The Abyss is probably the most underrated film on James Cameron's CV - it's a brilliant, tense thriller that will really get you thinking and has no bones about throwing its characters into danger in the ocean. The CGI is brilliant for the time period and features many of the techniques Jim Cameron would hone in Terminator 2: Judgement Day. Due to the insane amount of water involved, the actors were soaking wet for about 90% of their time making the film. In the film, Ed Harris runs out of oxygen when scuba diving and promptly begins suffocating. When filming it, Harris assumed this would be faked and felt relatively certain that he had plenty of oxygen in his tank, but he was wrong and he didn't. James Cameron made sure that the oxygen did actually run out and Harris began to suffocate for real, ensuring that Cameron got the realistic performance he wanted. Does this not just prove how unbelievably insane Jim Cameron is? Drowning lead actors, employing Kate Winslet, building a full sized Titanic replica interior and filling it with freezing cold water: all I'm saying is it might be a good idea to sleep with one eye open if you get hired to be in one of his films, you know? When Harris found out, he apparently floored James Cameron, going on record and saying he'll never work with him again. So far, he hasn't.
