Flat Dog

"I'd say we're looking at... 20 feet maybe more. We all know who that is!"

- Shurkin "That Egyptian croc torn my grandpappy to bits."

- Shurkin

Flat Dog is the main antagonist of the 2000 horror film Crocodile and of the 2002 sequel to the film, Crocodile 2: Death Swamp. Flat Dog is a legendary crocodile inhabiting a lake in Southern California, she was brought from the Nile River by an old hotel owner to be used as a sort of tourist trap.

Crocodile
Eight teenagers, including Brady, Claire, Duncan, Kit, Annabelle, Sunny, Foster and Hubs are going on a weekend boat trip on a remote lake in Southern California for spring break. As the group are about to depart on their boat, they are warned by Sheriff Bowman to be sensible and keep out of danger. After a day of partying, the group have a bonfire, where Kit tells them a local story about how in the early 1900s, 96 years ago, a hotel owner named Harlan featured a crocodile named Flat Dog at his hotel. He goes on to say that Harlan eventually sets up a shrine to Flat Dog, believing her to be an avatar to the ancient Egyptian crocodile god (Sobek), creating a cult that worshiped the crocodile. The town eventually ran Harlan away because of his heathenism and torched his hotel years later when Kit was a kid. Close by, two local fishermen destroy a crocodile nest, only for them both to be attacked by Flat Dog, who devours them both.

The following day the teenagers continue to party. Annabelle's dog, Princess, runs away, leading the group to Flat Dog's nest, where Duncan breaks an egg and Hubs hides one in Claire's bag. At night, Sunny becomes incredibly drunk and reveals Brady cheated on Claire with her, resulting in Claire breaking up with Brady. Hubs, who is also heavily intoxicated falls asleep at the bonfire while the rest of the group return to the boat. Sometime later, Hubs attempts to return to the boat but is eaten by Flat Dog, while the boat becomes untied and begins to drift in the lake. In the morning, the friends find their boat has become stuck, leaving them stranded. While the rest of the group attempt to fix the boat, Brady and Sunny go to try to find Hubs. Sunny attempts to get Brady to go swimming, but she narrowly escapes an attack by Flat Dog. The pair rush back to the boat to warn the others. However, Flat Dog arrives and sinks the boat, killing Foster in the process.

Meanwhile, Sheriff Bowman finds the fishermen and Hubs remains before visiting Shurkin and Lester, two locals who take care of alligators. Shurkin sets out with the Sheriff to find Flat Dog—and kill her to avenge the deaths of his grandfather and father—while Lester is seen to be feeding the crocodile, but is eventually devoured himself. As night falls, the teenagers are still stranded in the woods searching for a road. Flat Dog returns, and ultimately Sunny is eaten. The rest of the group reach a small shop, where Brady attempts to phone the Sheriff, but Flat Dog breaks through a wall wounding Duncan by bitting him in the foot and devours Annabelle. As Kit escapes to start the truck outside, Brady, Claire and Duncan fight off Flat Dog. In the chaos, a fire starts which causes the truck to explode, killing Kit and scaring away Flat Dog.

The next day, the Sheriff and Shurkin find Brady, Claire and Duncan and pick them up on their boat. Soon after, Shurkin is knocked into the water and eaten, before the Sheriff is also killed. With the boat's engine broken, the survivors swim to land. Upon reaching the shoreline, Claire found the crocodile's egg in her backpack and the group decided to fight back against the angry crocodilian. Sharpening sticks into spears, they waited for Flat Dog to come on land and regain her stolen egg. The wait wasn't long and before the crocodile even reached its egg, Brady charged forward and stuffed his spear into its maw. The teenager was forced back but not killed, and next up was Duncan. He also charged forward and tried to blind the monster by holding his sweatshirt over its eyes. Annoyed, Flat Dog merely threw her head back and swallowed Duncan whole, but thanks to all of the bug repellent on him, he was thrown up by the reptile and saved. As Brady revived Duncan, the egg began to hatch in Claire's hand and the baby reptile fell into its mother's tooth-filled maw. With her young back, Flat Dog turned around and left the trio in peace and returned to the water.

Crocodile 2: Death Swamp
For the following year, she raised her surviving offspring and it steadily grew. However, when a plane crashed into her domain, her fifteen-foot child was shot and killed by the ruthless criminals that caused the crash. Enraged, the massive crocodile began to follow the few survivors of the crash. She began to pick them off one at a time, leaving a bloody trail of carnage through the swamplands. Mia’s boyfriend, having learned of the crash back in town, hired his own escort to help him locate his missing girlfriend within the swamps. Upon reuniting, the group was suddenly ambushed by the giant animal.

The reptile killed two of the party and trapped the others in an abandoned structure in the middle of the wetlands. However, the shelter could only last for so long. The reptile managed to bring it down, sinking the flimsy structure and sending the struggling group fleeing. With the criminal ranks broken down and only one left, the survivors finally thought they reached safety upon arriving at the helicopter. However, the monstrous crocodile brought down the helicopter and began to chase Zach and Mia as they attempted to escape by raft. Unable to keep up with the speed gifted to the raft by its motor, the crocodile was lured into a section of the swamp filled with methane. Canisters of gasoline were poured into the dark water and ignited, setting off a chain reaction. The legendary beast was engulfed in several explosions, its body ripped apart and burned. At long last, the deadly reign of the vangeful man-eating reptile was ended.

Trivia

 * Flat Dog was brought to the lake in the early 1900s by an old hotel owner.
 * Flat Dog is a very old animal. She is more than 110 years old.
 * Many believed that Flat Dog was a crocodile demon. But the natives believed that she is a god that protects the swamps from evil.
 * Flat Dog is not 100% hostile to humans because she was raised by a human. Her rage against humans is due to the reason that humans destroyed her nest several times and that criminals brutally slaughtered her child.