Synopsis

After a nuclear submarine sinks in the Caribbean, a team of civilian deep-sea workers is recruited to assist a Navy recovery mission. As tensions rise between the crews and the threat of a Soviet confrontation grows, they discover mysterious luminous beings in the depths. The ordeal forces the estranged Bud and Lindsey Brigman to confront both their marriage and the limits of human understanding.

Factoids & Trivia

• Much of the underwater material was filmed in two enormous tanks at the unfinished Cherokee Nuclear Power Plant near Gaffney, South Carolina. The larger tank held approximately 7.5 million gallons of water, with the Deepcore set built inside it.

• Around forty percent of the production was shot underwater. The demanding schedule required performers and crew members to spend long periods submerged, making the shoot one of the most physically difficult major film productions of its era.

• The production became so grueling that members of the cast and crew reportedly nicknamed the film "The Abuse." Delays, technical complications, and the need to complete complex underwater effects pushed the picture over schedule and over budget.

• The scene involving a character breathing oxygenated liquid was based on real research into liquid breathing. A fluorocarbon liquid was used for the rat demonstration, while the human sequence was achieved through visual effects and performance.

• The film received the Academy Award for Visual Effects at the 62nd Academy Awards. Its digitally animated water tentacle was an early landmark in computer-generated imagery and helped demonstrate the potential of digital effects for feature filmmaking.

• The theatrical cut runs approximately 140 minutes. A Special Edition, released in 1993, added nearly half an hour and restored material that expanded the film's ending and clarified the larger purpose of the underwater beings.

• The Special Edition was later remastered in 4K and returned to theaters for a one-night event on December 6, 2023.