Main cast: Treat Williams (John Finnegan), Famke Janssen (Trillian St James), Anthony Heald (Simon Canton), Kevin J O’Connor (Joey Pantucci), Wes Studi (Hanover), Derrick O’Connor (Captain HW Atherton), Jason Flemyng (Mulligan), Cliff Curtis (Mamooli), Clifton Powell (Mason), Trevor Goddard (T-Ray), Djimon Hounsou (Vivo), and Una Damon (Leila),
Director: Stephen Sommers
Deep Rising was a movie that surfaced just as the undersea monster trend was gasping for air. Picture this: studios were inexplicably churning out watery disasters in the ’89-’90 aquatic horror period. It’s as if Hollywood collectively fell for the same prank: “Hey, let’s make another undersea monster movie! It’ll be great!”
Spoiler alert: it wasn’t. Most of them sank without a trace, but Deep Rising somehow clawed its way to cult status—and honestly, it deserves it.
The movie kicks off as a gritty espionage-lite thriller. John Finnegan, the ultimate “I’ll-do-anything-for-money” antihero, ferries a group of mercenaries to a rendezvous point aboard his trusty boat. He’s joined by his perpetually annoying mechanic Joey and the far more tolerable Leila.
Things go awry when their boat collides with the luxury cruise liner Argonautica. The mercenaries, led by the delightfully slimy Mulligan, decide to rob the ship’s wealthy passengers—only to discover that something *else* has beaten them to it.
And by “something else”, we’re talking about a giant tentacled monstrosity with a taste for human hors d’oeuvres.
Let’s address the obvious: Kevin J O’Connor. He’s here, and he’s… exactly what you’d expect if you’ve seen The Mummy. Imagine the most irritating loudmouth in your life, crank the volume to 11, and give him plot armor so absurd it could stop a nuclear warhead. Joey is a walking liability who somehow survives every close call, leaving you to wonder if the real villain is his indestructible smugness. At one point, you might even catch yourself rooting for the monster.
But don’t let Joey ruin your fun, because there’s plenty to be had. Treat Williams shines as Finnegan, a charming rogue with a devil-may-care attitude and the hair of a shampoo commercial. Famke Janssen’s Trillian (yes, Trillian) is a scene-stealing thief with equal parts sass and slapstick. She’s not a fighter, but her klutzy resourcefulness makes her infinitely more relatable than, say, Joey, who somehow manages to be less competent than a literal tentacle.
The pacing is brisk, the scares are predictable but effective, and the CGI, while dated, gets the job done. Sure, the monster looks like it was rendered on a Windows 95, but it’s creepy enough to keep you entertained. Plus, it has a knack for ironic timing—delivering karmic deaths that are both gruesome and darkly hilarious. Physics and logic take a backseat here (how does something that big move so stealthily?), but that’s part of the charm.
The villains are delightfully over-the-top, the action sequences are bombastic, and the one-liners flow like overpriced champagne on the Argonautica. It’s a shame this movie never got a sequel, but considering what happened with The Mummy, maybe that’s for the best.
Deep Rising isn’t high art, but it’s a blast for fans of monster movies who are willing to suspend disbelief—and their annoyance with Joey—for slight over 100 minutes. Just don’t think too hard about how a tentacle beast developed such a flair for drama.
