- Directed by Glenn Campbell, Tammy Klein
- Written by Ryan Ebert, Anna Rasmussen
- Stars Maxi Witrak, Ego Mikitas, Michael Marcel, Tania Rex
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 28 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ag-hd7g8uWA
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
They took a wild premise and made it into a passable movie, so hats off to them. This one is way out there with some really bad science, but it has a decent science fiction story, and it was entertaining overall.
Spoilery Synopsis
We’re told that 1984, Americans went into space on their Shuttles. But at a top-secret lab in Moscow, scientists feed their subjects in the tank. Their subjects are smart, and they talk to each other; they’re smarter than expected. Suddenly, the electric fence goes down, and we see that they’ve been developing humanoid shark monsters.
The scientists activate a lockdown, but it’s hard to escape the land sharks. “If they get into the ocean, they’ll be unstoppable!” A pair of the scientists run to their own experimental space shuttle, and the monsters follow them inside. They launch the ship, taking the shark monsters along with them. Credits roll.
In the present day, there’s a moon launch scheduled by the Americans. One of the crew gets sick, and Michael, an alternate astronaut, is assigned to the mission. Commander Tress doesn’t like Michael, but they can’t reschedule the launch.
There’s some kind of electromagnetic disturbance that cuts off radio contact from Earth. Something goes wrong, and they find themselves off course– toward the far side of the moon. It’s all very tense, but they manage a crash-landing on the surface. There’s no satellite, and there’s no way to communicate with Earth.
They all check out the ship; they can hold out for months, but they can’t take off unless they get parts from a broken rover about a mile away. Four of the astronauts go out for a walk; they’re the first people to set foot on the far side of the moon. They check out the rover, but when Liam gets a bloody nose, something comes toward them under the surface, making ripples underground. Then they see shark fins! “Why are there sharks on the moon?”
One of the sharks dies, and the Americans find a Russian walking around, breathing without a helmet on; he’s the one who killed the shark. He thinks the Americans had been sent to rescue him; it’s been forty years, after all. Sergei is the scientist who survived the first trip, and Akula is his “adopted” daughter, but she’s odd. Sergei leads the group to his base.
Henri is taken captive by the sharkmen to the Shark City; they all speak Russian, but they want his ship to transport themselves and their eggs back to Earth. Tzarina, a shark woman, comes to talk to Henri.
At Sergei’s ship, Akula admits that she’s one of the shark-people. She’s developed a suit that makes them invisible to the sharks, and he’s got a way to make oxygen. He explains about the Cold War shark hybrids.
Back at the American ship, Ellie and Owen decide to go looking for their missing crewmates. They soon find Liam’s arm, but when they radio the ship, the sharks’ home in on the signal. The humans don’t live long after that.
The sharkman Scar bites off Henri’s foot at Tsarina’s command, then cauterizes it. She wants to know where his ship is. She says she’s the ruler of the hybrid sharks.
Sergei explains that there were only a dozen or so sharks originally, but they don’t know how many there are now. The sharks’ goal is to get their eggs back to Earth, where they can really reproduce. The humans walk to Shark City as they make plans to break into the prison for Henri.
Tom, back in the American ship, computes a launch for return to Earth, but he calls Commander Tress on the radio, which the sharks trace.
In Shark City, Tress and the humans find Henri, who tells them that the sharks only want their ship. They find the shark incubation room, and they have a discussion about killing all the shark babies.
Akula and Tsarina have a talk; Akula has always been an outcast, but Tsarina makes a tempting offer.
The sharks attack the American ship, defended only by Josie and Tom. Tress, Michael, Henri, Sergei, and Akula arrive to join them.
A whole bunch of sharks, too many to fight, surround the ship. Henri wants to lead the sharks away from the ship while the others escape. He manages to distract them for a few minutes as the others get ready to launch. Tsarina and the others show up outside, and they all get ready for a battle.
There’s lots of running around doing things in the ship, and both Josie and Tom are killed. It looks bad, so Tress surrenders to Tsarina. Tsarina says that Akula taught them how to fly a ship. Akula denies being a traitor; she’s loyal to the humans. Tress offers to bring the sharks supplies; the humans could help the sharks live on the moon. Tsarina isn’t interested in that; she goes to the cockpit and launches the ships.
All the humans jump out of the ship as it launches. They make their way to Sergei’s ship, which can take off using Tom’s flight plan. Akula and Tsarina jump out of the ship; Tsarina is not killed, but she does have brain damage.
Sergei comes up with a plan to crash his ship into the magma under the surface, creating tidal waves of lava that will wipe out the sharks– and them. He says goodbye to Akula and the others.
Akula, Tress, and Michael go outside to battle sharks with spears as Sergei does his thing on the ship. Sergei crashes his shuttle into Shark City, and the lava explodes everywhere. It even reaches the American ship, which crashes into the lava.
Somehow, something explodes with enough force to take the three humans back to Earth (don’t try to figure it out, I watched this part three times). Tress, Michael, and Akula launch a rubber inflatable boat and talk about how lucky they are. Akula starts screaming in pain; she’s pregnant… and giving birth to a shark hybrid baby. She then jumps overboard with her babies. Now there are human-hybrid sharks in the oceans of Earth.
Commentary
Early on, lava on the far side of the moon was mentioned, and it was so out of place that I knew it would be a plot point later.
The 2022 CGI is obviously CGI, but it’s not awful. I like how they made up a way to lose the helmets and spacesuits; it’s a silly thing, but it allows for better interaction between the characters.
How is it that the ships were heavily damaged but yet they could take off? Doubly more so for Sergei’s ship. How did the final survivors get back to Earth? There’s a lot here that doesn’t make sense, but it’s mostly saved just by the ridiculous concept.