The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep:

A gentle giant and an everlasting legend

by Dilshan Boange

The Loch Ness Monster is a creature that has captured the attention and imagination of people across the world. A movie which creates its own tale of the great creature of Scottish folklore and modern scientific investigation is The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep. It is an American-British film directed by Jay Russell. The screenplay, written by Robert Nelson Jacobs, is an adaptation of Dick King-Smith’s children’s novel The Water Horse. It stars Alex Etel as a young boy who discovers a mysterious egg and cares for the endearing little creature that hatches out of it: a “Water Horse”, which later becomes the fabled Loch Ness Monster.

The story stars in present-day Scotland at a local inn where an American tourist couple meets an old man who tells them a story about the Loch Ness Monster. The story then takes us to the era of the Second World War, to 1942 in Scotland. A boy Angus MacMorrow lives in a large aristocratic manor situated near the shores of Loch Ness. He lives with his mother Anne who is the housekeeper, his sister, a cook, a maid and an old game keeper. Later they are joined by Lewis Mowbray, who comes to work as a handyman in the manor. Angus’ father—a sailor in the Royal Navy—is missing since his ship has been sunk in the war. However, Angus is unable to accept that he may be dead.

One day, while looking for seashells in the tide pools he discovers what appears to be a large egg like item. He leaves it in his father’s shed and returns later to check on it. An unknown creature hatches from it whom he calls ‘Crusoe’, after Robinson Crusoe. Angus keeps the creature a secret, but eventually tells his sister and later, Lewis about it. Lewis explains to Angus that it is a “Water Horse” the rarest of all creatures in the world, so rare that only one of them exists at a time in the world. And that it lays one single egg before dying. The Water Horse is thus always born an orphan says Lewis.

Defence

The next day troops of the 12th Regiment of the Royal Artillery arrive at the manor. They are commanded by Captain Thomas Hamilton a friend of Lord Killin, the owner of the manor who is serving with the Royal Air Force. An artillery battery is set up near the lake as defence against possible attacking or hiding German U-boats and the troops set up camp on the grounds of the house. An anti-submarine net is also raised at the mouth of the lake to prevent the possible entrance of German U-boats into the lake. One night, when the men are invited into the house for dinner, Crusoe roams freely “but unnoticed” around the house, running into the cook’s bulldog who starts chasing him, eventually into the dining room were the dog is blamed for the mess. Crusoe spends the night in a fountain feasting on the fish, where Lewis finds he has grown so big that he and Angus have no choice but to let him roam wild in the loch.

Captain Hamilton persuades Angus’ mother to allow him to teach Angus some discipline and make a soldier out of him. She agrees but after a few days Angus escapes and returns to the lake where he left his friend. Crusoe lets Angus ride on its back. After some time, it begins to dive underwater, coming to the surface from time to time for breathing. Angus enjoys these moments thoroughly.

The peaceful setting doesn’t last long though. Crusoe suffers from shock after almost getting hit by an exploding shot from “Victoria” (a cannon; originally meant to stop submarines) aimed at the lake during a firing demonstration.

Demonstration

Angus, who interrupts the demonstration by destroying the gun with a ball-shaped bomb to save Crusoe from getting killed, enrages Hamilton and upsets Angus’ mother, who punishes him and sends him to his room for a month as punishment for destroying and causing destruction to Victoria.

Two people who previously saw Crusoe while fishing on the lake attempt to take a photo of it to become rich. When they realise that they won’t be able to photograph the real thing due to the exploding part of the Victoria gun landing in the loch along with a ruined bullet, they decide to create an imitation, which results in the real-life faked picture of The Loch Ness Monster, also known as “The Surgeon’s Photo”.

The photo, however, fake, piques the interest of a few soldiers who venture out on the lake at night to kill it. the same bulldog that chased Crusoe starts barking to locate him, at the edge of the loch, Crusoe surfaces only this time he has the advantage in size. On the loch, no one can hear the dog barking any more “this could mean that Crusoe probably killed or ate his old rival” . The surprise attack proves futile for the soldiers, as Crusoe easily capsizes their boat. Angus attempts to calm Crusoe down and wades into the lake where he loses his footing and sinks. Crusoe comes to Angus’ rescue and saves his life.

After much coaxing from Angus, Crusoe decides to leave the loch for shelter and safety. However, new guns from the nearby Artillery battery open fire upon Crusoe, mistaking it for a German U-Boat. Crusoe attempts to jump over the anti-submarine net but instead crushes it with its weight and escapes from the lake, which also causes all their guns to blow up again. It is implied that Angus finally accepts that his father may never return home while he sees Crusoe’s departure from afar, along with Lewis and his family.

The story ends with telling the viewer that, while several people claim to have seen Crusoe over the years, Angus never saw Crusoe again and yet never doubts that his giant friends was real.

After the story is told to the two American tourists the storyteller reveals that he is Angus himself. And the film ends where we are shown a mother calling out to her son, who is walking down the beach and spots a rock. The rock looks similar to the egg that the Water Horse hatched from.

At the last moment a crack from the eggs heard, hinting to the viewers that the gentle giant Crusoe has died, but not before leaving a descendant to be the next Water Horse, and thus the legend of the deep may continue.