Ten Movie Recommendations for Divers Stranded on Land

Playing with Sharks: The Valerie Taylor Story

In a mix of old footage and new interviews, this documentary tells the story of Valerie’s life. She started her underwater journey as a spear fisher but quickly traded her spear for a camera. As one of the first people to ever dive with sharks, she is responsible for much of the knowledge we have about them today and she dedicated most of her life to protecting them.

Mission Blue

This movie tells the story of another incredible woman who made it her life’s work to protect our oceans: Dr. Sylvia Earle, a renowned oceanographer and explorer who uses her organization “Mission Blue” to create a global network of marine protected areas called “Hope Spots”.

The Meg

In “The Meg” a group of scientists discovers an ecosystem at the bottom of a deep-sea trench which is cut off from the rest of the ocean by a freezing thermocline. Of course, things go south when a submarine gets sent down to explore this unknown ecosystem and gets attacked by a prehistoric shark. For an action movie, this one really tries to find scientifically somewhat reasonable explanations for its unrealistic plot, and it criticizes that humans often involuntarily end up destroying the very things they set out to explore.

If you like it, we’ve got good news: there’s a second part!

Chasing Coral

“Chasing Coral” was produced over the span of three years in an incredible effort by divers, photographers, scientists and volunteers to capture evidence of coral bleaching and to inspire change to save this precious eco system. It is a sad topic, but the powerful images are a great reminder to all of us why we need to protect the underwater world that we love so much.

The Deepest Breath

This thrilling documentary follows Alessia Zecchini’s development into a professional freediver, her attempt to break a freediving world record and her relationship with safety diver Stephen Keenan.

It clearly shows the dangers of competitive freediving, but the breathtaking underwater shots make it easy to understand why professional freedivers are happy to take risks for their sport.

Thirteen Lives

“Thirteen Lives” recounts the Thai Cave rescue in 2018 where a junior football team got trapped deep in a cave after an unexpected rainstorm. Despite many rescue efforts by volunteers and Thai navy divers, the boys couldn’t even be found until some British “weirdos” – who spend their free time squeezing through dangerous caves – volunteered to help. The documentary shows how they find the boys and race against time as they attempt to extract the kids via a highly dangerous 6-hour dive.

The Girl on the Ocean Floor 

This movie tells the story of Lotte Baierl who takes on a job as a secretary for her idol, famous biologist and diving pioneer Hans Hass. She quickly shows potential and joins a dive expedition to the Red Sea where the crew tries to be the first ones to film a great white shark.

Fun fact: in 2022 our field station received the “Hans und Lotte Hass Preis” from the Haus des Meeres in Vienna, which funded the start of our sea grass restoration project. You can read more about our seagrass restoration efforts here.

Last Breath 

Combining real footage, interviews and reconstructed footage, this documentary tells the thrilling story of Chris Lemons. The saturation diver was working on repairs 100 meters below the surface of the North Sea when his connection to his support vessel was severed, leaving him with only a bailout bottle that contained just enough breathable gas to survive for 5 minutes.

No Limit 

What starts as a romantic drama about the relationship between a highly talented freediving student and her record-winning instructor turns into a chilling thriller real quick when he gets jealous of her success in freediving competitions. The story might make you mad, but the underwater shots are great.

Into the blue

In this dive thriller, a young couple living in The Bahamas finds remnants of a legendary pirate ship – right next to a sunken airplane filled with drugs. As they search for the rest of the pirate ship to recover its treasure, they cross paths with the local drug gang who want their sunken cocaine back.

If you like Fast & Furious, this is the scuba version of it. This movie has everything – from stunning underwater shots of sharks and rays to unrealistic dive stunts and sneak peaks into search and recovery skills.

If after watching all the treasure hunting you feel like leveling up your own dive skills, you can book your next PADI specialty course here.