The Red Turtle (2016)

Directed by Michaël Dudok de Wit

When a man washes up on an island’s shore after an ocean storm leaves him shipwrecked, his first thought is to build a raft. All he can focus on is escape back to a world he knows. He is lost, angry, and views the land and sea around him not as living, breathing spaces, but as resources. After a fateful encounter with a giant red sea turtle, his perspective shifts. Only when the man learns to treat the land and sea with respect does his life begin to soften and unfurl in unexpected ways.

Equal parts beautiful and haunting, The Red Turtle, with its lack of human dialogue, forces viewers to slow down and not only consider what it truly means to be human, but to consider what it means to view the world and all the creatures that inhabit it as equals deserving of kindness and care.

—Kim Baran

Whale Rider (2002)

Written and directed by Niki Caro

Twelve-year-old Paikea (Keisha Castle-Hughes) comes from a long line of Maori chiefs and is eager to inherit the role. The problem is, she’s a girl. Her grandfather Koro worries about his people’s future, blaming bad luck on the fact of his granddaughter’s existence. Desperate to find a new leader, he fires up a cultural school for the village’s firstborn boys. They fall short, but Pai, barred from lessons, excels in her secret training. When a pod of tohorā, southern right whales, beaches and the community tries in vain to save them, Pai—with sad and certain eyes—climbs atop the largest one and turns them around, risking her life for theirs, and to prove her worthiness.

I first saw Whale Rider (based on Witi Ihimaera’s novel) during its original release, and in that dark theater I genuinely felt my heart removed, then gently returned. For years, I kept a small clipping of Paikea on the fridge, a talisman for communion and perseverance.

—Kathleen Yale

Finding Nemo (2003)

Directed by Andrew Stanton

In the great barrier reef, an anxious clownfish named Marlin (voiced with note-perfect neuroticism by Albert Brooks) triggers his worst nightmare: His helicopter parenting does not protect his only son, Nemo (voiced by Alexander Gould), but makes the child rebel and venture too far afield. When Nemo is captured by divers, Marlin pairs up with Dory (Ellen DeGeneres), a blue tang with short-term memory loss, to save him.

The creatures they encounter are among Pixar’s most iconic: a great white shark who leads an AA-style support group for quitting fish; a surfin’ turtle; and a blue whale, colossal and opaque, who accidentally swallows them along with a swarm of krill. Dory has a plan: “I speak whale,” she says, and utters a series of swooping moans that form one of the film’s best comic sequences. And it works! The whale ferries them to Sydney Harbour and expels them from its blowhole. For years, the film had me convinced that I, too, could speak whale.

—Tajja Isen

Blackfish (2013)

Directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite

There are nature documentaries, and then there’s Blackfish. SeaWorld went public on the New York Stock Exchange in April 2013; in July of that same year, Blackfish aired for the first time. So detrimental was the “Blackfish effect” that within a year, SeaWorld saw a 33 percent drop in share price; within two years, it lost 84 percent of its revenue; within three, it was forced to stop its orca breeding program altogether. Viewers will understand why. Told in the style of a true-crime documentary, Blackfish begins with the day that Tilikum, almost thirty years old, makes headlines for killing SeaWorld trainer Dawn Brancheau. But instead of leaning into the whole “killer” whale thing, the film lays out a devastating tale: A baby whale is kidnapped, spends his formative years trained via deprivation and isolation, and makes a series of consistent, predictable reactions that show why he—and any cetacean—should never be in a tank in the first place. Keep tissues close.

—Madeleine LaPlante-Dube

Jaws (1975)

Directed by Steven Spielberg

For a relatively goreless movie with a hokey mechanical shark, Jaws remains terrifying fifty years on. Steven Spielberg utilizes suspense to masterful effect in the story of coastal-town police chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) as he encounters a man-eating great white shark. Brody’s inability to stop the shark attacks represents a threat to his masculinity and authority, so he sets off to confront the shark on its own turf. Along for the ride are shark researcher Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) and shark hunter Quint (Robert Shaw). While taking a break from hunting the shark on the open ocean, Quint delivers the famous USS Indianapolis monologue. The real-life story of shipwrecked sailors eaten by sharks is by far the most haunting part of the film. While Jaws clearly exaggerates sharks’ bloodthirst, it’s impossible to leave without a little fear of what creatures lurk beneath the ocean’s surface.

—Signe Miner