B-Movie Inspirations: The Rift (1990)

The Rift, also known as Endless Descent, is a 1990 film starring the venerable R. Lee Ermey (Full Metal Jacket). The story involves a submarine rescue that goes awry. It is one of many underwater-themed movies released around 1990, including The Abyss, Leviathan, DeepStar Six, The Evil Below, Hunt for Red October and Lords of the Deep. I found this going down the rabbit hole that is called Tubi.

An experimental submarine, the Siren II, with an experienced international NATO 12-person crew is sent to find out what happened to the missing Siren I. The crew includes –

• Wick Hayes (Jack “Mullet-head” Scalia), the proudly mullet-bearing designer of the high tech submarine,
• Capt. Randall Phillips (R. Lee “Full Metal Jacket” Ermey), a US Navy guy who is the tough no-nonsense lead of the mission.
• H. Robbins (Ray “Robocop” Wise), bridge crew technician and (…Spoilers…) turn coat.
• Lt. Nina Crowley (Deborah Adair), a scientist on the mission and apparent ex-wife of Hayes.
• Joe Skeets Kane (John Toles Bey), communications officer and wise-cracking guy that gets under the captain’s skin.
• Ana Rivera (Ely Pouget), navigator.
• Philippe Huppert (Emilio Linder), a diving specialist, and probably French.
• Roger Fleming (Tony Isbert), ship’s helmsman and either German or Dutch, not sure.
• Dr. Carlo Camerini (Álvaro Labra), ship’s doctor
• Francisco Grau (Luis Lorenzo), ship’s cook.
• H. Mueller (Frank Braña), ship’s engineer
• Sven Holst (Pocholo Martínez-Bordiú), diving specialist and eithger Norwegian or Swedish

I was impressed that they had such a diverse and large cast. For a very low budget and generally poorly written, directed and acted film, they went fairly large for the cast. My first thought was how bad could it be, it has R. Lee in it. Well, then I remembered The Terror Within II.

The corporation Contek who sponsored the building of the two submarines have lost contact with the Siren I. The designer – Hayes- blames the Contek corporation’s modifications to his original design, while, of course, Contek wants to blame the design. What I find funny is they are taking the second submarine of the same design down to get the first. Regardless of who’s the blame, if the first one went down due to engineering issues, would it be safe to take a second one with the same engineering flaws? Is it just me?

The Siren II traces the Siren I’s black box to an underwater rift deep in the ocean. They become surrounded by a toxic weed, although the on-board scientist – Crowley – says plant life at this depth is impossible. They also detect some wreckage within the seaweed. They send out a diver (Sven) – at 25000+ feet!! – to retrieve a sample of the seaweed as well as some wreckage. Sven is then attacked by a giant mutant octopus and the Siren II is engulfed in what seems to be a seaweed Venus-fly trap. The sub escapes the weed by “reversing the polarity” – this isn’t Star Trek – of the hull, although some of the weed gets into the sub.

Later, things begin to go weird with the seaweed sample. Dr. (Lt.) Crowley says it seems to be a “result of a complex group of mutations” but from what I can tell it looked more like a result of a complex mashing of bubble wrap and frayed polyester fibers around a hose of some kind. This is the first clue that something else is going on and one of many clues that the budget was blown on the submarine set.

One thing that drives me crazy about the writing in this movie is that Captain is under the impression he has the authority to order basically civilians around. I guess to some degree he does because is the captain of the vessel but I don’t believe he has the authority to hold them to military standards. I could be wrong, I was never in the military. But although I love Ermey as a guy, I think he played that a little over the top.

Once they lock on to the black box signal of the first Siren, they discover a “… recessed naturally pressurized subterranean cavern …” further in the Rift. The crew goes through some tense moments as they navigate through the tight tunnels and more of that low budget is spend on under water model scenes. There are signs of human activity in this cavern and tunnels leading off.

This is where the movie takes a very familiar turn. The movie begins to feel like a cheap Aliens knock off. The Captain sends the crew to investigate, wearing haz-mat suits and breathing masks. They are also armed with “hi-tech” guns. I guess we are supposed to believe that a NATO team of submariners including the ship’s doctor and dive tech along with a civilian engineer can double as a Marine search and rescue team.

They journey into the tunnels discovering all kinds of mutant creatures along the way and everal crew are killed by these creatures. They eventually find what appears to be some kind of laboratory inside. Contek has been engaged in genetic engineering experiments that have produced a variety of mutant creatures.

Meanwhile, the seaweed grew and infected the ship. First, the engineer is hit with a mutating goo that eventually cocoons him. The cook is also eventually consumed by it. This, in my opinion, was a missed opportunity. All the seaweed seemed to do is cover the victims with toxic goo. It could have done more, in my opinion – seaweed zombies?

In the end, some corporate entity arranged for this investigation in hopes of covering up what they were doing in this hidden cavern, through some twisted 90s Hollywood magic logic. And the only way to stop it all is to blow up the McGuffin hidden deep in the caves – the DNA Accelerator – a machine that accelerates evolution. Combine this with Trans-genetic manipulation (crossing genetics of different species) and you have a subterranean funhouse full of genetic mutant mistakes. Sounds like all my games in the 90s in one big nutshell.

What is interesting in this case is the wide variety of creatures they encounter. This turns into sort of a dungeon crawl in many ways. In an era now where practical effects is rarely used for something like this, it was refreshing to see so many used in this movie, even if they are bad effects. Perhaps this was part of the reason I felt driven to write about this movie. While the effects were not great, they were rather inspired.

In the order encountered …

Encounter #1

Locations: Outer cave tunnels leading into the first laboratory and in some of the secondary rooms around the labs.

Tunneling worm creatures – While travelling through the tunnels, one of the search teams (because they have split up by now) encounter small sized tunneling bug-like creatures (with a very suggestive shaped mouth) that attack out of the walls from holes they hide in.

They attack with some kind of paralyzing and infecting venom from a bite attack. Once infected, the victim is infested with more worms. They can also scurry along the floor quickly and attack from there.

Encounter #2

Location: Outer cave tunnels, in specific locations (lairs)

After being caught in a natural hazard that acts as a momentary trap, a group is attacked by two large creatures.

(1) Large worm snake creature – it swings down from above and bludgeons targets with a club like head.

We don’t get a lot more about this creature but just before the character blows its supposed head off, there does seem to be some kind of mandibles on ready to bight down.

(2) Large Lizard-like creature – A strong and savage creature that crawls out from a tunnel and sinks its teeth into its targets. It can rip limbs off normal humans.

Encounter #3

Location: In the water at the initial cavern, where the sub surfaced

Water Serpent – This is a large creature that wraps its target up and devours its target while it drowns it.

Encounter #4

Location: Inner labs and facilities (supply room)

Grabber – This creature is briefly seen as someone falls into its reach. A huge clawed hand reaches out from another hole in the wall and pulls its victims into an unknown demise.

Encounter #5

Location: Main lab where the big McGuffin was kept

Mutant Tentacle Vines – As the teams approach the main lab where the big McGuffin is kept, the room is swarming with vine like Tentacles, trying to pull more creatures into the machine to produce more mutants.

Encounter #6 – Boss

Big Mutant Boss Creature – This is encountered in the main lab where the DNA Accelerator is running. Apparently the Tentacle Vines either serve this creature or are attached to it. Below it is the pile of mutant eggs containing humanoid creature fetuses which are apparently intended for a surface habitation.

This creature has a long central tentacle with a secondary mouth on the end and several other tentacles that flower out of its central mouth. It is massive – probably Giant sized and is attached to the wall high above the main characters. Their shots into it seem to do very little and the only way they take it out is blowing up the chemical barrels that happen to be nearby.

That entire dungeon crawl scenario could be used for an adventure in just about any genre. The creatures are inspiring although not very original and have potential for expansion. The first half of the movie does not have to be an underwater adventure but in something like fantasy, it could be something unique. Overall, the movie is pretty bad but it has its moments of inspiration. I liked the practical effects and the McGuffin was a pretty cool idea.