Ghost Ship

***Ghost Ship*** is a 2002 American-Australian horror film.

## Synopsis

A salvage crew that discovers a long-lost 1962 passenger ship floating lifeless in a remote region of the Bering Sea soon notices, as they prepare to tow it back to land, that strange things happen.

## Plot

In May 1962, aboard the Italian ocean liner *SS Antonia Graza*, dozens of wealthy passengers dance to the song "Senza Fine" sung by Francesca, an Italian singer. A young girl, Katie Harwood, sits alone until the ship's captain offers to dance with her. Elsewhere, a hand presses a lever that unravels a thin wire cord from a spool. The spool snaps and the wire whips across the dance floor, bisecting the dancers.

Forty years later, at a bar, a boat salvage crew — Captain Sean Murphy, Maureen Epps, Greer, Dodge, Munder, and Santos — celebrate their recent success. Jack Ferriman, a Canadian weather service pilot, approaches them and says he spotted a vessel adrift in the Bering Sea. Because the ship is in international waters, it can be claimed by whoever brings it to port. The crew sets out on the *Arctic Warrior*, an ocean salvage tugboat. The ship is the *Antonia Graza*, which was believed to be lost at sea. As they prepare to tow it, they discover it contains a large quantity of gold. After a series of supernatural events, the group decides to abandon the salvage effort but take the gold, but an invisible force sabotages the *Arctic Warrior*. The tugboat explodes as its engine is restarted, killing Santos.

Left with no other option, the group begins repairing the *Antonia Graza*. Greer encounters Francesca, who seduces him into betraying the fiancée he has ashore, then leads him off a precipice to his death. Captain Murphy enters the captain's cabin and finds his ghost. The captain explains that they recovered the gold from a sinking cruise ship, the *Lorelei*, along with a sole survivor. Murphy is shown a picture of the survivor, whom he recognizes. He rushes to tell the others, but begins hallucinating and sees everyone as the ghost of the burned Santos, who provokes him into a murderous rage. The others think Murphy has gone mad and lock him in the draine where Epps later finds Her Husband Jack drowning And Than She Saves Him.

Epps meets Katie's ghost, who reveals what happened on the *Graza*. The sole survivor of the *Lorelei* convinced the *Graza'*s crew to murder the passengers for the gold. Once the passengers were killed, the crew turned on one another; soon, only a single officer was left, but he was later killed by Francesca. Another man, the mastermind behind the massacre, then killed Francesca by mystical means and branded her palm with a hook-shaped symbol using only his hands. The man is revealed as Jack Ferriman, who is actually a demonic spirit. Epps deduces that Ferriman lured the salvage team to the *Graza* to repair it, and decides to sink it to thwart his plan. While Munder is crushed under the ships gears while scuba diving in a flooded area, Epps tells Dodge to keep Jack on the ship's bridge while she secretly sets explosives. When Ferriman realizes that Dodge is on to his secret, he walks towards Dodge while insulting him for not being man enough to act upon his feelings for Epps. Dodge threatens to shoot Ferriman, who simply smiles and says that murderers go to hell. Dodge shoots and Ferriman is seemingly killed.

Epps is below decks setting explosives when she is confronted by Dodge. He tells her he has killed Ferriman and that they can salvage the gold to start a life together, but Epps is made suspicious by this unexpected romantic proposal and Dodge's apparent knowledge of the deaths of the rest of the crew despite not being told of them. Realizing that his ruse has failed, "Dodge" morphs into Jack Ferriman, who has killed the real Dodge. Ferriman describes himself as a salvager of souls, a job he earned by a lifetime of sin. He plans to use the *Antonia Graza* and the gold as a trap to continue collecting souls. Only the souls of sinners can be readily controlled, through the mark he brands them with, and as long as the *Graza* is kept afloat the soul of everyone who has died aboard the ship will be dragged down when Ferriman has filled his quota and returns to hell, something which will please the "management". He offers to spare Epps's life in exchange for her not interfering but she detonates the explosives. Ferriman is blown to pieces in the explosion and Katie helps Epps escape the sinking ship. Katie wordlessly bids farewell to Epps before she and the other unmarked souls trapped on the ship ascend to heaven.