Editing The Abyss (section)

==Themes==
''The Abyss'' explores themes of [[Psychological resilience|human resilience]] and trust, where it draws influence from [[atomic age]] science fiction media that [[Nuclear weapons in popular culture|involve nuclear weapons]] and [[global catastrophe scenarios]],{{refn|group="nb"|Apocalyptic subplot only presented in the Special Edition version.}} while not embellishing violence, unlike Cameron's typical action films. In the film, the threat is internal, where it is a part of people that can turn them into monsters due to their own fears.<ref name="deep">{{cite web |url=https://www.deepfocusreview.com/definitives/the-abyss/ |title=The Abyss |author=Brian Eggert |website=Deep Focus Review  |access-date=21 March 2025 |date= September 22, 2024}}</ref>  

===Femininity===  
The film uphold themes that critique [[Toxic masculinity|masculine violence]] and treacherous establishments, while esteeming female [[intuition]] that longs for peace and encourages [[peace]] between mankind and the natural world. A repeated theme in much of Cameron’s filmography, women happen to be protectors with [[emotional intelligence]] and have rationality to save life, where they fight for [[ethic]]al obligations, and are [[Toleration|welcoming]] to the unknown. At the climax of the film, Bud navigates through the dark trenches holding hands with the NTIs, as if he is in a [[birth canal]], where he is literally and metaphorically born again on the other side, after coming out from a liquid [[womb]] to breathe for the first time. Bud then has a new perspective on life that harmonizes with Lindsey's tender, [[feminity|feminine]] view of instinct over hostility and [[paranoia]].<ref name="deep"/>

===Corporation criticism=== 
The film follows the structure that [[human culture]]s are savage and [[reactionary]], where the world leaders are paranoid from the [[Cold War]]. The director's criticism of military [[fanaticism]] are also similar to those in ''Aliens'', with Coffey symbolizing a paranoid and belligerent military figure who almost annihilates the world with his hostile behaviour. On this issue, Cameron writes in 1992, "the original goal of the film was to tell a story of a kind of [[apocalypse]] in which we are judged by a [[supremacism|superior race]]...And [we are] found to be worthy of [[salvation]] because of a single average man, an Everyman, who somehow represents that which is good in us: the capacity for love measured by the willingness for [[self-sacrifice]].” Indeed, ''The Abyss'' illustrates that it is not a corporation that saves mankind, but rather sympathetic individuals who experience love and are not menaced by the unknown, which persuade the NTIs that humankind merits being saved.<ref name="deep"/><ref>{{cite web |url=https://cinephiliabeyond.org/the-abyss-james-camerons-exploration-of-humanity-and-love-in-the-heart-of-the-ocean/|title='The Abyss': James Cameron's Exploration of Humanity and Love in the Heart of the Ocean |author=Sven Mikulec|website=Cinephilia & Beyond |date=August 2017 |access-date=21 March 2025}}</ref> 

In the special edition's ending, when the aliens ultimately provide a warning to humanity as reaction to its history of violence, they cause tidal waves to destroy them, unless the humans alter their ways. This ending critiques greedy [[corporate]] bodies, and chastises the military that shapes itself as a protective organization but still commits violence, and provides a [[humanism|humanistic]] message about the significance of peace and life. In an interview, Cameron states, "It’s a very positive, hopeful film with a message—that we have to change if we're to survive as a species."<ref name="deep"/>

===Title's significance===
The term "abyss" in the [[Friedrich Nietzsche]] quote, "if you look long into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you", as seen at the opening of the film, pertains to the [[Abyssal plain|abyss]] in the Cayman Trough. Though in the film's case it may also refer to the philosophical abyss of the unknown, such as the possibility for a person to have an abyss within them, where they can be capable of limitless horrors. It also signifies what people see when they stare into it as a reflection of what lies inside them. Moreover, the "abyss" also represents the alarming [[Social alienation|distance between people]]. It is what Bud and Lindsey stare into when they examine their shattered marriage, and what the United States and the [[Soviet Union]] perceive during [[Cold War (1985–1991)|their nuclear stalemate]]. Therefore, to overcoming that abyss is to embrace it, to cease fighting and [[Trust (social science)|trust]] in the goodness of the world to earn it back. According to Lindsey, what people see is what they choose see.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://thespool.net/features/look-into-the-abyss-and-see-your-own-reflection/|title=Look Into "The Abyss" And See Your Own Reflection |author=Chris Ludovici|website=The Spool |date= August 9, 2019|access-date=21 March 2025}}</ref>