The Abyss - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of The Abyss or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to The Abyss

[amber]

When Lt. Coffey retrieves the keys from the captain's corpse, the name Kretschmer is visible on the name tag on the front of his overalls. This is a reference to the real-world Otto Kretschmer, the highest-scoring submarine ace of World War II.

[christina]

The film is reversed in Coffey's first close-up after the pseudopod scene. This makes his expressions creepier in a subliminal way.

[sandra]

Steven Spielberg studied the effects sequences in this film, as well as Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) and Young Sherlock Holmes (1985) to prepare for Jurassic Park (1993). The effects for all four productions were done by George Lucas's effects company, Industrial Light and Magic (ILM).

[aaron]

In the original storyline, when Lindsey is talking to Bud during his descent, she explains why she is always so hard on people. Lindsey grew up in a family with five older brothers, and she had to fight for everything, even to be noticed.

[richard]

The company mentioned in the film is named Benthic Petroleum. In oceanographic terms, the word "benthic" means on or in the ocean bottom.

[michele]

Despite the fact that the water tank was heated with gas burners, many cast and crew members got so cold during filming that plastic hot tubs were set up outside the tank to keep them warm during breaks.

[kristen]

For financial reasons, the "Deepcore" set was never dismantled. It stood in the abandoned (and drained) South Carolina nuclear power plant, where the film was shot. 20th Century Fox had posted signs around the set informing potential photographers that Fox still owned the set (and the designs) and that any photographs or video shooting of the set was prohibited by copyright law. Their official copyright information was on the Deepcore rig itself. A favorite destination for "urban explorers", the sets and facility were eventually demolished in 2007 during a reconstruction project.

[melinda]

Al Giddings was hired to do the underwater photography on the strength of his work on The Deep (1977).

[sylvia]

James Cameron: [feet] when the soldiers arrive at the supply ship and jump out of the helicopters. See also Aliens (1986).

[elmer]

The studio pushed hard for an Academy Award nomination for Michael Biehn as best supporting actor, but was unsuccessful.

[brent]

Orson Scott Card described working with James Cameron as "Hell on wheels". He claimed that Cameron was nice to him because he could afford to walk away, while he was miserable and unkind to everyone else. He also stated that "unless he changes his way of working with people, I hope he never directs anything of mine".

[melinda]

Despite many previous articles suggesting a blu-ray and 4K release the movie is still not available in high definition.

[willard]

This was James Camerons first experience with filming in the Super 35 format. He would later use this format for Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), True Lies (1994), and Titanic (1997).

[mathew]

Since the "Benthic Explorer" model ship was so large and filmed on open seas, the production company was required to register it with the Coast Guard.

[addison]

Bud and Lindsey's rocky relationship may have been an unconscious mirror of the divorce that James Cameron was going through at the time with producer Gale Anne Hurd. After finishing Aliens (1986), Hurd had gone off to produce Alien Nation (1988) while Cameron was preparing for The Abyss. By the time the film was green-lit, they had grown apart and had already split amicably, but Cameron still decided that he didn't want to do the movie without Hurd producing. While the divorce was being finalized, Cameron was dating director Kathryn Bigelow during weekend breaks on The Abyss. They married shortly after completion of the film.

[melinda]

Fluid breathing is a reality. Five rats were used for five different takes, all of whom survived and were given antibiotic shots by a vet. The rat that actually appeared in the film died of natural causes a few weeks before the film opened. According to James Cameron, the scene with the rat had to be edited out of the UK movie version because "the Royal Veterinarian felt that it was painful for the rat". James Cameron repeatedly assures that the rats used for this take didn't suffer any harm.

[ruby]

Filmed on a $70 million budget, making it one of the most expensive films made at the time.

[melinda]

The water in the two tanks was chlorinated heavily, to prevent microbes growing in it. This caused skin burns, as well as many of the actors' hair to become green and even white. Due to this, the crew had to apply Vaseline to their hair and skin for protection while filming for several hours underwater.

[caroline]

Extended scenes with the aliens communicating with Bud near the end were cut from the theatrical release because they would have made the film almost three hours long. Back in 1989, such a long running time was considered a big commercial risk, especially for a film with lots of action scenes and special effects, decreasing the likelihood that it would be profitable. Contrary to what may be thought, the decision to shorten the climax was made by James Cameron himself and was not imposed by the studio. Cameron stated that reactions to the extended scenes during test screenings had been mixed, so he felt that deleting them was the best way to get the film to the 135-minute running time that he had contractually promised to deliver. Studio officials were actually horrified by the decision to truncate the ending and questioned Cameron whether it was the right decision, but in the end, he had final cut. The scenes were eventually restored in 1993 for the Special Edition.