- Directed by Chris Kentis
- Written by Chris Kentis
- Stars Blanchard Ryan, Daniel Travis, Saul Stein
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 19 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9q1qJi1nMs
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This takes a little while to get to the good stuff. It’s a little bit of a thin story stretched out into movie length, but the situation they end up in is horrifying. So it’s worth the watch in the end.
Synopsis
Daniel and Susan get ready for their impending trip. It’s supposed to be a vacation, but she keeps getting calls from work. Soon, they’re on a tropical beach that looks warm and civilized. Credits roll.
Susan has signed them both up for a diving trip tomorrow morning. Until then, they do the usual touristy things.
The next morning, they show up at the dock nice and early as a crowd of people prepare diving tanks and equipment. Davis, Linda, and Junior run the boat, and Davis talks about where they’re going. They might see some sharks, but they aren’t very aggressive. Davis does a sloppy head count of the passengers- twenty people.
They eventually get to where they’re going, and everyone suits up. Davis gives last-minute instructions, and it all seems very clear. One guy forgot his mask, so there’s a distraction and confusion. They’re supposed to be diving for 35 minutes.
They do some pretty normal scuba-diving stuff. People get off the boat; people get back on again. The guy without the mask borrows someone’s mask and gets in the water, he shanghais a buddy because he’s a jerk. Linda helps him into the water, which adds two more people to the count of who are in the water.
Meanwhile, Susan and Daniel dive with the pretty fish in the pretty water and have a great time. People start getting out of the water, and Davis counts the people who get out. His number matches up with what he had written down because of the two late-divers. They pull up the ladder, start the engines, and zoom off.
Eventually Susan and Daniel surface. Hey– the boat is gone! They see two boats in opposite directions. They wave for the boats, but they’re too far away to be seen. If they choose the wrong boat, they’d swim in the wrong direction, so they stay put and keep waving.
The pair soon figures out that they’re drifting in the current. One of the boats starts approaching them, but it’s a tour boat and goes right past them.
Back at the dock, the diving boat unloads the passengers, and we see that our couple’s street clothes are stashed under the bench.
Susan sees a shark, and Daniel points out that they aren’t dangerous. They’ve been out for two hours now, and she’s getting cold. Yep– there’s definitely a shark out there. “They said they don’t get that close!” “They also said the boat would be here!”
We get a “water montage” as time passes and the two ask each other trivia questions. Susan gets stung by a jellyfish. So does Daniel. Daniel mentions that people getting left in the middle of the ocean is a lot more common than you’d think.
A boat drives by but doesn’t see them. They wonder what happened with the head count. Why didn’t anyone find their stuff on board? She lays back and goes to sleep.
Several hours later, Susan wakes up when a shark bumps her. Daniel is nowhere to be found. She spots him some distance away and swims toward him, but we also see that she’s bleeding. He admits that he went to sleep as well, and they drifted apart. Daniel looks at her leg, and she’s got little teeth marks.
Bigger sharks start to surface around them, and they both start to panic. The two take time out to play the blame game and whine about each other. “I wanted to go skiing!” Susan complains. They see ships and even a buoy, but the current keeps taking them the wrong way.
A shark bumps Daniel, and he drops his knife. He gets bit, and there’s lots of blood in the water. She ties his leg off with a belt, but he starts to go into shock.
…And then the sun goes down. There’s a thunderstorm, which only makes things more uncomfortable for the doomed couple. The sharks then go at it, and Daniel panics.
When the sun comes up, Davis boards his boat. He notices the leftover bag from the day before, and he finds their ID cards inside. He remembers them and runs to get help. The hotel manager looks inside Daniel and Susan’s room and sees that they aren’t there. A helicopter takes off as search parties commence.
Susan wakes up, and Daniel is still with her, but he’s not moving. He’s dead, and she finally lets him go. She watches as the sharks tear him apart. There’s a whole bunch of sharks down there. She gives up and simply drowns herself to not have to suffer being eaten alive.
Commentary
This was all Linda’s fault for not writing down the two late-divers who went in after everyone else. That, and Davis didn’t do an actual headcount after everyone boarded the boat. Oh, and Susan and Daniel could have paid more attention to the time; they’re both wearing watches, so why wouldn’t they be aware of the time? The basic situation is a comedy of errors, but once they get left behind, it all seems pretty believable.