Abysmal Deep

The Abyss (1989) is the second in our undersea monster movie series (after Deep Rising). It’s a whole other kettle of fish. This is a slick, big budget James Cameron production.

It starts with a nuclear sub going down in deep water. The government commandeers an underwater drilling platform to use as the base for a SEAL team to perform rescue/recovery. They’ll need to hurry, because a hurricane is coming. The platform is manned by the usual crowd of eccentric roughnecks, led by captain Ed Harris. We particularly liked Todd Graff as “Hippy”, a sweet conspiracy theorist with a pet rat, and Kimberly Scott, the black submersible pilot who wears a straw hat and bib overalls. Her nickname is “One Night” which I just found out is because her full name is Lisa “One Night” Standing.

Also, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio has demanded to be allowed to join the mission, because she designed the platform. Everyone thinks she’s a bitch, and Harris is her ex-husband, so this may not seem like a great idea, but she does know the most about the platform.

The gang goes down to check the sub, they find nothing but corpses and nuclear missiles. But Mastrantonio in one of the submersibles sees some funny lights zooming around - just as all the subs systems go on the fritz. Of course, there’s no photos, but she starts thinking she’s seen an alien.

The SEAL team have been talking with the Pentagon and getting very sketchy orders - arm a nuke and blow it if it looks like anyone else is going to get the missiles. They take one of the submersibles and head to the sunken sub. But that means they can’t disconnect the umbilical from the ship above which is getting battered by the hurricane. It finally breaks off, and almost crushes the platform - then almost pulls it into the trench. And through all of this, it is getting clearer that the head of the SEAL team is getting the underwater willies and becoming (more) paranoid

I’m going to leave out the desperate dive that kills Mastrantonio (semi-spoiler) and the final descent into the abyss, breathing oxygenated fluid and losing mental function as the depth increases. Also, the alien water face - advanced CGI for the period.  But this is an altogether cool movie, with a lot going on, much derring-do, some neat effects (mostly practical) and dive tank work. I feel like it’s the movie Pandora should have been. It holds up.