The Abyss (1989)

Director:

James Cameron

Writer (WGA):

James Cameron (written by)

Release Date:

9 August 1989 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

There's everything you've ever known about adventure, and then there's The Abyss.

Plot:

A civilian diving team are enlisted to search for a lost nuclear submarine and face danger while encountering an alien aquatic species.

Plot Keywords:

Submarine | Underwater | Abyss | Ocean | Estranged Couple

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 4 wins & 12 nominations

Cast

Ed Harris	...	Virgil 'Bud' Brigman
Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio	...	Lindsey Brigman
Michael Biehn	...	Lt. Hiram Coffey
Leo Burmester	...	Catfish De Vries
Todd Graff	...	Alan 'Hippy' Carnes
John Bedford Lloyd	...	Jammer Willis
J.C. Quinn	...	Arliss 'Sonny' Dawson
Kimberly Scott	...	Lisa 'One Night' Standing
Captain Kidd Brewer Jr.	...	Lew Finler (as Capt. Kidd Brewer Jr.)
George Robert Klek	...	Wilhite
Christopher Murphy	...	Schoenick, SEAL Team Member
Adam Nelson	...	Ensign Monk, SEAL Team Member
Dick Warlock	...	Dwight Perry (as Richard Warlock)
Jimmie Ray Weeks	...	Leland McBride
J. Kenneth Campbell	...	DeMarco

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for language and some scenes of action. (special edition)

Runtime:

138 min | USA:171 min (special edition)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (DuArt)

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) | Dolby SR (35 mm prints)

Certification:

Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) (special edition) (2000) | Canada:A (Nova Scotia) (original rating) | Canada:AA (Ontario) (special edition) (2000) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Ontario) (original cut) | Canada:PG (Manitoba) (also special edition) | Portugal:M/12 | Malaysia:U | South Korea:12 | USA:PG-13 (Certificate #29764) | Brazil:Livre | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Chile:14 | Finland:K-14 | France:U | Iceland:12 | Norway:15 | Peru:14 | Singapore:PG | Spain:13 (special edition) | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | West Germany:12 | Netherlands:AL (special edition)

Filming Locations:

Harbor Star Stage, San Pedro, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

The scene with the water tentacle was one of the first to be filmed. This was done so as to give the effects team the maximum amount of time available to develop the CGI over the course of filming the rest of the movie.

Goofs:

Factual errors: Although, of course, all the equipment and terrain is fictional and only subject to fictional physics, it is intuitively extremely unlikely that something the size and weight of the fallen crane could pull something the size and weight of the rig along the sea bed, especially when the cable is draped over the edge of the cliff and the crane is presumably bumping along the rocky cliff wall.

Quotes:

[first lines]
USS Montana Captain: Sixty knots? No way, Barnes. The Reds don't have anything that fast.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Making of 'True Lies' (1994) (TV)

Soundtrack:

WILLIN'

"These guys are about as much fun as a tax audit."

The Abyss was a movie of destiny. First off, this movie either began or was the result of a lifetime obsession James Cameron has the ocean (see later Titanic and his IMAX deep sea movies). The Abyss is also full of echos of claustrophobic thriller/adventure movie Alien, in which Cameron directed the sequel. So combining one of Cameron's old movies with his new obsession, we get The Abyss, a solid sci-fi thriller starring Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. Ed Harris plays Bud, the head of an undersea oil rig where very little actually happens and the people on the rig are only there in case something goes wrong. Well, wouldn't you know it, but an American nuclear submarine patrolling the US coast near the oil rig suddenly sinks, killing the sailors on board. The Americans suspect it's the Soviets, but we know better. Something pink and glowing does something to the submarine causing it to sink. A team of Navy seals, ferried down to the rig by Bud's ex-wife Lindsey (Mastrantonio), boards the oil rig and uses it as a command base for their mission to recover the submarine. And that is when the fun begins. Of course a hurricane has to enter into the plot, in movies like this, there is always a hurricane, but beyond, The Abyss is a solid sci-fi thriller, where the oil rig becomes a character in the movie. Much like the Nostromo in Alien or The Discovery in 2001, the tight spaces adds flavor to the movie, bringing the setting in as another character of the movie. The special effects were groundbreaking at the time and hold up well today. The scene of a column of water snaking its way through the oil rig still creeps me out to this day.