Jaws might've broken the mold when it first debuted in the summer of '75, but nowadays
shark movies are a dime a dozen.
2003's Open Water stands out, though, partly because it was based on actual events.
Here's the crazy true story behind Open Water.
Eileen and Tom Lonergan decided to dive among the reefs of St. Crispin in Australia on Sunday,
January 25th, 1998.
On their third dive, they swam away and never came back - at least not before their boat
was long gone.
According to Outside, it took two full days before anyone truly realized the mistake,
once the Lonergans' personal items - including Tom's wallet and glasses - were discovered
on the boat by the skipper, who called their hostel and found they hadn't made it back.
A massive naval manhunt commenced and lasted for five days, but the couple was never found.
Months after the Lonergans' disappearance, fishermen found a dive slate with what appeared
to be Tom's handwriting.
The message included a date and time shortly after their disappearance - Monday, January
26th, 1998, at 8 a.m. - along with a plea for anyone who could help them.
It read:
"Please help us.
Find us soon before we die."
According to The Independent, their scuba vests were later found 100 miles north of
where they were last seen and reportedly had no signs of teeth or blood.
A wetsuit much like Eileen's was also discovered with tear marks near the bottom.
What was strange, though, was the discovery of their air tanks, which they could have
used as floatation devices, according to The New York Times.
The items would later become the center of controversy, as folks debated the couple's
disappearance.
Open Water writer-director Chris Kentis read the story of the Lonergans in a scuba magazine
and was inspired to create the film based on their disappearance.
However, he didn't want his dramatization of events to be hurtful to the Lonergans'
loved ones.
He told National Geographic,
"I did no research on those people, and I didn't want to represent their relationship
or their lives.
[...] We also wanted to leave the exact setting of our movie ambiguous because we didn't want
to lay that trip on anybody's tourist trade."
"I think diving is incredibly safe, we've been doing it for a number of years, but it
was interesting that there were these incidents where people did get left in the water."
Made on a shoestring budget during weekends and holidays, the film would go on to secure
post-Sundance distribution at Lionsgate, earn $54 million worldwide, and spawn two sequels:
Open Water 2: Adrift and Open Water 3: Cage Dive.
According to The Age, there were some people who believed the Lonergans may have actually
staged their deaths or taken their own lives, since their bodies were never found.
One reason for these conspiracy theories stemmed from Eileen's diary entries, in which she
reportedly wrote that her husband had a "death wish."
Meanwhile, Tom's own writings seemed to echo her suspicions.
He wrote,
"Like a student who has finished an exam I feel that my life is complete and I am ready
to die.
As far as I can tell, from here my life can only get worse.
It has peaked and it's all downhill from here until my funeral."
If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide
Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
Understandably, the Lonergans' family members were deeply offended by the spreading suggestion
that the two were responsible for their own deaths or had faked them.
According to The Telegraph, Tom's mother, Elizabeth, insisted,
"I will tell you what the story is: they were left behind.
All this talk about them wanting to disappear is just a bunch of garbage - somebody left
them in the water and they did not report it for two and a half days."
Meanwhile, Eileen's father, John Hains, took matters into his own hands and went for a
snorkeling trip in the same region to confirm that escaping the waters wouldn't be as simple
as it may sound.
According to the New York Times, he explained,
"It's easy to ask, 'Why didn't they swim to safety?'
But at water level you can't see anything, and the current wears you out."
He later concluded that it was in the industry's interest to promote these narratives, declaring,
"The Australian dive industry wanted to prove that Tom and Eileen faked their deaths.
But the survival rate of being in the ocean with no place to go is nil."
The coroner assigned to investigate the Lonergans' disappearance put all those conspiracy theories
to rest by officially determining that the couple died at sea.
Eileen's father was ultimately glad the movie was made.
Although he initially indicated he wouldn't see Open Water, he later screened the film
and said it brought him some peace.
He told E! Online,
"For me, this film provides a definite amount of closure.
It partially fills in a gap which I imagine a body and funeral must normally satisfy.
I say partially because, obviously the film is pure speculation, and Eileen and Tom's
fate is known only to them."
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