Stupid Contrived Survival Stories

[u/MammothPenguin69]

1. 12 Feet Deep - Two idiots decide they absolutely positively MUST go swimming in a pool after it's closed. An incredibly contrived sequence of events happens so they get stuck in a pool. So the movie can happen.

2. Frozen (not that one) - Three idiots decide they absolutely positively MUST get on a ski-lift after it's closed. To the point of bribing the operator who for some stupid reason doesn't say anything. Do the movie can happen. Also, Wolves are not that aggressive. They are typically shy and avoid humans.

3. 47 Meters Down- Arguably the most believable scenario on this list. It's still really stupid.

4. Fall- Two idiots decide to climb an abandoned radio tower without proper equipment that would make escaping their predicament trivially easy. Stop me if you've heard this one before

so the movie can happen.

[u/melvoriim]

Open Water 2: Adrift: Everyone jumps off a yacht for a swim without lowering the ladder first, leaving a baby alone onboard while six adults are trapped in the water. The entire movie happens because nobody remembered the boat has really high sides. So the movie can happen.

[u/LovelyFloraFan → u/melvoriim]

And going by the fact this is a sequels its not even the first time it happened...

[u/UsedState7381 → u/LovelyFloraFan]

The first movie is actually not that much of a stupid scenario, which the protagonists are not the actual idiots, they go on a deep-diving excursion in the middle of the ocean and by accident they get left behind by the crew who took them there.

Also supposedly it did happened in real life.

[u/Saedraverse → u/[deleted]]

Yeah, MrBallen & Scary Interesting have done videos on it

[u/jake04-20 → u/[deleted]]

Is that the movie with the opening scene with the chick laying naked on the bed?

[u/jake04-20 → u/[deleted]]

I remember starting to watch that with my parents before they kicked me out of the basement right after that scene, and I never watched it again, so that's genuinely ALL that I remember of that movie lol. I had to look it up for old time's sake, they're as nice as I remember them being. 11 year old me had good taste even back then.

[u/TheMostKing → u/[deleted]]

If I remember right, IRL the organisers used a buddy system. So you dove in couples, and if one of you wasn't there, the other could let the people in charge know "hey, my diving partner isn't here." Apparently, no one considered the fact that both partners could be missing.

[u/Annual-Slice7305 → u/UsedState7381]

They do not communicate clearly with the boat captain and trade off mid-dive with someone else, creating a terrible miscount. It's not impossible, but it's just as "stupid" as not putting a ladder down, if not moreso because at least divers go through a whooooooooole training before ever strapping on a tank.

[u/Saedraverse → u/Annual-Slice7305]

Wasn't the case then when they were doing the count, some folks decided to be funny & jump back into the water & get back on leading to the miss count. (ye'd think I'd rememver given MRBallen did a vid on it & I recently watched scary interesting vid on it.)

[u/the__pov → u/LovelyFloraFan]

The original is less contrived and actually based on a real life tragedy: a couple gets separated from their scuba group and, due to improper safety procedures, the boat leaves without them leaving them stranded in the middle of the ocean.

[u/thatmermaidprincess → u/the__pov]

The first Open Water was the first movie to truly terrify me.

My parents rented it from Blockbuster (aging myself here lol) and, after putting me to bed, watched it together on the couch for like a date movie night. I was so interested in whatever this movie was because I loved to boogie board and surf so I secretly hid behind the banister and watched the whole thing. I was like 7 at the oldest. It’s been 20 years and I vividly remember the horror I felt, and I can still remember exact scenes and how terrifying they were. Then when the movie ended and credits rolled, I ran back to my room trying to silently cry, got in bed, and loudly sobbed and pretended I had a nightmare…. The contents of which just so happened to be “couple gets stranded and left for dead in the middle of the ocean”.

My mom and dad looked at each other and sighed and were like, “we told you to go to bed! That’s an R-rated movie for a reason! It’s not for kids!” and I was put on my best kid-acting: “I don’t know what you’re talking about, I’ve been asleep this whole time, it’s just a crazy coincidence! Don’t you see the fact that I had that nightmare during your movie is a sign that we should never go back into the ocean ever again?!”

Then I got threatened with being grounded from the computer and not being able to play Neopets if I kept lying, and so I fessed up to the whole thing, while my parents had to comfort my dumb ass. Ahhhh. [r/kidsarefuckingstupid](r/kidsarefuckingstupid) indeed.

[u/Cerpin-Taxt → u/the__pov]

Kinda doesn't matter though because Open Water is the worst movie ever made. Half the movie is just a black screen set to the sounds of two people snot-crying and the other half was shot for $5 on a camcorder someone pulled out of a dumpster.

If you enjoy the idea of watching 80 minutes of two people treading water while shitting and crying until ultimately mercifully dying this is the film for you. Literally nothing happens apart from that. This is not hyperbole. That's the whole film. I've seen a lot of movies. This is the worst one and it's not even close.

[u/DyingSunSeverian → u/Cerpin-Taxt]

I’m not sure what else you expected to happen. They’re treading water in a shark-infested area with zero help in sight, and you’re giving them shit for “snot-crying”? I’d like to see how you’d hold up in that scenario.

This is also hideously reductive, basically like saying Buried is a movie about a man in a coffin. That doesn’t seem like a fun way to watch movies.

[u/Cerpin-Taxt → u/DyingSunSeverian]

Just because something is realistic doesn't mean it makes good cinema.

I could film 80 minutes of me farting using my phone, it would be extremely realistic but I promise you, not entertaining in the slightest.

As for what I expected to happen, I expected to see a competently made horror/thriller. What I actually saw was a movie without any substance, shot terribly, in excruciating tedium. They couldn't even stretch it to 90 minutes and it was still spread too thin.

It's the worst movie.

[u/sicsided → u/Cerpin-Taxt]

We have refunds at our movie theater for Open Water. Everyone fucking hated it. I was on the cleaning crew and we always played rock-paper-scissors to see who had to go in and wait for the movie to end to start cleaning. God it was terrible.

[u/farklespanktastic → u/LovelyFloraFan]

The first movie was about a couple being left behind by their scuba diving tour group and is based on an actual case of that happening.

[u/big_sugi → u/LovelyFloraFan]

Iirc, the boat left without them in the first one.

Edit: in fact, the “sequel” was actually written before—and had nothing to do with—the original movie. But when the original movie was very successful ($55 million on a $500k budget), they slapped the name on an existing script, made the movie, and released it.

The sequel made $6 million on a $1 million budget, so they did it again a decade or so later after 47 Meters came out and made $60 million. They slapped the Open Water name on another movie about a shark cage and released it. But the third movie made less than $1 million, so it’s probably done now.

[u/El_presid3nt → u/LovelyFloraFan]

The first one is actually based on a true story and it wasn’t the dead people’s fault

[u/AreYouThereSagan → u/LovelyFloraFan]

As others have said, the original was based on a real incident and not at all contrived. I'll also add that it's actually a good movie, too. I haven't seen the sequel but I'm sure it was just an instance of the execs attaching the name of a successful one-off IP to an unrelated film in order to get people to watch it.