Ben (Aaron Eckhart) is a former Air Force pilot and grieving father who is trying to avoid the depressing reality of having a very sick son at home. He tells his wife the airline changed is schedule, but he actually just volunteered to serve as first officer on Northeastern Airlines flight N-140 from LA to Shanghai, joining veteran Captain Rich (Ben Kingsley) at the helm. Rich has been flying a long time, and is planning his retirement.

As the plane boards, we meet some of the wide variety of passengers, which include self-centered and obnoxious businessman Rich (Angus Sampson); father Declan (Ryan Bown) who is trying to calm his daughter Cora (Molly Belle Wright), who doesn’t like flying; and Cora’s step-mother Jaya (Kelly Gale) and her younger step-brother Finn (Elijah Tamati), whom she resents. These parents have plans to join the mile-high club once the flight takes off. Also onboard are an Esports team returning from a tournament, which includes Lilly (Zhao Simei) and her best friend/teammate Sam (Li Wenhan), who has had a secret crush on her for ages but can’t bring up the nerves to tell her. There’s also slightly inebriated wrestler Hutch (Lakota Johnson), his teammate Jesse (Rarmian Newton), and coach Dade (Mark Hadlow); outspoken grandmother Becky (Kate Fitzpatrick), and nerdy guy Matt (Richard Crouchley), who has a crush on flight attendant Zoe (Nashi). The plane is staffed with a full crew, led by head purser Penny (Lucy Barrett).

As the flight is over the ocean, hundreds of miles from any airport, there is an emergency on board, forcing the pilots to make a crash landing into the ocean. The plane is ripped apart, with pieces of the fuselage scattered across the water, and the surviving 30-or-so strangers must come together if they’re going to make it. But surviving the crash was only the start of their problems. The plane won’t stay afloat for long, and they will need to find and deploy the life rafts. And to make matters worse, the waters are infested with hungry sharks looking to make them their next meal. Ben had been trying to escape the idea of death back home, but now he finds himself thrust into a leadership position, in charge of helping these passengers survive. He feels helpless when it comes to saving his own child, but he can certainly do something for the young girl, Cora!

Deep Water follows your typical formula for a disaster movie, where we are first introduced to all of the various characters who will appear later. Things are light and fun, with some humor tossed in. It’s the calm before the storm. Then the disaster strikes and the characters go into survival mode, forced to put aside differences and work together. But the dangerous circumstances will start picking them off one-by-one.

Deep Water was originally supposed to be a direct sequel to the 2012 film Bait, in which strangers find themselves trapped in a supermarket during a tsunami, along with some hungry sharks. However, the real-life disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 caused that project to be shelved. Now it has resurfaced a decade later, reworked into a standalone film. The result is something similar in tone but not a sequel. The film follows groups of strangers faced with two disasters at the same time—surviving a plane crash, and dealing with hungry sharks. Both of these aspects of the film work quite well. The plane crash itself is quite action-packed and visceral, showing these passengers in terror as their plane is torn apart before their eyes, watching fellow passengers getting ripped from the seats, or killed by flying debris, and then stuck in the water, trying to make it to the surface before they drown.

Often in these types of disaster movies, you get a lot of one-dimensional stereotyped characters, and you know who’s going to die because they are always the jerks or selfish ones. However, the writers have done a good job of quickly providing some connection or backstory for these characters, to humanize them and make the viewer care about them. For an action/disaster film, there are some truly emotional scenes, such as when the passengers are bracing for impact. There are some surprising turns of events to this film, and not everyone that doesn’t make it is a bad person, which can be a bit heartbreaking. That said, there are definitely still some characters, like the obnoxious Rich who is the cause of the plane’s issues in the first place, who the viewer is absolutely rooting for to become shark chum.

Once the passengers are in the water, the action continues. The passengers are split up in various groups, all facing different dangers. Some are trapped underwater and running out of air, others are injured from the crash, and some are the first to discover there is yet another danger lurking in the water. Loved ones have been split apart and are desperately trying to find one another.

The shark effects are well done, making the attacks feel real and bloody, and a viable deadly threat to all of the passengers—just when you think someone may be safe, they usually get chomped. The filmmakers mix underwater footage with surface shots to build the excitement and dread. There are a lot of character storylines woven throughout the action, and the film ultimately builds to an emotionally satisfying conclusion.

Alliance Entertainment, in association with Magenta Light Studios, has released Deep Water on Blu-ray, DVD & Digital. We were sent the Blu-ray release for review. The visual presentation looks great, with a clean, detailed picture that captures all of the excitement clearly—whether it’s the calm before the storm at the airport, the fast-paced disaster aboard and crash of the plane, or the shark attacks both during the sunny daytime and at night. The audio track is fantastic, providing a thoroughly-immersive soundscape. This is especially true during the crash and as the plane is surrounded by by water. Creaks and burbling can be heard from every direction, making the viewer feel like they are right there in the wrecked fuselage. Dialogue is also clear throughout, and the film features a strong, emotional score.

The Blu-ray disc is placed in a standard HD keepcase. Our review copy did not include a slipcover. There is no digital copy code included, and the disc contains no bonus material.

What’s Included:

Film (1:46:27):

Blu-ray:
• 1080p / Widescreen 2.35:1
• Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
• Subtitles: English SDH

Extras:

No bonus material included.

Final Thoughts:

Deep Water is a solidly-entertaining disaster/survival movie, putting the characters in peril twice, from two different threats. The film has a bit of humor at the start, but quickly becomes action-packed and exciting, while also providing the viewer with an emotional connection to the characters, so when some of them don’t make it, it’s genuinely heartbreaking. The Blu-ray’s visual presentation looks great, and the audio presentation is phenomenal, putting the viewer right in the middle of the chaos. My only complaint is that the disc is barebones, without any kind of bonus material. Otherwise, it’s an easy recommendation to any fan of fun, popcorn disaster films.