Leviathan (1989) – A Movie A Day 2021 #31
Leviathan (1989) – A Movie A Day 2021 #31
Back in 1989, a cluster of underwater movies were released that would leave me with a life-long fascination with the deep sea. The Abyss is by far the most famous and successful of these water-logged sci-fi films, but it wasn’t the first of the bunch to be released. Presumably other filmmakers were aware of James Cameron’s underwater alien movie during its long production, and they probably figured they might as well try to capitalize on the growing hype for The Abyss. One of those movies that beat The Abyss to theaters is Leviathan, and that is today’s movie of the day.
I think I’ve seen Leviathan before, but it’s been decades, and I didn’t remember anything about. For years, I would confuse Leviathan with DeepStar Six, another similar movie that came out even earlier in 1989, but I think that’s just because I’ve seen DeepStar Six a few times over the years while I’ve only seen Leviathan maybe once. Well, now I’ve seen it twice, and Leviathan is now firmly planted in my brain as one of the better underwater sci-fi horror movies.
Leviathan features a setup that has been used in numerous underwater and outer-space movies. A crew of eccentric misfits is isolated in a vaguely near-futuristic facility where they are mining for natural resources The crew is led by Steven Beck (Peter Weller), a geologist who seems to have been wrangled into doing a job he doesn’t enjoy and isn’t even really qualified for. Beck does not have the respect of his crew as the movie begins, and that lack of respect is going to be tested when things get worse for everyone very soon. Beck’s crew includes a slightly elitist doctor who goes by “Doc” (Richard Crenna), a serious and disciplined athlete named Elizabeth “Willie” Williams (Amanda Pays), a skeptical and aggressive worker named Justin Jones (Ernie Hudson), the offensive and chauvinistic comic relief called “Sixpack” (Daniel Stern), and a few other crew members who don’t necessarily last long enough to make huge impressions. The cast is fantastic, and they do a great job making this very familiar-feeling movie even better than it might have been otherwise.
The story involves the crew discovering a sunken Russian ship, The Leviathan, and bringing some of the ship’s items back into their own facility. Beck and Doc are only starting to learn about what happened to the ship’s crew and why The Leviathan was apparently intentionally sunk when one of Beck’s crew begins to feel ill. That crew member doesn’t last long, and that begins a snowball effect that leads to a fight for survival that feels like a mash-up of John Carpenter’s The Thing and Ridley Scott’s Alien, only it’s happening underwater as opposed to in space or in the snow. Those are two great movies to emulate, and the quality of Leviathan helps it transcend what might otherwise just feel like a blatant rip-off.
Leviathan is directed by George Cosmatos who also directed Rambo: First Blood Part II and Cobra in the years prior to Leviathan. Rambo: First Blood Part II is one of the greatest action movies of all time, so Leviathan definitely has some great action scenes. The writers of Leviathan are Jeb Stuart (who previously wrote Die Hard) and David Webb Peoples (who previously wrote Blade Runner), Stan Winston studios did the special effects, and Jerry Goldsmith did the music. So yeah, the crew is just as fantastic as the cast.
Leviathan is essentially a straightforward genre movie, and for what it is I think it’s great. I don’t think it broke as much new ground as The Abyss as far as its concept and filmmaking techniques go, but Leviathan is an incredibly fun and well made horror movie. The two films can’t really be compared directly anyway since their purposes and tones are so different, so I won’t even try. I’ll just say that I love them both.