The Beast

A 1996 made-for-TV movie adaptation of Peter Benchley's book, Beast. The film makes some radical changes from the book, while maintaining its basic plot: a giant squid is terrorizing a community and must be stopped.

Starring William Petersen.

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Tropes used in The Beast include:

• Canon Foreigner: Schuyler Graves.
• Composite Character: Kathryn Marcus is a composite of Marcus Sharp (Whip's best friend in the book) and Marcus' dead girlfriend (and Gwen Stacy) Karen.
• Death by Adaptation: Talley survived in the book.
  • Inverted, ironically, with Kathryn, who survives even though both of the characters she's comprised of are killed in the book.
• Film of the Book
• Kill It with Fire: How the squid is dealt with.
• Mama Bear: The squid turns out to be a mother, and gets very mad when her child is killed.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: The mother squid in the second half goes on a rampage after the death of its child.