Draft:Beast of War

The film opens with young men undergoing intensive training in jungle terrain and are challenged by their Sergeant to complete a cross country run through jungle terrain back to camp within a time limit. A smaller soldier, Will, runs behind calling out to the others as he falls into a mud pit and begins to sink. Just as his hand is about to disappear, fellow soldier, Leo, pulls him to safety and takes his backpack, assisting him to finish the challenge. As they breach the jungle and see the end in sight where the rest of their unit await them, they just cross the line as the timer runs out. The Sergent orders them to go and rest while the rest of the unit must complete drills and uses it as an example of mate ship and taking care of each other in battle.

Leo is relentlessly targeted by another soldier, Des Kelly, with racially motivated bullying and draws attention to being paid 1-3 of his white colleagues. He uses his superior ability to hold his breath to beat him in a fight when a training drill escalates into a physical squabble. One evening, Leo steals an expensive flask of whisky from a sleeping Des and takes Will to flirt with two nurses he had met earlier after his fight.

The unit are sent out on a ship to enter the war when Japanese fighter planes destroy their ship over the Timor sea. Leo escapes and manages to help Will escape the wreckage, putting him on a makeshift raft of debris after waking him up. While gathering supplies and more floating items, they are joined by other surviving soldiers; Teddy, Stan who has sustained an injury to his head and shows signs of concussion or brain injury, Barry who has been shot seriously and holds onto the broken air raid siren which he winds to attract any other survivors, Thompson and Des Kelly.

A shark begins hunting the survivors while they are gathering, killing a soldier in the water while Leo is still gathering supplies and unknown to the survivors. After joining together, it targets Barry who is partly submerged on the makeshift raft due to his injuries and the men call out to him to swim towards him when his head and torso resurface close by but he doesn't respond and ominously bobs backwards revealing his legs are missing from the waist down and he is dead. The group spot a small emergency boat in the wreckage, and Leo boldly decides to try and retrieve it despite believing the shark is stalking them. He uses debris to jump across, but ends up needing to enter the water to retrieve it but is uninjured and is able to bring it to the makeshift raft to tie it on.

Over the next few days, the shark continues to hunt the men while they try and ration supplies and form a plan. Leo informs them the shark is a great white which he identified from the size and shape of its fin and has flashbacks of his younger brother, Archie, being taken by one while teaching him to dive for food. Tensions continue with Kelly antagonising Leo still. Eventually, Stan eats a can of peaches- the precious few supplies they have, but due to his head injury could not comprehend the situation. During one of the shark's attacks, Stan has his leg bitten off but the men are able to stop the bleeding and keep him alive. Later on, Des Kelly fumbles a grenade and pulls the pin during the chaos of another attack, and Stan bravely rolls onto it to save everyone else, causing his body to explode into pieces. Kelly is apathetic to the sacrifice, angering Leo and the other men. They gather the guts and remains and put him in a bag to float him off the boat as they hold a funeral for him.

The men drink their own urine after it's suggested by one of them, unfortunately just before it rains. Later, they are attacked by more fighter jets and some dive into the water to escape while others are shot. Leo sustains bullet wounds while firing back with a gun but manages to shoot down the plane after its second swoop of the survivors. Des Kelly is criticised once again for his lack of mate ship when he uses his bullet ridden friend as a human shield after the first raid, and rolls into the water during the second pushing him towards the shark to save himself.

The men dwindled until only Leo, Will and Des remain, and Des finally dies after continuing to fight and squabble against the group. In one last suicidal effort for his friend's survival, dehydrated and starving, Leo jumps into the water with a grenade and pulls the pin when the shark approaches, letting it bite his arm off and swim away, blowing it up as it turns to come back. Will saves Leo from the water, bandaging his arm and getting the rescue boat they found earlier to start its engine so they can flee to safety.

The film has received multiple awards and nominations. Mark Wareham received the 2026 Film Critics Circle of Australia award for best cinematography and a nomination for best cinematography for the 2026 Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA). The film won best editing award at the 2026 Film Critics Circle of Australia. The film was also nominated for best editing and best consume design at the 2026 Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA)