The Abyss (1989)

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

Director:

James Cameron

Writer:

James Cameron

Stars:

Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Michael Biehn

Won 1 Oscar. Another 8 wins & 15 nominations.

Cast

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.)
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

Storyline

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.

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Plot Keywords:

submarine | trapped underwater | pantyhose | ocean | drowning | 

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Taglines:

Believe your eyes.

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Genres:

Adventure | Drama | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for language and some scenes of action

Did You Know?

Trivia

One of the first American films to be shot in Super 35 format, and filmed in a custom variant known as "Abyss Format". Clairmont Camera had ground glasses made for the cameras that displayed five separate framelines, 1.66, 1.33 (inside 1.66), 1.85, 2.20, and 2.39, with the latter two gradually shifted upwards to the top of 1.85 so they maintained headroom. . This allowed prints to be made in the two common "flat" 35mm formats, in anamorphic 35mm, and in 70mm.

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Goofs

When the divers are swimming, you can see bubbles with every breath, meaning that they are on an open-system (i.e. scuba). However at that depth (2000ft), a standard scuba tank would be exhausted in under two minutes, or much less with any kind of exertion.

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Quotes

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

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Crazy Credits

The opening 20th Century Fox logo doesn't have the usual fanfare, only the sound of sonar pings in the background.

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Alternate Versions

As a result of the British Board of Film Classification cutting the rat sequence after the RSPCA requested it on grounds of cruelty, 45 seconds were removed.

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Connections

Featured in Bad Movie Beatdown: The Marine (2012)

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Soundtracks

Too Much Pressure
(uncredited)
Written by Neol Davies
Published by Fairwood Music Ltd.
Performed by The Selecter
Courtesy of EMI Records Group/Chrysalis Records, Inc.
By Arrangement with CEMA Special Markets

User Reviews

An excellent movie

This movie is extremely well made. Make sure you get the original director's cut, or Special Edition as they are calling it on the DVD. It includes the real ending, along with more than 20 minutes of additional footage. The morons from the studio in Hollywood decided that the public wouldn't want to see a nearly 3-hour underwater adventure, and forced James Cameron to cut it down and change the ending. The ending the studios insisted on is your typical boring old done-a-million-times happy ending, and does not work. It betrays the message of the film, and makes it nothing more than a good underwater shoot-em-up. This movie is much more than that. See the REAL ending to understand why it is so important to this film. As opposed to the canned studio ending, the REAL one makes you think. Well, what did you expect? Hollywood executives make movies for the common herd, they dumb them down to make sure every patron goes away feeling happy. God forbid that anyone actually may have to think a little. At the time, despite a few solid hits (such as the original Terminator), James Cameron wasn't enough of a power in La-La land to force the studios to release the movie as he wanted it to be. After Titanic, they will do whatever he says, so we can now expect some great Cameron films to look forward to, rather than having to wait for the REAL movie to come out years later on a Special Edition DVD.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

9 August 1989 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Abyss

Filming Locations:

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

Box Office

Budget:

$70,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$9,319,797, 13 August 1989

Gross USA:

$54,461,047

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$90,000,098

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox, Pacific Western, Lightstorm Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

140 min 171 min (special edition)

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1