The most famous scene from Deep Blue Sea involves Samuel L. Jackson's character getting suddenly chomped by a shark, after giving a rousing speech. When it comes to killer shark movies, there's Jaws and everything else. This is a seldom disputed position, and for good reason, as Jaws still holds up nearly 45 years after its release. But shark horror fans can't live on one movie alone, and that's where fun alternatives like 1999's Deep Blue Sea come in.
Directed by Renny Harlin (A Nightmare on Elm Street 4), Deep Blue Sea doesn't try to be either an epic sea adventure or a tense suspense thriller like Steven Spielberg's classic. Instead, Deep Blue Sea just sets out to be a pleasing piece of popcorn entertainment, featuring super-intelligent sharks, nail-biting action sequences, and the occasional bit of amusing comic relief. That last part usually comes courtesy of cast members Michael Rapaport and LL Cool J, but one could easily argue that the death of Sam Jackson's character is the funniest scene in the film.
Interestingly, Jackson was originally offered LL Cool J's role, but turned it down. Harlin then wrote in the Russell Franklin role specifically for Jackson, and he jumped at it, especially loving his onscreen death. It's easily the most well-known part of Deep Blue Sea, and for good reason.
Russell Franklin (Samuel L. Jackson) is a corporate executive sent by the financial backers of the remote ocean research station Aquatica to check on their progress. Unlike many such characters in other creature features, Franklin actually proves to be a brave man, and not secretly working for some underhanded, greedy purpose. When the sharks begin killing people, Franklin just wants to get out of the facility alive, and wants as many people as possible to escape with him.
Franklin is a clearly heroic character, which makes it all the more shocking when he's abruptly eaten by a shark after giving a speech to the other people stuck on Aquatica about what they need to do to survive. While rumors once floated around that Jackson was suddenly written out of the film after troubles on set, that's actually not true at all. According to Renny Harlin, the idea of killing Russell Franklin early was inspired by the death of Captain Dallas (Tom Skeritt) in Alien, which occurs around the same point in that film's running time.
Skeritt was the best known actor in Alien's cast at the time of its release, and also seemed to be the obvious choice for heroic lead. This made his death at the hands of the Xenomorph extra surprising, and Harlin hoped to achieve the same effect with Jackson's Franklin, a take-charge character played by the most famous actor in the film. Needless to say, Harlin's goal was accomplished, and Franklin's sudden death turned Deep Blue Sea on its head, leaving audiences in a state of shock. Such is the power of Samuel L. Jackson.
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