Fox (Anniversary) Friday: Aliens

To wrap up this Friday of Fox, it's time to celebrate the release of one of my favorite movies of all time, Aliens.  Hitting theaters on this day in 1986, James Cameron's war movie sequel to Ridley Scott's 1979 atmospheric slasher flick has been a constant in my life since that fateful Saturday night I saw it on cable as a child.  Just this year I've met Lance Henriksen and read his book, been on a plane with Michael Biehn, seen Bill Paxton at his first conventions, stood outside a restroom next to Ricco Ross, witnessed the cast reunite in another country, listened to stories from James Cameron and Sigourney Weaver and seen the movie twice on the big screen.  What's so fab about it?  I dunno, I've just always enjoyed the simmering pace that builds to exciting crescendos, the intricate yet large scale and lived in design, the cast of likeable and memorable characters, an amazing score, fantastic practical creature and model f/x, the terrific cast and just the feeling of being transported to a world not your own. 

It was also the film that introduced me to James Cameron, Michael Biehn, Bill Paxton and Lance Henriksen, who's work has always been among my favorite.  Cameron of course gave us classics The Terminator, The Abyss and True Lies before becoming the most successful director of all time with Titanic and then Avatar.  He's an inspirational fellow and reminds us to educate ourselves while seeking out new challenges to take on.  Starting with sensitive yet capable men of action roles in The Terminator as Kyle Reese and Corporal Hicks in Aliens, Michael Biehn has been one of my favorite actors for a long time.  His subsequent performances in Rampage, Navy Seals, Timebomb, K2, Tombstone, The Rock, Dead Men Can't Dance, The Art of War, Cherry Falls, Dragon Squad and Planet Terror show his abilities as an intense dramatic actor and under the radar action star whose inclusion always elevates a film's likeability factor.  Frequent co-star Bill Paxton nearly steals the show in Aliens as the squawking, high-strung yet hilarious Private Hudson and adds a goofy charm to just about anything he's in like Streets of Fire, Next of Kin, Predator 2, True Lies, Twister, Vertical Limit and the recent Edge of Tomorrow.  Gravelly voiced presence Lance Henriksen would also work with Cameron several times and class up joints like Stone Cold, Tales From the Crypt, Hard Target, No Escape, The Quick and the Dead, Alien VS Predator and Abominable later on while also just being a pretty cool dude.  After seeing their natural chemistry and skills at playing interesting, cool, fun and plain kick ass characters in 3-4 James Cameron films each, you just wish they'd keep on going appearing together in more films.  Maybe in Avatar 2 or 22...

Made for $18 million, James Cameron and producer Gale Ann Hurd set out to utilize the world that Scott's film had created but move in a different direction tonally to create a war film/roller coaster ride experience.  After battling a stubborn English crew seemingly more interested in tea time and group lottery pools, Cameron and company completed the film after 10 months.  Aliens opened up #1 on July 18th, 1986 with a $10 million dollar gross and retained the top position for 4 weeks on it's way to $85 million dollars, making it Fox's biggest hit of the year.  Since then, Cameron has only made one film outside the studio, 1991's biggest hit, Terminator 2: Judgment Day.  Aliens' performance was good enough for 7th on the years top grossers list behind the likes of Top Gun, Crocodile Dundee, Platoon, The Karate Kid II, Star Trek IV and Back to School.  Other notable titles released in the same year includes Transformers: The Movie, Highlander, Big Trouble In Little China, Heartbreak Ridge and The Golden Child.  The legacy of Aliens has lived on through 3 so-so sequels, 2 films with the creatures facing off with fellow Fox franchise Predator along with comic books, novels, video games and toys galore.

Ask Me a (Hero Complex) Question: The Terminator w/ James Cameron

This weekend marks the Los Angeles Times' 5th annual Hero Complex Film Festival, 3 days of genre films and special guests.  In years past I've seen Robocop w/ Peter Weller, Serenity w/ Nathan Fillion, Dick Tracy w/ Warren Beatty and The Mist w/ Frank Darabont and Thomas Jane among others.  I must have missed Year One...Taking place again at the Hollywood Chinese Theatre, this year is James Cameron centric with a double bill of The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgement Day tonight followed by Ridley Scott's Alien and Cameron's Aliens tomorrow with star Sigourney Weaver in attendance.  Tonight's Terminator double bill with Cameron appearing for Q&A sold out quick in spite of the ticket price increase to accommodate two double features.  For the fan willing to shell out extra, two rows of couches were added to the front of the theater for an up close look at special guests.

Like last years genre festivities at Cape Town and Hero Complex, TNT's Falling Skies sponsored the event with posters, patches and promos on display.  After a quick introduction, it was time for 1984's The Terminator.  If you're keeping track, this is the 5th time I've seen it on the big screen and arguably the most pristine showcase, no doubt at Cameron's request.  I'm guessing this is a cleaned up Digital Print as the image was gorgeous and the sound was terrific letting me notice things I never had in a theater or at home (blue and red police like lights on the Hunter-Killers, Henriksen's cop with leaked ink on his shirt pocket?!).  If you've never seen The Terminator but still read this then stop what you're doing and get yourself a copy, watch it, lock it in a box for a week then watch it again and repeat until you bow down to the gritty, B-Movie, Tech-Noir masterpiece that is James Cameron's first full directing effort.  Real quick: The Terminator is the story of a seemingly unstoppable cyborg sent back to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor, a young woman whose son will have tremendous future influence against computer defense network Skynet.  Lone soldier Kyle Reese is sent back to protect Sarah from the machine and hopefully save humanity in the process.  It was a bit of a subdued crowed with no applause for Arnold's title card but we got it going for Biehn, reminding the audience that we're all here to watch a 30 year old movie we love, so let's have some fun and make a great atmosphere full of energy and nostalgia, shall we?

Watching it again, the film's unrelenting pace was in full effect with the mystery of who The Terminator aka the T-800 aka Arnold Schwarzenegger and Kyle Reese aka The Father of the Future aka Michael Biehn really are and their implications on the life and future of Sarah Connor aka Linda Hamilton.  Foot chases, shootouts, car chases, crashes and explosions on the dirty streets of Los Angeles to Brad Fidel's pulsing, powerful crescendo filled soundtrack had the hairs on the back of my neck tingling.  Of course being one of my favorite movies, I had a smile on my face for most of the duration as there's just so much to love and remember in this movie from Arnold and Biehn's naked entries into our time, Bill Paxton and Brian Thompson as hilariously outfitted punks to the 80's hairdos, phenomenal post-apocalyptic Future War action sequences, Nike Vandals product placement, Rick Rossovich's pervy-funny boyfriend, Lance Henriksen and Paul Winfield's quirky cops, shotgun blasting, UZI spraying club shootout, doomed yet beautiful love story and plastique for dinner!

Post film, writer and director James Cameron took the stage for a smooth 45 minute Q&A with time for questions from the audience.  Strangely, the discussion topics were generally broad with much of Cameron's time devoted to talking about technology and his 3 Avatar sequels even though he said he was there to talk about Terminator.

- Arnold was submitted for Reese, Cameron went to lunch with The Oak intending not to like him but found him charming and intelligent and saw him as The Terminator
- Cameron had just watched Terminator and it's sequel recently with his 10 year old son to head off the boy seeing the R rated affairs without his consent
- Had no idea Linda Hamilton would be able to make the change, physically and dramatically, for the character of Sarah Conner in the sequel which finds her hardened by life and preparation for war

- Movie was shot for $6.5 million, proudly in the style of Roger Corman's low budget features using every trick in the book and Cameron thinks it looks like a movie with twice the budget
- Special effects budget for the first film was a slim $1 million bucks for all make up, opticals etc
- Told his story and for a brief moment in the 90's contemplated bringing Terminator to Fox but had moved on after Titanic
- Approached Aliens as a fan of Alien, carrying on what Ridley Scott set up and Ripley as lone survivor versus killing her off and doing his own version.  Loves David Fincher but didn't like that Alien3 killed off majority of characters built up in Aliens.  Hicks lives!
- New producers approached him but says his involvement is uncredited, behind the curtain stuff, just giving his thoughts on what could be and how Arnold's character can evolve
- Loved Spider-Man as a kid and wrote a long script-ment but Carolco went bankrupt and he didn't pursue the rights
- Says the L.A. Times erroneously stated that The Abyss was most expensive film ever made but his next film, T2, was.
- Uncharted waters on Abyss and T2 as the glimmering, water tentacle f/x were cutting edge using an optical printer on Abyss then taken further on T2 for the T-1000's liquid metal man's 42 digital shots
- Wouldn't re-release Terminator in 3D but has considered Judgement Day for conversion
- Thinks technology has already taken over and cites the overabundance of people looking at their phones at any given time as an example
- Personally would like to see a niche movie watching experience utilizing Virtual Reality that lets the viewer decide how the movie plays out
- Writing 3 Avatar sequels with 3 separate co-writers, sat down for a year and pumped out 1500 pages of notes to build the story and world
- Avatar Land at Disney World is going to be something special, complete with floating mountains and animatronic figures with 60 some points of articulation where many have 12 today
- Wrote Sarah Connor as an Everywoman who is tapped on the shoulder and faced with a great task
- Stripped away Connor's support system; friends, cops, Reese, ability to run, to make her strong
- For sequel, gave Arnold script on plane to Cannes film festival, at breakfast Arnold couldn't believe his Terminator character didn't kill anyone but he trusted Cameron and went along

Cameron was eloquent, funny, informative and casually brilliant throughout.  Like I said, it was a bit of a general conversation with technology and Avatar being primary topics and I could have used more anecdotes about the films themselves or just stories of working with Michael Biehn, Lance Henriksen and Bill Paxton.  Because let's face it, Biehn, Henriksen and Paxton are fucking awesome and a big part of that reason is because of Cameron using them multiple times in his films.  Of course much more was discussed but hey, you had to be there.  Which won't be totally true since I'm sure a video will hit the internets soon enough.  Since we just saw Judgement Day, we opted not to stay and while waiting for the elevator, received quite a surprise when the doors opened and Cameron was there with his handlers and security.  Hopefully he saw the shocked expressions on our faces as I wanted to yell "Put Biehn in Avatar 2!"

See ya tomorrow night for more Biehn and Henriksen on the big screen!

Gotta Drank! The Bowery

The 80's keep on rocking and rolling at The Arclight Hollywood this week as screenings of Aliens and Back to the Future remind us how great they are.  This would be my 2nd viewing of Aliens on the big screen while it was something like the 7th of BTTF.  Yeah, that's a lotta Flux Capacitating!  It's also week one of two of seeing Michael Biehn on the big screen as next Wednesday it's time for The Terminator.  The crowds have been a little subdued this week but you can bet your ass I'll be clapping and getting rowdy for Arnold, Biehn, Cameron, Paxton and Henriksen.  The last time I saw The Terminator, it was preceded the week earlier by a screening of The Abyss.  Hopefully Navy Seals and Tombstone are next in my double Biehn screen viewing.

Anywho, before Aliens, we walked a couple blocks over to Vine where there's a slew of bar and restaurants like The Well, grilled cheese house The Melt, some Italian joint and The Bowery; a cozy and dimly lit establishment that claims to have the best hamburger in Los Angeles.  I've had it and wasn't wowed but then again, it's served on an English muffin.  To me, English muffins are only good if they're toasted to a nice crispy finish and slathered in butter.  Bowery has some other tasty selections as well though on it's small menu.  Happy Hour runs the entire week I believe from 4-7.  As I'm fighting a cold, it was Hot Toddy time.  You know, whiskey and hot tea with lemon and honey on the side?  This might have been the best Hot Toddy I've ever had simply due to the fact that they gave me a shot glass full of honey with it.

Goodnight, future boy!

)

Cinemarked: Michael Biehn and Navy SEALs

Lone Survivor obliterated the box office competition last week with an astounding weekend haul of $37 million.  Days later, the story of stranded Navy SEALs picked up two Academy Award Nominations.  From the Death of Bin Laden to it's cinematized adaptation Zero Dark Thirty to best selling books, Navy SEALs have become firmly entrenched in the public consciousness over the last few years.  With roots tracing back to World War II, SEALs were officially formed in 1962 to fill a need for fighting unconventional warfare utilizing men trained in hand to hand combat, demolitions, parachuting and underwater deployment.  Their ability to operate at sea, air and land gave birth to the term SEAL.  The price of joining is astronomical as the physical and mental demands root out some 80% of hopefuls.

In recent years, their real life heroism has been celebrated, some would argue too much and too publicly while giving the United States something to be proud of: we know how to kick ass.  While Act of Valor, Survivor, Zero and Captain Phillips have shown us realistic portrayals lately, there was one actor who embodied the cinematic badassness of these mythical warriors before everything went docudrama:  Michael Biehn.

Biehn has played a Navy SEAL no less than 3 times, each in a very different way in very different situations.  The Biehn would put his good looks and athletic prowess to excellent use for his breakthrough role in 1984's The Terminator as a love struck, time traveling soldier.  The signature role would also forever typecast him as the sensitive action hero to many and in his own words always led to him being a current/former cop, soldier or secret agent.  Although he's played some great roles in non-action fare, it's those performances where he's running around with a gun in his hand and barking out orders that will always be my favorite. 


Let's look at Biehn's Navy SEALs filmography:

The Abyss, 1989, Lt. Hiram Coffey
The third of four collaborations with one James Cameron sees Biehn playing leader of a small detachment of SEALs sent down to assist an oil rig crew to investigate a crashed nuclear submarine.  Right away, Coffey begins experiencing deep pressure sickness syndrome and fights to control the motely roughneck crew while determining whether or not Russians are waiting around the corner to attack.  Things get even weirder when Non-Terrestrial-Intelligent creatures show up.  Sick and cut off from his chain of command with a nuclear warhead at his finger tips, Coffey decides to send the otherworldly invaders a surprise care package in the shape of a multi-megaton bomb.

Co-Stars:  Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio
Traits:  Mustache, jittery behavior, slices arm to stop it from shaking
Fate:  Dies in a submersible implosion after elbowing the tape deck playing shitty tunes
SEAL-ness:  Scary and ominous, as much fun as a tax audit

Navy Seals, 1990, Lt. James Curran
Biehn's follow up role as the crazed SEAL leader in The Abyss would be as another SEAL Lieutenant, this time named Curran, in Orion's action fest, Navy Seals, written by former SEAL Chuck Pfarrer.  Biehn was at the top of executive Mike Medavoy's list for leading men and found himself starring opposite Academy Award winning bad boy Charlie Sheen.  Director Lewis Teague was fresh off the success of The Jewel of the Nile, follow up to Romancing The Stone.  Here, Biehn is pure big hearted good guy, the cool, calm leader of the outfit dealing with stolen shoulder mounted Stinger missiles, middle eastern terrorists and hotshot Chuck Sheen.  With the help of a connected journalist,  Curran and his team trot the globe dispatching bad guys with silenced MP-5's and AK-47's while quipping wise and playing golf.
Co-Stars:  Sheen, Bill Paxton, Rick Rossovich, Dennis Haysbert and Joanne Whalley (Kilmer)
Traits:  Coiffed blonde hair, drunk clarity, firm yet vulnerable leadership
Fate:  Gets shot in the abdomen and thigh while blowing up a building full of missiles thus forcing wild card Sheen to Chuck up and take command
SEAL-ness:  Doesn't have time to dick around because he's too busy punching terrorist
tickets and partying at the beach, his boat house and golf course

The Rock, 1996, Commander Anderson
Biehn's final portrayal of a Navy SEAL (to date) was in Michael Bay's slam bang, summer action thrill ride The Rock, where he's been promoted to Commander.  After a decorated Marine Force Recon General goes rogue and takes over Alcatraz Island armed with missiles aimed at San Francisco, Biehn is called in to lead the responsive action.  Recruiting the only known convict who survived escape as well as a chemical weapons specialist, Biehn's SEALs infiltrate the prison fortress before coming face to face with the disgruntled Marines turned mercenaries.  A total curve ball for audiences, Biehn's heroic face and body of work is used to throw the audience for a loop 2/3 of the way through the movie.  All of Biehn's scenes are speeches:  in front of the authorities planning an attack, letting the convict and chemist know what their roles are and what they're up against, giving his troops for a pre-invasion pep talk and finally mano a mano with the pissed off Marine General.
Co-Stars:  Nicolas Cage, Sean Connery and Ed Harris
Traits:  Hard, cold, always in black
Fate:  Gets killed in a shower room massacre when the Marines ambush the SEALs from high ground
SEAL-ness:  Surrounded by real life Frogmen, Biehn is as taciturn as can be and his death ratchets up the stakes as our lab rat and senior citizen convict are left to deal with the Marines and missiles

Of course this is Hollywood we're talking about so creative license has to be taken and it's all overblown bullshit, right? Actually, a group of former SEALs from the original 1962 group enjoyed 1990's Navy Seals with it's tough guy attitudes and adrenaline pumping action. While Biehn's performance in The Rock helped land him the job of narrating a film that runs (or ran) at The National Navy UDT-SEAL Museum in Florida.  Along with the gig, Biehn was named an Honorary Frogman for Life by Rear Admiral E.T. Olsen.  While Michael Biehn might not be a true American hero like all of the Navy SEALs we hear about, he sure as hell looks good playing one in movies.

One of the great shouting matches of our time:

Arnold 24: Terminator 2: Judgement Day

Rolling back into town just in time for my company's national conference and holiday party after my adventures in Middle America, I somehow found time to watch part and or all of 4 Arnold Schwarzenegger movies, Terminator 2, End of Days, Jingle all the Way and The Terminator.  It's like Pringles, once you (pec) pop, you can't stop...or something.

Post conference and pre-party it was time for 1991's Terminator 2:  Judgement Day, James Cameron's record and ground breaking sequel to his 1984 cinema changing tech-noir thriller, The Terminator.  Even though I have two different versions of it on DVD, I skipped the step of popping it in and opted for streaming it on Netflix.  I've long had issues with the quality of Netflix as I find the pixelated images and non-black blacks annoying and would rather watch a disk or even a VHS.  To my surprise, Terminator 2 looks great on Netflix with virtually no image distortion at all for much of what I viewed.  I'm sure I could fix the issues with an upgrade in internet speed and television but that's just wasteful so shut up you tech whore.  Technology represses the inner beast.  Remember that.

A sequel with remake qualities, T2 follows young John Conner (Edward Furlong) as he learns about his future as leader of the human resistance 20 years ahead of time while evading the liquid metal T-1000 (Robert Patrick, who has somehow never co-starred opposite Michael Biehn) with the help of a reprogrammed T-800 (Arnie, duh!) and his mother, Sarah (future Cameron ex-wife Linda Hamilton), now life hardened and awaiting the machine brought Armageddon.

T2 is an amped up version of part I with many of the same story beats repeated only replacing human hero and father of the future Kyle Reese (Michael "fucking" Biehn!) with Arnold's nicer, good guy Terminator.  When Ah-nuld helps Sarah escape from a mental facility, he repeats the same line Reese does upon finding her in part I:  "Come with me if you want to live".  With over ten times the budget of Terminator, Judgement Day was an action and special F/X extravaganza combined with great production design, a killer cast, strong characters and a few laughs along the way.

Seeing T2 a couple years ago on the big screen, it's amazing to see how well it still holds up.  The main reason, in my opinion, is that Cameron only used the then ground breaking visual F/X (first developed for his own The Abyss) for the T-1000.  The morphing, puddle melting, knife handed, Silver Surfer walking villain was something audiences had never seen and I'm sure is one of the main reasons for repeat attendance.  Cameron's crew shot everything around the T-1000 practically with physical stunts, make up, sibling twins, miniatures and rear screen projection.  So when the T-1000 walks out of a ball of fire, he's the only visual effect on screen as the exploding truck wreckage is real VS today's CGI on top of CGI = video game cartoon shit.

Judgement Day was a product of now defunct independent mini-studio, Carolco; the 90's powerhouse started by Mario Kassar and Andy Vajna.  Like a classier version of 80's juggernaut Cannon, Carolco was the place for big budget, high concept, movie star powered fodder with worldwide appeal.  The two got started distributing films in the foreign market and soon went into production themselves on 1982's First Blood, which would become Sylvester Stallone's second franchise after Rocky.  An extremely troubled production (Stallone claims to have offered to buy the flick and burn it), the film was retooled several times before hitting screens to modest success while redefining action cinema forever.

That success led to the mega hit sequel, 1985's Rambo: First Blood Part II, the second highest grossing picture of the year.  Kassar and Vajna set out to pool established and rising talent, over paying for the services of James Cameron, Walter Hill, Mickey Rourke, Arnold, Sly, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Paul Verohoven, Michael Douglas, Renny Harlin, Roland Emmerich and Oliver Stone.  But by 1990, Kassar's hot headed attitude pushed calming influence Vajna to depart and start his own company.

When Carolco hit, they did so on a global scale as Total Recall, Basic Instinct, Terminator 2, Cliffhanger and Rambo II collectively brought in over $1.5 billion in theaters alone.  Costly critical hits like The Doors and Chaplin showed they had an eye on expanding the company repertoire while epic flops like Showgirls and Cutthroat Island highlighted Kassar's lack of quality control.  By 1995, the party was over.

While Carolco and Kassar might not be the kings they once were, Terminator 2 remains a jewel in their and cinema's history.  Grossing $500 million worldwide, T2 would be 1991's most successful film by a large margin and become a landmark in movies and technology.  Arnold would parlay the success into having a studio at his control for 1993's Last Action Hero while James Cameron would make history again years later with Titanic.

Thumbs Up:

Ask Me a Question: The Abyss

Panelists include Todd Graff (“Hippy”), Michael Beach (“Barnes”), Lesley Dilley (production designer), Joseph Nemec III (art director), Phillip Darlington (Cameron’s underwater assistant), Starr Jones (makeup FX) and Trey Stokes (“alien” movement designer)! - See more at: http://www.cinefamily.org/films/?time=past#the-abyss-castcrew-in-person

Panelists include Todd Graff (“Hippy”), Michael Beach (“Barnes”), Lesley Dilley (production designer), Joseph Nemec III (art director), Phillip Darlington (Cameron’s underwater assistant), Starr Jones (makeup FX) and Trey Stokes (“alien” movement designer)! - See more at: http://www.cinefamily.org/films/?time=past#the-abyss-castcrew-in-person

Panelists include Todd Graff (“Hippy”), Michael Beach (“Barnes”), Lesley Dilley (production designer), Joseph Nemec III (art director), Phillip Darlington (Cameron’s underwater assistant), Starr Jones (makeup FX) and Trey Stokes (“alien” movement designer)! - See more at: http://www.cinefamily.org/films/?time=past#the-abyss-castcrew-in-person

Panelists include Todd Graff (“Hippy”), Michael Beach (“Barnes”), Lesley Dilley (production designer), Joseph Nemec III (art director), Phillip Darlington (Cameron’s underwater assistant), Starr Jones (makeup FX) and Trey Stokes (“alien” movement designer)! - See more at: http://www.cinefamily.org/films/?time=past#the-abyss-castcrew-in-pe

In a wonderful case of scheduling coincidence, I'll be seeing two films by James Cameron featuring Michael Biehn on the big screen in one week.  First up, a cast and crew reunion event for 1989's The Abyss; Cameron's underwater thriller concerning oil workers and NAVY Seals investigating a crashed US sub and encountering something inhuman beneath the surface.

Carpenter turned Cameron assistant Phil Darlington set up a fantastic event at The Cinefamily; corralling an impressive panel including actors Todd Graff (Hippy) and Michael Beach (Barnes), Oscar winning production designer Lesley Dilley, Art Director Joseph Nemec III (The Shadow!), Make up artist Starr Jones and NTI movement/puppet designer Trey Stokes.  Everyone was comfortably crammed onstage and moderator Marc S. Zicree (writer of a million Star Trek episodes) got it all started.

Tonight's crowd was filled with others who worked on the film, most notably Van Ling, a young kid who built a Power Loader Halloween costume and impressed producer Gale Ann Hurd and James Cameron enough to be hired on for The Abyss and subsequently Terminator 2, True Lies and Titanic.  If you own the Alien Quadrilogy box set, check out A Boy and His Power Loader.  Great stuff.


When you have a panel this size, it's easy for it to fall into awkward lulls, non-sequitur, fractured conversation with a few dominating voices.  Fortunately, Zicree did a great job moderating as he was excited to be there, a fan of the film and smart enough to keep each panel member involved which kept the the audience's attention (well except that one girl in the second row who nodded off, CASUAL FAN).  Before the film, Zicree engaged the guests in a nearly one hour panel.

Recollections of The Abyss:

- Shot for six months outside Gaffney, South Carolina in an unfinished nuclear power plant.
- Shooting under water presented so many variables that every actor had to be ready to shoot at first call.  No one knew what was going to happen day to day.
- A tent constructed over the tanks lasted two weeks before being blown off, just like the locals warned.  Millions of black plastic beads were poured over the surface to block out the light.  Cast and crew members would find them in their ears and random places for months afterwards.
- Darlington was hired as a carpenter, wanted to work first unit and ended up being Cameron's underwater assistant and nicknamed Flipper on set.
- Nemec had a background in diving, figured it'd be fun shoot.  Both he and Dilley had no idea what they were getting into.  The scale and construction efforts were massive.
- 12 to 14 hour days in the tank meant having to decompress, many times while watching dailies.
- The creatures in the film are NTI's, Non-Terrestrial-Intelligence, don't you dare call them aliens!
- Creatures had to be constructed in a way to convey various light patterns, Cameron's thought was that they would communicate through colors.
- Post production took nearly as long as shooting to accommodate special F/X and creature scenes.
- Graff was given his rat sidekick at birth so they could bond.  Had it for two years after filming.
- The rat really did breath liquid, Cameron scripted no dialogue and just told the actors to go for it but they were mostly in shock and thought they were killing the animal.
- James Cameron is a genius who can do everyone's job, probably better than they can.  Grabbed the camera and jumped into the water to get a shot when the camera operator bungled first attempt; took a can of spray paint from someone's hand and did it himself when results weren't good enough, etc.
- Michael Biehn told Beach (who only appears in the opening scene) he was lucky not to land a bigger part and pleaded to be taken with him.
- The production was nicknamed "The Abuse".

Of course much, much, much more was talked about and I wish they would have covered more topics but it was still a school night so the movie had to roll sometime.

They screened the theatrical cut which I'm not overly familiar with.  I grew up watching the 30 minutes longer Director's Cut.  Watching it in it's original form was interesting; for a 2 hour and 20 minute film, it moves quite quickly.  Performances are great all around, Ed Harris is funny and strong as roughneck Virgil "Bud" Brigman, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio plays Lindsay, the ire of many characters but always comes across likeable and intelligent.  Cameron regular Michael Biehn dons a stache and plays shaky, paranoid Navy Seal Lt. Coffey, who suffers from pressure sickness and attempts to nuke the NTI's.  Graff as Hippy and Leo Burmester as Cat anchor a great supporting cast of likeable, blue collar types caught in the middle of a hurricane, "aliens", nukes and a possible global military crises.

The ending was a shock as the NTI's are portrayed as good guys who help out Brigman after he risks his life to save them.  The Director's Cut is much more detailed as the NTI's observe mankind's destructive nature and threaten to wipe out the coasts with giant tidal waves before realizing there is love in the world as demonstrated by Bud and Lindsay's repaired relationship.  A fanboy internet critic recently lamented Cameron's status among "geeks" was destroyed when he made a movie with kissing.  But all of Cameron's films, The Abyss especially, are love stories.  Titanic is just the only one without robots, fighter jets or aliens (or in this case, NTI's).

 Check out the making of what's considered one of the most difficult movie shoots of all time: