Plot Summary
Just when you thought it was safe to cancel your Netflix account comes another shark movie that reels you in and gives you cause to continue your subscription.
Under Paris focuses on a marine biologist named Sophia who, at the beginning of the movie, is on a mission with her team to help the sperm whales in the Great Pacific whose environment is littered with plastic waste.
Sophia’s crew members discover a whale trapped in a net, with a large bite mark on its body. It was presumably the victim of Lillith, a mako shark, who suddenly appears beneath the water and kills the team.
Three years later, Sophia is trying to rebuild her life, but she is still haunted by the tragic attack on her crew. The past comes back to bite her (not literally) when she meets an activist named Mika who tells her Lillith is now in Paris and roaming beneath the River Seine.
In this ending explained article for Under Paris, we discuss some of the plot elements and ask the question: What is the message of this biting movie?
Is Lillith a threat?
Mika plans to guide Lillith out of the water but when she tries to locate the shark, she is arrested by the River Brigade for illegal diving. After the arrest, the brigade find the body of a homeless man in the river.
Mika calls Sophia for help, who comes to her aid, and then tells Angele, the Chief of the River Brigade, that she thinks Lillith killed the man.
Angele doesn’t take Sophia seriously at first but is convinced by the former biologist that the shark is a threat. Adil, the captain of the River Brigade, joins Sophia, Mika, and members of his crew to find Lillith. But when they sense the shark’s presence beneath the water, they decide not to stick around.
What happens to Mika?
Mika is determined to save Lillith and posts a video online about the importance of shark protection. She and a group of like-minded activists return to the River Seine to guide Lillith out of the water using a sonar device.
When Sophia learns about what Mika is doing, she and Adil head to the river to evacuate the people. Unfortunately, they aren’t able to save many of them as a bloodbath ensues. After Mika foolishly tries to pet a baby shark, the offspring of Lillith, she becomes fish food for the angry mother as do some of the other people present.
How was Lillith able to reproduce?
When the baby shark is washed ashore after being hit by one of Adil’s bullets, Sophia is able to examine it. Surprisingly, she discovers the baby is pregnant, despite being only a couple of months old.
Sophia realizes that Lillith is the first of a new species of shark that can reproduce without a male. It’s suggested that this is a consequence of evolution, brought about by the change in Lillith’s habitat. Her babies are capable of the same thing, which is worrying, as a population of sharks under the River Seine spells doom for the upcoming triathlon event.
Does Sophia stop the triathlon?
After the first sighting of Lillith, Sophia had visited the Mayor to tell her about the presence of a shark in the River Seine. This should have given the Mayor reason to stop the triathlon but despite the risk, she refused to cancel the event.
When Sophia visits the Mayor again to tell her about the recent deaths, the councilwoman still refuses to play ball. She even denounces the existence of sharks when speaking to the media.
Consequently, the triathlon goes ahead, with the local army securing the area. Sophia, Adil and some explosive experts set out on a mission to bomb Lillith’s nest and kill the sharks.
Some of the sharks are killed in the explosion but many survive. This is bad news for the triathletes who aren’t able to make it to the finishing line because of the circling sharks that pull them under the water.
How does the movie end?
The movie ends in carnage, not only because of the bloodbath at the triathlon but also because of the explosives that cause flooding after damaging Paris’s infrastructure.
In the final scene, we see Sophia and Adil floating on something near the top of the water. Below them are a lot of sharks, who are presumably preparing to eat our protagonists for dinner.
Lillith, meanwhile, has gotten away. This spells doom for the rest of the world, as she is able to reproduce at a rapid rate. We see the consequence of this during the end credits when we see the rise in the shark population around the world.
What is the message of the movie?
At the beginning of Under Paris, the waters of the Great Pacific were inundated with plastic waste. In reality, this could kill off the shark population and any other form of sea life living beneath the ocean.
But in the movie, the sharks evolved because of this pollution. Consequently, it wasn’t their kind that faced extinction. Instead, it was the human race who were put in peril because they were responsible for nature’s wrath.
So, the message of the movie is this: Don’t mess with nature! If you do, it might only come back to bite you later!
Read More: Under Paris Movie Review