The Abyss (1989)

<v Speaker 1>Hello, and welcome to the All Eighties Movies podcast podcast,
<v Speaker 1>where we talk about the blockbusters, love blocks and everything
<v Speaker 1>in between from one of the precious decades from movies,
<v Speaker 1>the nineteen eighties. I'm your host Bill banton along mcminis
<v Speaker 1>journey revisiting eighties movies. Is my co host Jason Matsek. Hello, Jason.
<v Speaker 1>I saw these things.
<v Speaker 2>I touched one of them and it wasn't some clunky
<v Speaker 2>steel can like we would build. It glided. It was
<v Speaker 2>the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. Oh God, I
<v Speaker 2>wish you'd been there. It was a machine. It was
<v Speaker 2>a machine, but it was alive. It was like a
<v Speaker 2>dance of light. Please, you have to trust me.
<v Speaker 1>Now.
<v Speaker 2>I don't think they mean us any harm. I don't
<v Speaker 2>know how I know that.
<v Speaker 1>It's just that's right. Listeners, we're discussing with spoils a plenty.
<v Speaker 1>The nineteen eighty nine science fiction undersea adventure The Abyss.
<v Speaker 1>It was produced and distributed by twentieth Century Fox. The
<v Speaker 1>movie stars Ed Harris, Mary, Elizabeth Master, Antonio, and Michael
<v Speaker 1>Been directed by James Cameron. This movie is rated PG thirteen,
<v Speaker 1>with a running time of two hours and twenty minutes.
<v Speaker 1>The movie was nominated for four Oscars for Best Cinematography,
<v Speaker 1>Best Art Direction, Set Direction, Best Sound, and one for
<v Speaker 1>Best Effects Visual Effects. We will be discussing the theatrical
<v Speaker 1>version of the movie for this episode. So what is
<v Speaker 1>this movie about? What's on the box? If you grew
<v Speaker 1>up in the nineteen eighties and what's your local video
<v Speaker 1>store to rent this movie? You would find this description
<v Speaker 1>on the back of the VHS box. It is What's
<v Speaker 1>in the box? Take it away?
<v Speaker 2>Jason Writer, director James Cameron, and producer Gail Anne Hurd
<v Speaker 2>have teamed again to create this epic underwater adventure. When
<v Speaker 2>a nuclear missile sub mysteriously sinks, the Navy commandeers the
<v Speaker 2>crew of a civilian deep sea oil rig to help
<v Speaker 2>in the rescue operation. This perilous mission becomes a wondrous
<v Speaker 2>odyssey into the unknown as forces from the ocean's deepest
<v Speaker 2>region begin to make contact with the divers. For Bud
<v Speaker 2>Brigman Ed Harris and his estranged wife Lindsay Mary Elizabeth Masterntonio,
<v Speaker 2>it becomes also a test of their physical and emotional limits.
<v Speaker 2>Their journey into the endless night of the Ocean's deaths
<v Speaker 2>lays bare the human heart in an elemental confrontation between death, love,
<v Speaker 2>and something else, the strange inhuman watchers in the Abyss,
<v Speaker 2>Requiring the most complex underwater sets, photography, and special effects
<v Speaker 2>ever attempted. This science fiction thriller is suspenseful filmmaking at
<v Speaker 2>its best. There's everything you've ever known about adventure, and
<v Speaker 2>then there's The Abyss.
<v Speaker 1>So that was what's on the box. Jason, do you
<v Speaker 1>remember when you first saw The Abyss?
<v Speaker 2>No, that's as plain as it gets. I do not.
<v Speaker 2>I don't have any early memories of who I was with,
<v Speaker 2>where I was. Nothing. I'm just going to defer to
<v Speaker 2>you on this one.
<v Speaker 1>This was a rental for me, but I really really
<v Speaker 1>wanted to see in the theater. Did you suit as
<v Speaker 1>a kid where you would root for a movie even
<v Speaker 1>though you didn't see it, You just hoped it did
<v Speaker 1>well based on maybe who was acting in it or
<v Speaker 1>who the director was.
<v Speaker 2>That's a great point, build Bands. Yeah, absolutely, a thousand percent.
<v Speaker 2>I mean I wished I had seen this in the theater.
<v Speaker 2>I can't remember a damn thing. I really don't know
<v Speaker 2>if I did or not in the theater, but I knew,
<v Speaker 2>of course it was a James Cameron film, and thus, yes,
<v Speaker 2>I was rooting for it. But that's interesting to think
<v Speaker 2>back as a kid, you would just be a fan
<v Speaker 2>of filmmakers, actors, etc. And just yeah, want it to
<v Speaker 2>do well, regardless of seeing it or not, because you
<v Speaker 2>knew eventually you would get around and seeing it.
<v Speaker 1>Right, Yeah, exactly. So let's talk about the movie. What
<v Speaker 1>are our impressions of the abyss.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, let's get right into it. Man, I'm going to
<v Speaker 2>read you what I wrote down. This is what I
<v Speaker 2>was feeling before I even rewatched this film. This is
<v Speaker 2>a movie I really like, but don't necessarily adore, but
<v Speaker 2>immensely respect, and strangely, I've visited it more than a
<v Speaker 2>few times over the years. However, I this is what
<v Speaker 2>I wrote, Bill. I have trouble recalling the smaller moments
<v Speaker 2>outside of the visitation from the Alien Race and the
<v Speaker 2>contentious relationship between Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Masfrontonio. Ed
<v Speaker 2>Harris throng is ring in the toilet, the magical fluid
<v Speaker 2>that allows you to breathe inside under the water. It
<v Speaker 2>allows you to breathe that great depths the testing of
<v Speaker 2>the liquid with the mouse Michael Bean being a Navy
<v Speaker 2>sealed dickhead and succumbing to the pressure sickness ed Harris
<v Speaker 2>making the deep dive descent. So I'm ready to all
<v Speaker 2>of this. Okay, wait, wait, actually I remember a shit
<v Speaker 2>ton like this is like I remember everything from this movie. Clearly,
<v Speaker 2>I like it very much, so I thought that was
<v Speaker 2>interesting because it but I do kind of have this
<v Speaker 2>strange it's not even love hate. It's almost an indifference
<v Speaker 2>to this movie. And I'm not sure why, and I'm
<v Speaker 2>not sure if I figured it out. Actually on this
<v Speaker 2>I just really really did enjoy watching it again and
<v Speaker 2>I keep coming back to it, so clearly there's a
<v Speaker 2>part of me that really really appreciates this film. So
<v Speaker 2>my impression today is like, it's still a banger. We'll
<v Speaker 2>get into all the reasons why. But what were your
<v Speaker 2>impressions upon the rewatch?
<v Speaker 1>This isn't James Carmon's best movie, Okay, Yeah, for me,
<v Speaker 1>it's my favorite movie. There you go, Okay, because I
<v Speaker 1>love submarine movies, and granted there's only small scenes that
<v Speaker 1>happen at submarine, but just that claustrophobic element of being
<v Speaker 1>under the sea, I just love it. I love the characters.
<v Speaker 1>It's like the premise of it. Yeah, the ending doesn't
<v Speaker 1>quite stick the landing, but even watching the special edition,
<v Speaker 1>which is still another thirty minutes, this just flies by.
<v Speaker 1>I just like everything about it is a fun movie,
<v Speaker 1>and you really see watching this how it's the blueprint
<v Speaker 1>for Cameron's future films T two, Titanic, Avatar. You see
<v Speaker 1>all of that in this movie, which is kind of
<v Speaker 1>cool to see where the grassroots were, especially when you
<v Speaker 1>think about nineteen eighty nine was the year of the
<v Speaker 1>undersea adventure. We had Deep Start six, we had Leviathan
<v Speaker 1>that we covered, and then the Roger Corman contribution Lords
<v Speaker 1>of the Deep, which I did watch for some reason.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know why you can skip that one for sure. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>there's just something about this movie I adore and I
<v Speaker 1>remember when I got it on VHS and I couldn't
<v Speaker 1>wait until I came out on DVD or Blu ray,
<v Speaker 1>and it just never did. Cameron wasn't a big fan
<v Speaker 1>of it, so I didn't get to watch it as
<v Speaker 1>much as I wanted to. But luckily I did find
<v Speaker 1>a copy and I just put it in and next
<v Speaker 1>thing I know, I'm like, holy crap, it's over. And
<v Speaker 1>even with all the quirky characters, and a lot of
<v Speaker 1>them don't have a lot of develop but I thought
<v Speaker 1>there wasn't like anybody that was over the top quirk
<v Speaker 1>mm hmm. I found everyone interesting. Yeah, and even though
<v Speaker 1>you just got a little bit about them, I mean
<v Speaker 1>more was developed in the special edition. But I really
<v Speaker 1>like the characters of this. I thought Ed Harris and
<v Speaker 1>Mary Elizabeth master Antonio were really good in this. It
<v Speaker 1>really made me think about Mary Lizabeth Masterton, like, why
<v Speaker 1>mm hmm did she not do more? I mean she
<v Speaker 1>had a string of hits and then she kind of faded.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I really liked her in this.
<v Speaker 2>So I'm trying to remember all of the great points
<v Speaker 2>you just made because I want to touch on each
<v Speaker 2>one of them and talk about all the I've listed
<v Speaker 2>everything you just said for myself. I like the fact
<v Speaker 2>that you use the word adore. You adore this, and
<v Speaker 2>I was saying that I didn't necessarily adore it, but
<v Speaker 2>I respect it. And I think you nailed it on
<v Speaker 2>the head when you were just discussing the concept because
<v Speaker 2>I was thinking about the beginning to this. Of course,
<v Speaker 2>I just love this great opening with where you just
<v Speaker 2>hear the ping sound effect and then the great title
<v Speaker 2>card comes up with that great music. Let's give a
<v Speaker 2>shout out to Alan Silvestri. I'm a big fan. I've
<v Speaker 2>collected his scores over the years, so that's all real strong.
<v Speaker 2>And then of course when you see that title card,
<v Speaker 2>all I think is that great Frederick Nietzsche quote and
<v Speaker 2>if you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss also
<v Speaker 2>gazes into you. That's one of my favorite quotes. And
<v Speaker 2>then we have this great initial action sequence and this
<v Speaker 2>is going to be coming back to what you were
<v Speaker 2>talking about with the aspects of this concept and the
<v Speaker 2>claustrophobic nature and that you like the submarine films, because
<v Speaker 2>as soon as this intense opening happens where the submarine
<v Speaker 2>crashes into the side, the wall of Nann becomes flooded
<v Speaker 2>and you see, it's like, oh my god, all my
<v Speaker 2>fears are realized and it's so intense and anxiety inducing.
<v Speaker 2>And that's just what this does for you. As far
<v Speaker 2>as that excitement. You said, this is fun and exciting,
<v Speaker 2>and that's exactly what it is and what most submarine
<v Speaker 2>films have made well are. I'm a big Crimson Tide fan.
<v Speaker 2>Hunt for our October again. Another classic. But this is
<v Speaker 2>definitely up there with the great sub or let's say
<v Speaker 2>sub underwater submersible floating platform movies, if you will. And
<v Speaker 2>it's the freaking concept man, Like I said, okay, and
<v Speaker 2>I remember watching it going there's this submersible drilling platform.
<v Speaker 2>There's an oil rig on the ocean floor. I loved
<v Speaker 2>Cameron's futuristic vision of what could be done or be
<v Speaker 2>capable of being accomplished in the future underwater, as far
<v Speaker 2>as exploration or in this case, digging for oil. But
<v Speaker 2>it's that horror aspect man, the fear factor being that
<v Speaker 2>deep underwater. It's just a great backdrop for a thriller.
<v Speaker 2>Like you said, the claustrophobia, the pressure literally and figuratively
<v Speaker 2>seems like bud and catfish swimming from one underwater hatch
<v Speaker 2>to another underneath the platform in freezing water, nonetheless holding
<v Speaker 2>your breath. The fear of drowning. There's just too many
<v Speaker 2>ways to die. Build this way too. The nervous disorder, Yeah, implosion, freezing,
<v Speaker 2>having a door blown out off its hinges and directly
<v Speaker 2>into you. That's a whole that's a like I'm like,
<v Speaker 2>uh ah, but yeah, so I'm glad you touched on that,
<v Speaker 2>because that's one of the first things I just want
<v Speaker 2>to say, and that's probably why I I always end
<v Speaker 2>up coming back to this movie and rewatching it is
<v Speaker 2>because the idea is great. And then I'm also thinking
<v Speaker 2>you touched on the cast. So it's interesting because I
<v Speaker 2>was making comparisons to Aliens, which is the predecessor to this,
<v Speaker 2>and how we adore that ensemble cast, right, And you
<v Speaker 2>can probably name a lot of those characters because they
<v Speaker 2>seem to be so specific. Obviously Michael Bean, but then
<v Speaker 2>Bill Paxton, I could go down the list of the names.
<v Speaker 2>So you have another ensemble cast here. Are they quite
<v Speaker 2>as memorable as the cast from Aliens? Maybe not, but
<v Speaker 2>they all kind of hold their own and they have
<v Speaker 2>their moments and they're still fun. So James Cameron, let's
<v Speaker 2>talk about him for a second. I was in high
<v Speaker 2>school when this came out, and I was already a
<v Speaker 2>big Cameron fan the Terminator Aliens. Of course, Bill bed
<v Speaker 2>did you know Cameron wrote the initial draft for Rambo
<v Speaker 2>First Blood Part two?
<v Speaker 1>Yes, only because when we were doing our prep for
<v Speaker 1>First Blood and I was looking into the other movies.
<v Speaker 2>I don't know if I ever did that love that.
<v Speaker 2>But I'm thinking this is really his third, big, big
<v Speaker 2>tent pole type of movie, right, it's his fourth directorial
<v Speaker 2>feature if you consider Piranha two The Spawning is really
<v Speaker 2>his first directorial effort. But man, it's wild because he's
<v Speaker 2>directed what ten features in total, and I'm not including
<v Speaker 2>like the deep sea exploration films and shorts and videos
<v Speaker 2>and such. I mean, you can look at his filmography,
<v Speaker 2>but James Cameron is a titan in the business, and
<v Speaker 2>you think he directed more exactly, but it's ten. It's
<v Speaker 2>just the ten.
<v Speaker 1>But then you think about his process, and especially for
<v Speaker 1>this movie YEP, where they found a tank and had
<v Speaker 1>everybody get certified as divers and then film hours hours underwater,
<v Speaker 1>such a troubled production. Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Master
<v Speaker 1>Antonia will not talk about this movie whatsoever. It's wild.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, we'll touch upon it. I think a little
<v Speaker 2>bit in trivia. But you're right, I don't know if
<v Speaker 2>it's true or not. But supposedly At Harris punched James
<v Speaker 2>Cameron at one point. You know, actually, Michael be and
<v Speaker 2>I listened to him on another podcast interview where he
<v Speaker 2>tells the story of being in the tank and the
<v Speaker 2>power goes out, yes, and they're all in their wetsuits
<v Speaker 2>and whatnot, scuba di and then it just shuts down
<v Speaker 2>and it's like you're in pitch black. What do we
<v Speaker 2>do now? But luckily power came back on. So yeah,
<v Speaker 2>just to stick with Cameron for a moment, I had
<v Speaker 2>a question for you, and it's something that arose for
<v Speaker 2>me in the beginning of this film. As entertaining as
<v Speaker 2>it is right from the jump, I am not always
<v Speaker 2>crazy about Cameron's writing. Now we know he pens all
<v Speaker 2>his films like it's either him or maybe one other
<v Speaker 2>person that writes the screenplay. He's usually credit for the screenplay,
<v Speaker 2>and I sometimes the exposition feels a little forced or
<v Speaker 2>two on the nose. It's just sometimes the dialogue bugs
<v Speaker 2>me a little bit, and it's either simplicity or generic.
<v Speaker 2>In the beginning, when they're trying to establish the characters,
<v Speaker 2>we get to meet Bud Brigman, who's the foreman on
<v Speaker 2>this underwater soil rig. And now it's like, okay, here
<v Speaker 2>comes Lindsay his now well his wife, but they're separated
<v Speaker 2>and they're going through a divorce. Supposedly, we get the
<v Speaker 2>great Chris Elliott in a supporting role, calling her a
<v Speaker 2>queen bitch of the universe. What a great, great thing.
<v Speaker 2>It's like, it's so obvious. It's like, okay, some of
<v Speaker 2>the dialogue is kind of feeding you these relationships through
<v Speaker 2>the words instead of showing you, and it's pretty obvious
<v Speaker 2>as to how they feel about one another. I don't know,
<v Speaker 2>how do you feel about Cameron's dialogue overall?
<v Speaker 1>I didn't have an issue with it, Okay. I think
<v Speaker 1>the only scene that bugged me in the beginning is
<v Speaker 1>when Lindsay and the seals are in the tank and
<v Speaker 1>she's just kind of going over the pressure sickness m hm,
<v Speaker 1>and he keeps interrupting him being a dick. Yes, that
<v Speaker 1>was maybe a little too on the nose.
<v Speaker 2>Correct, Yes, yes, yes, yes, there it is that that
<v Speaker 2>you're you're getting closer to what I was not saying properly.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, but I do get it because we as an
<v Speaker 1>audience need to know what's going to happen to his
<v Speaker 1>character later on, So she has to say that and
<v Speaker 1>he keeps interrupting her. So that's yeah, that felt a
<v Speaker 1>little forced. Yeah, okay, yeah, that's one of those things.
<v Speaker 2>As soon as she yeah, she as soon as she
<v Speaker 2>brings up the high pressure nervous syndrome or something like
<v Speaker 2>that HPNS. Is that something? Is that correct that I
<v Speaker 2>actually come close? But yeah, as soon as she brings
<v Speaker 2>that up, you're like, oh, well that's coming into play right,
<v Speaker 2>you know later that's pretty right on the mark there.
<v Speaker 2>That's that's gonna be a big deal later on. But
<v Speaker 2>great cast. We talked about the ensemble cast, but let's
<v Speaker 2>talk about Michael Bean for a moment, if we If
<v Speaker 2>you want to men for me on this rewatch, he's
<v Speaker 2>the standout. I've always been a huge fan of his.
<v Speaker 2>I already knew going into this, of course, that he's
<v Speaker 2>a prick in this movie. But man, something happened to me.
<v Speaker 2>I don't know during this having I haven't seen it
<v Speaker 2>in a while. I felt like he was a little
<v Speaker 2>bit of a sympathetic character. He comes down with this
<v Speaker 2>syndrome and he's going through hell, and I really appreciated
<v Speaker 2>his performance as that pressure anxiety that he was succumbing
<v Speaker 2>to was really getting to the shaking would get worse.
<v Speaker 2>There's a great scene he has with Mary Elizabeth Masfromtonio
<v Speaker 2>where you know she's upset because they brought the warhead
<v Speaker 2>on board the nuclear warhead onto the platform, and she's
<v Speaker 2>really pissed, of course, and he has the gun behind
<v Speaker 2>his back and he's keeping like this low tone, trying
<v Speaker 2>to keep calm, but he's sweating and he's shaking. At
<v Speaker 2>the same time, I'm like, damn, dude. I mean, he's
<v Speaker 2>had a great career, but still, man, I always thought
<v Speaker 2>he should have been more. I just I love that guy.
<v Speaker 2>I appreciated his performance a lot in this.
<v Speaker 1>I couldn't get beyond the mustache. I didn't know what's
<v Speaker 1>going on with that thing. I didn't get some scissors
<v Speaker 1>strimming up. It was just like strings, We're just hanging
<v Speaker 1>off his face. I don't know what was going on.
<v Speaker 2>There, all right, all right. I always forgot that he
<v Speaker 2>at one point starts slicing up his arm.
<v Speaker 1>He's a cutter. At one point, Oh yeah, starts cutting.
<v Speaker 1>That's hardcore.
<v Speaker 2>I'm like, oh damn, I totally forgot about that.
<v Speaker 1>But I think I always love when you identify a
<v Speaker 1>character with the movie Michael Bean. You think of the Terminator,
<v Speaker 1>he's the good guy and he sacrifices himself to save
<v Speaker 1>the future, and then you see him in this and
<v Speaker 1>then he's the bad guy, and you're like, oh, come on, man,
<v Speaker 1>be the good guy.
<v Speaker 2>It sucks because he's not only terminated, but then he's
<v Speaker 2>Hicks and Aliens. He's a hero in.
<v Speaker 1>That too, exactly and now and this is the exact opposite,
<v Speaker 1>and you're like, oh, this kind of sucks. I want
<v Speaker 1>to be a good guy. Why can't it be part
<v Speaker 1>of the oil rig or something.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. Then of course he's in Tombstone. He's so great
<v Speaker 2>in that too.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, he is a bad guy.
<v Speaker 2>So Johnny is it? Johnny Ringo?
<v Speaker 1>Is that Johnny Ringo? Yeah?
<v Speaker 2>So love us some Michael Bean, Mary Elizabeth mas Antonio.
<v Speaker 2>I was like, wait a minute, what else? What has
<v Speaker 2>she done? Oh yeah, just had a hell of a
<v Speaker 2>run in the eighties Scarface, The Color of Money, January Man,
<v Speaker 2>Class Action, Robin Hood Prints, The Thieves, The Perfect Storm.
<v Speaker 2>After the eighties, not too shabby. She was in some
<v Speaker 2>great stuff, I don't know, underrated, underappreciated.
<v Speaker 1>She's an Oscar nominee. Yeah, and she just kind of vanished.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah the recent times. I mean, she was on the
<v Speaker 1>Punisher series and then she's been doing Law and Order
<v Speaker 1>organized crime. So she's still working, right, but still very
<v Speaker 1>much under the radar at the same time, and has
<v Speaker 1>been kind of that way for years now. Yeah, I
<v Speaker 1>felt that way too. I just kind of watched him like, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>she should have been doing some moret stuff. I don't know,
<v Speaker 1>maybe his personal life stuff. She's really in some good films,
<v Speaker 1>oh yeah, but not as much as I felt like
<v Speaker 1>she should have been in.
<v Speaker 2>Agreed. And then of course we have the man, and
<v Speaker 2>I mean the man, Ed Harris. Just can't get enough
<v Speaker 2>of him.
<v Speaker 1>Oh yeah.
<v Speaker 2>He's just so solid and believable as that hard working
<v Speaker 2>blue collar every man, but yet handsome enough to be
<v Speaker 2>the leading man and always convincing. I don't think I've
<v Speaker 2>ever seen it, Ed Harris. I performance I didn't care
<v Speaker 2>for exactly.
<v Speaker 1>I couldn't think of anything.
<v Speaker 2>Even more recent times like Maverick. He's great in the
<v Speaker 2>beginning of that every time. He's just an actor that
<v Speaker 2>is always welcome. Whenever he pops up on screen, you're like, hell, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>give me more Ed Harris. And I just wanted to
<v Speaker 2>say I love the fact that after he goes to
<v Speaker 2>retrieve the wedding ring he threw down the toilet, that
<v Speaker 2>his hand is blue the entire time.
<v Speaker 1>Oh yeah, this entire film.
<v Speaker 2>His hand is blue.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, he is super solid in this.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, fantastic, Bud Virgil Bud Brigman got to talk about
<v Speaker 2>the effects very quickly. I mean, this was a game changer,
<v Speaker 2>you mentioned it. Overall, I felt the alien creature design
<v Speaker 2>was wonderful. It's like Close Encounters of the third kind
<v Speaker 2>two point oho or even three point zero. The creatures
<v Speaker 2>look fantastic and they're mesmerizing, just as our characters and
<v Speaker 2>our heroes are watching, you know, being witnessed to these creatures,
<v Speaker 2>and they're just jaw dropped in awe. That's how you
<v Speaker 2>feel when you're watching it, especially for the first time.
<v Speaker 2>The water tentacle of course, which I'll touch on later,
<v Speaker 2>that's like, okay, like you said, laying the groundwork, and
<v Speaker 2>it's just really cool to watch. And I feel like
<v Speaker 2>it still holds up for the most part. The CGI
<v Speaker 2>the effects are pretty pretty damn good, especially man like
<v Speaker 2>nineteen eighty nine, Oh yeah, freaking Cameron.
<v Speaker 1>There's not that much in its special effects wise, when
<v Speaker 1>I'm like, ooh, yeah, that needs to be updated. I
<v Speaker 1>would say ninety percent of it still holds pretty well.
<v Speaker 1>And I do remember, I know we're going to talk
<v Speaker 1>about the water tentacle scene later, but every entertainment show
<v Speaker 1>have a segment about how they did that. I remember
<v Speaker 1>that was on all summer long. Every program we'll talk
<v Speaker 1>about how they did that effect and computers, and it
<v Speaker 1>was really the cutting edge. And because of that movie,
<v Speaker 1>you know, we get Jurassic Park, we get T two.
<v Speaker 1>So that was really the stepping stone right there. That
<v Speaker 1>was really the biggest jump we had with computer technology
<v Speaker 1>because it looked.
<v Speaker 2>So real, groundbreaking. I know, what other words descriptors do
<v Speaker 2>you want to use, but we had never seen anything
<v Speaker 2>like that before and that's the fact, and that is
<v Speaker 2>one of the major standouts of the movie. So yeah,
<v Speaker 2>like I said, you know, have had a strange relationship
<v Speaker 2>as far as my passion for this film, But yet
<v Speaker 2>I can't not watch it repeatedly. So I don't know
<v Speaker 2>what's tugging or pulling at me and my feelings about it.
<v Speaker 2>But Cameron Movies, Man, The Terminator, Aliens, True Lies, those
<v Speaker 2>are my favorites. I've never been a huge Titanic fan.
<v Speaker 2>Titanic Oh oh, I've been saying it wrong exactly. Wow,
<v Speaker 2>that's embarrassing. But again, it's like one of those films
<v Speaker 2>where I respect the achievement. Here's Cameron groundbreak and you
<v Speaker 2>just never seen anything like this before, So just sit
<v Speaker 2>back and enjoy it for the the scope of it.
<v Speaker 2>But yeah, if anything, it's I think I just sometimes
<v Speaker 2>have issues with his writing, and I'll just kind of
<v Speaker 2>leave it at that. The last thing I'll say is
<v Speaker 2>regarding my initial thoughts. I was watching this Bill Benton,
<v Speaker 2>I was making an Armageddon comparison. Did Armageddon kind of
<v Speaker 2>take this idea of space? It cross my mind, Yes
<v Speaker 2>it did. You got some similarities here, right, A military
<v Speaker 2>mission recruits oil riggers to do the big job. All
<v Speaker 2>hell breaks loose, people die, the foreman has to sacrifice
<v Speaker 2>himself to prevent the mass destruction.
<v Speaker 1>Similar themes, hmm, yeah, but all on the nose there.
<v Speaker 1>Last thing I would just mentioned is just a deep itself.
<v Speaker 1>What amazing sets. I just love their walking down hallways
<v Speaker 1>and there's just a valve sticking out in the hall.
<v Speaker 1>I'm like, why is that sticking out like that? And
<v Speaker 1>someone runs into it? That makes no sense, But just
<v Speaker 1>all twisted pipes and metal and you got your steel
<v Speaker 1>doors and everything. And then even there where they launched
<v Speaker 1>the subs forward, that room was just so cool.
<v Speaker 2>Oh the moon pool.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, just all the little details that no one's really
<v Speaker 1>gonna notice. It is all there on screen. I'm sure
<v Speaker 1>if I asked Cameron what was this pipe for, he
<v Speaker 1>would know the answer.
<v Speaker 2>Correct. He most likely that's.
<v Speaker 1>The way he works, And everything was in there for
<v Speaker 1>a reason. Yeah, because there's that one scene when Lindsay
<v Speaker 1>first comes on and she's turning all these valves.
<v Speaker 2>She's like, oh, why is this here?
<v Speaker 1>Like this, like she knows exactly where to go and
<v Speaker 1>with the check and she turns the one and then
<v Speaker 1>Bud goes back and turns it back because it's like, well,
<v Speaker 1>he's been down here, so he knows. She thinks she
<v Speaker 1>knows what it is on paper, but he knows what
<v Speaker 1>it is being down there. So I always found that fun.
<v Speaker 2>It's great. I'm glad you gave it a shadowt just
<v Speaker 2>because obviously it was nominated for our direction and set
<v Speaker 2>and all that stuff deservedly. So I'm when you get
<v Speaker 2>into the research on this film, it is immense. It's
<v Speaker 2>lengthy and it's detailed and it's wonderful, but you just
<v Speaker 2>get a real appreciation for how much work was put
<v Speaker 2>into this and how much time and man hours and
<v Speaker 2>et cetera. But when you're watching it, you're right. It's
<v Speaker 2>attention to detail. We talked about it on our Aliens pod.
<v Speaker 2>It was the same thing with all the detail, and
<v Speaker 2>we talk about it with any Star Wars film, and
<v Speaker 2>like the Classic trilogy What I Love Like you go
<v Speaker 2>inside the Millennium falcon and there's just blinking lights and
<v Speaker 2>levers and buttons and things that twist and turn all
<v Speaker 2>over the place and I don't know what they are,
<v Speaker 2>and some of them just look like blinking lights. But
<v Speaker 2>it looks like it has a purpose. And you made
<v Speaker 2>an interesting comment when you said you probably wouldn't notice
<v Speaker 2>it or even think about it. But that's the point.
<v Speaker 2>The thing is, if it wasn't there, you would notice
<v Speaker 2>because it wouldn't feel real.
<v Speaker 1>True. So, yeah, this is a movie I wish I
<v Speaker 1>had seen on the big screen. I'm hoping the opportunity
<v Speaker 1>will come up someday. If it does, I'm all over it.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it's a great time. And that's where I'm gonna
<v Speaker 2>end my initial thoughts commentary here is that I had
<v Speaker 2>a blast with it, and yes, it went by in
<v Speaker 2>the blink of an eye. It's a very, very fun,
<v Speaker 2>easy watch.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, okay, let's move on to favorite scenes or moments.
<v Speaker 1>What were some of your favorite scenes or moments from
<v Speaker 1>the ABYSS. Yeah, let's talk about it. I think you
<v Speaker 1>and I have the same first one, correct.
<v Speaker 2>We do?
<v Speaker 1>Yes?
<v Speaker 2>We do? Do you want you want to start? Do
<v Speaker 2>you want me to start? Oh?
<v Speaker 1>You could start?
<v Speaker 2>All right, I'm just simply calling this scene the crane
<v Speaker 2>drops the crane. Yeah. So at this point in the film,
<v Speaker 2>Hurricane Frederick also know as just Hurricane fred is throwing
<v Speaker 2>the Explorer support ship. The Explorer is this ship that
<v Speaker 2>is on the surface. It's being tossed all over the
<v Speaker 2>place due to this hurricane. And it's called the support
<v Speaker 2>ship because there's like this umbilical cable cord that is
<v Speaker 2>extending from the crane aboard this support ship all the
<v Speaker 2>way down miles down into the deep and it's connecting
<v Speaker 2>to the deep Core submersible, which is the oil rig
<v Speaker 2>the submersible platform, I should say, it's a giant platform
<v Speaker 2>where our oil riggers are working in this crew led
<v Speaker 2>by Ed Harris and the support ships being shook around
<v Speaker 2>and the deep Core. They can't disengage or disconnect the
<v Speaker 2>umbilical cord because good old Michael Bean is one of
<v Speaker 2>the Navy seal well, he's the Navy Seal lieutenant has
<v Speaker 2>taken off with the flatbedsmercible, which is the only thing
<v Speaker 2>that can disconnect the cable, and so when the hurricane's
<v Speaker 2>tossing the support ship around, now all hell breaks and
<v Speaker 2>it basically jars this crane loose off of the support ship.
<v Speaker 2>It breaks off, snaps off, sinks down, and almost hits
<v Speaker 2>the deep core platform. It's just a really super intense
<v Speaker 2>scene where you're just kind of literally and figuratively holding
<v Speaker 2>your breath really close calls and just scares the head
<v Speaker 2>out again. Anxiety inducing. I mean, it's the scene is
<v Speaker 2>It's like a ten to fifteen minute scene.
<v Speaker 1>It feels like, oh yeah, just no. According to the book,
<v Speaker 1>the crane operator dies. In case anyone's wondering if you
<v Speaker 1>survived or not, I was wondering that actually when I
<v Speaker 1>when they lose communications with the explorer and don't know
<v Speaker 1>what's going on, and then the explorer's able to get
<v Speaker 1>a hold of them a short wave and say the
<v Speaker 1>crane is coming. The crane is coming, and then you
<v Speaker 1>just see the I don't even know what it is.
<v Speaker 1>The umbilical cord, just the thing and just listening to
<v Speaker 1>it and just fold on each other and like holy shit,
<v Speaker 1>and then brace for impact and everybody's running around getting prepped,
<v Speaker 1>running through each other like perfectly, like they've been drilled.
<v Speaker 1>And part of me is almost like they might have
<v Speaker 1>been better off that the crane actually hit them.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, totally.
<v Speaker 1>Because then the crane hits the ground, they're all like
<v Speaker 1>who made it? And then it tumbles over the abyss,
<v Speaker 1>pulls the umbilical cord with them and then pulls them
<v Speaker 1>almost to the themselves at almost getting pulled over, which
<v Speaker 1>causes so much damage.
<v Speaker 2>Hm.
<v Speaker 1>It's a crazy scene. It's a crazy scene like it
<v Speaker 1>first relieved and then the crane's just sitting there on
<v Speaker 1>the edge and they're like whoo and they're like, oh shit,
<v Speaker 1>oh there it goes yeah.
<v Speaker 2>Oh man. It's such a great moment. And this is
<v Speaker 2>this is good filmmaking, This is good tension building. This
<v Speaker 2>is all extremely exciting and like so the crane drops
<v Speaker 2>and you're like, oh crap, it's going to land on
<v Speaker 2>top of the platform and who knows what it would
<v Speaker 2>just break through and then water's coming in and all
<v Speaker 2>these things. One of the but you mentioned like the sound.
<v Speaker 2>The sound design is brilliant because his sonar is picking
<v Speaker 2>up the crane as it's dropping through the ocean towards
<v Speaker 2>them and potentially on top of them. And you just
<v Speaker 2>hear the ping going boom boo boo boo boo boo
<v Speaker 2>boo as it's getting closer and closer, a little reminiscent
<v Speaker 2>maybe of a motion tracker from aliens maybeways the aliens
<v Speaker 2>get closer, boo boo boop. So yeah, great sound design.
<v Speaker 2>When that thing goes over the edge and almost drags
<v Speaker 2>them off the cliff, all hell breaks loose. Now there
<v Speaker 2>is water coming on board the vessel. And this is
<v Speaker 2>again when we come to like worst fears realized. Like
<v Speaker 2>I was just going to ask you what's your for?
<v Speaker 2>You know, the worst fear when being underwater, because being
<v Speaker 2>a submarine in an enclosed space like that and filling
<v Speaker 2>up with water and you can't shut the door in
<v Speaker 2>time behind you, and then you just overcome with these
<v Speaker 2>huge waves coming in because all the pressure, and then
<v Speaker 2>you drown or maybe you even do close the hatch
<v Speaker 2>and the hatch comes off its hinges and blows apart
<v Speaker 2>at like at one hundred miles an hour. It hits
<v Speaker 2>you in the face, like, I'm like, this is what
<v Speaker 2>happens in the scene. Super intense.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, as much as I like submarine movies, there's no
<v Speaker 1>way I would ever go on one though. Yeah, I
<v Speaker 1>don't know how those people did it. Hats off to them.
<v Speaker 2>I just want to give a shout out to one
<v Speaker 2>moment in the scene too, which is great. So you know,
<v Speaker 2>these compartments aboard this oil rig platform are filling with
<v Speaker 2>water because the hull has been breached, and so they
<v Speaker 2>need to get from one apartment to the one compartment
<v Speaker 2>is flooding. They need to get out, close the door
<v Speaker 2>behind them to seal that off in order for the
<v Speaker 2>next compartment not to fill with water. We see crew
<v Speaker 2>members die at Harris manages to get out, but then, oh,
<v Speaker 2>what happens is one of the doors I think because
<v Speaker 2>it automatically starts closing, he sticks his hand in there
<v Speaker 2>in his ring prevents it from closing because the ring. Yes, yes,
<v Speaker 2>that's a great moment. So the ring actually saves him,
<v Speaker 2>which he almost had thrown out and seen earlier down
<v Speaker 2>the toilet. I like that moment he gets out and
<v Speaker 2>he kisses the ring like, Oh my god, it's super
<v Speaker 2>super intense.
<v Speaker 1>Oh yeah, that is fun. All right. Let us we
<v Speaker 1>have for favorite scenes next.
<v Speaker 2>I have the water Tentacle visit. This is the iconic
<v Speaker 2>scene we all know it. I won't go into too
<v Speaker 2>much detail. I just love again sound design the deep Core.
<v Speaker 2>The platform is entirely quiet. You get the sense it's night.
<v Speaker 2>You can't really tell under water, but it's Everyone is asleep,
<v Speaker 2>trying to get some rest, and we see the POV
<v Speaker 2>of something moving through the hallways of the deep Core platform,
<v Speaker 2>and then we start to see that it is a
<v Speaker 2>water tentacle. It literally looks like a tentacle, but just
<v Speaker 2>made of water, made of seawater. And at one point
<v Speaker 2>it actually opens the hatch door, which I don't know
<v Speaker 2>how it does, but comes into the compartment where Mary,
<v Speaker 2>Elizabeth Masmtonio Ned Harris that's Lindsey and Bud Brigman are sleeping,
<v Speaker 2>and they awaken and are obviously freaked out to see
<v Speaker 2>this alien water tentacle life form approaching them. And then
<v Speaker 2>it pauses and it imitates them. It mimics their face
<v Speaker 2>and their facial movements, smiling and such, and it's just like,
<v Speaker 2>how do they do that? How'd they do that? I
<v Speaker 2>appreciate the performances from Masimontonia Net Harris because of their
<v Speaker 2>just shock in awe, as well as the supporting cast
<v Speaker 2>when the others wake up as well. But it's just
<v Speaker 2>cool to watch the water move through the always through
<v Speaker 2>the compartments, and then even when Michael Bean is the
<v Speaker 2>asshole Navy seal lieutenant freaks out thinking it's the enemy
<v Speaker 2>somehow or a Russian tech invader, he closes one of
<v Speaker 2>the hatch doors, chopping the water in half. In the
<v Speaker 2>water just then falls. A great scene. It's just all
<v Speaker 2>special effects and it still holds up today. It feels real.
<v Speaker 2>It just looks cool, especially the reflections off the water
<v Speaker 2>of the walls and then the people, and it's like,
<v Speaker 2>how the hell did they do that? So it changed everything.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it's a really fun scene and very groundbreaking. So
<v Speaker 1>another favorite scene and probably one of the most memorable
<v Speaker 1>scenes of the movie is the Lindsay drowning scene. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>even today watching it, it still gives me a little
<v Speaker 1>bit of anxiety because Bud and Lindsay had to give
<v Speaker 1>chase to Michael Bean's character because he's going to drop
<v Speaker 1>a nuclear bomb. On the ntis the aliens that they
<v Speaker 1>discover trying to stop him from making it happen, but
<v Speaker 1>unfortunately the submersi wilder in has sprung a leak that
<v Speaker 1>they cannot stop and they only have one diving suit,
<v Speaker 1>and Lindsey comes up with the plan, which unfortunately does
<v Speaker 1>make sense, is that she'd have to drown. The water's
<v Speaker 1>cold enough to take her back to deep pore and
<v Speaker 1>they should be able to revive her. Because but it's
<v Speaker 1>a pretty good swimmer, and just that whole scene with
<v Speaker 1>them sitting in the sub waiting for it to fill.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know if I could do that. I don't
<v Speaker 1>think I could do it worst night man. But it
<v Speaker 1>makes sense because people are like, well, don't they just
<v Speaker 1>start swimming. I'm like no, because she'd start panicking and
<v Speaker 1>he could possibly drop her swimming back, so they have
<v Speaker 1>to let it happen. Yeah, it's a powerful scene from her.
<v Speaker 1>She does great in it. It stresses me out, even
<v Speaker 1>though I know she's going to come back to the end.
<v Speaker 1>It's stressful. It really works. And here they are in
<v Speaker 1>this freezing cold water and he's like, he's telling her
<v Speaker 1>to think of something. He's like, I'm gonna have to drown.
<v Speaker 1>They don't have any better options. But luckily it works.
<v Speaker 2>It's awful and it's amazing, and the performances are brilliant,
<v Speaker 2>and it's so heart pounding and stressful, and it's literally heartbreaking.
<v Speaker 2>I got very emotional throughout this entire sequence. Even though
<v Speaker 2>I knew it was coming, I forgot about the scene
<v Speaker 2>you just described so well happening within the submersible. I'm
<v Speaker 2>going to take it a step back and just mention
<v Speaker 2>there's like that whole scene when they are chasing or
<v Speaker 2>being chased by Lieutenant Coffee, that's Michael Bean's character and
<v Speaker 2>the other submersible. It's like demolition submersibles, but they get
<v Speaker 2>the best of Michael Bean. And there's a great moment
<v Speaker 2>when he loses power and his submersible starts falling through
<v Speaker 2>and deeper deeper into the ocean, and of course it
<v Speaker 2>comes to the pressure and he implodes. It's just like
<v Speaker 2>a great moment when he sees it coming, the glasses
<v Speaker 2>cracking and he just goes.
<v Speaker 1>That scene was kind of rough to watch, also, especially
<v Speaker 1>what happened with the Titan a couple of years ago, correct,
<v Speaker 1>and like, oh my god, that's what happened to those people.
<v Speaker 1>Mm hmm.
<v Speaker 2>Hopefully it was quick, yeah, because that and that implosion
<v Speaker 2>is it's hardcore. So and then, of course, like you said,
<v Speaker 2>Bud and Lindsay aboard the other submersible they're taking out water.
<v Speaker 2>But the fact that the water's rising and they're trying
<v Speaker 2>to come up with ideas of how we got to think,
<v Speaker 2>think we can figure this out. But she's like, no,
<v Speaker 2>I have to. I can go into deep hypothermia. You
<v Speaker 2>can bring me back, you can bring me back. And
<v Speaker 2>it's so heartbreaking because you know, they love one another,
<v Speaker 2>so I mean their still husband and wife, and they've
<v Speaker 2>gone through so much throughout the film up to this
<v Speaker 2>point that when she's saying, he's like, no, no, there's
<v Speaker 2>got to be another way, and she's like, there is
<v Speaker 2>no other way. Then he actually puts the helmet on
<v Speaker 2>and is underneath the water and she's barely breathing, and
<v Speaker 2>then she gets scared. She's so strong and brave throughout
<v Speaker 2>the entire thing, but the water finally gets to where
<v Speaker 2>she or she's almost underwater, and you can see how
<v Speaker 2>scared she is, as any normal human being would be.
<v Speaker 2>And then she goes under and drowns and he's just
<v Speaker 2>like no, and it's just like what, It's awful, and
<v Speaker 2>then he has to tow her back to deep Core,
<v Speaker 2>and so I'll just touch on this this entire scene.
<v Speaker 2>At the end, they bring her back aboard through the
<v Speaker 2>moon pool, on board the deep core platform and he's
<v Speaker 2>performing CPR and then they have the fibrulators and it's
<v Speaker 2>so into. Ed Harris is amazing in this scene because
<v Speaker 2>it is relentless. He's just trying to bring her back
<v Speaker 2>to life and there's just no signs of life coming
<v Speaker 2>from her and it's the charging, charging clear that hole.
<v Speaker 2>We go through that process. The whole crew is huddled
<v Speaker 2>around them. She's not coming back and he won't give up.
<v Speaker 2>And at one point they're like there's no response, give up,
<v Speaker 2>and there's a real long pause, and then Ed Harris
<v Speaker 2>is like, no, she wants to live. And he pushes
<v Speaker 2>them back and he's like, let's zapp her again, and
<v Speaker 2>he yells at her, goddamn it, you bitch. You've never
<v Speaker 2>backed away from anything in your life. Now fight, and
<v Speaker 2>he actually slaps her and he keeps yelling fight, fight
<v Speaker 2>right now, do it, fight, goddamn it, fight, fight, fight,
<v Speaker 2>and it's just I love it. I got teary eyed,
<v Speaker 2>And of course she does then come back, she has revived,
<v Speaker 2>and it's pretty incredible. So I love. Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>What I would say about the Vibe scene is I
<v Speaker 1>don't like the fact that he slaps her. And I'm
<v Speaker 1>sure any EMT would tell you the rest of the
<v Speaker 1>crew wouldn't be given up that early. I unfortunately, was
<v Speaker 1>a witness to a woman who had a heart attack
<v Speaker 1>and the EMTs came out to revive her forty minutes
<v Speaker 1>she was probably dead, but forty minutes they just kept
<v Speaker 1>doing whatever they could to try to bring her back.
<v Speaker 1>And then we're like, all right, that's it. Oh yeah.
<v Speaker 1>They brought out some machine that was literally like forty
<v Speaker 1>minutes punching into her chest to try to get it
<v Speaker 1>to work, and she was just lying her the whole time,
<v Speaker 1>and I'm like, oh my god, this is awful. So
<v Speaker 1>the five minutes they were working on Lindsey, I'm like, nope.
<v Speaker 1>So you're saying, for realism's sake, we should have it
<v Speaker 1>should have been a forty minutes. Well, I don't think
<v Speaker 1>they would have just right, I know, but I don't
<v Speaker 1>think they would have really given up as early as
<v Speaker 1>they did. Maybe he's just getting more frustrated.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, but although to me it feels like it does
<v Speaker 2>feel like a long time, even though you are absolutely
<v Speaker 2>correct it's technically not. You just wanted to come back
<v Speaker 2>to life already.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I don't think really the rest of the crew
<v Speaker 1>would have been like, oh, it's over, Bud. They would
<v Speaker 1>have kept working on her. Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, well I thought I found it very emotional.
<v Speaker 1>Gotcha anything else?
<v Speaker 2>No, that's it for me.
<v Speaker 1>Oh yeah. The last thing I have is just the
<v Speaker 1>scene of Bud dropping down to the warhead and yeah,
<v Speaker 1>of course, going and going and going and going down,
<v Speaker 1>and then trying to communicate because he's using that flora car.
<v Speaker 1>I don't even I can't even say that word.
<v Speaker 2>Oxygenated floral carbon emulsion. Yes, it's the fluid breathing system.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, so he has that so he can't speak and
<v Speaker 1>he has to type everything out because he's going so deep.
<v Speaker 1>But just the pressure and everyone's trying to talk to
<v Speaker 1>him and he's trying to type. And it's how we
<v Speaker 1>have the courage to do something like that. I mean,
<v Speaker 1>it's a movie, but I mean it would have to
<v Speaker 1>be done because they would all die it's Flash Gordon.
<v Speaker 1>It's one life, one life for tens, well, no, maybe hundreds.
<v Speaker 1>We don't know how many of those alien creatures they are.
<v Speaker 1>But he's making the ultimate sacrifice. And just watch him
<v Speaker 1>just go down, down, down, because it's probably a sixteen
<v Speaker 1>foot wall that we see in pass like twelve times.
<v Speaker 1>But it's still for me intense.
<v Speaker 2>It is incredibly intense. It's something I always look forward
<v Speaker 2>to watching in this movie because the science fiction of
<v Speaker 2>it all. He's taking in that breathing fluid and then adjusts.
<v Speaker 2>But it's smart filmmaking because of all the devices at
<v Speaker 2>play that they're really the time constraint, the typing instead
<v Speaker 2>of speaking, and because then he's getting colder and he's
<v Speaker 2>succumbing to the nervous disorder and the typing becomes incomprehensible,
<v Speaker 2>and it is one of the like the worst fear realized.
<v Speaker 2>You're just going to sink in blackness and darkness in
<v Speaker 2>the ocean for how many feet miles whatever. It's the
<v Speaker 2>scariest thing.
<v Speaker 1>Ever with hoping you will get to where you need
<v Speaker 1>to go. Yeah, because big Geek's supposed to lead him
<v Speaker 1>down to where the warhead is or little Geek is
<v Speaker 1>supposed to lead him down, correct, but then little Geek
<v Speaker 1>craps out and now now it's a crapshoot. They're going
<v Speaker 1>to find it.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, so many issues with that, but creates incredible tension
<v Speaker 2>and it's great because they're on board the deep Court
<v Speaker 2>speaking with him, and the dialogue is altered, like they're
<v Speaker 2>talking into the microphone so he can hear them, but
<v Speaker 2>he's just you know, responding by typing. All those little
<v Speaker 2>things just build it all and it's great. And obviously
<v Speaker 2>when he starts losing it as the deeper he goes
<v Speaker 2>and then Masimtonio is getting emotional and telling him to fight,
<v Speaker 2>it all works. It works great. Smart, it's really.
<v Speaker 1>Smart, right, and then they all think it's worse than
<v Speaker 1>it is because it's like I see light down here, like,
<v Speaker 1>oh no, it's really affecting them, but no, there's really
<v Speaker 1>light down there.
<v Speaker 2>That's actual light. It's a great moment.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, Okay, trying to move on to Swiss Cheese and
<v Speaker 1>complaint Department and why do we call it Swiss.
<v Speaker 2>Cheese Because although this movie is delicious, it does have
<v Speaker 2>pressure hull breach holes.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, if it doesn't have those pressure whole breach holes.
<v Speaker 1>We follow a complaint with the complaint department. So, Jason,
<v Speaker 1>what do you have for complaints for this?
<v Speaker 2>I had an issue here with the fact that Michael
<v Speaker 2>Bean has Lieutenant Coffee. He's obviously sick with the pressure
<v Speaker 2>induced psychosis, obviously, so why does his second in command
<v Speaker 2>still follow him for so long? I just wish it
<v Speaker 2>wasn't so obvious from the get.
<v Speaker 1>I had the same thing. He never would have got
<v Speaker 1>that far with this plan. Someone would have stopped him, Like, dude,
<v Speaker 1>there's something.
<v Speaker 2>Absolutely Yeah, clearly, I think that's a direction and or
<v Speaker 2>writing issue I have there, because it's one thing to
<v Speaker 2>see Michael Bean with his shaky hand at the beginning,
<v Speaker 2>You're like, oh shit, we know he's going to succumb,
<v Speaker 2>but gets quick and all of a sudden he's showing
<v Speaker 2>very visible signs, And if you're a second command, you'd
<v Speaker 2>be like, uh uh, you are not in the right
<v Speaker 2>mind to make any of these decisions. You're done, You're sidelined.
<v Speaker 1>That's it, right. Yeah, maybe it would have been better
<v Speaker 1>if they somehow locked him up, but he somehow still
<v Speaker 1>escapes and great great things. Following through is the right
<v Speaker 1>thing because of how he's affected. Yeah, but it's like,
<v Speaker 1>how can you be following these orders when it's obvious
<v Speaker 1>there's something wrong with them.
<v Speaker 2>It was a little weird. Remember I had mentioned earlier
<v Speaker 2>that there's a great scene between being in Mastonia and
<v Speaker 2>he's trying to keep his cool but he's sweating bullets
<v Speaker 2>and he's shaky as all hell. And then when they
<v Speaker 2>leave the compartment, Lindsay is like, wait, what he's showing
<v Speaker 2>signs of the sickness, Like, come on, you would know
<v Speaker 2>she should know better than Yeah. Right, she was the
<v Speaker 2>one that explained it to them in the beginning.
<v Speaker 1>I have the characters spend way too much time in
<v Speaker 1>the freezing water. I mean, you heard that a fight
<v Speaker 1>seeing off Coffee and Bud and Cat, and the amount
<v Speaker 1>of time that they're in that water and they're always
<v Speaker 1>jumping into the pool. I'm like, they'd all have hypotheramia
<v Speaker 1>by now.
<v Speaker 2>One thousand percent. I think about it all the time.
<v Speaker 2>I'm watching it, Like, you do you know how freaking
<v Speaker 2>cold that is?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah?
<v Speaker 2>Beyond cold, it's literally freezing. So yeah. I like the
<v Speaker 2>performances when Budden has to swim from one hatch to
<v Speaker 2>the only comes up through the moon pole and the
<v Speaker 2>moon pool and is trying to be quiet as to
<v Speaker 2>not alert Coffee to his presence. But and he's like
<v Speaker 2>he's shivering and he's just barely he's just his muscles
<v Speaker 2>have to be so tense and he's literally frozen.
<v Speaker 1>So that worked. That's more a little more realism there.
<v Speaker 1>But the rest of the time, they're just like going
<v Speaker 1>for it. Yeah, they have no problem jumping into I'm like,
<v Speaker 1>no way that the water is like seventy degrees of
<v Speaker 1>the ocean. It takes me five minutes to get in.
<v Speaker 1>I'm not jumping twenty something.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up, because now I
<v Speaker 2>had a couple issues with this particular scene because at
<v Speaker 2>this point in the movie, Lieutenant Coffee has locked himself
<v Speaker 2>in the moon pool compartment room and he is pulling
<v Speaker 2>this chain and he's very much going through this internal struggle.
<v Speaker 2>It seems he's trying to figure out what the right
<v Speaker 2>thing to do is or whatever the plan is going
<v Speaker 2>to be. And he's yanking on this chain and you
<v Speaker 2>hear the great noise of the chain links going through
<v Speaker 2>like a pulley thing. Anyway, we know that he has
<v Speaker 2>big geek strapped with the nuclear warhead, which he is
<v Speaker 2>going to then submerse and send down to the Ntis
<v Speaker 2>to blow them up. But he's not doing it. He's
<v Speaker 2>literally just sitting there and the flatbed submersible is prepped
<v Speaker 2>with Big Geek in the warhead, but he hasn't sent
<v Speaker 2>it down yet. He's just sitting there. He pulling on
<v Speaker 2>this chain very kind of psychotically and methodically, and just
<v Speaker 2>he's out of his mind. But then of course Bud
<v Speaker 2>and Kat attack him, and also a couple things. Bud
<v Speaker 2>at Harris, he goes for Lieutenant Coffee's gun, which I
<v Speaker 2>really is the dumbest thing he could do. Yes, if
<v Speaker 2>he isn't alerted to your presence, just go open the door.
<v Speaker 2>Just open the door or take the tie off the door.
<v Speaker 2>At least you have such a much better chance doing that.
<v Speaker 2>And then obviously Bud and Kat now are they attack
<v Speaker 2>Coffee and that sets Coffee off, and then he gets
<v Speaker 2>into the submersible and the chase begins. He goes down
<v Speaker 2>with Big Geek in the warhead, and I'm like, what
<v Speaker 2>if they hadn't attacked him, it's their fault that he
<v Speaker 2>took off. He wasn't good, he wasn't leaving. He wasn't
<v Speaker 2>doing anything, which is weird. But he's just being crazy
<v Speaker 2>sitting off to the side. So I think it's button
<v Speaker 2>Cat's fault that that all happened.
<v Speaker 1>Right, Okay, yeah, yeah, maybe it's possible. So the last
<v Speaker 1>shot of the Aliens, the closing, when the Alien city
<v Speaker 1>comes up, Yeah, that does not work at all.
<v Speaker 2>The word I used right before we got on to
<v Speaker 2>record when I was thinking about that because I wanted
<v Speaker 2>to ask you how you felt about the finale was hokey.
<v Speaker 2>It's a bit hokey for me. It just looks a
<v Speaker 2>little silly. I don't know. If it's the design of
<v Speaker 2>the alien city ship whatever rises to the surface and
<v Speaker 2>then we're supposed to believe that they didn't have to
<v Speaker 2>go through decompression because it's alien technology whatnot. That's fine,
<v Speaker 2>but it just feels like it's way too much and
<v Speaker 2>it's just kind of gaudy and weird looking and not
<v Speaker 2>it happens so quickly too. Maybe I don't know. I wasn't.
<v Speaker 2>I wasn't sold on it.
<v Speaker 1>Either, No, because the whole thing is we have Lindsay
<v Speaker 1>early on talk about how everything feels so organic, unman made,
<v Speaker 1>and then when this floating city comes up. Yeah, it
<v Speaker 1>looks like a prop made of metal or something. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>that's the exact opposite of what we were led to believe.
<v Speaker 1>It just didn't look well at all.
<v Speaker 2>It's interesting because you make a great point. There's so
<v Speaker 2>much detail in all aspects of the sets throughout this film,
<v Speaker 2>and then you get to the finale and this giant
<v Speaker 2>thing where you feel like it's going to look like
<v Speaker 2>the giant ship from the end of Close Encounters, right
<v Speaker 2>where versus in this case, it's just kind of this
<v Speaker 2>very glossy, purplish behemoth entity thing, and it's like, oh, okay,
<v Speaker 2>it's not impressive, it's just.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it's like someone built this shiny metal thing and
<v Speaker 1>then splattered peptobismol over it.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, that's great. Yeah. The only other thing I was
<v Speaker 2>going to say is when you were talking about your
<v Speaker 2>last favorite scene, which is fantastic with Bud making his
<v Speaker 2>descent and then of course the power goes, lights go out.
<v Speaker 2>I think it's pretty damn lucky that he ends up
<v Speaker 2>landing right next to Big Geek where Big Geek had
<v Speaker 2>landed with the warhead. Oh yeah, I mean he lands
<v Speaker 2>directly next to like he's in he's falling through the
<v Speaker 2>ocean in the dark, with no guidance whatsoever, and he
<v Speaker 2>just happens to fall directly onto the ledge where big
<v Speaker 2>Geek is resting.
<v Speaker 1>I would say little Geek maybe got him eighty percent
<v Speaker 1>of the way. So as as I hit the wall,
<v Speaker 1>I will give you that. I will give you that.
<v Speaker 1>But it still was like, no, it's it's needle and
<v Speaker 1>a haystack.
<v Speaker 2>All right, that's all I got.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, time to move on to Hey, it's that actor.
<v Speaker 1>All right, So this segment with spotlight a character actor
<v Speaker 1>you have seen in many other films, an actor making
<v Speaker 1>their big screen debut, or an actor that makes an
<v Speaker 1>uncredited cameo. Hey, it's actor, who do we choose this week?
<v Speaker 2>This week we've chosen for our Hey, it's that actor
<v Speaker 2>Brad Sullivan. Brad Sullivan, he is in the opening sequence
<v Speaker 2>only in this film because he is aboard the USS Montana,
<v Speaker 2>which of course meets its demise and crashes and everyone
<v Speaker 2>aboard drowns. But he, I think, is credited as executive.
<v Speaker 2>He's one of the main, like one of the officers
<v Speaker 2>aboard this sub and the sonars going off and they
<v Speaker 2>think a Russian sub is either approaching or about to attack,
<v Speaker 2>but it's really the aliens that are traveling at supersonic
<v Speaker 2>speeds all around them. Anyway, he's in that scene very recognizable.
<v Speaker 2>Brad Sullivan is a Chicago born actor and Korean War veteran.
<v Speaker 2>He grew up in Massachusetts. Is known as a reliable
<v Speaker 2>player of stoic military types on stage, and he was
<v Speaker 2>best remembered for his despicable bad guy roles on film.
<v Speaker 2>Here is a little bit of his filmography Snapshot. He
<v Speaker 2>was in The Sting. He played the role of cole
<v Speaker 2>and that's from nineteen seventy three. And the Sting, of
<v Speaker 2>course was directed by George roy Hill and that'll come
<v Speaker 2>back later. He's also the character Wanchuck in Slapshot in
<v Speaker 2>nineteen seventy seven. But let's move on to the eighties.
<v Speaker 2>He does both films and TV movies in a bunch
<v Speaker 2>of TV series. He was in The Island in eighty
<v Speaker 2>and then Ghost Story in eighty one, Cold River in
<v Speaker 2>eighty two, and yes, he was in an episode of
<v Speaker 2>Miami Vice plays the role of Jack Coleman in season three,
<v Speaker 2>episode fifteen, Duty and Honor, and that was in nineteen
<v Speaker 2>eighty seven. Then He's in a couple of other things
<v Speaker 2>here in eighty seven. You may have heard of these
<v Speaker 2>films Ten Men. Then he's in The Untouchables as the
<v Speaker 2>mobster George, and then of course he's in Funny Farm
<v Speaker 2>and Funny Farm in nineteen eighty eight was directed by
<v Speaker 2>George roy Hill. I said he was going to come back, right.
<v Speaker 2>He was also in Dead Bang in eighty nine, The
<v Speaker 2>Dream Team in eighty nine, and then this The Abyss
<v Speaker 2>and eighty nine as well into the nineties. One of
<v Speaker 2>his more memorable roles, even though I've not seen this film,
<v Speaker 2>but that's what all the research says is. He plays
<v Speaker 2>the role of Henry Wingo in the film The Princes
<v Speaker 2>of Tides, where I believe he's Nick Nolty's abusive father.
<v Speaker 2>Then he does sister act to the Jerky Boys Canadian Bacon.
<v Speaker 2>He was in twenty episodes of a TV series called
<v Speaker 2>Nothing Sacred where he plays the role of Father Leo.
<v Speaker 2>That was from ninety seven to ninety eight, and looks
<v Speaker 2>like he shut it down in or around the year
<v Speaker 2>two thousand and then sadly passed away in two thousand
<v Speaker 2>and eight at age seventy seven. So there you go.
<v Speaker 2>Great character actor Brad Sullivan.
<v Speaker 1>Brad Sullivan, love them and slapshot all right. Time to
<v Speaker 1>move on to facts and trivia. What are some facts
<v Speaker 1>in trivia we have about the Abyss? And there is
<v Speaker 1>a boat load, so it's kind of hard to narrow
<v Speaker 1>it down.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, no kidding, Well, I'll start with this. HG. Wells
<v Speaker 2>was the first to introduce the notion of intelligent life
<v Speaker 2>in the deep ocean in his eighteen ninety seven short
<v Speaker 2>story in the Abyss. The idea for the Abyss came
<v Speaker 2>to James Cameron when, at age seventeen and in high school,
<v Speaker 2>he attended a science lecture about deep sea diving by
<v Speaker 2>a man, Francis J. Felechik, who was the first human
<v Speaker 2>to breathe liquid through his lungs in experiments conducted by
<v Speaker 2>Johannes A. Kilstra at Duke University. He subsequently wrote a
<v Speaker 2>short story that focused on a group of scientists in
<v Speaker 2>a laboratory at the bottom of the ocean.
<v Speaker 1>Before filming even started, the cast had to become fully
<v Speaker 1>certified divers, and not just basic certification either. They were
<v Speaker 1>put through a course that's normally reserved for diving instructors,
<v Speaker 1>and because so much of the movie was shot underwater,
<v Speaker 1>the actors had to go through decompression procedure every time
<v Speaker 1>they finished filming for the day. The physical toll was
<v Speaker 1>intense at Harris in particular, suffered onset injuries serious enough
<v Speaker 1>that he almost had a turn down future roles after
<v Speaker 1>production wrapped. And it wasn't just the actors. Some crew
<v Speaker 1>members spent nearly the entire day under wall for months
<v Speaker 1>on end, and the constant exposure to chlorine actually bleached
<v Speaker 1>their hair completely white.
<v Speaker 2>The breathing fluid used in the film actually exists, but
<v Speaker 2>has only been thoroughly investigated in animals over the previous
<v Speaker 2>twenty years. It has been tested on several animals who survived.
<v Speaker 2>The rat shown in the film was actually breathing liquid
<v Speaker 2>and survived unharmed. Production consulted with doctor Kilstra on the
<v Speaker 2>proper use of the breathing fluid for the film, and
<v Speaker 2>Harris did not actually breathe the fluid. He held his
<v Speaker 2>breath inside a helmet full of liquid while being towed
<v Speaker 2>thirty feet below the surface of a large tank. He
<v Speaker 2>recalled that the worst moments were being towed with fluid
<v Speaker 2>rushing up his nose and his eyes swelling up. Ooh yeah,
<v Speaker 2>that sounds fun. Yeah it does. About forty percent of
<v Speaker 2>the movie was actually shot underwater. To pull that off,
<v Speaker 2>the filmmakers built two massive tanks inside an abandoned nuclear
<v Speaker 2>power plant near Gaffney, South Carolina, and nothing about it
<v Speaker 2>was easy. They had to invent new technology just to
<v Speaker 2>film the underwater scenes properly. On the very first day,
<v Speaker 2>the main tank sprang, The league forced in deduction to
<v Speaker 2>shut down while damn repair experts were brought in. As
<v Speaker 2>if that wasn't enough, a lightning storm later ripped apart
<v Speaker 2>the tarp covering the tank, which meant the crew could
<v Speaker 2>only shoot at night for the.
<v Speaker 1>Rest of the schedule. I heard at one point they
<v Speaker 1>put like little plastic balls on the top of the
<v Speaker 1>tank right dark it out after the tarp incident.
<v Speaker 2>To create the alien water tentacle, Cameron initially considered cell animation,
<v Speaker 2>or a tentacle sculpted in clay and then animated via
<v Speaker 2>stop motion techniques with water reflections projected onto it. Phil
<v Speaker 2>Tippett suggested Cameron contact Industrial Light and Magic Yes IOLM.
<v Speaker 2>The special visual effects work was divided up among seven
<v Speaker 2>VFX divisions, with motion control work by dream Quest Images
<v Speaker 2>and Computer Graphics and Opticles by ILM. ILM designed a
<v Speaker 2>program to produce surface waves of differing sizes and kinetic
<v Speaker 2>properties for the pseudopod. I guess that's what they're calling it.
<v Speaker 2>The water Tentacle, which was referred to by ILM informally
<v Speaker 2>as the water Weenie for the moment where it mimics
<v Speaker 2>budd and Lindsay's faces. Ed Harris had eight of his
<v Speaker 2>facial expression scanned, while twelve of Masterroumtonio's were scanned via
<v Speaker 2>software used to create CGI sculptures. The set was photographed
<v Speaker 2>from every angle and digitally recreated so that the pseudopod
<v Speaker 2>could be accurately composited into the live action footage.
<v Speaker 1>So during the rigorous and problematic shoot, the cast and
<v Speaker 1>crew began calling the film by various derogatory names such
<v Speaker 1>as Son of Abyss, the Abuse, and Life's Abyss and
<v Speaker 1>then you die, Life's Abyss and.
<v Speaker 2>Then you die. Those are great. I did laugh when
<v Speaker 2>I read that. Lastly, I've got James Cameron's brother, Mike Cameron,
<v Speaker 2>plays a dead crewman inside the sunken submarine from the
<v Speaker 2>beginning of the movie. To accomplish this, he had to
<v Speaker 2>hold his breath under twenty five feet of water while
<v Speaker 2>also allowing a crab to crawl out of his mouth.
<v Speaker 2>The shot took five takes, and Mike had to crush
<v Speaker 2>the crab twice because Jim took too long to set
<v Speaker 2>the lights. It's for those of you who haven't seen
<v Speaker 2>it as a creepy moment where obviously it's Mike Cameron
<v Speaker 2>playing the role, but it's supposed to be a dead
<v Speaker 2>seaman and crew member of this sub and he's floating
<v Speaker 2>in the water and you see crabs coming out of
<v Speaker 2>his mouth. It's really gross.
<v Speaker 1>Freaked out jammer, Oh yeah, freak me out too. Man,
<v Speaker 1>as well as my brother and I get along. I
<v Speaker 1>don't think we could ask one another to do that.
<v Speaker 1>That might be asking a little too much.
<v Speaker 2>Look, it's just it's a quick shot. You just got
<v Speaker 2>to hold your breath under twenty five feet of water
<v Speaker 2>and let this crab crawl out of your mouth. Cool
<v Speaker 2>with that, let's go all right?
<v Speaker 1>Action?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah? What?
<v Speaker 1>Wait?
<v Speaker 2>What?
<v Speaker 1>Okay? Moving on to box office, So The Abyss was
<v Speaker 1>released on August ninth in fifteen hundred and thirty three
<v Speaker 1>theaters with a production budget of roughly seventy million, one
<v Speaker 1>of the highest of the late nineteen eighties. The Abyss
<v Speaker 1>went on to grow approximately fifty four million in North
<v Speaker 1>America and thirty five million internationally. Worldwide total near ninety million.
<v Speaker 1>It opened number two at the box office, right behind Parenthood,
<v Speaker 1>and would stay in the top ten for another six weeks.
<v Speaker 1>The Abyss ended up being the twenty fourth highest grossing
<v Speaker 1>movie in the United States. The movie ultimately recouped much
<v Speaker 1>of its investment through home video and television licensing, transforming
<v Speaker 1>it into a cult favorite. Moving on to reviews. When
<v Speaker 1>growing up in the eighties, we'd watch at the movies
<v Speaker 1>with Gene Cisco and Roger Ebert to hear their reviews
<v Speaker 1>and watch clips of upcoming movies. Their review of The
<v Speaker 1>Abyss was unanimous two thumbs up. Jeane enjoyed the underwater
<v Speaker 1>adventure in action, but didn't care for the aliens subplot.
<v Speaker 1>Roger really enjoyed the special effects and felt the movie
<v Speaker 1>was quite convincing and fun. Overall, both agreed they weren't
<v Speaker 1>too excited about the ending. No surprise there. Rotten Tomatoes
<v Speaker 1>gives it a Tomato Beer score of seventy six percent,
<v Speaker 1>with the Popcorn Meter score of eighty three percent, and
<v Speaker 1>all so has an IMDb rating of seven point five.
<v Speaker 1>So this takes us to additional thoughts and questions. We
<v Speaker 1>have any additional thoughts and questions about the Abyss?
<v Speaker 2>I don't have much here. Let's just go over the
<v Speaker 2>sub movies that I can name off the top of
<v Speaker 2>my head, which I named earlier. But do you have
<v Speaker 2>a favorite overall? Would you go with the Hunt for
<v Speaker 2>at October? Crimson Tide, The Abyss, Dust Boot? What's the menu?
<v Speaker 2>Matthew McConaughey one? Is that U five four to one?
<v Speaker 1>Thing like that?
<v Speaker 2>Well?
<v Speaker 1>I saw it in the theater and the sound and
<v Speaker 1>that was awesome. There you go, I'm getting the number wrong.
<v Speaker 1>I think I apologize. What was the Then there's the
<v Speaker 1>Harrison Ford one? What was the k The Widow Maker? Yes?
<v Speaker 1>Thank you? Yeah, one of my favorites. It's an old one.
<v Speaker 1>It's Kerry Grant and Tony Curtis, Operation Petticoat and it's
<v Speaker 1>it's more of a comedy, sure, but that one. My
<v Speaker 1>dad used to watch that one all the time and
<v Speaker 1>I would watch that with him, and anytime it's on
<v Speaker 1>Turner Classic, it's a must watch, all right, it's I
<v Speaker 1>stop what I'm doing, lots the rest of it. So
<v Speaker 1>that's definitely one of my favorites. Of course, the Hunt
<v Speaker 1>for October Doss Boot is really good. I really can't
<v Speaker 1>think of anyone that I didn't like. I mean, there's
<v Speaker 1>always that scene in every submarine movie where they're especially
<v Speaker 1>if you watch the World War two ones where they're
<v Speaker 1>going through the ocean and the destroyers who jumping the
<v Speaker 1>bombs and they're just the sonar and then just shakes
<v Speaker 1>a little bit and springs the leak here there and
<v Speaker 1>everybody's got to run and fix things. It gets me
<v Speaker 1>every time, oh.
<v Speaker 2>One thousand percent. And it's the ping is always it
<v Speaker 2>for me.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, the bing and also of course that's one of
<v Speaker 1>my favorite parts of the Hunt for October, which with
<v Speaker 1>Connor eg Yes, one ping, one ping only.
<v Speaker 2>It's great stuff. By the way, corrections and reattractions, but
<v Speaker 2>Mark just corrections. It is U five seven to one
<v Speaker 2>was the mcconnie film, and it's K nineteen not K nineteen.
<v Speaker 2>The Widow Maker was the gotta Harrison Ford doing a
<v Speaker 2>brilliant accent in that one.
<v Speaker 1>Right, Yeah, yeah, I still like it though.
<v Speaker 2>Hey, it's Sarason Ford, he does no wrong in my book.
<v Speaker 1>Oh, I had this thought watching the movie. So we
<v Speaker 1>have that scene when they demonstrate the floor of carbon
<v Speaker 1>whatever it's called. I apologize and they're using the rat. Yes,
<v Speaker 1>And then I thought to myself, was that the same
<v Speaker 1>stuff that but ended up slurping in later on? I mean,
<v Speaker 1>how much of that stuff did they have? How gross
<v Speaker 1>is that? Because you know, the rat's shitting there like
<v Speaker 1>twelve times while I was under Absolutely, let's started grossing
<v Speaker 1>me out.
<v Speaker 2>These are the things we think about, and you would
<v Speaker 2>be correct. Yes, yeah, I didn't realize that. You said
<v Speaker 2>you'd like K nineteen Widow Maker that was directed by
<v Speaker 2>Catherine Bigelow.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, you know, but it got hammered. That movie that
<v Speaker 1>did not do well with critics or box office wise.
<v Speaker 1>But I went I saw it in the theater. I
<v Speaker 1>didn't care.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I mean yeah, because there's it's still your fun, right.
<v Speaker 1>The whole thing is that so it's a nuclear sub
<v Speaker 1>and there's a leak and they have to send people
<v Speaker 1>in there to fix it, and basically if you go
<v Speaker 1>in there, you're going to die because you got exposed.
<v Speaker 1>And these poor kids are like eighteen nineteen years old,
<v Speaker 1>who's their first time out in sea and he's got
<v Speaker 1>to send to their death and it's brutal.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, but yes, I was mentioning Catherine Bigelow because she
<v Speaker 2>was married to Cameron. That's true, A brief, brief time there. Anyway,
<v Speaker 2>Did you have any thoughts, deep questions special Edition?
<v Speaker 1>Did you ever see it? What did you think?
<v Speaker 2>I have it's been some time. I actually have a
<v Speaker 2>description of the special Edition right in front of me
<v Speaker 2>at this moment, and after reading it once again, yes,
<v Speaker 2>far as I recalled, it added a little bit for
<v Speaker 2>me regarding the aliens being a little concerned about how
<v Speaker 2>humans are treating the planet, treating one another, and you know,
<v Speaker 2>using that kind of screen in their underwater city to
<v Speaker 2>show Bud these images of war and aggression. And then
<v Speaker 2>I guess it says here, Yeah, Bud asks the aliens
<v Speaker 2>why they spared the humans, and they show Bud the
<v Speaker 2>message that he sends to Lindsay that he types before,
<v Speaker 2>which was I now even forget what the message is?
<v Speaker 2>The one way ticket, the one yes, thank you. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>I knew this was a one way ticket. So they
<v Speaker 2>see hope in Bud, and thus they decide to save
<v Speaker 2>him and save the crew. So yeah, I just don't
<v Speaker 2>have a strong feeling one way or another. The entire
<v Speaker 2>ending is a little it's a little much, I think.
<v Speaker 2>So there's such a science fiction aspect to this film yet,
<v Speaker 2>and I understand that there are fantastical elements and obviously
<v Speaker 2>underwater alien creatures, but there's something about them that feel
<v Speaker 2>tangible and realistic in a science fiction kind of way.
<v Speaker 2>So when it gets to the whole ending, the whole
<v Speaker 2>thing just feels a little overwhelming because of there's a
<v Speaker 2>slight hoking nature to it. Still, even I believe in
<v Speaker 2>the special edition that's maybe not fair. I haven't seen
<v Speaker 2>in a while. What are your feelings on theah It
<v Speaker 2>definitely pushes the more of the Cold War.
<v Speaker 1>Element at the time, because there's a lot of They
<v Speaker 1>show a lot of like broadcast of what's going on
<v Speaker 1>above water, and the Russians are accusing the US. US
<v Speaker 1>is accusing Russians and feel like we're going to be
<v Speaker 1>the brink of war. And then the aliens do the
<v Speaker 1>tidal waves that are hanging over the coasts right, Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>they're about to unleash mass destruction on Yeah, but there
<v Speaker 1>is a lot of little things that happened throughout the
<v Speaker 1>movie itself that people get a little more time to
<v Speaker 1>shine throughout. Correct, it still doesn't save the ending, though, Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>there's more of a message on it, like hey, let's
<v Speaker 1>all get along as compared to the regular edition. I
<v Speaker 1>like it, but I think is still the same. If
<v Speaker 1>it changed the ending, maybe, but yeah, if I can
<v Speaker 1>watch more of it, sure, why not, I'll do it.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, all in But yeah, you see those themes again,
<v Speaker 2>like an Avatar and such that, the similar themes about
<v Speaker 2>us destroying the planet and then the Aliens trying to
<v Speaker 2>save it or send a message. I'm glad you brought
<v Speaker 2>up the fact that we did not touch upon really
<v Speaker 2>the political tensions that are happening, especially in the beginning
<v Speaker 2>of this film, because once the USS Montana goes down
<v Speaker 2>in the beginning, then you know, we the Americans are
<v Speaker 2>assuming it was the Russians, and then the Russians show
<v Speaker 2>up and there's these and I was going to ask you,
<v Speaker 2>and I should have asked this in additional questions, was
<v Speaker 2>that did you feel the movie lost any tension once
<v Speaker 2>that subplot no pun intended, basically went away. We understand
<v Speaker 2>that Lieutenant Coffee is nerve thinking that the Aliens somehow
<v Speaker 2>are were maybe developed by the Russians or working in
<v Speaker 2>tandem with the Russians. But it felt as though the
<v Speaker 2>whole Russians versus the US and the political tent kind
<v Speaker 2>of dissipated about a third to a halfway through the
<v Speaker 2>movie and wasn't really addressed after a while.
<v Speaker 1>Part of me is glad that it's sound in there
<v Speaker 1>because of that. It really makes the movie feel data
<v Speaker 1>not like we have pre sure relations with Russia right now,
<v Speaker 1>But I mean back then, man, it was we used
<v Speaker 1>to talk about nuclear war all the time, and I
<v Speaker 1>thought that was going to happen. Y, No, it didn't.
<v Speaker 1>It didn't bother me that much. I mean, okay, Russians
<v Speaker 1>were always the bad guys in the eighties, so it
<v Speaker 1>was good that they just kind of swept that under
<v Speaker 1>the rud quickly.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I mostly agree. I didn't think it was even
<v Speaker 2>really that necessary. I mean, obviously it adds tension to
<v Speaker 2>the beginning of the film, but they probably could have
<v Speaker 2>just not addressed it at all after the opening sequence,
<v Speaker 2>and I would have been fine, Right, I'm more involved
<v Speaker 2>with these crew members just trying to survive underwater with
<v Speaker 2>this Navy Seal team and their different agendas, and then
<v Speaker 2>also obviously the alien element, which is really cool, so.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I agree with that. And then lastly, I read this.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know if this is true or not, but
<v Speaker 1>according to the novelization, it's the aliens that actually bring
<v Speaker 1>Lindsay back to life, and they're the ones that kind
<v Speaker 1>of give Cap the motivation to keep going. Got it.
<v Speaker 1>I like that.
<v Speaker 2>I'd like that a lot actually, like they're just giving
<v Speaker 2>him a little helpful nudge here and there. Yeah, a
<v Speaker 2>little subtle support. Hmm. That's cool.
<v Speaker 1>But I can't remember who wrote the novelization. I apologize.
<v Speaker 1>I'm sure it was Dean Foster. Thank you, Alan, Dean Foster,
<v Speaker 1>that's who wrote it. I'm sure, yes, all right. So
<v Speaker 1>whoever was screaming at the radio right now, like Alan D. Foster,
<v Speaker 1>come on, say it, we did it. We got there
<v Speaker 1>for you.
<v Speaker 2>They probably think we were gonna go like highbrow and
<v Speaker 2>go like yeah, like Arthur C. Clark you know, yeah, no, no,
<v Speaker 2>Valentine Foster.
<v Speaker 1>No, we were thinking, okay, time to move on to
<v Speaker 1>our rating. So Jason, on a scale of one to five,
<v Speaker 1>NTI's which you give the abyss?
<v Speaker 2>Yes, four NTI's is what I'm giving it solid four nts.
<v Speaker 2>What is non terrestrial intelligence? That is the acronym. Correct,
<v Speaker 2>we didn't atually don't think we actually said that earlier. No,
<v Speaker 2>we did not, So yes, four non Terrestrial Intelligentsia is. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>this is a groundbreaking film. It's another entertaining roller coaster
<v Speaker 2>of a ride. The concept is sound and solid and
<v Speaker 2>just provides so much tension and anxiety and the movie
<v Speaker 2>moves a quick clip. I'm just going to reiterate what
<v Speaker 2>you said earlier, Bill, is that you see again the
<v Speaker 2>blueprint for what is to come from Cameron here, especially
<v Speaker 2>with the T one thousand and T two and that
<v Speaker 2>water tentacle sequence again is one of the most talked
<v Speaker 2>about sequences in nineteen eighty nine from Cinema can't get
<v Speaker 2>enough of Ed Harris. I thought his chemistry with Macentonia
<v Speaker 2>was great. I thought they were great together. They really
<v Speaker 2>are at each other's throats and you're like, wow, these two.
<v Speaker 2>I can see why they separated, and then you can
<v Speaker 2>see why they love each other as well, and they
<v Speaker 2>sell their relationship very well. I bought into it. So
<v Speaker 2>the ensemble cast, the action, set pieces, the sets, it's
<v Speaker 2>such an immense production, even if you don't care for
<v Speaker 2>elements of the story or even from my perspective, some
<v Speaker 2>aspects of the dialogue. And of course we talked about
<v Speaker 2>the ending being a little bit weak. It's such a
<v Speaker 2>huge accomplishment that you are in awe the scope of
<v Speaker 2>you just want to watch it and look at it
<v Speaker 2>because it's so cool and it makes it made me
<v Speaker 2>feel something on this rewatch, which I was surprised by
<v Speaker 2>the ending I got. I did get emotional when they
<v Speaker 2>were trying to revive Lindsey, so I was moved. I
<v Speaker 2>enjoyed it. I enjoyed the rewatch.
<v Speaker 1>It's a yeah, it's an important film for a few
<v Speaker 1>different reasons. So for ntis for me. Yeah, for me,
<v Speaker 1>it's four and a half nice. I like the cast
<v Speaker 1>in this, I like the music in this. I like
<v Speaker 1>the setup in this. I like the setting and this
<v Speaker 1>it's the ending. That's that's it. But I enjoy it
<v Speaker 1>so much up to that point that it doesn't bother me.
<v Speaker 1>I'm a little letdown, but not letdown enough, and so
<v Speaker 1>that only not off a half for me. Every time
<v Speaker 1>I watch it, I'm still like, how do they do this?
<v Speaker 1>How do they do that it does it for me.
<v Speaker 1>This movie's just in my wheelhouse. It's just an underwater
<v Speaker 1>culture that just really work.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah again, I just think you know again, I'm a
<v Speaker 2>terminator aliens and true lies guy. Maybe it's a that's
<v Speaker 2>just a taste thing, but can't deny that it's a
<v Speaker 2>smartly crafted film. James Cameron's a brilliant filmmaker.
<v Speaker 1>Oh yeah, Like I said, it's it's not his best movie.
<v Speaker 1>It just I don't know, it just appeals to me
<v Speaker 1>the most.
<v Speaker 2>That's cool.
<v Speaker 1>I respect that.
<v Speaker 2>All right.
<v Speaker 1>So that just about wraps it up for this week's episode.
<v Speaker 1>As always, appreciate you tuning in. Don't forget to follow
<v Speaker 1>us on your favorite streaming platform. You need a little rating,
<v Speaker 1>drop us a review, hopefully positive one, and if you
<v Speaker 1>want to know more about our show, head over to
<v Speaker 1>the All Eightiesmovies podcast dot com for all those red details.
<v Speaker 1>We hope you joined us. Next time this we dive
<v Speaker 1>into another classic from the greatest movie decade ever in
<v Speaker 1>nineteen eighties. Till then, stay cool and have an excellent
<v Speaker 1>to everyone.
<v Speaker 2>It's not easy being a cast iron bitch. It takes
<v Speaker 2>discipline in years of training, A lot of people don't
<v Speaker 2>appreciate that Thanks for staying up with us, Goodnight World,