Are the aliens in Abyss aliens?
Michael Opalak
me wondering why everyone is assuming that they "aliens" are aliens.
When I saw it, I figured that they were some sort of intelligent life
form that evolved down in the trench, too deep to be discovered.
They had incandesent patches, just as many forms of deep sea life.
Also assumed is that their "technology" must be alien because it is so
advanced. Not neccasarily, they could have been in the trench for thousands
of years, developing these technologies.
It was stated in the film that all their technologies were water based.
Assuming this is true, how would a water based civilization travel through
deep space to happen to land on our little spec of land called Earth? And if
the aliens did travel all the way to Earth, why land at the bottem of the ocean?
It seems to me these aliens are just intelligent ocean life, not bug eyed
monsters.
M I C H A E L O.
"Its crude... but interesting."
Steven Grimm
>All this talk about the reason for the aliens being in the Abyss has got
>me wondering why everyone is assuming that they "aliens" are aliens.
I wondered this too. One pseudo-explanation is that they are new to Earth,
and the big thing shooting by the sub in the beginning of the movie is
their spaceship (the big "city") arriving. Since it later rises to the
surface, that makes a certain amount of sense.
---
This message is a figment of your imagination. Any opinions are yours.
Steven Grimm Moderator, comp.{sources,binaries}.atari.st
sgr...@sun.com ...!sun!sgrimm
Brian McClendon
> It was stated in the film that all their technologies were water based.
>Assuming this is true, how would a water based civilization travel through
>deep space to happen to land on our little spec of land called Earth? And if
>the aliens did travel all the way to Earth, why land at the bottem of the ocean?
>It seems to me these aliens are just intelligent ocean life, not bug eyed
>monsters.
>
> M I C H A E L O.
> "Its crude... but interesting."
If an alien life form that had developed in another planet's sea (perhaps
one completely covered by water) came to Earth, it would immediately go
for a similar habitat, perhaps wondering why this planet's ocean was
low enough to show sea bottom.
By the same token, if we were to visit Jupiter, manned ships would never
make it to the surface (what surface? :-), settling instead at some altitude
in the upper atmosphere.
- brian
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brian McClendon b...@rudedog.SGI.COM ...!uunet!sgi!rudedog!bam 415-335-1110
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Jeff Voskamp
In the book it's made quite obvious that the aliens are in fact extra-
terrestrials. While they did evolve under water it wasn't on this
planet. Yes, their technology is water based. However, if you have
the ability to make the water do what you want and can manipulate
different energy types with the precision that they can (again based
from the book) space travel might not be so difficult.
Unfortunately I missed the first minute or two of the movie (bloody
lines) and came in as the alien ship was zipping past the Montana.
That alien was coming back from near earth orbit.
One thing that doesn't make sense in retrospect: According to the book
the aliens couldn't normally take the pressures involved at about 2000
feet or less. Yet they had no problem decompressing the Deepcore II
crew. Odd that.
Jeff Voskamp
--
"I think we're in trouble."
"No, I'm in trouble - you're invulnerable." - My Secret Identity
bang path: ...{!uunet,...}!watmath!watmum!javoskamp
domain : javo...@watmum.uwaterloo.ca or javo...@watmum.waterloo.cdn
Mark Cook
>me wondering why everyone is assuming that they "aliens" are aliens.
>When I saw it, I figured that they were some sort of intelligent life
>form that evolved down in the trench, too deep to be discovered.
Of course they're aliens! Jeez! Do they look like U.S. citizens? I mean,
they don't have to be from outer space, you know. All they have to be is
from Mexico!
Mark F. Cook
USMail: User Interface Technical Support
Hewlett-Packard - Corvallis Information Systems
1000 NE Circle Blvd. Corvallis, OR 97330
ARPA: markc%hpc...@hplabs.HP.COM
UUCP: {cmcl2, harpo, hplabs, rice, tektronix}!hp-pcd!hpcvss!markc
"The opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of my employer,
not necessarily mine, and probably not necessary."
oper...@compsys.mu.edu
>In article <48...@ncrcae.Columbia.NCR.COM> opa...@ncrcae.Columbia.NCR.COM (Michael Opalak) writes:
>>All this talk about the reason for the aliens being in the Abyss has got
>>me wondering why everyone is assuming that they "aliens" are aliens.
>
>I wondered this too. One pseudo-explanation is that they are new to Earth,
>and the big thing shooting by the sub in the beginning of the movie is
>their spaceship (the big "city") arriving. Since it later rises to the
>surface, that makes a certain amount of sense.
Since nobody else has mentioned this, I thought I would explain this. They left
a MAJOR part of the book out of the movie. Actually, maybe this never was
filmed at all. If you want to keep wondering what was going on instead of
knowing how it was supposed to be explained, skip this...
In the book, before the Montana dies, an alien probe is in low Earth orbit
examining a newly launced Soviet satelite. The alien inside figures out that
this new satelite can detect the position of all submarines at sea. She
realizes that the Soviets now have no real reason not to launch a nuclear
strike if they want to. Whereas before the Soviets could not attack without
being hit back by our SSBN's, they can now destory all of our missiles at once.
Realizing the danger, the alien destroys the satelite, killing herself in the
process. The probe is programmed to return the the city in the trench (There
are actually severaly around the world, but the city in the Cayman trench was
the first, and is the only one that can move..). The probe, going at 130 knots
accidentaly sinks the Montana in its wake.
There is alot of very interesting explanation of the aliens and how they discuss
letting us kill ourselves or saving us. They end up saving us because of Bud's
self-sacrifice for the city and because they had caused they whole mess
themselves accidentally with the two actions described above and by accidentally
sinking a Soviet destroyer in the storm they had caused.
BTW, they are supposed to be space aliens from a water world who arrived several
thousand/million years ago and are planning on continuing on to other planets
eventually..
leaving Earth in a few thousand/million years..
Sture Jonsson
Is it so f**king difficult to understand that you SPOIL parts of a movie
experience for people by putting spoilers on the subject line !!!!
Ok so this one was maybe not such a great spoiler, but that's not the point.
The point is that EVERYONE should STOP DOING THIS !!
For those of you who wonder, I may point out that I have changed
the subject line. It didn't say x in the original.
--sture
Jarl Sandberg
Is it so hard to show some consideration for people who hasn't
seen a movie yet and would like see it with fresh eyes.
This is still a INTERNATIONAL network and just because that a
film has been released in the USA it doesn't mean that
everyone can see it in a couple of weeks time. (Ok! The Abyss has
been released in Sweden too, but I haven't had the chance and
time to see it yet, but that doesn't change a thing!)
Keep the spoilers from the subject line! Is that so hard?
--jarl
william_december_starr
driskill%cs.ut...@wasatch.utah.edu (Hank Driskill) said:
>Flame was : GREAT! I don't mind spoilers at the text. But how can I avoid
> spoilers WHEN THERE WRITTEN AT THE SUBJECT LINE!
>The header line I have above is the one this guy flamed... give me a break.
>
>It's been known for several months that the Abyss was about aliens. No
>big surprise. . .
>. . .Am I just
>missing something here, or is this just a stupid flame I'm responding to?
What you're missing is the simple fact that "known to you" != "known to
everybody." All I knew prior to seeing subject lines like the one
above was that "Abyss" took place underwater and was apparently
science fiction. Given Cameron's previous films ("The Terminator"
and "Aliens"), and given that it seemed unlikely that "Abyss" would
turn out to be a documentary about deep-sea diving, I was certainly
aware of the _possibility_ that it involved aliens (i.e., non-human
sentients). I did _not_ know, however, whether those hypothetical
aliens were going to turn out to be hoaxes (always possible) or
obviously-Terran super-dolphins or what. So yes, I do consider
subject lines like the one in question to be spoilers. Perhaps not of
the magnitude of some of the ones which inspired the recent "Batman
spoilers" flame-fest, but spoilers nonetheless.
--
William December Starr, Poly Sci major & Future Lawyer of America (hah!)
Best email address: "wdstarr%charon...@charon.mit.edu"
Alternates: "wdstarr%ly...@northeastern.edu" & "wds...@lynx.northeastern.edu"
Michael Opalak
>>All this talk about the reason for the aliens being in the Abyss has got
>>me wondering why everyone is assuming that they "aliens" are aliens.
>I wondered this too. One pseudo-explanation is that they are new to Earth,
>and the big thing shooting by the sub in the beginning of the movie is
>their spaceship (the big "city") arriving. Since it later rises to the
>surface, that makes a certain amount of sense.
This still doesn't make sense to me. If these wholely water-based beings
are really aliens, how did they travel throught space?
Also, the craft which shoots by the sub at the beginning, I believe, was
one of the being's probes.
M I C H A E L O.
"We'd better not risk another frontal attack. That rabbit's dynamite."
Allen W. Sherzer
>Flame was : GREAT! I don't mind spoilers at the text. But how can I avoid
> spoilers WHEN THERE WRITTEN AT THE SUBJECT LINE!
I guess if somebody mentioned that the movie takes place underwater
he would get a spoiler flame as well.
Allen
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Allen Sherzer | DETROIT: |
| a...@iti.org | Where the weak are killed and eaten |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Michael Gaun
>THANK YOU SO VERY BLOODY MUCH !!!!!!!! (john cleese)
Oh God, I am not looking forward to this debate. If I sum it up here,
will you all avoid it?
PARTY 1: Thanks for spoiling a big part of the movie in the Subject line.
PARTY 2: We didn't spoil anything. We just asked a question, WHICH we answered
IN THE ACTUAL MESSAGE! (Then a small flame)
PARTY 1: I haven't seen the movie. All I know about it is that it takes place
underwater. The commercials, unlike you, are pretty careful not to
tell you what exactly the movie is about. I was avoiding all Abyss
articles by reading the subjects, but I can't avoid the Subject lines
as well. (Slightly larger flame)
PARTY 2: Sure you can! Stay off rec.sf until you see the movie. It's our
right to talk about it and your right to protect yourself from our
discussions as you see fit. When -I- saw the commercials, they made
it perfectly clear what the movie was about. Besides, a movie is a
lot more than one surprise and if you can't enjoy it as such, then...
(nice size flame, more personal)
PARTY 1: Jesus! I just asked you to keep it off the subject line, or maybe
type the word SPOILER. It's only seven letters!!! I'd like to be
able to read the post freely -- maybe even read a review without
having any surprises blown for me. (complaint about the personal
nature of the last flame, followed by another nice size flame)
PARTY 2: First of all, I don't care what you would "like to be able" to do.
Second of all, I like to type the word SPOILERS which has EIGHT
letters, not seven, and yes that is a lot to ask. (Flame embedded
within the "important" text. Even reviews occasionally tell a plot
point or two, and this one becomes apparent very early on in the film.
(Big flame)
PARTY 3: Okay, let's have a vote on what constitutes a flame and how long we
should wait, etc. Send your votes to me. I'll have the results in a
couple months.
PARTY 1: No. The only fair answer is NEVER! It's only eight letters!
PARTY 2: The answer is Whenever the poster feels like it. Take care of your-
self...
And, of course, each of these messages is posted at least twice by the
various members of Party 1 and Party 2. And each one is preceded by the
entire argument to date, quoted word for word at the beginning with about
eight cursor markings showing how old the argument is -- like the rings on a
tree -- this thing has gone on EIGHT generations!
(Wow. I'm on line #60 myself. I just LOVE to write dialogue.) (Someone quote
me. I love to see my work quoted even more than I love writing it.)
jurgens charles yong
Spoilers be following :
In article <15...@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> a...@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Andy J. Williams) writes:
>
>They are aliens who have been on earth for a long time (long enough
>to have seperate cities all over the globe (in deep water of course).
.. stuff deleted ..
>were ready nonetheless). To help out the humans and put a stop to
>the nuclear nonsense that was about to happen, they brought it up
>to show the humans that they really shouldn't be playing with these
>nasty toys (nukes).
>
No man, you got it all wrong!!! Elvis "conveniently passed away" years
ago so that once again, he could take command of his underwater kingdom.
When he saw his air-breathing followers in trouble, it was only
natural that he would give them a hand.
Elvis does not forget his fans.
-charles
cy...@maxwell.acc.virginia.edu
tho...@bucsb.uucp
>Is it so f**king difficult to understand that you SPOIL parts of a movie
>experience for people by putting spoilers on the subject line !!!!
>
>Ok so this one was maybe not such a great spoiler, but that's not the point.
>The point is that EVERYONE should STOP DOING THIS !!
What???!! There are x's in The Abyss???!! Thanks for spoiling it! :-)
Now are you serious when you say that because the subject line said
'aliens' that the movie is spoiled???? I'm sorry but it seems to me
that that would be equal to me saying 'Parenthood' contains kids!
In order for you to not know that there are aliens in this movie, you must
not (a) watch TV (b) read any newspapers (at least the arts section)
(c) go to see other movies and see previews.
I have not seen the movie yet, but that subject line didn't spoil
one damn thing for me. Have you tried decaf?????
--tom
oper...@compsys.mu.edu
>This still doesn't make sense to me. If these wholely water-based beings
>are really aliens, how did they travel throught space?
You might want to think about this again.
"If humans are carbon-oxygen based, how did they travel through space?"
The [SPOILER ALERT :-)] aliens wern't made of water, they just controlled it.
Andy J. Williams
First of all, must we perpetuate a subject line that can conceivably be
considered a spoiler by someone?
and...
SPOLER ALERT, hit 'n' now
Still with me? good.
In article <34...@grapevine.uucp> koreth (Steven Grimm) writes:
>In article <48...@ncrcae.Columbia.NCR.COM> opa...@ncrcae.Columbia.NCR.COM (Michael Opalak) writes:
>
>>All this talk about the reason for the aliens being in the Abyss has got
>>me wondering why everyone is assuming that they "aliens" are aliens.
>
>I wondered this too. One pseudo-explanation is that they are new to Earth,
>and the big thing shooting by the sub in the beginning of the movie is
>their spaceship (the big "city") arriving. Since it later rises to the
>surface, that makes a certain amount of sense.
What went by the sub was just one of the creatures in what they call a
porter (it is the same thing that Lindsay touches outside Deepcore).
They are aliens who have been on earth for a long time (long enough
to have seperate cities all over the globe (in deep water of course).
That one particular city, the one in the Cayman trench, was the only
one that was ready to actually move from earth to another planet when
the time came (which wouldn't be for quite some time, but they
were ready nonetheless). To help out the humans and put a stop to
the nuclear nonsense that was about to happen, they brought it up
to show the humans that they really shouldn't be playing with these
nasty toys (nukes).
This info is from the book (and is implied in the movie in a couple of
places.
-ajw
Andy J. Williams '90 | <hello> | a...@dartvax.dartmouth.edu
31 North Main Street | set $NAME='inigo_montoya' | Systems Programmer
Hanover NH, 03755 | You kill -9 my ppid | Kiewit Computation Center
603-643-2177 | prepare to vi | Dartmouth College
Malcolm L. Carlock
>are really aliens, how did they travel throught space?
Gee, we humans are wholly air-based beings! How could we possibly have
travelled through vaccuum to land on the moon? Boy, that's a puzzler, all
right...
The Mad Armenian
} All this talk about the reason for the aliens being in the Abyss has got
} me wondering why everyone is assuming that they "aliens" are aliens.
I hate to say, "It's explained in the novel," but it's explained in the
novel.
} It was stated in the film that all their technologies were water based.
} Assuming this is true, how would a water based civilization travel through
} deep space to happen to land on our little spec of land called Earth?
If they can control water to a point of making it super-dense enough
to use as a spacecraft, why not? They didn't "happen" to land on
Earth; they've been colonizing lots of planets all over the place.
Earth happened to be one of them.
} And if the aliens did travel all the way to Earth, why land at the
} bottem of the ocean?
Because their homeworld is a high-pressure environment. The four-mile
deep ocean floor is much more comfortable to them than Miami Beach.
"Whither thou goest, there thou shalt be."
--- BUCKAROO, PRINCE OF SCIENCE
by William Shakespeare
--- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC, "The Mill", Maynard, MA)
UUCP: ...!decwrl!ruby.enet.dec.com!boyajian
Kim Long
>Flame was : GREAT! I don't mind spoilers at the text. But how can I avoid
> spoilers WHEN THERE WRITTEN AT THE SUBJECT LINE!
>
>line of Batman, in fact I agreed with most of net-land that the spoiler
>put there was stupid. But this header isn't... I didn't post it, but
>this is a ridiculous flame!!! How many people agree with this? The
>
in this particular case i agree with you. i dont see anything harmful
in this subject line. i saw previews in the theatre for this movie and
after they were done my SO turned to me and said "great, now we dont
have to spend six bucks to see the movie-weve seen the entire thing in
a 5 minute clip." ive seen clips on tv that gave away more than this
subject line. however, i do feel that folks should use caution when
posting and put "spoiler" in the subject line.
kim
Steven Grimm
>are really aliens, how did they travel throught space?
How do WE travel through space? We aren't rockets. Ice could make a good
spaceship hull. (It works for comets, right?)
Bret Musser
heard of Abyss before all the postings came up here.
Yes, I actually did not see one TV
commercial, nor one interview, nor one newspaper ad or review
about this movie. I never saw any previews for it, nor did I
even see the poster for the movie. The only
reason I went is because there was so much traffic about the movie
here. I really liked it too.
However, knowing that there were x's in the movie did spoil it
a little. I couldn't go in knowing absolutely nothing about what
they would find down there, which took a little off the mystery.
SPOILER below!!
However, hearing that Bud died, then hearing that it was possible
misinformation did keep me guessing!
BJM
Sture Jonsson
>Did you also complain to your local newspaper, television and radio
>stations, and magazines for "spoiling" the "small part" of the movie?
>There was nothing in the "spoiler" that was not also "revealed" in ALL
>these media.
>
Why should I do that ??? The film is nowhere near to be released here in
Sweden to there haven't been ANY advertising (at least that I have seen)
ANYWHERE. And as for local television and radio, there are no such things
here (which I do regret). And more: If there was a newspaper article, tv or
radio show that contained parts about the abyss I would be able to skip those
before seeing anything incriminating (at least I have been able to do that
so far for other films).
>What synopsis? They (the "aliens") have been SHOWN in the TV commercial.
With synopsis I meant the outline or preconditions for the film (like a VERY
short description of the script). And it is VERY possible to get the idea of
the Abyss in a synopsis WITHOUT mentioning any "you know what"'s. Things that
probably are preconditions are things like the submarine, the underwater
location, etc.
>I agree. Spoilers do not belong in the subject line, and should be
>discouraged.
Thanks !
>But the Abyss business is/was NOT a spoiler!
For me it was, ok so I'll survive it, since it was not a big one, and I would
probably have seen it somewhere else before the movie opened, but that's not
the point. If we are to "grade" spoilers we could be in for a tough job !
sture
PMH
4 summer movies. The Abyss was one of the 4 movies they showed
the behind-the-scenes scenes. So I knew there were aliens and
that they were good aliens. That knowledge actually helped me
decide to see the movie (also all of the special effects &
techie jargon) since I don't like underwater horror movies.
I don't like to swim so generally, underwater movies give me
the creeps. But I'll watch anything that has a sci-fi feel
to it.
I *really* enjoyed this movie. We rarely see movies in the
theater since we have to get a babysitter & I only want to do
that if the movie promises to be very good. I liked this one
so much that I wish I could see it again on the big screen. I
don't think it'll translate well to the TV screen.
I liked it so well, I forgot I had to go to the bathroom 1 1/2 hrs.
into it. :-) :-)
Book Recommendation -
If you liked this type of story, please read "Sphere" by
Michael Crichton (author of Andromeda Strain). It is very
similar, especially the underwater station part. Seeing
"The Abyss" helped me to visualize the station & equipment
better.
I read this book in two evening plus a lunch hour. I *couldn't*
put it down!
--
Patti Homsey AT&T Bell Laboratories, New Jersey
Have you ever worked in the private sector? They expect results!!!
-- Ray Stanz, Ghostbusters
************************************************************************
Colleen Wirth @second
> st...@loglule.se (Sture Jonsson) writes:
> < tho...@bucsb.bu.edu (thomas lohman) writes:
> < >Now are you serious when you say that because the subject line said
> < >'aliens' that the movie is spoiled????
> <
> < movie was spoiled by that it would be a hell of a bore to see the other
> < one and a half/two hours.
>
> Did you also complain to your local newspaper, television and radio
> stations, and magazines for "spoiling" the "small part" of the movie?
> There was nothing in the "spoiler" that was not also "revealed" in ALL
> these media.
It seems perfectly plausible to me that this guy, who at least lives
in Sweden, has never heard an "Abyss" spoiler.
> < >--tom
> <
> < sture
>
> --
> Chris (Insert phrase here) Seaman | /--\
Colleen