Deep Rising
Encyclopedia
Deep Rising is a 1998 action
horror film
directed by Stephen Sommers
. It was distributed by Hollywood Pictures
and Cinergi Pictures
, and was released in the United States
on January 30, 1998.
by John Finnegan (Treat Williams
). He has been chartered to transport a group of men (later discovered by Finnegan's crewman Joey "Tooch" Pantucci (Kevin J. O'Connor) to be mercenaries) to a specific destination. Finnegan's third crew member is Pantucci's girlfriend Leila (Una Damon
).
The focus shifts to the Argonautica, a luxurious cruise ship
, embarking on its maiden voyage
with many wealthy passengers. The ship is the dream and brainchild of Simon Canton (Anthony Heald
) and is under the watchful eye of the seasoned Captain Atherton (Derrick O'Connor
). Mingling among the guests and taking full opportunity of the facilities and entertainment is Trillian, (Famke Janssen
) a wanted thief who notes unusual noises on the ocean. The party reaches full swing as Canton delivers a speech, christening the ship and those sailing in her to good times.
With the crew and passengers occupied, Trillian steals the Captain's ID card and breaks in the ship's safe. However while pilfering the valuables she is apprehended by Canton and Captain Atherton. Trillian is placed in a storeroom as the brig is incomplete. Meanwhile, the party carries on while a saboteur disables the ship's navigation and communication systems. This leads to the ship running blind, leading Canton into hysterics
. The crewman manning the sonar
notices a large, swift object approaching which then collides with the ship. The ensuing crash causes the passengers to panic as one passenger runs into a bathroom, only to be pulled through the toilet.
The mercenaries install a torpedo
launcher on Finnegan's boat when it suddenly crashes into a drifting speed boat, resulting in damage to the engines. The mercenaries ((leader) Hanover (Wes Studi
), Vivo (Djimon Hounsou
), Mason (Clifton Powell
), Mulligan (Jason Flemyng
), Billy (Clint Curtis
), T-Ray (Trevor Goddard
), and Mamooli (Cliff Curtis
)) then take Finnegan and his crew hostage. Once they reach the Argonautica they split up into several groups, leaving Billy to watch Leila. The mercenaries use schematics given to them by an insider, but they quickly realize something is amiss upon the discovery of blood “everywhere”.
The first party heads to the safe room and finds Trillian there. She had escaped the store room by short circuiting the electronic door lock. She intended to have another go at stealing the contents of the safe, this time using Canton's access card. The party unlocks the safe but Vivo is killed the moment the safe door opens by a frightened Canton, who drives an axe into his head. Two of the other mercenaries immediately open fire into the vault killing three of the people inside.
Meanwhile, in the engine room Finnegan and Pantucci witness Mamooli and T-Ray being dragged underwater and disappearing by an unseen force. Back on Finnegan's boat, Leila suffers a similar fate. The two separated parties meet up in an elevator which crashes shortly thereafter revealing a hallway lined with human skeletons stripped clean of their flesh. They are then attacked by spiked tentacles and flee to a supposed safe location. Canton reveals that the cost of the boat and maintaining it have bankrupted him, so he hired the mercenaries to destroy the ship so he can get the insurance money. They are quickly attacked again where one of the party's attacks on a tentacle reveals Billy, half digested and in severe shock.
As the party's numbers dwindle, Canton theorizes that the tentacles are evolved members of the Ottoia
family of deep-sea worms which strip their prey of all body liquids then eject the carcass. Finnegan points out that the tentacles are driving the party to a specific location, and when the party is split up. Two more mercenaries and Captain Atherton himself are killed: Mason was dragged underwater while swimming and activated a grenade to blow the tentacle with it. While Mulligan fought off a tentacle in the kitchen, only to be consumed by another tentacle. Soon, only Finnegan, Trillian, Pantucci, Hanover, and Canton are left. Following another encounter with the tentacles, the five are split up. Finnegan loses the parts he had gathered earlier to repair his boat's engine, rendering it unable to go any further than "a city block." Meanwhile, Hanover and Pantucci attempt to slow the tentacles down with grenades; when this fails, Hanover shoots Joey in the leg and attempts to save himself. Ironically Joey survives while Hanover is next seen being engulfed by a creature. When Joey hands him a pistol, Hanover wastes its remaining bullet firing at Joey and is unable to commit suicide before the tentacle swallows him whole.
Finnegan returns to his boat after the party discovers a nearby island and has Pantucci plot a course in the autopilot to crash it into the Argonautica. Meanwhile he positions a torpedo in the hole of his boat so that it will detonate upon impact, hopeful that this will destroy the infestation. He then returns to the ship just in time to rescue Trillian from Canton, who is about to dispatch her with a flare gun. Trillian and Finnegan then attempt to return to the boat but find the octopus-like body of the creature possessing the tentacles emerging into the liner's main atrium. It grabs Finnegan, who escapes by shooting the creature in the eye. Canton escapes alone to Finnegan's boat, breaking his legs in the process, only to discover the boat is on auto pilot. Unable to disengage the autopilot the boat crashes into the Argonautica and the torpedoes explode. The explosion destroys the creature and kills Canton as Finnegan and Trillian use a jet ski to escape the ship just as it is destroyed. They reach the island, where they encounter Pantucci, who has drifted there. As the party relaxes, a loud roar echoes across the island and something crashes through the nearby forest, which is actually much smaller than it originally appeared,the largest part of the island is shown as being a system of volcanoes. The film ends with an exasperated Finnegan saying "Now what?".
"Rotten" rating of 30% based on 27 reviews, 0% of top critics based on five reviews and 44% of the user score based on 165 reviews. It also made Roger Ebert
's most hated films list. In his own words, "[Deep Rising] is essentially an Alien
clone with a fresh paint job."
On its opening weekend it made $4,737,793 (42% of its total gross), ranking #8.
Deep Rising ended up being a box office bomb
, with total intake of a little over $11,000,000 on a $45,000,000 budget.
Action film
Action film is a film genre where one or more heroes is thrust into a series of challenges that require physical feats, extended fights and frenetic chases...
horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
directed by Stephen Sommers
Stephen Sommers
Stephen Sommers is an American screenwriter and film director, best known for The Mummy and its sequel, The Mummy Returns. He also directed Disney's live action version of Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book, the action/horror film Van Helsing, and the 2009 film G.I...
. It was distributed by Hollywood Pictures
Hollywood Pictures
Hollywood Pictures is one of The Walt Disney Company's several alternate movie divisions. Like Disney's Touchstone Pictures brand, it produces films for a more mature adult audience than Walt Disney Pictures.-History:...
and Cinergi Pictures
Cinergi Pictures
Cinergi Pictures Entertainment Inc. was a small independent production company that was founded by Andrew G. Vajna, after he had sold his interest in his first production company, Carolco International Pictures in 1989, which he had started with his partner Mario F. Kassar in 1975.-Cinergi...
, and was released in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
on January 30, 1998.
Plot
The film opens with text explaining about trenches deep underwater with undiscovered sea life, then cuts to a boat being piloted through a storm on the South China SeaSouth China Sea
The South China Sea is a marginal sea that is part of the Pacific Ocean, encompassing an area from the Singapore and Malacca Straits to the Strait of Taiwan of around...
by John Finnegan (Treat Williams
Treat Williams
Richard Treat Williams is a Screen Actors Guild Award–nominated American actor and children's book author who has appeared on film, stage and television...
). He has been chartered to transport a group of men (later discovered by Finnegan's crewman Joey "Tooch" Pantucci (Kevin J. O'Connor) to be mercenaries) to a specific destination. Finnegan's third crew member is Pantucci's girlfriend Leila (Una Damon
Una Damon
Una Damon is an actress. She was born in South Korea and lives in the United States.Her film credits include Gattaca, The Truman Show, Deep Impact, Deep Rising and Spider-Man. Damon has acted in numerous television shows including Curb Your Enthusiasm, Charmed, Chicago Hope, and The Closer...
).
The focus shifts to the Argonautica, a luxurious cruise ship
Cruise ship
A cruise ship or cruise liner is a passenger ship used for pleasure voyages, where the voyage itself and the ship's amenities are part of the experience, as well as the different destinations along the way...
, embarking on its maiden voyage
Maiden voyage
The maiden voyage of a ship, aircraft or other craft is the first journey made by the craft after shakedown. A number of traditions and superstitions are associated with it....
with many wealthy passengers. The ship is the dream and brainchild of Simon Canton (Anthony Heald
Anthony Heald
Philip Anthony Mair Heald, known professionally as Anthony Heald , is an American actor known for portraying Hannibal Lecter's jail nemesis, Dr. Frederick Chilton in The Silence of the Lambs and Red Dragon, and for playing assistant principal Scott Guber in David E. Kelley's Boston Public...
) and is under the watchful eye of the seasoned Captain Atherton (Derrick O'Connor
Derrick O'Connor
Derrick O'Connor is an Irish character actor, mostly known for his roles in Terry Gilliam films. He was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company....
). Mingling among the guests and taking full opportunity of the facilities and entertainment is Trillian, (Famke Janssen
Famke Janssen
Famke Beumer Janssen is a Dutch actress and former fashion model. She is known for playing the villainous Bond girl Xenia Onatopp in GoldenEye and Jean Grey/Phoenix in the X-Men film series .- Early life and education :...
) a wanted thief who notes unusual noises on the ocean. The party reaches full swing as Canton delivers a speech, christening the ship and those sailing in her to good times.
With the crew and passengers occupied, Trillian steals the Captain's ID card and breaks in the ship's safe. However while pilfering the valuables she is apprehended by Canton and Captain Atherton. Trillian is placed in a storeroom as the brig is incomplete. Meanwhile, the party carries on while a saboteur disables the ship's navigation and communication systems. This leads to the ship running blind, leading Canton into hysterics
Hysteria
Hysteria, in its colloquial use, describes unmanageable emotional excesses. People who are "hysterical" often lose self-control due to an overwhelming fear that may be caused by multiple events in one's past that involved some sort of severe conflict; the fear can be centered on a body part, or,...
. The crewman manning the sonar
Sonar
Sonar is a technique that uses sound propagation to navigate, communicate with or detect other vessels...
notices a large, swift object approaching which then collides with the ship. The ensuing crash causes the passengers to panic as one passenger runs into a bathroom, only to be pulled through the toilet.
The mercenaries install a torpedo
Torpedo
The modern torpedo is a self-propelled missile weapon with an explosive warhead, launched above or below the water surface, propelled underwater towards a target, and designed to detonate either on contact with it or in proximity to it.The term torpedo was originally employed for...
launcher on Finnegan's boat when it suddenly crashes into a drifting speed boat, resulting in damage to the engines. The mercenaries ((leader) Hanover (Wes Studi
Wes Studi
Wesley "Wes" Studi is a Cherokee actor, who has earned notability for his portrayal of Native Americans in film. He has appeared in well-received Academy Award-winning films, such as Kevin Costner's Dances with Wolves, Michael Mann's The Last of the Mohicans, the award-winning Geronimo: An...
), Vivo (Djimon Hounsou
Djimon Hounsou
Djimon Diaw Hounsou is a Beninese actor and model. As an actor, Hounsou has been nominated for two Academy Awards.-Early life:Djimon Hounsou was born in Cotonou, Benin, in 1964, to lbertine and Pierre Hounsou, a cook. He emigrated to Lyon in France at the age of thirteen with his brother, Edmond....
), Mason (Clifton Powell
Clifton Powell
-Movie career:Powell is known for playing the role of Pinky in the 2000 comedy film, Next Friday and its 2002 sequel, Friday After Next. Powell stars also in the Indie thriller Chain Letter.In 2009 he played "Bowman" in the film Just Another Day...
), Mulligan (Jason Flemyng
Jason Flemyng
Jason Iain Flemyng is an English actor. He is known for his film work, which has included roles in British films such as Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch , both for Guy Ritchie, as well as Hollywood productions such as Rob Roy along with the Alan Moore comic book adaptations From...
), Billy (Clint Curtis
Clint Curtis
Clinton Eugene "Clint" Curtis is a United States computer programmer and ex employee of NASA and ExxonMobil, currently living in Northern California, who worked for Yang Enterprises in Oviedo, Florida until February 2001...
), T-Ray (Trevor Goddard
Trevor Goddard
Trevor Goddard was an English actor. He played Kano in the first Mortal Kombat movie and Lieutenant Commander Mic Brumby on JAG.-Career:Goddard was born in Croydon, Surrey, England, in 1962...
), and Mamooli (Cliff Curtis
Cliff Curtis
Clifford Vivian Devon "Cliff" Curtis is a New Zealand actor who has had major roles in film, including The Piano, Whale Rider, and Blow, and most recently has appeared in NBC's television series Trauma. He is also co-owner of independent film production company Whenua Films...
)) then take Finnegan and his crew hostage. Once they reach the Argonautica they split up into several groups, leaving Billy to watch Leila. The mercenaries use schematics given to them by an insider, but they quickly realize something is amiss upon the discovery of blood “everywhere”.
The first party heads to the safe room and finds Trillian there. She had escaped the store room by short circuiting the electronic door lock. She intended to have another go at stealing the contents of the safe, this time using Canton's access card. The party unlocks the safe but Vivo is killed the moment the safe door opens by a frightened Canton, who drives an axe into his head. Two of the other mercenaries immediately open fire into the vault killing three of the people inside.
Meanwhile, in the engine room Finnegan and Pantucci witness Mamooli and T-Ray being dragged underwater and disappearing by an unseen force. Back on Finnegan's boat, Leila suffers a similar fate. The two separated parties meet up in an elevator which crashes shortly thereafter revealing a hallway lined with human skeletons stripped clean of their flesh. They are then attacked by spiked tentacles and flee to a supposed safe location. Canton reveals that the cost of the boat and maintaining it have bankrupted him, so he hired the mercenaries to destroy the ship so he can get the insurance money. They are quickly attacked again where one of the party's attacks on a tentacle reveals Billy, half digested and in severe shock.
As the party's numbers dwindle, Canton theorizes that the tentacles are evolved members of the Ottoia
Ottoia
Ottoia is the most abundant priapulid of the Cambrian Burgess Shale formation of British Columbia. It is a stem-group priapulid worm that averaged about 80 mm in length.- Ecology :...
family of deep-sea worms which strip their prey of all body liquids then eject the carcass. Finnegan points out that the tentacles are driving the party to a specific location, and when the party is split up. Two more mercenaries and Captain Atherton himself are killed: Mason was dragged underwater while swimming and activated a grenade to blow the tentacle with it. While Mulligan fought off a tentacle in the kitchen, only to be consumed by another tentacle. Soon, only Finnegan, Trillian, Pantucci, Hanover, and Canton are left. Following another encounter with the tentacles, the five are split up. Finnegan loses the parts he had gathered earlier to repair his boat's engine, rendering it unable to go any further than "a city block." Meanwhile, Hanover and Pantucci attempt to slow the tentacles down with grenades; when this fails, Hanover shoots Joey in the leg and attempts to save himself. Ironically Joey survives while Hanover is next seen being engulfed by a creature. When Joey hands him a pistol, Hanover wastes its remaining bullet firing at Joey and is unable to commit suicide before the tentacle swallows him whole.
Finnegan returns to his boat after the party discovers a nearby island and has Pantucci plot a course in the autopilot to crash it into the Argonautica. Meanwhile he positions a torpedo in the hole of his boat so that it will detonate upon impact, hopeful that this will destroy the infestation. He then returns to the ship just in time to rescue Trillian from Canton, who is about to dispatch her with a flare gun. Trillian and Finnegan then attempt to return to the boat but find the octopus-like body of the creature possessing the tentacles emerging into the liner's main atrium. It grabs Finnegan, who escapes by shooting the creature in the eye. Canton escapes alone to Finnegan's boat, breaking his legs in the process, only to discover the boat is on auto pilot. Unable to disengage the autopilot the boat crashes into the Argonautica and the torpedoes explode. The explosion destroys the creature and kills Canton as Finnegan and Trillian use a jet ski to escape the ship just as it is destroyed. They reach the island, where they encounter Pantucci, who has drifted there. As the party relaxes, a loud roar echoes across the island and something crashes through the nearby forest, which is actually much smaller than it originally appeared,the largest part of the island is shown as being a system of volcanoes. The film ends with an exasperated Finnegan saying "Now what?".
Cast
- Treat WilliamsTreat WilliamsRichard Treat Williams is a Screen Actors Guild Award–nominated American actor and children's book author who has appeared on film, stage and television...
as John Finnegan - Famke JanssenFamke JanssenFamke Beumer Janssen is a Dutch actress and former fashion model. She is known for playing the villainous Bond girl Xenia Onatopp in GoldenEye and Jean Grey/Phoenix in the X-Men film series .- Early life and education :...
as Trillian Saint James - Anthony HealdAnthony HealdPhilip Anthony Mair Heald, known professionally as Anthony Heald , is an American actor known for portraying Hannibal Lecter's jail nemesis, Dr. Frederick Chilton in The Silence of the Lambs and Red Dragon, and for playing assistant principal Scott Guber in David E. Kelley's Boston Public...
as Simon Canton - Kevin J. O'Connor as Joey "Tooch" Pantucci
- Wes StudiWes StudiWesley "Wes" Studi is a Cherokee actor, who has earned notability for his portrayal of Native Americans in film. He has appeared in well-received Academy Award-winning films, such as Kevin Costner's Dances with Wolves, Michael Mann's The Last of the Mohicans, the award-winning Geronimo: An...
as Hanover - Derrick O'ConnorDerrick O'ConnorDerrick O'Connor is an Irish character actor, mostly known for his roles in Terry Gilliam films. He was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company....
as Captain Atherton - Jason FlemyngJason FlemyngJason Iain Flemyng is an English actor. He is known for his film work, which has included roles in British films such as Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch , both for Guy Ritchie, as well as Hollywood productions such as Rob Roy along with the Alan Moore comic book adaptations From...
as Mulligan - Cliff CurtisCliff CurtisClifford Vivian Devon "Cliff" Curtis is a New Zealand actor who has had major roles in film, including The Piano, Whale Rider, and Blow, and most recently has appeared in NBC's television series Trauma. He is also co-owner of independent film production company Whenua Films...
as Mamooli - Clifton PowellClifton Powell-Movie career:Powell is known for playing the role of Pinky in the 2000 comedy film, Next Friday and its 2002 sequel, Friday After Next. Powell stars also in the Indie thriller Chain Letter.In 2009 he played "Bowman" in the film Just Another Day...
as Mason - Trevor GoddardTrevor GoddardTrevor Goddard was an English actor. He played Kano in the first Mortal Kombat movie and Lieutenant Commander Mic Brumby on JAG.-Career:Goddard was born in Croydon, Surrey, England, in 1962...
as T-Ray Jones - Djimon HounsouDjimon HounsouDjimon Diaw Hounsou is a Beninese actor and model. As an actor, Hounsou has been nominated for two Academy Awards.-Early life:Djimon Hounsou was born in Cotonou, Benin, in 1964, to lbertine and Pierre Hounsou, a cook. He emigrated to Lyon in France at the age of thirteen with his brother, Edmond....
as Vivo - Clint Curtis as Billy
- Una DamonUna DamonUna Damon is an actress. She was born in South Korea and lives in the United States.Her film credits include Gattaca, The Truman Show, Deep Impact, Deep Rising and Spider-Man. Damon has acted in numerous television shows including Curb Your Enthusiasm, Charmed, Chicago Hope, and The Closer...
as Leila
Reception
The film received mostly negative reviews. A Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
"Rotten" rating of 30% based on 27 reviews, 0% of top critics based on five reviews and 44% of the user score based on 165 reviews. It also made Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
's most hated films list. In his own words, "[Deep Rising] is essentially an Alien
Alien (film)
Alien is a 1979 science fiction horror film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm and Yaphet Kotto. The film's title refers to its primary antagonist: a highly aggressive extraterrestrial creature which...
clone with a fresh paint job."
On its opening weekend it made $4,737,793 (42% of its total gross), ranking #8.
Deep Rising ended up being a box office bomb
Box office bomb
The phrase box office bomb refers to a film for which the production and marketing costs greatly exceeded the revenue regained by the movie studio. This should not be confused with Hollywood accounting when official figures show large losses, yet the movie is a financial success.A film's financial...
, with total intake of a little over $11,000,000 on a $45,000,000 budget.
