Open Water 2: Adrift
Encyclopedia
Open Water 2: Adrift is a thriller filmed entirely in Malta, starring Susan May Pratt
, Richard Speight, Jr.
, Niklaus Lange, Ali Hillis
, Cameron Richardson
and Eric Dane
. Promotional posters claim the film is based on actual events.
James, Zach, Lauren, and Michelle jump into the water for a swim. Dan grabs Amy, who is terrified of the water and has been teased about wearing a life vest during the entire cruise, and jumps over the side with her, partly as a prank and partly to force her to go in, in spite of her aquaphobia
. However, nobody thought to lower the ladder to re-board the ship, so they find themselves trapped in the water with only two mask
s, a dive knife, and a toy dolphin float.
Unable to climb the high, smooth sides of the boat, or lunge high enough to grab the railing even with support, they tread water for a while, except that Dan's girlfriend, Michelle, has the float and Amy is wearing a life vest. Dan takes the dolphin float and attempts to climb onto it, in order to have something to support him as he attempts to lunge high enough. After a couple of attempts, he pops the plastic float, rendering it useless. Now Michelle also has to tread water, and is getting cold and panicky as well.
They hear a phone ringing and swim around the boat to see a jacket containing the phone hanging from a railing, with a sleeve dangling in the breeze. One of them is just able to lunge high enough to tug the sleeve and dislodge the jacket. Everyone grabs for the jacket, turning it this way and that, trying to keep the pocket with the phone out of the water. Zach finally gets the phone out of the pocket and answers the call. They all hear a happy birthday song being sung by some well-wishers, but are unable to get the caller's attention. The call ends and Zach is unable make an outgoing call. So, in a fit of frustration, assuming that the phone is defective, he throws it angrily into the water. The others are aghast.
The group resorts to stripping and using their bathing suits and clothes to make a rope. A speed-boat races by with another group of teenagers on board. They try to attract their attention but the people on the boat think they are only greeting them, and disappear over the horizon. After a couple of attempts they manage to get one end of the rope wrapped around a railing. Instead of having the lightest person climb up, Dan attempts to climb up. He pulls himself up slowly and carefully, and his fingers brush the gunwale
but the makeshift rope rips apart because no-one tried to boost him up, leaving a couple of pieces still wrapped around the railing. Now they are mostly naked and have only a partial rope.
Meanwhile, James goes underwater, and is fooling around with the prop, perhaps thinking to remove it and use it as a grappling hook, but he drops the knife. He desperately swims down after it and manages to catch it, but now, deep down, his lungs are aching for air and he desperately swims for the surface. As he swims back up in a panic, he smacks his head under the boat, and sinks unconscious into the water. He resurfaces slightly bloodied and with an apparent skull fracture
.
Zach then tries to use the knife to stab a hole in the hull to make a handhold to help them climb up or to force the ladder down, but Dan, afraid to see an expensive boat he doesn't actually own incur damage, reacts without thinking and attempts to stop Zach. During the struggle, Zach is accidentally stabbed in the abdomen
. Zach pulls out the knife from his side and drops it. The wound causes a lot of blood in the water. Lauren holds onto Zach for a while trying to comfort him, the remaining clothing is used to stop him bleeding.
Suddenly, in a fit of hysteria and fearing to incur attack of sharks attracted by the blood, Michelle begins to swim away, and goes under. Dan swims after her, and sees her lifeless body drifting underwater. He dives after her, but she sinks faster than he can swim down, and her body disappears into the depths.
After some time, at the end of his forces, Zack tells Lauren that he never told her that she looked really good one time on the beach. She holds him and begins crying and tells him that he will be able to tell her and see her when they get back to shore. He eventually dies as he did not leave the knife in to plug the wound, and she reluctantly lets go of his body which floats, face down.
As the day progresses, Lauren says she refuses to die treading water and attempts to swim back to shore to find help. She is never seen again.
Later that night, as it rains, James dies from his cranial injury. Dan unsuccessfully searches underwater for the knife (in the dark). He slams his mask on the hull in frustration and the lens
pops out. Remembering the attempt with the knife, Dan uses it to wedge in the crevice of the side door for the ladder, giving him a handhold. Amy climbs over his shoulders, finally stepping onto his hand wrapped around the lens, and manages to grab the gunwale and pull herself back on board. Once on board, she lowers the ladder for Dan and tends to her baby, Sarah.
Instead of going up the ladder, Dan, racked by guilt, decides to swim off and let himself drown. Earlier, he had been screaming "it should have been me". Amy later sees him drowning slowly, throws in a life ring and then jumps in to save him, all the while vividly recalling her childhood inability to save her father from drowning. The scene ends inconclusively with a shot of Amy's father lying dead on the seabed, followed by a whiteout.
The penultimate scene takes place at an unspecified time, on a clear calm day. A fishing boat approaches the yacht, seeing the lowered ladder and life ring still floating in the water - no one had pulled them in. The yacht appears empty except for the sound of baby Sarah crying on the lower deck.
In the final scene, on the upper deck, in slow motion, a quiet Amy stands looking around; she looks at Dan, who is lying face down on the deck. While the ending caused some confusion among viewers, the film's director has indicated that five out of the six adults die, and Lauren just drifted to an unknown island.
The German version of the movie shows Dan lying motionless, face down on the deck, such that it is unclear if he is alive. Captions at the end tell viewers that Dan, Amy, and the baby survived, but that Dan and Amy never see each other again.
gave the film an overall score of 40% based on 10 reviews.
In Germany
, the film's opening weekend brought €293,601, averaging €3,764 at 78 theatres. During the second weekend in Germany, the film grossed €121,997, averaging €1,564 at 78 theatres. In Germany, the movie grossed at least €496,357.
In Spain
, the film's opening weekend earned €270,396, averaging €1,767 at 153 theatres. During the second weekend, the film grossed €139,503. In Spain, the film grossed at least €713,834.
The film has grossed £2,583,205 worldwide.
Susan May Pratt
Susan May Pratt is an American actress, perhaps best known for playing Maureen Cummings in Center Stage and Mandella in 10 Things I Hate About You....
, Richard Speight, Jr.
Richard Speight, Jr.
Richard Speight, Jr. is an American actor, probably best known for his recurring role as Deputy Bill Kohler on the TV series Jericho prior to its cancellation...
, Niklaus Lange, Ali Hillis
Ali Hillis
Alecia Deann "Ali" Hillis is an American film, television and voice actress.-Early life:At the age of six months, Hillis' moved with her family to Normal, Illinois and at age 3, to Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin and then to Charlotte, North Carolina when she was thirteen years old.Hillis performed in...
, Cameron Richardson
Cameron Richardson
Cameron Richardson is an American actress and model, who portrayed Chloe Carter on the CBS television series Harper's Island.- Early life :Born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Cameron grew up in New Jersey....
and Eric Dane
Eric Dane
Eric Dane is an American actor. After appearing in television roles throughout the 1990s and 2000s, he became known for playing Dr...
. Promotional posters claim the film is based on actual events.
Plot
A group of old high-school friends, Amy (Pratt), James (Speight), Zach (Lange), Lauren (Hillis), Dan (Dane), and his new girlfriend Michelle (Richardson) go for a weekend cruise on a yacht. Amy and James also bring their baby, Sarah. Dan has arranged the weekend getaway aboard a yacht he pretends to own, but the vessel actually belongs to Dan's boss.James, Zach, Lauren, and Michelle jump into the water for a swim. Dan grabs Amy, who is terrified of the water and has been teased about wearing a life vest during the entire cruise, and jumps over the side with her, partly as a prank and partly to force her to go in, in spite of her aquaphobia
Aquaphobia
Aquaphobia is an abnormal and persistent fear of water. Aquaphobia is a specific phobia that involves a level of fear that is beyond the patient's control or that may interfere with daily life. People suffer aquaphobia in many ways and may experience it even though they realize the water in an...
. However, nobody thought to lower the ladder to re-board the ship, so they find themselves trapped in the water with only two mask
Diving mask
A diving mask is an item of diving equipment that allows scuba divers, free-divers, and snorkelers to see clearly underwater. When the human eye is in direct contact with water as opposed to air, its normal environment, light entering the eye is refracted by a different angle and the eye is unable...
s, a dive knife, and a toy dolphin float.
Unable to climb the high, smooth sides of the boat, or lunge high enough to grab the railing even with support, they tread water for a while, except that Dan's girlfriend, Michelle, has the float and Amy is wearing a life vest. Dan takes the dolphin float and attempts to climb onto it, in order to have something to support him as he attempts to lunge high enough. After a couple of attempts, he pops the plastic float, rendering it useless. Now Michelle also has to tread water, and is getting cold and panicky as well.
They hear a phone ringing and swim around the boat to see a jacket containing the phone hanging from a railing, with a sleeve dangling in the breeze. One of them is just able to lunge high enough to tug the sleeve and dislodge the jacket. Everyone grabs for the jacket, turning it this way and that, trying to keep the pocket with the phone out of the water. Zach finally gets the phone out of the pocket and answers the call. They all hear a happy birthday song being sung by some well-wishers, but are unable to get the caller's attention. The call ends and Zach is unable make an outgoing call. So, in a fit of frustration, assuming that the phone is defective, he throws it angrily into the water. The others are aghast.
The group resorts to stripping and using their bathing suits and clothes to make a rope. A speed-boat races by with another group of teenagers on board. They try to attract their attention but the people on the boat think they are only greeting them, and disappear over the horizon. After a couple of attempts they manage to get one end of the rope wrapped around a railing. Instead of having the lightest person climb up, Dan attempts to climb up. He pulls himself up slowly and carefully, and his fingers brush the gunwale
Gunwale
The gunwale is a nautical term describing the top edge of the side of a boat.Wale is the same word as the skin injury, a wheal, which, too, forms a ridge. Originally the gunwale was the "Gun ridge" on a sailing warship. This represented the strengthening wale or structural band added to the design...
but the makeshift rope rips apart because no-one tried to boost him up, leaving a couple of pieces still wrapped around the railing. Now they are mostly naked and have only a partial rope.
Meanwhile, James goes underwater, and is fooling around with the prop, perhaps thinking to remove it and use it as a grappling hook, but he drops the knife. He desperately swims down after it and manages to catch it, but now, deep down, his lungs are aching for air and he desperately swims for the surface. As he swims back up in a panic, he smacks his head under the boat, and sinks unconscious into the water. He resurfaces slightly bloodied and with an apparent skull fracture
Skull fracture
A skull fracture is a break in one or more of the bones in the skull usually occurring as a result of blunt force trauma. If the force of the impact is excessive the bone may fracture at or near the site of the impact...
.
Zach then tries to use the knife to stab a hole in the hull to make a handhold to help them climb up or to force the ladder down, but Dan, afraid to see an expensive boat he doesn't actually own incur damage, reacts without thinking and attempts to stop Zach. During the struggle, Zach is accidentally stabbed in the abdomen
Abdomen
In vertebrates such as mammals the abdomen constitutes the part of the body between the thorax and pelvis. The region enclosed by the abdomen is termed the abdominal cavity...
. Zach pulls out the knife from his side and drops it. The wound causes a lot of blood in the water. Lauren holds onto Zach for a while trying to comfort him, the remaining clothing is used to stop him bleeding.
Suddenly, in a fit of hysteria and fearing to incur attack of sharks attracted by the blood, Michelle begins to swim away, and goes under. Dan swims after her, and sees her lifeless body drifting underwater. He dives after her, but she sinks faster than he can swim down, and her body disappears into the depths.
After some time, at the end of his forces, Zack tells Lauren that he never told her that she looked really good one time on the beach. She holds him and begins crying and tells him that he will be able to tell her and see her when they get back to shore. He eventually dies as he did not leave the knife in to plug the wound, and she reluctantly lets go of his body which floats, face down.
As the day progresses, Lauren says she refuses to die treading water and attempts to swim back to shore to find help. She is never seen again.
Later that night, as it rains, James dies from his cranial injury. Dan unsuccessfully searches underwater for the knife (in the dark). He slams his mask on the hull in frustration and the lens
Lens (optics)
A lens is an optical device with perfect or approximate axial symmetry which transmits and refracts light, converging or diverging the beam. A simple lens consists of a single optical element...
pops out. Remembering the attempt with the knife, Dan uses it to wedge in the crevice of the side door for the ladder, giving him a handhold. Amy climbs over his shoulders, finally stepping onto his hand wrapped around the lens, and manages to grab the gunwale and pull herself back on board. Once on board, she lowers the ladder for Dan and tends to her baby, Sarah.
Instead of going up the ladder, Dan, racked by guilt, decides to swim off and let himself drown. Earlier, he had been screaming "it should have been me". Amy later sees him drowning slowly, throws in a life ring and then jumps in to save him, all the while vividly recalling her childhood inability to save her father from drowning. The scene ends inconclusively with a shot of Amy's father lying dead on the seabed, followed by a whiteout.
The penultimate scene takes place at an unspecified time, on a clear calm day. A fishing boat approaches the yacht, seeing the lowered ladder and life ring still floating in the water - no one had pulled them in. The yacht appears empty except for the sound of baby Sarah crying on the lower deck.
In the final scene, on the upper deck, in slow motion, a quiet Amy stands looking around; she looks at Dan, who is lying face down on the deck. While the ending caused some confusion among viewers, the film's director has indicated that five out of the six adults die, and Lauren just drifted to an unknown island.
The German version of the movie shows Dan lying motionless, face down on the deck, such that it is unclear if he is alive. Captions at the end tell viewers that Dan, Amy, and the baby survived, but that Dan and Amy never see each other again.
Cast
- Susan May PrattSusan May PrattSusan May Pratt is an American actress, perhaps best known for playing Maureen Cummings in Center Stage and Mandella in 10 Things I Hate About You....
as Amy - Richard Speight Jr. as James
- Niklaus Lange as Zach
- Ali HillisAli HillisAlecia Deann "Ali" Hillis is an American film, television and voice actress.-Early life:At the age of six months, Hillis' moved with her family to Normal, Illinois and at age 3, to Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin and then to Charlotte, North Carolina when she was thirteen years old.Hillis performed in...
as Lauren - Cameron RichardsonCameron RichardsonCameron Richardson is an American actress and model, who portrayed Chloe Carter on the CBS television series Harper's Island.- Early life :Born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Cameron grew up in New Jersey....
as Michelle - Eric DaneEric DaneEric Dane is an American actor. After appearing in television roles throughout the 1990s and 2000s, he became known for playing Dr...
as Dan - Wolfgang Raach as Amy's Father
- Alexandra Raach as Little Amy
Critical response
Review aggregate website Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
gave the film an overall score of 40% based on 10 reviews.
Box office
In the UK, the film opened at 327 theatres, grossing £337,474, averaging £1,033 per theatre. 123 theatres dropped the film for the second weekend, and its ticket sales declined by 75 percent, making £85,541, averaging £419. During the third weekend, the film's sales tumbled 90 percent after 183 more theatres dropped it, making £8,896. The fourth weekend brought an additional 64 percent decline, and the film lost 13 theatres, while grossing £3,198. In the UK, the film finished with an overall gross of £707,352.In Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, the film's opening weekend brought €293,601, averaging €3,764 at 78 theatres. During the second weekend in Germany, the film grossed €121,997, averaging €1,564 at 78 theatres. In Germany, the movie grossed at least €496,357.
In Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, the film's opening weekend earned €270,396, averaging €1,767 at 153 theatres. During the second weekend, the film grossed €139,503. In Spain, the film grossed at least €713,834.
The film has grossed £2,583,205 worldwide.