Deepstar Six
Encyclopedia
DeepStar Six is an American 1989 science fiction
horror film
about the struggles of the crew of an underwater military outpost to defend their base against the attacks of a monster (possibly, a giant eurypterid
).
The film's main principal starring lead actors and supporting players included Taurean Blacque
, Nancy Everhard
, Cindy Pickett
, Miguel Ferrer
and Matt McCoy
. DeepStar Six is one of myriad underwater-themed movies released around 1989, including Leviathan, The Evil Below
, Lords of the Deep
, The Rift
(Endless Descent) and The Abyss
, the latter of which was the only successful entry among these aforementioned movies both at the box office and with film critics.
) wants to perform further studies into the sea cave however Dr. Van Gelder does not wish to jeopardize the DeepStar project by destroying the cave.
After Osborne (Ronn Carroll) and Hodges (Thom Bray
) blast the cave open, they explore it with an unmanned vehicle, but mysteriously lose it while scanning; they trace the pod in the cave in a small submarine when they are attacked by a mysterious being. Joyce Collins (Nancy Everhard
) loses contact and tells Snyder (Miguel Ferrer
) to get help, but before Snyder manages to contact Van Gelder, the station is attacked again by the mysterious creature and is damaged and slowly gets flooded, gradually sliding towards the rift in the ocean floor; the contact is lost. Commander of the station, Captain Laidlaw (Taurean Blacque
) and McBride (who shares romantic relationship with Collins, unaware that she actually expects his baby) go to rescue them, but are nearly attacked by the same creature. Only McBride and Joyce make it out; Laidlaw gets his backbone crushed by a falling door inside the station and commits suicide by flooding the station.
Facing the deaths of four crew members (Hodges and Osborne in the mini-sub; Laidlaw and Burciaga (Elya Baskin) in the flooded station) and loss of equipment, the higher command gives green light for abandoning the station. First they have to secure the missiles; as Cpt. Laidlaw is dead, Snyder (presumably a military supervisor on behalf of the Navy) is ordered to make a report and follow procedure according to the computer instructions. Because the creature was "very aggressive" Snyder reports the situation caused by "aggression" (IE. attack by an enemy) and the computer orders the missiles be detonated for safety. Snyder follows the orders without question; the resulting shock wave badly damages Deepstar Six station and the crew is forced to abandon it (its nuclear reactor - main power source - is damaged beyond repair and will soon get supercritical and explode), but cannot because they need to decompress before getting to the surface; unfortunately, the decompression chamber is also damaged by the shock wave. The crew figures out a means to restore pressure to safely leave the station, but while Richardson is sent to repair external damage he is attacked by the mysterious sea creature, revealed to be a huge reptilian/crustacean with lobster-like mouth, crab claws and a reptilian tail. Richardson manages to get back into the air lock but before he can get out of his diving suit, water gushes into the station and the creature gets inside, ripping Richardson in half. Scarpelli (who was earlier shown having romantic relationship with Richardson), shocked by his bloody demise, is attacked next and the remaining crew runs to higher ground to regroup and arm themselves against the creature. Snyder is given a pressurized harpoon while the rest of the crew use shotguns. They have to complete specific repairs to the station to leave and so they re-enter the water filled station area armed and intentionally throw lights to distract the creature (who was earlier seen to move towards the light sources; Richardson was attacked when he was welding with the electric arc underwater). When the creature emerges from the water, Van Gelder inadvertently backs into Snyder's compressed gas spear weapon and is punctured with a carbon dioxide charge, which explodes, rupturing his heart.
Snyder at this point has become mentally unstable as his anxiety and guilt has made him erratic. He panics when he hallucinates a dead Van Gelder returning for him. Dr. Norris gives him some drugs to calm his nerves, but it is not enough; he suffers from complete emotional breakdown and he runs to the only one emergency escape pod. Snyder leaves Deepstar Six without having his body adjusted to surface pressure; he "explodes" from the pressure during rapid ascent. Meanwhile Dr. Norris, McBride, and Joyce are stuck in the station and McBride risks swimming to the mini-sub in complete darkness and silence, to use it as an escaping pod. The creature manages to enter the room with Dr.Norris and Collins and attack them. Joyce manages to escape to the decompression chamber; Dr. Norris distracts the creature; tells Joyce to leave (she knows Collins expects McBride's baby) and tries to take the creature with her, putting defibrillator paddles in the water and administering strong electric shock; she dies in the process and the creature is supposedly also killed.
After Collins and McBride finish decompression, they leave in a mini-sub a few minutes before the reactor explodes. As they reach the surface they inflate a life raft but the creature suddenly bursts from the ocean and attacks them. McBride distracts the creature while Joyce stays on their emergency raft. McBride ejects the mini-sub's fuel and ignites it with a flare gun. The sub explodes, killing the creature. Joyce first thinks that McBride died, but he survived by diving into the ocean under the exploding sub and they start rowing across the ocean, waiting for the navy rescue team to arrive.
Science fiction film
Science fiction film is a film genre that uses science fiction: speculative, science-based depictions of phenomena that are not necessarily accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial life forms, alien worlds, extrasensory perception, and time travel, often along with futuristic...
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...
about the struggles of the crew of an underwater military outpost to defend their base against the attacks of a monster (possibly, a giant eurypterid
Eurypterid
Eurypterids are an extinct group of arthropods related to arachnids which include the largest known arthropods that ever lived. They are members of the extinct order Eurypterida ; which is the most diverse Paleozoic chelicerate order in terms of species...
).
The film's main principal starring lead actors and supporting players included Taurean Blacque
Taurean Blacque
Taurean Blacque is an American television and stage actor, best known for his role as Detective Neal Washington on the series Hill Street Blues...
, Nancy Everhard
Nancy Everhard
Nancy Everhard is an American actress.-Career:Everhard debuted in a small supporting role in the TV drama Born Beautiful from the year 1982. After numerous guest appearances in television series, she appeared in 1989 in the horror movie demo Stone next to Jan-Michael Vincent in a larger role...
, Cindy Pickett
Cindy Pickett
Cindy Lou Pickett is an American actress best known for her 1970s role as Jackie Marler-Spaulding on the CBS soap Guiding Light; her role as Dr. Carol Novino on the hugely popular television drama St...
, Miguel Ferrer
Miguel Ferrer
Miguel José Ferrer is an American actor and voice actor who is often cast as a villain. His notable roles include Bob Morton, a supporting character in RoboCop , the short tempered FBI agent Albert Rosenfield in Twin Peaks, and Dr...
and Matt McCoy
Matt McCoy (actor)
Matt McCoy is an American actor.McCoy was born in Ohio. Since starring as Sgt. Nick Lassard in two Police Academy films, his motion picture credits have included the Curtis Hanson films The Hand That Rocks the Cradle and L.A. Confidential , as well as the action comedy National Security ...
. DeepStar Six is one of myriad underwater-themed movies released around 1989, including Leviathan, The Evil Below
The Evil Below
The Evil Below is a 1989 horror film about an adventurer who goes hunting for treasure on a cursed shipwreck.Starring actors included Paul Siebert and June Chadwick.The movie has never been released on a region 1 DVD....
, Lords of the Deep
Lords of the Deep
Lords of the Deep is a 1989 science fiction/horror film about an underwater colony being attacked by alien life forms.Starring actors included Bradford Dillman and Priscilla Barnes....
, The Rift
The Rift (film)
The Rift is a 1989 film directed by Juan Piquer Simón and starring R. Lee Ermey involving a submarine rescue that goes awry. It is one of many underwater-themed movies released around 1989, including The Abyss, Leviathan, Deepstar Six, The Evil Below and Lords of the Deep.-Cast:*Jack Scalia as...
(Endless Descent) and The Abyss
The Abyss
The Abyss is a 1989 science fiction film written and directed by James Cameron. It stars Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, and Michael Biehn. The original musical score was composed by Alan Silvestri...
, the latter of which was the only successful entry among these aforementioned movies both at the box office and with film critics.
Plot
The crew of a scientific ocean floor station "DeepStar Six", is funded by the Navy, and is expected to perform scientific studies as well as install an underwater nuclear missile silo. While checking on the area they are assigned to create the silo, they discover an underwater cave created through undersea magma which is supposedly millions of years old. The crew's marine biologist, Dr. Scarpelli (Nia PeeplesNia Peeples
Virenia Gwendolyn "Nia" Peeples is an American R&B and dance music singer and actress. She is perhaps best known for her role as Nicole Chapman on Fame...
) wants to perform further studies into the sea cave however Dr. Van Gelder does not wish to jeopardize the DeepStar project by destroying the cave.
After Osborne (Ronn Carroll) and Hodges (Thom Bray
Thom Bray
Thomas Edward "Thom" Bray is an American actor perhaps best known for his role as Murray "Boz" Bozinsky in the detective TV series Riptide....
) blast the cave open, they explore it with an unmanned vehicle, but mysteriously lose it while scanning; they trace the pod in the cave in a small submarine when they are attacked by a mysterious being. Joyce Collins (Nancy Everhard
Nancy Everhard
Nancy Everhard is an American actress.-Career:Everhard debuted in a small supporting role in the TV drama Born Beautiful from the year 1982. After numerous guest appearances in television series, she appeared in 1989 in the horror movie demo Stone next to Jan-Michael Vincent in a larger role...
) loses contact and tells Snyder (Miguel Ferrer
Miguel Ferrer
Miguel José Ferrer is an American actor and voice actor who is often cast as a villain. His notable roles include Bob Morton, a supporting character in RoboCop , the short tempered FBI agent Albert Rosenfield in Twin Peaks, and Dr...
) to get help, but before Snyder manages to contact Van Gelder, the station is attacked again by the mysterious creature and is damaged and slowly gets flooded, gradually sliding towards the rift in the ocean floor; the contact is lost. Commander of the station, Captain Laidlaw (Taurean Blacque
Taurean Blacque
Taurean Blacque is an American television and stage actor, best known for his role as Detective Neal Washington on the series Hill Street Blues...
) and McBride (who shares romantic relationship with Collins, unaware that she actually expects his baby) go to rescue them, but are nearly attacked by the same creature. Only McBride and Joyce make it out; Laidlaw gets his backbone crushed by a falling door inside the station and commits suicide by flooding the station.
Facing the deaths of four crew members (Hodges and Osborne in the mini-sub; Laidlaw and Burciaga (Elya Baskin) in the flooded station) and loss of equipment, the higher command gives green light for abandoning the station. First they have to secure the missiles; as Cpt. Laidlaw is dead, Snyder (presumably a military supervisor on behalf of the Navy) is ordered to make a report and follow procedure according to the computer instructions. Because the creature was "very aggressive" Snyder reports the situation caused by "aggression" (IE. attack by an enemy) and the computer orders the missiles be detonated for safety. Snyder follows the orders without question; the resulting shock wave badly damages Deepstar Six station and the crew is forced to abandon it (its nuclear reactor - main power source - is damaged beyond repair and will soon get supercritical and explode), but cannot because they need to decompress before getting to the surface; unfortunately, the decompression chamber is also damaged by the shock wave. The crew figures out a means to restore pressure to safely leave the station, but while Richardson is sent to repair external damage he is attacked by the mysterious sea creature, revealed to be a huge reptilian/crustacean with lobster-like mouth, crab claws and a reptilian tail. Richardson manages to get back into the air lock but before he can get out of his diving suit, water gushes into the station and the creature gets inside, ripping Richardson in half. Scarpelli (who was earlier shown having romantic relationship with Richardson), shocked by his bloody demise, is attacked next and the remaining crew runs to higher ground to regroup and arm themselves against the creature. Snyder is given a pressurized harpoon while the rest of the crew use shotguns. They have to complete specific repairs to the station to leave and so they re-enter the water filled station area armed and intentionally throw lights to distract the creature (who was earlier seen to move towards the light sources; Richardson was attacked when he was welding with the electric arc underwater). When the creature emerges from the water, Van Gelder inadvertently backs into Snyder's compressed gas spear weapon and is punctured with a carbon dioxide charge, which explodes, rupturing his heart.
Snyder at this point has become mentally unstable as his anxiety and guilt has made him erratic. He panics when he hallucinates a dead Van Gelder returning for him. Dr. Norris gives him some drugs to calm his nerves, but it is not enough; he suffers from complete emotional breakdown and he runs to the only one emergency escape pod. Snyder leaves Deepstar Six without having his body adjusted to surface pressure; he "explodes" from the pressure during rapid ascent. Meanwhile Dr. Norris, McBride, and Joyce are stuck in the station and McBride risks swimming to the mini-sub in complete darkness and silence, to use it as an escaping pod. The creature manages to enter the room with Dr.Norris and Collins and attack them. Joyce manages to escape to the decompression chamber; Dr. Norris distracts the creature; tells Joyce to leave (she knows Collins expects McBride's baby) and tries to take the creature with her, putting defibrillator paddles in the water and administering strong electric shock; she dies in the process and the creature is supposedly also killed.
After Collins and McBride finish decompression, they leave in a mini-sub a few minutes before the reactor explodes. As they reach the surface they inflate a life raft but the creature suddenly bursts from the ocean and attacks them. McBride distracts the creature while Joyce stays on their emergency raft. McBride ejects the mini-sub's fuel and ignites it with a flare gun. The sub explodes, killing the creature. Joyce first thinks that McBride died, but he survived by diving into the ocean under the exploding sub and they start rowing across the ocean, waiting for the navy rescue team to arrive.
Cast
- Taurean BlacqueTaurean BlacqueTaurean Blacque is an American television and stage actor, best known for his role as Detective Neal Washington on the series Hill Street Blues...
as Captain Phillip Laidlaw - Nancy EverhardNancy EverhardNancy Everhard is an American actress.-Career:Everhard debuted in a small supporting role in the TV drama Born Beautiful from the year 1982. After numerous guest appearances in television series, she appeared in 1989 in the horror movie demo Stone next to Jan-Michael Vincent in a larger role...
as Joyce Collins - Cindy PickettCindy PickettCindy Lou Pickett is an American actress best known for her 1970s role as Jackie Marler-Spaulding on the CBS soap Guiding Light; her role as Dr. Carol Novino on the hugely popular television drama St...
as Dr. Diane Norris - Miguel FerrerMiguel FerrerMiguel José Ferrer is an American actor and voice actor who is often cast as a villain. His notable roles include Bob Morton, a supporting character in RoboCop , the short tempered FBI agent Albert Rosenfield in Twin Peaks, and Dr...
as Snyder - Greg EviganGreg EviganGregory Ralph "Greg" Evigan is an American actor best known for the TV series B.J. and the Bear, My Two Dads, P.S. I Luv U and TekWar.-Personal life:...
as McBride - Matt McCoyMatt McCoy (actor)Matt McCoy is an American actor.McCoy was born in Ohio. Since starring as Sgt. Nick Lassard in two Police Academy films, his motion picture credits have included the Curtis Hanson films The Hand That Rocks the Cradle and L.A. Confidential , as well as the action comedy National Security ...
as James 'Jim' Richardson - Nia PeeplesNia PeeplesVirenia Gwendolyn "Nia" Peeples is an American R&B and dance music singer and actress. She is perhaps best known for her role as Nicole Chapman on Fame...
as Scarpelli - Marius WeyersMarius WeyersMarius Weyers is a South African actor. He received international attention playing Andrew Steyn in the movie The Gods Must Be Crazy . He recently starred in Blood Diamond.-Selected filmography:...
as Dr. John Van Gelder - Elya Baskin as Burciaga
- Thom BrayThom BrayThomas Edward "Thom" Bray is an American actor perhaps best known for his role as Murray "Boz" Bozinsky in the detective TV series Riptide....
as John 'Johnny' Hodges - Ronn Carroll as Osborne