The Shallows is a 2016 American survival horror thriller film directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, written by Anthony Jaswinski and starring Blake Lively.

In the film, medical student Nancy Adams gets stranded 200 yards (180 m) from shore and must use her wits and determination to survive a great white shark attack.

When she talks to her father in an emotional and strained conversation, it is revealed that Nancy is a senior student but her mother's death recently caused her to consider dropping out of medical school before graduation.

As she rides the last wave back to the beach, a large 23 ft (7.0 m) great white shark knocks her off her surfboard and bites her leg.

Nancy is left alone when the unaware locals leave the beach, and she spends the night on the rock with a wounded gull, which was also injured by the shark, and names him Steven Seagull.

Later, a boy named Miguel (from the opening of the film at the beach) finds the GoPro and informs his father, who is revealed to be Carlos.

[8] Lively was partly inspired by her husband Ryan Reynolds's work in the similarly minimalist film Buried, stating "that was one of the reasons why I wanted to take on this movie so much, because I know how tough that was for him and how rewarding it was.

However, in the end, Collet-Serra decided on a less-is-more approach,[11] noting that "...we didn't want her to be like Snow White talking to animals.

This was nearly double the expectations of the studio, with Josh Greenstein, Sony president of worldwide marketing and distribution, saying, "We had the best-reviewed new movie of the weekend and combined with a great audience response saw a fantastic result.

The website's critical consensus reads, "Lean and solidly crafted, The Shallows transcends tired shark-attack tropes with nasty thrills and a powerful performance from Blake Lively.

[27] Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times enjoyed the film, calling it an "immensely entertaining millennial B-Movie, made for summertime viewing.

"[28] Simon Thompson of IGN gave the film a 9/10, noting, "The Shallows does for surfing what The Blair Witch Project did for camping and makes Jaws look like a children's tea party... Terrifyingly good.

"[30] Staci Layne Wilson of Dread Central gave the film a negative review, saying although she wanted to like it, she felt that with "Jaume Collet-Serra's sledgehammer-style direction, Anthony Jaswinski's intelligence-insulting screenplay, and Marco Beltrami's misguided musical score, The Shallows is impossible to endorse.

Club's Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, while finding the film intermittently entertaining, considered it a step down from director Collet-Serra's previous "gimmicky genre piece" Non-Stop as well as lacking a genuine, sustained sense of suspense.

He also took issue with the writing, stating: "Anthony Jaswinski’s screenplay bogs down this no-brainer survival premise (“get off the rock and don’t die”) with needless backstory and inchoate themes.

Can't a heroine just survive a vicious shark attack without also having to overcome a family trauma and make a decision about whether or not she wants to be a doctor?