Nicolas Cage Stars In Movie Based On True Story Of Most Gruesome Shark Attack In History

Nicolas Cage has quite the CV when it comes to acting roles.

From a face-transplanted maniac in Face/Off to a caricature of himself in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, he's covered a lot of ground.

But here's one you may have missed - he once starred in a film about one of the most gruesome shark attacks ever.

That's right, just in case you needed some light weekend watching, this movie is 128 minutes of pure suspense.

The 2016 film is based on the story of the USS Indianapolis, the US Navy heavy cruiser that was torpedoed while on a secret mission.

USS Indianapolis: Men Of Courage, sees Nicolas Cage star as ship captain Charles B. McVay, who was wrongly blamed for the sinking of the earlier mentioned ship and only exonerated in 2000.

While the film deals with some pretty dark subject matter, it was something of a wish fulfilment scenario for Nicolas, who said in an interview with Flickering Myth: "One of my dreams or first loves is the ocean and my dream has always been to do a movie that takes place at sea. I haven’t been able to get that to happen yet. I almost did a picture with Ron Howard called The Sea Wolf, that didn’t work out.

"I almost did The Perfect Storm but that didn’t work, so I was like, ‘I’m really frustrated here.' I want to play Captain Nemo in 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, I’ve got to get on the water! Richard [Rionda Del Castro] said, 'It just so happens that I have a script.'"

And have the script he did, because the film goes on to tell the epic sea tale of how the cruiser was set to transport enriched uranium and other parts crucial to building the 'Little Boy' atomic bomb that would be dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.

It did so successfully and was sailing to the island of Leyte where, shortly after midnight on 30 July 1945, a Japanese submarine torpedoed it.

As ships often do when torpedoed, it started sinking - quickly, within 12 minutes of being hit. A chain reaction caused the vessel to take on water; there were 1,195 people on board.

Around 295 were killed from the torpedoes' impact, with the remaining 900 spending the next four days bobbing in the water, desperately avoiding hordes of hungry sharks.

Those sharks also turned out to be the Oceanic Whitetip, largely considered to be one of the most aggressive sharks in the world.

While most sharks don't hunt humans, these went into a frenzy, with 150 of the crew being eaten by them.

More died from exposure to the water, dehydration, and salt poisoning.

On the fourth day, a plane spotted survivors and called for help.

Charles McVey, played by Nicolas Cage in the film, was among those rescued.

Well, that's your next movie sorted anyway.

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Topics: Film and TV, Celebrity, Nicolas Cage, News

Shola Lee

Shola Lee began her journalism career while studying for her undergraduate degree at Queen Mary, University of London and Columbia University in New York. She has written for the Columbia Spectator, QM Global Bloggers, CUB Magazine, UniDays, and Warner Brothers' Wizarding World Digital. Recently, Shola took part in the 2021 BAFTA Crew and BBC New Creatives programme before becoming a journalist at UNILAD, where she works on breaking news, trending stories, and features.