47 METERS DOWN: UNCAGED

US, 2019, 90 minutes, Colour.
Sophie Nelissse, Corinne Foxx, Brianne Tju, Sistine Rose Stallone, Brec Basinger, John Corbett, Nia Long.
Directed by Johannes Roberts.

For audiences who enjoy underwater adventures as well is underwater terror, the original 47 Meters Down seemed to serve its purpose. Thrills and screams underwater, claustrophobic danger, rescue, enterprise and surviving

Whether this film was necessary would be a matter of debate. It is not a sequel. It just capitalises on the title and it was made by the same director.

There have been a number of films with the title Girls Night Out, designed for an empathetic female audience, to identify with the characters, adventures, enterprising girls and women. This one could be also called Girls Day Out.

The setting is Yucatán, Mexico, an international school where we immediately see some bullying, especially of the central character, Mia (Sophie Nelisse), an intelligent girl with a considerable amount of knowledge and sharing diving with her underwater engineering father (John Corbett). She does not get on well with her half-sister, Sasha (Corinne Foxx, daughter of Jamie Foxx). We see the tension between the sisters in a scene at a meal at home. The father wants his daughters to go on a boat to look at great whites while he does work in the tunnels under the city. He has also found a shark’s tooth which he interprets as from past history (and the tooth will have a key role at the climax).

However, Sasha’s friends urge the girls to come with them, to a beautiful swimming hole, where they enjoy themselves and Alexa, the leader of the group, urges them to swim and examine an old cave with altars and statues from the Mayan era. Screenplay-wise, big mistake.

The breathing apparatus of the girls enables them to speak – but critics have been harsh and comment on what equipment they had for hearing each other! One of the girls, Nicole (Sistine Rose Stallone, daughter of Sylvester) is impulsive and irresponsible which leads the girls to encounter some blind fish who are aggressive and, then, a number of great white sharks, also blind but not the least bit hesitant in aggression.

And the screenplay goes in the directions that it sets up, underwater claustrophobia, plenty of Jaws moments and leaps in fright for the audience, a number of deaths (especially the men), narrow escapes, seemingly trapped, the sisters helping each other – but not without some ultimate dangers in the ocean. (Instead of a violent comeuppance for the bullies, the chief bully has to be amazed at the enterprise that Mia has shown!).

The title indicates everything and audiences will know whether they enjoy this kind of underwater adventure or not.

1. The original 47 Meters Down and its impact? Underwater terror? This is a follow-on rather than a sequel?

2. Mexico, Yucatán, the tourist view, the locals, the international school? The sea, underwater, the caves? The fish and the sharks? The rescue boat? The musical score?

3. The introduction, school, the bullying girls, pushing Mia into the water, Sasha and her friends, the home sequence, meters mother dead, her father marrying again, Sasha, their not getting on, the tension at the meal? The father wanting them to go on the cruise to see the great whites? Sasha wanting to be out with her girlfriends? The next day, Alexa persuading them not to go on the boat, to go on the expedition?

4. The characters of the girls, Mia, intelligent, knowledge, picked on? Sasha, sassy? Alexa, leader? Nicole, irresponsible?

5. Going to the water site, the exhilaration, the decision to go for the expedition, the swimming, the masks and oxygen, the ability to speak – and the credibility of their ability to hear?

6. Underwater, the main city, the temples and statues? Nicole impetuous, the others caught, the decision to leave, and Nicole forcing them to stay, the fish, the attack?

7. The fish, no sight, heightened senses, the sharks? The attacks? The girls coping, and not coping? Fleeing? The air bubble? Mia going to get help? The boys, the encounter, the sharks and their deaths? The music, Mia and contact with her father?

8. The strategy, to get back to the hole, the lifting machine, Nicole and her anxiety, climbing on, the collapse of the machine? And Nicole taken by the shark?

9. The girls, their father taken by the shark, his advice, to go to the sea, the strength of the currents? Alexa taken by the shark?

10. The two sisters, the dangers, the risks, the tunnel, the currents, each helping the other, getting stuck? Into the sea, the boat, throwing the blood overboard? The fish in the sharks approaching? Each of the girls, almost rescued, malt? Mia and the weapon, firing into the shark?

11. The irony of the bullying girls on the boat, having to change their attitudes about Mia?

12. Something of a girls night out entertainment?