The Abyss

1989
15
2h 20m

IMDb RATING

7.5/10

198K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

1,200

Play trailer1:59

3 Videos

99+ Photos

Sea Adventure Adventure Drama Mystery Sci-Fi Thriller

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

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.5/10

198K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

1,200

See production info at IMDbPro

Won 1 Oscar
- 9 wins & 16 nominations total

Videos3

'The Abyss' | Anniversary Mashup

Photos255

+ 248

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
Real oxygenated fluorocarbon fluid was used in the rat fluid breathing scene. Dr. Johannes Kylstra and Dr. Peter Bennett of Duke University pioneered this technique and consulted on the film, giving detailed instructions on how to prepare the fluid. The only reason for cutting to the actors' faces was to avoid showing the rats defecating from momentary panic as they began breathing the fluid.

Goofs
When the divers are swimming, you can see bubbles with every breath, meaning that they are on an open-system (i.e. scuba). However at that depth (2000ft), a standard scuba tank would be exhausted in under two minutes, or much less with any kind of exertion.

Quotes
Lindsey Brigman: We all see what we want to see. Coffey looks and he sees Russians. He sees hate and fear. You have to look with better eyes than that.

Crazy credits
In the cast list, Super Seal Rover is credited as Big Geek and Mini Rover Mk II is credited as Little Geek. These are the actual models used for the unmanned submarines.

Alternate versions
The end credits were famously shortened to run under 5 minutes in 1989 in order to hit a target runtime and maximize daily showings; doing so also made the crawl almost illegibly tiny and fast. The credits on the extended edition were almost 10 minutes, with a bigger and slower crawl, and extended/alternate music. Several home video releases of the theatrical edition on laserdisc and DVD actually use the newer credits, so they are not entirely faithful! One VHS tape (Fox Video Selections 1561), at least, uses the original short credits; though the tape is formatted for 4:3, the credits merely gain picture information above and below the intended window (which, for some reason, is very high up in the frame after the first few names). However the new HD master, which has popped up on a few HDTV broadcasts (like Cinemax) go back to the original shortened credits, plus is in the original theatrical aspect ratio, making it the most faithful version available.

Connections
Edited into No Feat But What We Make: 'Terminator 2' and the Rise of Digital Effects (2003)

Soundtracks
Willing
Written by Lowell George
Performed by Linda Ronstadt
Courtesy of CEMA Special Markets and Capitol Records, Inc.

User reviews543

Review

Featured review

8/10

Awe Inspiring Spectacle

The story of The Abyss starts with a mysterious crash of a US nuclear submarine that is armed with the appropriate nuclear weaponry for its time. With reports of it down, we want to get it before the Russians do.

When it rains it pours, literally in this case. A fast moving storm forces the Navy to use the crew and equipment from a nearby underwater deep sea drilling platform and the oil roughnecks are promised some big government checks for their help.

Crew chief Ed Harris gives his reluctant consent, made even more reluctant by the fact that his estranged wife Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio has designed some new equipment for use in the really deep waters of The Abyss of the Atlantic Ocean.

The Navy people and the oil people are a bad fit to start with, but when the deep depths effect Navy SEAL Michael Biehn by bringing out the worst aspects of the military authoritarian personality things get real interesting down in the deep.

The spectacle does dwarf the story which is the only real criticism I can make of The Abyss. What the submarine made accidental contact with is some incredible alien life form which I can't go into further because that's the whole point of the film. Of course Biehn still believes it's all a Russian plot of some kind and therein lies the conflict exacerbated by the extreme paranoia he develops.

Unlike Cameron's Titanic, the spectacle at the end just overwhelms the human players in this film. But it was those special effects that go The Abyss its Academy Award recognition. The Abyss was also nominated for Sound and Art&Set Direction and Cinematography. It could have been a winner in any of those categories. In fact the biggest mistake you can make which is the one I did make, to see The Abyss on the small screen and formatted. This film is what IMAX was developed for.

Though the story does get lost somewhat in the special effects the point is still made about man being ready and open to all kinds of possibilities of life that can exist anywhere. See The Abyss, but wait for a revival showing at a theater.