The Meg

The Meg, is a 2018 American science fiction giant monster horror film directed by Jon Turteltaub and written by Dean Georgaris, Jon Hoeber, and Erich Hoeber. It is based on the 1997 science fiction book Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror by Steve Alten. The film stars Jason Statham, Li Bingbing, Rainn Wilson, Ruby Rose, Winston Chao, and Cliff Curtis. The film follows a group of scientists who must stop and kill a 75-foot Megalodon from terrorizing a beach and the oceans. It was released on August 10, 2018.

Plot
A rescue team led by Jonas Taylor is saving a group of sailors trapped inside a sunken nuclear submarine when Jonas sees the hull of the submarine being damaged by an unknown creature. Two rescuers are stuck in the damaged submarine and say their return to the rescue submersible will take a few minutes. Taylor leaves them behind as he is afraid they will all die if they wait. As they leave, the damaged sub explodes. Taylor's claim is that a giant sea creature caused the disaster. He is dismissed by his teammate Dr. Heller, who believes Taylor was affected with pressure-induced psychosis and blames him for the loss of their friends.

Five years later, billionaire Jack Morris meets Dr. Minway Zhang at the underwater research facility "Mana One", which Morris finances. Zhang and his daughter, Suyin, an oceanographer, are supervising a mission to explore what may be a deeper section of the Marianas trench, concealed by a thermocline cloud of hydrogen sulfide. The mission is being conducted by Lori (Taylor's ex-wife), Toshi, and The Wall in a submersible. The mission appears to be going well until a very large creature hits the submersible, causing it to lose contact with Mana One.

James "Mac" Mackreides, another crew member at the station, suggests sending Taylor down to attempt a rescue, citing the similarity to his story. Despite Heller's objections, Zhang and Mac decide to travel to Thailand to recruit Taylor anyway. Suyin attempts the rescue herself after receiving a signal from submerisble, but a colossal squid intervenes. Before it can destroy her craft, a massive shark appears and kills it. Agreeing to help, Taylor reaches the trapped submersible, saving Lori and The Wall. However, when the giant shark returns, Toshi sacrifices himself by closing the hatch door and detaching the rescue vessel. But before he did that, Toshi makes sure that the letter to his wife will be given by putting it inside The Wall's pocket. This allows Taylor, Lori, and The Wall to escape safely while he diverts the shark's attention to his sub, causing it to be driven into a thermal vent, causing an explosion.

Back at Mana One, the crew discovers that the shark is a Megalodon, the largest shark ever known, believed to be extinct for millions of years. Meanwhile, Suyin's daughter, Meiying, goes to the large glass leading to a beautiful underwater view of the ocean, and sees the Megalodon through the glass, and is petrified. When Suyin comes down with Taylor, they see a whale being eaten alive by the massive shark. The crew then realize that it has escaped from the depths of the trench by swimming through a hole in the thermocline created by the thermal vent explosion, briefly raising the temperature enough for it to safely pass. The group decides to track and poison the Megalodon, which they succeed in doing. While injecting the Megalodon with etorphine, Suyin's oxygen mask gets compromised, but Taylor revives her with CPR. Despite initial success, Taylor comments that the teeth don't match up with the previous attack. Shortly after, a second, more colossal Megalodon emerges from the water, devours The Wall and the smaller Megalodon, and capsizes the boat. It also devours Heller, who saves another crew member, Jaxx's life by luring it to himself. The surviving crew returns to Mana One in two dinghies, but Zhang succumbs and dies of injuries caused by the bigger Megalodon's attack. Morris announces that he has informed local governments and naval forces, but it is out of their hands. He dismissed the whole crew and advised them to evacuate in the morning.

At nightfall, Morris attempts to destroy the Megalodon himself by ordering a helicopter crew to drop modified depth charges at it, citing that the creature's actions could result in lawsuits. He approaches the carcass of the supposed Megalodon in a boat but discovers it's a whale. When the Megalodon approaches, the boat accelerates, causing Morris to fall overboard and be eaten by the Megalodon. Taylor and the remaining Mana One crew discover Morris' deception and resolve to track and kill the shark, realizing that it is en route to a crowded beach on the Sanya Bay.

The Megalodon kills several beachgoers before the Mana One crew plays audio of a whale call to divert the shark's attention towards them. Taylor and Suyin attempt to destroy the megalodon with rigged torpedoes, to no avail, and Taylor's submersible is severely damaged. Taylor manages to cut the Megalodon with parts of his sub and stab it in the right eye with a harpoon. Due to the presence of blood, multiple sharks in the area notice the blood and devour the Megalodon, finally killing it. During the fight, Suyin was able to evacuate everyone to a boat where a Chinese couple is getting married. Taylor gets on the boat, and he and Suyin consider taking a vacation to celebrate their triumph.

Cast

 * Jason Statham as Jonas Taylor
 * Li Bingbing as Suyin Zhang
 * Rainn Wilson as Jack Morris
 * Ruby Rose as Jaxx Herd
 * Winston Chao as Dr. Minway Zhang
 * Sophia Cai as Meiying
 * Cliff Curtis as James "Mac" Mackreides
 * Page Kennedy as DJ
 * Jessica McNamee as Lori
 * Robert Taylor as Dr. Heller
 * Ólafur Darri Ólafsson as The Wall
 * Masi Oka as Toshi

Development
The rights to the novel were initially acquired by Disney's Hollywood Pictures in 1996. Around that time, Tom Wheeler was hired to adapt the book into a screenplay, but, having decided that his script wasn't good enough, the studio hired Jeffrey Boam to write a new draft. Boam's script was later rejected for the same reason. By 1999 the project had stalled and the rights reverted to Steve Alten, the book's author.

In 2005, reports surfaced that the project was being developed by New Line Cinema, with an estimated budget of $75 million, and a slated release of summer 2006. Names attached to the production included Jan de Bont as director, Guillermo Del Toro as producer and Shane Salernoas screenwriter. However, New Line later cancelled the project due to budgetary concerns. The rights reverted to Alten again, but the film remained in development hell.

In 2015, it was announced that the film was now moving forward at Warner Bros., with a new script written by Dean Georgaris. By June of that year, Eli Roth was reported to be in talks to direct, but, due to creative differences, Roth was replaced by Jon Turteltaub in early 2016. Jason Statham and much of the cast joined in August and September 2016.

Filming
Principal photography on the film began on October 13, 2016, in West Auckland, New Zealand. Filming ended on January 4, 2017, in Sanya City of Hainan, China.

Visual effects
Visual effects were done by Sony Imageworks, Image Engine and Scanline VFX. The visual effects team was challenged with not only designing a previously undiscovered prehistoric giant shark, but also designing the underwater environments and atmospherics, including realistic coral reefs, bubbles, and other sea life.