Filming Abyss facts

While investigating facts about Filming Abyss, I found out little known, but curios details like:

Filming on the movie 'The Abyss' was so intense that actor Ed Harris spontaneously burst into sobbing one day while driving home.

James Cameron’s 1989 film The Abyss was plagued with problems during production. James Cameron and Ed Harris both nearly drowned, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio had an emotional breakdown after a particularly grueling scene, and some crew members experienced chemical burns and hair loss.

In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across. Here are 12 of the best facts about Filming Abyss I managed to collect.

1. The movie 'Abyss' was filmed in an abandoned nuclear power plant - "the filmmakers modified the original containment vessel for the reactor chamber so that it could hold an astonishing 7.5 million gallons of water"

2. During filming of The Abyss (1989) scene setups took so long, and getting out of the water tank was so unpractical that the cast and crew just remained underwater for hours, to the point of just going to the bathroom in their wetsuits

3. James Cameron almost died during the filming of The Abyss when filming an underwater scene he ran out of the air and tried to make it to the surface. It pushed water into his lungs, and he had to punch the diver to free himself and make it to the surface.

4. Durring the filming of the Abyss, Ed Harris and James Cameron almost drowned and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio had a nervous breakdown.

5. Underwater filming for The Abyss was so lengthy and at such depth that cast and crew required decompression treatment. The water tank, at an abandoned nuclear plant, was the world's largest at 7.5m gallons/200ft deep and hosted 40% of principle photography.

6. In James Cameron's 1989 film, The Abyss, the scene about liquid breathing which featured an example of a rat breathing liquid, was real.

7. This scene from the 1989 film The Abyss was filmed live. No tricks or sfx. Liquid breathing for humans has several potential uses and is not far fetched

8. Dostoevsky's semi-autobiographical novel about prison camps in Siberia, The House of the Dead, was the basis for the 2001 pornographic film The Abyss by Thomas Zupko.

9. During underwater filming for "The Abyss", Ed Harris almost drowned. While filming a scene where he had to hold his own breath at the bottom of the submerged set

10. In 1989, camera operator John Knoll and his brother, Tom, lent special effects company ILM a computer program that could render water for a revolutionary CGI water tentacle scene for the film 'The Abyss'. The program used was an early version of what would eventually become Photoshop.