The Abyss

Revealing mistake: After the water tentacle sequence, Coffee brings Schoenick back to their bunks to get the submachine gun, so they can take over the rig. The bag containing the gun is stashed behind some pipes up by the ceiling. Watch when he reaches behind the pipes to grab the bag--the pipes move at least six inches. (01:31:57)

rbryant73

Continuity mistake: When the SEALS take over, they lock up the crew. After closing the door on Ed Harris and the shouting Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, one of the SEALS hangs a hat over the spyhole. The next time we see the door, the spyhole isn't covered.

Revealing mistake: When the crane falls down in front of the rig and then over the cliff into the abyss it's as if the rig was already just a few yards away from the abyss but when the umbilical pulls the rig again (after Bud says to grab onto something) suddenly there's enough space for the rig to be dragged at least a few hundred yards as if the rig never moved from its touchdown position earlier in the film.

jbrbbt

Revealing mistake: Every time the aliens appear anything electrical shuts down but somehow Lindsay's camera is able to take pictures of the small NTI before the electricity powers back on.

jbrbbt

Revealing mistake: When Bud is unscrewing the trigger from the nuke down at the bottom of the abyss, there are no threads on the mechanism to require unscrewing. The part of the device that would have the threads is plainly visible.

Other mistake: When Ed Harris is dropping down the Abyss there are a couple of time that bubbles come out of his mouth or can be seen in his nostrils, even though he is supposed to have been breathing liquid for quite some time. (02:13:28)

Plot hole: Water pressure seems to be very picky in this film. It crushes Little Geek after passing 17,000 feet but somehow manages to leave Big Geek intact. Also if Big Geek could fall that amount of distance before imploding then why did Flatbed implode after only falling a few feet?

Revealing mistake: When he's on his way to send the nuke down the abyss, Coffee leaves the other SEALs to guard the rig's crew in the kitchen. He goes through a door, locks it and secures it with his belt, and then bangs on it to test its security. It moves more than a metal door in a metal housing would. (01:37:43)

rbryant73

Factual error: When disarming the nuke Bud is trying to figure out which one of the two wires to cut. With only two wires running between two separated modules (in the film, one part is unscrewed from the other) any current flowing through one wire must be returned through the other in order to conserved electric charge. Cutting either wire, in this case, will result in breaking the circuit. There is no way for either side of the circuit to detect which wire(s) were cut.

Factual error: When Bud is dropped onto the spacecraft floor by the alien who rescued him, air trapped in his suit comes off in large bubbles. At 18,000 feet bubbles would be compressed so far that they would be BB size. Also, with all the movement Bud experienced on the way down, no air could possibly have remained trapped in the folds of his suit.

Continuity mistake: When Ed Harris gets used to the Liquid Breathing Suit you can see air still in his helmet after he goes in the water. That shouldn't be! The purpose of the suit is to get any remaining air out for it to work. (02:10:25)

Revealing mistake: When the Benthic Explorer is lifted out of the water, the left screw is wobbling in the wind, revealing that it's a model. (02:34:00)

Continuity mistake: When Lindsay turns to see the UFO, she has cables running around her, but in the next shot, no cables.

kh1616

Character mistake: When Bud is doing mouth-to-mouth on Lindsay, he's not pinching her nose closed, so all the air he's breathing in is going straight out her nose.

kh1616

Visible crew/equipment: The ship is moving underwater and explosions are going off left and right. The main female character says she is going to check the battery room. As she goes, the camera is in front of her, and its shadow, including a microphone antenna are on her.

manthabeat

Plot hole: Why wasn't the umbilical to the "Explorer" unhooked from the rig after the rig was set down? Everyone knew things were going to get rough with the hurricane coming, so the umbilical should have been taken care of before the hurricane became a factor.

Factual error: During the flooding of the drill rig, Bud's wedding ring saves the day by preventing the barrier door from closing. Even titanium couldn't stop a moving hydraulic barrier, in ring form. It's very hard in terms of resisting scratches, but that doesn't mean it wouldn't deform or crack.

Nicki

Plot hole: Coffey uses the submersible "Big Geek" to carry the armed nuclear bomb to the NTIs. If Coffey was that desperate to blow up the aliens, he could have much more easily set the timer for 30 minutes, driven one of the submersibles far out over the abyss past the drop-off, and simply dropped the bomb down and let it sink under it's own weight.

Watcher1

Continuity mistake: When the crane breaks off and falls into the water, it JUST misses the rig by a few feet (very visible when they're looking out of the window). Then the crane falls off of the edge and starts to pull the rig. The rig is pulled much farther than the previously shown distance to the edge.

Minerva

Bud Brigman: The guy is on his own, he's cut off from his chain of command, he's showing signs of pressure-induced psychosis, and he has a nuclear weapon. So as a personal favour to me, could you put your tongue in neutral for a while?!

More quotes from The Abyss

Trivia: The dead sailor harbouring a live crab, spooking Jammer out of his wits in the sunk submarine, is director James Cameron's younger brother Mike. The scene had to be shot several times to get it right, forcing Mike to hold the live crabs in his mouth, until the cry for "action", before releasing them. At one point he had to crush one with his teeth, as it gave him quite a bit of grief. Brotherly love immortalized.

More trivia for The Abyss

Question: What was Lindsey referring to when she called Coffey "Roger Ramjet"?

Answer: Roger Ramjet was a 1960's American cartoon character who was extremely patriotic, but dimwitted.

BaconIsMyBFF

Answer: She's comparing the overzealous, gung-ho Coffey to the 1960s cartoon character, Roger Ramjet, a frenetic, extremely patriotic, though not particularly bright American-hero guy. He worked for the U.S. government and routinely saved the world, using energy pills that gave him brief increased strength.

raywest

Answer: Dudley Do-right, Inspector Clouseau or Maxwell Smart, only in a '50's space cartoon, that's Roger Ramjet (I imagine Buzz Lightyear is the nearest pop cultural successor).

dizzyd

More questions & answers from The Abyss

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.