This week marks the 30th anniversary of James Cameron‘s “The Abyss,” the blockbuster maestro’s 1989 underwater alien epic. The film was famously nightmarish to shoot, including near-death experiences for star Ed Harris and other cast members walking off the abandoned nuclear plant the crew had filled with 7.5 million gallons of water to create Cameron’s oceanic universe. In retrospect, the film, while not the huge financial success of “The Terminator,” “Avatar” or “Titanic,” represented both a climax and the inevitable downturn of practical effects filmmaking while ushering in the digital effects that run rampant in 2019’s tentpoles.

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