The Beast

The Beast is a 1996 television movie starring William Petersen, Karen Sillas and Charles Martin Smith. Aired in two parts as a miniseries, the movie is based on the 1991 novel Beast by Jaws author Peter Benchley. The film is about a giant squid that attacks and kills several people when its food supply becomes scarce and its offspring is killed. It was filmed primarily in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Plot The film begins with Howard Griffin and Elizabeth Griffin having a romantic night out on a yacht near the Pacific Northwest resort community, Graves' Point. After a freak occurrence causes the yacht to sink, the two are forced to head for shore in a lifeboat, only to be attacked and eaten by an unseen creature hours later. The next day, local fisherman Whip Dalton (William Petersen) finds the empty lifeboat and discovers a large claw stuck into the boat. Whip sends the claw to a university to be analyzed and it ends up in the hands of marine biologist Dr. Herbert Talley (Ronald Guttman), who comes to Grave's Point claiming it is from the tentacle of a giant squid. The island harbor master Schuyler Graves (Charles Martin Smith) hires Lucas Coven (Larry Drake) to kill the squid after both Whip's initial advice to leave it alone and several more deaths caused by the squid. Coven succeeds in slaying a squid and the carcass is promptly sold by Graves to Sea Land Texas owner Osborne Manning (Denis Arndt). The unmanned sonar detects another, much larger squid which remains unnoticed by the islanders. When Whip and Talley are not allowed to see the squid to examine it, Dr. Talley organizes a submersible expedition to explore the squid's habitat. After analyzing the carcass of the dead squid, the scientists determine it is just a , baby. The information comes too late, however, and the adult squid, the baby's , mother, attacks the submersible, killing everyone on board. Whip angrily blames Graves for the incident, which also resulted in the death of Christopher, Talley's assistant and boyfriend of Dana (Missy Crider), Whip's daughter. Graves then blackmails Lucas, threatening to shut Lucas down for illegal trap fishing unless he resumes the hunt for the adult squid. Dr. Talley explains to Whip that the giant squid is killing out of vengeance for the death of her offspring rather than hunger, and is now even more dangerous as a result.