The Abyss (1989)

Director:

James Cameron

Writer (WGA):

James Cameron (written by)

Release Date:

9 August 1989 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

There's everything you've ever known about adventure, and then there's The Abyss.

Plot:

A civilian diving team are enlisted to search for a lost nuclear submarine and face danger while encountering an alien aquatic species.

Plot Keywords:

Submarine | Underwater | Abyss | Ocean | Estranged Couple

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 4 wins & 12 nominations

Cast

Ed Harris	...	Virgil 'Bud' Brigman
Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio	...	Lindsey Brigman
Michael Biehn	...	Lt. Hiram Coffey
Leo Burmester	...	Catfish De Vries
Todd Graff	...	Alan 'Hippy' Carnes
John Bedford Lloyd	...	Jammer Willis
J.C. Quinn	...	Arliss 'Sonny' Dawson
Kimberly Scott	...	Lisa 'One Night' Standing
Captain Kidd Brewer Jr.	...	Lew Finler (as Capt. Kidd Brewer Jr.)
George Robert Klek	...	Wilhite
Christopher Murphy	...	Schoenick, SEAL Team Member
Adam Nelson	...	Ensign Monk, SEAL Team Member
Dick Warlock	...	Dwight Perry (as Richard Warlock)
Jimmie Ray Weeks	...	Leland McBride
J. Kenneth Campbell	...	DeMarco

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for language and some scenes of action. (special edition)

Runtime:

138 min | USA:171 min (special edition)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour (DuArt)

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) | Dolby SR (35 mm prints)

Certification:

Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) (special edition) (2000) | Canada:A (Nova Scotia) (original rating) | Canada:AA (Ontario) (special edition) (2000) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Ontario) (original cut) | Canada:PG (Manitoba) (also special edition) | Portugal:M/12 | Malaysia:U | South Korea:12 | USA:PG-13 (Certificate #29764) | Brazil:Livre | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Chile:14 | Finland:K-14 | France:U | Iceland:12 | Norway:15 | Peru:14 | Singapore:PG | Spain:13 (special edition) | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | West Germany:12 | Netherlands:AL (special edition)

Filming Locations:

Harbor Star Stage, San Pedro, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

The mini-subs in the wide shots were actually models suspended on wires in a smoky environment and filmed in slow motion.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: Near the end of the picture, the alien "city" rises to the surface, carrying with it several sunken vessels. One of the ships, a freighter, is lying on its side with one of its propellers flexing and flopping from the wind (the ship, of course, is a model).

Quotes:

[first lines]
USS Montana Captain: Sixty knots? No way, Barnes. The Reds don't have anything that fast.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Dennis Muren Interview (2006) (V)

Soundtrack:

WILLIN'

An excellent movie

This movie is extremely well made. Make sure you get the original director's cut, or Special Edition as they are calling it on the DVD. It includes the real ending, along with more than 20 minutes of additional footage. 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. The ending the studios insisted on is your typical boring old done-a-million-times happy ending, and does not work. It betrays the message of the film, and makes it nothing more than a good underwater shoot-em-up. This movie is much more than that. See the REAL ending to understand why it is so important to this film. As opposed to the canned studio ending, the REAL one makes you think. Well, what did you expect? Hollywood executives make movies for the common herd, they dumb them down to make sure every patron goes away feeling happy. God forbid that anyone actually may have to think a little. 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.