An early image in
The Abyss captures the mystery and danger of the hidden world lurking in the ocean depths. Oil rig workers, recruited by the Navy for a rescue mission, search the flooded innards of a sunken nuclear submarine and are greeted by the pale corpses of doomed sailors as they navigate in clunky scuba gear and breathing apparatus. One rig worker sees spider-like crabs nestled on a dead man's face, and in a gruesome moment, a crab scuttles out of the mouth.
Even without aliens or creatures of unknown origin, the ocean contains its share of the strange, the uncanny, and the dangerous. Never mind the sea creatures that will eat you without a moment's thought; the human body is not capable of surviving in the ocean without extreme measures and hard-developed technology. With the cold, the water pressure, and lack of air, humans are outmatched and out of their element.
