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Leviathan
Underwater deep-sea miners encounter a Soviet wreck and bring back a dangerous cargo to their base on the ocean floor with horrifying results. The crew of the mining base must fight to survive against a genetic mutation that hunts them down one by one.
1989 · Directed by George P. Cosmatos · 98 min · Adventure · Horror · Thriller · Science Fiction · Screenplay in the scene database · 17 frames
Tagline
How long can you hold your breath?
Plot
Ms. Martin, the CEO of Tri-Oceanic Corp., hires geologist Steven Beck to supervise an undersea mining operation for three months. The crew consists of members Glen "Doc" Thompson, Elizabeth "Willie" Williams, Buzz "Sixpack" Parrish, Justin Jones, Tony DeJesus Rodero, Bridget Bowman and G.P. Cobb. While working outside their deep-sea station in a pressure suit, Sixpack discovers a Soviet shipwreck, Leviathan. The crew salvages a safe from Leviathan, finding records detailing the deaths of several crew members as well as a video log from the captain. Sixpack also finds a flask of vodka which he shares with Bowman. Doc and Beck review the captain's video, which describes puzzling medical problems amongst his crew. They also discover that Leviathan was scuttled.
The following morning, Sixpack feels sick and Doc discovers lesions along his back. Sixpack dies a few hours later, but Doc and Beck keep it quiet to avoid a panic. Doc checks the crew to confirm no one else is showing Sixpack's symptoms but does not have the chance to examine Bowman. While Beck and Doc confer with Martin on the surface, Bowman begins feeling ill. She finds Sixpack's corpse, which is mutating and growing. When Bowman's hair starts falling out, she realizes the same thing is happening to her. Beck and Doc request emergency evacuation, but Martin reports a severe storm on the surface that will delay evacuation for twelve hours.
Doc finds that Bowman has committed suicide. Her body is taken to the station's sick bay, where it merges with Sixpack's. When Doc and Beck discover the mutating bodies, they decide to dump both in the ocean. Just as they are about to "flush" the cadavers, the body bag begins squirming. Believing someone inside may be alive, the crew opens it. The creature inside claws Cobb before they eject it. The team realizes that Leviathan was experimenting on its unwitting crew with mutagens containing piscine DNA. The mutagen was mixed with the vodka that the crew, and later Sixpack and Bowman, drank. The ship was scuttled when the experiment spiraled out of control.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Screenplay: Jeb Stuart, David Webb Peoples
- Cinematography: Alex Thomson
- Edited by: John F. Burnett, Roberto Silvi
- Music: Jerry Goldsmith
- Production design: Ron Cobb
- Produced by: Aurelio De Laurentiis, Luigi De Laurentiis
Cast
- Peter Weller as Steven Beck
- Richard Crenna as Dr. Glen 'Doc' Thompson
- Amanda Pays as Elizabeth 'Willie' Williams
- Daniel Stern as Buzz 'Sixpack' Parrish
- Ernie Hudson as Justin Jones
- Michael Carmine as Tony 'DeJesus' Rodero
- Lisa Eilbacher as Bridget Bowman
- Héctor Elizondo as C.P. Cobb
- Meg Foster as Ms. Martin
- Eugene Lipinski as Russian Ship Captain
Production
- Country: Italy, United States of America
- Language: English
- Studios: Gordon Company, Filmauro, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Leviathan Produzione
- Budget: $25,000,000
- Box office: $15,704,614
- Themes: sea, monster, experiment, alcohol, ocean, shipwreck, mine, scuba diving, sea monster, scuba
More by George P. Cosmatos
On this film
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