Trivia: Saffron Burrows (Susan) can be seen doling out air hand signals to the crew in some underwater shots.
Deep Blue Sea (1999)
1 trivia entry since 22 Mar '24, 11:12
Directed by: Renny Harlin
Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Thomas Jane, Stellan Skarsgard, Michael Rapaport, Saffron Burrows, Jacqueline McKenzie
Factual error: Near the beginning when the boat pulls up and the guy on the boat tells the blond convict he's got a beauty 13 foot "Tiger shark" that's up in some sort of sling, the so called tiger shark is actually the same robot mako shark from the rest of the movie, just with stripes on it. Tiger sharks have a blunt rounded nose, not a pointed one like a great white. (00:07:35)
Russell Franklin: Just what the hell did you do to those sharks?
Dr. Susan McCallister: Their brains weren't large enough to harvest sufficient amounts of the protein complex. So we violated the Harvard Compact. Jim and I used gene therapies to increase their brain mass, a larger brain means more protein. As a side effect the sharks got smarter.
Janice Higgins: You stupid bitch!
Question: I know that Susan was originally supposed to survive and kill the last shark but the test audience greatly disapproved of this. Why did the test audience hate the original ending? And why is this ending unavailable to watch?
Answer: Audiences viewed Susan as a villain of sorts, because all the mayhem and deaths in the film are a direct result of her breaching protocol, so they decided to rewrite the ending to have her die. As for why it's unavailable to view, perhaps the filmmakers didn't think people would be interested in seeing it.
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Answer: They viewed her as a villain because it was her research that backfired and caused all of the chaos, even though none of it was intentional and it was a mistake. But audiences can be ruthless and unforgiving at times. However, the ending did feel like a cheap cop-out that created more plot holes. And many do feel she should have survived and completed her character arc. I don't know why they never offered the ending as a bonus feature on the DVD, but fans started a petition on the Change site calling for Warner to release the original ending. Thomas Jane is on board as well, as he's promoting it on his Instagram account. So that's probably the best way to get Warner's attention if you want to see the original ending.