Summary
James Cameronis one of the most storied filmmakers in the history of the artistic medium. FromTerminatorandAlienson through toTitanicandAvatar, the Canadian director has helmed some of the biggest and best movies ever made. Now, the one movie he ever made that could be considered a box office flop (of sorts) is coming to Disney+ in 4K quality.
In the mid-’80s,James Camerontook on the challenge of bringing anAliensequel to life. WhenAliensreleased in 1986, Cameron announced himself to the moviegoing world at large just two years afterThe Terminatorbecame a surprise hit: this was a director who knew what he was doing. In 1991,Terminator 2: Judgment Dayset the box office on fire and became the third-highest-grossing movie ever (at the time of release). A lot of people forget a smaller, non-franchise movie that Cameron directed betweenAliensandTerminator 2: 1989’sThe Abyss, starring Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, and the always-criminally-underrated Michael Biehn.
On April 11th, the 4K remaster of the cult classic will officially hit Disney+. Made on a budget of around $45 million, it grossed approximately $90 million worldwide, meaning it just about broke even in Hollywood terms. For someone like James Cameron, genuinely considered to bethe historical king of the box office, this lackluster monetary reception makesThe Abysssomething of a dud. That’s not to say it earned poor reviews from those who saw it. The original cut of the film sits at an 89% on Rotten Tomatoes, and the 1993 Special Edition garnered even better reviews from critics. The film was also nominated for four Academy Awards and won for Best Visual Effects.
The AbyssIs Well Worth A Watch More Than 35 Years After Release
The Abyss follows a United States search and rescue team who works with an oil crew to recover an American submarine in the depths of the Caribbean before the Soviet Union gets to it first. Of course, this is just the setup for all thesci-fi shenanigansthat follow. It’s not worth spoiling here, but if you enjoy classic filmmaking and speculative fiction,The Abyssis well worth your time. To be frank, if you consider yourself a movie buff at all,The Abyssis worth watching just to delve into the film’s disastrous production afterward.
You see,The Abyss’s production is something ofa Hollywood horror story that is infamous in Tinseltown circles. As more than a third of the film is shot entirely underwater, the production team had to, you know, shoot all of those scenes underwater for real. This was the 1980s, after all… CGI and all of its wonders was in its infancy. This meant using an abandoned nuclear power plant’s reactor, which held around 7.5 million gallons of water, for the shoot. Every single complication you could think of popped up during the film’s principal photography. Here are just a few things the creative team had to deal with: the tank sprung a massive leak, over-chlorination burned skin and stripped off hair, and the cast and crew worked 70-hour weeks over a six-month-long period.
It’s safe to say that tensions rose as the cast and crew fought their way through one of the most harrowing big-budget film shoots in American film history. The result is aJames Cameron-led cult classic that still marvels and delights all these years later.
The Abyssis set to start streaming on Disney+ on April 11.
