Thoughts on the 1989 film The Abyss

[BAYLOR]

It had a great cast headed up by Ed Harris ( Virgil bud Brignman , Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio( Lindsey Brignman_) and Michael Biehn ( Lt Herman Coffey . A deep seas research team has a close enter with alines lying deep in the Ocean . The film never really established where the Aalines came of gofer whether they evolved on Earth. Their technology was well beyond humanity's , they could if they cause the Oceans to rise and inundate the land in such away that mankind would perish . In extended version of the of the film, they demonstrate their power . What saves Us? Well, when Lt Coffey 9who a little nuts) sends a nuke down deep to kill the aliens , he gets foiled and killed by Virgil and Lindsey . Virgil goes down deep even knowing he won't likely come back because his air will run out bbefoe he can ascend . he doesn't die because Aliens keep him from dying. Virgil finds out that the aliens are concerned about Humanity's' capacity for war and they are dealing whether they should destroy us or not but seeing that he was willing risk his life on their behalf and other things , they decide to spare mankind . This film was at time , unlike anything id ever see before the special effect were ground breaking and , a great musical score by Alan Silvestri (it was reused for the 2005 film Zathura. ) This film is arguably James Cameron's best film .

Thoughts ?

 

[Droflet]

Yep, a terrific film that was unfairly mauled by critics.

 

[CupofJoe]

It was the first time I saw the fluid digital modelling that would become famous in Terminator 2.
All scientific and technical details aside... The drilling rig felt like a real place. And it has some great lines.
I think its a pretty good film until the end. I feel Cameron wrote himself into a corner and came up with the only ending he could.

 

[Rodders]

Another great James Cameron classic. I loved the underwater setting of this, which added a lot to the tension. I liked the look of the aliens, too and the idea of being able to manipulate water was quite a novel idea at the time. The cast was exceptional. Ed Harris is always good, by Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio was outstanding, in my opinion.

I've always felt that this was a very well respected movie.

 

[SilentRoamer]

Im a big fan of Abyss, watched it as a young lad and was mesmerised by it, the whole breathing liquid thing and the setting, I just loved it.

Rewatched as an adult and honestly I think it holds up.

Apparenty this was production hell but a lot of the technical aspects were carried into other productions - as mentioned above, like the liquid motion and a significant amount of underwater filming tech would go on to be used in Titanic.

People nearly died, got hyperthermia, nearly drowned, all sorts of awfulness on set.

Abyss was groundbreaking, and in my view is a flawed yet fantastic outing.

 

[KGeo777]

The Terminator is Cameron's best film for me but this is probably second best in terms of production and story value although I never have a desire to revisit it--makes me think of 2010 or Close Encounters underwater.

If Cameron had not been so interested in the sea, then this film would have been like Apocalypse Now or Heaven's Gate for overindulgence in technical costs, but it served as a means for him to test diving technology too. As he did with Titanic.

The CGI in this --the water creature was amazing--if it was used in a more dramatic scene it may have been better remembered. It seems to me CGI did not get much attention until Terminator 2.


I have rewatched Leviathan more often than this.




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[ANV]

Love that movie, watched it with my mom. She showed me all the great ones, like Alien We rewatch it whenever we can.

 

[paeng]

I also read that several cast members did not like the experience of working in the movie, and in some case broke down and wanted to quit because of various difficulties.