Dead Calm is a 1989 thriller film starring Sam Neill, Nicole Kidman and Billy Zane. It was based on the 1963 novel of the same name by Charles Williams. The film was directed by Australian filmmaker Phillip Noyce and filmed in the Great Barrier Reef.
Main cast
Plot summary
A troubled couple, Australian naval officer John Ingram (Neill) and his wife Rae (Kidman), take a break on their yacht after an automobile accident in which their son was killed. The couple hopes that this will help Rae cope with the loss. Their holiday turns into a nightmare after they rescue Hughie Warriner (Zane), a man who claims his shipmates died from food poisoning.
Suspicious of Hughie's story, John tries to convince the panicked Hughie to return with him to his sinking ship so they can confirm the deaths and salvage anything of use, but Hughie refuses to go back. John travels to the sinking ship while Hughie is resting, where he finds that Hughie's original story was untrue. He realizes that Hughie's shipmates were murdered. John discovers Hughie was a cameraman and murdered the director and four women involved in the production on the boat. Before John can get back to the yacht, Hughie knocks Rae out and abandons John, travelling away with Rae on-board. John returns to the sinking ship to try to catch up and save Rae.
Rae attempts to convince Hughie to go back for John. Rae later removes the keys from the ignition and tosses them into the water in an attempt to allow John to catch up, but the dog dives into the ocean and recovers them. Rae eventually leads Hughie to believe that she likes him. Hughie sees Rae is frightened and tries to soothe her; Rae realizes that he wants to have sex, and the two kiss. After undressing, Rae grabs her robe and pretends to head for the bathroom, but actually heads up to the deck to assemble and load the shotgun. Hughie gets suspicious when the dog starts barking up on deck and begins to look for Rae. With the gun still unloaded, Rae quickly grabs a pack of cigarettes, claims that they are for after they have sex, and kisses Hughie again. Rae then distracts Hughie away from the shot gun by leading him to her bed. As Hughie gets on top of Rae, the dog enters the bedroom. Rae claims she has to put the dog back up on deck, but Hughie gets the dog to leave by yelling at him. Although Rae is uncomfortable at first, she firmly wraps her arms around Hughie and gives in.
Meanwhile, John continues driving the boat until it no longer works, then sets the sinking ship on fire to signal for help.
After having sex, Rae convinces Hughie to have a drink, which she laces with sleeping pills. While he is making another drink for Rae, she finishes loading the gun. Hughie becomes suspicious until Rae says that he should ready the yacht for a coming storm. When Hughie returns, he finds her with the gun and fights to get it away from her, but he begins feeling the effects of the sedative. Rae locates John's speargun and locks herself in the bedroom. She continues to shoot the speargun at the pounding door. When she sees blood running from the open end of a spear in the door, she assumes that Hughie got hit. Rae discovers that the blood was actually that of her dog whom she accidentally killed with the harpoon sticking out of his neck. Hughie begins to strangle her after Rae mistakenly believes she has shot him. However, he passes out from the pills before he can succeed. Rae ties him up and begins steering the boat back to John. Hughie wakes up and cuts himself loose with a broken mirror piece, but Rae knocks him out with the speargun. She releases a rescue raft from the yacht and pushes Hughie's body into it. Rae sees the now-blazing shipwreck in the distance and finds John in a raft.
Rae and John later find the empty rescue raft. The next day, after Rae returns to the yacht from a swim and John is preparing a meal, Hughie suddenly appears behind her and attempts to strangle her. John returns, sees the struggle, and fires a flare gun into Hughie's mouth. Rae and John watch as Hughie's body floats away.
Production
The movie is based on the novel Dead Calm by Charles Williams. Orson Welles had filmed it under the name of The Deep, based on his own script. The film starred Jeanne Moreau, Laurence Harvey, Michael Bryant, Welles' then-wife Oja Kodar, and Welles himself. The original story had more characters in it than the 1989 film version. Filming lasted from 1967 till 1969. A few scenes could not be filmed, due to the death of Laurence Harvey in 1973, and so Welles' version never reached the big screen. Numerous attempts to do an adaptation of the novel to the big screen failed, until Phillip Noyce finally took over the rights.
Reception
The film Dead Calm received a 7.5/10 "fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes and a critical rating of 95%[1]. According to Variety, Kidman is "excellent throughout" and the picture is "handsomely produced and inventively directed"[2]. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote that the film "generates genuine tension".[3] The film is listed on the New York Times Top 1000 Movies list.
References
External links
