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Splash
In 1964, eight-year-old Allen Bauer and his family are taking a boat tour at Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Allen is fascinated by something below the surface and jumps overboard, even though he cannot swim. In the ocean, he encounters a young girl, and when they hold hands, he inexplicably finds himself able to breathe underwater. However, Allen is rescued and pulled back to the surface, and the two are separated. Since no one else saw the girl, Allen comes to believe the encounter was a near-death hallucination. After the boat pulls away, the young girl is revealed to be a mermaid.
Twenty years later, Allen is now co-owner of a wholesale fruit and vegetable business in New York City with his womanizing older brother, Freddie. Throughout the years, Allen's relationships have failed as he subconsciously seeks the connection he shared with the mermaid. Depressed after his latest breakup, Allen returns to Cape Cod, where he encounters eccentric scientist Walter Kornbluth on a diving expedition. When his motorboat restarts, Allen falls into the sea and is knocked unconscious; his wallet drops onto the coral below. He later wakes up on a beach, with a headache from the accident, in the presence of a beautiful, naked young woman who is unable to talk. After kissing Allen, the woman dives into the sea, where she transforms into a mermaid. While swimming underwater, she is sighted by Kornbluth.
The mermaid finds Allen's wallet and uses a sunken ship's charts to locate New York. She comes ashore naked at the Statue of Liberty and is arrested for indecent exposure. Using information from the wallet, the police contact Allen, and she is released into his care. The mermaid learns how to speak English from watching television and is eager to explore the city. Unable to say her real name in human language, she selects "Madison" from a Madison Avenue sign. She tells Allen that she will be in New York for "six fun-filled days, and the moon is full", unable to return home if she stays any longer. Despite Madison's occasionally outlandish behavior, she and Allen fall in love. He proposes to her, but she declines and runs away. After some contemplation, Madison returns to Allen and agrees to marry him, with the added promise of telling him the truth about herself after an upcoming dignitary dinner to welcome the President.
Meanwhile, Kornbluth, realizing that Madison is the mermaid he encountered, pursues the couple, trying to expose her by splashing her with water. After his first attempts are unsuccessful, Kornbluth ultimately infiltrates the dignitary dinner, soaking Madison with a hose and unmasking her identity. Madison is seized by government agents and taken to a secret lab, headed by Kornbluth's cold-hearted rival, Dr. Ross, for examination. As she withers away in captivity, Kornbluth learns that the scientists are planning to dissect her, causing him to regret his actions.
Allen is shocked by Madison's secret and rejects her, but when he voices his disillusionment to his brother, Freddie berates him, reminding him how happy he was with her. Realizing that he still loves Madison, Allen confronts the guilt-ridden Kornbluth, who, having been rejected by his colleagues despite proving the existence of mermaids, agrees to help rescue her. Kornbluth, accompanied by Allen and Freddie impersonating Swedish scientists, enters the lab and smuggles Madison outside. Freddie stays behind to be arrested in Allen's place, while Kornbluth unsuccessfully tries to stop military troops from catching the couple.
As they make it to New York Harbor, Madison tells Allen that he can survive underwater as long as he is with her, prompting Allen to realize that she was the girl he had met underwater as a child. She warns him that if he comes to live in the sea, he will never be able to return to land. Madison dives into the water as the troops close in on them. When they attempt to arrest Allen, he jumps in after her but starts to drown. She kisses him, gifting him the ability to swim and breathe underwater. Frogmen try to recapture them, but the couple fight them off and escape. Allen discards his jacket as the couple happily swims toward what appears to be an underwater kingdom.