The Abyss–Going Down a Rabbit Hole

The Abyss, while a fictional narrative, is nonetheless based upon a real town, Kiruna, Sweden and the mine located beneath it.    First and foremost, The Abyss (2023) is a disaster film  about one woman superhero’s mental and physical strength in saving the lives of her friends and her teenage son.

Frigga (Tuva Novotny) is in charge of safety in the mine, and has learned the skills of her father who died there.   Her two teenage children, Simon and Mica) are rather clueless about how important their mother is to the safety of Kiruna.  Her ex-husband (David Franzén), and her new boyfriend (Kardo Razzazi) compete for her affection as well as for her children’s.  And more dramatically, they both are called upon when the mine begins to implode and Simon is missing.  

The viewer is cinematically placed inside the claustrophobic mind,  reminiscent of “Thirteen Lives” (see my August 18, 2022 review).  The “crawling through the narrow passage” sequence in particular is hyperventilating!

The movie’s strength lies in its ability to maintain suspense and in its incredible female lead with Amazonian strength. It might not be for every viewer, but it is an enjoyable, yet intense,  ride down a rabbit hole with a crowd-pleasing ending.

Availability:  Netflix

Note:  The town of Kiruna is actually in the process of being moved three kilometers away from where it’s situated today because of  substantial collapse of the ground and earthquake activity  around above the iron ore mine.  Kiruna was an important supplier of ore during  Nazi Germany’s occupation of Sweden. Another Scandinavian town, Narvik, Norway had to accommodate Nazi Germany’s iron ore requirements.  To better understand the pressures they had to face, while being a neutral country,   read my April 10, 2023 review of “Narvik“.