The Abyss
When you get there, you will understand.
The Abyss (1989)
Production
Budget
$69 500 000
Revenue
$89 761 361
Director
Scenario
Composer
Producer
Actors
Ed Harris
Virgil 'Bud' Brigman
Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio
Lindsey Brigman
Michael Biehn
Lieutenant Hiram Coffey
Leo Burmester
Catton ‘Catfish’ De Vries
Todd Graff
Alan 'Hippy' Carnes
John Bedford Lloyd
Jammer Willis
Kimberly Scott
Lisa 'One Night' Standing
Chris Elliott
Bendix
Short description
After a US Navy nuclear submarine sinks under unexplained circumstances, the military turns to a civilian underwater oil drilling crew for help. The team, led by Bud Brigman and joined by his estranged wife Lindsey, descends to an abyssal trench to search the wreck alongside a Navy unit. What begins as a recovery operation becomes something far stranger, as the crew encounters an unknown presence in the depths and is pushed toward a confrontation that could affect the entire world.
James Cameron wrote and directed the film, his fourth feature, arriving between Aliens and Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio lead the cast as the Brigmans, with Michael Biehn as Lieutenant Coffey, Leo Burmester, Todd Graff and John Bedford Lloyd among the supporting players. Gale Anne Hurd and Van Ling produced the film for 20th Century Fox, Lightstorm Entertainment and Pacific Western, with a budget of 43 million dollars and a worldwide gross of about 90 million. Ratings are solid and broadly consistent: on IMDb it holds 7.5/10 from roughly 208,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.4/10 from about 3,600 votes. A film critics' rating of 7.5/10 from 179 reviews places it in line with those audience scores. The result is a large-scale underwater science fiction adventure that has held its reputation steadily.
What's left behind the scenes
- Before filming, the entire cast had to undergo a course with qualified divers.
- Before the start of filming, director James Cameron contacted Orson Scott Card to discuss the possibility of creating a book based on the future film. Card initially replied that he did not do "novelizations," but after his agent informed him that James Cameron was directing the film, he agreed to consider it. A script was released, and Card, after receiving assurances from Cameron regarding his right to develop the novel's ideological line as he saw fit, took on the work. After meeting with Cameron, Card soon wrote the first three chapters of the novel, telling the story of Bud and Lindsey Brigman's lives before the events shown in the film. Cameron gave these chapters to Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, which helped them fully develop their characters.
- Special masks were developed to show the actors' faces. They had microphones built in so that the actors' spoken lines could be included in the film. Noise created by the regulators in the helmets was removed during post-production sound processing.
- Most of the underwater filming took place in a half-built nuclear reactor facility in Gaffney, South Carolina. It was the largest underwater filming stage in the world, holding 7 million gallons of water.
- The tank was filled with water to a depth of 12 meters, but even then, too much light penetrated from the surface. To block it out, the water's surface was covered with a huge piece of waterproof canvas and billions of tiny black plastic balls. However, during a severe storm, the canvas was destroyed, so filming was moved to nighttime.
- Liquid breathing actually exists. Five rats were used in five different takes, all of whom survived and were vaccinated by a veterinarian. The rat that actually appears in the film died of natural causes a few weeks before the premiere. According to James Cameron, the scene with the rat was cut from the British version of the film because the Royal Veterinary Service considered the episode painful for the animal. James Cameron himself repeatedly assured that no harm was done to the rats used in these takes.
- Mike Cameron, James Cameron's brother, played the dead crew member from the sunken submarine. To accomplish this, he had to hold his breath at a depth of 4.5 meters and allow a crab to crawl out of his mouth.
- During the exhausting and problematic filming, the cast and crew began to give the film various offensive nicknames, such as “Abyss Native,” “Curse,” and “Life is the Abyss You Dive Headfirst Into.”
- It is said that Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio suffered physical and emotional distress due to the intense pressure she experienced on set, and Ed Harris once had to pull over to the side of the road on his way home due to an uncontrollable crying fit.
- The role of Commodore De Marco was originally intended for Lance Henriksen, but he was unable to appear in the film due to scheduling conflicts.
- The American Humanist Association deemed the film unacceptable due to a scene featuring a rat submerged in oxygen-rich liquid. And this wasn't simply for attention. The rat was actually put into a state of fear by being submerged in the liquid, which caused it to panic and struggle, after which it was pulled out by its tail, allowing the liquid to drain from its lungs.
- The mini-submarines in the large shots were merely models suspended on wires in a smoky room and filmed in slow motion.
- Due to financial reasons, the sets for the 'Deepcore' oil rig were not dismantled after filming. They are located in an abandoned (and drained) nuclear power plant facility in South Carolina, where the film was shot. 20th Century Fox covered the sets with signs warning potential photographers of their ownership rights to the mockup (and sketches) of the rig and prohibiting any photo or video recording in its vicinity by copyright law. Official information about this is displayed on the rig's hull itself.
- Underwater filming took place at the unfinished Cherokee Nuclear Power Plant, located near the town of Gaffney, South Carolina, USA.
- Due to the sufficient depth and time spent underwater, the cast and crew had to undergo decompression.
- Filming also took place in the world’s largest underground lake – a cave in Bonne Terre, Missouri, which was used as a backdrop for some scenes.
- An extended version of the film exists with a runtime of 171 minutes.
- Stunt performers were involved in very few scenes. When Bud hauls Lindsay onto the drilling platform, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio held her own breath. When the rig is flooded and the characters flee from the water, drowning before closed doors and dodging debris from the collapsing rig – all of this was performed by the actors, not stunt doubles.
- The final scene, where the alien ship rises to the surface of the ocean, implied that it would be spring or summer. But since the film was shot on the eve of winter, each actor had to put several ice cubes in their mouth to avoid creating steam when exhaling.
- The episode in which Zubatka fires an automatic weapon at the launch shaft during Lieutenant Kofey's retreat was filmed using live ammunition. In this regard, the underwater automatic camera was isolated and enhanced safety measures were taken.
- In the episode where a water tentacle swims up to Badu, bubbles come out of his mouth and nose, which should not happen with that type of breathing.
- The film's plot point – an attack by a nuclear warhead by a group of xenophobes, and the thwarting of this attack by a group advocating for contact – resembles a similar plot device in the 1973 novel "Rendezvous with Rama".
- The scene with the tentacled creature moving through the launch shaft was described in the script in such a way that it could be removed without damaging the plot; moreover, no one knew what it would look like. The actors interacted with a section of heater hose, which was supported by crew members.
- The episode in which Catfish de Vries (played by Leo Burmester) shoots at the bathyscaphe with a submachine gun while Lieutenant Kofie (played by Michael Biehn) is retreating was filmed using live ammunition. In connection with this, the underwater automatic camera was isolated and enhanced security measures were taken.
- The company mentioned in the film is called "Benthic Petroleum." In oceanography, the word "benthic" means "relating to the bottom of a body of water."
- To heat the water in the tank of an unfinished nuclear power plant, James Cameron used several natural gas tankers connected directly to gas burners.
- Because the model of the ship 'Benthic Explorer' was very large and used for filming in the open sea, the production company was required to register it with the Coast Guard.
- The water in both tanks was heavily chlorinated to prevent the growth of microbes. This resulted in many of the actors' hair turning a gray or even white shade.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
