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The Abyss (1989)
Rate:
9
Viewed:
9/21
9/21:
Overlong and sometimes technical but quite thrilling, The Abyss is a film I saw at a theatre in 1989, but
I didn't see it again until now which is the longer version.
Losing none of the power, it's an underwater picture that's Close Encounters of the Third Kind meets
The Day the Earth Stood Still. When I first watched
Terminator 2: Judgment Day and
Titanic back then, I knew where the groundbreaking work in special effects
and underwater photography came from, hence the Oscar win for Best Visual Effects.
The cast is terrific, but it's Ed Harris who makes everybody better. The way he's calm and collected, no matter
how bad the situation is, it's impressive. So is the battle between him and the mustachioed Michael Biehn. The
ending is special when Ed Harris came out of the alien ship to reunite with Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio despite
them publicly disowning the film ever since because of how tough and challenging the work was.
The concept of people breathing liquid is still not proven, but in the film, the rat that did was for real which
is called "oxygenated fluorocarbon fluid." Of course, Ed Harris couldn't do it, but being equipped with a space
helmet that was filled with liquid, he just held his breath for a minute. When Bud went down two miles deep, I
don't understand why it's necessary if the nuclear bomb hadn't been detonated.
The most dramatic scene is when Bud saved his wife. I thought why they were wasting a lot of time
before setting out for the moon pool. It had to be between three and six valuable minutes to prevent further brain
damage. As soon as she came out of it and then appeared fine, I had to say...absolutely not.
All in all, The Abyss is a well-made sci-fi picture with great acting and state of-the-art visual effects.