| abstract
| - Dr Carl Maia leads an expedition to the jungles of the Amazon, where he uncovers a fossil, which on closer inspection is found to be a claw; with webbed fingers. Maia believes that this is the missing link between land and sea animals from the Devonian period. He returns to the US, where he visits his former student David Reed, who now works at an aquarium in California. David approaches his financially minded boss Mark Williams and persuades him to fund a return expedition to find the remainder of the skeleton. Maia and David are joined by Mark as well as David's girlfriend Kay Lawrence and his colleague Edwin Thompson. They board the Rita, a tramp steamer captained by Lucas Arnold, and set off for the Amazon. It is revealed that there is tension between Mark and David, as Mark was in a previous relationship with Kay which ended when he proposed to her and she turned him down. When they arrive at Maia's research camp, they find that the other party members, Tomas and Luis, have been murdered and the camp ransacked. They theorize that they were killed by a wild creature and get to work on searching for the fossil. However, they have no luck. Reed suggests that the river washed it down to the nearby Black Lagoon, so they head down there to continue their dig. After squeezing the Rita into the lagoon, Kay goes for a swim. She is unknowingly watched by half-man half-fish monster, which tries to mimick some of her swimming moves. She gets out of the water after it accidentally brushes her leg, but she assumes it was a fish. The rest of the crew then find a claw tangled in their net, and Kay begins to wonder just what it was that touched her. Lucas tells them about an old river legend about a "gill-man" who lived in the river. Mark decides to dive into the lagoon to find whatever is down there. David is opposed to the idea, but Mark overrules him, so David decides to go with him. The two men swim around the lagoon floor, but find seemingly nothing. David uses a camera to take several pictures, sometimes slipping it into crevices to get a better look. When they come back up, Mark is disappointed that they didn't find anything. David cycles through his photos, and uncovers a photo he unknowingly took of the creature's face, while it was hiding in one of the underwater caves. Lucas tells them about a native poison which draws fish toward the surface. That night, they spread the poison over the lagoon in an attempt to lure the creature out. Once again, there is no result. David nearly falls asleep while manning a searchlight, until Kay visits him. Mark listens to them talking below deck, further fueling his jealousy. David is about to call it a night, when Kay suddenly spots the creature watching them. The other crew members rush to the deck and David shines the light on the creature, scaring it away. David and Mark head over toward the spot the creature was standing at, and uncover a trail which leads to a hidden cave. They follow the creature's footprints, but it attempts to outsmart them. The creature tackles Mark, but is slow to act as it is suffering from the effects of the poison. David shoots the creature with a harpoon, wounding it. The creature then collapses, and they take it with them back to the Rita. The creature is locked into a makeshift cage, and Edwin is left to watch over it. Kay convinces David to slip away with her and they go skinny dipping in the lagoon. They then crawl onto the bank and have sex. Mark secretly watches them and then decides to interrupt, lying that he thought he saw another creature and followed them. They then decide to return to the Rita. Meanwhile, the creature rips out of it's cage and drags Edwin back into the depths with it. The creature then resurfaces, trying to pull Kay off the boat, but she smashes a lantern over it's head. The creature catches fire and dives back into the water, retreating to it's cave. Following Edwin's death, the group decide to head back to civilzation. However, when they reach the mouth, they find that the creature has pushed a fallen tree in the way to hinder their escape. Mark decides to swim out and try to move it, but finds the creature lying in wait nearby. It savagely attacks Mark under the water, preventing the others from knowing what's going on. Eventually, David spots the danger when Mark briefly resurfaces, struggling to get away, only to be dragged back down by the creature. David dives in and rescues him while the creature flees. Mark makes peace with David and Kay before succumbing to his wounds and dying. The group decide to speed up their efforts to remove the tree, but find it tough to move. Suddenly, the creature flings a tree at them, impaling Maia, who then falls overboard. David descends to try and rescue him, allowing the creature to jump onto the Rita and carry Kay away with her. Lucas is slashed across the leg and wounded in the attack. When David resurfaces, he arms himself and decides to return to the cave to rescue Kay. Lucas remains on the boat, but begins to put together a makeshift bomb. David swims into the cave and pursues the creature, who is trying to kiss Kay in imitation of what it had seen her do with David earlier. David shoots the creature, but is slams him into a wall. David uses a bowie knife to lacerate the creature's throat. The creature retreats and falls into the water. David takes Kay back to the Rita, where Lucas jokes that now he won't get to use his bomb. The creature suddenly leaps back onto the boat and knocks David overboard. It then comes after Kay, but Lucas grabs her and throws her into the lagoon. Before the creature can follow, Lucas detonates the bomb, blowing the Rita to pieces. David and Kay, hiding underwater, swim to safety. They witness the creature, engulfed in flames, emerging from the wreckage and then falling into the lagoon. Kay muses that now they're stuck in the Amazon. David decides it would be best to just wait around for a while and they begin to kiss. The closing shot of the film is of the creature's charred corpse sinking to the bottom of the Black Lagoon.
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