Introduction

The Meg is a movie about a prehistoric shark that is discovered when a team of Oceanographers is attacked by the giant shark called “The megalodon”. Jonas Taylor the best rescue diver in the world is trying to save the team of Oceanographer’s in danger from this thought extinct ocean creature and also trying to comprehend how this gigantic creature still lives in the mariana trench for thousands of years. This movie was Directed by Jon Turteltaub and it was Released in 2018. 

Methods

Although Megalodons existed millions of years ago, it is claimed in the film that they are still alive. It is mentioned that Megalodon lived in the Marianas Trench, which is located in the South Pacific Ocean and is recorded by scientists to be approximately 11,000 meters deep but is fictionally represented as an untrue bottom. Scientists have stated that the Marianas Trench contains warm water ranging in temperature from 34 to 39 degrees Fahrenheit. The Megalodon is adapted to living in warm environments; there is a significant pressure difference between the surface and the Marianas Trench. The shark could not swim straight up without experiencing decompression. The shark will die immediately due to that pressure; according to research, most deep-sea animals can withstand various pressures; it is always the temperature that kills them. The film demonstrates how the main character uses a submarine artifact to rescue his crew from being attacked by the shark. When the mission was finished, the artifact released massive pressure to return to the ocean’s surface. According to research, Megalodons are unable to reach the ocean’s surface due to a lack of adaptation for a shark that has spent its entire life in warm waters. At the speed that the shark was portrayed to travel, the shark’s body would barely resist the change of pressure and the lack of warm temperature. 

Results: 

3.6 million years ago, earth entered a time period of global cooling and drying. Oceans began to freeze, leading to the drop of temperatures in oceanic waters. Megladons lived in warm temperatures; this was proven by the fact that Megladon fossils have been found all over the world except for Antarctica. Because of the commencement of the ice age and earths changing temperatures, it made it very difficult for the Megladons to survive. Moreover, a lot of their prey, such as other sharks and whales, died out or migrated which only restricted the Megalodon even more. The combination of lack of food and fold waters is what scientists say caused the Megladon to go extinct. However, in the movie, the Megladon is said to still be alive. The movie provides the explanation that Meg survived by finding refuge under a warm layer of water and hydrothermal vents in the Mariana trench. In actuality, the Mariana trench is 36,201 feet deep but the deepest hydrothermal vents ever discovered by researchers are only 5,000 feet deep. 

The size of the Megalodon was also very exaggerated in the film. In the movie, researchers state that the shark they found was 70 feet long. In reality, the largest known Megladon was less than 60 feet long and most were actually 30 feet long, still double the size of the average great white shark. Scientists based this inference on tooth size and other fossils. Despite its exaggerated size, the Megalodon in the film still looks very similar to a shark. The Meg in the film had 6 gills which is the correct number of a shark and it had a lot of similar features to its closest surviving relative, the great white shark. 

Based on the comparison between the movie and scientific facts, the movie was somewhat accurate in the portrayal of the Megalodon and its environment. While the movie did a good job making the Meg look like a shark, there were other factors such as size and living conditions that didn’t match with actual scientific data.  

Discussion

One aspect focused on is the dangers of the oceans and what creatures  we still don’t know exist. In the movie, Jonas had seen the Megalodon 5 years earlier, but no one believed him when he said it existed and thought he was crazy. Once the other oceanists finally saw it 5 years later, they realized Jonas was not lying about the existence of this creature. Technology today can only allow humans to go so far in the ocean, leaving a massive chunk of the ocean undiscovered and not knowing what creatures, dangerous or not dangerous are living there. According to National Geographic,  “more than 80 percent of the ocean has never been mapped, explored, or even seen by humans” when more of space has been discovered (National Geographic Society, 2019). With creatures such as the Megalodon being hidden for years as represented in the movie, and simply the fact that the Megalodon was a real prehistoric creature,  the world just doesn’t know of other mysterious creatures that may be in hiding. 

Additionally, the movie also puts emphasis on animal intelligence and their awareness of what is going on. Throughout the movie, the intelligence of Megalodon is seen. In one instance, when Suyin is in the cage trying to poison the shark, which she thought was Megalodon, with laser technology, the shark swam away, and seconds later caught her off guard by coming back quickly to swallow the cage. This is just one of the scenes that shows the intelligence of the shark as it was able to trick and tease Suyin. The Megalodon in general, was just very aware of humans in the water, and seemed to have her own set agenda of revenge of some sort to eat and attack humans, which is seen as it tries to bite the submarine at one point in the movie when it saw the little girl, Suyin’s daughter. This suggests that in reality animals are very smart and will continue to get smarter overtime in the future, possibly with evolution. If animals continue to reach the level of smartness that the megalodon in the movie presented, the future can become dangerous.

A final message that the movie presents is animal mistreatment, especially of sharks. In the movie, when the crew captured and killed a shark that they thought to be the Megalodon, they celebrated; however, Minway Zhang, an oceanists who loves animals, says that it isn’t a win for science and that “we did what humans always do– discover, and then destroy.” He also states when seeing a destroyed school of sharks and fish boats that the Megalodon wasn’t the cause, it was poachers, the real “monsters” who left them to die “all for a bowl of soup.” This puts emphasis on how sharks are exploited, which commonly happens today still with 100 million sharks killed globally a year for their fins (Fairclough, 2013).

Science fiction is used in specific movies to educate and entertain the target audience. According to a study by Microsoft, the average human attention span is now 8 seconds, a number that has been gradually decreasing by 25% over the past few decades. A purely scientific, 1 hour and 53 minute movie about megasharks is not likely to attract attention from an audience that may not have that particular educational background. To solve this dilemma, fiction is also incorporated into the film, specifically in instances where the megalodon swam with agility at the surface of the water and at a relatively quick speed. Due to its lack of adaptation for lower water pressure, this is virtually impossible for these animals, along with the ability to quickly change course (rapid twists and turns) due to its size. However, these scenes, especially the classic shark attack scenes, add the suspense and anticipation the target audience looks for in an thriller film. 

People can learn from the film that while scientific innovation is an exciting force that fuels human exploration, both research and caution is needed to ensure safety. Many times throughout the film, the main characters took huge risks that helped them achieve their goals, but often at the expense of those on their team. In this new age of technological advancement, the sacrifice of human lives should no longer be necessary for operational success. Such a film can also influence members of the audience with an interest in archaeology or prehistoric animals to research animals such as the megalodon. With more research and analysis, in the future we may be able to get a complete picture of the prehistoric Earth and its implications for the future.