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This article is about the film. For other uses, see Abyss (disambiguation).
The Abyss
Directed by James Cameron
Produced by Gale Anne Hurd,
Van Ling (special edition)
Written by James Cameron
Starring Ed Harris,
Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio,
Michael Biehn
J.C. Quinn
Kimberly Scott
Music by Alan Silvestri
Cinematography Mikael Salomon
Editing by Joel Goodman
Distributed by 20th Century Fox
Lightstorm Entertainment
Release date(s) August 9, 1989
Running time 146 min / (171 min) (special edition)
Country United States
Language English
Budget $40,000,000
Gross revenue $131,200,000
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

The Abyss is a 1989 science fiction film that was written and directed by James Cameron. James Francis Cameron (born August 16, 1954) is an Academy Award -winning Canadian - American director Gale Anne Hurd (born October 25, 1955 in Los Angeles California) is a Hollywood film producer Van Ling is a producer and creator of DVD menus for many popular movies including the Star Wars DVDs James Francis Cameron (born August 16, 1954) is an Academy Award -winning Canadian - American director Edward Allen "Ed" Harris (born November 28 1950 is a four-time Academy Award -nominated and Golden Globe -winning American actor writer and director Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio (born November 17, 1958) is an Academy Award -nominated American actress and singer best known for her Michael Connell Biehn (born July 31, 1956) is an American Actor. JC Quinn ( November 30, 1940 – February 10, 2004) was an American film and Theatre Actor. Kimberly Aileen Scott (born December 11, 1961) is an American actress Alan Silvestri (born March 26, 1950, New York City) is an acclaimed American Academy Award nominated Film score Composer Mikael Salomon (born February 24, 1945) is a Danish director and Cinematographer from Copenhagen, Denmark James Francis Cameron (born August 16, 1954) is an Academy Award -winning Canadian - American director Events 48 BC - Caesar's civil war: Battle of Pharsalus - Julius Caesar decisively defeats Pompey at Pharsalus Year 1989 ( MCMLXXXIX) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link displays 1989 Gregorian calendar) The United States of America —commonly referred to as the English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States Events Actress Kim Basinger and her brother Mick purchase Braselton Georgia for $20 million Science fiction Film is a Film genre that uses speculative, Science -based depictions of imaginary phenomena such as extra-terrestrial James Francis Cameron (born August 16, 1954) is an Academy Award -winning Canadian - American director It stars Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, and Michael Biehn. Edward Allen "Ed" Harris (born November 28 1950 is a four-time Academy Award -nominated and Golden Globe -winning American actor writer and director Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio (born November 17, 1958) is an Academy Award -nominated American actress and singer best known for her Michael Connell Biehn (born July 31, 1956) is an American Actor. The original musical score was composed by Alan Silvestri. Alan Silvestri (born March 26, 1950, New York City) is an acclaimed American Academy Award nominated Film score Composer It was released on August 9, 1989 in the United States. Events 48 BC - Caesar's civil war: Battle of Pharsalus - Julius Caesar decisively defeats Pompey at Pharsalus Year 1989 ( MCMLXXXIX) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link displays 1989 Gregorian calendar) The United States of America —commonly referred to as the

Underwater scenes were filmed in the containment building of Cherokee Nuclear Power Plant (35.037° N 81.512° W), an unfinished nuclear power plant near Gaffney, South Carolina, in the United States. A containment building, in its most common usage is a Steel or reinforced concrete structure enclosing a Nuclear reactor. The Cherokee Nuclear Power Plant sits just outside of Gaffney South Carolina, United States, in the Cherokee Falls Community Nuclear power is any Nuclear technology designed to extract usable Energy from atomic nuclei via controlled Nuclear reactions Gaffney is a city in and the County seat of Cherokee County, South Carolina, United States. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the It took seven million gallons (26. 5 million liters) of water to fill the tank to a depth of 40 feet (12 m), making it the largest underwater set ever. The depth and length of time spent underwater meant that the cast and crew had to sometimes go through decompression. Decompression sickness (DCS, the diver’s disease, the bends, caisson disease is the name given to a variety of symptoms suffered by a person Filming was also done at the largest underground lake in the world—a mine in Bonne Terre, Missouri, which was the background for several underwater shots. Bonne Terre is a city in St Francois County, Missouri, United States. B movie maker Earl Owensby, of Shelby NC, provided facilities for set and production. A B movie is a motion picture made on a low or modest budget Originally the term was used for films intended for distribution as the less-publicized second half of a Double

The official novelization of The Abyss was written by Orson Scott Card. A novelization is a Novel that is written based on some other media story form rather than as an original work The Abyss (1989 is a Science fiction novel by Orson Scott Card based on an original screenplay by James Cameron. Orson Scott Card (born August 24, 1951) is a bestselling American Author, Critic, political writer and speaker. As it was written concurrently with filming, Card's insight into the characters was often added to the script and to the actors' portrayals.

The soundtrack was released by Varese Sarabande (VSD-5235. Varèse Sarabande is a Record label which specializes in Film scores and original cast recordings. )

Contents

Plot

An American ballistic missile submarine sinks near the edge of the Cayman Trough after an accidental encounter with a mysterious object. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Submarine-launched ballistic missiles or SLBM s are Ballistic missiles delivering Nuclear weapons that are launched from Submarines Modern variants A submarine is a Watercraft that can operate independently below water as distinct from a Submersible that has only limited underwater capability The Cayman Trough, or Cayman Trench, also called Bartlett Deep, or Bartlett Trough, is a complex Transform fault zone which contains a small As Soviet submarines head to the area, and with a hurricane moving in, the quickest way to mount a rescue is for a SEAL team to be inserted onto an experimental underwater oil platform, which they will then use as their base of operations. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 A tropical cyclone is a storm system characterized by a low pressure center and numerous Thunderstorms that produce strong winds and Flooding An oil platform or oil rig is a large structure used to house workers and machinery needed to drill and/or extract oil and Natural gas through wells

In a subplot, the SEAL team is accompanied by the platform's designer, Dr. Lindsey Brigman (Mastrantonio). Her estranged husband, Virgil "Bud" Brigman (Harris) is the foreman of the platform. Unbeknownst to anyone, the SEAL leader, Lt. Coffey (Biehn), has developed High Pressure Nervous Syndrome, and is losing his ability to reason as he sinks slowly into a paranoid state. High pressure nervous syndrome ( HPNS) is a Neurological and Physiological diving disorder that results when a diver spends too much

As the oil workers and SEAL team investigate the wreck, the oil workers have a strange encounter with a creature they can't identify, and are uncertain what to make of it. The SEAL team recovers one of the nuclear warheads from the submarine; their mission (hidden from the oil workers) is to destroy the sub if salvage is impossible. A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from Nuclear reactions either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Meanwhile, the estranged Brigmans argue a great deal, yet underneath, they clearly have great affection for one another.

Tensions continue to mount as, due to the storm, the platform loses contact with the surface, and then is nearly destroyed when its umbilical tether and surface apparatus lands on it and drags it close to the edge of the trench. After the crew experiences two strange encounters from what appear to be alien beings, the paranoid Coffey determines that the aliens are a threat, and decides to send the nuclear warhead down to the bottom of the trench where the aliens appear to be coming from. In a confrontation between two submersibles (Coffey vs. the Brigmans), Lindsey and Bud Brigman manage to kill Coffey, but cannot stop the nuclear time bomb from falling into the trench. The Brigmans end up trapped in their damaged submersible, which is rapidly taking on freezing water. They are several minutes' swim from the platform, and only Bud has a drysuit. Lindsey orders Bud to use the ship's sole diving suit to swim back to the platform, towing her body. A diving suit is a garment or device designed to protect a diver from the Underwater environment While she will drown, she banks on the frozen water, via the mammalian diving reflex, preserving her until she can be resuscitated at the platform. The mammalian diving reflex optimizes Mammals Respiration to stay underwater for a long time Bud manages to save her life, and it seems that the estranged couple is back together.

Bud then dons an experimental diving suit brought by the SEALs in which the diver breathes in a special fluid instead of air. Liquid breathing is a form of respiration in which a normally air-breathing organism breathes an Oxygen -rich Liquid (usually a Perfluorocarbon This has the advantage of one needing a much smaller volume of material to inhale, and requires no decompression if Bud returns to the depth of the platform. Bud's mission is to dive to the bottom of the trench—deeper than anyone has ever gone—and disarm the warhead before it harms the alien creatures. He succeeds in his mission, but Lindsey is distressed to learn that he doesn't have enough breathable liquid to allow his return. He tells her, via a wristpad, that he always knew it was a one-way trip, but he had to come (to save the aliens). He transmits a final message saying that he loves her, while she tells him how much she loves him.

The aliens find Bud and bring him onto their ship. They provide him with air to breathe, and return him and the platform to the surface, unharmed and with no need to decompress.

In the director's cut, the aliens are upset at man's warlike tendencies (displayed to Bud as news footage showing man's barbarism, and particularly evident as U. A director's cut is a specially edited version of a Film, and less often TV series, Music video, commercials or Video games S. -Soviet tensions have reached a crisis level as a result of the missing nuclear submarine). The aliens create enormous, megatsunami-level standing waves along all of the world's coastlines. Mega-tsunami (also known as iminami or "wave of purification" is an informal term to indicate a Tsunami that has initial Wave heights that are Then, having shown the world what they are capable of, and sent a message that humans are headed for destruction, they relent, and show Bud his last communication to his wife, in which Bud explained that he had sacrificed his own life to save the aliens. This ending is very similar in style to the ending of The Day the Earth Stood Still.

Critical reception

The Abyss was initially greeted with a lukewarm critical response. Its use of computer-generated special effects, however, was praised almost universally, paving the way for Cameron's future projects such as Terminator 2. Since the release of The Abyss's director's cut, the film has garnered a strong cult following.

Conception

“ I was dive-certified at the age of seventeen and since then have always wanted to do something that incorporated filming and diving—I wanted to do the definitive diving movie. But what do you do? Show the beauties of the coral reef or the perils of killer sharks? Those films have already been done. What I wanted was to go into the realm that had always excited me the most because of its extremes and its absoluteness—I wanted to go deep into the ocean.

In high school, I participated in a weekly science seminar where different speakers were brought in to talk about everything from childbirth to the latest advances in physics. One of those speakers happened to be a commercial diver who had participated in an experiment in which he had breathed with a liquid in both lungs for something like forty-five minutes. That really blew my mind. Here was a guy who had used his lungs as a gill mechanism. From that seminar came the idea for a story I wrote about some scientists in a research installation on a cliff overlooking the Cayman Trough. Using liquid breathing suits, they began making forays into the deepest depths of the ocean—but no one who goes down the cliff comes back again. [1]

 ”
“ What I originally wrote was a very, very crude and simple story dealing with the idea of being in the very deep ocean and doing fluid breathing and making a descent to the bottom from a staging submersible laboratory that was on the edge. Being on the brink of the bottomless pit, and the title, and the psychological ramifications of returning to the womb, breathing a liquid and falling to your death while simultaneously going back to your birth, much of that symbology is inherent in that first story. That was taken and layered upon and expanded. [2] ”

History of the Special Edition

Even as the film was in the first weeks of its 1989 theatrical release, rumors were circulating of a wave sequence missing from the end of the movie. As chronicled in the 1993 laser disc Special Edition release and later in the 2000 DVD, the pressure to cut the film's running time primarily stemmed from two sources: distribution concerns and Industrial Light & Magic's then inability to complete the required sequences. Industrial Light & Magic ( ILM) is a motion picture Visual effects company that was founded in May 1975 by George Lucas and is owned From the distributor's perspective the looming three hour length limited the number of times the film could be shown each day, assuming that audiences would be willing to sit through it all (1990's Dances with Wolves would shatter both industry-held notions). Dances with Wolves is a 1990 Epic film which tells the story of a United States Lieutenant who travels to the American Frontier to find a military post Further, test audience screenings revealed a surprisingly mixed reaction to the sequences as they appeared in their unfinished form, with it being most mentioned both in the "Scenes I liked most" and "Scenes I liked least" fields. Contrary to speculation, studio meddling was not the cause of the shortened length; Cameron held final cut as long as the film met a certain running time; roughly two hours and fifteen minutes. He later noted, "Ironically, the studio brass were horrified when I said I was cutting the wave. [3]"

“ What emerges in the winnowing process is only the best stuff. And I think the overall caliber of the film is improved by that. I cut only two minutes of Terminator. On Aliens, we took out much more. I even reconstituted some of that in a special (TV) release version.

The sense of something being missing on Aliens was greater for me than on The Abyss, where the film just got consistently better as the cut got along. The film must function as a dramatic, organic whole. When I cut the film together, things that read well on paper, on a conceptual level, didn't necessarily translate to the screen as well. I felt I was losing something by breaking my focus. Breaking the story's focus and coming off the main characters was a far greater detriment to the film than what was gained. The film keeps the same message intact at a thematic level, not at a really overt level, by working in a symbolic way. [2]

 ”

Cameron elected to remove the sequences along with other shorter scenes elsewhere in the film, reducing the running time from roughly two hours and fifty minutes down to two hours and twenty minutes and diminishing his signature themes of nuclear peril and disarmament. Subsequent test audience screenings drew substantially better reactions.

Star Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio publicly expressed regret about some of the scenes selected for removal from the film's theatrical cut.

“ There were some beautiful scenes that were taken out. I just wish we hadn't shot so much that isn't in the film. [2] ”

Shortly after the film's theatrical premiere, Cameron and video editor Ed Marsh created a longer video cut of The Abyss for their own use using dailies; it was not released. Dailies, in Filmmaking, is the term used to describe the raw unedited Footage shot during the making of a Motion picture. With the tremendous success of Cameron's Terminator 2: Judgment Day in 1992, Lightstorm Entertainment secured a five year, USD$500 million financing deal with 20th Century Fox for films produced, directed or written by Cameron. Terminator 2 Judgment Day, commonly abbreviated as T2, is a 1991 action / Science fiction film directed co-written James Francis Cameron (born August 16, 1954) is an Academy Award -winning Canadian - American director The United States dollar ( sign: $; code: USD) is the unit of Currency of the United States; it has also been [4] Within this contract, roughly $500,000 was allocated to complete The Abyss. [5] ILM was commissioned to finish the work they had started three years earlier, with many of the same people who had worked on it originally. The computer-generated imagery tools developed for Terminator 2 allowed ILM to complete one new shot and correct flaws in their original work. Computer animation Computer-generated imagery (also known as CGI) is the application of the field of Computer graphics or more specifically 3D computer graphics New dialogue, sound effects and foley were recorded when it was discovered that original production sound recordings had been lost. A dialogue (sometimes spelled dialog) is a reciprocal Conversation between two or more entities. For the album by The Jam see Sound Affects. Sound effects or audio effects are artificially created or enhanced Sounds The Foley artist on a Film crew is the person who creates many of the natural everyday Sound effects in a film which are recorded during a session with a Recording Alan Silvestri was not available to compose new music for the restored scenes. Alan Silvestri (born March 26, 1950, New York City) is an acclaimed American Academy Award nominated Film score Composer Robert Garrett, who had composed temp music for the film's initial cutting in 1989, was chosen to create new music. The project was completed in December 1992, saw a limited theatrical release in New York City and Los Angeles starting on February 26, 1993 and ventured to points beyond on the revival circuit. The City of New York Los Angeles (lɑˈsændʒələs los ˈaŋxeles in Spanish) is the largest City in the state of California and the American West The laserdisc release was the first officially THX-certified laser disc and was a best-seller for months. Critical response to the Special Edition version of the film has been generally favorable. [6]

Reception

The Abyss won the 1990 Oscar for Best Visual Effects. Year 1990 ( MCMXC) was a Common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1990 Gregorian calendar) "The Oscar" redirects here for the film see The Oscar (film. The Academy Award for Visual Effects is an Oscar given to one film each year that shows highest achievement in Visual effects It was also nominated for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Cinematography and Best Sound. The Academy Awards are the oldest awards ceremony for achievements in motion pictures. The Academy Award for Best Cinematography is an Academy Award awarded each year to a Cinematographer for work in one particular Motion picture. The Academy Award for Sound Mixing is an Academy Award that recognizes the finest or most euphonic Sound mixing or recording The studio lobbied hard to get Michael Biehn nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, but to no avail. Michael Connell Biehn (born July 31, 1956) is an American Actor. Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts

The Abyss was nominated for many other awards, such as by Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films and the American Society of Cinematographers. The Saturn Award is an award presented annually by the Academy of Science Fiction Fantasy & Horror Films to honor the top works in Science fiction, Fantasy The American Society of Cinematographers ( ASC) is an educational cultural and professional organization It ended up winning a total of three other awards from these organizations.

References in popular culture

Budget and box office

References

  1. ^ "The Writer/Director and Screenplay", The Abyss: Special Edition DVD
  2. ^ a b c Starlog, Issue 150, interview by Ian Spelling
  3. ^ The Abyss Special Edition DVD, The Restoration
  4. ^ James Cameron biography from Yahoo! Movies
  5. ^ The Toronto Star, Starweek Magazine
  6. ^ The Abyss from MetaCritic
  7. ^ Paula Parisi, Titanic and the Making of James Cameron, 1998, pg. Starlog is a monthly Science-fiction film Magazine published by Starlog Group Inc Yahoo! Movies, provided by the Yahoo! network is home to a large collection of information on movies past and new releases trailers and clips Box office Metacritic is a Website that collates reviews of music Albums games, movies, TV shows, DVDs and Books. 19

External links

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