Lake Placid: The Final Chapter

Plot

EPA Agent Reba, with Dennis and Sheriff Theresa Giove, venture to Black Lake and neutralize an infant crocodile with a tranquilizer. They meet Lieutenant Ryan Loffin on land and drive towards a ten-thousand volt fence built by the Army Corp. Chloe and Elaine join the Marshfield Swim Team in a tour bus, which mistakenly goes through the gate of the electric-fenced park towards the Black Lake instead of Clear Lake and the swim team spends the night there having various conversations. Dennis is searching the woods for the crocodile and is attacked by the crocodile. Gus the bus driver uses the lake as a bathroom, spying on two girls playing in the water without their bikini tops, and is killed by a crocodile after the girls leave the water. The next morning, with the police officials on alert, the swim team decides to ride the lake with jet skis and one of them, Joey, falls off the jet ski. He is attacked in the water by a float of infant crocodiles and eaten. A student on the beach is dragged by a crocodile into the water and another is torn apart while trying to enter the bus and his blood splatters all over the side of the bus. The other students and the coach make it safely inside the bus before further attacks. Chloe, who wandered off in the woods, meets Max after he fell off a resting platform on top of a tree.

The Sheriff’s team finds a skeletal part of a crocodile from a crocodile carcass. The swim team continues to run through the woods until they find an abandoned camp and a smaller crocodile. The group flees separately and Brittany steps into a trap on a rope and gets strung up on the tree. Her head is severed by the crocodile. Chloe falls into a hole, is trapped and forced to deal with a crocodile. Max distracts the crocodile with a rock and Chloe subdues it by hitting it with a gun. The Sheriff's team finds the injured Dennis while Chloe retrieves a cell phone from the crocodile’s mouth. Max dispatches a rope to pull Chloe out of the trap as the crocodile awakes.

The Sheriff’s group makes it safely to land and suddenly Dennis is pulled under the bus and killed by a crocodile. The remaining swim team and Max encounter Jimmy Bickerman, who "forcefully" encourages the kids to board his boat. Coach Macklin stays on land and is killed by a crocodile. The students and Max are taken hostage by Jimmy. They make it back to land and are taken to a cabin. Jimmy then finds a nest of eggs by the shoreline.

The Sheriff’s team finds Tina by the electric fence while Jimmy steals the eggs from the nest and stows them away in his satchel. Elaine finds one room of the cabin full of flesh and blood and is attacked by the crocodile in it. Chloe and others kill the crocodile while Elaine still survives with injuries. They reunite with the Sheriff’s team while Reba accuses Jimmy of his actions. Jimmy takes Max hostage while a crocodile breaks free from its chains and takes a boat with it. Drew is devoured as he tries swimming towards the boat while the others retreat towards the electric fence. The Sheriff dodges a charging crocodile, causing it to crash into the fence and gets electrocuted.

By next morning, Jimmy awakens and taunts the last crocodile. He tosses his satchel and is devoured. An ambulance arrives to support the survivors by the electric fence. Theresa and Ryan passionately kiss. In the end, a woman jogging through the woods thinks the lake is now crocodile free, but is killed by the last crocodile that still remains.

Cast

Critical response

The film receives generally mixed reviews, mostly due to its uses of unrealistic, low-budget CGI (just like the two predecessors) and an open ending that is conflicting with its name.

However, Lake Placid: The Final Chapter has been stated to be much better than both of its predecessors. It received positive reviews from some critics who praise its plot and character development. One of the critics David E. Kelley, the writer of the original film, who gave the film 4.5 out of 5 stars, says, "Is this the last one really? The ending doesn't make me think so. I am glad to see Robert Englund in this and some of the cast from the previous movie! The effects are still lame as second and third, but the story is good". Another critic, Marcie Frank said she was totally into it and couldn't change the channel. Scott Weinberg from FEARnet, who gave the film a review "Rotten", said "I've seen a lot worse "crocs run wild" movies than Lake Placid 4".