I finished this one up waiting for my friends Berto and Jaime’s fight. I got inspired by The Shallows.
Jump the Shark
We open with a pov shot from the perspective of a scuba diver. The swimmer sinks to lower and lower depths passing various sea life. The credits play as the music gets more ominous. Out of nowhere a shark attacks. The title card is shown.
Marc (Mario Van Peebles) wakes from his nightmare in a sweat. He gets dressed and goes to work. He is a life guard at a beach in Florida. All his coworkers are 18 year olds (played by ripped 30 year olds). No one respects him. They constantly make jokes about how old he is and how this is a job meant for high school kids. Marc just keeps his head down and does his job.
Jacob (Hayden Szeto) and a few of the other life guards begin to plan the yearly kegger on the beach. It’s a send off to the life guards who are going off to college. Someone jokes that they should invite Marc who has never gone in the past. Jacob takes the suggestion seriously and says they actually should.
We cut to the party which is in full swing. Marc walks in and things get quiet. Marc makes a joke to ease the tension. It works and the party resumes.
Marc doesn’t seem out of place at all. He jokes around and gives people life advice. The kids really warm to him. A lot of them apologize for how they treated him, but he shrugs it off saying that’s how young people act and he would have done the exact same thing at that age.
As the party is wrapping up Jacob starts a serious conversation with Marc. He asks him nonjudgmentally why he has been a life guard for so many years. Marc gets a serious look on his face.
Marc begins to tell the story which we see in flashback. He was a teenager at his first day as a life guard. There was a family of five swimming in the ocean. Marc sees a shark fin in the distance. He starts to yell and does everything he can to warn them, he even begins to swim out to save them. The shark systematically eats the entire family. Marc was devastated. He thinks that if only he had more experience he could have saved them. He explains that he has saved four people’s lives over his long time as a life guard, and still owes the universe one more saved life.
We cut back to the party and Jacob is on the verge of tears. He can’t come up with anything to say so he hugs Marc.
It’s the next day and a new group of life guards begin their first day. A lot of the people going off to college are there to train the newbies including Jacob. Marc begins to give the new recruits their first lesson and a few snicker. Jacob gives Marc a knowing look.
The veteran life guards are evaluating the swimming technique of the new employees. One of them is in the middle of doing the backstroke when he gets caught up in something. It’s a body.
Of course the body was a victim of a shark attack. Marc springs into action. He has been training for his whole life for this moment. He is able to get the beaches close and proves his expertise to such and extent that he becomes an advisor to the coast guard.
The coast guard sends out a small ship to see if they can capture the shark or at least determine in which direction it’s traveling. Jacob convinces Marc to let him help.
Marc is giving the crew a pep talk as they sail out to sea. Just as he says “and you have to be ready for anything” the ship is hit by something. Of course it’s the shark. The shark continues to attack the boat which causes a wrench to fall, causing a spark and a fire. The fuel ignites and explodes.
Marc finds himself in the water. He sees Jacob sitting facing away from him on a piece of debris. His ears are bleeding. Marc sees the shark swimming right towards him. He yells to warn Jacob but he is temporarily deaf from the explosion. He begins to swim towards him but knows it’s futile. Things go into slow motion as Marc knows what he has to do.
He swims directly at the shark. He grabs the fin and is pulled along as it continues towards Jacob. Marc pulls himself up on the sharks back and stands up. The shark jumps out of the water to attack Jacob but in slow motion Marc launches himself over the the shark right in front of its jaws and tackles Jacob.
The shark flies over them both. There is a close up of a flair gun floating next to the two of them. Jacob is disoriented. When he puts the pieces together of what happens he begins to thank Marc when the shark returns. It bites Marc in the side completely engulfing his arm.
There is a shot from inside the stomach of the shark. Marc’s hand is holding the flair gun. There is a click and the screen turns white. The shark starts to smoke and is engulfed in flames. It drops off Marc.
Marc is dying. Jacob tries to help but there is nothing he can do. Marc’s final words are “It’s alright. You were number five. It is complete.”
The End.