What to Know
- "Pressure: James Cameron Into the Abyss"
- On view at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles through Feb. 20, 2023
- Included with museum admission (free for members)
Films have been making a spectacular splash since the long-ago day when early directors figured out how to take a camera beneath the waves, or at least employ special effects to make it seem as though an audience member was exploring alien aquatic worlds.
But director James Cameron took the magical melding of cinematic art and the oceanic sciences far further, both by extending technological frontiers — the seemingly sentient water tentacle seen in 1989's "The Abyss" remains a much-lauded CGI masterwork — and doing the on-the-ground research.
Of course, when you co-design a submersible, and pilot it through underwater trenches, "on-the-ground research" doesn't quite fit, since there is no traditional ground around.
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DEEPSEA CHALLENGER, the ocean-roaming submersible both "co-designed and co-engineered" by the filmmaker, has become known for its amazing journeys into some of the Earth's dampest and darkest spaces, the remote canyons located many, many meters below the surface of the sea.
James Cameron employed DEEPSEA CHALLENGER to head into the Mariana Trench in 2012, a "record-breaking expedition" that's now in the spotlight at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles History.
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The exhibit, held in honor of the expedition's 10th anniversary, includes the sturdy star of the adventure, the sunshine-hued, science-strong vessel built for venturing through some of the most sunless places on the planet.
"Pressure: James Cameron Into the Abyss" takes a deep dive into the submersible's technology and the challenges of planning such a profound plunge.
We won't ever personally book a trip to the Mariana Trench, but science can take us to the strange worlds within our world, with DEEPSEA CHALLENGER serving as a plucky pioneer at the leading edge of ocean exploration.
You can see the submersible, which the filmmaker donated to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, through Feb. 20, 2023.
As for other wondrous specimens and stories from the extreme depths?
The Natural History Museum suggests checking out "Depth Perceptions," where the institution's fascinating marine collections "... illuminate the shape of life in deep water."
