"The Abyss" is one of my favorite movies. I've seen it a dozen times. The acting is wonderful and at times it is a very intense movie. When I recently saw the movie, I thought to myself, "What the hell is the point?" Although the movie kicks butt, it doesn't seem to have a point.
The plot of "The Abyss" is as follows: A nuclear sub is damaged in the sea and falls into an abyss deep below the ocean floor. A team of blue collar oil drillers are sent to recover the nuclear weapons and any possible survivors. At the same time, a violent storm is going on at the surface. Along the way, the crew runs into aliens that have the ability to control water, although it isn't explained why the aliens are even there in the first place. There is also a Navy SEAL who goes crazy and tries to kill the aliens.
Last year, a friend and I rented the directors cut Special Edition of the the film and it was like watching an entirely new movie. Almost every scene is about five minutes longer. (nothing special) THERE IS A POINT TO THE MOVIE! When my friend and I discovered this point, we almost fell out of our chairs.
There is about fifteen minutes of extra footage near the end of the movie that explains the entire film. At this point in the movie, Ed Harris's character travels down the Abyss to disarm the nuclear weapon the SEAL had sent to destroy the aliens. He runs out of oxygen and the aliens take him to their mother ship to save him. When he tries to communicate with the aliens, he finds out why they are there. The aliens communicate with him through television airwaves. It turns out that the aliens are angry with mankind for always fighting with each other. They show Harris several videos of nuclear bombs detonating. The aliens know it will continue because it has happened in the past. They communicated this by showing Harris some of the most disturbing visions from executions, wars, and other violent acts throughout history. This scene almost brought tears to my eyes. Then, the aliens show Harris live footage from the surface. They are causing the storm on the surface and ENORMOUS tidal waves are about to destroy many of the worlds cities a la "Deep Impact." Harris thinks the aliens are going to wipe out mankind for our actions and then suddenly the tidal waves stop just before they crash over the cities. They just stop in mid air which was very cool. Harris asks why they didn't go through with it and the aliens show images of Harris and his ex-wife and he realizes that the aliens saw that we can also be kind and loving beings.
None of this is in the regular version of the film. They only show Harris being saved by the aliens and then the mother ship rising to the ocean surface. I couldn't believe it. It made the movie so much better with the extra footage. I like the movie so much better than I did before, I and really liked it before I saw the director's cut.
So, if you liked "The Abyss" or disliked it because it seemed to have no point, rent the director's cut Special Edition. It really brings home a good point about how we live as humans and will really make you think about the current situations going on in our world.
What do you think? Leave your feedback below.
By clicking on "Submit," you assert that you are who you represent to be and your
comments abide by section 20 of Radford's Student Handbook (for RU students), and by the Virginia State and Federal laws including but not limited to libel, copyright law, and invasion of privacy. The comments posted on this site are not necessarily representative of the views of Radford University, its
administration, faculty, staff or all of its students. For more information, read our policy on feedback fora.
Responses: Refresh page to view latest entries.
Name: Kelly Comments:
Jack, you are so right on this. I saw the original cut a few years ago and realized it was nothing like the butchered version released in theaters. This frequently happens, so when you see a film that makes little sense and seems like it has had huge chunks cut out, you're probably right. Blame the studios and the exhibitors for insisting on arbitrary running times that are supposed to be "preferred" by audiences. Guess what? We prefer to see the film as the director intended.
