After a freak occurrence causes the yacht to sink, the two are forced to head for shore in a lifeboat, only to be attacked and eaten by an unseen creature hours later.

The next day, local fisherman Whip Dalton (William Petersen) finds the empty lifeboat and discovers a large claw stuck into the boat.

Whip Dalton sends the claw to a university to be analyzed and it ends up in the hands of marine biologist Dr. Herbert Talley (Ronald Guttman), alongside assistant Christopher Lane; given pair of who comes to Grave's Point claiming it is from the tentacle of a giant squid.

Lucas Coven succeeds in slaying a squid and the carcass is promptly sold by Graves to Sea Land Texas owner Osborne Manning (Denis Arndt).

Lucas Coven resumes the hunt along with Whip's friend, Mike Newstead, and another crew member named Scranton (David Field).

But when the ship's engine breaks down, Manning reveals that he filled the darts with tranquilizer instead of cyanide so he could take the squid alive back to Sea Land.

As he boards the helicopter, Whip Dalton fends the squid off with an axe, chopping open several extra fuel drums and has Kathryn use a flare gun to set his boat on fire.

This TV adaption based on Peter Benchley's novel of the same name is mostly faithful to the source material; but some changes were made for the sake of film locations and pacing.