Carter stopping one of the makos from eating a bunch of water-treading teens in the beginning of the movie with almost effortless ease. And in general him lacking the primal fear of the sharks, even swimming with a tiger shark who are notoriously aggressive, and voluntairly going into the water with the three makos in situations where he'd be hopelessly outmatched.
Carter swims with a tiger shark to remove a license plate stuck in its mouth.
Carter captures a mako for the testing and avoids being eaten by using his curb tank as a decoy, then tranquilizing it from behind.
For the Token Minority character, the cook, Sherman "Preacher" Dudley, gets several good moments:
Getting trapped in an oven in a flooded kitchen—with a super-intelligent shark outside, ramming the oven and switching on the gas (because the situation wasn't bad enough, apparently)—isn't enough to stop him. He manages to take advantage of the oven's relatively weak walls to bust his way out and make his escape. But not before...
Cook:"You ate my bird. *Cue the lighter flung into the room, setting off the gas leak and blowing up the shark*
As the survivors get ready to make their escape, Sherman—who, it should be noted, is deeply religious—takes their hands and leads them in a prayer for good luck, delivered with such gusto that it might as well be a Badass Creed:
Sherman: Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Surely, through this, your mercy shall follow me all the days of my life...because I carry a big stick, and I'm themeanestmotherfucker in the valley. Two sharks down, Lord. One demon fish to go. Can I get an amen?!
Others: Amen!
Sherman gets nabbed by the last shark in the climax. But where the others in this situation got killed, he hangs on long enough to take his crucifex and stab the shark several times until he's able to get free!
Finally, topping it all off, he's the one that takes the shot to pin an explosive harpoon to the last shark, then sets off the explosives attached to it that kills it for good.
Also, he survives all of this, despite lampshading the fact that the Black Dude Dies First.
Russell Franklin's Rousing Speech to the rest of the survivors was pretty damn awesome. He actually succeeds in restoring calm to the panicking group and begins to outline a plan of escape. No, the fact that a shark popped up and cut him off in no way detracts from his awesomeness.
Which could, itself, be rated as a Moment of Awesomefor the shark. How many other film baddies can claim to have taken out Samuel L. Jackson that effortlessly?
When a shark corners her in a flooding room, Susan rips a power cable out of the wall and rams it into the shark's mouth as it leaps up at her. She also makes sure to discard her wetsuit to use as a barrier between herself and the metal shelf she's standing on so she won't get electrocuted along with the shark.
