* AccidentalAesop: Like a lot of AttackOfTheKillerWhatever movies of its era, the film's stance seems to be that scientists are cold, aloof, unethical in their pursuit of progress, and shouldn't be tampering in God's domain. If not for the fact that [=McCallister=] takes ''all'' the blame and Franklin is absolved of all responsibility, it could easily have made a valid point about how profit-driven pharmaceutical companies drive research scientists to cut corners to get a product on the market faster under threat of having their funding cut off.
* AlasPoorScrappy: [[spoiler: Susan realizes her attempts to cure Alzheimer's were AllForNothing and she pulls a HeroicSacrifice to ensure the death of the last shark]].
* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: While Susan gets most of the blame for genetically modifying the sharks, Whitlock was also involved, and she never outright says that it was her idea. Whitlock's AGodAmI attitude towards their work doesn't exactly rule out the idea that he may have been behind the enhancements.
* BrokenBase: Depending on who you ask, Susan stripping down to use her rubber wetsuit to avoid electrocution is either tasteless gratuitous {{Fanservice}}, enjoyable gratuitous {{Fanservice}}, or a way to show the character being resourceful and vulnerable.
* EnsembleDarkhorse:
** Music/LLCoolJ's character Preacher spends most of the movie alone, separated from the main cast, who never even seem to remember he's there. This makes one wonder if he was even originally intended to be in the movie, but eventually he turns out to be a lot more intelligent and even more likable than the other characters. He was popular enough that the movie was rewritten to give him a bigger role in the climax.
** Despite being TheLoad and having less screen time than almost everyone else, Janice is fairly well-liked. Her sunny and skillful delivery of the film's exposition and her role as the only one of the three scientists who respects the laws against genetic engineering both make her endearing.
* FanPreferredCutContent:
** Several deleted scenes further develop Jim and Janice's relationship and have Susan show a warmer side during her birthday party. Many fans wish they'd remained in the movie for the sake of better CharacterDevelopment.
** Most fans prefer the theatrical ending, where Susan, the scientist who creates the sharks for Alzheimer's research, [[spoiler: is dramatically killed while using herself as bait]]. There are a handful of fans, however, that would have preferred to at least ''see'' the alternate ending where [[spoiler:she survives]].
* FanficFuel:
** It's interesting to wonder what would have happened if [[spoiler: Franklin]] hadn't been killed. Would he have been able to save more of the others? Would he have fought one of the sharks himself?
** And what if the sharks ''had'' escaped? Given that they're essentially a NonMaliciousMonster simply trying to escape back to their natural habitat, what would a smart shark even ''do''? Would their intelligence eventually allow them to become genuinely ''evil''?
* FirstInstallmentWins: There are two DirectToVideo sequels. The first film is the one that's most remembered.
* JerkassWoobie: Susan has watched Alzheimer's ravage her father, is forced to destroy the medical research she's devoted her life to, and has a couple of extremely terrifying run-ins with the sharks, [[spoiler: the last of which she doesn't escape.]] However, her blatant disregard for basic safety protocols and ethical experimentation (directly leading to the rampage), initial lack of remorse, and generally unpleasant nature still leave her as a fairly difficult-to-like-character.
* MemeticBadass: The shark [[spoiler:killed [[Film/PulpFiction Jules Winfield]], [[Franchise/StarWars Mace Windu]], [[Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse Nick Fury]] and a boatload of badass muthafuckas that Creator/SamuelLJackson have ever played. [[Film/SnakesOnAPlane Clearly it has had it with these muthafuckin' humans on this muthafuckin' film.]]]]
* MemeticMutation:
** Pick any Creator/SamuelLJackson [[FountainOfMemes memes out there]]. Good. Now, [[spoiler:pretend that the shark does just those memes with Sam as the victim this time.]] One of the most common ones is...
--->'''[[spoiler:Shark]]''': (as it [[spoiler:eats Russel while interrupting his RousingSpeech]]) [[Film/PulpFiction Oh, I'm sorry, did I break your concentration?]]
** "Black history - in 1999, James Todd Smith aka LL Cool J, became the first black man in horror history to survive the whole movie..."[[note]]Not entirely correct. BlackDudeDiesFirst is in actuality more of an action movie trope rather than horror.[[/note]]
* NarmCharm: ''[[ReusableLighterToss "You ate my bird!"]]'' Simultaneously the most awesome and goofiest PreMortemOneLiner ever.
* OneSceneWonder: The four teenagers Carter saves from an escaped shark do a good job showing fear during the attack and come across as a bit more endearing than the average horror movie MakeOutKids.
* RetroactiveRecognition: The team includes [[Film/ThePunisher2004 The Punisher]], [[Series/AgentsOfSHIELD Victoria Hand]], [[Franchise/MarvelUniverse Nick Fury and Dr. Selvig]].
* RewatchBonus: There's a moment about 2/3 of the way into the film where the Gen 2 "big girl" shark attacks Carter as he tries to get a door open but she swerves out of the way at the last moment. This initially seems like a case of PlotArmor, but after TheReveal that she was trying to make him flood more parts of the facility, it's clear that she intentionally spared him.
* TheScrappy: Susan, while having some defenders who see her as a flawed but sympathetic heroine, is widely and vehemently despised by much of the fandom for a variety of reasons: the fact that the entire mess is her fault, her continued justifications, generally unpleasant nature, and Creator/SaffronBurrows' DullSurprise performance, unintentionally making the character come off like TheSociopath. Test audiences infamously ''hated'' her so much they were shouting "Die bitch!" during the screenings. [[spoiler:The studio went back and reshot the ending [[TakeThatScrappy just to kill her off]].]]
* SignatureScene: [[spoiler: [[SurprisinglySuddenDeath Russell getting eaten by the shark mid-]]RousingSpeech.]]
* SoBadItsGood: A cast of highly gifted actors giving totally ridiculous performances + every shark movie cliche ever + the incredibly ridiculous death scenes = pure B-movie cheese.
* SpecialEffectsFailure: Creator/RennyHarlin challenged audiences to notice when the mechanical sharks ended and the CGI ones began. Form a line, folks...
** Notably during the infamous scene of [[spoiler:the shark grabbing Samuel L. Jackson, as the shark itself looks too rubbery and the way it grabs him seems to defy all known physics.]] Even the VFX team at Creator/HammerheadProduction admit to it having flaws.
* TakeThatScrappy: A rather famous invoked example. [[spoiler:Susan's death is very much this, seeing as it came about after test audiences shouted "die bitch!" during the original cut where she survived]].
* TookTheBadFilmSeriously: A review of the film said that it works because everyone [[HamAndCheese isn't taking it seriously]], making it quite fun. The exception is Creator/SaffronBurrows, who "behaves as it was an art film" (and unlike most of the examples of the trope, her performance is generally not well-regarded).
* UnintentionallySympathetic: An interesting example. While originally intended to be a sympathetic character, poor fan reaction to Susan led to modified AllForNothing ending, clearly looking unfavorably on Susan for the rather reckless and illegal methods she chose in order to cure Alzheimer's Disease. While most viewers agree with the message (see: her Scrappy status), a small segment hold this view, noting just how devastating Alzheimer's is, how many people's lives it damages, and believing that the risks and ethically questionable decisions Susan made were absolutely worth the risk.
* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: That said, while the [=CGI=] is spotty at best, the animatronic sharks still look amazing even today.
* WatchItForTheMeme: Okay, so how many of you are watching this for the chance of seeing [[spoiler:a super badass shark that could kill Creator/SamuelLJackson??]]
* WinBackTheCrowd: A lot of critics praised this for being a better film from Renny Harlin after the failures of ''Film/CutthroatIsland'' and ''Film/TheLongKissGoodnight''.
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