The local mayor (St. Liam John) attempts to overrule all parties and participates in an exploratory mission on a mini-submarine, but is killed when the creature destroys the vessel; alongside Stephanie Carr, Andy and its driver (Eddie).

The creature is attracted by hormones Herbert Talley cultivated from a pair of dead giant squid in an attempt to trap it.

Whip Darling’s ship is lost but the group survive on a floating piece of debris and are driven back to land by the current.

However, they are oblivious to the fact that an abnormally large number of the squid's spawn have survived and due to overfishing will grow to adulthood unchallenged.

Aside from an altered ending with the squid being killed by an explosion instead of a whale, Marcus's character being female, Manning being unrelated to any of the squid's victims and only wanting it as an exhibit for an ocean park, Whip's teenaged daughter having a subplot, and the setting being changed from Bermuda to the Pacific Northwest, the film is regarded as very faithful to the source material.