History Film / TheShallows

* MessageInABottle: A 21st-century equivalent--Nancy records a message on a GoPro camera and then tosses it into the water to get washed ashore.

* YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe: As if the shark wasn't bad enough, Nancy faces a swarm of jellyfish between her and the buoy...[[spoiler:until she sees a way to turn the situation to her advantage]].

* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler:The drunk man who, upon seeing a woman stranded out from shore calling for help? Decides to Steals her money and things. When he then gets into the water to retrieve her surfboard and the shark takes care of the rest.]]
* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: Averted as Nancy pretty much gets the shit kicked out of her by both the shark and the elements.
** Subverted at the end, as despite her outright saying that gangrene is setting in to the wound on her leg, it's intact. While complete amputation might not have been necessary, the dead flesh would have been excised--she'd have a much worse scar than she does, possibly even a huge chunk of her leg missing.

** Likewise, the hook embedded in the shark's mouth that Nancy notices earlier comes into play near the end when it snags onto a metal railing while the shark is attacking the buoy. [[spoiler:This buys Nancy enough time to set up a trap that kills the shark once and for all.]]

* DeadlyDodging: [[spoiler:How Nancy ultimately kills the shark, by luring it to the bottom of the ocean and making it impale itself on some rebar.]]
* DeathByMaterialism: [[spoiler:The Intoxicated Man is not satisfied with stealing Nancy's phone and cash as she is stranded on the rock, he tries take her abandoned surfboard too. He ends up attacked and killed by the shark.]]
* {{Determinator}}: Nancy doesn't give up, no matter how bad things get. [[note]]Bitten by a shark, severe blood loss, dehydration, malnutrition, exposure, sunburn, infection, fever, stung by fire coral and jellyfish...''and'' almost drowned.[[/note]]
* EarnYourHappyEnding: [[spoiler:Nancy had to go through a lot before finally being rescued.]]

* GoryDiscretionShot: The film focuses in on Nancy's reaction as [[spoiler:the drunk is mauled by the shark]]. We can hear the act, but not see it. However, this is partly averted due to the FamilyUnfriendlyViolence example above.

* JawsFirstPersonPerspective: Used a couple times. [[spoiler:First being a subversion, as it was just a dolphin going for a jump over Nancy.]]

* KillItWithFire: Nancy [[spoiler:tries to do this to the shark. It just pisses it off more]].

* MissingMom: Nancy's died of cancer prior to the film starting.

** We don't get to see [[spoiler:the shark mauling the drunk]], but we get to hear the splashes and screams as the camera focuses on Nancy's horrified reaction. We do, however, see the [[HalfTheManHeUsedTobe gruesome]] [[{{Gorn}} aftermath]].

* OhCrap: Nancy has one when her attempt at [[spoiler:burning the shark to death only makes the shark angrier and attack the buoy more ferociously]].

** A swimmer, a shark, and a buoy; [[Film/{{Jaws}} it goes without saying]].

** [[FridgeLogic However]], it does prevent what would otherwise be a plot hole, as the friend's "Don't wait up for me" text establishes that no one will notice and send help when Nancy doesn't come back from the beach that night.

* ThreateningShark: A gigantic great white that really, really wants to eat Nancy. Judging by the wound on the shark's face and the hook in its mouth, it's very clear this shark has [[FridgeHorror gone after humans more than once]].

* SelfStitching: Nancy uses jewellery to stitch her leg wound up. To say this is painful is a gross understatement.
* SharkFinOfDoom: The shark usually announces itself with its fin rising above the surface. A deleted scene has Nancy's sister seeing the shark fin in the backgroundd of one of the pictures her sister took of the beach and trying to call and warn her, only to be second too late, as nancy has already entered the water and left her phone behind.

* AdultFear: Every avid surfer probably cringed watching this movie.

* InMediaRes: the film actually begins very late in the story's events as a young Mexican boy finds a surfer's helmet with a [=GoPro=] camera attached, which caught footage of the surfer being attacked by a shark, followed by a shot of what turns out to be Nancy's wrecked surfboard. The story then flashes back to a few days earlier as Nancy is brought to the beach by a local guide.

[[caption-width-right:350:What was once in the deep is now in the '''shallows'''.]]

''The Shallows'' is a Survival {{Thriller}} film released in 2016 and directed by Jaume Collet-Serra (''Film/{{Orphan}},'' ''Film/NonStop,'' and ''Film/TheCommuter''.)

Starring Creator/BlakeLively, the film centers around a young pro surfer named Nancy Adams, a full-time student at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, who is surfing at a secluded beach when she becomes stranded on a giant rock 200 yards away from shore after an enormous great white shark attacks her. Now she has to find a way to get safely back to shore without getting attacked by the shark again, proving the ultimate contest of wills.

* UpperClassTwit: Nancy, a blonde American medica student, wants to lose herself and go surfing off the grid in a remote location in Mexico, completely alone; not a safe or practical idea at all. Predictably, it doesn't go well.