Sharknado is one of those disaster comedies you have to see to believe. The so-bad-it’s-good series is infinitely enjoyable and chock-full of outrageous moments that will live rent-free in your brain for years. It’s absolutely absurd, terribly written, littered with awful CGI, and actors who — if they aren’t going out of their way to be absolutely horrendous — should really apply for full-time positions with Lifetime Entertainment. But it’s the objectively terrible aspects of the Sharknado franchise that make them so irresistible. Its charming stupidity has kept Sharknado relevant far past its expiration date and swimming around in the ample pools of affection viewers still have for this long-running series. While this article puts the titles in order of their release, check here for a ranking of the films from worst to best.
Sharknado (2013)
The film that started it all, Sharknado was filmed in just 18 days, and you can absolutely tell. The movie is sort of like Twister meets Jaws but if it was written from memory by someone who only had a vague understanding of marine life, gravity, and the limitations of the human body. And that was all intentional; every cast and crew member in the production was well aware of the campy, direct-to-DVD quality of the project and they fully embraced it.
The movie follows Fin Shepherd (Ian Ziering) a former surfer turned West Coast bar owner and one of the unfortunate few to experience the shark trauma early. After his bar is destroyed, he goes in search of his ex-wife (Tara Reid) and his children, intent to protect them from the monsters headed their way. And that’s about it. The simple premise is littered with one-liners, laughably bad CGI, and so many moments that critics hated but audiences loved it’s hard to believe.
Sharknado 2: The Second One (2014)
After the unimaginable success of the first film, Sharknado 2: The Second One had some exceptionally bad big shoes to fill. SyFy banked on the social media fervor of the first (a Twitter poll decided the hilariously deadpan title for the film) and the director really leaned into the camp. The second movie has more than 40 cameos and introduces cyborgs. Yes, you read that right, by the end of this movie Tara Reid is a cyborg.
The second movie picks up right where the last ended. The Shepherd family is heading straight for New York to warn people of the impending Shark disaster. By the time they arrive, the menace is already brewing on the horizon (literally a sharknado is about to hit the Big Apple) and the family has no choice but to try and survive yet again. The film is packed with ridiculous one-liners, terrible GCI, and laughably bad portrayals of human interactions. All that to say that if you liked Sharknado then you’ll definitely love Sharknado 2: The Second One.
Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No (2015)
The third Sharknado, though still a ridiculous and bloody ride, doesn’t have that certain something that makes one and two so brilliant. The stakes may be higher than the sea level, but somehow Sharknado 3 never reaches the zenith of absurdity that the others balance on so well. The movie lulls about halfway through, but the finale will have you rolling with laughter. Again littered with cameos and featuring an extensive moment in space, this movie predicted former President Trump’s infamous suggestion on how to deal with extreme hurricanes — hilarious considering the project initially tapped the 45th president to portray the Commander in Chief in the opening sequences of the film.
Again picking up where the last movie left off, Oh Hell No starts its romp in Washington D.C. Just as our shark-smashing hero, Fin is about to receive a medal of honor for his valor, yet another sharknado appears and levels the nation’s capital. Desperate to find his family yet again, Fin heads down the coast to Orlando, Florida where April is staying at the Universal Orlando Resort. Once the family is reunited, they realize with horror that the multitude of tiny sharknados Fin saw on the coast are converging into the most extreme sharknado to date. Bigger and better than its shark-infested predecessor, the meteorological monster must be stopped before it obliterates the eastern half of the United States.
Sharknado: The 4th Awakens (2016)
Sharknado: The 4th Awakens tries to return to its outlandish but glorious roots with some small amount of success. Though the movie has definitely bought into its own hype, sold its soul to commercial entities (there is so much shameless brand placement it’s honestly mind-boggling), and somehow made Gary Busey look like an Oscar-winning actor, it somehow still manages to be watchable. The fourth installment tries to expand its tornado themes and zhuzh things up by adding new outlandish tornados — lavanado, lightningnado, and, of course, a cownado all make appearances. It is also absolutely swimming with cameos and references to other — better — movies. Number four tries valiantly to do justice to its predecessors, but it just lacks the Sharknado memorability.
Sharknado: The 4th Awakens is set five years after the third movie. The world has been living a sharknado-free existence since tech-company Astro-X stabilized the atmosphere. Naturally, the peace can’t last for long, and in a Jurassic Park-style celebration event, a freak sharknado forms and threatens the residents of Las Vegas, Nevada. That’s not all — four has mech suits, more cyborgs, space travel, and rampant destruction of the American landscape. With how much damage Fin himself does to the country, it’s no wonder things are dire when Sharknado 5 rolls around.
Sharknado 5: Global Swarming (2017)
Sharknado really jumps the shark in the penultimate film of the series, but it does it spectacularly. Portals, ancient magic, nuclear fallout, this film has everything. It was as if the writers threw anything and everything at the wall to see what would stick and the director said yes to all of it. It’s truly delightful in its absurdity and perfectly sets up for the sextet’s finale.
Completely retconning the devices from the previous movie, Sharknado 5 ups the ante immediately in its storytelling. America has been decimated by the sharknado scourge and as the top minds of America (and also the only survivors), the Shepherd family heads to the U.K. in hopes of saving the rest of the world. As usual, their plans are derailed by — you guessed it — a sharknado. The film takes place all over the world and plays heavily off of classic kaiju movies. With a plot this bonkers, you really have to see it to believe it.
The Last Sharknado: It’s About Time (2018)
If you’ve stuck with the franchise this long then there probably isn’t much that needs to be said in order to sell this film. Does Sharknado: It’s About Time make sense? No. Does it bring something fresh to the series? Also no. But does it satisfactorily wrap up the series? That it does manage to do. There are so many cameos in this movie, it was as if every actor who had ever approached the franchise received their “yes.” The movie teeters on the edge of good-bad or bad-good and lands somewhere in the good-bad-good area. In the end, Sharknado: It’s About Time is just the sort of wrap-up this bananas franchise needed.
I won’t bother trying to explain the plot of this film. Just know it spans over centuries, features dinosaurs, poorly researched time travel ideas, George Washington, Billy the Kid, and clones. Every character who has died throughout the series is brought back with… some level of explanation. This final entry relies on the viewer to forgo continuity and good storytelling and just embrace the chaos that paved the way for this movie to exist in the first place. If that doesn’t appeal to you, then I hate to say it, but the Sharknado franchise just isn’t the one for you.
Honorable mentions
Sharknado: Feeding Frenzy (2015)
This documentary about the making of Sharknado details the full cultural impact of the ridiculous franchise. With news clips, trivia, cast interviews, and interviews with the director, it’s perfect for anyone who needs to know how the first movie transformed into a six-movie-long behemoth. It goes in-depth behind the scenes and talks about the struggle to find actors willing to participate in such a ludicrous franchise and the overwhelmingly positive response from viewers. Filmed just before the release of Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No, it’s a perfect little palette cleanser to watch between two and three.
The Lavantula
Okay, hear me out. This terrible SyFy original is loosely connected to the Sharknado franchise. Technically the first spin-off series, it tries to set a shared SyFy universe with Sharknado. Fin Shepherd may only make a momentary cameo in this movie, but his appearance confirms that before they were attacked by lava spiders, the citizens of Los Angeles, California had to contend with sharknados. Set somewhere between the third and fourth Sharknado movies, Fin bumps into Lavantula’s main character, Colton West (Steve Guttenberg). West tells him to get off the streets due to the giant lava spiders everywhere and Shepherd responds, “I’d love to help you, but I got shark problems right now.” Ah, that is the quality writing we come to SyFy for.