The Abyss is a 1989 science fiction film written and directed by James Cameron.  The Abyss was released on August 11 1989 and grossed $9.3 million on its opening weekend. It went onto make $110,000,000 million worldwide.  The film is now 21 years old the film begins with USS Montana an American ballistic missile submarine sinking after an accidental encounter with an unidentified submerged object.  With time critical the US Navy launches a rescue operation in an attempt to salvage the sub, with a hurricane moving in the navy decides that the quickest way to mount a rescue is for a Seal team to be inserted onto a privately owned experimental underwater oil platform.  The designer of the platform Dr Lindsey Brigman (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) insists on accompanying the Seal team down to the rig even though her estranged husband, Virgil “Bud” Brigman (Ed Harris) is currently serving as the platform’s foreman.  On board the submerged oil rig the Seal team UN pack there gear and get ready for the dive to the USS Montana.  Before they dive to the USS Montana Lt Hiram Coffey (Michael Biehn) holds a briefing where he tells everyone what is required of them for this mission. With everyone now ready they begin the dive to the USS Montana, they find the USS Montana near the edge of the Cayman Trough.  As the oil workers and Seal team investigate the wreck one of the oil workers has a strange encounter with a creature they can’t identify the same being that inadvertently caused the USS Montana to crash.  Now back on the oil rig, Jammer the oil worker who saw the creature they can’t identify is now in a coma.  As the storm topside intensifies Coffey contacts his superiors on board the Benthic Explorer, who order him to retrieve one of the warheads from one of the Trident missiles on board the USS Montana.  To do this Coffey and his team take one of the rig’s mini subs without authorization on a classified mission to the Montana to retrieve one of the warheads from the ship’s Trident missiles.  Unbeknown to the Seal team the mini sub that they took was the only vehicle capable of disconnecting the station’s umbilical cord to its parent surface ship the Benthic Explorer.  Upon their return the Seals remove the warhead and turn the sub over to its normal pilot One Night (Kimberly Scott) who takes it out in an attempt to disconnect the umbilicus.  By this time the Explorer is in the middle of the hurricane and is being tossed around violently by powerful winds and waves generated by the storm.  The ship’s motion makes it impossible for One Night to disconnect the cable.  Then all of a sudden the Benthic Explorer is hit by a big wave and loses one of its stabilizers, which enables it to keep its position.   As a result of this the ship begins to move out of position, which intern begins to drag the rig by the umbilicus.  The Benthic Explorer tries to release more slack so the rig doesn’t get pulled, but to no avail the stress of the cable causes the crane to break away from the ship and fall into the water.   The cable and crane barely miss the platform and lands on the sea bed floor in front of the rig.   The crane just sits there at first and then begins to fall the other way over the cliff face.  The crew realizes that the crane is still attached to the rig via the umbilicus and will be pulled over the cliff face.  The umbilicus pulls the rig over the cliff face and the rig lands on a ledge some distance down the trench.  The impact of the landing causes massive damage and flooding, killing six of the station’s crew and injuring several of the surviving crew and Seals.   The crew begins to experience more strange encounters from what appear to be underwater beings (NTIs) which the paranoid Coffey determines to be a threat.  An NTI in the form of a living column of water, explores the platform and while the platform crew believe it to be harmless Coffey sees it as a threat. The platform crew realize Coffey is suffering from High Pressure Nervous Syndrome, making him paranoid. Using one of the remote operated vehicles to spy on Coffey from outside the platform, they discover he is planning on sending the warhead down into the trench to destroy whatever may be down there.   Bud attempts to subdue Coffey before he can leave the platform in one of the mini subs, but is unable to do so. Coffey is chased by Bud and Lindsey in the station’s other submersible.  They manage to damage Coffey’s sub causing it to fall into the trench, where Coffey’s sub is eventually crushed by the pressure.  However Bud and Lindsey are too late to stop the remote vehicle the warhead is attached to, which is on a pre programmed course.  Their own sub’s hull has been ruptured and water is flooding the sub.  Lindsey forces Bud to wear the only diving suit in the sub, while she hopes that her mammalian diving reflex will preserve her in the cold water while Bud tows her back to the platform.  Bud and the crew are able to resuscitate Lindsey and the two reaffirm their lost love.  Bud volunteers to be the one to go down to the warhead and disarm it.  Bud dons an experimental diving suit brought on board by the Seals, in which the diver breathes in a special fluid instead of air.  Bud will not be able to talk and is instead forced to communicate through a keypad on his suit.  Bud begins his dive into the trench, he reaches the ledge where the warhead sits and is guided by the Seals in disarming it.  Lindsey is distressed to learn that he does not have enough breathing fluid remaining to allow his return to the platform.  Bud tells her, via his keypad pad that he always knew it was a one way trip and that he had to go to save both the platform crew and the NTIs.   He transmits a final message saying that he loves her and still considers her to be his wife and she tells him how much she loves him before assuming he’s dead.  The NTIs find Bud just before his oxygen runs out and bring him onto their ship.  They provide him with air to breathe at his normal pressure and engage in silent communication with him.  They then proceed to show him several Television clips they have stored of humanity’s destructive behavior.  Silently explaining that they have left humans alone but now believe humans are too self destructive to continue this behavior.  The NTI’s view Bud’s transmission “Love you Wife” and decide to stop the storm and tsunamis, realizing human compassion.  With everyone baffled, Bud types another message into his keypad and tells them what he has discovered.  The NTIs proceed to surface their underwater ship, but it is so massive it lifts most of the naval fleet patrolling the area above the water, including the explorer.  Everyone seems fine, including the underwater crew without any need to decompress as the NTI’s altered their bodies to allow this.  Lindsey sees Bud emerge from the NTI ship and they rush to each other.  Greeting each other as a newlywed couple would, they engage in a passionate kiss.

Ed Harris
Ed Harris is an American actor and director his films include Coma (1978), Borderline (1980), Knightriders (1981), Dream On (1981), Creepshow (1982), Under Fire (1983), The Right Stuff (1983), Swing Shift (1984), Places in the Heart (1984), A Flash of Green (1984), Alamo Bay (1985), Code Name Emerald  (1985), Sweet Dreams (1985), Walker (1987), To Kill a Priest (1988), Jacknife (1989), The Abyss (1989), State of Grace (1990), Paris Trout (1991), Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), The Firm (1993), Needful Things (1993), China Moon (1994), Milk Money (1994), Just Cause (1995), Apollo 13 (1995), Nixon (1995), Eye for an Eye (1996), The Rock (1996), Absolute Power (1997), The Truman Show (1998), Stepmom (1998), The Third Miracle (1999), Waking the Dead (2000), The Prime Gig (2000), Pollock (2000), Enemy at the Gates (2001), Buffalo Soldiers (2001), A Beautiful Mind (2001), The Hours (2002), Masked and Anonymous (2003), The Human Stain (2003), Radio (2003), A History of Violence (2005), Winter Passing (2005), Two Tickets to Paradise (2006), Copying Beethoven (2006), Gone Baby Gone (2007), Cleaner (2007), National Treasure Book of Secrets (2007) and Appaloosa (2008), Once Fallen (2010), The Way Back (2010), What’s Wrong with Virginia (2010) and Salvation Boulevard (2011).  He has appeared in TV series such as The Rockford Files, Barnaby Jones, CHiPs, Hart to Hart and Frasier. His credits as a director are Pollock (2000) and Appaloosa (2008).

Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio
Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio s an Italian American actress her films include The King of Comedy (1982), Scarface (1983), The Color of Money (1986), Slam Dance (1987), The January Man (1989), The Abyss (1989), Fools of Fortune (1990), Class Action (1991), Robin Hood Prince of Thieves (1991), White Sands (1992), Consenting Adults (1992), Three Wishes (1995), Two Bits (1995), Limbo (1999), My Life So Far (1999), The Perfect Storm (2000), Tabloid (2001), Standing Room Only (2004) and Stories of Lost Souls (2005).  She has appeared in TV series such as Frasier, Without a Trace and Law & Order Criminal Intent.

Michael Biehn
Michael Biehn is an American actor he is best known for his roles in James Cameron’s science fiction action films The Terminator, Aliens and The Abyss.  His films include Coach (1978), Grease (1978), Hog Wild (1980), The Fan (1981), The Lords of Discipline (1983), The Terminator (1984), Aliens (1986), Rampage (1987), The Seventh Sign (1988), Shallow Grave (1988), The Abyss (1989), Navy Seals (1990), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), K2 (1991), Deadfall (1993), Tombstone (1993), In the Kingdom of the Blind (1995), Jade (1995), Crash (1995), Mojave Moon (1996), The Rock (1996), Dead Men Can’t Dance (1997), The Ride (1997), Susan’s Plan (1998), American Dragons (1998), Chain of Command (2000), Cherry Falls (2000), The Art of War (2000), Megiddo: The Omega Code 2 (2001), Clockstoppers (2002), Borderline (2002), Havoc (2005), Dragon Squad (2005), The Insatiable (2007), You Are Here (2007), Grindhouse: Death Proof (2007), Grindhouse: Planet Terror (2007), They Wait (2007), Stiletto (2008), Saving Grace B Jones (2009), Psych 9 (2010), The Blood Bond (2010) and Bereavement (2010).   He has appeared in TV series such as The Runaways, Hill Street Blues, The Magnificent Seven, Adventure Inc, Hawaii, Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Criminal Minds.

Kimberly Scott
Kimberly Scott is an American actress her films include The Abyss (1989), Gross Anatomy (1989), Downtown (1990), Flatliners (1990), The Waterdance (1992), Falling Down (1993), Body Shot (1994), The Client (1994), Drop Zone (1994), Batman Forever (1995), Black & White A Love Story (1996), Batman & Robin (1997), In Quiet Night (1998), Sweet Jane (1998), Bellyfruit (1999), Get Your Stuff (2000), The Sleepy Time Gal (2001), The Brothers (2001), K PAX (2001), I Am Sam (2001), Impostor (2001), The United States of Leland (2003), Guess Who (2005), Touched (2005), World Trade Center (2006), The Happiest Day of His Life (2007), The Gift At Risk (2007), The Great Buck Howard (2008) and Love and Other Drugs (2010).  She has appeared in TV series such as Shannon’s Deal, MacGyver, ER, Chicago Hope, Boy Meets World, 3rd Rock from the Sun, JAG, The Practice, NYPD Blue, Touched by an Angel, Will & Grace and 7th Heaven and Medium.

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