Please note that this post discussion is a post discussion! Therefore it’s full of spoilers and discloses information about the ENTIRE film, including the beginning middle and yes the ending, and also these films…Black Sea (2014) , Deep Star Six (1989) Leviathan (1998) , The Abyss (1989), Lifepod (1993)
So if you’ve not seen Pressure (2015) or any of the above, it’s probably better not to read on, instead please check out my spoiler free review here.
This film kind of plays in a subdued manner; it’s really four men trapped in a lifeboat situation but in contrast the film is sometimes very bloody and gut wrenching. There are some really vivid scenes, my favourite although one which is depicts a personal phobia of mine; is when the young boy Jones; has to have this tooth operated on using a large imposing knife. When the pod first drops to the bottom of the ocean, the lad starts screaming and thrashing about, the Neil Tennant lookalike Engel (Danny Huston) gets one of the other crew members to hold the boy’s mouth open while he shoves the blade in and does a little back street dentistry.
In between the frantic and desperate attempt to try and reach the surface and the bloody mouth here and there the film is littered with small hints of sentimentality all of the men involved in this tragic movie have family left behind; in some way or another, as this is the spoiler review only one of them makes it home alive although obviously scarred by what happened to him, and it’s noted that he makes it back to his girlfriend, but no other families are seen throughout the movie. Engle is a strange character, you often see him daydreaming about his family but there are undertones that suggest they have passed away.
One of the common key factors in movies like this where a small group have to come together to be in a confined space is that there is usually a lot of “team dynamics”. Maybe it was an 80’s thing? In Deep Star Six (1989) the team was very much a team, but they had a much bigger area to exist in, but even taking Lifepod (1993) into consideration. a small group of strangers are trying to rescue themselves and one of them is a killer, but even in a one room scenario there is mystery and depth. It can be done.. so chuffin do it.
The final scenes were actually quite distressing; not that it was terribly graphic but more because it seems to come at the end of a very long struggle, usually a rescue scene or break for freedom is seen as a huge relief that the struggle is over but in this case the pretty boy, who’s now the main character is liberated but in the case of young Jones it arrives in possibly the most painful way EVER! With Engle on the intercom;is the fatherly voice giving an overture to the boys break for freedom he gives him careful instructions and manages to talk to a boy step by step on how to make it from the dark depths of the ocean floor up to the bright surface. One of the more difficult aspects of the scene is that obviously, he wants the boy to succeed but also wants to be in his place. The setting Engle is speaking from is pretty calm despite the situation being desperate, the journey that Jones has to go through is quite horrific the young boy is pouring blood from his mouth either from the tooth they had to dislodge or the effects of the bends. While he’s making his ascent he’s constantly crying and screaming in pain from the air bubbles in a joint and at some point it seems that drowning might have been a less painful option.
While I was kinda wondering why the hell they didn’t do this in the first place, the predictable happened! Engle; in the madness and chaos of what’s left on the small vessel takes one last look at his locket and decides to swim to the surface himself but halfway up he just seem to give up. it’s as if the character wanted to try everything to make it to the surface but as a very last resort, it was always lingering in the back of his mind, from about halfway through the movie tbar he was never going to make it out alive anyway and it seems he wanted to be with his deceased loved ones.
There is very little in the way of a back story but I’d imagine that a sequel could be made and go either way, as Jones going down again with a new team, or an inquiry into the events that happened in this film. the latter would be a crappy film, but another deep sea adventure would be quite tantalising.
The film is well made, but it just doesn’t go places, the acting and dialogue is a little pretentious but there is no turn of events.The guys go down, there are some repeated attempts to get free, a comedic struggle with some jellyfish, blah blah blah then end. It doesn’t have any crazy encounters (apart from the Jellies) nothing supernatural or alien, or damned freakish. other deep sea films that that something, the Abyss had aliens and advanced technology, that was cool, Black Sea had some massive fight scenes.. this plods along trying to build tension but failing miserably. It just needed to be a little less dramatic school and a bit more gritty and to have some kind of meaning.
It’s peculiar why their ship just abandoned them and I was laughing when the Chinese ship that contacted them just logged off after they confirmed there were no Chinese nationals on the vessel, fuck, when someone asks you if there are Chinese people aboard, you say yes! If they ask to talk to them, say they are unconscious!
All in all there isn’t much to go into detail about, no huge mysteries to the simple film.
Admit One Film Addict 