The Top 10 Best Underwater Movies

January 6, 2020October 18, 2020 Patrick Sessoms aliens, boats, deep sea, laboratory, mad scientist, monsters, Navy, ocean, science fiction, scientist, sea, shark movies, sharks, ships, submarine, Underwater

5. Das Boot

Apparently, serving on a sub isn’t as fun as it seems.

Not only does Das Boot qualify for this list, but it’s also one of the best World War II movies ever made. The film follows a notorious German submarine (known as a U-boat) during the war. Now, before you write it off, it’s important to remember that not all German soldiers were part of the Nazi party. In fact, many of them flat out hated Hitler and his SS. A lot of the tension in Das Boot is built on that ideological rift between the veterans of war who are sick of all the fighting for a cause they don’t believe in and the blind followers of der Fuhrer. Tight quarters and skirmishes with the British Navy cause tensions to rise among the men as they’re stuck below the surface for weeks on end. I’m not someone who believes in the whole “following orders” excuse, but after seeing this film I felt a twinge of sympathy for the German sailors in it.

4. Deep Blue Sea

Deep Blue Sea has always been a guilty pleasure of mine. Yeah, I know it’s incredibly dumb if you actually stop and think about it, but it’s still a really fun movie. There are other films on this list that might technically be better, but when it comes to underwater movies, it’s one of the best. The film takes place in an underwater research station studying sharks in order to find a cure for Alzheimer’s. Of course, things aren’t really that simple and the scientist did a little tinkering with the sharks’ genetic code to give them bigger brains, which apparently also makes them smarter. Fed up with being kept in a cage, the sharks stage a prison break that threatens to sink the facility. That might be great for them, but not so much for the humans still trapped inside.

3. Sphere

IN movies, spheres are never a good thing.

There have been a lot of film adaptations of Michael Crichton’s novels, and while Sphere isn’t the best (that honor goes to Jurassic Park), it’s still one of my favorites. The film takes place in an underwater facility where scientists are researching an alien craft that seems to have crash-landed centuries ago at the bottom of the ocean. As their investigation continues, strange and deadly events start to occur. From a giant squid attack to aggressive jellyfish to equipment failures, the crew is slowly whittled down, and they begin to fear something more is behind these incidents. Sure, Sphere is a little bit campy at times, but when it comes to underwater movies, it was one of the first films that came to mind.

2. The Hunt for Red October

Sure, a Welshman can definitely pass for a Russian.

Before John Krasinski and even Harrison Ford cinematic super-spy, Jack Ryan was played by Alec Baldwin in The Hunt for Red October. The film takes place at a time when Russia and the United States weren’t exactly on good times (you know before our President worked for them), and a tired Russian naval captain decides that life in the good old U.S. of A. can’t be nearly as bad as the Soviet Union. With a sub under his command, he sets out to defect. The Russian’s don’t take too kindly to this, and it’s up to a CIA analyst to try to help the Captain make it to America. There are a lot of elements at play in the film as many doubt the intentions of the Captain. Personally, I like Ford’s Jack Ryan films better, but The Hunt For Red October is definitely one of the best underwater movies of all time.

1. The Abyss

“Cranberry juice helps with an NTI.” “Shut up, Bud.”

James Cameron is one of the greatest science fiction directors of all time and has a relentless fascination with the deep. So, it was a no brainer that his underwater alien film, The Abyss, would be at the top of this list. When a submarine encounters an unidentified object and sinks as a result, the Navy sends a team down to a deep-sea drilling operation to investigate and retrieve a warhead that was onboard. Once they start exploring the sub, they discover a “non-terrestrial intelligence” (aka an alien). Things get complicated as one of the SEALs develops paranoia from high-pressure nervous syndrome and puts everyone at risk. The Abyss is a smart and exciting film that is without a doubt the greatest underwater movie ever made.

Honorable Mention: Finding Nemo and Finding Dory

Ain’t no rule that says friends can be food too.

I know that I said that animated-films wouldn’t be included on this list, but I had to give a shout out to the Pixar movies Finding Nemo and the sequel, Finding Dory. They feature adorable undersea creatures on incredible adventures. Needless to say, it doesn’t get anymore underwater than that.

Leave a comment below letting me know what you think of the picks I made and if there were any other movies you would have liked to have seen earn a spot. As always, I’ll be updating this list as new and improved underwater movies hit theaters. So, be sure to check back from time to time to see how the rankings change in the future.

Pages: 1 2