The Abyss (1989)
This underwater epic features spectacular deep-sea special
effects and elaborate high-tech hardware. But the story is
bewildering and shallow.
 The plot, which mainly involves a plucky oil-rig crew lurches
from one crisis to another - A doomed submarine, a nuclear
warhead, a deranged naval officer, submersible craft chases and an
alien creature all become part of the overwrought action.
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.
Praised for its visual splendour and strong performances from
Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, if not always for its
plot, The Abyss was not quite the blockbuster it needed to
be.
But the ground-breaking, Oscar-winning special effects
(particularly the exploratory water node) set the stage for the
explosion in CGI effects, beginning with Cameron's own
molten-metal T-1000 in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991).
Despite The Abyss's warm message about marital bonds,
director James Cameron and producer-wife Gale Anne Hurd split-up
during production.
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