James Cameron has made many great science fiction films, from Terminator to Aliens to Avatar. One, however, is often forgotten: The underwater adventure Abyss – Abyss of Death.
At the end of the year, James Cameron returns to the big screen with Avatar 2: The Way of Water. For over a decade we have been waiting for the continuation of his latest science fiction film. If we look around his filmography, many more exciting contributions to the genre can be found.
Cameron created the Terminator franchise and made one of the best sequels ever with Aliens. However, as these films have no shortage of attention, we want to direct your gaze to lesser known Abyss – Abyss of Death, which is on TV tonight in an extended version.
James Cameron is undoubtedly a master director, with the horror-sci-fi flick “Aliens – The Return” (1986) he created one of the most elaborate sequels to a classic by Ridley Scott. In 1989, “The Abyss” also often ran simply as “Abysshttps://t.co/mXFcA33xas pic.twitter.com/pucG8oHEWv
– Video Freaks (@RetroFilm2) January 15, 2022
Great Sci-Fi Recommendation: Abyss by James Cameron
The plot of Abyss – Abyss of Death takes place to a large extent under the surface of the water. It all begins with a mysterious event: the American nuclear submarine USS Montana collides with an unknown object and sinks to the bottom of the sea. A special team is to rush to the rescue before the enemy arrives.
Here you can watch the trailer for Abyss:
Engineer Linsdey Brigman (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) is part of the special team led by Lieutenant Hiram Coffey (Michael Biehn). No sooner does this arrive at the undersea base of operations for the mission, however, than tensions mount, not to mention the presence of a luminous being.
Sci-fi epic: Two film versions of Abyss exist
Abyss impresses with its ghostly underwater worlds. Cameron spared no expense to shoot large parts of the story in huge tanks of water. The entire film feels like a dive in which you eventually lose yourself in the infinite depths of the sea.
How long this dive lasts depends on the version of the film you watch. Two different versions of Abyss exist. In the cinema, the film was 140 minutes long. The later-released Special Edition, which also comes to Tele 5 tonight, is 28 minutes longer.
The biggest difference is the addition of an elaborate sequence featuring a tidal wave. When Abyss was released in 1989, it was missing because the effects studio ILM was unable to create the wave to Cameron’s specifications. This was only made possible by the groundbreaking CGI effects of Terminator 2 – Day of Reckoning.
