Piranha 3D (2010)
12-month trend
12-month trend
Monthly article views
2025-09 to 2026-08
A local sheriff must team up with a group of strangers to stop a swarm of prehistoric piranhas unleashed into a lake during spring break.
The story
During spring break on Lake Victoria, a popular waterside resort, an underground tremor releases hundreds of prehistoric, carnivorous piranhas into the lake. Local cop Julie Forester must join forces with a band of unlikely strangers—though they are badly outnumbered—to destroy the ravenous creatures before everyone becomes fish food.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
After a small earthquake splits the floor of Lake Victoria, Arizona, a school of prehistoric piranhas emerges. As spring break begins, local sheriff Julie Forester discovers the danger after a fisherman's body is found. While various groups—including a group of students and a film crew—gather at the lake, the piranhas begin a bloody attack. Julie and a team of experts attempt to contain the threat, but they find the piranhas are a super-aggressive prehistoric species. The carnage continues as the piranhas attack tourists and locals alike. In the chaos, various characters are hunted down, and a desperate attempt to use explosives to clear the water results in the destruction of many piranhas. However, the final scene reveals that the survivors only killed the juveniles, and a large adult piranha remains in the water.
- First release year
- 2010
- Runtime (minutes)
- 88
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Alexandre Aja
- Writers
- Pete Goldfinger · writer; Josh Stolberg · writer
- Cast and characters
- Elisabeth Shue · Julie Forester; Adam Scott; Jerry O'Connell; Ving Rhames; Jessica Szohr · Kelly; Steven R. McQueen; Christopher Lloyd; Richard Dreyfuss
- Genres
- 3D; action; horror; black comedy
- Themes
- Survival; Nature's Revenge
- Tone and mood
- Campy; Gory
- Premise and plot tags
- Survival Horror; Creature Feature; Remake
- Source material / true-story basis
- 1978 comedy horror film of the same name
- Franchise connections
- Piranha
- Content notes
- Nudity
- Reception
- The film received generally positive reviews from critics and was a box office success.
- Reported review scores
- Metacritic · score: 53 · scale: 100 · review count: 20
- Production trivia
- The film's water was dyed red during filming.; Approximately 80,000 gallons of fake blood were used.; The character played by Richard Dreyfuss is a parody of Matt Hooper from Jaws.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
Your lists
Loading your lists…
