‘The Abyss’ – James Cameron’s Ground Breaking Sci-Fi Classic Returns to Theaters
Your chance to see a beautiful 4K remaster of The Abyss on the big screen arrives next month. Don’t sit this one out!
Cameron, inspired by deep sea diver Francis J. Falejczyk, came up with the core story when he was 17. It was initially about a group of scientists in a lab at the bottom of the ocean but evolved partly thanks to the director’s work on Aliens.
The 1989 movie is famous for its complicated production. The underwater scenes were filmed in an uncompleted nuclear reactor containment vessel that was 55 feet deep and held 7.5 million gallons of water. A full-sized underwater set and multiple scale models were built. The cast had to be trained to use diving gear. New tech had to be developed to film underwater, including everything from new communication systems to camera equipment.
It was a massive feat that took a toll on Cameron and everyone that worked on it.
And that was just filming. The Abyss features cutting-edge special effects that had never been seen before when it debuted in theaters. Cameron was considering stop motion until Phil Tippett (that guy who designed a good chunk of Star Wars) suggested he contact ILM. The VFX studio created new software and spent months perfecting it to achieve the look of the pseudopod in the final movie.
They only had a total of 900 megabytes of storage for the entire computer graphics department at the time.
The movie is a feat of filmmaking that stands up over 30 years later. It changed the way movies were made and pushed VFX forward. You can see the influence everywhere—a big one being Cameron’s Terminator 2.
The Abyss Returns to Theaters
The most advanced format the movie is currently available is DVD—fans have been waiting a decade for a Blu-ray release. While an upgraded home release isn’t on the way, you can see it in 4K on a big screen next month. James Cameron says going to your local theater will be worth it…
“If you haven’t seen the film before, this is the way to experience it, and if you have, it will be like the first time all over again. So, get out to the theaters and enjoy.”
The Abyss Details
The movie stars Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Michael Biehn, Leo Burmester, Todd Graff, John Bedford Lloyd, J.C. Quinn, and Kimberly Scott. It was written and directed by James Cameron.
Bud and Lindsay Brigman are formerly married petroleum engineers who still have some issues to work out. They are drafted to assist a gung-ho Navy SEAL with a top-secret recovery operation: a nuclear sub has been ambushed and sunk, under mysterious circumstances, in some of the deepest waters on Earth.
The Abyss returns to theaters for one night only on December 6th. Tickets go on sale on November 20th.
