The Big Blue

Synopsis: Enzo and Jacques have known each other for a long time. Their friendship started in their childhood days in the Mediterranean. They were not real friends in these days, but there was something they both loved and used to do the whole day long: diving. One day Jacques' father, who was a diver too, died in the Mediterranean sea. After that incident Enzo and Jacques lost contact. After several years, Enzo and Jacques had grown up, Johanna, a young clerk in an insurance office, has to go to Peru. There she meets Jacques who is being studied by a group of scientists. He dives for some minutes into ice-cold water and the scientists monitor his physical state that is more like a dolphin than human. Johanna can not believe what she sees and gets very interested in Jacques but she's unable to get acquainted with him. Some weeks later back in her office, she finds out that Jacques will be competing in a diving championship that takes place in Taormina, Sicily. In order to see Jacques again she m

Genre: Adventure, Drama, Sport

Director(s): Luc Besson

Actors: Rosanna Arquette, Jean-Marc Barr, Jean Reno, Paul Shenar

Production: 20th Century-Fox

3 wins & 6 nominations.


IMDB:: 7.6
Metacritic:: 35
Rotten Tomatoes:: 62%

Collection Edit Watch PDF Buy

: R
Year:: 1988
: 168 min
: $80,804
: 383 Views

FADE IN:
EXT. GREEK ISLAND - SUNSET
CREDIT SEQUENCE:
The image is in black and white.
The sun disappears behind arid cliffs which cast giant
shadows on the sea.
A little boy around 8 years old -- tanned from head to toe
SPRINTS ALONG THE CLIFFS, SCRAMBLES FROM ONE ROCK TO
another with amazing agility.
In one hand, he carries a transparent plastic bag. In the
other, a net bag containing flippers, mask, pants and
sweater.
The only thing that slows him down is his bathing suit --
obvious hand-me-downs -- way too big. He tugs on them as
he goes, holding them up... Until they slide again... as
he leaps again... and pulls them up...
The little boy is JACQUES MAYOL.
End credits.
EXT. GREEK ISLAND - SUNSET
JACQUES reaches a ledge jutting out over a deserted cove.
He spits in his mask... expertly spreads the spit with a
finger... locks his feet into the flippers... and dives.
He surfaces a long way out... adjusts his mask... and swims
away from shore.
IN OPEN SEA:
The boy stops swimming -- starts to gulp air -- sucks it
in -- oxygenating his blood in a series of deep rapid
breaths -- almost hyperventilating, almost alarming if
we've never seen this before.
His gaze is glued to the ocean floor. Clear clear water.
40 feet deep. And intensely blue.
Suddenly, he catches his breath and dives -- into the blue.
UNDERWATER:
JACQUES touches bottom. Clamps his legs around a rock to
hold himself down. Unhurried, thoroughly at home, 40 feet
under... he opens the plastic bag. A huge speckled moray
eel appears in a hole in the rock, slithers toward him.
The carnivore's jaws are bigger than the boy's head.
The boy smiles at him. Pulls a piece of raw meat out of
his bag and holds it out. The eel takes the morsel
delicately -- and slithers back into his hole.
Gravely, JACQUES takes another morsel out of the bag.
EXT. VILLAGE - DUSK
JACQUES walks up a steep road bordering the port, almost
dry now.
Two boys about his age run up the streets; call out, catch
up with him and gesture toward the port.
THE BOYS:
Jacques! Come quick!
EXT. PIER - DUSK
The little boys tug JACQUES to the end of the pier and
point to something in the water.
BOYS:
Look! Right there! It's shining!
JACQUES walks over, and sure enough sees something shining
a few feet down in the water.
JACQUES:
(squinting)
A coin.
FIRST BOY:
I found it.
SECOND BOY:
Liar!
Camera pans and we see a middle-aged PRIEST loading supplies
into a small boat. He stops to watch the children's
negotiations. Little JACQUES is putting his flippers on.
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