Abyss starring Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio
Synopsis of the DVD Movie: Abyss starring Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio
In this epic adventure, a team of civilian divers working on "Deepcore," a prototype underwater oil-drilling habitat, is pressed into reluctant service by the U.S. Navy in a search-and-rescue effort for a stricken nuclear submarine. Also making the trip down to the ocean-bottom oil rig is "Deepcore" project engineer Lindsey Brigman, the soon-to-be ex-wife of the divers' leader Bud. Lindsey's brusque manner and estrangement from the rig foreman do not endear her to either the "Deepcore" crew or the SEALs. Forming an uneasy but necessary alliance, the three clashing parties are thrust into an inexplicable chain of circumstances which find them all trapped in the black depths, below the Atlantic Ocean. Here, in this frightening and desolate place, they must confront the mystery of the abyss, a mystery that will ultimately demand the greatest sacrifice man can make.
DVD Movie Rating for: The Abyss
Rating for
The Abyss : 5 out of 5 stars
Movie Plot of: The Abyss
The crew of an experimental, high-tech submersible is called into action to investigate a mysterious nuclear submarine crash. A series of strange encounters leads the crew to suspect the accident was caused by an extraterrestrial craft, and that they may be participating in an encounter with an alien species. However, in order to make contact, they must not only brave the abyss, an exceedingly deep underwater canyon, but also deal with the violent actions of one of their own crew members, an increasingly paranoid Navy SEAL officer.
Approved by director James Cameron, The Abyss: Special Edition is an extended director's cut of the 1989 underwater science fiction epic, reinstating nearly a half hour of footage removed from the original release under studio pressure. Much of the restored footage places the film's events in a grander political context, as the crew's mission becomes a factor in the dangerous escalation of nuclear tension between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. The largest change involves the film's ending, which provides further information on the aliens' mission on Earth, bringing the film to closer to Cameron's intention: a modern remake of Robert Wise's The Day the Earth Stood Still.
DVD Production Details of: The Abyss
Starring: Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio
Director: James Cameron
Format: Color, Closed-captioned, THX, Widescreen, Box set, Dolby
Aspect Ratio(s): 2.35:1
Audio Encoding: Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Studio: Twentieth Century Fox
DVD Release Date: November 28, 2000
Run Time: 171
The Abyss DVD Extra Bonus Features
Available subtitles: English, Spanish
Available Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
Multi-Story Option: Consumer can select original theatrical release (145 min.) or special edition release with 28 minutes of added footage
Video Subscripture Version: Viewers can read pop-up captions throughout the film explaning how the special effects were created
Documentary: Under pressure: Making The Abyss (60 min.) with cast and crew interviews and behind-the-scenes footage
Comprehensive film analysis from storyboards and concept art to final release
Number of discs: 2
The Abyss Special Edition: Laserdisc release
Laseredisc edition of the "The Abyss" Special Edition: two laserdiscs, includes extended direcotr's cut of the Abyss, Theatrical Trailer, Special One Hour documentary: "under Pressurs: making of the Abyss". PAL, Dolby Surround
Cast of the movie: The Abyss
- Ed Harris .... Virgil 'Bud' Brigman
- Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio .... Lindsey Brigman
- Michael Biehn .... Lt. Hiram Coffey
- Leo Burmester .... Catfish De Vries
- Todd Graff .... Alan 'Hippy' Carnes
- John Bedford Lloyd .... Jammer Willis
- J.C. Quinn .... Arliss 'Sonny' Dawson
- Kimberly Scott .... Lisa 'One Night' Standing
- Captain Kidd Brewer Jr. .... Lew Finler (as Capt. Kidd Brewer Jr.)
- George Robert Klek .... Wilhite
- Christopher Murphy .... Schoenick, SEAL Team Member
- Adam Nelson .... Ensign Monk, SEAL Team Member
- Dick Warlock .... Dwight Perry (as Richard Warlock)
- Jimmie Ray Weeks .... Leland McBride
- J. Kenneth Campbell .... DeMarco
- Ken Jenkins .... Gerard Kirkhill, Benthick Petroleum Co. Representative
- Chris Elliott .... Bendix
- Peter Ratray .... USS Montana Captain
- Michael Beach .... Barnes
- Brad Sullivan .... USS Montana Executive Officer
- Frank Lloyd .... USS Montana Navigator
- Phillip Darlington .... USS Montana Crewman
- Joseph C. Nemec III .... USS Montana Crewman (as Joseph Nemec III)
- Joe Farago .... Anchorman
- William Wisher Jr. .... Bill Tyler, Reporter (as William Wisher)
- Marcus K. Mukai .... Anchorman #2 (as Marcus Mukai)
- Wendy Gordon .... Anchorwoman
- Paula Cross .... Young Woman
- Thomas F. Duffy .... Construction Worker (as Thomas Duffy)
- Chris Anastasio .... Truck Driver
- Emily Yancy .... Woman Reporter
- Michael Chapman .... Dr. Berg
- Tom Isbell .... Wave Reporter
- Mike Cameron .... Sailor with the fire extinguisher
Photo Gallery of the movie: The Abyss
Reviews of the movie: The Abyss
Meticulously crafted but also ponderous and predictable, James Cameron's 1989 deep-sea close-encounter epic reaffirms one of the oldest first principles of cinema: everything moves a lot more slowly underwater. Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, as formerly married petroleum engineers who still have some "issues" to work out, are drafted to assist a gung-ho Navy SEAL (Michael Biehn) with a top-secret recovery operation: a nuclear sub has been ambushed and sunk, under mysterious circumstances, in some of the deepest waters on earth, and the petro-techies have the only submersible craft capable of diving down that far. Every image and every performance is painstakingly sharp and detailed (and the computerized water creatures are lovely) but the movie's lumbering pace is ultimately lethal. It's the audience that ends up feeling waterlogged. For a guy who likes guns as much as James Cameron (his next film after all, was the body-count masterpiece Terminator 2: Judgment Day), it's interesting that the moral balance here is weighted heavily in favor of the can-do engineers; the military types are end-justifies-the-means amoralists, just like the weasely government bureaucrats in Aliens.
