Open Water 2: Adrift
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| Open Water 2: Adrift | |
|---|---|
 Fatigue. Hypothermia. Death. |
|
| Directed by | Hans Horn |
| Produced by | Dan Maag Philip Schulz-Deyle |
| Written by | Adam Kreutner David Mitchell |
| Starring | Susan May Pratt Richard Speight, Jr. Niklaus Lange Ali Hillis Cameron Richardson Eric Dane |
| Music by | Gerd Baumann |
| Distributed by | Summit Entertainment |
| Release date(s) |  10 July 2006 20 February 2007 (DVD release only) |
| Running time | 95 minutes |
| Country |  |
| Language | English |
| Preceded by | Open Water (film) |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Open Water 2: Adrift (simply called Adrift in Europe and Australia) is a thriller filmed entirely in the Republic of 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.
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[edit] Plot summary
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 (which turns out to belong to Dan's boss). Amy and James also bring their baby Sara. Dan has arranged the weekend and pretends to own the expensive yacht.
James, Zach, Lauren and Michelle jump into the water for a swim. Dan follows with an unwilling Amy, hoping to help her get over her aquaphobia. Dan, however, makes a big mistake. He jumps into the water with Amy, but forgets to put down a ladder so they can get back up onto the yacht. Panic sets in as a series of bad luck and bad judgments cause quarrels and fatalities amongst the group. Michelle drowns herself. James hits his head on the boat's underside, but miraculously manages to resurface--bleeding from the ear, a sign of a skull fracture. James dies later, but only after miraculously punching Dan out. Zach dies after Dan accidentally stabs him with a knife following an argument. Lauren, claiming, "I'm not going to die treading water, man. That's just not me" swims away from the boat toward the coastline and does not appear again.
Finally, Dan breaks his diving goggles and uses the plastic lens to grip onto the hull. Amy climbs onto his shoulders and aboard the deck. She lowers the ladder for Dan and rushes off to comfort Sara. Instead of climbing up, he deliberately remains in the water waiting to die. Noticing that Dan has not come aboard, Amy jumps back into the water to save him.
In the last scene, a stranger on a passing boat discovers their yacht. The yacht is shown empty with a crying baby heard in the background. Then, Amy is shown to be alive with Dan ambiguously lying on the deck motionless
[edit] Interpretations
The director shows two final scenes that appear to contradict one another:
The penultimate scene shows a fisherman boat that passes by and discovers the yacht. The audience is given the impression that the only person alive on the yacht is Amy's baby, Sara, who is crying. The audience does not see either Dan's body or Amy on the deck.
The ultimate scene shows Amy looking into the ocean with Dan's body lying on the deck and her baby crying. The fisherman's boat is not visible.
Given the visual contradiction of the two scenes, it could be interpreted that the director wanted to intentionally confuse the audience or provide the audience with two different conclusions to the film.
Another interpretation of these final scenes could have a supernatural angle. It could be interpreted that both Amy and Dan have drowned in a previously seen storm and the only survivor was Sara. This interpretation could be supported by Amy's sudden disregard for her crying baby and somewhat "spaced out" behavior. Also the ultimate shot of Dan lying face down on the deck mimics the death of Amy's father who had drowned when she was a child. Amy was present at her father's drowning and was unable to save him. At the end Dan is motionless turns out to be shocked he lived because he felt it was his fault for the deaths of their long time friends
