by Jason Mack, Contributing Writer
Profitability often drives the difference between a book and its movie adaptation, and 1997’s Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror and 2018’s The Meg continued that trend. Much of the scope and brutality of the novel were stripped away, but fortunately, the drastically different products are both worth enjoying for different reasons.
With Meg 2: The Trench releasing August 4, it is the perfect time to reflect on how the source material and the original movie compare. They are both stories about a research team accidentally discovering and unleashing a megalodon shark previously thought to be extinct for millions of years, then attempting to neutralize it, but the journey to the discovery, and the chaos that follows, vary widely.
To maximize the accessibility of this piece, much like the studio-implemented changes to maximize the profit of The Meg, I will start with generic comparisons featuring minimal spoilers to accommodate anyone planning to read the book or watch the movie for the first time. After a spoiler warning, I’ll dive deeper into some specific differences.
Non-Spoilers
Protecting the bottom line
The biggest differences are clearly financially motivated. The story spans a greater time period and a wider variety of locations in the novel. The movie cuts down on both, presumably to keep the runtime down to maximize showings and to lower the budget by necessitating fewer filming sites. The movie also swaps the Japanese researcher Masao Tanaka for the Chinese Dr. Minway Zhang, and shifts the research facility to China, presumably to cater to the lucrative Chinese movie market. This is supported by the casting of Chinese actress Bingbing Li and Taiwanese actor Winston Chao in prominent roles.
Several studies have shown movies rated PG-13 have a significantly higher profit potential than those rated R. As a result, The Meg sacrifices the blood and brutality of the novel — along with some choice language — to boost profits. There are terrifying, goosebump-inducing moments of shocking violence in the book. A more faithful R-rated adaptation could have been an impactful horror outing, rather than the lighthearted blockbuster it became.
However, it’s hard to argue with results, as The Meg had a reported worldwide box office of over $530 million, with $145.4 million domestically and $384.4 internationally, on a budget estimated between $130 and $178 million. You also have to give credit to the producers for investing heavily on special effects. Apart from one notably bad scene of Jason Statham exiting the water, the CGI is outstanding, as is the set design. It is one of the better shark builds ever put to screen, and the underwater research center created for the movie is glorious.
Striving for scientific plausibility
If you are a fellow shark nerd who only saw the movie and had serious gripes about how the megalodon is discovered, how it reaches the surface, and how the shark behaves, I would recommend giving the book a look. It is much more invested in the science and plausibility of the scenario, and it even takes time to describe how the shark’s unique senses work, and how it uses them while hunting. The novel also accounts for the megalodon evolving in dark waters and having sensitivity to light, while the movie version cruises about in bright sunlight with no problem.
Whether for the sheer brutality or the scientific plausibility, I’d recommend the book as a gripping and breezy read.
Spoilers
A new addition
While many changes in the movie are for the worse, credit also has to be given for its improvements. Both versions have a romantic interest for the main character Jonas Taylor, but the movie swaps Tanaka’s daughter Terry for Zhang’s daughter Suyin. The bigger difference is that Suyin has a daughter named Meiying (Shuya Sophia Cai), while Terry is a lone wolf. Meiying is a great addition for the movie, providing innocent eyes to see the story through, and upping the stakes when her mother’s life is on the line.
She is also central to the best moment in the movie. In the novel, Tanaka is constructing a gigantic lagoon research facility which is planned for allowing whales to come and go. In the movie, they built an unrealistic, but undeniably gorgeous, underwater research center with massive, clear viewing tunnels. The best scene is when Meiying is exploring the tunnels and is terrified when the meg lingers in frame behind her before attempting to bite through the glass.
It is an unnerving scene that accomplishes something crucial for a movie about a giant creature which is establishing its scale relative to humans. That shot should have been used for the poster, rather than the cartoonishly oversized version of the shark breaching to swallow a woman on an inflatable tube.
Unfortunately, the absence of other characters is detrimental to the movie. Tanaka also has a son named DJ (Page Kennedy), who is crucial to character motivation. His death during the initial shark encounter contributes to the intense animosity Terry harbors toward Jonas, rather than simply being upset her father chooses him to pilot a submersible over her.
The inciting incident
DJ is also crucial to informing Jonas’ crippling guilt and self-doubt, which go back to his first encounter with what he believed to be a megalodon. In both versions, Jonas’ actions result in the death of two people. However, the book creates reasonable doubt about what he saw, and if he needlessly got people killed. The movie has none of that.
In the book, Jonas is a Navy submarine pilot and is taking researchers to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. Already exhausted from three dives in a short span on the top secret mission, his superiors pressure the doctor to approve a fourth dive. This casts doubt about his physiological and psychological states. When he believes he sees a megalodon, he rapidly surfaces, which kills the two scientists and gets him dishonorably discharged. Racked with both guilt and frustration at nobody believing what he saw, he devotes himself to researching megalodon and proving they exist.
The opening scene of the movie shows Jonas as part of a rescue team attempting to save a crew in a submersible deep in a trench, and he sees the wall being bit by something massive. However, there is no doubt about the deaths. Seconds after he makes the difficult decision to close the hatch and leave them, the submersible explodes. There is no chance to save them, and his difficult choice saves the dozen or so other people involved. The years he wastes drinking from there after giving up the rescue life are not marred by any guilt.
Unleashing the meg on the world
Jonas is lured back into the world of exploring the depths in the novel by the prospect of proving he was right and alleviating some of his guilt. He gets his vindication, but it comes at a price, as DJ is eaten by the meg they discover. This only compounds his guilt and regret. The meg’s victory is short-lived, as the male gets entwined in some cable attached to DJ’s submersible, and as it is dying, a larger female appears and takes advantage of the easy meal as its mate is already dying.
This sets up a much better logic for how the shark escapes through the frigid wall of the thermocline. As DJ’s ship returns toward the surface, dragging the male meg along with it, the female is shielded in the warmth of the male’s blood as it follows along. The science of how this works is described in great and intriguing detail. In the movie, it just quickly follows behind the ship like it’s some sort of closing space portal.
The book also provides a much better logic for the possibility of additional megs, as the shark that escapes is pregnant. It is never explained in the movie, but the reveal of a second shark is at least one of the better comedic moments.
A ferocious monster vs. an aimless agent of chaos
The tenacity of the meg is much greater in the novel. It is driven only to eat and to remain the apex predator. It has no preoccupation with people, but when they keep putting themselves in harm’s way, it won’t hesitate to eat what is in its path. The meg also does serious damage to submarines, ships, and more, often because it confuses them as threats for dominance of the region.
Researchers, ambitious journalists, the military, and more come after the shark in the book with varying motivations, causing interesting conflict. The military wants to take it out, the researchers want to capture it alive, and the journalists and tourists heading out to sea with guides just want to watch the chaos unfold. The story spans weeks, with the meg making its presence known worldwide. The movie covers a couple days, and most of the world doesn’t become aware of it until right near the end when it attacks near the beach in China.
‘Til death do they part
Speaking of the ambitious journalists, the drastic changes with Jonas’ wife/ex-wife might be the biggest difference between the book and movie. His ex-wife is merely a plot device in the movie, as she is a fellow pilot and the motivation to get Jonas to join the team for her rescue. There is no animosity between them, and the only other purpose she serves is to help encourage Jonas to go for it with Suyin.
On the other hand, Jonas’ wife Maggie is almost as much of an antagonist as the meg in the novel. An up-and-coming broadcast journalist, she is just as tenacious as the shark in going after what she wants without concern of the destruction left in her wake. Despite those parallels, author Steve Alten confirmed in an interview for an upcoming SiftPop article that the similarity of the name “Maggie” to “meg” is purely coincidental.
Tired of Jonas’ self-pity and lack of confidence since the Navy incident, she is only biding her time to get divorced when it makes the most sense for her career from a PR standpoint. She speeds up the process by sleeping with his multimillionaire best friend, causing Jonas to act out in jealousy at a public event. She is not a likable character, but she refuses to be defined by a man, and goes to great lengths to preserve her self-interest, so she works well as a pro-feminism character.
In the book, the wealthy best friend has no ties to the research operation which is funded by a massive communications company. It feels like the movie combines the two ideas to create Rainn Wilson’s financier character Morris. He is a fun addition to the team, even if his motivations and decision-making are questionable at best.
The climax takes bigger swings in the book, as Jonas lives up to his namesake and goes into the belly of the beast. Having him inside the meg trying to find a way out, before being digested, is fascinating. The movie’s climax is mostly just Jonas cutting down the side of the shark, then stabbing its eye.
Final Verdict
This comparison between book and movie paints 2018’s The Meg in an unflattering light. However, viewing it instead through the comparative lens between this and all other shark movies not named Jaws, it ranks as one of the better options. That may be more of an indictment of the quality of your average shark movie, as it features inconsistent writing, plot holes, clunky dialogue, flat acting, and other negatives, but it still is at least a top 10, and probably top five, shark movie. More important than anything is that it is fun. As long as you aren’t going in with Oscar-quality expectations, it is an enjoyable experience for what it is.
The book is a different situation, as I went in with muted expectations based on the movie, and they were greatly exceeded. Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror is surpassed only by Jaws in the realm of fictional shark books. It excels in crafting tension, and the descriptions of the attacks are viscerally impactful. It also does a great job providing plausible scientific explanations for everything happening throughout, and educating the reader along the way. The book is a strong recommendation, and I’m eager to continue with the series.
You can read more from Jason Mack, or follow him on Twitter and Letterboxd