When I was very young I remembered watching the commercial advertising the trailer for this film on TV. I remember thinking that from the way the commercial ran, that this would be a scary movie. Well, years later after I saw it on cable I found out it wasn't scary in the traditional sense, but an original and gripping sci-fi thriller.
Let me just get this thought out of the way. "Titanic", to me, is James Cameron's worst movie, in comparison to his other films. In "Aliens" he was able to transcend the action genre by infusing with something that was thought would never work, maternal instincts. The relationship between Bud and Lindsey in the "Abyss" is much more deeper and three dimensional than the fluff between Jack and Rose in "Titanic". The relationships between the characters in James Cameron's movies are what hold them up over traditional action flicks.
The movie begins thousands of feet below the surface of the ocean, where we see the dark and imposing form of a U.S. submarine traveling through the dark recesses of the ocean come into view. Inside the bridge of the sub, an object bleeps onto the radar arousing the suspicions of the captain. The object begins to arouse further suspicion and astonishment when it clocks in at 180 knots (fast!) When the sub passes close by (or through) the object all power goes off within the ship until the object disappears. Unfortunately when the power returns they are too late in avoiding the trench wall that they had been traveling besides and hit the wall head on and seriously damaged the sub making it take on water. A distress signal is sent and the submarine lies at the bottom of the ocean on the Mariana's trench.
In the meantime, we meet the crew of the Deepcore mining crew, whose job is to mine for oil at the bottom of the ocean. The head of the crew is Bud, a real blue-collar guy who has the respect of his crew. Word comes in from their topside bosses that the U.S. military wants to use their rig as a base of operations to rescue the crew of the missing submarine. What the rig crew does not know is that the missing sub has caused a real international relations nightmare between Russia and the United States, flaring up some old Cold war anxieties.
Lindsey Brigman, who designed the rig that Bud, her soon to be ex-husband, works in tries to talk Deepcore into not letting the marines use her rig for the project, but she is ignored and decides to go down to the rig with the Marines to make sure nothing happens to her life's work. The leader of the Marines, Lt. Coffey begins to suffer from High-Pressure Nervous Syndrome after decompressing when they reach the rig and makes him responsible for some of the incidents that happen later on in the movie.
The Abyss starts off as a regular movie, nothing very sci-fi to it except for the underwater oil mining. Later on though amazing events come into play that amazingly fit well with the rest of the story. You see back on land the U.S. government believes that the sub was attacked by a Russian bogie, which leads to some very serious finger pointing by the U.S. government to the Kremlin. Since there were some very powerful nuclear warheads on that submarine the U.S. believes that the Russians are trying to steal our weapons and use them for their own purposes.
After a hurricane comes through and knocks out communications between the rig crew and topside, crew of the rig soon discover that what happened to the sub wasn't because of Russians but because of a mysterious presence that lies beep below a trench 7 1/2 miles down.
I have to say I absolutely loved this movie. The mix of sci-fi and current world issues blended together magnificently to create the perfect sci-fi thriller that wasn't campy to ridiculous but engrossing and captivating. Recently the DVD version has added edited scenes that were left out of the movie and that show us the broad scope of Cameron's vision, which I must say is amazing. I wish this movie had gotten the Academy Award attention that Titanic got. This is Cameron at his most daring and writing best. The relationship between Bud and Lindsey was what helped keep the movie grounded in reality. Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Ed Harris really had a great chemistry and it sowed on screen. I believe that the Abyss, T2 and Aliens were Cameron at his creative best, in terms of character development, story and style.
If you like this movie I would suggest:
Terminater 2
Aliens (I've written an epinion)
When a nuclear submarine mysteriously sinks, one diver (Ed Harris) soon finds himself on an odyssey 25,000 feet below the ocean s surface where he con...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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