Pretty much every scene in The Meg and its sequel Meg 2: The Trench is completely ridiculous. But some sequences are more absurd than others.
- The Meg movies embrace absurdity and ignore physics for the sake of entertaining the audience.
- Jason Statham’s character, Jonas Taylor, is the perfect megalodon slayer and engages in ridiculous hand-to-hand combat with the giant sharks.
- The sequel introduced new absurd elements like a bigger megalodon, a kraken, and dinosaurs, resulting in even more outlandish and entertaining scenes.
Pretty much every scene in The Meg and its sequel Meg 2: The Trench is completely ridiculous and flagrantly ignores the laws of physics, but that’s all part of the fun – and some sequences are more absurd than others. Based on the book series by Steve Alten, The Meg franchise revolves around deep-sea diver Jonas Taylor, played by Jason Statham, and his attempts to vanquish the giant prehistoric sharks that were released by a scientific experiment in the Mariana Trench. From a kraken downing a helicopter to a meg eating a T. rex, The Meg movies are full of delightfully ludicrous moments.
The Meg movies follow the same principle as the Fast & Furious franchise: if the audience is being entertained, then logic doesn’t matter all that much. These films essentially swap out the nitro-boosted cars of the Fast & Furious saga for a bunch of bloodthirsty 75-foot sharks. As both an A-list action movie star and a former member of Britain’s national diving team, the role of a freelance megalodon slayer is the perfect character for Statham. These movies have seen Statham punch a meg in the face, hold one off with his foot, and skewer one on the downed helicopter’s propeller blade.
10 A Meg Eats A T. Rex
Meg 2: The Trench is all in on its absurdity from the get-go
The opening scene of Meg 2: The Trench takes audiences back to prehistoric times as a small dinosaur runs onto a beach and gets eaten by a bigger dinosaur, which gets eaten by an even bigger dinosaur, until a T. rex catches up to them at the shoreline – and then a meg emerges from the ocean, clamps its jaws down on the T. rex, and drags it out to sea. This opening shows that the meg has been at the top of the food chain for the entirety of history (and makes that point in the most ludicrous way possible).
9 Jonas Taylor Fights A Meg In Hand-To-Hand Combat (& Wins)
Jonas stabs a meg in the eye
Audiences went into The Meg hoping to see one thing – Jason Statham fighting a megalodon in hand-to-hand combat – and the movie actually delivered. In the climactic battle, Jonas chases the meg out to sea in a little submersible. He manages to wound the meg with the submersible, but it’s no longer drivable, so he hops out and literally punches the meg in the face. Jonas stabs the meg in the eye, which spills its blood and attracts dozens of modern sharks to pick away at its corpse. This is an awesome (if ridiculous) climax for the movie.
8 A Bigger Meg Shows Up
It’s like Peter Griffin’s pitch for Big Jaws
Around the midpoint of the first Meg film, Jonas and his crew manage to capture and kill the meg, seemingly resolving the plot and ending the movie just an hour in. But then, the real threat emerges: an even bigger megalodon bursts through the surface of the ocean and takes a chunk out of the smaller meg’s corpse. The revelation of a bigger meg is similar to Peter Griffin’s pitch for a Jaws sequel about the Orca crew teaming up with the original Jaws to fight “Big Jaws.”
7 Jiuming Fights Dinosaurs With A Shovel
No one in Jurassic Park thought to fight back with a shovel
In Meg 2: The Trench, the megs are the least of anyone’s troubles. The sequel also awakens a kraken and a bunch of dinosaurs. The dinosaurs make it onto the land in packs, so Jonas’ crew isn’t just in danger on the water. When Jiuming is surrounded by vicious, hungry dinosaurs, he decides to fight them off with a shovel, like a real-life game of Whac-A-Mole. No one in any of the Jurassic Park movies thought to pick up a shovel and take a swing at the dinosaurs.
He also had a well-placed chain helping him out
Toward the end of Meg 2: The Trench, Jonas is chased up a boardwalk by a meg. Not only does Jonas manage to outrun the meg on foot; when the meg smashes through the boardwalk and lifts Jonas up on a ramp into its open mouth, he holds it off with his foot. There are a couple of chains on the pier that help Jonas hold off the meg, but the image of Jonas holding back a meg with his foot is one of the most gleefully silly shots in the franchise.
5 Meg Vs. Kraken
Meg 2 threw a kraken into the mix, because why not?
Traditionally, krakens in blockbuster movies are confined to the Pirates of the Caribbean and Clash of the Titans franchises, but Meg 2: The Trench brings a kraken into the modern age. There’s an awesome fight scene between a meg and a kraken. The meg takes out humans effortlessly, but fighting the kraken presents a real challenge. The kraken very nearly kills the meg as it constricts it with its tentacles. But the meg manages to break free and bite into one of those tentacles, giving it the upper hand in its fight against the kraken.
Three megs are no match for Jonas on a jet ski
In the climactic battle of Meg 2: The Trench, Jonas literally jumps the shark – or sharks – as he takes to the sea atop a jet ski. While everyone else is fleeing from the megs, Jonas fearlessly heads toward them. Armed with a spear with the power to incapacitate a meg, Jonas rides a wave into a pack of angry megs. When one of them pops out of the water, he simply does an epic stunt jump to avoid them. This movie threw realism out the window long before its final set-piece, but this scene takes the sequel to new levels of absurdity.
3 Jess Is Eaten Through “Meg-Proof” Glass
Ben Wheatley can always be counted on for morbid slapstick
Ben Wheatley was a great choice to direct the Meg sequel, because he can always be counted on for some morbid slapstick gags, and the Meg franchise is the perfect place for them. When Jess is showing off the new undersea facility and bragging about the “meg-proof” glass, she sets up her own ironic death. Seconds after that brag, a meg slams through the glass and devours Jess in one bite. Despite being spoiled in the trailer, this gag is one of the biggest laughs in Meg 2: The Trench.
2 An Explosion Pushes Jiuming To Safety
Mac takes off with the helicopter still attached to a fuel pump
One of the dumbest action movie tropes is the perceived safety of an explosion. In countless action movies, the force of an explosion will throw a character safely outside the blast radius. That happens to Jiuming in Meg 2: The Trench when he’s trying to outrun a pack of dinosaurs and join Mac aboard a helicopter. The helicopter is still attached to the fuel pump as it takes off, and Mac lights the fuel to blow up the dinosaurs. The resulting explosion conveniently pushes Jiuming onto the helicopter with Mac. All action films expect the audience to suspend their disbelief, but this may be a step too far.
1 Jonas Skewers A Meg On A Downed Helicopter’s Propeller Blade
Wheatley saved the best meg kill for last
The whole climactic set-piece of Meg 2: The Trench gradually builds to the jaw-dropping final meg kill. The kraken takes down Mac’s helicopter, leaving its detached propeller blades up for grabs. So, when a meg is bearing down on Jonas, he picks up the blade, holds it out, and pierces through the back of the meg’s head. This is easily the most badass meg kill of the entire Meg franchise. Any potential Meg 3 will have a tough time topping it.