Trailer
Plot summary
The Siren was an experimental submarine, and its designer, Wick Hayes, holds Contek and the changes the company made to his plans responsible for the vessel's loss in an underwater rift. A second boat, the Siren II, descends with an experienced NATO crew commanded by Captain Randolph Phillips, and Hayes goes with them to learn what happened to the first. They trace a black box from the missing submarine to the rift, where a mass of toxic weed surrounds the Siren II; the scientist aboard says plant life cannot exist at that depth. Reversing the polarity of the hull frees the submarine, though some of the weed gets inside.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Rift (1990)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Unhappy with the screenplay and considering cancellation, Dino De Laurentiis brought in David Coleman just before shooting for a full rewrite that was translated into Spanish day by day for director Juan Piquer Simón and faxed to De Laurentiis in Los Angeles for approval.
- According to Coleman, Dino De Laurentiis told him he had made both Leviathan and the lower budgeted The Rift to pull the rug from under the B-movie producers who had ripped off his past blockbusters.
- Director Juan Piquer Simón kept a translator on set for the American cast and asked Jack Scalia to smoke during takes; Scalia had already quit cigarettes but complied, and started smoking again in real life.
- The story was first set in space until Juan Piquer Simón moved it underwater to distinguish it from Alien, choosing the ocean after coming across a news item about invasive seaweed caused by toxic waste in Norway.
- Jack Scalia had just seen a film he was shooting in Hong Kong shut down when the offer to star in The Rift reached him two days after he returned to the U.S.; he won the lead in a single meeting with De Laurentiis.
- Colin Arthur, an Englishman who had recently settled in Spain and had no effects shop of his own, had much of the creature preparation done inside the home where he lived.
