"One of the 50 Coolest Websites...they simply tell it like it is" - TIME
Sanctum | 2011 | R | - 3.7.8
Inspired by a true story, cave-exploring divers (Richard Roxburgh, Ioan Gruffudd, Rhys Wakefield, Dan Wyllie, Allison Cratchley and Alice Parkinson) are trapped in a series of underwater caves and must find their way out after a freak storm collapses the entrance. Directed by Alister Grierson. [1:43]
SEX/NUDITY 3 - A teenage boy shows a man and a woman his bare buttocks after he jokes that the man will shine a light where "no light has ever been shone." Two men strip a woman's coveralls off, revealing her bra and underwear (trying to warm her since she suffering from hypothermia); another man takes his shirt off (we see his bare chest) and holds her under a solar blanket. Men are seen on various occasions shirtless. An older man is seen wearing only a loincloth.
► A man makes a crude joke to a teenage boy that he had contracted an STI while traveling. A man makes a crude joke about female anatomy. A man jokes that he is using an underwater camera to follow a woman's behind.
VIOLENCE/GORE 7 - A man attacks another man, they wrestle, and one man is thrown on top of two rocks sticking out of the ground and he is impaled (we hear a squishing noise).
► A man standing behind an anchoring rock is shoved through a small cave opening when the rock gives way, his body slams against the walls of the cave multiple times (we hear the impact of his body and helmet on the rock) as he falls approximately 25 feet and his body lands face-down in the water below.
► A man is discovered floating in water by a teenage boy, his face is ripped open at the mouth and blood covering his face and body. A woman's body is discovered and we see that it is bloated and battered, her eyes are open and glazed over, and she's lying on the floor of a cave. We see a woman's body (her eyes are open but lifeless) tied at the ankle to a decompression chamber as a man sits inside. A teenage boy swims past the lifeless, floating body of a man stuck against the wall of an underwater cave; we see the man's open, lifeless eyes. A man opens a body bag to reveal the deceased body of a woman: he begins to take off the woman's wetsuit (no nudity is visible) as another woman shouts that she will not wear the wetsuit of a dead woman and the man closes the body bag and we see it float away. We see the body of a teenage boy floating in the water; he appears lifeless and limp until moments later when he w swims to the surface, unharmed.
► A woman sliding down a rope over rapidly churning water panics and freezes in place; she loses her grip and the ropes become caught on her hair and ear (we see blood in her hair and on her hands), she claws at the rope as two men and a teenage boy watch, she cuts the tether, falls onto a rope below (we hear the sound of bones snapping), the rope gives way, she falls into the water and is instantly carried away.
► During a deep-water dive a line to a woman's re-breather tank pops off, she panics, a man takes off his mask and attempts to share his oxygen, the woman struggles, the man pushes her away, she gasps for air and then floats (she seems lifeless).
► A man says that a wounded man will not survive because all of the bones in his body have been crushed and that he will "help him"; the man holds the injured man underwater, we see his arms flail, and his body goes limp and floats away. A critically injured man asks a teenage boy to place him in water and help him die; the teenage boy eventually agrees and pushes the man under water, the man struggles against the teen momentarily, his arm pushing the teen's shoulder, but then succumbs and goes limp.
► A teenage boy lifts a man up and we see a large rock sticking out of the man's back, and there's blood coming from the wound; the teenage boy pulls the rock out, blood pours from the wound and the man struggles to breathe. A man coughs up blood, he stumbles and struggles to walk, we see blood on his hand, mouth and lips, he hides under a rock, we see him struggling not to cough (blood still on his face) and the screen goes black, implying he died.
► A teenage boy leaps toward a man, they wrestle in a pool of water, the man punches the teenage boy (he is seen with abrasions on his arm and a cut on his cheek and nose), and the teenage boy holds his arm against the man's throat until the man passes out. A man dives after another man that stole a re-breather from him, the two men struggle underwater, the man without the tank grabs the other man's foot, he kicks him off and swims away while the other man resurfaces after struggling to find his way back to the top of the water.
► Two men, a teenage boy and a woman attempt to climb out of a cave: the woman hangs from a wire and water pours rapidly over her, her head slams into a rock (we hear the sound of her helmet hitting the rock with a crack), the men and the teenage boy below her struggle to stand up as the water hits them, they are unharmed and the woman rappels safely to the ground. A teenage boy under water struggles to breathe when his oxygen tank runs out; he climbs against the walls of an underwater cave and breathes in pockets of air, he imagines himself dying (we see the image of the teenage boy floating lifeless in the water), he breaks through the surface of the water and pulls himself onto a beach where he collapses. Several men, women and a teenage boy walk through deep water to escape an underground cave; we hear one of the men saying that they will "never make it out alive" as two men lower a ladder to the ground below, the ladder lurches as a woman tries to climb it, she lets go of the ladder, falls into a pool of water and then surfaces moments later, unharmed. A female diver struggles to go through a small opening in a cave, she panics and we hear her breathing become rapid; she calms down and goes through the opening, unharmed. A man stumbles to regain his footing as he slides down a small cave opening and he winces in pain, but is then seen unharmed. A teenage boy climbs a cave wall over a deep pit of churning water; he struggles to find footholds and jumps safely across the water.
► A man shouts at another man, slams him into a rock and the other man pushes him off. A teenage boy shouts at a man and the man shouts back. A man shouts at another man over video chat. A man shouts at a teenage boy over video chat and the teenage boy turns off the connection. A woman begins to cry in frustration and says that she cannot feel her fingers due to hypothermia. A teenage boy begins to cry and tells a man that he does not want to die; the man hugs him to comfort him.
► A man and a woman struggle to swim through a small hole in an underwater cave, the woman panics and breathes rapidly, the man calms her down and they continue to swim. A man leaps from the edge of a cave, un-tethered, and free-falls until he releases a parachute and lands safely. A man is seen coughing and having trouble standing up, we see a patchy rash on his chest (a symptom of decompression illness) and another man tells him that he "can't fizz up on him anymore."
► A man and a teenage boy discover a tank sitting on the shelf of a cave, the teenage boy asks if the man thinks the people in the tank escaped and we see two human skulls on the ground.
► We see a massive black cloud over a camp and high winds as a man shouts into a phone that several people need to leave a cave or it will flood. A teenage boy tells two men and a woman that he needs to warn several people that a cave is flooding; one of the men says he is risking his life and the boy says he must save the other people. Two men discuss with a teenage boy that an upcoming storm could flood an underground cave where several men and women are diving. A man warns another man, a teenage boy and a woman that a cave could "kill you in a heartbeat." On multiple occasions men and a teenage boy discuss how a man had been helpless allowing a woman to die, or he would have also died. A man tells a teenage boy that a man had allowed a woman to die. A teenage boy tells a man and woman that a man had died. A man describes the effects of decompression illness ("the bends") as having your blood fizz up like beer. On multiple occasions a man tells a group of men, women and a teenage boy that he does not believe there is a rescue party coming for them. A man tells two men, a woman and a teenage boy that they do not send out rescue parties for dive teams, only "body recovery." A man flying a helicopter with two men, a woman and a teenage boy jokes that if they were to crash the helicopter in a forest no one would be able to find them and their skulls would become "soup bowls for mud-men." A man jokes that another man's choice of words ("see you on the other side") is appropriate, since they are entering into a dangerous situation. A teenage boy tells a woman and a man that his father had killed a wild boar and eaten it and he shows them a tooth from the boar he wears as a pendant. A man jokes to a teenage boy that he won't let a cave "beat him" after another man warns him that exploring the cave could kill him. A man tells a teenage boy that he and another man had once accidentally sunk a truck they were using as a diving anchor and had to break the back window open to get through and then walk 20 miles to find help. A man makes a joke about another man's flatulence. A man warns a group of men and women that he will have the least experienced diver go last through a small hole, so if she panics and cannot make it through she will not cause anyone else to die. A woman tethered to a teenage boy about to rappel into a deep underground cave, nervously tells the teenage boy to not let her fall.
► A man winces as a teenage boy uses his shoulder to prop himself through a small cave opening. Sparks from an electric box shorting out fly next to a teenage boy; he is unharmed.
► A teenage boy rubs bat guano on a man's face. We see a man and a teenage boy covered in bat guano after they climb through a cave.
LANGUAGE 8 - About 32 F-words and its derivatives, 1 obscene hand gesture, 2 sexual references, 31 scatological terms, 6 anatomical terms, 21 mild obscenities, name-calling (salty, strong like bull but dumb like a tractor, mud men, ginger, blocked duddy, stubborn, rappel rat, emotionally shut-down Nazi), exclamations (bloody), 3 religious profanities, 21 religious exclamations.
SUBSTANCE USE - A man is seen drinking from a bottle of alcohol, a man drinks from a bottle of alcohol and hands it to a teenage boy who takes a drink, a man jokes that he is bringing a bottle of alcohol to a man and making him take a drink, a man jokes that a woman must buy a round of drinks, and a woman jokes that she needs an alcoholic drink. A man jokes with a teenage boy that an author had been "high" when writing a poem.
DISCUSSION TOPICS - Cave diving, cave exploration, Papua New Guinea, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Kubla Khan poem, bends/decompression sickness, re-breathers, father and son relationships, assisted suicide, Christopher Columbus, Neil Armstrong.
MESSAGE - Knowledge, safety, and trust are the most important components of exploration. Sometimes people are forced to take drastic measures to save their own lives.
CAVEATS
Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.
We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.
Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.
how to
support us
PLEASE DONATE
We are a totally independent website with no connections to political, religious or other groups & we neither solicit nor choose advertisers. You can help us keep our independence with a donation.
NO MORE ADS!
Become a member of our premium site for just $1/month & access advance reviews, without any ads, not a single one, ever. And you will be helping support our website & our efforts.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
We welcome suggestions & criticisms -- and we accept compliments too. While we read all emails & try to reply we don't always manage to do so; be assured that we will not share your e-mail address.
how to
support us
PLEASE DONATE
We are a totally independent website with no connections to political, religious or other groups & we neither solicit nor choose advertisers. You can help us keep our independence with a donation.
NO MORE ADS!
Become a member of our premium site for just $2/month & access advance reviews, without any ads, not a single one, ever. And you will be helping support our website & our efforts.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
We welcome suggestions & criticisms -- and we will accept compliments too. While we read all emails & try to reply we do not always manage to do so; be assured that we will not share your e-mail address.