The Abyss (Director's Cut)

[Ash]

I hadn't seen this film in years and I borrowed the director's cut from a buddy.

This cut goes into more detail about several of the characters, and more importantly, the underwater aliens.

In the director's cut, it is revealed that the aliens are extremely p**sed off that a nuclear warhead has been literally dropped at their front door and, in a great scene that was cut from the TV version, they raise giagantic tidal waves and hold them high above the coastal cities sending millions into panic. (remember, the aliens can control water)

Ed Harris's character Bud manages to convince them otherwise and they back down.

Overall, the main reason I like this film is that it's for the most part, very character driven with the action unfolding all around them.
I also like that it goes into the aspects of deep water psychosis.(Michael Biehn's character literally goes nuts)  Is this phenomenon real?  Anybody know any good links to where I can go to read up on it?

Also, I especially liked the liquid oxygen Bud uses to traverse the distance down the wall into the abyss.
Is that stuff also real?

If any of you haven't seen it, I highly recommend the director's cut of this film...it expands and adds so much more to the story.
A great effort by James Cameron!

Have you seen it also?
What did you think?



Post Edited (11-25-04 10:15)

[Neville]

Seen it as well, and liked it. I've became a Cameron fan during the few last years, after a "Cameron-who?" episode when "Titanic" was released. I stay away of the "Terminator" films (seen them too many times to enjoy them), but I've been discobering some neat things he has done, even as a writer ("Strange Days", for instance, or the "Dark angel" TV-series).

Which leads me to "The Abyss". I was completely disappointed when I saw it as a kid. Somehow I expected a horror film, and not an underwater "Close encounters...". Sure the underwater scenes were great, and the story had lots of posibilities, but... The story seemed more or less right until Ed Harris reached the bottom of the ocean, but the rest couldn't be more anticlimatic.

The extended version was a great oportunity to reconcile myself with the movie. Character development seems much better, although I can't remember much of the original, and the tsunami shots are fantastic. Apart from being an awe inducing sight, they provide the movie with a real climax, something it was really in need of. Can't believe they let such a scene out of the original release.

[Cheecky-monkey]

I really didn't like the Abyss. In fact, of all the late 80's sea monster flicks (Deepstar six, Leviathan, Endless Descent, Lords of the deep, etc.) I found this to be the weakest and most melodramatic of the bunch (well, made second to Lords of the deep).

[trekgeezer]

When Ed Harris is asked about this movie, he says he will never talk about. He will also never work with Cameron again, 'cause he damn near drowned him while making the film.

[Mr. Hockstatter]

Same here.  I loved Leviathan and Deepstar Six was pretty good also, but The Abyss was too melodramatic and the ending was a comple anti-climax.

[peter johnson]

Good vs. Bad --
Look it up on the credits:
Some of the same Special Effects people that worked on this, worked on ROBOCHIC -- I s**t you not --
Sort of goes to the fine line between good & bad issue --
peter johnson/denny crane

[Max Gardner]

The Abyss features a number of truly beautiful underwater sequences and some of the most nauseating, sentimental melodrama this side of a Spielberg movie. Ed Harris' undying love for his shrewish, hair-trigger-tempered ex convinces the Atlanteans to hold off on their destruction of human civilization? I want the old Cameron back. Aliens was fantastic.

[JohnL]

>Also, I especially liked the liquid oxygen Bud uses to traverse the distance down
>the wall into the abyss.
>Is that stuff also real?

Yes and no. Breathable liquid DOES exist and in fact, the scene with the rat was real. It was really held under the liquid and forced to breath it. Apparently this was considered animal cruelty in the UK and that scene was cut. Ed Harris didn't breath the liquid, his scenes were fake.

From what I've read, there are problems with breathing it for any length of time. It can damage the lungs and apparently there's no portable method of effectively removing the carbon dioxide from it, so it quickly becomes unbreathable. One page I looked at said it's used in some medical situations, like inflating the lungs of babies born prematurely as the liquid does the job more gently than inflating them with air. There's a page on it here; Fluid Breathing.

>Have you seen it also?
>What did you think?

I liked it, but then I almost always like the extended versions of films.

Funny piece of trivia: When The Abyss first came out, the local news interviewed people at the theater and pretty much nobody they talked to knew what the word "abyss" meant.

[The Burgomaster]

I have the director's cut on DVD.  Overall, I think the movie (either version) is pretty entertaining . . . until the aliens show up and suddenly it turns into a cross between "E.T." and water ballet. **Groan**