Even as a little kid, I noticed the repeated cliff hanger with fraying rope in Fury, and "stuck on the bottom and running out of air" in Seahunt.

Now as an old man making up stories for grandkids, I steal plots and use every ploy.

There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. -Ernest Hemingway
The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything.-- Edward John Phelps