History Film / SHARKNADO

* NoisyNature: Some of the sharks make a strange, scratchy croaking sound. Only two of the more than 400 species of shark make any sort of vocalization, and the two that do make an audible "bark" (by burping!) are much too small to play the ThreateningShark in these films.

* NoisyNature: Some of the sharks make a strange, scratchy croaking sound when the waterspout dissipates and they fall out of the sky.

* MonumentalDamage: The Santa Monica Pier is, of course, the first thing destroyed. Later, [[spoiler: the bus driver is smashed by the HOLLYWOOD sign.]]

** Including some shots that are ''hilariously'' inappropriate to what's actually going on on-screen, like the one where a shark that's supposed to have been flung into a swimming pool by the waterspout still has a couple of remora tagging along, not even adhering to it but just swimming alongside. Not to mention the angle of the shot suggests that the camera was underneath the street itself.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: After you have seen the next few movies, you'll note this one is much shorter on the celebrity cameos and deaths. Some parts are even half-serious. That's because this was expected to be a one-off concept, and ended up being a surprise hit. It's also the only one where the ''storm'' does more damage than the sharks do for most of the movie.

** Including some shots that are ''hilariously'' inappropriate to what's actually going on on-screen, like the one where the shark that's supposed to have been flung onto a flooded highway by storm surge still has a couple of remora tagging along, not even adhering to it but just swimming alongside. Not to mention the angle of the shot suggests that the camera was underneath the street itself.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: After you have seen the next few movies, you'll note this one is much shorter on the celebrity cameos and deaths. Some parts are even half-serious. That's because this was expected to be a one-off concept, and ended up being a surprise hit.
* EveryCarIsAPinto: Fin's car spontaneously explodes after developing a fuel leak.

* MorePredatorsThanPrey: Thousands of sharks swept up by waterspouts, and not ''one'' harmless species in the lot. Even the whale shark from the second film kills somebody by ''landing'' on them.

** So many different ''species'' of sharks had never had any business schooling together in the first place. And they never, ever attack ''each other'', even though large predatory sharks preying on smaller ones is routine in nature.

The 2013 movie was a viral hit, with over five million views spread over the first three showings of the movie on TV and attention from celebrities such as Creator/WilWheaton and Creator/CoryMonteith (it was the subject of the latter's final two tweets before his death). Syfy immediately signed to make a sequel, the title of which was chosen with a Twitter contest. (The winner? ''[[ShapedLikeItself Sharknado 2: The Second One.]]'') Such follow-ups have become an annual event, roughly corresponding with the Creator/DiscoveryChannel's Shark Week, ever since.

The 2013 movie was a viral hit, with over five million views spread over the first three showings of the movie on TV and attention from celebrities such as Creator/WilWheaton and Creator/CoryMonteith (it was the subject of the latter's final two tweets before his death). Syfy immediately signed to make a sequel, the title of which was chosen with a Twitter contest. (The winner? ''[[ShapedLikeItself Sharknado 2: The Second One.]]'') Additional follow-ups have been an annual event corresponding with Discovery's Shark Week ever since.

The 2013 movie was a viral hit, with over five million views spread over the first three showings of the movie on TV and attention from celebrities such as Creator/WilWheaton and Creator/CoryMonteith (it was the subject of the latter's final two tweets before his death). Syfy immediately signed to make a sequel, the title of which was chosen with a Twitter contest. The winner? ''[[ShapedLikeItself Sharknado 2: The Second One.]]'' It's been an annual event corresponding with Discovery's Shark Week ever since.

The 2013 movie was a viral hit, with over five million views spread over the first three showings of the movie on TV and attention from celebrities such as Creator/WilWheaton and Creator/CoryMonteith (it was the subject of the latter's final two tweets before his death). Syfy immediately signed to make a sequel, the title of which was chosen with a Twitter contest. The winner? ''[[ShapedLikeItself Sharknado 2: The Second One.]]''

* RainOfSomethingUnusual: This is the main subject of the films. A freak storm causes it to rain live sharks (and, oddly enough, no other kind of fish). The second movie sets some of its flying sharks ''on fire'' to ramp up the weirdness, and the third adds variants with other things (oil, hail, radiation, boulders, cows).

** So many different ''species'' of sharks had never had any business schooling together in the first place. And they never, ever attack ''each other''.

** So many different ''species'' of sharks had never had any business schooling together in the first place.

*** Some sharks from the later films (frilled sharks, goblin sharks, sawfishes) have no business swimming near the surface at all.

* AmusingInjuries / BloodyHilarious: Pretty much any time the sharks take out a human, and ''most'' times it's the other way around.

* HighConcept: The premise is basically sharks being thrown around by tornadoes and (in the sequels) chomping on celebrity cameos. That's it.

* PunnyName: The hero of a film series about sharks is named [[StealthPun Fin]]. And his father and young son are named Gil.
* RainOfSomethingUnusual: This is the main subject of the films. A freak storm causes it to rain live sharks (and, oddly enough, no other kind of fish).

* RuleOfCool: Pretty much everything about this movie happens for this reason, especially when it comes to explosions most of which are much larger than they should be or happen for no real reason or happen when it should be impossible for them to happen.

* StylisticSuck: The cast and crew outright admit that the premise is silly and impossible to take seriously...so they didn't, and basically intended to make it SoBadItsGood.
* SuperPersistentPredator: Even self-preservation doesn't seem to be enough to stop these killing machines from trying to devour every human in sight. Even when thrown from the ocean or dropped from hundreds of feet, they can think of nothing but attacking humans.
* ThreateningShark: ''And how''.

* WeirdWeather: The film centers around perhaps one of the most ridiculous examples of this trope, three tornados full of nothing but ''sharks'', which are still alive and lethal even after many hours of being aloft. Notably, ''nothing'' else is picked up by the tornados, including other sea life or other objects along their paths.

*** Tornadoes and floods can selectively sweep up hundreds of sharks of various species, while leaving every other sort of sea life behind. The sharks surely couldn't have eaten them all!

* DoNotTouchTheFunnelCloud: Combined with EverythingsEvenWorseWithSharks, two tropes that should ''not'' go together. Apparently, it's perfectly safe even to ''enter'' the funnel cloud, provided you happen to be a shark.

* ForgottenFallenFriend: Little to no emotion is wasted on anyone's death regardless of how close they are.

* HighConcept: The plot is basically sharks being thrown around by tornados and that's it.

* MadeOfIron: The sharks. For example: one is thrown onto the sidewalk in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater. It ''bounces'' hard enough to break a large divot out of the pavement, then goes on its way, gnashing and wriggling, apparently unharmed.

* MorePredatorsThanPrey: Thousands of sharks swept up by waterspouts, and not ''one'' harmless species in the lot. The proportion of great whites is particularly ironic, considering there's ''really'' only a few thousand on the entire planet.

* MST3KMantra: {{Invoked|Trope}} by the ''cast and crew'' in interviews.
--> '''Tara Reid''': It is silly, and there's only a certain amount of barriers you could go into. You can't take it so seriously when it's absolutely the sharks flying in the sky. It's so out there that it's actually really funny.

* {{Portmantitle}}
* PunnyName: The hero of a movie about sharks is named [[StealthPun Fin]].
* RainOfSomethingUnusual: This is the subject of the film. A freak storm causes it to rain live sharks (and, oddly enough, no other kind of fish).

!!Tropes associated with ''Sharknado''

* AbortedArc: The first half of the film builds up UST between Fin and Nova. This goes out the window when Matt and April are introduced with Nova's attention turned to Matt and Fin reconciles with April.
* ActionGirl: Nova is not afraid to use a shotgun where needed.
* AmusingInjuries / BloodyHilarious: Particularly when the sharks first attack.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Sharks in this film seem to be able to survive on land and in the air.

** And let's not forget that the sharks in the film seem to be ''suicidally violent'' towards humanity in particular, jumping out of the water and through windows to kill people way before their behavior can be blamed on the weather making them irritant.
** A few sharks land in a swimming pool. The chlorine can't exactly be good for them.

** And a ''human'' SwallowedWhole by a shark has no business not suffocating within two or three minutes, yet [[spoiler: Nova]] is in there for a lot longer than that.
* ArtisticLicensePhysics: Apparently, throwing [[ImprovisedWeapon home made]] [[StuffBlowingUp bombs]] is sufficient to destroy a tornado by "neutralizing the air temperatures."
** It is totally possible to fly a helicopter to within throwing distance of a funnel cloud, without experiencing turbulence or even a particularly strong breeze. This one is especially noticeable because they had explicitly stated earlier in the movie that they wouldn't be able to fly away in such weather.
** A shark being driven towards you by (strangely slow) tornado force winds will conveniently fall out of the sky if you shoot it.

** Hurricanes just plain ''cannot'' hit Los Angeles, unless they're assuming the planet decided to try rotating the other way for a change. This one is {{Hand Wave}}d down to global warming.
*** Well, ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vytJbTcHzKs Film Theory]]'' says otherwise, and one did hit…in ''1858'', but all the circumstances required for a "sharknado" to happen all at once is admittedly '''''infinitesimally low'''''.
** When your boat gets sucked into a tornado with you still standing on it, you won't fall down or even have trouble standing.

* ArtisticLicenseShips: The trawler in the opening scene changes between a trawler and a yacht constantly.
* BatterUp: Baz carries a baseball bat around with him at all times.

* BetaCouple: Nova and Matt, probably.
* BilingualBonus: The movie ends with the word "Fin" which is Spanish and French for "End".
* ChainsawGood: [[CrazyAwesome Fin manages to use one to cut a shark in half as it falls on him]]. [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome He also enters a shark's mouth chainsaw-first and cuts his way out not only being unharmed himself]] [[spoiler: but with Nova as well, not even touched by said chainsaw]]. [[MST3KMantra It's best not to think how this is possible]].
* ChairmanOfTheBrawl: George grabs a bar stool when the characters venture out of Fin's bar. He soon uses it to club a shark.
* CoolCar: The gang steal a heavily modified four wheel drive vehicle from a movie prop company when Fin's own car breaks down.
%%* CoolOldGuy: George.
* CrazyPrepared: Fin keeps [[TwoShotsFromBehindTheBar a pistol and a shotgun behind his bar]] as well as huge amounts of shotgun shells in his car.
** He also keeps ''rappelling gear'' in his vehicle, apparently just in case he needs to descend from an elevated highway onto a school bus stuck in shark-infested flood waters.

* CreditsGag: Rather than stating "The End" the credits start with "Fin", which is French and Spanish for (The) End. This is both for the obvious association of fin and sharks. But "Fin" is also an old cliche for ending art films and other high culture fare. Most would probably agree that this film does not fall under that category. The pronunciation of fin in French is closer to "fan"; in Spanish the letter "i" always sounds like "ee" in "free", so it sounds like "feen". So they don't sound like the English word "fin", but that's hardly the biggest error the movie commits.
* DisneyDeath: [[spoiler:Nova.]]

* DropTheHammer: Subverted. April picks up a hammer to defend herself against the sharks. [[TheChick Since she's basically]] [[TheLoad useless]], it doesn't get used.
* DudleyDoRightStopsToHelp: Fin takes the time to rescue a busload of schoolkids. [[InfantImmortality Their teacher is the only one to die.]]
* DullSurprise: April.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: After you have seen the next few movies, you'll note this one is much shorter on the celebrity cameos and deaths. Some parts are even half-serious. That's because this was expected to be a one-off concept, and ended up being a surprise hit.
* EveryCarIsAPinto: Fin's car spontaneously explodes after developing a fuel leak.
* ExcusePlot: What, exactly, was Fin's original intention when he found Matt and Claudia?[[note]]To take them further inland and to safety[[/note]] [[RuleOfFunny Who cares?!]] '''There's sharks being thrown around by tornadoes.'''

* CoolOldGuy: George.
* CousinOliver: The school bus driver is none other than Cousin Oliver himself, Robbie Rist.

The 2013 movie was a viral hit, with over five million views spread over the first three showings of the movie on TV and attention from celebrities such as Creator/WilWheaton and Creator/CoryMonteith (it was the subject of the latter's final two tweets before his death). Syfy has signed to make a sequel, the title of which was chosen with a Twitter contest. The winner? ''[[ShapedLikeItself Sharknado 2: The Second One.]]''

* InformedFlaw: Everyone talks about how Fin was a bad father who didn't care about his family, but his clear PapaWolf tendencies combined with April and Claudia's constant ItsAllAboutMe attitude causes this to ring hollow.

''Film/Sharknado2TheSecondOne'' premiered on Creator/{{Syfy}} on July 30, 2014, with ''Film/Sharknado3OhHellNo'' following on July 22, 2015 and ''Film/SharknadoThe4thAwakens'' on July 31, 2016.

* InformedFlaw: Everyone talks about how Fin was a bad father who didn't care about his family, but his clear PapaWolf tendencies combined with April and Claudia's constant ItsAllAboutMe attitude causes it to ring hollow.

** It is totally possible to fly a helicopter to within throwing distance of a funnel cloud, without experiencing turbulence or even a particularly strong breeze.