Why? In god's name do they build a testing facility (regardless of super-intelligent mutant sharks or normal ones) in the middle of the ocean? Surely the same tests could be done in a facility inland?
They are illegally modifying the sharks' genetics. Presumably being out in the middle of nowhere makes it less likely that regulators or snooping reporters will drop by and get a look at their too-big-to-be-natural research subjects.
They didn't build it, it was a repurposed WW2 submarine pen.
They're working with makos, which in Real Life can't be kept in captivity because they batter themselves to death against the sides of tanks.
Why don't they build the fences full out of the apparently sharkproof material?
It's not like there was a reason for the compound to start sinking and to take it in account when building the fences.
Why would Franklin, after being advised not to, still stand near a pool of water leading directly into the shark pit? Its a well known fact that sharks ARE capable of leaping out of the water quite a ways.
He's a corporate business manager more concerned with making his speech then paying heed to a warning he probably ignored as irrelevant.
Sharks aren't really known to leap out of the water to get things. Not even all Great Whites exhibit the behaviour and they are doing it to attack seals, not jump on land.
If it pained Susan so much to see her Alzheimer's-afflicted father cry every time she reminded him her mother was dead, why couldn't she just tell the poor guy that her mom was out shopping or whatever? If the man's memory was that far gone, you'd think offering him a little peace would be more important than Brutal Honesty.
He's her father, and Susan doesn't seem particularly good at lying. Even if he doesn't remember recent events, he could probably tell when his little girl was hiding the truth from him. Plus, she never said she'd told him every time he asked, only that every time she did have to admit it, it hurt them both terribly.
Why did everyone react like it was some kind of horrific revelation when Susan says that they made the shark's brains bigger? Like, they already knew this? Janice straight up says they made it's forebrain 5 times bigger during the party scene. Oh my god! The thing we already knew about bit us in the ass and we are going to blame the project leader even though this isn't a surprise! Besides, the skeleton crew researchers consist of 4 scientists and Carter, plus the 20-odd people who left for the weekend. All of these people worked intimately with researching and harvesting a protein that resides in the brain, complete with scans, x-rays, whatever. None of these people noticed the object of research was getting bigger? It's stupid, they already knew.
It wasn't the fact that the sharks' brains were physically larger that was a shock, it was the realization of just how well the sharks were using that additional brain capacity. Prior to the events of this film, the makos had only let the researchers observe an increased trainability and a few maneuvering tricks on their test subjects' part, not actual calculated planning.
Also, at least for Franklin, it was a revelation, set up by the fact that he asked about just what they did to modify the sharks into what they are. Janice and (most of?) the other parts of the skeleton crew did know this, but they were under the impression that the forebrain had been increased in size somehow without genetic engineering, which was both illegal and against company policy. Only Susan and Jim knew that part of it.
How did the mako escape at the beginning, and why was it not repeated to avoid the flooding of Aquatica?
Presumably that's why Carter had the fences raised higher above the waterline: he presumed it had jumped out.
The weirder part is how come the main shark didn't do that at the finale, the fence was almost completely submerged, makos can breach pretty high, if one of the Gen 1s can breach over and 8 foot fence then the Gen 2 would have been able to clear it much easier with her larger muscle mass.
Why did the makos start eating other sharks?
Probably to test their own abilities, and perhaps to fool the humans into thinking they wouldn't hurt people too.
Removing competition. They're apex predators—wiping out other large sharks enforces this.
Mako sharks normally do eat other sharks. What's strange is that they stopped eating other kinds of prey.
What destroyed the submarine, it was pointed out that the explosions up to that point couldn't have destroyed it?
With a lack of alternative explanations, I'm going to assume that one of the sharks rammed it off-balance at some point during the earlier attack, considering that Gen 2 had previously demonstrated the power to break down a steel door.
The one who pointed it out wasn't thinking right, remember the entire room is pretty much in shambles, and what with explosive waves traveling pretty well in water, along with the flooding and collapsing of much of the base, that line was probably just panic.
Why do people give Susan crap for stopping Carter shooting the shark? This isn't a zoo, yeah, she bit off the guys arm, but she was contained, he got too close, they had just proven that her brain protein can reverse Alzheimers. And Carter instantly goes for the shotgun to use on what is probably the most valuable creature on the facility. If anything Carter was the idiot, if he hadn't went for the shotgun, Susan wouldn't have dropped the shark, and she wouldn't have been able to inflict Disaster Dominoes on the facility.
Presumably, they would have been able to get the arm back for possible reattachment if the shark was dead.
Or more likely, they're not angry at her for stopping him from shooting the shark, they're angry because she released the shark from its captivity. Considering how smart the sharks were and how dangerous she has proven herself to be, doing so was undeniably stupid (and certainly set the chain of events of the movie in motion).
Would "half a stick of dynamite" really be enough to blow a shark apart?
According to Mythbusters, no. But the concussive effect of the explosion would still be fatal to the shark.
But, 2 and a half sticks would kill the shark, which is how much they said they had, but the myth was busted as the harpoon canister was far too small to contain even one-24th of the amount of flare powder needed.
They genetically engineer large super-intelligent sharks because the issue they have is cost feasibility due to yield of the anti-Alzheimers protein from regular Mako sharks; if they can do that then why don't they just isolate the DNA sequence that creates this protein and put that in to a bacterial plasmid? They could then harvest the protein from bacterial cultures with a very low chance of anyone losing their favourite limbs.
The protein they need may not have a corresponding DNA sequence. It might be the end product of chemical reactions that take place in the sharks' cerebral fluids to modify a different protein: reactions that they can't easily replicate in a test tube.
Aquatica was constructed by the Navy as a submarine yard. We're honestly supposed to believe that the military (which tends to be procedural to a fault and require safety protocols for everything) put an enormous window in the middle of their underwater complex and never even considered installing blast doors in case something happened? Granted, the glass was shatter-resistant and very thick, but if the sharks were able to crack it, a mishap with a submarine would've been able to as well.
Maybe the blast shield was there, but the very-not-military scientists were too horrified/dumbstruck by what was going on to activate it?
One of the scientists state that they added the lab after the fact. The window was likely not part of the original design.
A bigger one was breeding sharks at all, Northern Bluefin Tuna reach a similar size to the Makos, and aren't nearly as dangerous to humans.
Maybe they would be if they had hugely enhanced brains!
They made a big deal out of sharks not dying from cancer. I think they're trying to imply that sharks have scary regenerative abilities. But, as for the Fridge Logic, the crew of this experiment show a surprising amount of cleverness for being a bunch of people that signed on to make super-intelligent sharks in the first place...
So if the protein had to come from sharks, and big ones specifically, why not use whale or basking sharks? They're already enormous, and don't bite bits off people.
Why didn't they breed their super-sharks somewhere where escaping was impossible? If your shark in is a big tank in the middle of, say, Arizona, the most it can do is kill people near its little pool, who should be able to account for that risk. The PR disaster of random people getting killed could not occur.
Possibly Shown Their Work, as no aquarium has ever been able to keep a mako shark alive in captivity for longer than five days. Those which have been held in tanks refuse to eat, and gradually beat themselves to death against the walls. Even great whites are easier to maintain than that.
There may also have been a different kind of PR disaster if reporters, animal rights groups and regulatory bodies were able to observe this tank. Not so possible out in the sea. Basically, a justification for their No OSHA Compliance.
How does a submarine refueling station in the middle of the ocean make any sense? It would still require you to ship millions of gallons of fuel out to the station itself regularly so you've just traded one logistical problem for another.
Logistically, yes. Strategically, not quite as bad. By refueling the submarines out there, it would allow for extended operations, especially if the station was equipped to handle things like minor repairs and other resupply. Instead of all the subs having to come back to base to refuel, resupply and repair, you only need to have them come back when it's time for major repairs and/or shore leave.
Unless your refueling station is also an oil-drilling rig with its own refinery, you'll have to ship in massive supplies of fuel to any such facility, sea-based or onshore. The chief advantage to building the station to float in mid-ocean is probably that it's moveable.
How did Preacher not get ripped in half by the shark if he got bitten near his midsection.
