Taglines: They seized the world’s richest ship… But no one’s on board!
Deep Rising movie storyline. Amidst a storm, Finnegan (Treat Williams) and his crew, Joey (Kevin J. O’Connor) and Leila, are hired by a group of mercenaries led by Hanover (Wes Studi) to pilot their boat across the South China Sea to an undisclosed location in the middle of the ocean.
Meanwhile, the luxury cruise ship Argonautica, the brainchild of Simon Canton (Anthony Heald), is undertaking its maiden voyage, when a saboteur disables the ship’s navigation and communication systems. A large object rises from beneath and collides with the vessel, leaving it dead in the water, while the panicking passengers are attacked by unseen creatures.
Finnegan’s boat collides with a speedboat shaken loose during the collision, at which point the mercenaries take over and reveal they intend to rob the ship’s vault and passengers, before sinking it with torpedoes. The crew transfer over to the ship, leaving Leila and a mercenary behind to repair the boat, where they are both killed. The boarding party find only blood and no sign of any of the passengers.
Finnegan and Joey are forced down into the engine room to scavenge parts to repair their vessel’s engines, under guard of two mercenaries who are both killed; as they are escaping, they run into Trillian (Famke Janssen), a passenger who was imprisoned for stealing. Hanover’s group opens the vault to find Canton, Captain Atherton and three other passengers hiding and they explain that the ship was attacked by unknown creatures that killed everyone else on board.
After questioning, Canton is found to be responsible for the ship’s sabotage after having realised he created an unprofitable vessel, and hired the mercenaries to sink the ship so that he could collect on the insurance. The group is attacked by the creatures, revealed to be giant spike-covered tentacles, which eat Captain Atherton.
Canton theorises that the creatures are an extreme evolution of the Ottoia which liquefy their victims and then eject the carcass. With the rest of the mercenaries being killed, the survivors are herded towards the bow, where they find a “feeding room” full of skeletal remains. The creatures break through the hull, flooding the lower decks and separating the survivors. Hanover tries to sacrifice Joey to save himself, but is instead eaten himself.
Deep Rising is a 1998 American action horror film directed by Stephen Sommers and starring Treat Williams, Famke Janssen and Anthony Heald. It was distributed by Hollywood Pictures and Cinergi Pictures and released on January 30, 1998.
Stephen Sommers began writing the script to Deep Rising, then called Tentacle, when he worked at Hollywood Pictures in the mid-1990s. Claire Forlani was originally cast as Trillian St. James, but dropped out after just three days, due to creative differences with Sommers, and Famke Janssen was subsequently cast. Janssen almost did not get the part because the producers felt she was too recognizable[citation needed] from GoldenEye, but they relented. Harrison Ford turned down the role of John Finnegan, which later went to Treat Williams, and the film’s budget was later downsized.
Filming for Deep Rising began on June 12, 1996 and lasted until October 18 of that year. The film was originally set for release in the fall of 1997, but was delayed until the following January. Industrial Light and Magic was responsible for the film’s special effects while Rob Bottin who had previously worked on The Thing and on Paul Verhoven’s RoboCop was hired as the special makeup effects designer. The exterior shots of the cruise ship Argonautica was created by CGI, and is an original design not based on any existing vessel.
Deep Rising (1998)
Directed by: Stephen Sommers
Starring: Treat Williams, Famke Janssen, Anthony Heald, Kevin J. O’Connor, Wes Studi, Derrick O’Connor, Jason Flemyng, Djimon Hounsou, Cliff Curtis
Screenplay by: Stephen Sommers
Production Design by: Holger Gross
Cinematography by: Howard Atherton
Film Editing by: Bob Ducsay, John Wright
Costume Design by: Joseph A. Porro
Set Decoration by: Annmarie Corbett, Rose Marie McSherry
Art Direction by: Sandy Cochrane, Kevin Ishioka
Music by: Jerry Goldsmith
MPAA Rating: R for sci-fi violence and gore.
Distributed by: Buena Vista Pictures
Release Date: January 30, 1998
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