Coffey s basic military paranoia. The situation begins to spin out of control when Coffey s precarious mental state causes him to take extreme action against the drilling team and whatever intelligence that lies in the abyss. Since both presentations are derived from the same transfer, with the theatrical version skipping the extra footage contained in the Special Edition, image quality is identical. Sequences photographed in the cool blue lighting that has become a James Cameron trademark certainly look best. Sequences in warmer, more natural lighting are a bit less detailed and for some reason are a hair less appealing.
Blacks are perfect and the image displays good shadow detail and very smooth contrast.
There is excellent channel separation across the forward soundstage, with plenty of opportunities for sound effects to take advantage of the Dolby Digital encoding. The surround channels are very active throughout, although I could not pinpoint any actual split surround sound effects. Dialogue reproduction is excellent with all the actor s voice remaining clear and intelligible, despite that the mix is awash in other sounds. Bass reproduction is full and authoritative, delivering the required kick to the film s key sequences. A Dolby Surround soundtrack is also encoded onto the DVD, as are English and Spanish subtitles.