loading loading...

The Abyss Details

1989 Certificate 15
  • Rated:
  • 70
  • from 17,651 members

A team of civilian divers working on a prototype underwater oil-drilling rig are coerced by the US Navy into helping them look for a lost nuclear submarine. Whilst in deep water the Navy supervisor has paranoid ideas about what they've found in the Abyss..... Read more

Starring Ed Harris, Michael Biehn, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio
Director James Cameron
Genres Drama

Sign up The Abyss DVD

loading loading...

The Abyss cover art

The Abyss

A team of civilian divers working on a prototype underwater oil-drilling rig are coerced by the US Navy into helping them look for a lost nuclear submarine. Whilst in deep water the Navy supervisor has paranoid ideas about what they've found in the Abyss.....

Starring Ed Harris, Michael Biehn, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio
Director James Cameron
Studio 20TH CENTURY FOX HOME ENTERTAINMENT
Run time DVD: 2 hrs 43 mins
Certificate Certificate 15
Genres Drama
Language DVD: English
Released DVD: 26 Feb 2001
Production year: 1989
Format DVD

The Abyss (1989)

Sign up The Abyss DVD

Or you can rent each disc individually:

  • Critics' reviews (4) of The Abyss

    View all
  • 3 stars out of 5

    For some, this was James Cameron's Waterworld, a bloated, sentimental epic from the king of hi-tech thrillers. Some of the criticism was deserved, but it remains a fascinating folly, a spectacular and often thrilling voyage to the bottom of the sea. Ed Harris stars as the leader of an underwater team working for an oil company that is pressed into service to rescue the crew of a crippled submarine. But they soon begin to wonder if they are the only life forms in the vicinity. Harris is great in a rare leading-man role and there is first-rate support from Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, as his estranged partner, and The Terminator's Michael Biehn, as the unstable marine commander. Cameron excels in cranking up the tension within the cramped quarters and the effects are awe-inspiring and deservedly won an Oscar. It's only marred by being overlong and by its sentimental attachment to aliens.

    • Radio Times
    • Posted 29 Jan 2006

  • "...[A] stupendously exciting and emotionally engulfing film....With probing intelligence and passionate feeling, Cameron has raised the adventure film very close to the level of art..."

    • Rolling Stone
    • Posted 11 Mar 2005

  • Most helpful member's review of The Abyss

    View all
  • 17 out of 19 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 1 star

    Terrible, terrible, terrible

    This has to be one of the worst films I have seen in a long time. The actors/actresses have so little charisma and character that everything they say is absolutely unbelievable.

    As for the script '...queen bitch of the universe' is a person 'favourite' line. Try to count the number of times 'son-of-a-bitch!' is said, go on, make a drinking game of it, possibly the only way to enjoy this dreary, melodramatic, unbelievable, cliched, corny and hollow film.

    Special effects range from great to poor (occaisionally) and are possibly the only saving grace.

    The Navy Seals are particularly dull.

      • Scott McGonigle from Scotland
      • Posted 08 May 2005 13:11

  • Most recent members' review of The Abyss

    View all
  • 10 out of 10 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 5 stars

    One of the best films I've ever seen

    I must have seen this film 50 odd times, and it still never looses it's appeal. Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio make a wierd but workable estranged couple, who, miles beneath the sea encounter an alien race, very good special effects. Watch out for some scene stealing performaces by Micheal Biehn playing the bad guy.

      • Barks from Bristol
      • Posted 24 Oct 2003 15:06

  • News and features

    View all
    Avatar

    Terminator: Past, Present & Future

    • 27 May 2009

    It’s not the oldest franchise in town, and certainly not the most prolific (it can’t compete with Friday the 13th, for example), but The Terminator series is the only one that has pursued an on-going millennial dialogue between the twentieth and the early twenty first century. In James Cameron’s 1984 original, the Terminator and Kyle Reese come back in time from 2029 bringing the war between man and machines with them. Kyle also brought news of a potential saviour, a leader... Read more

  • More like this

    View all
    Showing 1 to 4 of 20

    loading

Find cinemas


Rating breakdown

17,651 Member ratings
  • 100
1,844
  • 90
1,812
  • 80
3,815
  • 70
3,576
  • 60
3,209
  • 50
1,575
  • 40
852
  • 30
461
  • 20
343
  • 10
164

Related user collection

Buy from the LOVEFiLM shop

    • The Abyss

    • The Abyss
      A team of civilian divers working on a prototype underwater oil-drilling rig are coerced by the US Navy into helping them look for a lost nuclear submarine. Whilst in deep water the Navy supervisor has paranoid ideas about what they've found in the Abyss........