Disney+ just added James Cameron’s most underrated film which helped pave the way for Avatar in the best format possible!
James Cameron stands tall among the filmmakers of his generation. The writer/director may not have the best reputation, and many mock his writing. But there’s no denying that few filmmakers have transformed the game like Cameron with his stunning visual style.
His resume speaks for itself: The Terminator/Terminator 2, Aliens, True Lies, Titanic, and Avatar and its sequels. Cameron could boast the two highest-grossing films of all time as well as scores of Oscars. Cameron’s love of film and his amazing special effects have influenced scores of filmmakers and FX guys for decades.
However, one entry in Cameron’s filmography has been overlooked. A movie that was good in its time but built up a bigger following in the years since. It’s a groundbreaker for special effects and also the type of storytelling that Cameron would use for his Avatar films: The Abyss.
Long missing from physical media and streaming services, the movie hit Disney+ in a new 4K presentation on April 11 and giving fans a chance to see a film that helped form Cameron’s style for Avatar!
What is The Abyss about?
Hot off the monster success of Terminator and Aliens, Cameron had the clout to convince 20th Century Fox to give him $43 million (which was a pretty hefty sum back then) for a wild underwater sci-fi tale.
The storyline has Ed Harris as Bud Brigman, the leader of a deep-sea oil drilling team. They’re reluctantly enlisted by the military as a Navy sub has crashed near the Cayman Trough, which is nearly five miles below the bottom of the Caribbean. The Navy needs the team to help a pack of SEALs led by Lt. Hiram Coffey (Cameron’s old friend Michael Biehn) to find the sub.
Complicating matters is that working with the Navy is Bud’s estranged wife, Dr. Lindsey Brigman (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio). While searching for the ship, the crew soon comes across a strange water-based alien entity. While Bud and Lindsey want to help it, Coffey (slowly driven mad by the ocean pressures) sees it as an enemy to destroy.
The movie wasn’t the first to boast computer-generated effects, but it was the most notable at that point. In 1989, audiences had never seen anything like the fluid alien that looked so lifelike as it took on different shapes. That made the movie a standout despite the issues making it.
The infamously wild production creating Abyss
The movie is infamous today for its production more than the final product. By his own admission, Cameron isn’t the easiest guy on a movie set and his ego and temper have led to problems. But The Abyss is when Cameron earned the “dictator in director” label.
To this day, Harris and Mastrantonio refuse to talk about the movie. Back then, the only way to shoot a movie set underwater was to actually shoot underwater with the cast spending days at a time in massive tanks, leading to various health issues from rashes to exhaustion.
The most infamous is a scene where Lindsey is nearly drowned with Cameron forcing the actors to do it over and over until Mastrantonio yelled “We are not animals!” Cameron himself nearly drowned when he stayed underwater too long, and supposedly, he and Harris nearly came to blows. And that's without mentioning the massive storms hitting the ocean set.
The ballooning budget caused concern for Fox, who had expected a typical summer blockbuster, not a more intelligent film. That led to the planned ending where massive tsunamis nearly crush cities to be cut from the theatrical release.
Released on August 9, the movie made a decent $90 million, but its huge budget meant it barely broke even. The critical reception was good, especially for the FX.
Cameron would recover with T2 that made the CGI revolution truly happen. The movie would get a few physical media releases that included the original ending. Finally, a 4K Blu-Ray release in 2024 was the version fans wanted, and that’s what’s coming to Disney+.
Why you should watch The Abyss
It should be noted that Disney+ in the United States only has the theatrical cut of the film. Disney+ UK viewers get the extended version with the original ending and a controversial scene where a rat is drowned in the “breathing water” used by the divers in the story.
The film is a visual blast as the FX still holds up today. Whatever Cameron’s many faults, few directors can deliver a movie as bombastic yet warm as he can. He excels at the special effects sequences as well as the more human moments, and you feel in the midst of the action, such as the plunge into that trench.
There are familiar themes to fans of Cameron’s work. As always, he enjoys pushing a female lead, with Lindsey reaching out to the aliens and holding her own with Bud. There’s also a bit of deconstruction, as rather than the tough hero, Coffey is a slowly breaking mess. Harris makes the most of the last scene of Bud trying to save humanity, not through violence but words.
There's also the themes of the environment and mankind mistakenly thinking they can control nature only to be put in their place. The messaging doesn't hit you over the head yet still there enough to resonate when the movie ends.
The movie deserves more of a watch as Cameron’s fascination with the ocean would carry to Titanic and Avatar: The Way of Water. The Abyss was also his first experience with an epic Earth-based adventure and proved he could handle it well (even if his temper on set was a problem).
So while we wait for Avatar: Fire and Ash, Disney+ is giving folks a chance to check out James Cameron’s forgotten film and see how it proves him a cinematic master.
The Abyss streaming on Disney+.