Continuity: Early in the film Bud throws his wedding ring down the latrine and then retrieves it with his right hand so it is covered with the blue disinfectant. In a (much) later scene, Bud has a blue right hand, despite not having had one in the intervening period.
Great sites
Mistakes
During the submarine interior scene, there are several dead seamen shown floating about. One of them is pretty close to the camera and floating with his eyes open. He blinks before the shot ends. See more...
Trivia
In some scenes, the occupants of the submersibles look like projections on a screen, because they were. Scenes filmed with miniature submersibles had images of the actors projected inside, to give the illusion that they were occupied. See more...
The Abyss (1989)
Directed by James Cameron, starring Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Michael Biehn (add more)
The Abyss mistakes
Visible crew/equipment: During Bud and Coffey's fight in the lab, we see a lightbulb swinging from side to side between the two men. If you look closely, you can see a hand (belonging to a third person) pushing the lightbulb. The only people in the room are Bud and Coffey.
Visible crew/equipment: Watch the special edition version of the movie. During the scene when the crane is falling down on top of the sub, the camera is following people around the passages. When it comes to the end of a hall, and a hatch is shut in our face, we can see the shadow of the camera equipment in the door.
The Abyss trivia
The dead sailor harbouring a live crab, spooking Jammer out of his wits in the sunk submarine, is director James Cameron's younger brother Mike. The scene had to be shot several times to get it right, forcing Mike to hold the live crabs in his mouth, until the cry for "action", before releasing them. At one point he had to crush one with his teeth, as it gave him quite a bit of grief. Brotherly love immortalized.
The water tube that floats about was partially created with Adobe Photoshop, which was unheard of at that time. Adobe Photoshop had not been released to the public at that point.
In some scenes, the occupants of the submersibles look like projections on a screen, because they were. Scenes filmed with miniature submersibles had images of the actors projected inside, to give the illusion that they were occupied.
The Abyss easter eggs
In the Special Edition DVD (with the white slipcover), in the Imaging Station, if you go to the top of the stack of the videotapes and hit the right arrow button, the TV screen changes to say, "They mostly come at night. Mostly." Hit "enter" to see a trailer for "Aliens," a movie James Cameron directed.
In the Special Edition DVD (with the white slipcover), if you go to the menu which tells about the equipment of "The Abyss", go to the "surface", where it talks about the wave and the Benthic Explorer. If you hit the up arrow on the wave, the plane flying overhead is highlighted. Select it to see a trailer for "True Lies," a movie that James Cameron directed.