10 Images That Prove James Cameron Is Totally Insane

2. Filming The Abyss

Titanic's production might be well-known for the strain it put on the cast and crew, but there's one film from Cameron's repertoire that's even more notorious. The Abyss, shot in 1989, was a hugely ambitious undertaking that required much of the filming to take place underwater. Cameron decided to film The Abyss at the abandoned Cherokee Nuclear Power Plant, converting two tanks to contain over 10 million US gallons of water. Six modules were placed in the water, the interiors of which being where much of the filming took place. Much of the cast were extremely unhappy with working conditions in the cramped, underwater environment. At one point, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio yelled "we are not animals!" and stormed off set after the camera ran out of film during one of many takes of her death scene. James Cameron's response to the disgruntled cast members? "For every hour they spent trying to figure out what magazine to read, we spent an hour at the bottom of the tank breathing compressed air."