MovieChat Forums > The Reef (2011) Discussion > This was actually really good but the en...

This was actually really good but the ending RUINED IT

posted 13 years ago by vinnychase
53 replies | jump to latest

From the moment the four of them got in the water after the boat sank I was on the edge of my seat. But as they caught view of that piece of land I started to dread the ending. I knew what they were going to do but I just hoped for once...they wouldn't fall into that unoriginal trap. So the first guy dies, then his girlfriend. So now you have Luke and his ex girlfriend who reveal that they love each other and all that non sense. They are within arms length of the reef and what happens? The girl survives and Luke DIES. Are you ****ing kidding me?

I am so unbelievably sick of this ridiculous, feminist catering ending we get from pretty much every movie these days. The man dies and the woman survives. For no reason at all. There was no reason to kill off Luke and let his girlfriend survive. He was the survivalist among them all and did what he could to keep them all alive. This story was supposed to be based on true events. Well guess what? In real life the MAN survived and the woman died. But no they just had to follow that typical female, white knighting script of making sure the lone female makes it to the end. And then they had the audacity to write that text at the end that explains how the girl was rescued to fool people into thinking that actually happened in real life when in reality the man was rescued instead.

Not trying to sound sexist at all I'm just so god damn sick of it because I just watched the movie "Frozen" and the same thing happened in that movie. The girl in the movie was unbelievably stupid and she gets to survive even though she made the most survival mistakes.

[–] reo1000 13 years ago

I agree. I love shark movies and I thought The Reef was really good, one of the best.

But the ending was bad. I read that it was based on a true story, but I thought that was just made up to make the film seem more scary. But if it really is true and the man was the one that survived, then that makes the ending worse.

When it was close to the end, just after the girl had died and they were on their way to the island, I knew that the guy would die and the girl would survive and they would have a breakdown ending with the girl crying for everyone and that's exactly what happened.

I was annoyed because that's how it is in a lot of movies, usually it's the girl that is a complete wreck that survives. The guy should have survived, especially if he did in real life.

The ending would have been far better, if the guy stopped looking in the water and swam to the rock. Then when they got to the rock, the girl couldn't get up and he couldn't push her up. So he managed to climb up himself and then tried to lift the girl, but the shark gets her. Then he is left alone to cry for everyone.

I knew the girl was going to survive, so that ending would have shocked me. The guy dying and the girl sobbing at the end isn't upsetting to me because that's what always happens.

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Unbelievable. Yet.. believable.

[–] vinnychase 13 years ago

Wow that was refreshing. I expected people to call me a sexist pig lol.

But anyway the movie is not based on a true story but rather true events which gives them the freedom to manipulate it however they want. In real life their boat did sink but I believe there were two men and a woman. Man #1 is eaten by a shark and then the woman is. The last guy was being hunted down as well but made it to safety on a reef or something and some fishermen found him and he was saved.

IMO they let the woman survive in the movie because it has become accepted that it's not in good taste to let the weaker female die and that it's the more powerful man's duty to sacrifice himself for the woman. In a society where men and women are supposedly equal, this disgusts me.

[–] reo1000 13 years ago

Movies need to change, it's no longer shocking to see, it's expected.

You can often tell who will die in movies, I saw straight away which two out of the group were the main characters. I predicted that Matt would die first, because he was the co-star guy, then his girlfriend, then they would have some scary moments up until the end when Luke was killed.

If they changed it up a bit, the movie could have been so much better. It was really good as it is, but just thinking about it, you are sitting there expecting the guy to get eaten and the girl to survive and then you are wrong. Far more shocking.

---
Unbelievable. Yet.. believable.

[–] Moriarty88 13 years ago

hey im a girl and im pissed off the girl lived haha.
i was rooting for her to die first and was getting more and more angry as it went on and she kept surviving. she was the one causing half the problems, everytime the shark appeared she started kicking everywhere and screaming. omg it was frustrating. and as soon as they swam for that last peice of land, i KNEW they were gonna make the guy die saving her. grr. she could of tried a bit harder to help him up.
then what the hell, she was rescued the NEXT day, are u kidding me? lol

:
In Your Box Office . com

[–] vestdennis 11 years ago

You could see the ending coming three miles from shore. The same shark (apparently) is after them and it has killed off one by one and you knew one of the final two would get killed. And of course, it's not going to be the girl.

It was a nice flick but the ending was to easy to predict and it was nonsense that they had made it that far and just inches from rescue on the island (Gilligan's?) he gets eaten by Jaws?

[–] arabken 7 years ago

Absolutely agree with you mate !

Because the film ended the way it did ... Its now a film i would never watch again even tho i did enjoy it but sometimes you watch a film and the wrong people die in it and luke totally did not deserve to be the one who died ! .. and because the true story its based on, the guy was the one to survive ! then like you said , it makes the ending of this one worse !

Good film , the ending doesnt ruin it but somehow leaves a feeling of unfairness to the luke character !

[–] laikinasemail 13 years ago

You are sexist, misogynistic pig, why do you hate women so much? You think if she is a girl she doesn't deserve to survive? Well, guess what, males lead them into this situation, not girls! Males convinced them to swim around. It is their fault, you little fascist. I hope you die horrible death in an open water.

[–] tobias_kl 13 years ago

I didn`t really care about who would die and who would survive. I was pretty sure his ex girlfriend would survive. I liked this ending more than a happy end where both of them survive. So I have not really a problem with the ending.

[–] slash_pars 13 years ago

It's become a bit of a horror movie cliche for the female character to survive. It would be nice to see it changed now and again.

SEBO!!!

[–] vinnychase 13 years ago

LOL now THAT was the response I was waiting for. Too bad I won't respond considering you displayed how terrible your reading comprehension abilities are.

[–] AfterSchoolPlay 13 years ago

Well he had the option of surviving but he chose to help Kate up the rock instead. If i was in the ocean with my gf and a big fu[c]koff shark was after me I'd let her up first (though really i'd probably be the first victim of the shark ) anyways, he died unselfishly, but it wasnt very original.

Cannot think of an interesting new sig. Username tributes Bey. Formerly Wishing_Stairs

[–] SilentNight29 13 years ago

I just watched this great movie and agree though, I didn't like that right at the very end the survivalist guy gets it. One question though,

I watch a Dutch import of this and the very end text is in a language I do not understand. Can anyone tell me what the text was in English Thanks!

[–] vinnychase 13 years ago

It said that Kate was rescued the next day and that the boat along with the guy who chose to say on it were never found.

[–] demon_pete 13 years ago

"You are sexist, misogynistic pig, why do you hate women so much? You think if she is a girl she doesn't deserve to survive? Well, guess what, males lead them into this situation, not girls! Males convinced them to swim around. It is their fault, you little fascist. I hope you die horrible death in an open water."

No he isn't, he is simply just saying why change what really happened in the true events just because someone has a vagina.

[–] RoadSideAssistance 13 years ago

This is like a joke reply, right?

Any more predictability out of this response and I bet we could make millions in the future markets.

[–] ave_roma2004 12 years ago

What a moron. Roflmao.

[–] yogsottoth 13 years ago

That was the single most pointless post I've ever read on imdb in my entire life. Who cares about the gender of the last survivor? How could that possibly bother you? And fyi, she didn't survive because of some female-empowerment scheme, quite the opposite in fact. It was her and not Luke because:

1- She kept swimming while Luke was trying to outmaneuver the shark,
2- Luke had to push her up the rocks because she couldn't climb by herself,
3- She couldn't help Luke get out of the water because she wasn't strong enough to lift him up, this also explains why it was Luke who did the pushing in the first place.

Did you really need that to be explained? In what movie (or real life even) would the main guy leave the girl in the water and save himself first?

http://www.savingsharks.com/
http://www.savetheblue.org

[–] screamingwhisper04 13 years ago

1. Her swimming away while Luke "outmanuevered" (it wasn't Deep Blue Sea... He was trying to see where it was...) the shark is irrelevant. If anything it makes her more of an idiot. She got to the island first, clearly couldn't climb up the rocks, so she hangs out and waits for the man to save her. If she was semi-level headed she could have tried to find and area that was either shorter or simply easier to climb.

2. All the more reason why she was an unfit character to survive. Essentially you're saying that the only reason she lived was because a man saved her.

3. Again, more of a reason for us not to like her as the survivor.

You said that she didn't survive because of some "female-empowerment," well, I disagree. The character herself should have been one of the first ones to go. From the "WAIT! I CHANGED MY MIND SO CHILL OUT IN THE WATER FOR A MINUTE WHILE I GET READY TO SWIM WITH YOU!" scheme to the panicking in the water to the inability to save herself.

Don't get me wrong, I don't really care about the gender of the survivor in these types of movies. But gosh, give us a survivor we can stand behind!

"My name is Alice... and I remember everything."

[–] yogsottoth 13 years ago

1- The shark was charging at them and they knew it, so the only reason he wanted to see where the shark was because he obviously was using his body language and direct stare to intimidate the shark, not because he wanted to look at those black eyes one last time. And that's called outmaneuvering. If you knew anything about sharks you would know that there are many ways you can use your body language to scare them off. If stupid Matt hadn't swam away from the group, there was a slim chance that Luke could have managed to hold off the first attack for a while longer, or indefinitely even. That was the reason he kept wearing his goggles to see where the shark was, so that he could always stand his ground or attack back if necessary to show the shark that he was not prey.

2- Oh my god, yes, Luke was obviously the fit one for survival, but it was the girl who ended up living. Get over it.

3- Oh I am sorry that she couldn't suddenly burst into muscles strong enough to lift a man up from the water in 20 seconds without even bracing herself properly. It was just bad luck that the rock surface was so smooth. And they had no time to circle the land, their best chance was to try the face they were trying to climb. And how did she wait for Luke to be lifted up? She was frantically trying to climb up! Your hatred for this Kate character made you delusional. And why does her changing her mind about staying on the boat makes her a well-deserved candidate for dying first? How is that even relevant?

Characters the audience root for die too, actually those are the kind of movies that affect you the most.

http://www.savingsharks.com/
http://www.savetheblue.org

[–] screamingwhisper04 13 years ago

Okay, whoa. Settle down, bud. No need to get all defensive.

1. Thank you, but I know my sharks. I've been fascinated with them since I can remember and I admit to being a nerd about them and "researching" them (for lack of a better term). No need to attack me just because I disagreed with you. And where did the whole Matt thing come up? I'm very well aware that he was the dumbest of them all and completely deserved his fate by not only separating himself from the group but also taking off in a panicked state. All the splashing is interpreted as distress. But yeah, I don't need to go into that because you're the shark expert here. And really, "intimidate" the shark? I think by this point in the movie, everyone (characters AND audience) knew that this shark couldn't be intimidated, nor would a great white have any reason to be by one man. While there were four and huddled in a group? Maybe. But I doubt it would be because of Luke's aggressive stare rather than a sheer "power in numbers" type perspective. That's a heavy maybe still.

2. I am over it. I'm not writing angry letters to the director nor am I watching the movie again hoping for a different ending. It is what it is: a shark flick. I expected nothing more and nothing less. If anyone needs to get over anything, it's you and your sense of superiority.

3. I didn't expect her to become some sort of badass and save the day at the end, but as the "main surviving girl" I expected more. I knew who was going to die and in what order within ten minutes of the movie, meaning it was a pretty cut-and-paste formula that offered nothing new. If a movie's going to play by the rules, it needs to play by all of them. If its aim is to shock us, then mix it up. Having a "survivor girl" that's unlikeable and frankly, stupid, left a bad taste in my mouth. If you don't know the recipe for a strong female lead for this cut-and-paste type of flick... well, you need to watch some more genre movies. Her changing her mind and her little conflict with "swimming to an island you can't see" can only be interpreted as a lack of a will to survive and a lack of self-confidence in her abilities. Had the film given her a chance for a "turning point" where the character becomes stronger and reaches a state of absolute determination, I could have overlooked this. But alas, it didn't happen.

4. I never said I was rooting for Luke. While he was clearly the "fit one for survival," I still found him annoying and one dimensional. If the movie really wanted to affect the audience, it should have killed off everyone. Its lackluster ending attempted to shock us and leave us feeling down... but really it just pissed me and apparently a *few* others off. But again, it is what it is. If this movie delivered for you and you can honestly say you're happy with Kate surviving... well, I'm happy for you. God knows I love plenty of movies where other people are saying "WTF?" But I'm sticking with Jaws or Deep Blue Sea the next time I'm feeling a shark flick. :)

"My name is Alice... and I remember everything."

[–] Extinctive 13 years ago

Vinny, I wholeheartedly agree with you.
It was so unrealistic that he would ask her to pull him up, while from looking at the scene it was quite obvious he could have gotten up by himself just a few meters to the right, and if this wasn't that predictable piece of *beep* movie it turned out to be, he would have done that. Who are they kidding here? Do they think we actually buy that the Luke character would yell at her to pull him up? Really? Give us a freaking break!

[–] cpheonix 13 years ago

I guess you could argue that when you panic like that, anything's possible, especially if a massive shark is coming towards you.

Although I agree that it was out of character for him to shout that, considering he'd been as calm as anything the previous times.

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] GhostsDontExist 13 years ago

Can someone please link me to this original story????

[–] Angelus-16 13 years ago

*Sigh*

Female characters survive longer because the notion of terror is gendered feminine.

Think about all the horror movie posters that have screaming women on them: how many have shrieking men? Next to none.

The audience simply doesn't buy into a terrified man the way it does a terrified woman, therefore the last one standing is usually the girl and the audience roots for her because of this factor.

It's sexist alright, but it's hardly pro-feminist: women in horror films are often incapable victims. You could argue a similar case over nudity in horror flicks - that's not altogether balanced either!

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] Clem_DeFontane 13 years ago

I absolutely agree with you on this one. I think the "lone, lucky female survivor" thing is a relic of '70s-'80s slasher movies. Back then, I'll bet that ending was surprising. Also, you could easily argue that that kind of ending is symbolic when it's in a slasher film (girl unleashes her repressed sexuality in order to defeat a sexist male figure).

In this movie, though, it just stank like a big, rancid cliche.

Something weird: Netflix said I would give this a 5/5, but I can't give it more than a 3/5, because nothing really happened. It was really tense, sure, but that's all it was. The shark attacks meant nothing to me in this film. And, the ending just made the whole thing mean even less, since I've seen it a million other times. They should have just made a documentary about the event.