News and videos on the internet often go viral passing off as the truth even when they are not. This makes it hard for us to discern what's real and what's fake. One such video is making the rounds on the internet, of a shark shockingly attacking a helicopter.
The video has been reportedly acquired by National Geographic for 1 million dollars. However, there is a section of the internet that pointed out the video could be a clip from a 2017 film.
'National Geographic acquires video of shark attacking helicopter'
On social media platforms news travels fast, certain kinds of news with a shock value travel faster. A clip of a shark leaping out of the water to grab a helicopter has caught the internet's fascination. The video shows people exclaiming upon the unbelievable event.
On WhatsApp and Twitter, the video is being shared by many with the caption, "National Geographic channel has paid 1 Million Dollar for this rare video." The video if true would clearly make the news, but not everybody's buying it since it shows vast similarity to a clip from a 2017 movie.
Is it just a clip from a 2017 movie?
The movie 5 Headed Shark Attack directed by Nico De Leon released in 2017, the film as the title suggests was a horror, sci-fi film on a 5-headed shark on a rampage. The movie also features a scene where the shark attacks a helicopter as spectators watch stunned.
The clip circulating is the same one from the film as the actors are the same in both the scene and the clip on social media. Moreover, the clip is entirely unedited to the one presented in the film, which makes it easier to know that it is a copy.
When one looks deeper, they can find that the caption, 'National Geographic has paid 1 Million Dollars for this rare video' periodically makes a comeback every year as people put to certain videos with the caption. A similar incident occurred in 2018, when a video of a destructive tornado went viral with the same caption, only to be found later as a clip from a 2014 movie 'Into the Storm'.
The shark attack clip going viral on social media sports a logo on the top-right corner that belongs to the Chinese streaming platform Tencent Video, often used by movie buffs to watch shows and films, therefore one can be certain the clip was taken from the platform and presumably from the film itself.
When these clips make their way onto our phones, it's hard to ignore, but a computer-generated 5-headed shark is neither scientific nor real. Moreover, if National Geographic did acquire the video, it would be in a series or as part of their archives.
