Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Ed Harris | ... | Bud Brigman | |
Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio | ... | Lindsey Brigman | |
Michael Biehn | ... | Lt. Coffey | |
Leo Burmester | ... | Catfish De Vries | |
Todd Graff | ... | Alan 'Hippy' Carnes | |
John Bedford Lloyd | ... | Jammer Willis | |
J.C. Quinn | ... | 'Sonny' Dawson | |
Kimberly Scott | ... | Lisa 'One Night' Standing | |
Captain Kidd Brewer Jr. | ... | Lew Finler (as Capt. Kidd Brewer Jr.) | |
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George Robert Klek | ... | Wilhite |
Christopher Murphy | ... | Schoenick | |
Adam Nelson | ... | Ensign Monk | |
Dick Warlock | ... | Dwight Perry (as Richard Warlock) | |
Jimmie Ray Weeks | ... | Leland McBride | |
J. Kenneth Campbell | ... | DeMarco |
Formerly married petroleum engineers who still have some issues to work out. They are drafted to assist a gung-ho Navy SEAL with a top-secret recovery operation: a nuclear sub has been ambushed and sunk, under mysterious circumstances, in some of the deepest waters on Earth. Written by Jwelch5742
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.