Aliens of the Deep

Aliens of the Deep is a 2005 IMAX documentary directed by James Cameron. Cameron and a team of NASA scientists travel to the Mid-Ocean Ridge, an underwater mountain range that circles the planet, to study the unusual creatures living around deep-sea hydrothermal vents. The film follows expeditions in the Atlantic and Pacific as the crew considers what life in such extreme conditions might suggest about the possibility of life elsewhere in the solar system.

The documentary features Cameron on camera alongside scientists and submersible pilots including Anatoly M. Sagalevitch, Pamela Conrad, Charles Pellegrino, Genya Chernaiev and Victor Nischeta, with twenty-one people credited in the cast. Cameron produced with Andrew Wight, continuing the deep-sea interest he had pursued around the making of Titanic. It was his ninth film as director in chronological order, arriving between Ghosts of the Abyss in 2003 and Avatar in 2009. Steven Quale, who worked on the production, went on to direct Final Destination 5, Into the Storm, Renegades and Black Box.

Released on 28 January 2005 and running 95 minutes, the film took about 13 million dollars worldwide, a modest figure reflecting the limited reach of large-format documentary distribution. Audiences gave it a 6.3 rating on IMDb from roughly 3,700 votes and a 6.1 on TMDB. A critics' score of 7 out of 10, based on 62 reviews, sits above those audience ratings.