The Abyss

Stupidity: Granted, Coffee is suffering from "high-pressure nervous syndrome," but if you're a Navy SEAL, wouldn't you notice whether or not your pistol has a magazine in it? Monk pulls the clip out of his jacket and starts knocking rounds out of it for the rig crew's benefit; the same dramatic effect could have been achieved with a handful of cartridges he could let slip through his fingers. You could argue that Monk didn't have enough time to unload the gun and replace the magazine, but in that case, I think the scene where Monk briefly had the gun should have been a bit longer. (Even had the empty magazine been IN the gun, Coffee still might notice the difference in weight, but that would be easier to suspend your disbelief for.) (01:43:53)

rbryant73

Stupidity: Monk steals the magazine from Coffey's SIG. However, I don't see how he could have jacked the slide to eject the round in the chamber without being noticed. Someone as paranoid as Coffey was at this point would not have left the chamber empty. (Just FYI, when you load an automatic pistol with a magazine, you have to pull back and release the slide to load the first bullet in the barrel.)

Grumpy Scot

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: Since we are never shown that Coffey did chamber a round, we cannot assume that he did based on his personality alone. Therefore this isn't a plot hole. However, it is ridiculous that he is threatening people with a gun without a chambered round. This entry should be listed as "Stupidity."

BaconIsMyBFF

SEALs don't carry weapons without a round chambered. The "maybe" here falls much more on the side of the round being in the chamber. And "Stupidity" wasn't an option available when this entry was originally submitted. :).

Grumpy Scot

Stupidity: Yes it would have affected the rest of the film but it still begs the question why they didn't unhook the cable attached to the rig immediately after setting the rig down? All the disaster could have been avoided from that point on.

jbrbbt

Stupidity: Why wasn't the umbilical to the "Explorer" unhooked from the rig after the rig was set down? Everyone knew things were going to get rough with the hurricane coming, so the umbilical should have been taken care of before the hurricane became a factor.

Stupidity: Coffey uses the submersible "Big Geek" to carry the armed nuclear bomb to the NTIs. If Coffey was that desperate to blow up the aliens, he could have much more easily set the timer for 30 minutes, driven one of the submersibles far out over the abyss past the drop-off, and simply dropped the bomb down and let it sink under its own weight.

Watcher1

Factual error: [Special Edition] The Statue of Liberty is incorrectly shown to be facing the Narrows bridge.

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Bud Brigman: The guy is on his own, he's cut off from his chain of command, he's showing signs of pressure-induced psychosis, and he has a nuclear weapon. So as a personal favour to me, could you put your tongue in neutral for a while?!

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Trivia: The fictional company that owns and operates the undersea drilling rig is called Benthic Petroleum. In Terminator 2: Judgment Day (also directed by James Cameron) after the escape from the mental hospital, our heroes hide out at a gas station. The pumps at the station feature the Benthic Petroleum logo.

rbryant73

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Question: Bud and Catfish decide to go outside of the rig, swimming out the bottom of one of the hatches. Also, when Bud and Lindsey are in the wrecked submersible they decide Bud will swim with the drowned body of Lindsey back to the rig. How could these three have made it by entering the outside pressure of the Abyss at 1 or 2 miles below sea level without wearing a dry suit like Bud wears while saving Lindsey? They all would have been crushed the instant they left the habitat or submersible.

Answer: At the depth you're asking about, the water pressure is not enough to crush a diver's unprotected body (which is mostly solid/liquid and thus relatively hard to compress). The only thing they have to worry about is their lungs (gases, and therefore things containing gases, are much easier to compress). This worry is addressed by the pressure and composition of the air that they breathe on the rig, in their submersibles, and in their air tanks - this air has different proportions of gases (especially oxygen) compared to surface air, and is also at a significantly higher pressure - high enough to counter the pressure of the water that deep. (Side note: another way you can tell the atmosphere they are breathing in the rig is set at the same pressure as the water at that depth is that there is open water in the moon pool - and it's not rushing in to fill the entire rig, which it would if the air pressure was less than the water pressure).

Aerinah

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