Maelstrom is a fictional character in the film Ice Age: The Meltdown, who was one of the two predators hunting Manny, Ellie, Sid, Diego, Crash, and Eddie. Maelstrom was thawed out from the ice along with Cretaceous who were frozen and left in ice until Manny, Sid, and Diego mistakenly broke off a piece of the ice. Cretaceous and Maelstrom, being frozen in the ice for so long, were on the prowl for animals to eat (they'd found one in the form of a foolhardy Glyptodon named Stu), and nearly caught the five animals when they were walking on the frozen water.