15 Best Original Movie Characters Of 2016

Survival films are a tricky genre to nail. On one hand, they seem fairly simple - all you need to do is tell the story and maintain the suspense for the pacing to work. On the other hand, if we're not completely invested in the plight of the protagonist, they completely fall flat. And in the pre-release hype for The Shallows, it was easy to be skeptical about the latter - after all, Blake Lively has never been the most lively performer.

As easy as it is to relate to someone getting attacked by a great white shark - perhaps the most terrifying creature that hasn't gone extinct yet - it is no small feat that Nancy Adam is an extremely compelling lead in The Shallows, to the point where one could find it possible to forgive her for Savages.

The game of cat & mouse that plays out in The Shallows is thrilling, but it is the little character touches that make Nancy stand out as a character - for instance, the names she gives a wounded seagull she encounters on a rock. As far as lone survivor characters go, she isn't as compelling as Sandra Bullock was in Gravity, but without her this film would have fallen completely on its face before the halfway point.