The movie is told from the perspective (mainly) of one man, Mike Williams (Mark Wahlberg), who is now regarded as a hero for his quick-thinking and rescue of several of the crew on board. We are introduced first to his family. His wife, a stunning Kate Hudson, and his whip-smart daughter who wants her dad to find a fossil at sea for bragging rights at school. Before Williams leaves at work, the daughter demonstrates the way an oil rig works using a can of soda and a metal straw. Like that scene in Titanic where a computer generation simulates the entire sinking of the ship so that the audience knows what to expect, so does this throwaway scene give us a rudimentary knowledge of the happenings on the rig later on. When they are talking about cement and pipes and negative pressure, we have less cause to question what is happening. It's brilliant filmmaking.
On board, we meet the rest of the crew, captained by Jimmy Harrell (Kurt Russell), who argues constantly with the BP executives on board about cutting corners. The construction of the pipeline leading to the ocean's floor is already 43 days behind, and construction is abruptly finished to cut corners and save the multi-billion dollar company a little money. BP is, of course, the villain of this story since their actions led to the largest oil spill in US history. The face to the company is John Malkovich playing a conniving investor with a Cajun accent and knack for time saving. His dialogue with Russell is great, and we see the rival sides of two arguments: the crew is trying to work in the safest environment possible. BP wants the job done on schedule.
The events on board play out in the course of 24 hours or so. We meet the workers on board, all chummy and casual with each other. They practice songs with each other, joke, work like friends... The atmosphere is that of comfort, and there is lots of clever writing in the way small talk turns into startling character development and the candor of speech places these characters so specifically in southern Louisiana.
All the while we see bubbles slowly rising from the ocean floor, an omen of what is to come. When performing a standard 'negative pressure test' to gauge the strength of the newly-built pipe, a surge of pressure forces mud and natural gas to erupt into the Horizon with the force of a bomb. The facility fills with gas, and the overdrive of engines causes an explosion. In the darkness, we see massive amounts of black oil rise into the sky thousands of feet above the platform. With a spark, it is ignited... The entire ship is a floating firebomb.
Luckily many survive, and the action once the flames start is less plot driven and more or less a fight to escape. With Mark Wahlberg's character, he is knocked unconscious in his bed chamber and must work through the darkness to find safely. Kurt Russell, caught in the explosion in the shower, is nearly blinded and impaled by shards of glass and metal. It's utter chaos.
The most effective aspects of this film (and there are many) is the set piece of the Deepwater Horizon, itself. It has been called the most expensive movie set ever built, and watching the movie I would never have second-guessed that this was not a real rig that has been long weathered and worn. We learn it is not anchored to the oceanbed but rather a floating raft of sorts that uses propellors to center it constantly above the delicate pipeline bringing oil to the surface. Without propellors, the craft shifts off-centered, risking the pipe bursting and oil flowing freely into the ocean. In a moment of absolute startle, we are with the pilot in the control room when suddenly all power goes out. The silence is matched in terror by the instant knowledge of an oil spill unlike anything they had seen before and the dire need to regain power of the motors.
This is surely an intense film, but it is matched equally with heart, which is an aspect I think many disaster movies gloss over in the end to create a cookie-cutter ending with a bow on top. Here, when the survivors are rescued and brought to safety they are not happy and cheering to be alive. Mike Williams breaks down on his hotel room floor and is unhinged by the horror he had just lived. Families become angry in an attempt to locate their son or daughter on board. Yes this is a true story, and the filmmakers respected the subject enough to give it a bit more weight that a typical blockbuster might have bestowed.
It's hard to rate movies on a scale since it's purely objective and driven by emotion. Deepwater Horizon may not be a perfect movie, and it may have slight flaws, but the feeling of immersion into the story and the characters left me breathless from opening to the final credits. The visual effects add to the story and create images that I won't soon forget. The final moments brought a tear to my eye. From the movies I know are currently playing in theaters, this is the one movie I would want to go back to a second time.
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