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One of the reasons James Cameron made The Abyss was to test out the revolutionary new computer effects that Industrial Light & Magic (George Lucas' company) were developing. In a way, The Abyss represented a sort of dry run for the effects that Cameron would later use in the groundbreaking Terminator 2. However, rather than just being a cold technical exercise, The Abyss is an excellent science fiction thriller in its own right. It is generally seen as one of the 'lesser' films on the director's resume but that tag is unwarranted.
The plot concerns the mysterious sinking of a US nuclear submarine in the middle of the Atlantic. A group of civilian deep sea oil rig workers led by 'Bud' Brigman (Ed Harris) are the nearest people to the location, and are coerced into looking for the wreckage. One of the best aspects of the film is that it constantly keeps the viewer guessing; the reason why the sub sank is slowly revealed over the course of the film. James Cameron regular Michael Biehn (The Terminator, Aliens) shows up as a marine who becomes increasingly unhinged as the plot progresses, which leads to some great suspense. Another principal cast member is Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, playing Bud's estranged ex-wife, and the two characters' relationship forms the beating heart of the film.
The story's ultimate direction has been described as over-sentimental, but I find it quite satisfying. The extended version of the film makes a considerable improvement as it reinstates a major sub-plot, completely changing the feel of the latter half of the film. In the earlier sections it also gives time for more character development, fleshing out little details that lift the film to a higher level. Impressively, those aforementioned effects have aged very well and remain convincing today, which many more recent films cannot claim. But while Cameron's technical prowess is well known, his other skills are less widely acknowledged. He captures action scenes like few others, but he is also an expert at gleaning excellent performances from his actors, aided by the fact that his scripts consistently contain well-written, interesting characters. The Abyss is no different, and is in fact one of my favourite James Cameron films.
The extras
This was one of the earliest 2-disc editions, but it has a very good selection of extras. The theatrical and extended cuts of the film are included (the former is quite redundant after having seen the latter, but it's very interesting to compare the two). Unfortunately, neither has an audio commentary, although a text commentary option is available. My main beef with the presentation of the films is that the picture is letterboxed widescreen rather than anamorphic, meaning that even on widescreen TVs large black borders are present, and the picture quality is fairly average (this reflects the age of the DVD). The second disc is packed with featurettes, the main one being the 50-minute documentary "Under Pressure: Making The Abyss". Other than that, there are ample other goodies, all presented with very attractive DVD menus. That last point may be quite unimportant but it does come across that more effort was put into some DVDs when the format was in its infancy. Also included in the box is a fascinating and detailed 12-page booklet which explains all of the differences between the two versions of the film.
The summary
James Cameron combines deep sea thrills with an effective mystery (and political intrigue in the extended cut) to create an engrossing adventure.
