History Film / Sharknado

* DropTheHammer: Subverted. April picks up a hammer to defend herself against the sharks. Since she's [[TheLoad basically useless]], it doesn't get used.

* OneDimensionalThinking: No one being chased by the rolling dismounted Ferris wheel thinks to run sideways.

* BilingualBonus: The movie ends with the word "Fin" which is Spanish and French for "End". JustForPun.

''Sharknado'', a [[ScienceFiction sci-fi]] {{disaster|Movie}} [[BlackComedy comedy]] directed by Anthony C. Ferrante, was a viral hit upon release on Creator/{{Syfy}} on July 11, 2013, with the film receiving over five million views spread over its first three showings on TV as well as attention from celebrities such as Creator/WilWheaton and Creator/CoryMonteith ([[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EaE9IKgVAAA1Mkg.jpg it was the subject of the latter's final two tweets before his death]]).

Syfy immediately contracted Creator/TheAsylum to make a sequel, the title of which was chosen with a Twitter contest. (The winner? ''[[ShapedLikeItself Sharknado 2: The Second One]]''.) The sequel was released around a year after the original film, and further installments then became an annual event -- each one being co-produced by The Asylum and Syfy Films, premiering on the Syfy channel, and roughly corresponding with the Creator/DiscoveryChannel's Shark Week -- until the series concluded with its sixth installment in 2018. All of the ''Sharknado'' sequels are:

''Sharknado'', directed by Anthony C. Ferrante, was a viral hit upon release on Creator/{{Syfy}} on July 11, 2013, with the film receiving over five million views spread over its first three showings on TV as well as attention from celebrities such as Creator/WilWheaton and Creator/CoryMonteith ([[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EaE9IKgVAAA1Mkg.jpg it was the subject of the latter's final two tweets before his death]]).

* ''Film/TheLastSharknadoItsAboutTime'' (August 19, 2018).

The film crossed over into [[ComicBook/ArchieComics Riverdale]] with the 2015 comic ''Archie vs. Sharknado'', which takes place at the same time as ''Sharknado 3: Oh, Hell No!''.

-->-- '''TagLine'''

Disasters come in many forms. But none quite like this. A series of freak tornadoes hits the California coast, causing widespread destruction around Los Angeles.

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 contracted Creator/TheAsylum 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 then become an annual event, roughly corresponding with the Creator/DiscoveryChannel's Shark Week, for an additional four sequels.

On July 10, 2014, the film received a much-needed skewering performed and simulcast live in theaters by the Podcast/{{Rifftrax}} team.

''Film/Sharknado2TheSecondOne'' premiered on Creator/{{Syfy}} on July 30, 2014, with ''Film/Sharknado3OhHellNo'' following on July 22, 2015, ''Film/SharknadoThe4thAwakens'' on July 31, 2016, and ''Film/Sharknado5GlobalSwarming'' on August 6, 2017. The series concluded on August 19, 2018, with ''Film/TheLastSharknadoItsAboutTime''.

An EndlessRunningGame for [[UsefulNotes/IOSGames iOS]] called ''Sharknado: The Video Game'' was released in 2014.

The film crossed over into [[ComicBook/ArchieComics Riverdale]] with the 2015 comic, ''Archie vs. Sharknado'' that takes place at the same time as the ''Sharknado 3: Oh, Hell No!''.

* BilingualBonus: The movie ends with the word "Fin" which is Spanish and French for "End". JustForPun.

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

* 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.

* 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.

* ShotgunsAreJustBetter: Nova's WeaponOfChoice for the duration of the film. It's probably the most effective thing against the sharks.

* TheLoad: Even Matt's background friends who get killed off during the climax were more useful than Claudia ever was during the whole movie.

** Nova takes it UpToEleven between films one and three, chasing sharknados in an armed and armored mobile laboratory and founding a ''global all-female cult'', the Sharknado Sisterhood, to guard against and find the means to stop them.

* TheExsNewJerkass: Fin Shepard's ex April has a new boyfriend named Collin whose ''first line of dialogue'' establishes him as a complete {{Jerkass}} with nothing but contempt for Ian.
-->'''Collin (in the smarmiest voice imaginable):''' Oh, Shepard. I should've figured it was you.

* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: [[SarcasmMode Gee, I wonder what the movie is about?]]

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Sharks have no trouble surviving on land and in the air, [[spoiler: or in space in the third film]].

** And they like hanging around near the surface where waterspouts can reach them, even though the rain that precedes tornadoes ought to make the shallows taste unpleasantly-fresh to them.
*** Some sharks from the later films (frilled sharks, goblin sharks, sawfishes) have no business hanging around near the surface at all.

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

* DudleyDoRightStopsToHelp: Fin takes the time to rescue a busload of schoolkids. [[InfantImmortality Their teacher is the only one to die.]]

* DoNotTouchTheFunnelCloud: Combined with EverythingsEvenWorseWithSharks, two tropes that should ''not'' go together.

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

* WeirdWeather: The films center around perhaps one of the most ridiculous examples of this trope, multiple tornadoes full of nothing but ''sharks'', which are still alive and lethal even after many hours of being aloft. Notably, ''nothing'' else gets picked up by the tornadoes, including other sea life or other objects along their paths. Unless, of course, it's a piece of debris fated to squish a bit character or take a celebrity cameo's head off.

* CrazyPrepared: Fin keeps [[TwoShotsFromBehindTheBar a pistol and a shotgun behind his bar]] as well as huge amounts of shotgun shells in his car.

* ArtisticLicenseGeography: The German dub of a radio transmission early in the movie mentions that the Sharknado will desert "the entire state of Los Angeles".

* ActionGirl: Nova is not afraid to use a shotgun where needed.

* DisneyDeath: [[spoiler:Nova. She gets better.]]