The Deep - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[lonnie]

In the beginning of the movie, whilst Gail (Jacqueline Bisset) is diving, she reaches under a part of the shipwreck and gets her arm yanked by the giant green moray eel, which causes her to scream in pain. In real-life, her stunt double, Jackie Kilbride, dislocated her shoulder doing this scene. A diver was told to pull the stick attached to her wrist from inside the wreck. When the stick appeared, he pulled with all of his might (as instructed). The scene was done in one take, with multiple cameras, as there was no chance (or need) for repeating it.

[stephanie]

In his book "Inside The Deep" (1977), Peter Guber said of the novel by Peter Benchley: "While the tale lacked, as one critic would later put it, 'the maxillary crunch of Jaws', it was a good, compelling story in its own right, and the filmic possibilities practically leaped off the pages."

[frances]

The shipwreck featured in the movie was actually the R.M.S. Rhone, which sank in 1867 off the coast of Salt and Peter Islands in the British Virgin Islands with one hundred twenty-five of one hundred thirty-five of her crew losing their lives. The R.M.S. Rhone broke into two pieces during the sinking. This movie was filmed at the bow section of the ship, located about seventy-five feet underwater.

[janice]

Peter Benchley apparently struggled with the film's screenplay. Columbia Pictures decided that after two drafts, the script needed some fresh input, so Tracy Keenan Wynn was brought in to do re-writes. Wynn had been a co-writer previously on the ironically titled The Drowning Pool (1975).

[albert]

Robert Shaw was paid six hundred fifty thousand dollars, plus percentage points, for starring in this movie. Shaw once said: "This is the first time in my career that I've committed myself to a movie before reading the script. So why this time? Just instinct. This production has terrific potential. It has smelled like a winner from the beginning."

[lena]

Candice Bergen, Katharine Ross, and Charlotte Rampling were considered for the role of Gail Berke.