47 Meters Down – Story Deconstruction

By Patricia Hopper Patteson

Concept: What happens if someone is low on air and finds themselves trapped in a shark cage at the bottom of the ocean. (Concept doesn’t include character names, only generic– him/her/them/man/woman/child/boy/girl.)

Premise: (adds in characters to the story) Lisa and Kate, two sisters, go shark-diving in a shark cage while on vacation in Mexico. Everything’s going great until rusty-old equipment fails, plummeting them 47 meters down to the bottom of the ocean. Their scuba tanks are low on air, they’re in open ocean surrounded by an unknown amount of Great White Sharks, and their only way out is up to the surface.

Main Characters:

Lisa—Protagonist (Hero) Kate—Protagonist

The Ocean—Antagonistic Force

The Sharks—Antagonist (personifying the danger and unknowns of open ocean)

Secondary Characters:

Louis and Benjamin (aka: the guys)

Captain Taylor—boat captain

Javier—Taylor’s assistant

Part One: Set Up

As the credits are rolling, we’re shown faded images of the murky ocean bottom. Immediately after we’re shown a camera angle from below (just how a shark would see things—hint, hint!), looking up from the bottom of what we think is the ocean. On the surface of the water we see someone floating in a raft with a glass full of red liquid.

Hook: A girl swims up from below (camera angle same as what a shark would see) and tips the girl off the raft, spilling her and the red liquid into the water (which looks exactly how blood in the water would look—hint, hint!).

We meet two sisters—Lisa and Kate—who are on vacation together in Mexico. After they get out of the pool, they have dinner and cheer to this being a great trip. Soon after we find out that Lisa has an alternative motive for going on this trip than she originally lets on. She’s on the trip because her live-in boyfriend broke up with her for not being fun or adventurous enough. She thought going on the trip would be a way to prove to him that she was fun, so he’d come back to her when she returned home.

This crucial moment lets us know this is Lisa’s story. She is the main Protagonist.

Kate decides to drag Lisa out for a night of fun. They go to a club where they dance, drink and meet two guys. They all hang out on the beach for the rest of the night until the sun comes up. The sisters then go to dinner with the guys later that night where the guys tell them about how they go shark diving every weekend. Kate is immediately hooked to give it a try, but Lisa has major reservations, especially since she’s never gone scuba diving before.

Kate convinces Lisa to give it a try by pulling the ex-boyfriend card and telling her that she can take pictures of the sharks and send them to her ex as a way of showing him how fun and adventurous she really is. Lisa agrees.

But the next morning when they show up at the boat, Lisa again has reservations. She doesn’t feel right about the whole excursion, and she’s nervous because she doesn’t know how to scuba. But when the boat Captain, named Taylor, asks them if they know how to scuba she lies and says that she does.

They ride a smaller boat out to meet the larger shark diving boat that will take them out to open ocean that has the shark cage. Once they arrive at the diving point, Taylor and his assistant, Javier, begin to chum the water with blood and fish guts, to attract the sharks to the boat.

Soon afterward a huge Great White shark swims by.

The guys are first to go into the shark cage; they put on their scuba gear, get in the cage and go down into the ocean with their camera. While the guys are below the surface, the girls prepare for their turn. Lisa panics and tells Kate this is a bad idea.  But Kate pushes back hard and Lisa caves. So, the girls put on their scuba gear.

The guys come back up to the surface in the cage and now it’s the girls turn. Taylor explains to them about the air bars on the scuba tank and tells them to let him know when they reach 50 because that’s when he’ll bring them back up.

Right before they get into the cage, Kate asks if she can borrow the Louis’ camera. He agrees, but says if she drops it, she has to go down to the bottom to get it (some really good foreshadowing here). They get into the cage with the camera and Taylor and Javier lower them into the ocean.

The girls are in the cage, 5 meters below the water. Lisa settles in and she’s amazed at how incredibly peaceful and beautiful it all is. But they’re not seeing any sharks. Taylor tells them to sit tight, and the guys chum the water some more.

While they’re waiting, Kate asks Lisa to take a picture of her and when she’s handing the camera back to Kate, Lisa accidentally drops it and it falls through the cage where they can’t reach it. As they watch the camera fall, a Great White shark comes up from the depths and eats it. Now they’re surrounded by sharks.

While the girls are watching the sharks, the cage slips and they drop down a bit. Lisa panics and asks Taylor to bring them back up. He tells them everything is OK—the wench mechanism on the cage just slipped and he’s going to bring them back up. Not a moment later…

First Plot Twist: (This is where the story is upended, and the conflict really begins, setting up roadblocks for the characters). The wench fails, releasing the cable attached to the cage, which sends the cage plummeting—fast—to the bottom of the ocean (along with the crane the wench is attached to).

There were a lot of hints leading up to this moment, but the actual plot twist is when the cage falls and then hits the ocean bottom. Now we have an Antagonist—personifying an Antagonistic Force—with an opposing goal (the girls’ goal is to get out alive; the sharks want to kill them). Now we know what’s at stake. Now we have a story.

Part Two: Reaction

The speed of the fall and the intensity of the crash knocks Lisa out cold. She’s bleeding from her nose and has water inside her mask. She almost looks peaceful. After a minute or so Kate calls to Lisa and we’re pulled back into the chaos of what’s happening. Kate empties the water and blood from Lisa’s mask, releasing it into the water (blood attracts sharks). Lisa realizes where she is and what’s happened, and she freaks out.

Kate does her best to calm her sister down, because panicking will just cause them to use up more oxygen and their tanks are already low. The girls discover they can’t reach Taylor because they’re just out of range of the radio. Kate says if she swims up, she can get in range so she can talk to Taylor and find out what to do. But the girls discover that not only did the cage fall, but the entire crane and wench mechanism did too—and it’s currently blocking the door of the shark cage from opening.

So Kate decides to try and slip through the bars of the shark cage so she can get out and open the door. Problem is, she can’t fit through the bars with her scuba gear on. She takes it off, swims through the bars, and then puts it back on from the other side, which makes Lisa panic even more.

This their only option at this point, so Kate is willing to risk the shark infested waters to save themselves. She tells Lisa to make contact with Taylor that she’s going to move the crane from the door, so Lisa can get out, in case Kate doesn’t make it. Lisa tells her sister not to talk like that. Then Kate swims over to the door of the shark cage and attempts to move the crane out of the way. It’s trapped by some rocks, which she ends up having to move first.

After much effort, she manages to move the wench off the door so they can go in and out. Then she swims up and attempts to contact Taylor.

Pinch Point 1: Kate makes contact with Taylor and he tells her to get back into the cage because it’s the only safe place from the sharks. He tells her that whatever they do, they can’t rush up to the surface or they’ll get the bends (carbon dioxide bubbles in the brain, which will kill them).

 This reminds us who the Antagonist is and what’s at stake for the girls. Taylor also tells Kate they installed a backup wench and Javier is coming down with a new cable to attach to the cage so they can be pulled up. All they have to do is be patient.

So… they wait. They sit in the cage together and talk about their regrets and their lives. Kate apologizes for getting them into this mess. After a while, they hear a noise that sounds like the boat left. Lisa freaks out and Kate decides to swim up again to try and make contact. She goes outside the cage into the darkness and out of nowhere comes a shark.

It almost gets her, but she manages to get back to the cage. But the shark is swimming around them and attacking the cage. They think it’s over… then the shark retreats back into the darkness. Lisa is losing it, she can’t handle much more, and they realize their air is running very low.

Finally, Kate spots Javier’s flashlight shining through the dark water. He’s  looking for them. But for some reason he’s not moving toward them. They assume he can’t see the cage in the murky water. Kate’s air is almost out.

Midpoint (around 50% of the movie or novel): Lisa decides to leave the cage and go find Javier.

This officially shifts the direction of the story, because now they’re not just reacting to what happened. Lisa now makes a decision to rescue them by going to find Javier, who has the backup wench that will pull them to safety.

Part Three: Attack

Kate talks Lisa through what she needs to do while she’s out of the cage—like staying as close to the bottom as possible to avoid a shark attack from below and how to use her BCD—and she swims out to find Javier.

Soon after Lisa leaves Kate begins yelling that there’s a shark coming after her. Lisa swims as fast as she can into a rock-cave, just narrowly avoiding the shark. She stays for a minute, but then the shark tries to get into the cave, which drives her out of the hole. She continues to hide behind a rock, waiting for the shark to leave. Then she continues making her way toward Javier’s flashlight.

Lisa is doing OK, she’s staying close to the bottom and there are no sharks. But then she reaches the edge of a cliff where the bottom drops down and she can’t see it from where she is. Which means she now has to swim high above the bottom, and she has no idea what’s below. Bravely she swims on and makes it to the flashlight, but Javier isn’t with it.

Lisa picks up the flashlight and begins to swim back to Kate when suddenly she realizes she has no idea which direction she just came from. She’s totally lost in open ocean, and when she calls for Kate, she doesn’t get an answer. Swimming in circles, Lisa decides to choose a direction to swim in and she keeps going. But she swims right into a shark and narrowly avoids becoming its meal. As she spins around, trying to figure out which direction to swim, she bumps into Javier, who screams at her to go back to the shark cage… right before a shark gets him.

Lisa screams and continues to make her way back in the direction she came from. Finally, she finds the ledge where she started and she’s able to stay close to the ocean floor again. But she still doesn’t know which direction the cage is in. She calls out for Kate and finally Kate can hear her again. Lisa tells her to bang a rock on the cage so she can find the cage. Just as she begins moving toward the cage Javier’s dead body lands in front of her. She freaks out, then goes to check his air supply and he’s completely out. She sees the backup wench hooked to Javier’s belt and she pulls it off. She also finds a spear gun, which she can use to protect her and Kate from the sharks.

Lisa finally manages to make it back to the shark cage. She hands the spear gun to Kate, and then hooks the backup wench up to the top of the shark cage. They’re almost out of there. After she’s done, Lisa swims up to make contact with Taylor and let him know they’ve attached the backup wench. He tells her to get back in the cage immediately. Taylor begins pulling them up and the girls are so excited to be getting out of there. But then…

Pinch Point 2: The cable attached to the backup wench breaks, sending the cage plummeting—fast—back to the bottom of the ocean, only this time, it lands on its side and traps Lisa’s leg under it.

Again, we have a reminder of the Antagonistic Force and what’s at stake. Kate tries to lift the cage off of Lisa’s leg, but it’s stuck and she can’t move it. Lisa is stuck and Kate will be out of air in minutes. So Kate decides to swim closer to the surface to try and make contact with Taylor.

When she does, he tells her the Coast Guard is on their way and they have a specialized rescue team equipped to get them out of there safely. He also tells her that he’s sending down two more air tanks, but they have to be very careful switching to a second tank because it puts them at risk of nitrogen narcosis, which will cause them to hallucinate.

The girls wait patiently for the tanks to drop down to the ocean bottom. Once they do, Kate leaves the cage to go and get them. When she reaches the tanks, she’s out of air and she panics as she quickly attaches the new tank to her scuba gear. Once she does, she sees that Taylor has also sent down water flares, so they can signal once the Coast Guard gets there.

Kate makes her way back to the cage with the extra tank for Lisa. As she does, Lisa screams out that there’s a shark and Kate gets down as low as she can and waits. As soon as she thinks it’s safe she picks up the tank and tries to swim to the door of the cage. But a shark gets her and she drops the tank, just out of reach of the cage. Lisa is trapped under the cage and has no idea if Kate is dead or alive. But she makes a decision… she’s not going to die down there.

She tries to pull her leg out from under the cage, but it’s no use. And her air is just about out. She can see the extra air tank, it’s just outside the door of the shark cage but she can’t reach it. Lisa looks over and sees the spear gun. She realizes she can use the spear to pull the extra tank over to her. But as she tries to reach for it, she accidentally hits the trigger and the spear shoots toward her hand, slicing it open.

Now she’s bleeding into the water and she’s got the door open on the shark cage so she can try to use the spear to pull the extra tank over to her. After a lot of pain and effort, she pulls it close enough where she can get to it. Lisa’s tank is now out of air. She fumbles with the scuba gear, trying to reattach the new tank. She’s not moving fast enough and she’s almost out of breath. All hope seems lost. And then…

Second Plot Twist: Lisa attaches the second tank to her scuba gear and now she can breathe again.

 The All-Hope-Is-Lost moment—where you think Lisa’s a goner—is a signal that the Second Plot Point is about to happen, as this moment always happens immediately before it. And that’s how you know that, even though it was a genius idea to use the spear to get the tank, it’s not the Second Plot Twist. There was still more to come.

After the Second Plot Twist, no new information can come into the story. Everything that shows up must be set up, hinted at, foreshadowed or mentioned previously. And the Protagonist is now ready to step up, be the hero and defeat the Antagonist.

Part Four: Resolution

Lisa sits there for a few minutes, just breathing the oxygen in. She’s calm, peaceful. And then she’s staring at the blood coming out of her hand from where the spear sliced it open. As she sits there staring at it, suddenly she hears Kate. She’s alive, but she’s badly hurt, bleeding and sharks are circling her.

At first Lisa tries to get Kate to just stay calm and focus on her breathing, but Kate’s in bad shape. So Lisa decides she has to rescue her. Lisa looks around and then realizes she can use her BCD (a piece of diving equipment with an inflatable bladder) as leverage to raise the cage up off of her leg. She places the bag under the cage and then inflates it.

As it inflates it raises the cage enough for Lisa to pull her leg out from under it (although she rips her skin as she does and now she’s bleeding from two places). Despite the pain, Lisa is now free. She calls out for Kate and then leaves the cage to go and find her. After a minute or so she finds Kate, laying by a rock on the bottom of the ocean. She’s still alive, but just barely.

Lisa decides that they can’t wait for the Coast Guard, they have to swim up to the surface now or Kate won’t make it. So she activates one of the flares as an attempt to ward off the sharks, and they begin swimming up. Once they get up a few meters, they’re back in range of Taylor and they let him know that they’re coming up. He tells them they have to come up slowly and do a decompression stop when they get to 20 meters.

They slowly swim up and when they get to 20 meters, they stop and he counts down the minutes until they’re able to keep moving up. As they’re waiting the flare goes out. Kate tries to pull another one, but she drops it. Lisa grabs the final flare and ignites it just as three sharks are closing in on them. She violently flails the flare around, trying to keep the sharks back until the decompression time is done and they can make a break for the surface.

As soon as Taylor calls time, the girls take deep breaths, remove all their scuba gear and break for the surface. At the surface, they scream for help. Taylor throws them a life preserver and they grab hold of it. They’re almost there. And then just when they think they’re safe… they get attacked by a shark. Multiple times, and almost don’t make it out of the water.

By some miracle, Taylor and the guys manage to pull Lisa and Kate into the boat. They’re lying there, mangled and on the brink of death, and Lisa is saying over and over again, “we made it Kate, we made it.” But then we hear Taylor’s voice. It sounds robotic.

Something isn’t right here…

Lisa looks at her hand again, the blood is still coming out of it. And suddenly we realize what’s happened… she has nitrogen narcosis and she’s hallucinating. They’re not really on the boat. Lisa is still trapped under the shark tank. And Kate really is dead.

Finally Lisa snaps to, just as the Coast Guard arrives to rescue her. They slowly bring her to the surface, and she is overcome with a mix of emotions as she realizes she really is going to live, but her sister didn’t make it.

I loved this twist ending to this movie because you don’t see it coming (I didn’t), and yet it was set up and hinted at earlier, when Taylor told Kate the reason he didn’t want to send down the second set of tanks was because it put them at risk of nitrogen narcosis. Kate’s death was also hinted at earlier, when she first got out of the shark cage and she told Lisa that before she went up to make contact with Taylor she was going to move the crane from blocking the door of the cage, just in case she didn’t make it and Lisa needed to get out.

Overall this is a study in story and a lesson you can get in just 90 minutes.