Review of The Abyss (1989) by Irfaan J — 23 Dec 2009

Out of all the films that came out of the 1980's, this is probably one of the most important in terms of pushing the nature of the industry forward and defining movie special effects for the future. "The Abyss" contains one scene where a massive tendral made up of sea water enters a drilling rig, imitating the faces and expressions of the people who behold it. The execution of this scene demanded the use of cutting edge computer technology that had prior to this never been used in such a sophisticated manner ("Young Sherlock Holmes" of 1985 was the first to contain a full CG character, although only for one breif scene). What was initially a trepidatious endeavor (the director was willing to cut it out if it couldn't be done right) became the prototype for CGI special effects to come, providing the tools to make T2's liquid metal terminator a reality, along with the breathtaking realisation of live action dinosaurs in "Jurassic Park". The seeds of the current common place CGI special effects industry were planted with "The Abyss".

This was the film that put James Cameron on the map as a real force of nature when it came to big budget special effects films. To this day it stands as the most grueling shoot in the history of film; production problems aplenty due to intensive deep water shooting, constantly extending budgets, actors pushed to the physical and emotional limit to the point of breakdown and is now currently available in two forms due to the initially long length that couldn't be accomodated by Fox executives as been bankable in 1989 theatres. The original theatrical cut had roughly 30 minutes of footage removed, later made available in 1993 with a special edition, now considered to be the definative version and rightly so.

Predominantly shot in an abandoned nuclear test chamber flooded with 7 million gallons of filtered water, custom technology was made for this film in order to shoot underwater effectively; a new camera system was created along with diving suits with helmets that could show the actor's faces aswell as allow them to recite dialogue that could be heard by all the cast and crew. A black sheath aswell as millions of tiny plastic beads were dumped into the water tank surface in order to create the illusion of abyssal darkness in deep water. Actors and crew were taught to dive proffessionally before going on the shoot as they would spend hours upon hours (not as many as the director himself) performing underwater. Even the terrestrial set scenes demanded a lot, one in particular seeing Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio storming off set because of how intense it all was. It all came down to how diligent James Cameron was to execute his perfectionist vision for what he wanted the film to be. Always a director to be involved with almost every aspect of his films (director, writer, producer, even sound and sepcial effects supervisor),.