Sunday, November 3, 2013

Six Things: Six Scuba Movies (Say that five times fast!)

Wisconsinites know that winter can be an awfully cruel season, but divers, unless they are into ice diving, or have unlimited funds for dive travel, take the long cold stretch of the season harder than most. One thing that helps me get through the cold nights is curling up with a good (or campy or bad) scuba movie.  So, here are six selections I like(in no particular order):

Sanctum: Scary in its realism.
For me, this one fits in nicely with other horror films, in addition to being one of the few diving movies that does not use sharks as their instrument of fear.  It taps into the fear of extreme overhead environments and exploring them.  Cave diving is a highly specialized skill and when in an unexplored cave, let alone underwater in an unexplored cave, there are many ways to die, and Sanctum touches several of them.   In this film, which was inspired by actual events, a world renowned cave explorer is looking for the way to get from the opening of Esa’ala cave in New Guinea, to its exit into the sea.  It teaches lessons such as, “It is not good to take short cuts,( like neglecting to bring bail out bottles)”, and “Don’t dive if you are not fully up to the task,” and remember all your training, even stuff like “free flow regulator breathing.”  I think this one is technically pretty authentic. 


Thunderball: James Bond thriller
Seeing the remnant of the sunken plane used in this film is what inspired Mike and me to learn to dive.  In addition, if you were wondering where they came up with all the crazy characters in the first Austin Powers movie, viewing Thunderball will make it all clear.  In this classic James Bond film starring Sean Connery, the dashing Bond must outwit  Spectre’s Number 1 in a race to retrieve two atomic bombs somewhere under the Bahamian waters.  Among the cool Bond gadgets is a tiny mouth held scuba tank, and a jetpack.  Again, plenty of bikini clad women and brushes with sharks keep the plot moving.

The Abyss: Science fiction with aliens.
During the cold war, an American nuclear sub mysteriously goes on the fritz and sinks several hundred feet into the ocean and on the edge of the abyss.  Believing that the Reds must be involved in this mishap, a Navy SEALS team is deployed to salvage the sub’s missiles, but that they must get help from the diving crew on a deep water oil drilling rig nearby.  The intrepid crew soon realizes that the Reds are the least of their worries as they find themselves in a fight to stop WWIII.  At one point though, Ed Harris and the crew are trying to revive a drowned Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio using breaths and defibrillation only techniques.  So no one on this mission has proper first aid training? Lots of scary special effects in this Sci-Fi thriller.

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou : Comedy
Steve Zissou (Bill Murray) is sort of a Jacque Cousteau character, but grief stricken and on a quest to avenge his best friend’s death by killing a fluorescent shark.  It has its funny moments.  Also starring in this film are Angelica Houston, Owen Wilson, Jeff Goldblum and Willem Dafoe.  This movie inspired the Team Manta tuque.  I am still looking for the right speedo, though!  



The Deep Blue Sea  : Science fiction without aliens.
  (clip about the making of this film)

This movie can’t miss with the like of Samuel L. Jackson, LLCool J, Saffron Burrows and Michael Rappaport.  In this film, a group of scientists are working on a cure for Alzheimer’s disease, using shark brains.  The bad thing is that in the process, they made the sharks smarter, and are they teed off that someone’s been fooling with their brains!  Lots of great special effects, but it is fun to look for mistakes.

See if you can spot these!

Lady in Cement: Campy detective movie
This is a great one with Frank Sinatra, Rachel Welch and DAN BLOCKER (Jeeze, he looks huge next to Sinatra!).  I love these movies from the day when scuba was new and the sea so dangerous and full of mystery.  Back then, scuba was for only those interested in an early death. Everyone wore shiny black neoprene and giant coffee can size masks.  Sharks were everywhere: impossible to avoid, but no worries.  The diver need only stab him with his knife and that shark is history!  This is a fun one for it’s classic detective vibe. 



What are your favorite scuba movies?  20,000 Leagues Under the Sea? Into the Blue with Jessica Alba? The deep with Nick Nolte?  Finding Nemo?

No comments:

Post a Comment