After a slew of underwhelming Hollywood shark tales over the years, fans of the sub-genre were finally treated to a good film in the form of Netflix’s recent release Under Paris.
Spoilers ahead!
Directed by Xavier Gens and starring Bérénice Bejo (The Artist) and Nassim Lyes in lead roles, the film is about a marine biologist’s race against time to prevent a killer shark from wreaking havoc in the Parisian river Seine as the city prepares for the World Triathlon Championship.
The film ends on a relatively uncertain note, leaving the Parisians in jeopardy. The final arc begins with Sophia (Bejo) and her team planting bombs all across the underwater shark nest, hoping the detonation spells doom for Lillith (the shark antagonist of the film responsible for Sophia’s husband and colleagues’ deaths) and her offspring. Their objective is to save the city and especially the triathlon participants, who remain vulnerable to the shark attack after Lillith enters the city and the corrupt mayor refuses to postpone the event despite warnings.
However, the explosives barely disrupt the shark ecosystem and instead end up riling Lillith up when she’s injured by one of the bombs. More vengeful than before, the shark mother sets off to eliminate all the swimmers in her path. Panic sets in as some members of the crowd watching the event dive in to save the swimmers, only to be munched on by the shark. Military intervention doesn’t help, either, as their wayward firing causes underwater WWII shells to explode, rupturing the infrastructure and making the entire city susceptible to a flood and a shark attack, in which Lillith is joined by her shark babies.
Towards the end, it is shown that Sophie and Adil (the river police officer assisting Sophie in the mission) survive and observe the devastation from the top of a metro entrance. The humans, meanwhile, have nowhere to go, trapped by sharks from all sides in a waterlogged city. The end credits convey that the shark attack extends beyond Paris, becoming a global nuisance. London, some parts of the United States, and even Asian cities like Bangkok and Tokyo are shown to be under siege by the apex predators.
The film ends on a rather hopeless note for the humans, who are now under threat of getting wiped off the planet as sharks take over. Under Paris’ ending sets up a sequel quite nicely, where mankind could be shown to potentially come together and solve this crisis. The film has been performing quite well on Netflix in terms of viewing numbers, and a followup certainly can’t be ruled out.
