The Abyss

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The Abyss
Image:TheAbyss.jpg
Directed by James Cameron
Produced by Gale Anne Hurd,
Van Ling (special edition)
Written by James Cameron
Starring Ed Harris,
Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio,
Michael Biehn
J.C. Quinn
Music by Alan Silvestri
Distributed by 20th Century Fox
Lightstorm Entertainment
Release date(s) August 9 1989
Running time 146 min / (171 min) (special edition)
Country United States
Language English
Budget $69,5 million
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

The Abyss is a 1989 science fiction film which was written and directed by James Cameron, starring Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, and Michael Biehn. The original music score was composed by Alan Silvestri. It was released on August 9, 1989 in the United States.

Underwater scenes were filmed in the containment building of Cherokee Nuclear Power Plant (35.037° N 81.512° W), an unfinished nuclear power plant near Gaffney, South Carolina, in the United States. It took 26.5 million liters (seven million gallons) of water to fill the tank to a depth of 13 meters (40 feet), making it the largest underwater set ever. The depth and length of time spent underwater meant that the cast and crew had to sometimes go through decompression. Filming was also done at the largest underground lake in the world — a mine in Bonne Terre, Missouri, which was the background for several underwater shots. B movie maker Earl Owensby, of Shelby NC, provided facilities for set and production.

There is a novelization of The Abyss written by Orson Scott Card.

A soundtrack was released by Varese Sarabande (VSD-5235.)

Contents

[edit] Plot summary

The plot summary in this article or section is too long compared to the rest of the article.
Please edit the article to focus on discussing the work rather than merely reiterating the plot.

In the beginning of the film, the USS Montana, a fictional American Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine encounters a Non-terrestrial Intelligence over the Cayman Trough, causing a massive electrical malfunction and loss of hydraulics, which causes the sub to crash into an underwater cliff and then sink. As Soviet submarines head to the area, and with a hurricane moving in, the quickest way to mount a rescue is for a SEAL team to be inserted onto an experimental underwater oil platform named "Deep Core", which is situated near the wreck site, and to mount operations from there. Benthic Petroleum, the owner of the platform, volunteers both the platform and its crew of oil workers to the Navy to assist in what they believe to be a rescue operation.

If bad weather and international tensions escalating toward war are not enough, the SEAL team is accompanied down to the rig by the platform's designer, Lindsey Brigman (Mastrantonio). Her estranged husband, Virgil "Bud" Brigman (Harris), is the foreman of the platform. (Also, unknown to anyone on the rig, the SEAL leader, Lt. Coffey (Biehn), has developed High Pressure Nervous Syndrome, and is losing his ability to reason as he sinks slowly into a paranoid state.)

As the oil workers and SEAL team investigate the wreck of the sub, finding no survivors, the oil workers encounter yet another "Non-Terrestrial Intelligence" (NTI), but are uncertain what to make of it; all they know for sure is that "something" is down there and it is capable of unprecedented speed and maneuverability. Believing the "alien" to be a previously-uncatalogued Soviet submersible, the SEAL team recovers one of the nuclear warheads from the submarine. Acting upon a pre-arranged contingency plan, the SEALs prepare to use it to destroy the sub, its remaining weapons, and its codebooks to prevent them from falling into enemy hands. This is done without the knowledge of Deep Core's crew or Benthic Petroleum.

Meanwhile, on the surface, the parent ship Benthic Explorer is rocked and pounded by the massive hurricane, causing one of the stern thrusters to fail, which in turn, causes the massive ship to swing out of place. Hovering just above the rig, a crew member in a submersible is trying to unhook the cable from the rig when the cable goes taut, dragging the rig along the seabed towards the cliff edge, where the rig gets stopped by a pile of large rocks. On the surface, the ship's crane, which was apparently not designed to be used as a storm anchor, is torn from its perch on the ship's deck and crumbles into the water. As it descends, everyone in the rig scrambles for cover. Bud and Lindsey, meanwhile, watch the crane land on the seabed and then fall off the cliff. Then there is a violent jolt as the cable, still attached to the sinking crane, pulls the rig over the rocks and sends it into a nosedive into the seabed, causing fires to break out, as well as massive flooding in several compartments. The crew get to work the best they can, repairing the equipment.

At this point, the NTIs decide to explore the rig and in doing so, contact the stranded workers, definitively proving themselves to be an advanced sentient alien race. They clearly mean no harm, but the now totally paranoid Coffey does not see it this way, and prepares to send the warhead to the bottom of the trench, set on a timer to explode. Bud and "Catfish" De Vries attempt to reach Coffey through an underwater hatch in the rig, but find it jammed, so Bud swims over to the moon pool, where he finds the warhead tied to a submersible ROV named "Big Geek," which has been programmed to go down to the bottom of the cliff to shoot video, and Coffey tampering with a chain. Bud tries to make reason with Coffey, but Coffey is driven totally mad by pressure induced paranoia and lashes out at Bud with a knife. Bud, wielding an iron pipe, hits back, but Coffey proves to be a formidable opponent in the fight, until De Vries arrives and punches him in the face. Coffey then escapes in one of the submersibles (named "Flatbed"), and drives to the cliff edge to release "Big Geek" into the trench when Bud and Lindsey arrive in another submersible ("Cab 1"). Meanwhile, Bud manages to tie "Big Geek" to the rig, but the rope eventually unravels and the ROV begins its decent into the trench when Bud and Lindsey grab the rope using the submersible's mechanical arm. But then they are violently hit from behind by Coffey, causing the arm to release the rope and "Big Geek" to drop straight down the cliff wall with the warhead still attached. Lindsey manages to shove Coffey against a large boulder and over the cliff, but by doing so, both submersibles are damaged and knocked out of commission.

Bud and Lindsey are stranded a couple hundred feet away from the platform in their slowly flooding submersible. With time running out, and their sole working breathing system hardwired into Bud's diving helmet, Lindsey conceives a desperate plan: he puts the helmet on, watches her drown, and then drags her back to Deep Core's medical facilities in the hopes that the hibernation effects of extreme hypothermia will let her survive long enough to reach air and let her be revived. At first he tries to get Lindsey to put on his diving suit, but Bud ultimately sees no option, as if they were to switch suits, she would not be able to drag his body back in time to save him. He drags her unprotected body across the sea floor back to Deep Core, where Bud eventually succeeds in shocking Lindsey's heart back into beating (the rest of the crew having given up), though she is much the worse for wear.

Bud realizes that they are the only ones able to stop a nuclear attack on the NTIs, and puts on a secret diving suit that the SEALs had brought aboard. It is designed to protect a diver to extreme depths, and incorporates a liquid breathing system that will let Bud dive to the bottom of the three-mile-deep trench and disarm the warhead, under instructions via a fiber optic filament by the SEAL called Monk, whose broken leg forces him to remain on the platform. Bud must communicate by typing on a keypad, as he cannot talk with his vocal tract full of the breathing liquid.

Bud succeeds, but his team is shocked to learn that he does not have enough oxygen remaining in the breathing liquid to return to Deep Core. Bud types back to Lindsey and the rest of the crew that he knew going in that it would be a one-way trip, but that he could not let the warhead detonate and destroy the NTIs. He sends a final message to Lindsey: "LOVE YOU WIFE".

At the bottom of the trench, the NTIs find Bud clinging to life and bring him to an internal hallway located deep inside their massive sized underwater colony, where they create a chamber of normally pressurized air. There, the NTIs show him the messages that he sent, and return him and the Deep Core platform to the surface, unharmed, by carrying the platform on top of their underwater colony. Bud then ventures out of the depths of the colony to be reunited with Lindsey.

[edit] Critical reception

The Abyss was initially greeted with a lukewarm critical response, due to its multiple plots: a character drama, a love story, a tale of military paranoia, a supernatural alien mystery in the tradition of Close Encounters of the Third Kind and a Deus ex machina ending. Its use of computer-generated special effects, however, was praised almost universally, and since the release of the director's cut, the film has garnered a strong cult following. The high-quality CGI featured in The Abyss has been regarded as a pioneer in the visual effects category, and was the first showcase of modern day CGI.

[edit] Conception

“ I was dive-certified at the age of seventeen and since then have always wanted to do something that incorporated filming and diving - I wanted to do the definitive diving movie. But what do you do? Show the beauties of the coral reef or the perils of killer sharks? Those films have already been done. What I wanted was to go into the realm that had always excited me the most because of its extremes and its absoluteness - I wanted to go deep into the ocean.

In high school, I particpated in a weekly science seminar where different speakers were brought in to talk about everything from childbirth to the latest advances in physics. One of those speakers happened to be a commercial diver who had participated in an experiment in which he had breathed with a liquid in both lungs for something like forty-five minutes. That really blew my mind. Here was a guy who had used his lungs as a gill mechanism. From that seminar came the idea for a story I wrote about some scientists in a research installation on a cliff overlooking the Cayman Trough. Using liquid breathing suits, they began making forays into the deepest depths of the ocean - but no one who goes down the cliff comes back again. [1]

”
“ What I originally wrote was a very, very crude and simple story dealing with the idea of being in the very deep ocean and doing fluid breathing and making a descent to the bottom from a staging submersible laboratory that was on the edge. Being on the brink of the bottomless pit, and the title, and the psychological ramifications of returning to the womb, breathing a liquid and falling to your death while simultaneously going back to your birth, much of that symbology is inherent in that first story. That was taken and layered upon and expanded. [2] ”

[edit] History of the Special Edition

Even as the film was in the first weeks of its 1989 theatrical release, rumors were circulating of a wave sequence missing from the end of the movie. As chronicled in the 1993 laser disc Special Edition release and later in the 2000 DVD, the pressure to cut the film's running time primarily stemmed from two sources: distribution concerns and Industrial Light & Magic's then inability to complete the required sequences. From the distributor's perspective the looming three hour length limited the number of times the film could be shown each day, assuming that audiences would be willing to sit through it all (1990's Dances with Wolves would shatter both industry-held notions). Further, test audience screenings revealed a surprisingly mixed reaction to the sequences as they appeared in their unfinished form, with it being most mentioned both in the "Scenes I liked most" and "Scenes I liked least" fields. Contrary to speculation, studio meddling was not the cause of the shortened length; Cameron held final cut as long as the film met a certain running time; roughly two hours and fifteen minutes. He later noted, "Ironically, the studio brass were horrified when I said I was cutting the wave.[3]"

“ What emerges in the winnowing process is only the best stuff. And I think the overall caliber of the film is improved by that. I cut only two minutes of Terminator. On Aliens, we took out much more. I even reconstituted some of that in a special (TV) release version.

The sense of something being missing on Aliens was greater for me than on The Abyss, where the film just got consistently better as the cut got along. The film must function as a dramatic, organic whole. When I cut the film together, things that read well on paper, on a conceptual level, didn't necessarily translate to the screen as well. I felt I was losing something by breaking my focus. Breaking the story's focus and coming off the main characters was a far greater detriment to the film than what was gained. The film keeps the same message intact at a thematic level, not at a really overt level, by working in a symbolic way. [2]

”

Cameron elected to remove the sequences along with other shorter scenes elsewhere in the film, reducing the running time from roughly two hours and fifty minutes down to two hours and twenty minutes and diminishing his signature themes of nuclear peril and disarmament. Subsequent test audience screenings drew substantially better reactions.

Star Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio publicly expressed regret about some of the scenes selected for removal from the film's theatrical cut.

“ There were some beautiful scenes that were taken out. I just wish we hadn't shot so much that isn't in the film. [2] ”

Shortly after the film's theatrical premiere, Cameron and video editor Ed Marsh created a longer video cut of The Abyss for their own use using dailies; it was not released. With the tremendous success of Cameron's Terminator 2: Judgment Day in 1992, Lightstorm Entertainment secured a five year, USD$500 million financing deal with 20th Century Fox for films produced, directed or written by Cameron.[4] Within this contract, roughly $500,000 was allocated to complete The Abyss.[5] ILM was commissioned to finish the work they had started three years earlier, with many of the same people who had worked on it originally. The computer-generated imagery tools developed for Terminator 2 allowed ILM to complete one new shot and correct flaws in their original work. New dialogue, sound effects and foley were recorded when it was discovered that original production sound recordings had been lost. Alan Silvestri was not available to compose new music for the restored scenes. Robert Garrett, who had composed temp music for the film's initial cutting in 1989, was chosen to create new music. The project was completed in December 1992, saw a limited theatrical release in New York City and Los Angeles starting on February 26, 1993 and ventured to points beyond on the revival circuit. The laserdisc release was the first officially THX-certified laser disc and was a best-seller for months. Critical response to the Special Edition version of the film has been generally favorable.[6]

[edit] Awards

The Abyss won the 1990 Oscar for Best Visual Effects. It was also nominated for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Cinematography and Best Sound. The studio lobbied hard to get Michael Biehn nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, but to no avail.

The Abyss was nominated for many other awards, such as by Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films and the American Society of Cinematographers. It ended up winning a total of three other awards from these organizations.

[edit] Miscellanea

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.
  • The use of CGI in the "water tentacle" effect was absolutely unprecedented. To cover himself in the event that the completed effect wasn't convincing, Cameron designed the sequence so that it could be cut from the film entirely if necessary without leaving any gaps in the story.
  • The song One Night and the rest of the crew sing along to is Willin', written by Lowell George and performed by Linda Ronstadt.
  • The film was censured by the American Humane Association for a scene in which a rat is held "underwater": actually, in an oxygenated fluorocarbon liquid used in fluid breathing systems. Five rats were used in the film. The rats were unharmed and one became Cameron's pet, but died of natural causes before the film opened. In the UK this scene was still replaced with a scene where what happens to the rat is verbally described by the characters, because the Royal Veterinarian thought the experience was painful for the rat.
  • This is the third film directed by James Cameron where Michael Biehn plays a military figure, the others being The Terminator and Aliens.
  • The diving equipment had to be specially designed to allow the actors to remain underwater for hours at a time, and to allow their entire face to be seen by the camera while underwater.
  • The shooting was very painful for both the cast and the crew; so that several started giving the movie names like "The Son of Abyss" and "Life's Abyss And Then You Dive", and there is even a poster saying "The Abuse", mocking the actual poster with extended U.[citation needed]
  • Due to injuries he sustained on set, Ed Harris was almost unable to accept the role of Frankie Flannery in his next film, State of Grace.
  • Ed Harris and James Cameron reputedly clashed vigorously during filming.
  • Ed Harris really struck Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio during the scene where his team tries to revive her, and James Cameron was asking for repeats, not satisfied. Lying exposed and being pounded, Mastrantonio stormed out of the set because she could not take it any more after the cameraman announced that they had been re-filming the scene for so long that more film had to be loaded into the camera. Mastrantonio blinks once during the scene, about a minute before she starts responding.
  • It was not liquid breathing fluid pumped into Ed Harris' suit, but pink water, and he was holding his breath. For the underwater scenes, a similar suit was made with a pink shader that could be opened easily from outside so that the crew could provide him with oxygen between takes. He also had to wear specially-made contact lenses to focus under the water. Because the tank was not deep enough, he was pulled horizontally for each take of the descent sequence. Harris nearly drowned in one take, the diver that brought him air had the mouth piece upside down so as Ed Harris took a breath he also was breathing water.
    • Conversely, in Ensign Monk's demonstration of this fluid, the rat genuinely was breathing liquid fluorocarbon according to commentary in the DVD. The experiment was performed on-stage several times due to the rats defecating in the fluid, although they were not harmed in the course of the experiment.
  • Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Ed Harris both refused to do press for the film and have publicly stated they'll never work with Cameron again.
  • The preproduction was so secretive that the most anybody knew about the premise was it involved aliens underwater. Several cheap knockoff movies were quickly made to cash in on what was expected to be the blockbuster of the summer. Among these are Deepstar Six, Lords of the Deep and Leviathan. All were box office failures. In the end, those films resembled Cameron's previous Aliens more than The Abyss.
  • The first three chapters of the novelisation by Orson Scott Card were background of the three main characters, Bud, Lindsey and Coffey. Harris and Mastrantonio were each given the chapters of Card's novelization describing their characters' background (which had not been published at the time) to understand their characters better.
  • The 1988 pinball machine "Secret Service" appears in the movie.
  • In the Special Edition version, according to imdb.com, the movie takes place in 1994. This is evident with the date (01/18/94) being shown on the ROV screen when the SEALS investigate the submarine.

[edit] Budget and box office

  • Estimated U.S. budget: $41,000,000[7]
  • Opening weekend U.S. gross: $9,319,797
  • Total U.S. box office gross: $85,200,000
  • Foreign Box Office: $46,000,000

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ "The Writer/Director and Screenplay", The Abyss: Special Edition DVD
  2. ^ a b c Starlog, Issue 150, interview by Ian Spelling
  3. ^ The Abyss Special Edition DVD, The Restoration
  4. ^ James Cameron biography from Yahoo! Movies
  5. ^ The Toronto Star, Starweek Magazine
  6. ^ The Abyss from MetaCritic
  7. ^ Paula Parisi, Titanic and the Making of James Cameron, 1998, pg. 19

[edit] External links

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The Abyss


v • d • e
Films and Television Shows by James Cameron

Xenogenesis (1978) • Piranha II: The Spawning (1981) • The Terminator (1984) • Aliens (1986) • The Abyss (1989) • Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) • True Lies (1994) • T2 3-D: Battle Across Time (1996) • Titanic (1997) • Dark Angel (TV series) (2000-2002) • Expedition: Bismarck (2002) • Ghosts of the Abyss (2003) • Aliens of the Deep (2005) • Avatar (2009) • Battle Angel • The Dive

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