Day 11 The Abyss (1989)

Science Fiction Thursday

The first time James Cameron got all wet was Piranha II, but he has mostly disowned that experience. Before he made the movie with the big boat, he made this underwater adventure with a big science fiction theme that while not exactly a flop, certainly underperformed at the box office. It’s reputation was significantly enhanced when a “Special Edition” that reflected Cameron’s original vision of the film was released on Laserdisc. That’s right my friends, once again, Laserdisc comes to the rescue. There have been subsequent VHS and DVD releases including the Special Edition, As of this moment, a Blu Ray version is somewhere in the treasure trove that Disney aquired when they bought 20th Century Fox.

Most of the first two hours of the film are a enhanced reality version of a potentially believable story. A nuclear sub has sunk near an experimental underwater oil rig, and the military has commandeered the facility to perform a rescue operation. There are multiple crisis’s that effect the oil rig workers and the SEAL team that has joined them. Some of those are a result of the deep sea environment, some are the military implications, but the biggest issue is the relationship between the rig’s ramrod Bud, played by Ed Harris, and his estranged wife Lindsey, the designer of the platform, played by Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio.

As events play out, it becomes obvious how deeply the two feel for each other, regardless of the professional quarrel they are having. The ultimate scene that demonstrates their love is the dangerous option they take when only one diving suit is available to escape from a crashed submersible. In the end, it does get stretched out a bit but the passion that is felt plays in a very real way and it was one of the creative touches that Cameron added to his story.

Michael Biehn appears in another of Cameron’s films here, as Lt. Coffey, the leader of the SEAL team. In addition to the rescue operation, there is a hidden agenda that the military has that might conflict with the commercial rig. That complication gets more intricate when Coffey develops a form of nervous syndrome related to the high pressure atmosphere they have to breathe in. In the extended version of the film, that localized nuclear problem is a microcosm of a bigger confrontation that is being played out worldwide by the Americans and Soviets.

I chose the original theatrical version because it is the one I saw in theaters in 1989, and frankly, I think it plays better. After all the high tech complications and production design in the film, the movie takes a twist that is interesting but really does shift it more into the fantasy realm. As long as the NTI’s as they are referred to in the film, remain in our peripheral vision, they work well as a source of mystery and wonder. Unfortunately, like in a horror film when the monster is revealed and suddenly feels less interesting, the same thing is true here. The decade was full of movies featuring extraterrestrials, and it was becoming a cliché, The last quarter of this movie embraces that cliché, and the extended version turns the film into an updated “Day the Earth Stood Still”. I prefer “The Day Bud and Lindsey Worked it Out”.

The water tentacle sequence was one of the first major uses of CGI other than framework. It was the main reason the film won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects, and set the groundwork for Cameron’s use of the same technology more extensively in his next film, Terminator 2. The set decoration was also nominated but lost out to the equally inspired “Batman”

This was a movie that I saw solo. For a few years, we had one car and the kids were at a daycare and Dee worked in downtown Los Angeles. If my classes ended early enough, I could see something before having to drive downtown to get her and then get the kids. This was like a 1pm screening at another of those Cinema General Theaters that you find in the mall, only this time I was at the Los Cerritos Mall on the Southeast part of L.A. county.

One of the legends around the film had to do with how rigorous the shoot was and how hard it was on the actors relationship with the director. The popular phrase “Life’s a Bitch and then you Die” was altered an on tee shirts worn by many of the crew, it read “Like’s Abyss, and Then you Dive”.