Even if you live nowhere near the ocean and its dark, watery depths, there’s a good chance you have a fear of sharks. And who could blame you? When Jaws first broke the surface in 1975, director Steven Spielberg jump-started Hollywood’s creature-feature obsession — with sharks at the helm. That horror classic paved the ocean floor for flicks like 47 Meters Down, The Meg, and Thrash, a new Netflix survival thriller about a Category 5 hurricane that decimates a small town … and lures ravenous sharks into the water-logged streets.
Sure, some sharks are more “Baby Shark” (doo-doo doo-doo doo-doo) than Jaws theme (dun-dun … dun-dun), but anything with gills and razor-sharp teeth makes for a good time. So if you’re hungry for some sharks on your screen, mako your day by adding these fin-tastic movies and series to your watch list.
It’s just a little bit of weather, right? When a Category 5 hurricane decimates a coastal town, its residents are cut off from any rescue attempts and therefore left to grapple with the aftermath of devastation and chaos themselves. As if that weren’t enough, the storm surge is packed with ruthless and ravenous sharks. Produced by Adam McKay (Don’t Look Up), the survival flick stars Bridgerton breakout Phoebe Dynevor as expectant mother Lisa, alongside Djimon Hounsou (Rebel Moon) as marine researcher Dale and Whitney Peak (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) as Dale’s niece Dakota.
Sophia Assalas (Bérénice Bejo) was once a leading marine researcher traveling the world to study short fin mako sharks. But after losing her husband and half her crew to Lilith, a behemoth they tagged in open waters, Sophia quietly accepts a job at an aquarium in Paris. She’s content to grieve and live out the rest of her life on land, until she realizes that Lilith somehow found her way from the ocean to the Seine. With a giant killer shark on the loose and the Paris triathlon — and the Olympics — right around the corner, Sophia teams up with Adil (Nassim Lyes), a police diver, to save hundreds of competitors from becoming shark bait. The 2024 creature feature was directed by Xavier Gens (Hitman).
How far will you go to protect what you love? For Ocean Ramsey, her passion for sharks takes her to the furthest depths of the sea. This documentary zooms in on the marine conservationist who fearlessly free-dives with tiger sharks and great whites. With her partner and videographer, Juan Oliphant, the Oahu native then shares the footage with her millions of Instagram followers — all in an attempt to change the public’s perception of one of the ocean’s most feared predators, whom she feels are gravely misunderstood and unfairly maligned.
This shark-based reality competition series follows four teams of shark experts and enthusiasts as they travel to six locations around the globe — the Maldives, Galápagos Islands, the Bahamas, South Africa, Japan, and Australia — to find the most elusive shark species. The more shark photographs they collect, the more points they earn, with more unusual sharks (like the epaulette shark that “walks” on land) being worth more points. The team with the most points in the end wins bragging rights and a $50,000 donation to a charity of their choice.
Naomi (Mãdãlina Ghenea) is leisurely sailing home one day when she comes across a couple stranded in the middle of the ocean. When they tell her that one of their brothers is trapped in their sunken boat beneath the waves, she suits up and dives to find him. But upon swimming toward the wreckage, she comes to a horrible realization: She’s rescued drug traffickers, and they expect her to retrieve their waterlogged cocaine stash from shark-infested waters. Can she dodge the bloodthirsty beasts and her captors’ bullets and make it home unscathed? Ed Westwick (White Gold) co-stars in this thriller directed by Marcus Adams (The Marksman).
This nature documentary series brings audiences well below the surface of the Earth’s five oceans — Pacific, Indian, Atlantic, Arctic, and Southern. Utilizing cutting-edge research and newly developed underwater filmmaking technology, Our Oceans spends time with well-loved animals like dolphins and sea turtles while featuring other sea creatures and natural phenomena that have never before been captured on camera. All five episodes — the first of which features a 50-foot-long whale shark in the midst of a hunt — are narrated by President Barack Obama, and illustrate just how much we have in common with the animals that populate our waters.
