Sharknado: The 4th Awakens (2016)

Sharknado: The 4th Awakens is a 2016 American sci-fi horror comedy film and the fourth installment in the Sharknado film series, following Sharknado, Sharknado 2: The Second One, and Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No!. The film was directed by Anthony C. Ferrante with Ian Ziering, Tara Reid, David Hasselhoff and Ryan Newman reprising their roles from the previous installments. New people joining the cast in the film include Tommy Davidson, Masiela Lusha, Imani Hakim, Cheryl Tiegs and Gary Busey. Though the film title, poster, and intro are a parody of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, it is not a mockbuster.

Plot
In the five years since the previous film, Fin has moved to a farm in Kansas named "April's Acres," where he lives with his mother Raye and young son Gil. April is believed dead after being crushed by the wreckage of the space shuttle. Tech mogul Aston Reynolds (based on Tesla, Inc. co-founder and SpaceX founder Elon Musk) has developed a new type of high-speed space travel with his company Astro-X (a play on SpaceX), which was used to save Fin's father, Colonel Gilbert Shepard, from the moon. Astro-X has also developed a technology that is capable of using radio waves to diffuse tornadoes, leading to the end of the sharknado phenomenon.

Fin travels to Molong with his cousin Gemini to meet up with his son Matt, who has returned from deployment in Iraq. Meanwhile, Reynolds has built and is opening a shark-themed hotel featuring a giant tank of sharks. While Matt and his fiancée, Gabrielle, marry and skydive from a plane, a sandstorm tornado develops that cannot be diffused by Astro-X. The tornado absorbs the water and sharks from Reynolds' hotel, creating the first sharknado in five years. The streets of Las Vegas flood, but Fin, Gemini, Gabrielle, and Matt work together to survive the storm until it heads back out into the desert.

Since returning from the moon, Col. Shepard has become an employee of Astro-X, working on the development of a weaponized mech suit with the aid of his granddaughter Claudia in San Francisco as well as April's father Wilford, a scientist. However, he is unaware that Wilford has reconstructed April into a cyborg to save her life, and told her that Fin and their family were killed by the shuttle debris to keep her at his laboratory. Fin, Gabrielle, Gemini, and Matt decide to take a train back to Kansas, only for the sharknado to follow the train after destroying the Hoover Dam. Astro-X blows up the Grand Canyon to stop the resulting flood, but as an accidental result the sharknado picks up stones to become a "bouldernado." The train ends up in Arizona, where Fin meets Aston Reynolds at Astro-X. Fin's group ends up in a small town in Texas, where they acquire chainsaws and construction gear to fight off the sharknado, which hits an oil field and transforms into an "oilnado" and then ignites into a "firenado". Meanwhile, two other sharknadoes develop, one near San Francisco that heads north and become a "hailnado," and the other near Yellowstone National Park that quickly transforms into a "lavanado."

At the Kansas State Line, Fin, Gemini, Gabrielle, and Matt pick up a red-and-white self-driving car that is a 1958 Plymouth Belvedere named Christine from Fin's friend, Colton, and reach April's Acres just before the sharknado - which has now picked up cows and become a "cownado" - strikes and Gabrielle is killed, to Matt's devastation. The house is picked up by the tornado and thrown all the way to Chicago, where it lands on the mayor. Elsewhere, April - who has learned of her family's survival and left Wilford's lab after angrily confronting him - saves Col. Shepard and Claudia from the hailnado in San Francisco. Later, Reynolds brings the three of them to Fin, Gemini, Matt and Gil, reuniting April with Fin and allowing her to introduce herself to Gil for the first time.

Reynolds informs the group that Astro-X has developed a way to alter their beacon pods in order to shut down the new sharknadoes. This method works on the hailnado and lavanado, but the cownado has since evolved further into a "lightningnado," and its electricity blocks their attempts. The situation further worsens when the lightningnado strikes a nuclear power plant (the Perry Nuclear Power Plant) in Ohio, transforming it into a deadly "nukenado" filled with radioactive sharks. Reynolds realizes that the only way to stop the nukenado from destroying everything in its path is to transform it back into a regular sharknado so Astro-X's pods will work on it, and the engines of Col. Shepard's mech suit can be used to power a device to remove the radioactivity from the storm by drawing massive amounts of water into it. Fin realizes that the only location with enough water to work is Niagara Falls, so they travel there with the nukenado following them.

At Niagara Falls, Reynolds volunteers to jump near the falls with a squirrel suit to set off the device, which will reverse the water flow upward into the nukenado and cool it. However, the device does not have enough power, and Reynolds falls off a cliff. Col. Shepard volunteers to pilot the mech suit to complete the plan, but is swallowed by a shark before he can put it on. Fin puts on the suit and flies into the storm alongside April - who can fly and shoot laser beams from her hands - to fight through and reach the device. Claudia and Matt are also swallowed by sharks. Fin manages to use the suit's power supply to activate the device, but he is electrocuted in the process and bitten in the chest by a shark. Niagara Falls is reversed into the nukenado, neutralizing its radiation and rendering it a normal sharknado again. The Astro-X technicians activate the pods, destroying the storm. However, Fin becomes unconscious and falls over the cliff and is swallowed by a shark, which is promptly swallowed by three more sharks and a blue whale in quick succession. Gil, having survived by going over Niagara Falls in a barrel, pulls his own small chainsaw out of a stone and cuts open and enters the whale, where he cuts open the sharks to reveal Col. Shepard, Matt and Claudia all alive. Together they pull Fin out, but he has no pulse. April and Colonel Shepard use CPR on the unconscious Fin. Using her power supply and two sharks to create an improvised defibrillator, April manages to revive him.

Just as the Shepard family rejoices, the Eiffel Tower falls from the sky, having been blown all the way from France. Nova, who was earlier mentioned to have been vacationing in Paris, emerges from the wrecked structure, causing the Shepards to realize that the sharknado crisis is not only not over, but may now be a global problem. In a post-credits scene, Reynolds is revealed to have survived.

Cast

 * Ian Ziering as Fin Shepard
 * Tara Reid as April Wexler
 * Tommy Davidson as Aston Reynolds
 * Masiela Lusha as Gemini, Fin's cousin
 * Ryan Newman as Claudia Shepard
 * Cody Linley as Matt Shepard
 * Imani A. Hakim as Gabrielle, Matt's newlywed wife
 * Cheryl Tiegs as Raye Shepard, Fin's mother
 * Gary Busey as Wilford Wexler, April's father
 * David Hasselhoff as Colonel Gilbert Shepard


 * Christopher Shone and Nicholas Shone as Little Gil
 * Susan Anton as Betty (Gambler)
 * Cynthia Bailey as Tech Addison
 * Jillian Barberie as Train Passenger
 * Benjy Bronk as Chicago Reporter
 * Steffanie Busey as Craven
 * Duane Chapman as Chop Top, a chainsaw dealer
 * Todd Chrisley as Himself
 * Grayson Chrisley as Himself
 * Savannah Chrisley as Herself
 * Stacey Dash as Mayor Sandra Mansfield, of Chicago
 * James Davis as Chippendale Dancer
 * Jay DeMarcus as Zimmerman - Shark World Hotel Manager
 * Justine Ezarik as Shatner
 * Dan Farr as Himself
 * David Faustino as Bud, a Las Vegas gambler
 * Anthony C. Ferrante as Fenwick
 * Juliana Ferrante as Juliana
 * Erika Girardi as Tech Frances
 * Gilbert Gottfried as Ron McDonald, TodayCorrespondent
 * Lori Greiner as Herself, Home Shopping Network Guru
 * Steve Guttenberg as Colton, an old friend of Fin and the owner of a car called Christine
 * Gary Herbert as Himself
 * Brandi Glanville as Tech Whitley, an Astro-X technician
 * Hayley Hasselhoff as Supervisor Mary Jane[7]
 * Taylor-Ann Hasselhoff as Pilot Shaelyn
 * Robert Herjavec as Supervisor Parker, Astro-X astrophysicist
 * Kym Johnson as Supervisor Gwen, Astro-X astrophysicist
 * Carrie Keagan as Supervisor Martindale, at Astro-X
 * T'Keyah Crystal Keymah as Tech Terry, at Astro-X
 * Moise Latt as Alex
 * Daniel Logan as Captain Fett
 * Courtney Lopez as Reporter Stormy G.
 * Andre Meadows as Train Conductor[7]
 * Donna Mills as Supervisor Wink
 * Jeanne Miller as EMT
 * Frank Mir as Jamie, Head of Security of Shark World Hotel
 * Kenya Moore as Monique
 * Natalie Morales as Herself
 * Vince Neil as Himself
 * Roy Nelson as Donnie (Pararazzo)
 * Wayne Newton as Himself
 * Gena Lee Nolin as Neely, Astro-X rocket scientist
 * Alexandra Paul as Holden, Astro-X rocket scientist
 * Dr. Drew Pinsky as Pastor
 * DeStorm Power as National Guardman
 * Dolvett Quince as Mickey The Trainer
 * Mindy Robinson as Annie the Fan
 * Al Roker as Himself
 * Seth Rollins as Astro-X Lopez
 * Stassi Schroeder as Koening, Astro-X Manager of NYC
 * Paul Shaffer as Himself, street musician
 * Patti Stanger as Marley Craig (Reporter)
 * Nathaniel Stroman as Agent Cronenberg
 * Jax Taylor as National Guardsman #2
 * Corey Taylor as Frankie, a security guard at the Shark World Hotel
 * Diana Terranova as Salt Lake Comic Con Host
 * Charles Tillman as Johnny Zucker
 * Carrot Top as Driver
 * Caroline Williams as Stretch
 * Adrian Zmed as Himself
 * Christine as Herself
 * Petunia as Herself

Production
The film was confirmed to follow upon Sharknado 3 's premiere. Sharknado 3 concludes with a cliffhanger regarding whether or not April is killed by falling wreckage. An ad after the film promoted a Twitter campaign offering fans the chance to decide her fate with the hashtags "#AprilLives" or "#AprilDies", with the results revealed in the forthcoming Sharknado 4 which aired in July 2016. Ian Ziering, Tara Reid, Ryan Newman, and David Hasselhoff were announced to reprise their roles from previous films. New cast members include Masiela Lusha as Gemini, Fin's cousin, Cody Linley replacing Chuck Hittinger as Matt Shepard, Imani Hakim as Gabrielle, a soldier and Matt's girlfriend, Gary Busey as Wilford Wexler, April's rich father, Cheryl Tiegs as Raye Shepard, Fin's mother, Tommy Davidson as Aston Reynolds, playboy tech billionaire and Astro-X, Kenya Moore as Monique, a hotel manager working for Reynolds, Cynthia Bailey as Addison, a tech analyst, and Maya Stojan as Romy, Wilford's assistant and Anthony Rogers as Gil Shepard.

The title, poster, and opening crawl of the film is an homage to Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Sharknado: The 4th Awakens takes place in Chicago and Las Vegas.

Reception
Rotten Tomatoes reports a 17% score with an average rating of 3.4/10, based on 11 critics. The consensus reads: "Sharknado: The 4th Awakens loses the ridiculous charm of its predecessors, leaving only clumsy social commentary and monotonous schtick that's lost its bite." On Metacritic it has a score of 35% based on reviews from 7 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".

The film was watched by 2.77 million people.

Sequel
Rumors of a fifth film, to be titled Sharknado 5... Earth 0, first surfaced in October 2016. On February 2, 2017, The Asylum confirmed via their official Facebook page that the fifth film had entered production under the working title Sharknado 5, with Ian Ziering, Tara Reid and Cassie Scerbo reprising their roles as Fin, April and Nova, respectively. In Sharknado 5, Fin and his wife April travel around the world trying to save their young son who is trapped inside a sharknado. On June 1, 2017, the title was unveiled to be Sharknado 5: Global Swarming with the tagline "Make America Bait Again". A year later, The Last Sharknado: It's About Time! Was announced.