Cretaceous and Maelstrom

Villain Overview Gallery

Partners in Crime
Full Names	Cretaceous Maelstrom
Alias	None
Origin	Ice Age: The Meltdown
Occupations	Predators
Powers/Skills	Sharp teeth Swimming Brute strength Agility
Hobbies	Hunting.
Goals	Eat mammals for food during the Flood (succeeded for only one, but failed for all of the others).
Crimes	Mass murder (implied) Mutilation Stalking
Type of Villains	Homicidal Predators

“	What in the animal kingdom was that?!	„
	~ Sid after outrunning Maelstrom.

Cretaceous and Maelstrom are the main antagonists of Blue Sky Studios' 3rd animated feature film Ice Age: The Meltdown, the second installment of the Ice Age film series.

They are a pair of carnivorous sea reptiles who are known to take great opportunity in eating animals for food.

Their vocal sound effects were provided by sound designer Nicolas David Inhofe, who is best known for being the son of author S.E. Hinton.

Biography

Cretaceous and Maelstrom were first seen thawing out in a melting pack of ice. Their first victim upon defrosting was Fast Tony's unintelligent Glyptodon sidekick named Stu, who was testing his snorkeler too close to them.

At one point, the pair attack the herd while they were crossing a frozen area of water. Cretaceous targeted Manny only because he was the biggest animal in the whole herd, while Maelstrom attacked Sid and Diego when they get separated from the others. Despite their efforts to devour them, the herd successfully manage to escape from the two predators.

They later appear again in the climax when Ellie is trapped in a cave during the rising flood. When Manny and his friends come to Ellie's aid, the pair drag Manny into the depths of the water as he tried to save Ellie. Manny manages to escape the pair and the reptiles continue pursuing him, but Manny tricks them into hitting a log wedged beside a large rock. This causes the giant rock to fall down and crush the two vicious reptiles to death in the process, which also frees Ellie.

In the novelization, it is revealed that their remains were eaten by The Lone Gunslinger and the vultures from cheating to eating animals for food.

Legacy

No Time for Nuts (4D)

When Scrat travels back in time and appears in a museum of the present time, they get to see some full-scale sculptures of a Metriorhynchus and Globidens (referring to Cretaceous and Maelstorm).

The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild

At the beginning of the film, when Ellie narrates her previous adventures, there are cave paintings of Cretaceous and Maelstorm chasing the herd during the flood.

Other Media

Ice Age 2: The Videogame

Cretaceous and Maelstrom appear as main enemies in the ice river area. Cretaceous will be in charge of chasing Scrat between the icebergs to attack him with a surprise jump, and at the end of the phase, Maelstrom swallows Scrat, prompting the saber-toothed squirrel to traverse his digestive tract to escape the huge marine reptile.

Ice Age Adventures

Cretaceous, without the company of Maelstorm, will act as a boss that must be defeated with the same game mechanics, win the game by matching similar crystals on the board.

Ice Age Scrat's Nutty Adventure

Cretaceous and Maelstrom appear as bosses that Scrat must defeat in the middle of an ice floe.

Description

Cretaceous

Cretaceous is a slender purple Ichthyosaur. He is shown in the beginning frozen in a great block of ice that was jarred loose when the wall of ice began crumbling. The ice melted, releasing both him and Maelstrom into the lake which was all but abandoned by most animals. When they made it to the ice lake, the first animal that they had encountered and eaten was Stu, leaving behind only his shell. The two sea reptiles then swam further down the series of rivers where they eventually reached Manny's herd as well as Crash, Eddie, and Ellie. Cretaceous made a great lunge at Manny, but his jaws were caught on his tusks, only to be flung far off as he twisted his head to throw the predator, hitting a piece of ice and falling back into the water on his way.

Later, when the dam broke, the two reptiles went swimming on the wall of water that was slowly approaching towards the escaping masses and pulled down Manny when he was swimming to save Ellie. Manny devised a plan to rid himself of the two sea reptiles by having them try to chase him, he tricked them into hitting a log that was wedged under a large rock. The plan worked so well, freeing Ellie, and the boulder falls on Cretaceous and his partner Maelstrom, killing them both.

Maelstrom

Maelstrom is a muscular teal Pliosaur. During his first appearance, he is shown in the beginning frozen in a great block of ice that was jarred loose when the wall of ice began crumbling. The ice melted, releasing both Cretaceous and him into the lake which was all but abandoned by most animals. When they made it to the ice lake, the first animal that they had encountered and eaten was Stu, leaving behind only his shell. The two sea reptiles then swam further down the series of rivers where they eventually reached Manny's herd as well as Crash, Eddie, and Ellie. Maelstrom intended to eat Sid but could not catch him, as Sid was already escaping with Diego, and had only just escaped Maelstrom as he broke off a massive chunk of ice where the sloth and saber-tooth had stood only moments before, with the duo having tricked him.

Later, when the dam broke, the two reptiles went swimming on the wall of water that was slowly approaching towards the escaping masses and pulled down Manny when he was swimming to save Ellie. Manny devised a plan to rid himself of the two sea reptiles, by having them try to chase him, he tricked them into hitting a log that was wedged under a large rock. The plan worked so well, freeing Ellie and killing Cretaceous and Maelstrom.

Personalities

Cretaceous and Maelstrom are depicted as nasty, aggressive, hot-tempered, impatient, and voracious. It was demonstrated that Cretaceous and Maelstrom pursued their prey with aggression and tenacity, and that they became readily enraged if the prey evaded them. Cretaceous's pursuit of Manny, the biggest member of the herd, demonstrated his avarice, while Maelstrom also preyed on Sid and Diego when they became isolated from the rest of the herd.

Trivia

• Their names "Cretaceous" and "Maelstrom" are never mentioned in the film.
• The species that has a resemblance to Cretaceous can be seen in the 2012 app game Ice Age Village called "Metri". It is unknown if his partner Maelstrom will be added in a future update or not.
• Cretaceous is the only one of the two reptiles who can walk on dry land, as seen during his defeat against Manny and his Ice Age Adventure appearance.
• There was initially going to be a third predator, who appeared in some early designs as a small axolotl-like creature. However, the character was scrapped, so the backstory for the villains is that they were frozen for millions of years ago and kept in suspended movement.