| Director | Alan Shapiro |
|---|---|
| Genre | adventure film, family film |
| Runtime | 96 min |
| Country | United States |
| Budget | $25 million |
| Box office | $35.5 million |
Sandy Ricks is sent off for the summer to stay with his Uncle Porter in the seaside town of Coral Key. Initially, Sandy is unenthusiastic and disappointed that he is not going to a Red Hot Chili Peppers concert. His mood remains unchanged even after meeting Cathy, a local shopkeeper with whom his uncle flirts with, and Kim, a girl his own age.
While out on Porter's fishing trawler, they meet Porter's rival, Dirk Moran. Nearby, a pod of bottlenose dolphins is frolicking near Dirk's boat. As a big game fisherman, Dirk Moran makes it plain that he hates just about every other fish-eating animal on earth and shoots at the pod, killing a dolphin. Sandy meets another dolphin that escaped Dirk's shooting and names it Flipper.
The next morning, Porter and Sandy are paid a visit by Sheriff Buck Cowan, who explains that they cannot keep the dolphin unless he is in captivity. That night, Sandy and Kim set out on a dinghy to look for Flipper. They fail to locate the dolphin but see barrels being dumped into the ocean off of Dirk Moran's boat. The next morning, as Kim arrives looking for Sandy, Porter's pet brown pelican Pete comes running as if asking her to follow him. Pete leads Kim to Flipper, who is beached on the shore and sick. They manage to cure the dolphin.
Cathy determines that Flipper has been poisoned by toxic waste, which has also been ruining the local fishing. The group uses Flipper's ability of echolocation and a special camera attached to his head to help them locate the barrels of toxic waste. Flipper then locates and reunites with the rest of his pod, dropping the camera in the process. Porter rushes back to alert the sheriff about the barrels. However, Sandy becomes concerned that something has happened to Flipper, and without informing anyone except Cathy's young son, he sets off in the dinghy to find him.
Sandy barely survives an encounter with Dirk Moran's boat, which dismantles the dinghy. He sees an approaching dorsal fin and thinks it is Flipper, but it is actually Scar, a large great hammerhead shark that has been lurking in the island's waters and is rumored to have taken out a tourist boat. Sandy swims for his life towards Dirk's boat. As Scar is about to attack Sandy, Flipper appears and starts nose-butting him in the gills. There is a harrowing moment when Scar proves stronger than Flipper, but Flipper's dolphin pod comes to his aid in the nick of time and drives Scar away. Dirk Moran is then arrested by the sheriff for illegally dumping toxic waste and attempting to kill Sandy since he knew that he saw them that night.
The next morning, when Sandy's mother Martha and younger sister Bua arrive to pick him up, Flipper appears to see him off.