“Under Paris” is a newly released action-horror movie on Netflix. Directed by Xavier Gens (“Gangs of London”, “Lupin”), it stars Bérénice Bejo, Léa Léviant, and Nassim Lyes in the lead roles. “Under Paris” is an action-packed story about going deep into the Seine River in Paris where a scientist named Sophia, along with an activist and a river police command go on a mission to save Paris from a shark attack!
Cast With Characters
- Sophia (Bérénice Bejo): A researcher leading a mission to protect marine life on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
- Lilith: The shark that grows vengeful and causes chaos.
- Chris (Yannick Choirat): A member of Sophia’s team who attempts to collect a sample from Lilith, resulting in a fatal attack.
- Mika (Léa Léviant): A young environmental activist who forms a non-profit organisation named Save Our Seas and tries to protect Lilith.
- Ben (Nagisa Morimoto): Mika’s partner who helps turn off Lilith’s beacon.
- Sergeant Adil (Nassim Lyes): A police officer who assists Sophia in dealing with the shark threat in the Seine River.
- The Mayor of Paris (Anne Marivin): She is focused on maintaining the Triathlon event despite the shark threat.
- Leopold (Daouda Keita): A member of the team who is killed by shark in the catacombs
- Poiccard (Stéphene Jacquot): A member of the team who is killed by sharks while trying to initiate an explosive.
- Adama (Ibrahima Ba): Another team member who risks his life to turn on an explosive and is killed by sharks.
Plot Summary
The story revolves around a marine biologist named Sophia, who encounters a fast growing and extremely dangerous shark named Lilith in the first scene of the film. Her husband and other members of their crew die from a brutal shark attack, depicting some gruesome and dramatic scenes that resulted in their demise. As the sole survivor of this attack, she mourns the deaths of her crew and husband, Chris. She gets to know from Mika, an environmental activist, that the same shark appears at the Seine River after three years’ time. She has to forget her personal vendetta and ensure the shark goes back to its home—the ocean. She gets help from the Seine River Police. Pressure to move Lilith from Seine becomes urgent due to the upcoming triathlon, but the local mayor insists on it happening as planned. If she doesn’t stop Lilith, there will be a bloodbath.
What Tragedy Happened In Sophia’s Life?
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Sophia led a team of marine biologists who were helping the aquatic life and big fish affected by plastic waste at the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Sophia’s husband Chris and other crew members went diving in order to release a sperm whale, which was trapped in a net and had a plastic-filled stomach. Down, the team discovered that it had been bitten extensively. Then, as Sophia saw Lilith approaching, by tracking her beacon, she alerted her crew underwater. They were all surrounded by sharks, and then suddenly Lilith appeared. They were shocked to discover that Lilith had grown twice or thrice her size in the last 3 months, which was pretty abnormal.
Chris wanted to get out, but Sophia wanted tissue samples, so he complied. Chris tried collecting tissue samples from Lilith while she was on her back, but this backfired, with Lilith attacking him. Hearing their screams and realizing that their lives were in danger, Sophia put on her suit and went underwater. She was horrified by looking at a floating, dismembered arm. Lilith tried to attack her, but she quickly shot her arrow, injuring her. With full speed, Lilith went underway, but Sophia’s leg was caught in a net, which Lilith was also stuck on. She was being hauled underwater, and even her ears bled. However, she managed to survive by cutting the net with her knife.
What Did Mika Inform Sophia?
Three years later, she still struggled, particularly due to the death of her husband and the crew members involved in the operation. She thought that part of her life was over until a young activist named Mika approached her and told her that she had information about Beacon Seven, the exact tracker that tracked Lilith.
Mika was a part of an activist group called Save Our Seas. They called themselves an “ocean defense organization.” Mika took Sophia to their base and informed them that they had reactivated Beacon Seven’s tracker and found out that Lilith is now living in Paris’ Seine River. She informs her that, due to climate change and pollution, sharks have had to adapt to freshwater. Unable to grasp all this information, Sophia runs out of there.
How Did The River Police Get Involved?
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Mika shares her plan with Sophia, where they will jump inside the Seine to guide Lillith out of the river. With Lilith still in the water, despite Sophia’s negative responses and exit from the scene, she becomes so curious about her presence that she begins searching for Lilith with her own equipment. She realizes that Mika wasn’t lying; the shark was really swimming in the heart of Paris.
Mika and her girlfriend, Ben, go to Seine. Underwater, Mika finds bite marks on a submerged car. However, the police suddenly arrive, and Ben tries to pull Mika up. Sensing danger, Mika comes up only to be arrested by River Police when she is caught diving illegally. She calls Sophia and asks for her help as she’s held in the police station.
The police don’t listen to her but suddenly the discovery of Adewale’s body in the river reinforces Sophia’s belief that a shark is responsible. Despite initial scepticism from Chief Angele, Sophia’s persistence convinces Angele, leading to a joint effort with Adil, the River Brigade’s captain, to track down Lilith.
Meanwhile, Mika, fearing for Lilith’s well-being, approaches Ben to disable the tracker so as to protect Lilith. Although Ben hesitates, Mika persists. When two members of the brigade meet some huge thing under water and realize that their tracker has gone off line, there is panic, thereby straining the relationship between Sophia and Adil. Adil thought Sophia had switched off the tracker. Sophia confronts Mika, who shifts blame onto Sophia for her crew’s demise.
What Happened To Mika?
Adil did a lot of research on Sophia and her past. He realizes her anguish, which leads him to apologize for causing Sofia pain and ally with her towards convincing the Paris mayor not to conduct the triathlon. However, the mayor is obstinate about not doing so and demands an immediate solution to remove the shark. Meanwhile, Mika mobilizes support to save Lilith by guiding her out of Seine, unwittingly placing herself in peril.
Ben realizes the risks and notifies Sophia and the River Brigade about Mika’s deeds. This leads to a reboot of the tracking system, which in turn helps them trace Lilith’s hideout in the catacombs. Sophia, Adil, and his team go inside the catacombs and see 50 people in there, waiting to save Lilith. Mika was in the water, and seeing that Sophia kept on warning her to come out as Lilith was dangerous, However, despite being warned, Mika does not give up her plans to lure Lilith out of the river.
Lilith appears with a smaller shark, and they realize that they’ve invaded her nest. Adil goes in to save Mika, but he’s too late as Lilith attacks her from under. This resulted in a chaotic stampede that left some dead bodies, including Ben and Leopold. People were falling into the water and being attacked by sharks. Furious about this death toll, Adil responds by shooting at Lilith. It is evident that she is unforgivingly determined and that there are serious consequences when they interfere with her habitat.
How Does Lilith Reproduce In The Seine?
When Sophia examines the body of Lilith, she is shocked to discover that the baby shark is pregnant. It puzzles Sophia how a baby that is two months old can already reach sexual maturity. On further investigation, Sophia discovers that Lilith does not need to have a male shark around for her to reproduce. Instead, she is a new breed of mako sharks who can employ an extraordinary method of reproduction known as parthenogenesis, whereby they produce young ones without mating with males. This indicates that Lilith is not just any mako shark, she represents the first individual of a new species specifically adapted for her environment. Sophia immediately realizes why this should not happen and wants to prevent Lilith’s spawning offspring from populating the Seine any more. However, even after twelve lives are lost in the catacombs, the mayor remains unresponsive and refuses to stop the triathlon.
What Are Sophia And Adil Going To Do To Halt The Sharks?
As the triathlon is approaching, Adil makes a decision that will protect the city from sharks. The team suffers greatly from Leopold’s death, but most of them are ready to take risks. One group led by Sophia plants explosives in catacombs, while another group stands as a backup near Notre Dame at the extraction point. They are shocked to see a school of sharks surrounding them. Equipped with an infrared emitter, Sophia’s group enters catacombs and lures sharks towards the designated area for explosion. However, things take a turn for the worse when Poiccard is attacked and killed by Lilith’s offspring. In a heroic act of selflessness, Adama causes explosions, thereby letting himself be killed while getting rid of hundreds of sharks. Despite their plan being successful, Sophia is doubtful. She dives back into the water only to see Lilith going towards the triathletes, which poses great danger to the safety of this city.
“Under Paris” (2024) Ending Explained: Did Sophia And Adil Stop Lilith?
As the triathlon swimmers approach, Lilith devours them one by one. They start asking for help, and chaos ensues. The spectators realize that something is wrong. The mayor seems to finally regret her decision and, still amazed, watches how Lilith kills a man. Disorder breaks out among swimmers trying to save themselves, which results in more people dropping into the water. The military arrives at the scene to take down Lilith while being ignorant about her. One big issue with firing into the water was that Seine’s riverbed was filled with bomb shells from World War II.
The director wisely alludes to true perils like making magnet fishing illegal because of so many shells in the river. The only surviving River Brigade cop helps Sophia and Adil out of the water. They are on a boat when they witness the army frantically acting, with bullets causing explosions that blow up bridges and scare the crowd away. Despite experiencing disorder, Lilith survives by escaping the oceanic waves that submerge the city. Sophia saves Adil from drowning and goes on top of a tower. At the end of the film, hundreds of sharks are still circling around Sophia and Adil. The bombings do not finish off the shark population. They are now all over the city, taking shelter even in the submerged subway systems.
The final credits scene reveals what might be next. As soon as it is over, you start seeing satellite tags spreading around major cities worldwide. This implies that what has been witnessed in the Seine River would spread to other parts of the world as well. The rate at which these sharks multiply is very high and may result in global chaos.
In one scene of the movie, they said that there are sharks in the Thames River in London. The red lines on the tracker lead to London first, then to the Hudson River in New York, and even to the Sumida River in Tokyo. This means even some places, which for now seem impossible, have become sites where people’s lives can be affected by sharks.
It is evident how human beings attempt to control things, but in the end, they will have to bear their fury. The disorder in Paris depicts that the wrath of nature does not observe who you are or what your status is, rather, anyone can be subjected to its brutality. Passing from real-life events and alignment with shells certainly add credibility and vividness to the story.
