SPOILER ALERT: the following article contains massive spoilers, including the ending. If you have not yet seen the movie, proceed at your own risk, or better, come back to this article later!
A diver swims with an octopus that lives in a kelp forest off the coast of South Africa.
SPOILERS AHEAD
My Octopus Teacher Plot Summary and Synopsis
The film shows how, in 2010, Foster began free-diving in a cold underwater kelp forest at a remote location in False Bay, near Cape Town, South Africa. The location was near Simon’s Town on the Cape Peninsula, which is exposed to the cold Benguela current of the Atlantic Ocean. He started to document his experiences and, in time, met a curious young octopus that captured his attention. He decided to keep visiting her den and tracking her movements every day for a year to win the animal’s trust. The two form a bond where she plays with Foster and allows him into her world to see how she sleeps, lives, and eats. In the film, Foster describes the impact on his life of his relationship with the octopus.
The film shows Foster’s growing intimate relationship with the octopus as he follows her around for nearly a year. It shows the octopus defending herself against pyjama sharks. In one attack, the octopus loses an arm, and retreats to her den to recover, slowly regenerating the arm over three months. In a later attack of a shark, she shows an incredibly improved creativity to survive, including sticking on the shark’s back. Later, after mating with a bigger octopus and producing a large number of eggs, the octopus dies naturally while tending for her eggs and a shark takes her body away.
Foster describes the effect of this mentorship that the octopus provided him with as teaching him a lesson on the fragility of life and humanity’s connection with nature. This translated to Foster creating a deeper bond with his son as his son develops as a diver and marine life student.
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0).