The original post: /r/movies by /u/LoneWolfIndia on 2024-12-25 12:12:20.
This remains among my favorite James Cameron movies, right up there with Aliens and Terminator 2, basically ET meets Close Encounters Of 3rd Kind under the sea.
The movie starts off with an American submarine USS Nebraska, sinking in the Cayman trough, after it has an encounter with a mysterious moving object. In order to counter the Soviets, who are approaching there, the US Govt, arranges a SEAL team, which would use an experimental, underwater oil rig as a base for their operations.
One of the team members is Dr.Lindsey Brigman( Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), who designed that underwater rig, while in typical Hollywood style, her ex husband Virgil Brigman aka Bud( Ed Harris), is now a blue collar oil rig worker on the same platform. The leader of the team Lt.Coffey( Michael Biehn) is a grumpy paranoid soul.
The rig has a bunch of workers, that includes Catfish De Vries(Leo Burmester), Alan Hippy( Todd Graff), Lisa “One Night” Standing(Kimberley Scott). As the team begins to search for the missing sub along with the rig workers, there is a whole lot that happens, including a nasty storm, that nearly ends up wrecking the underwater rig. And that is when the team has the encounter with the alien, that keeps changing shape. However Coffey, now decides to nuke the aliens, in the trench where he believes they come from.
The movie has some of the best special effects ever, especially the alien encounter for the first time, and the morphing technique used. Also Lindsey's near encounter with an alien. Of course the last scene where the entire city rises from underwater, is what you go to the theaters for, recall seeing it on big screen, and was absolutely stunning.
The scene where the rig gets flooded, is brilliantly shot, superb editing. As also the scene where Bud descends into the Abyss.
The human emotions part is the strong factor of this movie, especially the strained relationship between Bud and Lindsey, their ego clashes, and reunion is well shot. It helps that both Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio are both good actors. Though would not rate this among one of Harris best performances, he still lends the much needed gravitas, while Ms.Mastrantonio is equally good as the feisty, yet vulnerable Lindsey.
Michael Biehn, who had earlier appeared in Terminator and Aliens, is suitably nasty as Coffey, making him a strong antagonist, conveying the hate and paranoid nature really well.
Of course being Cameron being Cameron, he does stretch that ending by a good 15-20 minutes, till you start looking at your watch. It's only the ending shot that makes up for the overlong climax.
I personally would rate this among Cameron's best movies, liked it more than more Titanic or Avatar. Notwithstanding a dragged out climax, it's worth a watch for it's brilliant special effects and some great performances by Ed Harris, Mastrantonio and Biehn.