How a sci-fi horror film about submarine aliens became a generic action movie
In short: Submerged began as a high-concept thriller titled The Thing meets Das Boot, featuring crab-like creatures stalking a crew underwater. But when Steven Seagal joined the project, he demanded the removal of all monsters and aliens, forcing the production to pivot to a mind-control plot just one week before filming.
Directed by Anthony Hickox, the 2005 film Submerged was originally conceived as a genre-bending horror-sci-fi hybrid. The initial script featured a bitter, alcoholic captain trapped on a submarine with alien creatures designed to crawl through the vessel's drainage systems. However, three weeks before production commenced in Sofia, Bulgaria, Seagal intervened. He insisted on removing the monsters, requested an opera scene, and famously declared that the story should not take place on a submarine, despite the film's title.
The resulting chaos left the production team without a coherent script. Hickox later admitted that the final plot—centered on a CIA mind-control experiment and a mercenary named Chris Cody—was improvised in the final week of pre-production. Filmed over 31 days in late 2004, the movie was released direct-to-DVD in May 2005. Critics, including those at Ain't It Cool News, panned the final product as one of Seagal's least entertaining efforts.
Beyond its troubled production, the film sparked a diplomatic backlash in Uruguay, where the story is set. The Uruguayan government condemned the project for associating the nation with terrorism and misrepresenting its reality. The film depicted the country as a lawless state with lush jungles and Mayan ruins—geographical and cultural inaccuracies that ignored Uruguay’s status as a stable democracy. The government even considered legal action against the production for the unauthorized use of the national flag and name in a context of gang violence and drug trafficking.
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- Summary by Intellect · source: Submerged (2005 film)
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