James Camer-thon: A Review of "The Abyss"

"Yikes, the only time I've ever reached out and touched someone was when I was a
moonlight marriage counselor over the phone!"

It's Friday once again, and we're still cooking on another edition of James Camer-thon! We've seen Mr. Cameron deliver two action-packed science-fiction movies that have since become pop culture favorites. The Terminator was even inducted into the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress in 2008, and I'm sure Aliens is not far behind. With any luck of course.

What was next on the slate for Mr. Cameron? Well. The year is 1989... and nothing says "1989" like it being time to go into the deep, blue sea. I'm sure there's a correlation there but I'm not quite sure. I thought I read somewhere in Reader's Digest. Anywho, no, it doesn't mean he didn't directed The Little Mermaid, Disney's first entry into their famed "Disney Renaissance"... though I'd admit it'd be hilarious if he did. No, James Cameron instead took his usual gang of roughneck badass characters, and instead of Space Marines, Cameron made them undersea scientists on an expedition to recover a lost nuclear submarine... that discover something much, much more mystifying deep in the ocean's darkest parts... or dare I say... THE ABYSS! That's right, we're here to review The Abyss: A movie that teaches us characters can be forgettable as long as your groundbreaking special effects director continues to break ground and be especially effective! That's right, I spent a whole five minutes cooking that one up. I am not proud, and my skills at being witty could be better used learning a new skill. Let's dive (pun most certainly in-tended) into what makes this movie Cameron's most... something entry into his filmography of the 1980s, especially considering the horrific background behind-the-scenes that this movie suffered.

"Would you guys mind picking it up, I'm a
little under pressure here!"

In January 1994 (five years into this movie's future, nearly thirty into our past... *Sobs*), the U.S. Ohio-class submarine USS Montana has an encounter with an unidentified submerged object and sinks near the Cayman Trough. With Soviet ships moving in to try to salvage the sub and a hurricane moving over the area, the U.S. government sends a SEAL team to Deep Core, a privately owned experimental underwater drilling platform near the Cayman Trough to use as a base of operations. The platform's designer, Dr. Lindsey Brigman (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio... no, not Winstead... maybe in a remake), insists on going along with the SEAL team, even though her estranged husband Virgil "Bud" Brigman (Ed Harris) is the current foreman. During the initial investigation of the Montana, a power cut in the team's submersibles leads to Lindsey seeing a strange light circling the sub, which she later calls a "non-terrestrial intelligence" or "NTI". Lt. Hiram Coffey (Cameron's ol buddy Michael Biehn), the SEAL team leader, is ordered to accelerate their mission and takes one of the mini-subs without Deep Core's permission to recover a Trident missile warhead from the Montana just as the storm hits above, leaving the crew unable to disconnect from their surface support ship in time. The cable crane is torn from the ship and falls into the trench, dragging the Deep Core to the edge before it stops. The rig is partially flooded, killing several crew members and damaging its power systems.

"Do you understand what Deep Core is doing?"
"Do you understand how your BREATH smells?"

The crew waits out the storm so they can restore communications and be rescued. As they struggle against the cold, they find the NTIs have formed an animated column of water to explore the rig, which they equate to an alien version of a remotely operated vehicle. Though they treat it with curiosity, Coffey is agitated and cuts it in half by closing a pressure bulkhead on it, causing it to retreat. Realizing that Coffey is suffering paranoia from high-pressure nervous syndrome... (I call it "undersea under-stress"... again, I spent a whole minute on that one), the crew spies on him through an ROV (Remotely Operated Underwater Vehicle to you CITIZENS), finding him and another SEAL arming the warhead to attack the NTIs. To try and stop him, Bud fights Coffey but Coffey escapes in a mini-sub with the primed warhead; Bud and Lindsey give chase in the other sub, damaging both. Coffey is able to launch the warhead into the trench, but his sub drifts over the edge and implodes from the pressure, killing him. Not going to lie... Cameron deciding to kill Michael Biehn is a ballsy... oh wait, The Terminator... are we sure they were friends in real life? Anywho, Bud's mini-sub is inoperable and taking on water; with only one functional diving suit, Lindsey opts to enter deep hypothermia and trigger her mammalian diving reflex when the ocean's cold water engulfs her. Bud swims back to the platform with her body; there, he and the crew use a defibrillator and administer CPR, they manage to successfully revive her.

"Where's the undersea Taco Bell?"
"I don't know, my GPS just says 'slight right'!"

It is decided that the warhead needs to be disarmed, which is more than two miles below them. One SEAL, Ensign Monk (Adam Nelson), helps Bud use an experimental diving suit equipped with a liquid breathing apparatus to survive to that depth, though he will only be able to communicate through a keypad on the suit. What is liquid breathing? Actually, it's pretty neat. Read on! Bud begins his dive, assisted by Lindsey's voice to keep him coherent against the effects of the mounting pressure, and reaches the warhead. Monk guides him in successfully disarming it. With little oxygen left in the system, Bud explains he knew it was a one-way trip, and tells Lindsey he loves her. As he waits for death, an NTI approaches Bud, takes his hand, and guides him to a massive alien city deep in the trench. Inside, the NTIs create an atmospheric pocket for Bud, allowing him to breathe normally. The NTIs then play back Bud's message to his wife and they look at each other with understanding. Quite a touching scene. Usually James Cameron has the aliens, I don't know, screeching or terrorizing people. Pretty calming to see them actually help a human being survive one of his movies for once instead of trying to KILL them!

Back onboard Deep Core, the crew is waiting for rescue when they see a message from Bud that he met some friends and warns them to hold on. The base shakes and lights from the trench herald the arrival of the alien ship. It rises to the ocean's surface, with Deep Core and several of the surface ships run aground on its hull. The crew of Deep Core exit the platform, surprised they are not dead from the sudden decompression. They see Bud walking out of the alien ship and Lindsey races to hug him! Aww, such a touching ending to an otherwise wildly dull yet mystifyingly unsettling film.

"Yes, hello? I'm calling about my refrigerator. It's
not running anymore, I think it needs new shoes."
"Bud, for the last time, Payless Shoes is tired
of your shit."

So not a lot of people talk about The Abyss these days. I wonder why? Everyone talks about The Terminator thanks to the bastardizing of the timeline that the sequels would cause starting with Terminator 3. People still talk about Aliens as one of the greatest sequels of all time, and one of the greatest sci-fi movies ever made. So what happened with The Abyss? A lot of it has to do, in my opinion, with its forgettable characters. Whereas The Terminator focused hard on just three main characters and built the hell out of their personalities, and Aliens featured dynamite actors all feeding and living well off each other to the point where the dialogue feels naturally-flowing... The Abyss focuses on a bunch of "ne'er remembers". Besides Ed Harris and Michael Biehn... right now, I can't name another actor without looking them up, as I did when writing the synopsis. Not to mention... Ed Harris and lead actress Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio had horrible times making this movie. According to reports from cast & crew, during the rigorous and problematic shoot, everyone began calling the film by various derogatory names such as "Son Of Abyss", "The Abuse" and "Life's Abyss And Then You Dive". Mastrantonio reportedly suffered a physical and emotional breakdown because she was pushed so hard on the set by Cameron, and Ed Harris had to pull over his car at one time while driving home, because he burst into spontaneous crying. Harris reportedly even full-on punched James Cameron in the face after he kept filming while he was nearly drowning during one scene. 

"Well them disarming the warhead just tightens
my ridiculous Navy SEAL cap."

James Cameron is known for being a hardcore perfectionist, and this movie is probably his greatest example of it. Even Cameron was susceptible to the movie's horrible behind-the-scenes luck. The story goes that Cameron nearly drowned during production while he was weighed down at the bottom of the giant water tank during filming. His AD (assistant director) had failed to warn him to refill his oxygen, and realizing that he was running out of air, Cameron called for help to underwater director of photography (DP) Al Giddings. Unfortunately, Giddings couldn't hear him as he was near-deaf from an old diving-bell accident, and with not another soul nearby, Cameron realized he had to go top-side as soon as possible. Cameron very instinctively released his helmet, his harness and the weights keeping him down, and started to swim with great speed to the surface, exhaling all the way in order to prevent lung damage from decompression.... yet another one of those underwater mishaps that can claim the lives of anyone at any moment working on or underwater. One of the safety divers, divers meant to keep you safe, held him down and gave him a regulator, but it was broken and only produced water. Cameron tried to release himself, but the diver, thinking that Cameron was simply having a panic attack, held him even tighter... like a dunce. Cameron only survived this ordeal because he punched the diver in the face... lotsa punching going on behind-the-scenes... and reached the surface before passing out. The assistant director and the diver were fired the same day.

"Mary, we've been down here for seventeen hours and Cameron hasn't
yelled 'cut'!"
"I think we've been bamboozled. I'm frightened Ed."
"Me too, Mary. Me too."

Reportedly, the behind the scenes drama so all encompassing, Ed Harris has publicly refused to speak about his experiences working on the film, often quoted as saying "I'm not talking about The Abyss and I never will". The only register with Harris speaking about his experiences doing the movie is in the documentary Under Pressure: Making 'the Abyss', made and released in 1993. Similarly, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio is quoted as saying "The Abyss was a lot of things. Fun to make was not one of them."

Is there anything good to say about The Abyss? Yes. As mentioned earlier, the movie features even more breakthroughs in visual effects and cinematography, something Cameron is very known for. There's a scene where the NTI approaches the group inside of Deep Core in the form of a water tentacle that has a face on it. The face molds and smiles with Lindsey and there's even a neat moment where she puts her finger in the NTI's face, and when she pulls it out, it's wet... despite the NTI-tentacle-face being completely computer generated. It was one of the first if not the first completely CG effect used in a movie. It was actually the first scene to be filmed so that while the rest of the movie could be filmed, ILM could work on and pioneer the effect for the best possible result, and it ended up turning out so well that Cameron hired ILM for his next movie... and we will get to that, do not worry!

"Alright what's the plan once we get in the air bubble?"
"Fire recklessly with this rifle until we're drowned?"
"Bingo."

One last thing I want to briefly touch upon is the breathing fluid. That's actually based on a real practice and a real tool that people use, and it was demonstrated as a central plot point. 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 in the movie was to avoid showing the rats defecating from momentary panic as they began breathing the fluid. You do watch the rats breathing the fluorocarbon fluid, and it's a little alarming... and talking Ed Harris through a panic attack at the end as he breathes the fluid in also is a little unsettling, but it's neat from a scientific standpoint.

Do I recommend The Abyss? From a filmography standpoint, yes. While it isn't the triumphant powerhouse Cameron's two previous directorial features were, it's still a fun adventure. Yes, the characters are forgettable, the story drags at times, and there's not really a memorable score... but the effects, cinematography, and dialogue is at least witty enough to keep you roped in. It runs a little long, but if you can sit through it, it's a fun alien adventure. Something Cameron is very well versed in. I'd say if you find it streaming anywhere, give it a try one afternoon. Just let yourself get sucked into the underwater Deep Core platform and try to immerse yourself. I recommend The Abyss. Try it out.

... and prepare yourselves for the next post! I'm very excited to touch upon the next one. Like stupid excited!