The Abyss
Tags: thought-provoking, romantic

Plot synopsis:
Text appearing in red describes footage from the 1993 Special Edition of the film.The Montana, a U.S. Navy nuclear missile submarine, operating deep in the Cayman Trough in the Caribbean Sea, encounters an unidentified submerged object moving at high speed. The object passes very close to the submarine and the vessel loses power. Power is restored after a few moments, however the sub has drifted too close to the underwater canyon wall and collides with it, causing catastrophic damage. An officer is able to launch the sub's emergency beacon before the sub floods, drowning the entire crew.As Soviet ships and submarines head toward the area in an attempt to salvage the sub and its, and with a hurricane moving in, the Americans decide that the quickest way to mount a rescue is for a US Navy SEAL team to be inserted onto a privately owned experimental underwater oil drilling platform, which they will then use as their base of operations. The platform's designer and chief engineer, Dr. Lindsey Brigman (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), is furious at the notion of her rig being commandeered for the mission. Her estranged husband, Virgil "Bud" Brigman (Ed Harris) is the foreman of the platform. However, Benthic Petroleum, the rig's financier, has already agreed to cooperate with the Navy and has promised the rig's crew substantial bonus pay. Lindsey herself travels down to the rig with the SEAL team to oversee the operation personally. After eight hours in a compression chamber, Lindsey and the SEAL team emerge; no one, however, sees that SEAL leader Lt. Hiram Coffey (Michael Biehn) has developed High Pressure Nervous Syndrome (HPNS) when he has a slight hand tremor. Lindsey and Bud promptly begin arguing with each other, revealing that they are a separated married couple. Bud becomes furious and throws his wedding band into a chemical toilet. He relents after a few moments and fishes it out, staining his hand blue with the toilet's sanitation fluid.The rig and SEAL teams prepare to investigate the submarine wreck. One of the SEALs shows crew members Hippy (Todd Graff) and Catfish (Leo Burmester) a high-tech underwater breathing system that uses oxygenated fluid instead of air. The system allows its wearer to survive at extreme ocean depths without succumbing to the intense water pressure. Coffey himself leads the entire operation, issuing orders and angrily reprimanding the crew when they begin joking with each other.While searching the sub for survivors, the collective team encounters strange creatures they can't identify, the same beings that inadvertently caused the submarine to sink. Lindsey, piloting one of the rig's three mini-subs, experiences the same type of power loss that the Montana did. While searching a compartment on the Montana, Bud's partner, Jammer (John Bedford Lloyd), the rig crew's biggest member, sees a strange, glowing creature and panics. When he tries to escape the chamber, he damages a valve on his breathing apparatus and begins to convulse. Bud and his comrades are able to save Jammer, but the incident puts him in a coma.As the storm intensifies, Coffey and his team communicate with their commanding officer on the surface, who tells them that a Russian attack sub was detected in the area. The team is ordered to retrieve a Trident missile warhead and arm it as a contingency if the Russians get too close to the Montana.Coffey and the SEALs take one of the rig's mini-subs without authorization. Using the sub's large mechanized arm, they are able to open a launch door of the Montana and extract one of the Tridents.. However, the mini-sub they commandeered was the only vehicle capable of disconnecting the station's umbilical cord to its parent surface ship, the Benthic Explorer. Upon their return, the SEALs remove the warhead and turn the sub over to its pilot, "One Night" (Kimberly Scott), who takes it out in an attempt to disconnect the umbilicus.By this time, the Explorer is in the middle of the hurricane, and being tossed violently by powerful winds and waves generated by the storm. The ship's motion makes it impossible for One Night to disconnect the cable, which is jerking about with such power that it begins to drag the station along the bottom towards the Cayman Trough. The stress of the cable causes the derrick crane that supports the station to break away from the ship, momentarily stopping the station's slide towards the trench. The crew is relieved that they have avoided death, but the joy is short-lived as they realize the crane, which is still attached to the rig via the umbilicus, is descending to them at an increasing rate. As it floats past the rig into the chasm, the crew sees that the crane's momentum will pull the rig into the chasm, and they brace for the impact. The station is violently yanked towards the chasm causing massive damage and flooding, killing six of the station's crew one of the SEAL team and injuring several of the surviving crew and SEALs. The rig is not pulled into the trench, stopping a few feet short of the precipice.Tensions mount as the platform has lost contact with the surface and anger of the crew towards the SEALs intensifies over the deaths of their friends and co-workers. The crew begins to experience more strange encounters from what appear to be underwater beings (referred to as non-terrestrial intelligences, or NTIs by Hippy), which the paranoid Coffey determines to be a threat. While activating oxygen tanks outside the rig, Lindsey encounters one of the smaller probes she'd spotted while at the submarine & then a much larger and brilliantly illuminated vehicle which she touches. As both vehicle sputter out of sight into the chasm, she is able to get a few pictures.Another incident involves an encounter with a tentacle that appears to be made entirely of water, but can move like a snake. It also morphs into the faces of both Lindsey and Budd in an apparent attempt to communicate. When Coffey finds the tentacle's origin in the rig's diving pool, he panics and closes one of the hatches, cutting it off, and the remainder sinks into the depths. When the end of the tentacle "looks" at him, Coffey becomes even more scared and paranoid.Strapping the warhead to Big Geek, one of the platform's remote operated vehicles, Coffey makes a fateful decision to send both of them down to the bottom of the trench where the NTIs appear to be coming from. He dogs and jams the door to the rig's sub bay and waits until it's time to launch Big Geek. Due to the damage caused to the rig, Bud and Catfish have to swim to the sub bay under the rig in freezing cold water. Bud makes it to the bay, having to leave Cat behind at another hatch. Bud tries to sneak up on Coffey with a large pipe but decides to grab the pistol Coffey had tucked into his belt. Coffey spots him and tries to shoot Bud but the pistol is empty: one of his SEAL team, Monk, had previously unloaded the pistol. Bud and Coffey fight hand-to-hand with Coffey finally wrapping a cable around Bud's neck. Suddenly, Cat appears and punches Coffey in the face, knocking him on his back. Coffey retreats to the sub and escapes, moving into a position where he can launch Big Geek.Bud and Lindsey intervene; Bud ties the runaway ROV to a railing on the rig and is picked up by Lindsey piloting one of the rig's subs. After a furious chase along the sea bottom, Lindsey disables both subs and stops Coffey, who falls off the edge of the trough and is crushed within his submersible by the pressure. However, they cannot stop the ROV from taking the warhead down into the trench. Trapped in their rapidly-flooding sub, Lindsey orders Bud to use the ship's sole diving suit to swim back to the platform, towing her body. While she will drown, she banks on the very cold water preserving her via the mammalian diving reflex until she can be resuscitated in the platform. A very tense situation develops while her comrades try to resuscitate her. When using emergency equipment fails, Bud frantically begins to shake and even slap Lindsey, who regains consciousness, much to the relief of the entire crew.Being the most qualified and strongest diver left, Bud then dons an experimental diving suit given to him by the remaining SEALs, in which the diver breathes an oxygenated fluid instead of air. This has the advantage of allowing the diver to descend to incredible depths without injury, as the body will not be crushed by the pressure by having liquid in the lungs rather than gas. Bud's mission is to dive to the bottom of the trench, two miles down and deeper than anyone has ever gone before, and disarm the warhead before it detonates. He succeeds in his mission, but Lindsey is distressed to learn that he does not have enough breathing fluid remaining to allow his return to the rig. He tells her, via a wrist keypad, that he always knew it "was a one-way trip", but that he had to go to save both the platform crew and the NTIs. He transmits a final message saying that he loves her and still considers her to be his wife, and she tells him how much she loves him before assuming he's dead.The NTIs find Bud as his oxygen runs out and bring him onto their ship, an immense, glowing city. They provide him with air to breathe at his normal pressure and engage in silent communication with him. They then show him several television clips they have stored of humanity's destructive behavior, silently explaining that they have left humans alone but now believe humans are too self-destructive to continue this behavior. They also show Bud a few current newscasts of an incredible phenomenon along continental coasts on the surface. The NTIs are using their ability to control water to form 1000' high tsunamis off the coasts of every continent on Earth, threatening to destroy humanity. Bud asks the NTIs what right they have to judge the human race. He is shown historical clips of Hitler, war, and genocide. However, when the The NTI's had intercepted Bud's transmission "LOVE YOU WIFE" they decide to stop the storm and tsunamis, realizing humans do possess compassion for each other.Back on the rig, everyone is saddened by the loss of Bud. However, they pick up a typed message from Bud telling them that he's alive and well and that they should brace themselves. The NTIs raise their entire city from the chasm, but it is so massive it lifts most of the naval fleet patrolling the area above the water, including the Explorer. The rig is also on the city and everyone seems fine, including the underwater crew, who should have died without decompressing -- the NTI's altered their bodies to allow this. Lindsey sees Bud emerge from the NTI ship and they rush to each other. Greeting each other as a newlywed couple would, they engage in a passionate kiss.

Review: Even though this was made by James Cameron, the same director who gave us "Aliens", both movies are very hard to compare.When an American nuclear submarine is attacked during the cold war and crashes, the navy is convinced that it was the work of the Russians.
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.
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..
She didn't last very long being in good films but she is good as the hard nosed estranged wife who near the end, becomes wonderfully vulnerable and loving.Cameron is a great writer and The Abyss, along with The Terminator and Strange Days, shows off his talent to a great extent.
It may have been slightly rushed but the best bits of the film are all under water anyway.Anyone who likes their special effects, a great story and terrific acting need look no further than The Abyss.
It builds suspension gradually until it ends within a climatic ending of the movie which I really liked (but some people have other opinions about that!)Acting is great and the story very original with just enough action!**** out of five!.
The other actors didn't do anything really extraordinary but serve as solid supporting characters.Overall, I wouldn't say The Abyss is the best sci-fi movie out there or that it will dethrone Star Wars anytime soon, but rather it's a solid addition for any sci-fi fan's collection.My IMDb Rating: 8/10.
The special edition of this movie must rate as one of the best movies ever made.Everything is present in it's correct quantities: Action Romance Adventure Sci-fi Black ComedyThis film is head and shoulders above every other film because of it's attention to detail and the excitement and drama it deliversThis is a DVD must have..
Unfortunately, its a James Cameron-directed movie which means you get a lot of disgusting, foul-mouthed characters as the leads - people you are supposed to like.
Crew chief Ed Harris gives his reluctant consent, made even more reluctant by the fact that his estranged wife Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio has designed some new equipment for use in the really deep waters of The Abyss of the Atlantic Ocean.
The Navy people and the oil people are a bad fit to start with, but when the deep depths effect Navy SEAL Michael Biehn by bringing out the worst aspects of the military authoritarian personality things get real interesting down in the deep.The spectacle does dwarf the story which is the only real criticism I can make of The Abyss.
Of course Biehn still believes it's all a Russian plot of some kind and therein lies the conflict exacerbated by the extreme paranoia he develops.Unlike Cameron's Titanic, the spectacle at the end just overwhelms the human players in this film.
This film is what IMAX was developed for.Though the story does get lost somewhat in the special effects the point is still made about man being ready and open to all kinds of possibilities of life that can exist anywhere.
The Abyss starts as the rescue operation of a nuclear submarine but veers more into good first encounter science-fiction as it goes along.What struck me was the great underwater setting that at times made you feel claustrophobic and isolated as if you were deep underwater yourself.
The addition of extra footage into the Special edition of the Abyss makes the film much better.
The premise is what first got me interested: (An American Nuclear sub goes down with all hands and when some underwater-Oil-drillers try to rescue them, they discover something in "The Abyss..."); but that only got me twenty minutes into the movie, at which point, I realized I had some TWO AND A HALF HOURS to go.
(unfortunately, I watched the "long-version.")There were three problems with this movie:Firstly, it attempted to be character-driven, but the actors kept changing how they played the parts every ten-or-so minutes (Especially Mary Elizabeth Whatever-her-last-name-is)Secondly, I felt it showed what was in "The Abyss" too early, and once I saw it, I was mad!Thirdly, the ending was outrageously stupid.
This is a truly alien environment.Given a background in which the defining danger is water pressure and the sometimes surprising consequences of that - like the fact that a fall off a cliff deep underwater is just as dangerous as one above the surface - a normal contemporary human plot about the dangers of nuclear weapons in the wrong hands makes a truly original thriller.Unfortunately, Jim Cameron had new toys to play with, to whit the CGI optical effects system, which necessitated the creation of alien intelligence in the bottom of the ocean which was completely superfluous in the context of the genuinely strange worlds available home grown by our own planet.
First things first: this review refers to the extended director's cut, NOT the stripped-down original theatrical release!Still, I have to admit that the original theatrical release worked remarkably well for me just as a plain action movie back in 1989 (along the lines of "Die Hard" being a very well-done action movie, and just that).But when I finally saw James Cameron's director's cut, I was pretty much blown away by this great movie, and it went from being among, say, my 100 favorites movies of all time, right into my personal top ten.Why?
Because it combines the intensity of a great action movie with a wonderful spiritual message without getting preachy.And yes: it is early evidence that James Cameron just has "a thing" for "deep blue under-water stuff" that led him to creating the biggest box office success of all times (Titanic), and some more great "bottom of the ocean" films such as "Ghosts of the Abyss" (there's that "Abyss" thing, again, and filmed in 3D, nothing less).So, what's going to be next?
The special edition finally explains everything and I think if I had been James Cameron I would have been thoroughly ticked off to have to edit the movie to the extent that the original was cut.
It's almost as if the producers got scared and tacked on a sci-fi sub plot to make sure all of James Camerons usual fans turned up at the cinema, and I think this is the movies downfall.Film A is a brilliant tale of a lost nuclear sub, a civilian diving team, a squad of Navy Seals charged with recovering the sub and the seals seriously deranged commander (brilliantly played by Michael Biehn, a very underrated actor).
When compared with other Cameron successes like Terminator (1984) and Aliens (1986), this ranked with them  until he ruined it all by turning it into a fairy tale.Here's a basic story: a US nuclear sub goes down during war exercises; a navy SEAL team is sent to retrieve information from the sub with the help of a nearby commercial oil rig crew who are in the final phases of testing a new undersea oil platform; the leader of the SEAL team goes wacko thinking that a Russian sub is nearby, trying to get nukes or information (who knows really?) from the downed sub; so, the wacko leader attaches a nuclear bomb to an automatic submersible programmed to detonate near what he thinks is the Russian menace...That's when the fairy tale really starts, although by that time, the poor viewer has already been introduced to it, a bit earlier on.
Yes, I know the movie is trying to be a metaphor for the abyss of nuclear warfare, but we all know that nuclear war is a no-win situation anyway, already.The only remaining question for me is: why did Cameron deep-six such a good story with such a goofy ending?.
One does not need to see the director's cut when it comes to The Abyss,for the bottom line is it is a overrated and bad film.It is too long and the writing is trite and the plot is makes little sense.
Many will want to see the underwater scenes when viewing this movie.Either on the original cut or on DVD.But how can one get past the horrible acting here?Aside from Ed Harris' and Mary Mastrantonio's charcters,the rest of the crew is something you might find on a TV sitcom.I mean they all seem to be miscast for what should have been a crew of a deep sea vessel.
Mastrantonio is a fine actress,but I didn't believe her being a member of an deep sea vessel one bit.Her casting seem a bit of a stretch.Then comes the unbelieveable ending that will make you throw up your hands making you ask yourself how could you waste over two hours watching this mess?Harris does his usual great job in his role but it isn't enough to save this film.Irwin Allen may not have done better but he sure wouldn't have done worse than this..
It's a good thing that James Cameron ended up directing "Titanic." If he hadn't he might have ended up being remembered for this - and no one would want that hanging around their neck like a millstone for all eternity.The first ten minutes or so of "The Abyss" are fine - good even, as a U.S. nuclear submarine sinks after encountering some mysterious force off the coast of Cuba.
So I got The Abyss out of a Walmart $5 movie bin and watched it the next day, which is today, because I had just come from seeing The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, which is good, by the way, and I will review that later.
"The Abyss" is a decent movie but a disappointing James Cameron film.*Note - don't bother with the special edition:  it only serves to exacerbate things by adding even more length (!) and including one of the most cloyingly cliched and sophomoric anti-nuclear war subplots this reviewer has ever witnessed..
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.
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.
I just wanted to say that no matter what anybody else thinks, this movie is still one of the most underrated James Cameron films out there.
Oh yes, Abyss is the movie what includes all the major parts what makes a great film for me.
Part of the Cameron movie realism is that he tries to shoot everything in real places like in Abyss the actors were acting in a underwater station what was really put underwater.
Cameron has taken everything out from the water element and the shots underwater are just overwhelming.I suggested everybody to watch the director's cut of the film witch I prefer to be the one and only version having included over 30 minutes extra material compared to the theater version.
The story, especially in the director's cut, is one that goes beyond being a bottom of the ocean/alien film, it becomes a deep message for why we should try to live in peace and how we should respect each other as a race (maybe George W Bush should be made to watch the film, maybe he might learn something), but amazingly, amongst all the superb visual effects (the birth of CGI) and fantastic underwater cinematography, Cameron creates characters that we come to care deeply about.
Not always what I expect (especially because the version I saw was the special edition), but the ending is amazing and great as a sum-up to the movie.
a large empty space without much to say.this movie is boring boring boring.clichéd dialog and clichéd characters.half way through you realize you could care less about the story and by the end you just hope they all die a watery death.although Ed Harris does manage to give a decent impression of hackneyed performance.the best thing that can be said for this movie is, it effectively killed the semi career of Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio.the most memorable exchange: "we just lost the crane" "the what?" "the crane!"the end..
The special effects and underwater scenes do not overwhelm the human drama, which is usually the case with James Cameron movies.
But soon the motley crew encounter strange though fantastic events...Fantastic directing, top-notch performances (especially Michael Biehn's), great characters which you get to care for, beautiful underwater filming, great story depicting human behavior, breakthrough special effects and awesome action sequences.
One of the best movies I've ever seen, Cameron delivered perfectly.Great sci-fi adventure which I recommend strongly!.
Never has a movie been made with such an incredible plot, excellent special effects, perfect casting, and a beautiful love story.
His love for scuba diving gave birth to this unique deep sea adventure that manages to blend several genres, is loaded with seminal scenes and even has a Spielberg-like sense of wonder infused to it.If you bother to read up on the production of this film, you'll realize this was perhaps the single most difficult movie ever made.
i don't think this was a good film.first off,i just found it so tediously slow.it never really picked up much at all.when it gets to the "reveal" of some undersea life,it redeems itself somewhat,but not much.though i will say the special effects were pretty impressive in this regard.the problem is,we are not shown as many creatures as i would have liked.and for me,the whole movie hinges on that aspect.beyond that,there isn't a lot i liked about the movie.the acting was adequate,but nothing more.the movie is also way too long,in my opinion.i unfortunately watched the extended version,which clocks in at about 170 minutes,while the original theatrical cut was only 140 minutes.anyway,when you put it all together,the most i can give The Abyss is a 3.5/10..
But the story is great, the special effects are amazing, the acting from Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastriantonio is excellent, as well as the supporting cast.
I don't understand why James Cameron cut so much out of The Abyss, but left Titanic as the marathon love story it is.
The studio cut made the film no better than a very good f/x film, with a strong, but muddled story, and some really interesting characters, to go along with the usual brilliant Cameron visuals.Since its release as a "Director's Cut", I have managed to sway each person who has seen it, into dubbing it a "spectacular piece of cinema."  With the added scenes, the story makes sense, the finale has the right knockout punch, and the love story really takes center-stage.What the full version offers, is truly one of the great Hollywood love stories of our time, with one of the greatest scenes in recent years.
Special Edition makes it better, it explains what are aliens doing there and what is their purpose in that movie and explains little more about the relationships between the main characters.
"How many drugs was James Cameron on when he wrote and filmed this thing?!" – One of the many thoughts running through my head during the two and half hours "The Abyss" fills up.An oil rig crew is sent to the depths of the ocean in hopes of recovering a sunken nuclear submarine.
The plot remains interesting with all kinds of twists and action sequences, but the heart never leaves.Basically, film is a very imaginative underwater action adventure that's just plain fun for everybody.Be sure to watch the Director's Cut, though, or the Special Edition DVD with the 28 extra minutes.
THE ABYSS combines so many of some of my favorite elements which makes it a great movie - great action sequences, romance, breakthrough special effects, underwater suspense, sci-fi, and story.
The special effects are really good for such a relatively old sci-fi film, and being an underwater lover I especially enjoy it.
It also took great acting, and this movie showed other good directors to use computer to some special effects..
James Cameron's best film --topping even Titanic, Aliens and T2..
I bought the first ending, but it is hard to review this movie without thinking about the Special Edition that Cameron came out with a few years later.
The movie favours of course from great performances from Ed Harris and especially the beautiful Mary Elizabeth Mastroantonio, she`s outstanding as she always is.James Cameron gives us a masterpiece in the Sci-fi, action area.
the abyss is remembered mostly for being one of the first films to use realistic computer special effects, but its much more than that.the effects are not overused,but enhance the movie.one good thing about this film is it creates real tension,and scenes where water is rushing into the compartments of the sub are particularly exciting.the actors do a good job of conveying terror and hopelessness at times, especially when bud decides to stay at the bottom and when bud keeps trying to resusitate lyndsay even know she is most likely dead.this movie would have been good without the sci fi element, but the underwater creatures look good and enhance the story.this is much better than cameron's other ocean epic, you know what i'm talking about.
It was James Cameron's third and most powerful film, but it wasn't his best, at least according to his hardcore audience and certain critics, despite its groundbreaking computer animation effects and story.Even though my review is based on the 1992 special edition, one cannot help but wonder why THIS is not the version that was released in theaters back in 1989.