Creature from the Black Lagoon - Director's Cut
Genre: Adventure/Horror
Director: Matt Reeves
Writer: D.R. Cobb
Based on the 1954 film
Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Boyd Holbrook, Demian Bichir, Matt Smith, Brian Tee, Christopher Eccleston, Andy Serkis
Plot: Dr. Carlos Maia (Demian Bichir) arrives at a copper mine in Brazil after his superiors have ordered him to verify a fossil discovered by the miners. Maia is escorted through the narrow tunnels of the mine and to a recently dug up portion. The workers all point to a dark corner. Maia moves closer with his headlamp turned up to its highest setting. He is shocked by the fossil he sees which, based on its skeletal pattern, appears to be a humanoid amphibian. Maia asks the foreman who else knows about the fossil. He insists that Maia is the first one outside of his crew to see it. Maia hands the foreman an envelope of money and asks that the foreman refrain from mentioning this discovery to anyone else. The foreman nods as he counts the bills in the envelope.
Maia calls his former student, ichthyologist Dr. David Rollins (Boyd Holbrook), and insists that he needs to come down to Brazil to help him investigate this discovery. Rollins is unsure, but is intrigued when Maia tells him that he believes that the fossil in question could be a possible direct link between land and sea animals. Rollins reluctantly agrees to join the expedition when Maia reveals that Rollins' ex-girlfriend, marine biologist Kay Lawrence is part of the team.
When Rollins arrives in Brazil, a car takes him to a port along the Amazon river. Maia greets him and introduces him to the expedition's benefactor, Dr. Mark Wallace (Matt Smith) , a millionaire pop scientist who has agreed to contribute significant funds to the expedition in exchange for a portion of credit for any of their potential findings. At the docks, Wallace leads them onto his cutting-edge research ship. Wallace and Maia go to speak to the ship's captain Lowell (Christopher Eccleston), but Rollins sees Kay Lawrence (Scarlett Johansson) unloading some of her equipment on the deck of the ship and goes over to assist her.
Maia asks Lowell and Wallace why they haven't left the port yet, and Wallace tells him that they are waiting on one last member of the expedition. Maia says he wasn't aware of any other members of the expedition, and Lowell tells Maia that he is having his own paleontologist join them. Maia is annoyed that Wallace would go behind his back like that.
On the ship's deck, Kay and Rollins are catching up with each other. Rollins tries to subtly ask Kay if she's seeing anyone romantically, and Kay tells him that she is not. She explains that not many men are interested in her potentially leaving at a moment's notice to board a ship for six months to study the migration patterns of sea turtles. Rollins comments that he remembers what it was like to be with her quite well. Dr. Ken Tanaka (Brian Tee) finally arrives on the ship and Lowell begins captaining the research ship down the Amazon River toward the copper mines of the discovery.
When the expedition arrives at the mines, they set up a camp. By the time their camp is set up, Maia announces that since it's already getting late that everyone should get some sleep so they can start bright and early on their hunt for more ancient evidence of the existence of their prehistoric gill-man.
That night, an amphibious humanoid creature (Andy Serkis) emerges from the water an kills two of Wallace's lab assistants. The bodies are found in the morning by Kay, who screams at the sight of their mangled bodies. Lowell informs the others that based on his experience leading groups through the Amazon, that he'd put his money on their death coming at the teeth and claws of a jaguar. Kay can't stand the sight of the bodies anymore and turns toward Rollins to cover her gaze. Wallace announces that while the death of his assistants is surely a tragic incident, that he believes the best way to honor their memory would be to begin their important work here.
Maia, Wallace and Tanaka lead the dig near the mines, while Rollins and Kay go diving in the river near the mines to look for any evidence on the river floor. Rollins notes how few fish there appear to be in this stretch of river, commenting that all of the Amazon tributaries he's worked in have been abundant with sea life except for this one. Kay points out a pattern of erosion to Rollins that leads down river from the mines. Rollins jokingly asks Kay if she's a geologist now too. Maia and Wallace are both frustrated when the further excavation of the area around the fossil turns up nothing. Back at the camp, Wallace announces that the expedition may have been a waste of time and he isn't in wasting his fortunes staying here longer than necessary and coming up with nothing. Rollins gives Kay a nudge, and she suggests to the team that based on the erosion patterns she saw on the river floor it is highly likely that any other remaining fossil pieces could easily have been swept up in the water and washed down river. Maia asks where the stretch of river they're on leads, and Lowell tells the group that if the tributary they're on empties into a lagoon that the natives call the Black Lagoon. Lowell mentions that the natives have a legend about the lagoon, considering it a paradise from which no one has ever returned. Wallace asks if it is true that nobody has ever returned from the lagoon. Lowell says he has never been there so he wouldn't know.
The members of the expedition decide to have a vote to determine whether they will go explore the fabled Black Lagoon or not. Wallace is the only one who votes in the negative as he doesn't want to waste money on a wild goose chase. Maia convinces him to continue the journey by how talking up the prospect of discovering evidence of a brand new species and the right to name said species. Everybody packs up the camp and Lowell captains the ship further down the river, unaware the the amphibious Gill-man is watching them.
As the sun is setting, they finally reach a lush lagoon untouched by humans. As they make their way into the heart of the lagoon, Kay is taken aback by how beautiful the area is. Rollins and Tanaka put on scuba gear to take rock samples from the lagoon floor. Maia and Wallace try to pinpoint their GPS location. Kay strips down to her bathing suit and dives off of the research ship for a swim in the brights waters of the lagoon. As Kay swims, she is stalked beneath the surface by the Gill-man. Just as the creature's webbed hand reaches for Kay's leg, Lowell launches a net at the creature having seen it from the ship. Lowell starts pulling the creature in, yelling at the ship hands to help him. The creature manages to break free from the net, but when they pull the net up on to the deck they find a claw. Kay crawls back onto the boat from the water, startled by her close call with the creature. Rollins puts his arm around Kay and comforts her as Wallace excitedly announces that they have found evidence. Not only was there a creature here long ago that bridged the gap between water and land life, but that in the untouched paradise of the Amazon, the creature still survives.
That night the team finally relaxes a bit after their encounter with the Gill-man. Everyone decides to stay on the boat for the night. Lowell and his crew members take turns standing guard throughout the night. When Lowell wakes to take over his next shift, he finds his crew members on deck killed. He sees the Gill-man coming toward him and shoots him with a large tranquilizer dart, knocking the creature unconscious. Lowell then yells for everyone to get out and see.
Wallace demands that the creature be caged and kept sedate. Rollins and Kay object, saying that they signed on to be part of a scientific expedition, not a hunting party. Tanaka and Lowell put the unconscious creature into a cage designed for dolphins and put a lock on it at Wallace's behest. Maia feels conflicted about capturing the creature, but Wallace is able to convince him that they are going to be famous beyond their wildest dreams if they can get the creature back to civilization alive. He argues that people are always going to raise question marks regarding fossils, but nobody can question the creature's existence when they have a living specimen.
Maia wants to get their research ship out of the lagoon as soon as possible, but Lowell advises waiting until morning to make the trip easier. Wallace announces that they'll leave back toward civilization at the break of dawn. He says that everyone will take turns watching the creature and giving it more tranquilizers if it starts to wake up.
In the middle of the night, it is Tanaka's turn to guard the creature. However, Tanaka drifts off to sleep. With Tanaka asleep, the Gill-man awakens and manages to break free from his containment. Tanaka is awaken by the sound, but the Gill-man manages to kill Tanaka before he use the tranquilizer gun. The creature then makes its way down into the ship. Kay is in the ship's lab looking over some samples. Gill-man sees the light from the lab down the corridor and begins creeping toward it. When the Gill-man reaches the lab, he doesn't find anyone inside it. Kay emerges and hits the creature over the head with a telescope, driving off of the ship and back into the water of the Black Lagoon. Kay alerts the rest of the crew, and Lowell pulls out a chest and begins handing everyone guns, telling them that they will still wait until morning to leave the lagoon.
When morning comes, the expedition finds that the lagoon's entrance is blocked by fallen logs. Lowell orders his men to start moving the logs out of their way so that they can leave. Wallace grabs the tranquilizer rifle and announces that it is his destiny to capture the creature and bring him to civilization. Wallace takes a raft out on to the water with a sonar device to find the creature. Suddenly the raft is knocked over and Wallace is mauled underwater by the Gill-man. The blood begins turning the water of the lagoon red. Kay sees the thrashing water and shouts that Wallace needs help. She dives into the water and begins swimming toward Wallace and the creature. Rollins, seeing Kay in the water, dives in after her. After killing Wallace, Gill-man grabs Kay and takes her to its cavern lair. Rollins calls after Lowell and Maia, telling them that the creature has Kay.
Rollins, Maia and Lowell arm themselves and swim to the underwater cave that Rollins saw the creature take Kay through. They swim through and find themselves in a large cave where they see Kay all by herself. Rollins rushes over to Kay to make sure she's okay. The Gill-man suddenly emerges from the water. Maia, Wallace and Lowell open fire on the creature. Riddled with bullets, the creature sinks into the watery depths below.
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