''20,000 Leagues Under the Sea'' is a 1997 two-part television miniseries produced by

Village Roadshow Pictures Village Roadshow Pictures is the American subsidiary of the Australian co-producer and co-financier of major Hollywood motion pictures established in 1986. It is a division under Village Roadshow Entertainment Group (VREG), which in turn is o ...

, based on the 1870 novel ''

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea ''Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas'' (french: Vingt mille lieues sous les mers) is a classic science fiction adventure novel by French writer Jules Verne. The novel was originally serialized from March 1869 through June 1870 in Pierre- ...

'' by Jules Verne. It was written by Brian Nelson and directed by

Rod Hardy Rod Hardy (born in Melbourne, Australia) is an Australian television and film director. Career His interest in film began before the age of 12, when he shot several short films on his brother's 8 mm film camera. Rod has over 350 hours of cre ...

Plot

The ''Nautilus'' has been sinking and damaging ships and is at first thought to be a giant narwhal. The USS ''Abraham Lincoln'', with marine biologist Pierre Aronnax, harpooner Ned Land and escaped slave Cabe Attucks aboard, is sent to pursue and destroy the threat. After the ship is attacked by the ''Nautilus'', Pierre, Ned and Cabe are knocked overboard and are picked up by the ''Nautilus''. With the three men presumed dead, the ''Abraham Lincoln'' makes it back to port and is repaired. Pierre's widowed father, Thierry Aronnax, joins the naval party. Thierry, also a marine biologist, has always been hateful and bitter toward his son because the boy's mother died while giving birth to him and because the elder Aronnax's mistress had come to prefer Pierre to his father. Nemo is setting up an underwater domed city under the Atlantic south of

West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, M ...

. To avoid earthquake risks to it, he is first setting up a network of underwater explosives to release all Earth's geotectonic tensions at once and thus ensure that no more build up for a long while. During this, a Chinese-looking

pearl diving Pearl hunting, also known as pearling, is the activity of recovering pearls from wild molluscs, usually oysters or mussels, in the sea or freshwater. Pearl hunting was prevalent in the Persian Gulf region and Japan for thousands of years. On t ...

girl accidentally activates one of these devices and the ''Nautilus'' rescues her in time. Nemo's daughter Mara and Pierre become mutually attracted to each other. An accident destroys Pierre's right hand, and Nemo replaces it with a mechanical hand similar to his own. The

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

locates Nemo's base by a concentrated area of sightings of the ''Nautilus''. The ''Abraham Lincoln'', with Thierry Aronnax aboard, sails there. Damage caused by Ned Land (killing him in the process) and

torpedo A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, and with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, s ...

es fired downwards by the ''Abraham Lincoln'', force the ''Nautilus'' to surface. The ''Nautilus'''s crew come out on deck and are summarily machine-gunned by the ''Abraham Lincoln'''s deck-mounted Gatling guns. Mara and some others escape in one of the ''Nautilus'''s

diving bell A diving bell is a rigid chamber used to transport divers from the surface to depth and back in open water, usually for the purpose of performing underwater work. The most common types are the open-bottomed wet bell and the closed bell, which c ...

s, but Mara is picked up and held prisoner aboard the ''Abraham Lincoln''. A US naval man, accompanied by Thierry Aronnax, boards the ''Nautilus'' and shoots Nemo and another survivor on sight. After a final confrontation between Pierre and his father on the deck of the ''Nautilus'', Nemo, before dying, activates a switch in his mechanical hand causing the ''Nautilus'' to explode, destroying the ''Abraham Lincoln'' as well. Pierre is rescued by Cabe and the pearl diver, who have escaped in a ''Nautilus'' diving bell. Pierre's account of these events finds its way to Jules Verne, who uses it as a basis for his novel ''

''.

Cast

Michael Caine Sir Michael Caine (born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite; 14 March 1933) is an English actor. Known for his distinctive Cockney accent, he has appeared in more than 160 films in a career spanning seven decades, and is considered a British film ico ...

as Captain Nemo *

Patrick Dempsey Patrick Galen Dempsey (born January 13, 1966) is an American actor and race car driver. He is best known for his role as neurosurgeon Derek "McDreamy" Shepherd in ''Grey's Anatomy''. He had early success as an actor, starring in a number of fi ...

as Pierre Arronax * Mia Sara as Mara *

Bryan Brown Bryan Neathway Brown AM (born 23 June 1947) is an Australian actor. He has performed in over eighty film and television projects since the late 1970s, both in his native Australia and abroad. Notable films include '' Breaker Morant'' (1980), ...

as Ned Land *

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (, ; born 22 August 1967) is an English actor, director, and former fashion model known for his roles as Lock-Nah in ''The Mummy Returns'', Nykwana Wombosi in '' The Bourne Identity'', Heavy Duty in '' G.I. Joe: The R ...

as Cabe Attucks *

John Bach John Bach (born 5 June 1946) is a British-born New Zealand actor who has acted on stage, television and film over a period of more than four decades. Though born in the United Kingdom, he has spent most of his career living and working in New Z ...

as Thierry Arronax * Nicholas Hammond as Saxon *

Peter McCauley Peter McCauley (born 8 March 1950) is an actor from New Zealand who has appeared in many television series and movies, mainly in his home country. Career McCauley graduated from Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School in 1973 with a Certific ...

as Admiral McCutcheon *

Kerry Armstrong Kerry Michelle Armstrong (born 12 September 1958) is an Australian actress and author. She is one of only two actresses to win two Australian Film Institute Awards in the same year, winning Best Actress in a Leading Role for ''Lantana'' and Be ...

as Lydia * Cecily Chun as Imei * Ken Senga as Shimoda * Damian Monk as Denison * Steven Grives as Garfield *

Gerry Day Gerry Day (January 27, 1922 – February 13, 2013) was an American screenwriter. She was also a newspaper reporter for the ''Hollywood Citizen News'' in the mid-1940s. Early life Gerald Lallande Day was born in Los Angeles, California, the dau ...

as Nitongu * Boe Kaan as Ivanda

Differences from the novel

The ''Nautilus'' gets its power by extracting the sun's heat from the sea water: this is impossible technology, and the movie wrongly calls it

hydroelectricity Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined an ...

Reception

'' DVD Verdict'' wrote the miniseries "comes off as incomplete", but praised

's performance as Captain Nemo. David Cornelius of ''

DVD Talk DVD Talk is a home video news and review website launched in 1999 by Geoffrey Kleinman. History Kleinman founded the site in January 1999 in Beaverton, Oregon. Besides news and reviews, it features information on hidden DVD features known as ...

'' called the adaptation "dreadfully dull", disapproving of director Hardy's and screenwriter Nelson's work.

References

External links