera and tells his dad, who turns out to be Carlos. After finding Nancy near the shore, Carlos revives her. Nancy wakes up after her mother briefly appears to her.

She notices Steven Seagull on the shore as she looks around the beach.

In Galveston, Texas, Nancy and Chloe go surfing a year after their surgery. Her father says that their mother would have been proud of her.