Would you prefer being devoured by a shark or mutilated by a serial killer? Well, that is pretty much the plot of Sean Byrne’s summer exploitation horror, Dangerous Animals. If you’ve watched the trailer, you perhaps already guessed the ending, but then again, it’s not a cerebral film, and even with all its predictability, there is no denying that Dangerous Animals is entertaining. A few tropes are avoided; the villain (thankfully) does not have an entire monologue explaining why he is the way he is! And there is a good dose of gore to keep you on the edge of your seat.
Bruce Tucker’s swimming with the sharks experience always attracted tourists. At first glance, he appeared to be a friendly guy, but there was an unmissable manic glint in his eyes. Two young tourists approached him for the once-in-a-lifetime experience, and he looked overzealous when they mentioned in passing that their friends back at the hostel didn’t know about their plan. The girl, Heather, was apprehensive about stepping into the locked cage, but Tucker assured her that a life’s worth of experience. It was magical underwater, and Heather was glad that she overcame her fear and gave it a chance. Heather perhaps felt a sense of accomplishment when she got back on the boat, not realizing what awaited her. In the blink of an eye, Tucker stabbed her friend, and she was all alone on the boat screaming for help.
Spoiler Alert
Why did Tucker torture his victims?
Bruce Tucker’s victims were mostly women, and he kept them in captivity for days. When his victims were completely drained and had lost their will to live, he offered them to sharks. As a young boy, Tucker had survived a shark attack, and it drastically changed him as a person. He had seen death up close, and he was perhaps under the assumption that he was almost invincible, which was why he was spared. While Dangerous Animals does not delve into Tucker’s childhood, we do get a sense of his traumatic past. He didn’t seem to have a reliable parental figure when he was young, and presumably he had witnessed torture and gore from a very early age. Perhaps his mother was mostly absent, so he grew up in abusive foster homes. He had mentioned being lonely during his childhood days. The shark attack woke him up, apparently. Even though there were warnings of shark sightings, he didn’t have an adult in his life who would’ve cared enough to warn him. Tucker proudly spoke of his survival as a miracle, and he had newspaper clippings of him framed and hung on the walls of his boat.
In his world, Tucker was the hero, and he had designed the game of torture and sacrifice to establish the power he had. It was his way of reassuring himself that he was still the one in control. Just like sharks are at the top of the food chain underwater, Tucker had convinced himself that he was the shark of the land. The lowly humans were at his mercy, and it was ultimately on him to decide their fate. He thought women were ‘weaker creatures’ who deserved to be punished, because if men like him didn’t control them, there would be chaos all around. Tucker also strongly believed that he was doing God’s work by offering human sacrifices to the sharks. They didn’t have to search for food elsewhere, keeping the shark attacks under control. And without him there would be no order to the system. Of course, this was nothing but a twisted argument that helped him justify his heinous crimes.
Tucker had a collection of torture videos where the victims were hung from a crane and their bodies were gradually submerged in the water. He used to watch the videos while having his meals—he relished seeing his victims beg for mercy and panic when death approached them. The whole ordeal had become his only source of entertainment and obsession. He cataloged the videos and marked them with a lock of the victim’s hair. Tucker was also strangely particular about the camera he used to shoot his videos. It underlined that maybe he too was abused as a child and was perhaps filmed as well, and he took immense pride in being the one behind the camera now.
What happened to Heather?
It had been days since Heather had been locked up in a cabin. When Zephyr was brought in, she was a little relieved—she at least had someone to talk to before her life came to an end. Zephyr loved chasing the waves, and she was at the beach early in the morning gearing up to go surfing. She’d approached Tucker’s truck to ask for surfing fins, and what she thought was just a regular conversation turned out to be the worst decision of her life. Tucker, ever so friendly, happily offered her the fins, and within a few seconds he approached her from behind and put a plastic bag over her head. He loaded her body in his surfing bag and brought her to his cabin. As soon as Zephyr regained consciousness, she was determined to find her way out. She had been to juvenile prison, and she knew her way out of a handcuff. When she realized that Heather was wearing an underwire bikini top, she asked her to hand it over to her. She managed to wriggle the underwire out of the garment, and just when she was about to use it to unlock the handcuffs, Tucker entered the cabin. He offered them food and water that were laced with sedatives. He figured out Zephyr’s plan, and he got rid of the wire.
Even though they had only briefly met under strange circumstances, Zephyr and Heather became friends. Heather regretted not listening to her mother and daring to explore the world. While Zephyr thought that was the right thing to do, Heather couldn’t help but second-guess her decision; after all, her life wouldn’t have been in danger if she had listened to her mother. Zephyr promised her that she would find a way out for them, but unfortunately that never happened. Tucker had suspended Heather from a crane, and he brought Zephyr out to watch her friend die right before her eyes. Zephyr begged him to stop, but Tucker had no intention of pausing his little game. He started to record the whole event, and he experienced a strange pleasure when he watched the sharks attack Heather and the blue water around her soon turn red. Zephyr helplessly watched her friend die, and she knew she was next.
How did Moses track down Tucker?
Zephyr was a fighter, and Hassie Harrison, in her interview with us, mentioned that even though the film does not delve into Zephyr’s past, you get the idea that she had lived in foster homes and experienced sexual abuse, but she fought through it all. After everything she’d been through, Zephyr preferred not trusting anyone, and she always prioritized her freedom. When Tucker tried to curb the freedom that she’d achieved after an immense struggle, Zephyr was determined to put up a fight. She used the sharp edge of the handle of the bucket that was in her cabin and stabbed Tucker with it when he came close to her. She grabbed the keys to her handcuffs and freed herself. Just as she was about to lock the cabin door, Tucker regained consciousness and chased her. She tried to reach out for help, but the radio had stopped working. Seeing no other option at hand, Zephyr jumped into the sea, but the sedative Tucker had injected her with kicked in. Tucker got hold of her and locked her back in the cabin.
Meanwhile, Moses continued his search for Zephyr. He had met her the previous day, and they’d ended up spending the night together. She intrigued him, and even though he’d invited her to his place, she was adamant about staying in her minivan. He’d realized that the world had disappointed Zephyr, and she had learned to always have her guard up. Even though he barely knew her, he felt a deep connection with her, and he assumed they would continue hanging out the next day, but he never heard back from her. Initially he thought she was not interested in him, but after seeing her minivan parked on the beach, he became suspicious. Even if she’d gone surfing, he thought it was strange that she never returned to the place she called her home. So, where was she? He grew all the more curious when her surfboard was discovered; clearly something was up, and Moses was determined to find the truth. He went through the surveillance videos collected from the cameras all across the beach, and he noticed a van with a ‘Tucker’s Experience’ sticker on it passing by Zephyr’s minivan. Moses assumed that since the driver was possibly the last person to see Zephyr, he could help him find an answer. He looked up ‘Tucker’s experience’ online and tried to contact him, but Tucker didn’t receive the call.
Desperate, Moses decided to check out the address mentioned on his site. Tucker had stepped out of his boat to buy himself a camera. Zephyr had destroyed his old one, and he was on the lookout for a similar option at a warehouse store. Meanwhile, Moses ended up on Tucker’s boat, and he heard muffled screams. He made it to the cabin Zephyr was locked up in. Zephyr was glad to see Moses, and she begged him to get her something sharp to unlock the handcuffs. The minute Moses made it to the upper deck, Tucker attacked him. Moses managed to dial the emergency helpline, but Tucker grabbed him before he could say a word. Moses somehow managed to overpower Tucker, but all of a sudden an old man came and hit him on the head. As it turned out, it was Tucker’s neighbor. But soon the old man heard Zephyr’s screams, and he looked at Tucker in horror. Tucker couldn’t take any risks, so he axed the old man. Moses ended up handcuffed in the same cabin as Zephyr, and he was apologetic for not successfully carrying out the rescue. Zephyr hadn’t expected anybody to come searching for her; she’d always been a lone wolf, and to have someone actually care about her was a new experience. She was simply glad that Moses showed up, though she struggled to express her emotions. After the romantic reunion, Tucker was back, and this time he planned on using Moses as bait for the sharks. Even though the boat had very little fuel left, Tucker decided to drive the boat to Hangman’s Shoal to start with his sacrifice game. He was gradually losing control—he avoided making sacrifices in the middle of the day, but he didn’t have much of an option. He had two victims in his cabin; his neighbor was dead, and he didn’t have enough fuel in the tank. He perhaps could already sense that the end was near, but he refused to accept it. He was driven by a sense of madness, and even though it was a risky move, he decided to suspend Moses from the crane.
Zephyr warned Tucker that, unlike her and Heather, there would be people looking for Moses, and he would get in trouble, but Tucker ignored her. Zephyr advised Moses to be still in the water, and it actually worked. He was not attacked by the sharks, and Tucker didn’t have any option but to bring him back on the deck. But this time, he stabbed Moses to lure the sharks with the taste of blood. Just as he was about to drop Moses into the sea, he noticed a helicopter and decided to postpone his plan.
How did Zephyr take down Tucker?
Zephyr figured Moses would bleed to death if she didn’t come up with an escape plan. So, she did the impossible. Zephyr intentionally fractured her thumb to wriggle her hand out of the handcuff. But when that didn’t work, she bit her thumb off and freed herself. She eventually trapped Tucker in the cabin when he entered. He accessed an alternate escape door, and he was back chasing Zephyr. Even though she was bleeding and there were sharks in the water, Zephyr chose to take that risk rather than be at the mercy of a killer. She made it to a private island and was about to scream for help, but Tucker once again got hold of her. He dragged her back to the boat.
During Dangerous Animals’ ending, Tucker suspended Zephyr from the crane and had Moses fixed to a seat to witness the death of his lover. He compared Zephyr to a marlin; he thought she too had the same fight as the fish, but he warned her that once a fisherman had their hook set in, there was no escape. A massive shark showed up right on time, and there was no bound to Tucker’s joy. He lowered the ropes and started recording the moment. But things got complicated when the shark didn’t attack Zephyr, and she ended up with the gaff that Tucker used to redirect the shark. Zephyr eventually fell into the water, and as she tried to swim for her life, the majestic creature approached her. For a second she perhaps thought she would die, but the shark didn’t attack. The shark just has a terrible reputation thanks to franchises like ‘Jaws,’ but in reality the dangerous animals are the ones living amongst us. They could be the innocent-looking strangers offering to help out only to later satisfy their twisted desires and seek pleasure from the suffering of other humans. Zephyr made it back to the boat, and she had the retractable gaff with her. In Dangerous Animals’ ending, Zephyr used the gaff’s retractable hook to pierce Tucker’s body. He fell into the water, and soon the gigantic shark devoured him.
Did Moses survive?
Since Zephyr was holding the gaff when the shark dragged Tucker’s body, she too fell into the sea. She managed to swim back, but by the time she made it to the boat, Moses’ condition was critical. She used the emergency flare, and thankfully it worked. A nearby cruise ship noticed the flare, and help finally arrived. Zephyr confessed that while she always thought she didn’t have anything waiting for her on land, things had changed now because she had Moses. The horror ends with a touch of romantic drama, as Moses opened up his eyes the minute Zephyr confessed her true feelings. He was alive, and presumably this was the bloody beginning of their love story!
