Deep Water is available on Digital HD on July 20, 2026, as well as DVD and Blu-Ray on July 27 2026. Distributed by Signature Entertainment.
Synopsis
After a catastrophic fire disrupts an LA flight to Shanghai, airline flight officer Ben (played by Aaron Eckhart) must come to the rescue for his passengers, alongside fellow pilot Rich (Ben Kingsley). The survivors must work as a team to stay afloat on the water – but, the ever-looming presence of sharks threatens their safety.
Review
Disaster movies – you know the score. Well-meaning, unassuming people go about their hum-drum lives, before an event of world-ending proportions sweeps all normality under the rug. Suddenly, it is down to one person to step up to bat, with the fate of mankind resting on their rugged shoulders. From the weekly success of Lost, to the whirlwind of Twister, to the hellfire of Dante’s Peak, good disaster entertainment promises one thing and one thing only – teeth-clenching terror. Bad disaster movies, however, amount to something far less disruptive, a mere ripple amongst the waves of a tsunami. And Renny Harlin’s achievements in Deep Water align much more with the latter.
Harlin is no stranger to high-pressure threat; from his directing hand has fallen the likes of Die Hard 2, Deep Blue Sea and The Strangers trilogy. However, throat-constricting dread must be accompanied by a suitable band of rag-tag warriors, born both of strength and vulnerability. Right from the off, Deep Water folds an emotional deck of cards – a pilot with a sick child, an awkward step-family, a kindling love between E-Sports gamers. It’s far too early to play these cards, even more so on top of one another – because us fellow players have smelt this coming. We know the patterns of a disaster movie, and so we come to expect characters in the throes of misery, whose plights can only be healed by an apocalyptic-level threat; it’s a film that tries to hug you, before you’ve even held its hand.
Much like the peeling interior of the plane, the stilted script rebounds upon its characters. Derivative lines such as “You can’t keep running away from this…” are thrown at the wall, begging, with weak resistance, to stick. As Ben, Aaron Eckhart manages to throw these lines with the most force, delivering the action-hero trope well. With ripples of emotion bubbling under the surface, he gives himself over to the film’s current and returns relatively unscathed. Ben Kingsley makes for a much weaker counter-part, appearing checked out from the moment he appears first, in a karaoke bar. His dull rendition of Fly Me To The Moon begins to feel more and more appropriate, as the film slips on by.
Disaster movies, despite being outlandish by nature, are held up by a core of our innate human instinct of survival. Deep Water attempts this, with some notable effect. Much of the turmoil falls on two young step-siblings, Cora (Molly Belle Wright) and Finn (Elijah Tamati). After their parents retire to the bathroom for a round of ill-timed lovemaking, the two young children are left alone. This forces Finn to kindle a bond with Becky, a kind-hearted grandmother played by Kate Fitzpatrick; their relationship certainly echoes the meaningful trauma-bonds formed through disaster movies history. But, one has the right to question Harlin’s decision to place every distressing moment in the children’s hands. It begins to feel like a cheap shot at the heart, watching these two witness death, deluges of blood and drowning bodies.
Disaster movies are not dissimilar to a magician’s slight-of-hand; one illusion, one puff of smoke and they’ll have us believe sorcery is science. The genre is predicated on the believability of the disaster, whatever it may be. And this illusion is neatly embellished, with sun-lit cinematography and lilicc-hued misty seas. But, Deep Water finds itself in the deeper end of the pool – as plane-based disasters have been performed time and time again on screen. Final Destination, Cast Away, Society of the Snow – the list is endless, harrowing and shocking. The illusion of Deep Water is much more of a mirage; it’s a hollow airplane hanger, floating in a water tank, beset with a shimmering CGI background. It is dissected by its atmosphere, with one set full of screaming passengers and the other, pilots with too calm a disposition.
Once the plane goes down, it penetrates the water with a visceral impact. But, this momentum slows the moment we hit shark-infested waters. At first, bodies are playful toyed with, with sharks dragging victims forcefully by the foot – a clear nod to Jaws. But, what should feel like a game of chess between human and shark becomes as hysterical as a game of Twister. Survivors are ravaged, disappearing from the surface in a puff of ruby-red blood. Even sharks can obey the laws of plot-armour, it seems, as the morally-grey characters are somehow targeted from an entire raft of people. Even our brave hero Ben can swim through the sea, returning relatively unscathed. Nothing about these predators is spontaneous or unpredictable; they are merely calculated pieces of CGI paraphernalia.
Verdict
Deep Water has ripples of potential; with sections of mortal peril and undercurrents of angst, it wants to bite and tear. But, with such out-of-the-box forefathers, it fails to access the DNA of the genre to make a greater splash. Without such creativity, Deep Water is left simply adrift at sea.
⭐⭐
