Shot by Shot with the ‘Underwater’ Trailer

'Underwater' isolates its heroes from society and pits them against a school of mer-monsters. No complaints here.
Underwater Shot by Shot

Norah gives way to fate. As her home splinters. She folds like a slow-motion rag-doll and the bullet time does the rest. Time stands still, and she waits to see if she survives the disaster or not. She’s the main protagonist. She’s lucky, but so it seems to be the case for the rest of the supporting players. The Earth’s convulsive response to their drilling is only stage-one of their problems. A much worse foe is bubbling from below.

The Captain stands on the other side of a locked door and asks, “On a scale of one to ten, how bad is my rig?”

This dial doesn’t crank to eleven, so Norah responds, “Ten.” Duh, dude, look around. The place has cracked into an indiscernible 10,000 piece puzzle. Humpty Dumpty ain’t coming back together again, but that doesn’t mean they won’t try.

Henwick does a bit of explanatory fear for the audience, “We drilled to the bottom of the ocean, and we don’t know what came out.” The laboratory rocks once again, and a metallic roar screeches. The crew wobbles, but the Captain stands firm. We get our first impression that his loyalty belongs to the inanimate beauty he commands. The unknown that comes out of the cracks in the Earth is a problem, but there is no way Vincent Cassel comes to this party and doesn’t mess up someone’s return-trip plans. He tells his crew that they have to get to “The Station” and the only way to make it there is to walk outside the lab. Notice a holographic display detailing a jellyfish-looking beastie. It’s not the terror we see later on, but I certainly would not want to wander around the ocean floor with one of those nasties floating around.

The crew strap into suits that look like they were borrowed off the Nostromo or Deep Star Six. Paul rejects the Captain’s plan as the “worst idea ever,” but since he doesn’t have the brain to come up with anything better, he’s tagging along.

A title card appears on black, “Something has awakened.” The ocean is an abyss, and all manner of life can hide in its shadows. A beam of light crosses the floor, and we see a mass of pointy limbs scurry. “What was that?”


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Brad Gullickson: Brad Gullickson is a Weekly Columnist for Film School Rejects and Senior Curator for One Perfect Shot. When not rambling about movies here, he's rambling about comics as the co-host of Comic Book Couples Counseling. Hunt him down on Twitter: @MouthDork. (He/Him)