To get away from the routine of their boring lives and work on their relationship, Daniel and Susan decide to take a vacation. The first few scenes of this 2003 Hollywood blockbuster, Open Water start dully with sparse dialogue and if you are not patient, you might grow irritated and skip some more scenes. But be patient and stay with the movie.

They take a walk by the waterside, window shop and take some photos together. At night, they try to make love but eventually don’t.

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The next morning, they join a group of other scuba divers on a boat. As they go out into the sea, their dive master gives them some information and somebody asks if the sea has any sharks in it to which the guide replies that no sharks have been spotted in the area. As they arrive at the site, a head count is taken with the crew totalling 20 and the dive master tells them the time limit. The group begins to jump off into the water in pairs.

While underwater, Daniel and Susan separate from the rest of the group to explore some of the contents of the sea. They take photos and follow a starfish.

About half an hour later, everyone else in the group is back on the boat but Daniel and Susan. Two members of the group are counted twice and so the dive master thinks everyone is back on board and the boat leaves the site.

Daniel and Susan resurface some minutes later than the time limit they were given and are surprised to see the boat has left them. At first, they are confused as to whether they were on the same site as where the boat left them but then they believe that the boat will return for them.

Watch Open Water (2003) Official Trailer #1 – Thriller Movie

They see another boat passing by afar off but Daniel insists that since their own boat will return for them, there is no reason to call out to this new boat which might not be going their way.

Slowly but surely, it begins to dawn on them that they are stranded at sea and might have probably drifted off from their original site. Cold, hungry and thirsty, they see another boat afar off and make calls for help but they are not seen even as the other boat leaves.

Worried and exhausted, they soon begin to throw blames but they forgive each other after. Susan finds some candy bars in the pocket of her scuba gear and they both eat them. Unfortunately, they realize that they have drifted into a shark-infested area. A shark bites Daniel and Susan use her weight belt to apply pressure to the wound.

Daniel, however, is left in a state of delirium. During a storm in the night, more sharks attack Daniel and kill him.

The next morning, Susan releases his body and watches as the sharks feed on him. Meanwhile, Daniel and Susan’s belongings are noticed by the dive master who remembers not seeing them come onboard again. He alerts others and they begin a search for the couple.

All alone at sea, Susan realizes that the sharks are now circling her. She looks around for rescue one last time and seeing none, removes her scuba gear, preferring to drown than to let the sharks eat her.

In the closing scene, some fishermen cut open the guts of a shark and retrieve Daniel and Susan’s camera. The one says to the other, “Wonder if it works?”

For a movie that gets its audience to invest their emotions, Open Water gets a 4 out of 5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐