The Abyss (film, 1989)

At the beginning of the film USS Montana, a fictional American Ohio- class nuclear submarine with ballistic missiles , encounters an unknown object in the Cayman Chute , which leads to serious malfunctions in the electronics and hydraulic system. As a result, the submarine breaks on the underwater rock and sinks. Since Soviet submarines are heading to the territory, as well as in connection with the impending hurricane, the fastest way to organize rescue operations is to send a special forces team to an experimental underwater oil platform called Deep Core , which is located near the crash site, and organize operations from there. Benthic Petroleum , the owner of the platform, is forced to provide the platform and a team of oil workers to the Navy for the operation.

The rainy weather is not yet so strong, and the naval team is accompanied on the rig by platform designer Lindsay Brighman ( Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio ). Her husband, with whom she does not live together, Virgil "Bad" Brighman ( Ed Harris ) is a senior worker on the platform.

While the oilmen and the special forces team are exploring the wrecked submarine (not finding anyone alive there), they meet with another mysterious creature, but they still do not know how to understand this; they are all sure that there is something down there, and this “something” has incredible speed and maneuverability. Assuming that the object is an unknown Soviet underwater vehicle, the spetsnaz team extracts one nuclear warhead from a submarine and, acting according to a previously prepared emergency plan, prepares it for the destruction of the submarine, its remaining weapons and encryption books so that they do not reach the enemy. All this is done without the knowledge of the crew of Deep Cor or Bentik Petroleum.

Meanwhile, on the surface of the floating base - the ship "Bentik Explorer" ( Benthic Explorer ) - is in the area of ​​a strong hurricane, thruster fails, because of which the ship deviates from its location. Being directly above the drilling station, the crew member in the underwater vehicle tries to unhook the cable from it, at this moment the cable pulls up and pulls the station along the seabed towards the edge of the depression.

There the platform stops by a bunch of huge stones. On the surface of the ship's crane , which, apparently, is not adapted to be an anchor during a storm, breaks away from the ship and falls into the water. As he goes downstairs, people at the station are looking for shelter. At the same time, Bad and Lindsay watch as the crane drops to the bottom and slides down into the hollow. There is a strong push, and the cable, still attached to the falling crane, pulls the platform through the stones and falls to the bottom, a fire begins and flooding of some compartments. The team begins to work, restoring equipment.

At this time, "something" decides to investigate the station, they are in contact with the station workers in a stationary position; they finally make themselves known as an advanced intelligent extraterrestrial race. It becomes clear that they are not going to cause any harm, but Lieutenant Hiram Coffey does not think so. By this time, he was already under the influence of high pressure syndrome, which made him paranoid . Having lost the ability to reason sensibly, Coffey is preparing to send a warhead with an installed explosive timer to the bottom of the hollow. Bad and Catfish De Vries are trying to get to Coffey through the underwater hatch under the station, but he is blocked. Bad swims to the basin of the platform’s drilling shaft, where he discovers that the warhead is tied to an underwater vehicle called “Big Nutty,” which was programmed to go down along the cliff and shoot video; Coffey on one of the bathyscaphes is trying to deliver a warhead to the hollow. Bad and Lindsay on the second bathyscaphe are trying to stop him. As a result, Coffey loses control and falls into the hollow, and Bad's bathyscaph gets a hole. Due to limitations in deep-sea equipment, Badu has to drown Lindsay, and then safely revive the station.

Using experimental development — an oxygenated fluid that a person can breathe and thereby withstand considerable pressure — Bud goes down after the apparatus to neutralize the warhead. He manages to do this, but he no longer has enough oxygen to rise.

Here the creatures dwelling at the bottom interfere. They discover Bud, who is on the verge of death, and deliver him to the alien ship. Here they create an air pocket in which Bud can take off the helmet and breathe.

Then, in the end of the rolling version, the aliens show Bud a text message that he sent to Lindsey when he ran out of oxygen: “I knew that this was a one-way ticket. Love you wife. By this they make it clear that they appreciated the sacrificial deed of Bud. After that, the alien ship emerges, raising behind it a deep-water platform and other vessels that were at the bottom. The crew of the platform is on the surface in excellent health, with no signs of decompression sickness . Bud gets out of the alien ship, hugs and kisses Lindsay.

The differences director's version

In the director's film version, the final scene has political overtones. While Bad is in the air pocket, aliens transmit earthly news to him: the world is on the verge of nuclear war. In the ocean, powerful tremors occur, giant tsunami waves hang over the coasts of all continents. Against the background of the death of an American submarine, this causes a political crisis and total panic.

Bad realizes that the tsunami created by alien technology, and asks why they threaten humanity. In response, he is shown the chronicles of atomic bombings and trials , sea battles and fierce shots of wars against the destruction of civilians. The Chronicle allows you to identify the Vietnam War and other armed conflicts of the XX century . Aliens believe that humanity will inevitably destroy itself. Bad has nothing more to argue. Parallel to the sidebar panic is shown in American cities and people fleeing from the coast in horror before the creeping walls of water.

The following is a text messaging episode. But the emphasis here is shifting from the sacrificial service rendered to aliens on the fact that the personal nobility of Bud Brighman forced the aliens to treat condescendingly to humanity as a whole, to give credit. After this tsunami waves retreat from the coast, people rejoice. The militaries ironically hint that they will have to look for another job. This is followed by an ascent episode.

• Ed Harris - Virgil "Bad" Brighman
• Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio - Lindsay Brigman
• Michael Bean - Lieutenant Hiram Coffey
• JC Quinn - Arliss Dawson
• Leo Barmister - Devris
• Kimberly Scott - Lisa "Night" Stand
• Todd Graf - Alan "Hippie" Cairns

Scenario

Before filming, director James Cameron contacted Orson Scott Card to discuss the possibility of creating a book based on a future film. Initially, Card replied that he was not engaged in “ novels, ” but after the agent informed him that the director of the film would be James Cameron, he agreed to think. There was a script, and Card, having received from Cameron assurances of his right to develop the ideological line of the novel at his discretion, set to work. After meeting with Cameron, Card soon wrote the first three chapters of the novel, telling about the life of Bud and Lindsay Brigman before the events shown in the film. Cameron gave these chapters to Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, which helped them to fully reveal their characters.

Shooting

Before filming, the entire cast had to undergo a course of qualified divers. Underwater surveys were made at the unfinished Cherokee nuclear power plant , located near the town of Gaffney ( eng. Gaffney ), South Carolina , USA . To place the tank to a depth of 13 meters, it took 26.5 million liters of water - it was the largest underwater film set. Due to the sufficient depth and time spent under water, the cast and crew of the crew had to undergo decompression . Filming also took place in the largest underground lake in the world - a cave in Bonn Terre, Missouri , which was used as a backdrop in some scenes.

In the process of shooting in the film there were 3 options for the ending. Mike Cameron, brother of James Cameron, played the dead crew member from the drowned submarine. To accomplish this task, he had to hold his breath at a depth of 4.5 meters and allow the crab to crawl out of his mouth. Stuntmen took part in very few scenes. When Bud pulls Lindsay onto the rig platform, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio herself holds her breath. When the drill is flooded and the characters flee from the water, sinking in front of closed doors and evading crumbling fragments of the drill - all this was done not by stuntmen, but by actors. The episode with the water tentacle moving through the trigger shaft was described in the script in such a way that it could be removed without prejudice to the plot, and no one knew what it would look like. Actors interacted with a piece of hose from the heater, which was supported by team members. The shooting of the episode was completed, the results exceeded all possible expectations and the wildest hopes.

During the exhausting and problematic filming, the crew and film crew began giving various offensive titles to the film, such as "A native of the Abyss", "Battle" and "Life is an Abyss into which you are immersed in your head." When transmitting a television message about the collision of Russian and American ships, in reality, on the screen you can see the ships of the British attack force during an operation near the Falkland Islands. The final scene, when an alien ship floats to the surface of the ocean, suggested that it would be in spring or summer. But since the film was shot on the eve of winter, each actor had to put some ice cubes in his mouth in order not to create steam during exhalation. The role of Commodore De Marco was originally intended for Lance Henrikson, but he could not play in the film due to contradictions in the working schedule. The episode in which the Catfish during the retreat of Lieutenant Kofi shoots a machine gun at the trigger shaft, was shot using live ammunition. In this regard, the underwater automatic camera was isolated and taken increased security measures.

Special Effects

To show the faces of the actors, special masks were developed. They had microphones built in such a way that replicas pronounced by actors could be included in the film. The noises generated by the helmet controls were erased during subsequent sound processing. The tank was filled with water for 12 meters, but at the same time too much light came in from the surface. To close access to it, the water surface was covered with a huge piece of tarp and billions of tiny black plastic balls. However, during a heavy storm, the tarpaulin was destroyed, so the shooting was carried over to night time.

Breathing fluid actually exists. Five rats were involved in five different duplicates, all of which survived and were vaccinated by a veterinarian. The rat, which actually appears in the film, died a natural death a few weeks before the premiere. According to James Cameron, the scene with the rat was cut from the British version of the film, since the Royal Veterinary Service found this episode painful for the animal. James Cameron himself repeatedly assured that the rats used in these takes were not harmed. To heat the water in the tank of an unfinished nuclear power plant, James Cameron used several tank trucks with natural gas, connected directly to gas burners.

Since the Benthic Explorer ship model was very large and was used for filming on the high seas, the manufacturing company was obliged to register it with the Coast Guard. The water in both tanks was highly chlorinated for disinfection purposes. This led to the fact that the hair of many actors became gray or even white. Mini-submarines in large frames - only models, suspended on wires in a smoke room and shot in slow motion. For financial reasons, the scenery of the Deepcore oil rig was not dismantled after the shooting. They were located in an abandoned (and drained) nuclear power plant in South Carolina, where the film was made. The 20th Century Fox company plastered the scenery with signs warning potential photographers of their ownership of the layout (and sketches) of the rig and the prohibition by the law on copyright of any photo or video in its vicinity. Official information about this is indicated on the body of the rig. In September 2007, the scenery was demolished.

The film is positively rated by film critics - its rating on the Rotten Tomatoes site is 89% (average score - 7.2 / 10) ^[2] .

But at the box office the picture was not a success: with an extremely impressive budget of $ 70 million ^[3] for its time, global box office cash amounted to only $ 90 million ^[4] .

• The film won the Oscar for best visual effects.
• Nomination for the award " Hugo " (the best drama production).

• The Abyss on the Internet Movie Database
• Review and criticism of the Washington Post movie