Open Water 3 (subtitled: Cage Dive) is a 2017 survival horror and an In Name Only sequel to Open Water and Adrift/Open Water 2. Part Found Footage, part Mockumentary, it focuses on a group of Americans, brothers Jeff and Josh, and Jeff's girlfriend Megan, who visit Australia to go cage diving with sharks. Things go awry when a sudden tidal wave destroys their boat and they find themselves alone in shark-infested waters.
This movie provides examples of:
- Alliterative Family: Jeff and Josh.
- The Cameo: Australian newscasters Chris Bath and Robert Ovadia appear as themselves.
- Chekhov's Gun: On a couple of occasions, it is mentioned that Jeff needs to take medication for a heart condition. He gets progressively weaker in the water and eventually succumbs to the condition, due to the lack of medication.
- Downer Ending: Jeff, Josh and Megan all die.
- Failed a Spot Check: Sometimes they forget that the camera is still on and it records things they probably didn't intend to.
- Found Footage: A week after the incident, a diver finds their camera and posts the footage online.
- Giant Wall of Watery Doom: One of these destroys their boat.
- Hope Spot:
- They get a big one when they come across a chest containing a life raft and some provisions.
- Josh spots a helicopter flying overhead, but he gets attacked and killed by a shark moments later.
- How We Got Here: The movie opens with a television news report about a boat that was hit by a tidal wave and the search for three missing tourists. The rest of the movie shows how it happened.
- Idiot Ball: Megan and Josh fighting over a flare while inside their raft goes about as well as you'd expect.
- I Have No Brother: Jeff declares this after he finds out about Josh's affair with Megan.
- In Name Only: The movie was marketed as a sequel to Open Water and Adrift, but apart from the lost at sea theme, it has no connection to them.
- Love Triangle: Jeff, Josh and Megan, though Jeff isn't aware he's in one until near the end.
- Male Gaze: When Jeff and Josh are filming, they spend a lot of time focusing on Megan's chest, legs and butt.
- Missed Him by That Much: The camera gets left on and records Josh and Megan kissing. Jeff misses it when he is playing back the footage because he is turned away from the screen talking to Josh.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The trio are reasonably safe in their life raft, until a fight between Megan and Josh over a flare results in them accidentally destroying the raft (and killing the girl they just rescued from the water).
- The Peeping Tom: Josh hides the camera in the bathroom, hoping to record Megan taking a shower. The battery runs out at the crucial moment.
- Reality Television: The reason they are filming their vacation is because it is also going to be an audition tape for an extreme reality TV show.
- Saying Too Much: During their argument in the water, Josh accuses Megan of lying to Jeff. This leads Jeff to realise that they're having an affair.
- Threatening Shark: Doesn't get much worse than being stuck in the water with a bunch of great whites in the vicinity, although the disaster that destroys their boat is nothing to do with the sharks.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: We never see what happened to most of the other people on the boat, though a news report mentions some were rescued and some died.
