DeepStar Six

DeepStar Six
Directed by	Sean S. Cunningham
Produced by	Mario Kassar Andrew Vajna Patrick Markey
Written by	Lewis Abernathy Geof Miller
Starring	Taurean Blacque Nancy Everhard Cindy Pickett Miguel Ferrer Matt McCoy Nia Peeples Greg Evigan
Music by	Harry Manfredini
Cinematography	Mac Ahlberg
Editing by	David Handman
Studio	Carolco
Distributed by	TriStar Pictures Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	January 13, 1989 April 13 May 31
Running time	99 min.
Country	U.S.A.
Language	English
Box office	8,143,225

DeepStar Six is an American 1989 science fiction horror film about the struggles of the crew of an underwater military outpost to defend their base against the attacks of a monster (possibly, a giant eurypterid).

The film's main principal starring lead actors and supporting players included Taurean Blacque, Nancy Everhard, Cindy Pickett, Miguel Ferrer and Matt McCoy. DeepStar Six is one of myriad underwater-themed movies released around 1989, including Leviathan, The Evil Below, Lords of the Deep, The Rift (Endless Descent) and The Abyss, the latter of which was the only successful entry among these aforementioned movies both at the box office and with film critics.

Plot

The crew of a scientific ocean floor station "DeepStar Six", is funded by the Navy, and is expected to perform scientific studies as well as install an underwater nuclear missile silo. While checking on the area they are assigned to create the silo, they discover an underwater cave created through undersea magma which is supposedly millions of years old. The crew's marine biologist, Dr. Scarpelli (Nia Peeples) wants to perform further studies into the sea cave however Dr. Van Gelder does not wish to jeopardize the DeepStar project by destroying the cave.

After Osborne (Ronn Carroll) and Hodges (Thom Bray) blast the cave open, they explore it with an unmanned vehicle, but mysteriously lose it while scanning; they trace the pod in the cave in a small submarine when they are attacked by a mysterious being. Joyce Collins (Nancy Everhard) loses contact and tells Snyder (Miguel Ferrer) to get help, but before Snyder manages to contact Van Gelder, the station is attacked again by the mysterious creature and is damaged and slowly gets flooded, gradually sliding towards the rift in the ocean floor; the contact is lost. Commander of the station, Captain Laidlaw (Taurean Blacque) and McBride (who shares romantic relationship with Collins, unaware that she actually expects his baby) go to rescue them, but are nearly attacked by the same creature. Only McBride and Joyce make it out; Laidlaw gets his backbone crushed by a falling door inside the station and commits suicide by flooding the station.

Facing the deaths of four crew members (Hodges and Osborne in the mini-sub; Laidlaw and Burciaga (Elya Baskin) in the flooded station) and loss of equipment, the higher command gives green light for abandoning the station. First they have to secure the missiles; as Cpt. Laidlaw is dead, Snyder (presumably a military supervisor on behalf of the Navy) is ordered to make a report and follow procedure according to the computer instructions. Because the creature was "very aggressive" Snyder reports the situation caused by "aggression" (IE. attack by an enemy) and the computer orders the missiles be detonated for safety. Snyder follows the orders without question; the resulting shock wave badly damages Deepstar Six station and the crew is forced to abandon it (its nuclear reactor - main power source - is damaged beyond repair and will soon get supercritical and explode), but cannot because they need to decompress before getting to the surface; unfortunately, the decompression chamber is also damaged by the shock wave. The crew figures out a means to restore pressure to safely leave the station, but while Richardson is sent to repair external damage he is attacked by the mysterious sea creature, revealed to be a huge reptilian/crustacean with lobster-like mouth, crab claws and a reptilian tail. Richardson manages to get back into the air lock but before he can get out of his diving suit, water gushes into the station and the creature gets inside, ripping Richardson in half. Scarpelli (who was earlier shown having romantic relationship with Richardson), shocked by his bloody demise, is attacked next and the remaining crew runs to higher ground to regroup and arm themselves against the creature. Snyder is given a pressurized harpoon while the rest of the crew use shotguns. They have to complete specific repairs to the station to leave and so they re-enter the water filled station area armed and intentionally throw lights to distract the creature (who was earlier seen to move towards the light sources; Richardson was attacked when he was welding with the electric arc underwater). When the creature emerges from the water, Van Gelder inadvertently backs into Snyder's compressed gas spear weapon and is punctured with a carbon dioxide charge, which explodes, rupturing his heart.

Snyder at this point has become mentally unstable as his anxiety and guilt has made him erratic. He panics when he hallucinates a dead Van Gelder returning for him. Dr. Norris gives him some drugs to calm his nerves, but it is not enough; he suffers from complete emotional breakdown and he runs to the only one emergency escape pod. Snyder leaves Deepstar Six without having his body adjusted to surface pressure; he "explodes" from the pressure during rapid ascent. Meanwhile Dr. Norris, McBride, and Joyce are stuck in the station and McBride risks swimming to the mini-sub in complete darkness and silence, to use it as an escaping pod. The creature manages to enter the room with Dr.Norris and Collins and attack them. Joyce manages to escape to the decompression chamber; Dr. Norris distracts the creature; tells Joyce to leave (she knows Collins expects McBride's baby) and tries to take the creature with her, putting defibrillator paddles in the water and administering strong electric shock; she dies in the process and the creature is supposedly also killed.

After Collins and McBride finish decompression, they leave in a mini-sub a few minutes before the reactor explodes. As they reach the surface they inflate a life raft but the creature suddenly bursts from the ocean and attacks them. McBride distracts the creature while Joyce stays on their emergency raft. McBride ejects the mini-sub's fuel and ignites it with a flare gun. The sub explodes, killing the creature. Joyce first thinks that McBride died, but he survived by diving into the ocean under the exploding sub and they start rowing across the ocean, waiting for the navy rescue team to arrive.

Cast

• Taurean Blacque as Captain Phillip Laidlaw
• Nancy Everhard as Joyce Collins
• Cindy Pickett as Dr. Diane Norris
• Miguel Ferrer as Snyder
• Greg Evigan as McBride
• Matt McCoy as James 'Jim' Richardson
• Nia Peeples as Scarpelli
• Marius Weyers as Dr. John Van Gelder
• Elya Baskin as Burciaga
• Thom Bray as John 'Johnny' Hodges
• Ronn Carroll as Osborne

Reception

Deepstar Six was poorly received by critics and viewers. It currently has an 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

External links

• DeepStar Six at the Internet Movie Database
• DeepStar Six at AllRovi