Ending question *spoilers*
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Open Water
monalicia-1 — 12 years ago(June 08, 2013 07:53 PM)
Question: When Susan goes underwater in the end, it's obvious she was finishing herself off. But do you think she intended to drown herself or swim into the shark feeding frenzy? If she intended to drown herself the only way that's possible is if she had weights to hold her down. We saw she released her diving weights in the first few hours, but did she take Daniel's weights before pushing him out to sea after he died?
I don't blame her for doing herself in. I'd wouldn't be surprised if I did the same in her situation. Of course the question is how to get it over and done with 1) the most painless way, 2) the fastest way. Drowning would probably be the best option, but it would only work if she had something to anchor her down underwater. Otherwise human instinct kicks in and you swim back up for air. Which is why unless she had Daniel's diving weights, I'm wondering if she opted for swimming into the feeding frenzy. Definitely not painless, but it would probably be fairly quick since the sharks are in to kill. I think it beats the alternative of getting a shark "nibble" - which doesn't kill you outright but is painful as h** until you finally bleed out. I think after seeing that happen to Daniel she definitely didn't want that for herself.
Thoughts? -
delisadecastro — 12 years ago(August 04, 2013 11:29 PM)
I rewatched the scene and I think she deffinitely took his weights off before releasing him, because otherwise his body would have sunk. But the movie never shows her puting his weights on herself, sowe'll never know for sure, I guess.
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lulupalooza — 12 years ago(August 17, 2013 01:16 PM)
When you remove your BCD (holds the floatation air), regulator and tank, you are immediately less buoyant. I start to sink right away without constant kicking. Granted, she wouldn't sink deeply like with weights, but enough that she can't keep her head above water easilyespecially in ocean swells and when utterly exhausted while dead-set on not fighting her perceived fate.
People have committed suicide by drowning themselves without use of weights. The mind and body just give up the natural instinct to fight.
Sad in both cases. -
delisadecastro — 12 years ago(September 12, 2013 08:08 PM)
Lulu, I agree it is possible to drown yourself in specific situations like severe injury, mental disease, hallucination, total physical exhaustion, etc. Which none were shown in the movie.
Otherwise, a person can't deliberately decide to drown oneself!
And no, if you stay put and quiet, you won't sink naturally. Just stick your head up the water and you won't drown. You will float enough to stay above water! Personal experience! -
MirkoS — 9 years ago(April 19, 2016 03:28 AM)
Of course you can drown yourself.
I live in Hawaii and freedivers die from shallow water blackout, I won't say all the time, but it does happen on occasion. All she needed to do was remove her kit, hyperventilate deeply (which helps lessen the urge to breath), then dive straight down as deep as she was able, hold her breath until she couldn't tolerate it anymore, swim up and the lessening pressure near the surface would make the oxygen molecules in her lungs rapidly expand and she'd black out underwater.
Unconscious inhale reflex would kick in, she'd unwillingly take in water and drown, and she wouldn't even be aware of it. I agree that when you're conscious your body will naturally fight for the surface, and that's why SWB is such a killer. -
MirkoS — 9 years ago(April 19, 2016 01:38 PM)
Not more than any other post here.
And yes, if she holds a C-card (as it shows when the guy looks through their stuff on the boat when he realizes them missing), she is more than likely completely aware of shallow water blackout and understands what causes it. This is taught in diver certification courses. -
micirisi — 12 years ago(September 13, 2013 01:43 PM)
She also had a wet suit on which adds to buoyancy which would make it even more difficult to submerge herself. I also seriously doubt she was swimming to the sharks. The scene is just to display that she gave up.
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PiaPuffytail — 12 years ago(March 08, 2014 06:31 PM)
As micrisi said below, I guess it's meant to symbolize that she's giving up. And I suppose we're meant to think that she's going to finish herself off quickly.
But yesshe had no weights with her. After removing her BC vest she had just her wetsuit. And if they're in tropical waters that was probably just a little 3 mil shortie, but it's still buoyant enough to keep you on the surface. There's no way she could've kept herself under. -
PiaPuffytail — 12 years ago(March 13, 2014 08:33 PM)
Because I do, every time I go scuba diving. You cannot stay under, really.
Even if she did breathe in some water while she was under, she WOULD bob back up. And the human body WILL instinctively try to expel the water and survive. -
noirgirl — 12 years ago(March 13, 2014 11:43 PM)
Yes, but you've of course gone diving with all the gear. She stripped all that off, except the suit. And instinctively your body will try to expel it, but many people have drowned themselves despite that. Of course, this movie is all conjecture.
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PiaPuffytail — 12 years ago(March 16, 2014 04:16 PM)
None of the rest of the diving gear has the same buoyancy that your wetsuit does. Your BC vest can become buoyant after you inflate it, but when there's no air in it it doesn't do a whole lot for you. Your other gear: tank, regulator, octopus, fins, knife, etcwill mostly sink.
In fact, she would have had more of a chance of staying under if she had kept her equipment ON. I keep a little extra weight in my BC vest in case someone's having trouble controlling their buoyancy while we're on a dive, and I have surfaced a few times without fully inflating my vest (due to not wanting to shoot to the surface). If you don't get it inflated relatively quickly, you may start to go back under.
In this case, she took all of that stuff off. All she had left, literally, was her positively buoyant wetsuit.
I don't want to belabor the point. There are things that don't realistically work in many movies. I guess this one just really struck me b/c I'm intimately familiar with how it wouldn't really work in real life. -
forthesafetyofpuppies — 11 years ago(July 02, 2014 11:52 PM)
I think some people have an ill-informed (partially movie-made) view of the painlessness of drowning. As I understand it, it's pretty damn agonising; and takes a lot longer than some believe. I'd personally prefer the sharks. At least there's some shock factor, some adrenaline, and you may lose consciousness relatively quickly from either the shock or blood loss. Drowning, ugh. The quiet, the silence, the suffocation, awful.
I wouldn't have 'surrendered' in that situation. Not out of bravery; rather out of cowardice.
You felt a lump in your breast, you looked at your wife and saw a stranger