The Abyss

In the big picture, most films are merely variations on themes. After the Bond films came out, any spy film was compared to them. Most of the early 80's teen sexploitation comedies were compared to Porkies (even a few that had little or no sex to them). Before Freddie came on the picture, most mutilated teen flicks were compared to Friday the 13th. Lately it's been Die Hard (actual quotes: Under Siege -> Die Hard on a destroyer; Speed -> Die Hard on a bus; Cliffhanger -> Die Hard on a mountain). So a few years ago, when this film and Leviathan came out, they got their inevitable comparisons. Leviathan was called Aliens under water (an extremely valid comparison incidentally), and The Abyss was Close Encounters under water.

We start out on a ballistic missile submarine, which has just made contact with something moving very fast. A lot of Hunt For Red October-ish submarine things go on as they try to figure out what it was, but after one buzz by causes a ship wide power failure, they end up crashing into an underwater mountain. The sub sinks ... permanently. The Navy finds the disaster beacon, and decides to attempt a recovery. Fortunately for the Navy, a big oil company has an experimental underwater drilling platform in the area that they can stage their rescue operation from. Enter Ed Harris, the leader of the underwater oil drillers. He's not too keen on the idea at first, but after the company offers big bonuses for the work, they decide to go ahead. Enter Michael Biehn, the head Navy Seal assigned to the mission, and Mary Elizabeth Mastrontonio. Mary is the only person around who can take them down. She also happens to be the one who designed the drilling rig, and she isn't too happy about it being hauled around the ocean floor so the Warheads at the Pentagon can look for their lost toy. She, Michael, and the rest of the good ship Lollipop arrive at the rig, where we not only get introduced to the concept of high pressure sickness, but we also find out what everyone thinks of her .. including her husband, Ed. They move the rig closer to the wreck, then they all suit up and go take a look. Sure enough, the submarine has sunk. They go back, and receive word that there's an incoming hurricane, and it might be a good idea if they disconnect their umbilical cable from the surface ship it's attached to. One problem, Lt. Michael and his boys have gone back to the sub to get one of the little toys out of one of the little tubes. So, before they can get everything unhooked, the storm tears the crane holding the cable loose from the surface ship, sending it hurtling down toward them. Tense minutes. Hip Hip Hooray, the crane misses. The crane lands at the edge of a deep trench. Oops, the crane falls off the edge of the deep trench. Oh No!! the crane is dragging the rig to the brink of the abyss (get it?). Whew, they stopped, that was close. But Look! They've attracted the attention of the cute little critters that started this trouble in the first place, and now they're paying a little visit to the drilling rig. While all this is going on, the Lt., who is suffering from the previously mentioned pressure sickness, has been going quietly nuts, and decides it's time to Nuke the Critters!! There's a big chase (underwater of course, so things go kinda' slow), Michael Dies, Mary Drowns, and Ed swims back with her. They resuscitate her (thank goodness for hypothermia), and put Ed in a special deep DEEP DEEP diving suit, so he can go down and stop the bomb. He deactivates the bomb, but unfortunately doesn't have enough oxygen to return. Luckily for Ed, the cute little critters are grateful for his effort, and take him to their digs, where they provide him with a nice little air bubble. Then they fire up their big sub, and haul up Ed, Mary, the crew, and the whole bloody oil rig, to the surface; they even manage to lift the rig's mother ship, and several battleships hovering around the area completely out of the water (told you them little critters had a big sub). Ed comes out and embraces Mary, and they all live happily ever after.

So, did you catch the parallels? No, well then I guess you'll have to watch the film. There aren't a whole lot of big names in this movie, in fact, the only other name from the cast you might find even vaguely familiar is Chris Elliot (who isn't playing an idiot for a change). The big deal about this film is the technological innovations that were developed for it. For instance, did you know that Terminator 2 owes much of it's success to this film? The 'Morphing' effect used throughout T2 was developed for the water tube creature in this film. The high intensity lighting developed for this film made some of the underwater documentaries of the Titanic possible. The film itself was made in an old unfinished nuclear reactor; they built the sets, and then filled the whole thing with water (gee, an underwater film actually filmed underwater, wow). It's an interesting film, even with the warm fuzzy ending. Anyone up for a swim?