Into the Blue (2005 film)

Into the Blue

Theatrical release poster
Directed by John Stockwell
Produced by David Zelon
Written by Matt Johnson
Starring Paul Walker
Jessica Alba
Music by Paul Haslinger
Cinematography Shane Hurlbut
Peter Zuccarini
Edited by Nicolas De Toth
Dennis Virkler
Production
company
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Columbia Pictures
Release dates
  • September 30, 2005 (2005-09-30)
Running time
 110 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $50 million[1]
Box office $44.4 million[2]

Into the Blue is a 2005 American romantic action-thriller film starring Paul Walker, Jessica Alba, Josh Brolin and Scott Caan. The film was directed by actor John Stockwell, and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Columbia Pictures.

Plot

A sea plane flying in a stormy night malfunctions and crashes in the sea off the coast of the Bahamas.

Jared (Paul Walker) and Sam (Jessica Alba) are two lovers living a rustic life in a trailer, next to the beach in the Bahamas. Sam works as a guide in the local aquatic theme park, "Atlantis", and Jared has worked a number of odd jobs in his field of passion, diving. His real dream, though, is finding one of many merchant and pirate ships lost in the waters around the Bahamas, many of them with large amounts of gold on board. Derek Bates has similar dreams and a better boat, but Jared is not interested in working for him.

Jared's brother Bryce (Scott Caan) and his girlfriend Amanda (Ashley Scott) come to visit, as Bryce, a lawyer in New York City, has acquired the use of a luxury vacation house from a client he defended. While snorkeling that day, Jared comes across artifacts from the sea bed, that seem to stem from a ship wreck. The four of them investigate and find several other pieces that turn out to be the remains of a legendary French pirate ship, the Zephyr, lost as the pirate made his getaway. They also discover the same crashed plane and its cargo of cocaine, with no apparent survivors. While at a local night club, Bryce gets into a fight with the owner Primo (Tyson Beckford), who turns out to be an associate of a drug lord Reyes (James Frain) to whom the cocaine belonged to in the first place, before leaving.

The next day, Jared, Bryce, and Amanda are being threatened aboard Reyes's boat, and are forced to hand over the cocaine to him, otherwise they will face consequences, and Sam will be held hostage. Back on land, the trio breaks the bad news to Sam, who is heartbroken that Jared would violate his principles and work for drug lords. He tries to convince her, but she leaves him, saying that 'they' are over. During nightfall, Jared, Bryce, and Amanda decide to handover the cocaine to Reyes, to resolve the problem. They dive at the plane wreck to salvage the cocaine and more artifacts. As they are moving the cocaine packs from the plane to their boat, Amanda is attacked and bitten on the leg by a tiger shark. They immediately rush to shore, leaving the cocaine at the dive site. She is brought to the hospital where she dies from the bite. Hearing of the tragedy, Sam comes to the hospital, and reunites with Jared, mourning for the loss of Amanda.

Meanwhile, Sam insists on going to the police, and goes to the home of one of their friends, a local cop named Roy (Dwayne Adway). Roy is soon killed and Sam is held hostage aboard the Sea Robin; one of the boats of Derek Bates. It turns out that Bates was partners with Reyes, and the force behind him. When Reyes tried to cut Bates out Bates executed Reyes and his crew. Meanwhile, Jared and Bryce learn of Sam's captivity, and heads off to rescue her.

They sneak below water, intending to have a surprise attack on one of Bates' men. A fight ensues underwater, with Bates' men being killed off one by one. On the surface, Sam struggles to escape the Sea Robin, with one of the accomplices in pursuit across the vessel. Below, Jared and Bates are the only ones left. Jared confronts Bates, in the plane and fights him. In the chaos, he uses an air tank as a missile by hammering off the valve. Bates escapes it, but as it hits the fuel tank at the back of the plane, it causes the entire plane to explode, killing Bates. Sam jumps into the water and rescues Jared, fearing for Jared's life.

Six weeks later, the trio is salvaging the Zephyr. While trying to bring an old cannon to the surface, the rope breaks and the cannon sinks back down breaking a part of the ship. Jared is ready to call it a night, but Bryce dives in again and shouts that he has found gold.

Cast

Filming

The special features section of the DVD chronicles how much of the film was filmed as live action shots in the sea off the Bahamas, with live, wild sharks. It shows film crews wearing chain mail as protection whilst the cast perform in the water unprotected. The filming was made possible by the development of shark tourism in the Bahamas. The sharks are used to being hand fed and will not generally attack humans but as a result will grab any item that "hits" the water as potential food. In an early scene, Paul Walker has to grab two fins and a dive mask flung to him by Alba. During filming he missed the mask. It was never seen again after hitting the water and the DVD suggests that it was taken by a shark.

Reception

Box office

Into the Blue was a box office flop. Produced on a budget of $50 million, the film made just $18 million in North America and $26 million internationally for a total of $44 million worldwide.[2]

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes lists it with a "rotten" rating of 21% based on 119 reviews. The site's consensus is: "Even the endless shots of bronzed beach babes and buffed dudes can't keep this soggy scuba flick's plot from drowning".[3] Metacritic lists a rating of 45 out of 100 based on 28 reviews, which indicates "mixed or average reviews".[4]

Awards

Jessica Alba earned one of two Golden Raspberry Award nominations that year for Worst Actress for her performance in the film (as well as for her performance in Fantastic Four), but lost the trophy to Jenny McCarthy for Dirty Love.

Home media

Into the Blue was released on VHS and DVD-Video on December 26, 2005 and on Blu-Ray on August 15, 2006.

Soundtrack

Sequel

A sequel, Into the Blue 2: The Reef, has been released on direct to DVD status. The cast consists of Chris Carmack, Laura Vandervoort, Audrina Patridge and Mircea Monroe.

References

  1. ↑ "Into the Blue". The-numbers.com. Retrieved 2013-12-06.
  2. 1 2 "Into the Blue". Box Office Mojo. IMDB. Retrieved 2013-12-06.
  3. ↑ "Into the Blue". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2013-12-06.
  4. ↑ Metacritic (Into The Blue)

External links

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