--- title: Quiz: 'Sharknado' Plot Point or Real-Life Shark Encounter? description: A series of TV movies about shark-infested tornadoes may be crazier than real-life, but how much crazier? canonical: https://time.com/3964996/sharknado-quiz/ author: Eliza Berman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-22T13:41:55.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:22:20.648Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Quiz: 'Sharknado' Plot Point or Real-Life Shark Encounter? og:description: A series of TV movies about shark-infested tornadoes may be crazier than real-life, but how much crazier? og:url: https://time.com/3964996/sharknado-quiz/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb3afa30f672c2b60/69885bb73c16397aa3458eb4/sharknado.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: sharknado og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Quiz: 'Sharknado' Plot Point or Real-Life Shark Encounter? twitter:description: A series of TV movies about shark-infested tornadoes may be crazier than real-life, but how much crazier? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb3afa30f672c2b60/69885bb73c16397aa3458eb4/sharknado.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Quiz: _Sharknado_ Plot Point or Real-Life Shark Encounter?  by [Eliza Berman](https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Jul 22, 2015 1:41 PM UTC  Youtube.com  by [Eliza Berman](https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Jul 22, 2015 1:41 PM UTC As _Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No_ brings the ultimate weather-predator mashup back to Syfy Wednesday night—this time with more David Hasselhoff—thousands of would-be viewers ask themselves, “Is this the most ridiculous thing ever transmitted across a television screen?” The answer to that question is subjective (let’s not forget some other [solid contenders](http://www.theguardian.com/media/2004/dec/16/realitytv.broadcasting1)), but the absurdity of the TV movies is nearly matched by a host of real human encounters with sharks, such as this week’s [story](http://time.com/3963763/surfing-shark-attack/) of a surfer fending off an attack mid-competition. Although most of the action in _Sharknado_ and _Sharknado 2: The Second One_ is entirely unrealistic, it may be harder than it seems to discern bloody fact from bloody fiction. Can you tell the difference between _Sharknado_ plot points and true tales of shark encounters? [_Review: Sharknado 3, Bigger, Hungrier and More Commercial_](http://time.com/3966473/sharknado-3-review/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3964996/sharknado-quiz/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3964996/sharknado-quiz/"},"headline":"Quiz: Sharknado Plot Point or Real-Life Shark Encounter?","datePublished":"2015-07-22T13:41:55.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:22:20.648Z","description":"Is a TV movie franchise about shark-ridden tornadoes crazier than real life?","url":"https://time.com/3964996/sharknado-quiz/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Sharks","Television","sharknado"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb3afa30f672c2b60/69885bb73c16397aa3458eb4/sharknado.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliza Berman","jobTitle":"Berman is a senior editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb3afa30f672c2b60/69885bb73c16397aa3458eb4/sharknado.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"sharknado","caption":"sharknado","creditText":"Youtube.com","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3964996/sharknado-quiz/","name":"Quiz: Sharknado Plot Point or Real-Life Shark Encounter?"}}]}] ```