The Abyss

"When you get there, you will understand."

1989 2h 20m EN

👍

7.4

SOLID

★7.4TMDB · 3,626

AdventureThrillerScience Fiction

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

A civilian oil rig crew is recruited to conduct a search and rescue effort when a nuclear submarine mysteriously sinks. One diver soon finds himself on a spectacular odyssey 25,000 feet below the ocean's surface where he confronts a mysterious force that has the power to change the world or destroy it.

“When you get there, you will understand.”

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Cast

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

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: James Cameron
Writers: James Cameron, Phillip Norwood
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 7

ERA

Did you know

37 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by James Cameron, shot by Mikael Salomon. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Alan Silvestri. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Howard E. Smith shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 7

CAST

Did you know

Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Michael Biehn carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 7

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "When you get there, you will understand.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 7

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0096754 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

Cinephile deep dive

The take

James Cameron directs. Mikael Salomon behind the camera. Alan Silvestri scores. Howard E. Smith cuts. Profitable at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

137 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
2Directed by James Cameron, shot by Mikael Salomon. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
3Original score by Alan Silvestri. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
4Editor Howard E. Smith shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
5Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Michael Biehn carry the top of the cast.
6Marketing tagline: "When you get there, you will understand.".
7IMDB entry: tt0096754 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
8Classified under 20 themes, including "sea", "flying saucer", "submarine", "ocean".
9Released under 13 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Mikael Salomon
Original score: Alan Silvestri
Editing: Howard E. Smith
Production design: Leslie Dilley
Costume design: Deborah Everton
Makeup / hair: Kathryn Fenton
VFX supervisor: Hoyt Yeatman
Sound: Blake Leyh
Stunt coordinator: Dick Warlock
Runtime: 140 min · 2h 20m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $43,000,000
Box office: $90,000,098
Return: 209% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG-13
IMDB: The Abyss (1989)

Awards

Academy Award for Best Visual Effects

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

James Cameron

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Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

John Chard2019-07-07
★ 9/10
Cameron's Marvellous Close Encounters Of The Sea Kind. Special Edition A deep sea oil crew are called upon by the military to investigate the events that saw an American Nuclear Submarine crash down in the abyss. As the crew, and their hot headed Navy Seal passengers, get down deeper, it would seem they are not alone down there. The Abyss is a flawed movie when put under the microscope, even allowing for the reinserted (and much better) ending that James Cameron was forced to cut by idiot studio executives. Most glaringly obvious as a fault is that The Abyss, after holding us for 2 hours of engrossing cinema, can't quite seal the deal as a deep (hrr hrr hrr) message movie for the modern era. What isn't in doubt upon revisits to the piece is that it's at times spectacular, at others it's joyously ambitious, both things coming together in one big loud boom of being a blockbuster with brains. James Cameron can never be accused of not trying to entertain the masses, and here, with a bit more thought on a humanist level, then we would have been talking in the realms of masterpiece. The making of the film is itself worthy of a movie, a fraught and angry shoot with many problems, of which I wont bore you with as they can be found at the click of a mouse. But Cameron pushes hard because he wants to please and dazzle, and he does, every buck and sweat drop is up there on the screen to be witnessed. The lead actors put in great work, Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio give the film its centrifugal emotive heart as the warring Brigham's, while Cameron fave Michael Biehn does a fine line in Gung-Ho decompression nut case! The technical aspects do dazzle, the visual effects rightly won the Academy Award in that department, and both the cinematography (Mikael Salomon) and art design (Dilley/Kuljian) are worth the price of a rental alone. It's true to say that The Abyss is a fusion of Close Encounters Of The Third Kind & The Day The Earth Stood Still, but really I don't personally see anything wrong with that! As a spectacle it rewards the patient in spades, as a deeply profound moving picture it falls just about short, but even then a less than 100% Cameron picture is still one hell of a ride to be on. 8.5/10
Rob2023-05-09
★ 8/10
A fantastic movie ruined by the studio's shortsightedness. Be sure to watch James Cameron's version of this movie, aliens included, to get the full and best experience! The cinema release was a botch. The Abyss proves you can have a big action film that hits all the right marks with zero profanity!
kevin20192024-10-25
★ 8/10
"The Abyss" features a random assortment of sequences which look suspiciously altered to accommodate the course of the film and one of the most obvious is why Bud isn't instantly crushed to death by the pressure while plummeting to what appears to be certain death. And how can he possibly rally himself so quickly when he is already caught in the unforgiving grip of delirium? And how can he be capable of successfully defusing a nuclear warhead after enduring such trauma? The film also enthusiastically throws every conceivable obstacle at its cast of characters - that would probably include a kitchen sink if they had one available - as Murphy's Law is unleashed upon them and runs rampant like never before in any previous film to produce what is essentially a thrilling and completely enthralling motion picture experience.