The Abyss

The Abyss is an award-winning science fiction film from 1989, written and directed by James Cameron, starring Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, and Michael Biehn. There is a cinema version (140 minutes) and a Director's Cut version (171 minutes).

Plot

An American ballistic missile submarine sinks near the edge of the Cayman Trough after an accidental encounter with an alien object. 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 on to an experimental underwater oil platform, and to mount operations from there, enlisting the skills of the resident oil workers living on the platform to help in the operation.

Related Topics:
American - Ballistic missile - Submarine - Cayman Trough - Soviet - Hurricane - SEAL - Oil platform

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If bad weather and international tensions escalating toward war aren't enough, the SEAL team is accompanied down to the rig by the platform's designer, 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.

Related Topics:
War - High Pressure Nervous Syndrome - Paranoid

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As the oil workers and SEAL team investigate the wreck of the sub, the oil workers encounter an alien, but are uncertain what to make of it. The SEAL team recovers one of the nuclear warheads from the submarine, and plan to destroy the sub if salvage is impossible.

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Tension mounts as an accident on the surface ship leaves all aboard the underwater rig stranded and cut off from the world above. At this point, the aliens decide to explore the rig and in doing so, make contact with the stranded workers. They clearly mean no harm, but the now totally paranoid Coffey doesn't see it this way, and prepares to send the warhead to the bottom of the trench, set on a timer to explode. After a brief battle between Lindsey and Bud (in one submersible) and Coffey (in another), Coffey is killed and the bomb is accidentally released. This leaves Bud and Lindsey stranded several hundred meteres away from the platform in their slowly flooding sub. With time running out, Lindsey sacrifices herself so Bud can use the sole SCUBA unit to swim them both back aboard the rig. Although being clinically dead, the team barely manage to revive Lindsey once she's back aboard.

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Realizing that they're the only ones able to stop a nuclear attack on a sentient race, Bud dons a suit incorporating a fluid breathing system to dive to the bottom of the 3 mile deep trench and disarm the warhead. He does so, but his team is shocked to learn that he doesn't have enough breathable liquid to return, and that even though he knew that the journey was suicide, someone had to take the responsibility. He transmits a final message to Lindsey saying that he loves her.

Related Topics:
Fluid breathing - Suicide

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At the bottom of the trench, the aliens find Bud and bring him into their underwater city. There, the aliens show him the message that he sent, and return him and the platform to the surface, unharmed.

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In the director's cut, the aliens, responding to man's warlike tendencies (displayed to Bud as news footage showing man's barbarism), are actually preparing to destroy all coastal regions of the world by giant megatsunamis and freak waves. The aliens relent when they examine Bud's final communication to his wife, realizing that mankind still has the potential for good. This ending is very similar in style, but with far more emotional impact, to the ending of The Day the Earth Stood Still.

Related Topics:
Director's cut - Megatsunami - Freak wave - The Day the Earth Stood Still

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