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Cephalopod Cinema

By elerner on April 23, 2010.

Tentacular SpectacularEver since the giant squid's star-turn in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, cephalopods have shown promise in the world of film. Though sharks may get the glory (and the title roles), their tentacled nemeses stole a scene in Oldboy and were conspicuous by their absence in Watchmen. Now they're stealing more than scenes: watch as one clever octopus makes off with an entire video camera in this recent underwater video. In a second video, the featured octopus isn't as lucky when it tries to steal a wrench. And if real-life cephalopods aren't your thing, check out the robotic squid in the short film The Anachronism over at Bioephemera

To elaborate on the bit about Oldboy: In addition to having one of the cooler fight scenes of all time, the movie has one of the cooler live-octopus-eating scenes of all time (though I imagine this is a slightly smaller field). The following is a behind-the-scenes look at star Choi Min Sik psyching himself up for some extremely fresh sushi (obviously, not for the squeamish):


Here are some less nausea-inducing videos:

PZ also recently posted a video of a sea lion attacking an octopus, and there's this classic: an octopus using a coconut shell as a mobile home/suit of armor:

Any other cinematic cephalopods I'm missing? Post them in the comments.

Tags
wildlife

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