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Major spoilers ahead for Netflix's Below.The primary conflict in Netflix's Below is driven by the mystery surrounding a dangerous deep sea creature. In its early moments, Below begins with a harrowing scene in which a family relocates to a new location by sea. This is when they encounter a mysterious but seemingly massive underwater being. A young boy from the same family grows up to become Josh Harnett's Calvin.
Calvin finds himself encountering the same threat in Below on Netflix decades after the childhood incident. The mysterious underwater creature takes the lives of many who dare to enter the water or walk too close to it. However, as the show progresses, it is revealed the sea creature is not purely driven by predatory instincts. Instead, it has deeper motives.
The more Calvin learns about the sea monster, the more he empathizes with it. It soon becomes evident that some humans are the bigger "monsters" because of how they treat the sea creature and the people around them.
A North Atlantic Giant Squid Is In The Water In Netflix’s Below
Credit: Netflix
Josh Hartnett's Calvin finds a big iceberg and takes it back to shore, hoping to make some money out of it. However, he soon learns that the iceberg is full of impurities, which makes it worthless. Still hoping to earn something out of it, he takes it to a local research facility and hands it to Dr. Fonda. She discovers that the iceberg is made out of the mucus membrane of a sea creature.
Soon, the central Newfoundland town, Snook's Arm, is terrorized by a deep sea creature. Calvin and Fonda learn that the creature is a giant squid. While studying a piece of the iceberg Calvin had given her, Fonda finds a round squishy egg. When she cuts it open, a small squid jumps out of the egg. This confirms the iceberg is actually the nest for the giant cephalopod's eggs.
With this newfound discovery, Fonda starts understanding the true motives of the squid. She realizes that the squid is not merely hunting humans for food. It is driven by its maternal instincts to protect its eggs. Owing to this, even the slightest sign of danger forces her to become aggressive and attack anyone and anything that seems like a threat to her eggs in the Netflix horror series.
Why The Giant Squid Attacks Snook's Arm But Helps Little Pot Rock
Credit: Netflix
Halfway through the Netflix sci-fi horror show, Calvin ends up in a neighboring village, Little Pot Rock, which was his home when he was younger. While most people of the town were forced to move out and resettle, only a few decided to stay behind. The residents of Little Pot Rock reveal how they maintain a mutually beneficial relationship with the giant squid.
Instead of fighting her, they sacrifice their own people to her to show her they mean no harm. In return, she brings them fish. Although the people of Little Pot Rock seem to have a strange obsession with the sea creature and even hope to rebuild their community at any cost, they truly understand the giant squid and its true nature.
They also empathize with it because they realize that, like them, the giant squid, Mudder, has been forced to abandon its natural habitat due to humanity's greed. The people of Snook's Arm, in contrast, initially treat the cephalopod like a predator. As a result, the creature reflects humanity's tendency to vilify what it does not understand and plays offense by attacking them.
Was Mudder The Last Giant Cephalopods In Below?
Credit: Jan Thijs/Netflix
In Below's ending moments, Calvin and his son, Wade, discover many massive icebergs, suggesting that there may be more giant cephalopods out there. They might have evaded the threat Mudder posed to their town, but many similar underwater creatures could be lurking all around them.
In one early sequence, Dr. Fonda accidentally discovers an egg from Mudder's nest. When she cuts it open, a baby squid emerges out of it and jumps inside her freezer.
Towards the Netflix show's final moments, Dr. Fonda reveals that Mudder must have died while giving birth to her offspring. Meanwhile, even her offspring likely did not survive because of the high temperature of the water. It is possible, however, that the freezer offered the right temperature for the baby squid to grow, suggesting that it might have survived.
Can Giant Cephalopods Like Mudder Actually Exist?
As fantastical as the portrayal of Mudder in Netflix's Below may seem, real giant cephalopods do exist. Deep sea marine animals, like "The Giant Squid" (Architeuthis dux) and "The Colossal Squid" (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni), are known to be 30 to 40 feet in length and up to 1,000 lbs (450 kg) in weight.
However, these aquatic animals are known to only live in the deep, pitch-black ocean between 1,000 and 3,000 feet down. Since they have evolved to adapt to the depths of the ocean, their bodies are kept more stable by high hydrostatic pressure.
While rapid changes in water pressure and temperature can force them out of their natural habitats, giant cephalopods only end up near shore when they are dying or injured. Water conditions closer to the surface are also capable of disrupting their soft tissues and sight.
Even the level of intelligence the giant squid displays in Netflix's Below is unrealistic. While deep sea animals can be remarkably intelligent and display complex behaviors, the show stretches the suspension of disbelief with its portrayal of how Mudder interacts with humans and even strategizes its calculated attacks.
Credit: Netflix
Credit: Netflix
Credit: Jan Thijs/Netflix
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