Shark Attack is a 1999 thriller Made-for-TV Movie.
In a South African fishing village, a record number of shark attacks are taking place. A marine biologist (Casper Van Dien) goes there to investigate after his best friend is killed in an attack.
It was followed by several Direct to Video sequels, including one where John Barrowman fought a Megalodon.
This film provides examples of:
- The Con: It turns out that the mayor is responsible for the surge in shark attacks (who were spiked with hormones that made them more aggressive), as he intends to drive down real estate prices so he can buy out the whole town.
- Cure for Cancer: Miles has been injecting the sharks with hormones so he can later harvest them for a cancer cure. He demonstrates this when he takes the hero to a young African boy who would have died if not for his cure. Steven calls him out for his breach of ethics by going to a developing country to test experimental drugs on children, and it later turns out that there's problems with the drug anyway.
- He Knows Too Much: It turns out that Steven's friend was murdered and dumped into a shark-infested lake because he was starting to uncover the bad guy's plan.
- Hostage for MacGuffin: After a confrontation with Miles at his lab, Steven steals his research but Miles captures his female companion before they can both get away. He calls Steven and offers to deal one for the other.
- Just Desserts: The bad guy ends up getting eaten alive by the same sharks that he had sicced on the town in order to drive down real estate prices.
- Save the Villain: In the climax both the hero and the bad guy fall out of a helicopter over a shark-infested lake. While they struggle to climb on top of a nearby buoy as the sharks close in, the hero actually tries to help the bad guy up, but is unsuccessful.
- Super-Persistent Predator: The sharks are intentionally (and as the hero—who's a marine biologist—notes, rather uncharacteristically) going after humans. This is initially thought to be because overfishing is driving them to look for prey at the shorelines, but it's later revealed to be because a guy with a Morally Ambiguous Doctorate was spiking them with hormones.
- This Bear Was Framed: The bad guys murder a researcher who was digging up too much information on them by throwing him into a lake with a bunch of hungry sharks.
- Threatening Shark: A freak record of shark attacks are plaguing a South African fishing town. It does vary it a bit, showing other species such as Tiger Sharks and Makos besides the familiar Great White.
