Submergence (2017) Movie Script
1
[WIND BLOWING]
[SEAGULLS CAWING]
[WAVES CRASHING]
WOMAN: [OVER RECORDING] Some of
the most common pathways
of energy production
in microorganisms,
who live along the
hydrothermal vents,
are oxidation or reduction
of sulfur compounds.
The most common electron donor
along the vents is
hydrogen sulfide,
making oxidation
of sulfur-containing compounds
the base of the food
web in this environment.
The microorganisms
capable of oxidizing
or reducing sulfur compounds
show amazing diversity.
Over 161 gram-negative
sulfur-oxidizing bacteria species
have been found to inhabit
the hydrothermal vents.
Bacteria in this environment are often
thought of as all being autotrophs,
but of these 161 species,
over 97% are also capable
of heterotrophic growth.
In addition, 37% perform
fermentation.
Furthermore, the sulfate
reducers known to be present,
include at least nine different
genera, including gram-negative...
Yeah, I see.
I understand why.
No, to us it'd make
a huge difference.
She'll be out soon.
You had enough?
[RECORDING CONTINUES]
While most are rod shaped...
They want us on the boat
now for a team debriefing.
DANI: Can I get
in the tank next time?
That's dangerous.
Each suit is designed
specifically
for each aquanaut, so...
Thank you, Paul, but you don't
have to indulge her every whim.
DANI: Thank you, Paul.
Why do you torture
him like that?
He's too young
to defend himself.
I'll race you.
- No.
- Come on now.
THUMBS: No, I... I...
I don't like you!
CAPT. ANCTIL: Okay, I just want to
go over the order of the dives,
so that you can
communicate with each other
about who can help log,
as some of you will be prepping
and not available to log.
All right?
We start from here,
so Jonas and Ren are up first,
- Lucky you.
- with tienne as the pilot,
for the first dive
in the Cadiz Gulf.
Then we're going to
hug the coastline,
going west of Ireland
and Britain
into the Norwegian Sea.
There, Gustavo and
Maria are next,
with Frank piloting
around the Faroe Island.
Frank, who is also taking
Annie and Mark down,
here near Iceland where
we'll spend the most time,
and do several dives, okay?
It's a complete reversal,
I'm sorry.
CAPT. ANCTIL:
And then, our deepest dive,
Thumbs and Dani,
are last, around Jan Mayen,
with tienne as a pilot, okay?
There are definite
advantages in going last.
They're gonna be logging
and not prepping,
and the sub will be tested.
I'm not thinking about that.
Then what's up?
I realized I've never
been lonely before.
[CHUCKLING]
Welcome to the planet.
It's possible there's
no service where he is.
He's working in
Northern Kenya, right?
Or he just stopped calling,
stopped being interested.
THUMBS: Impossible.
He's just stuck somewhere
without reception.
For a month.
THUMBS: Yes.
Why not?
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
[LAUGHING]
MAN: [IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
Don't go near him, boy!
[GROANS]
[CRUNCHING]
[MOANS]
[GROANS]
Next.
MAN: [OVER RECORDING]
The Monk by the Sea is not...
...The Berlin Academy
exhibition of 1810.
[FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING]
What do you got for us?
I have a bona fide source,
willing to give up an
operational bomb unit in Europe.
They want to hit train stations.
Where's the link?
In Southern Somalia.
What's on the
table for the source?
British passport,
we want him.
We found him,
we'll get him.
He's my source,
so I'm going in alone.
Somalia is not a good idea, J.
JAMES: I know.
Check this out.
We are talking about
bombs all over Europe.
If there's even a chance we can get out
in front of that, we have to take it.
We don't know who they are,
where they are.
Their whole pipeline
of intelligence
and soldiers waiting
to stream in.
You don't even know what faction
is in charge in Kismayo right now.
Well, I was hoping you could help
me out with who's in charge there.
Oh, come on, James,
this isn't Afghanistan.
WOLFGANG:
So, how are you getting in?
Small plane.
I'll use my water
engineer alias.
I'll meet my contact
at Kismayo airport.
BOB: So, you're mister water expert
and you're gonna dig up some wells?
BOB: In the tooth again,
that's the safest.
JAMES: Yeah, I'll activate it
once I'm there.
Same as last time.
WOLFGANG: Don't let them
know you speak Arabic, J.
Guys, do me a favor,
just tell me something
that's gonna help me, would you?
Fuck.
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
TEACHER: Yeah? Okay.
BOB: Wait, we've got
something for you.
Look at the picture.
You must remember this guy,
Yusef Mohamud al-Afghani.
Yeah.
He was with Osama in 2001,
wasn't he?
BOB: Yeah,
apparently he's in Somalia now.
We'll get you intel on him,
whatever we dig up.
Give us a few days, J, we'll
contact you on a safe line.
[BOAT MOTOR RUMBLES]
PHILLIP: Hey!
Hi. You came yourself.
PHILLIP: For you,
Madame Flinders, of course.
Oh, so good to be back.
[SPEAKING FRENCH]
[BIRDS CHIRPING]
[BELL RINGS]
[WAVES CRASHING]
- [INDISTINCT CHATTER]
- [AMBIENT MUSIC PLAYS]
Now I must confess,
I'm feeling reckless
Stuck my heart on my chest
Evening.
What kind of whiskey
do you have?
I've got a good Japanese one.
Konnichiwa, let's go Japanese.
- You play rugby?
- I used to.
- What's your name?
- Marcel.
Why did you stop, Marcel?
Oh, you know,
I just broke my neck.
[JAMES CHUCKLES]
Stick that on room 12, please.
- Okay.
- See you later.
Your white wine, Madame.
Thank you, Marcel.
[BIRDS CHIRPING]
[WAVES CRASHING]
Hey.
Good Morning.
JAMES: Good Morning.
- You're English?
- British. Scottish British.
Dani, Dani Flinders.
James More.
- DANI: Will I see you later?
- JAMES: Yeah, I'd like that!
[BREATHING HEAVILY]
Oh.
JAMES:
I think you're following me.
Or you're following
me in advance.
- Tricky.
- [JAMES LAUGHS]
Mr. More,
the newspaper you wanted.
Thank you, Beatrice.
You're definitely following me.
I haven't even had a
chance to shower yet.
I love the smell of sweat.
- I have to do some work.
- Is this your room?
- Lunch?
- Would 1:30 be too late?
No.
[BIRDS CHIRPING]
MAN: [OVER RECORDING]
Free-living chemoautotrophic
microorganisms at
hydrothermal vents.
We integrated the analyses of IPL
diversity and delta13C values,
delta13C lipid with
16S RNA gene-based...
[ORCHESTRAL MUSIC PLAYS]
[KNOCK ON DOOR]
- [KNOCKING CONTINUES]
- Yes?
JAMES: I've come
to take you to lunch.
It's open.
[MUSIC CONTINUES]
Carry on, Professor.
How did you know
I was a professor?
I looked at your name on the
letter you picked up this morning.
What are you a professor of?
Take a guess.
Um...
- Music?
- [LAUGHING]
DANI: Nope.
Do you mind turning
it down a little bit?
It's awfully loud in here.
I mean, you couldn't
really hear me... [CHUCKLES]
knock on the door even, so...
[MUSIC STOPS]
- Thank you, Law?
- [SCOFFS] Please.
- Uh, anthropology?
- Wrong again.
Well, just... tell me then.
I apply mathematics to the
study of life in the ocean.
JAMES:
You're an oceanographer?
There's no such
discipline as oceanography.
I'm a bio-mathematician.
It's the working of the science
to whatever is in the sea.
Or at the bottom of it.
Precisely.
It's quite rude,
just sitting there, watching me.
Insisting that
we eat something?
I know, it's entirely
unreasonable.
[LAUGHING]
So, what ocean is your favorite?
It has to be that one,
the Atlantic.
JAMES: Okay...
Carry on.
- About?
- The sea.
I feel certain it's going
to tell me all about you.
All right, then, um...
close your eyes.
You're determined not
to let me eat, aren't you?
Close them.
The ocean has five layers.
- Five.
- Are you going to cooperate?
Mm-hm.
- I want you to picture this.
- Okay.
Yes, it has five layers
and the first one is epipelagic.
It contains all the plant
life and coral reefs.
Whatever memory
you have of baptism,
or any other form of submersion,
is there in the blue water.
The next layer,
is mesopelagic.
This is the twilight zone...
into which...
blue and all other
colors and light vanish.
[LAUGHING]
Everything under the
mesopelagic is night.
If you were with me
in a submersible,
that's like
a deep-sea submarine...
Is it yellow?
- Of course it is.
- Excellent.
If you were with me
in one of those,
you would have spent
two hours at least,
in the blackness you're
in now, to get down to...
You can open your eyes.
The hadopelagic,
which is what interests me.
Hadal from the Greek "Hades",
meaning unseen.
Doesn't it mean hell?
To some.
This is the other world
in our world.
It's just miles and
miles of blackness?
No one knows much
about the mantle.
They think it has no life,
and therefore no
possibility of reanimation,
and is so without
scientific interest.
I disagree.
It needs to be explored.
What? Excuse me,
what exactly is it that you do?
I... I study...
I collect samples,
from what I think is...
the living bit
of the mantle.
The first few kilometers
underlying the Hadal deep.
I believe that all life and...
regeneration in our world
belongs to it.
We refuse to value what's
down there because it's dark.
We want to forget there
is darkness in our world, and...
and to be on a beach
is to be lucky.
- [LAUGHING]
- We don't educate ourselves.
Our world is
firstly about power,
it's only secondly
about education.
[JAMES CLEARS THROAT]
- [LAUGHING]
- What?
No, don't worry about me,
just you carry on.
No, I'm just writing down
what you just said
- about power and education.
- Mm-hmm.
- Oh, wow, okay.
- I like it.
I'm actually going down on one of those
submersibles in a couple of weeks.
I've waited years
for this opportunity.
Come on, congratulations.
[LAUGHING]
- [GLASSES CLINK]
- Thank you.
What do you do?
I consult on water
projects in Africa, actually.
Hey, we've got water in common.
- You work for charity?
- The British government.
You live in Africa?
Nairobi.
Do you like it?
I do, most of the time.
Nairobi gets a bit
treacherous sometimes.
People say it's like
an African river,
you can't see into it,
you don't know where
the crocodiles are,
and you can't see the
rapids coming at you.
But, I tell you,
it's got its own...
luster.
I kinda miss it,
when I'm away too long.
Wonderful place.
I have a pool.
JAMES: So, you're saying that...
descending to
the bottom of the ocean,
makes us challenge our sense
of self and where we came from?
And that we are not
interested in your work,
because we don't want to have
come from the scum in the ocean?
It kind of makes sense to me.
- Does it?
- Yeah.
DANI: It's caused people
to fight over...
When I drop everything...
I wanna make a case for my
theory on life down there.
And having been down there
it gets more complicated.
What counts the most is
being published in Nature.
So, you're going
to go down there
and you're going to be
surrounded by water,
and infinite blackness
in what, a month?
Yeah.
Are you afraid
something might happen?
I try not to think about that.
Why?
What would happen?
If the submersible
would crack?
Mm-hmm.
Water would come in and
my lungs would seal off,
and I would die a dry drowning
by acidosis and hypoxia.
What would that feel like?
Well, if anything
were to happen,
it would probably just be us
getting stuck down there,
unable to move.
And there's only five days
of oxygen in the sub,
and no one can reach
you down there.
Why?
There's only one of those
deep sea submersibles in Europe.
So, I wouldn't drown,
I'd suffocate.
I'd have a lot of time
to think about things.
[WIND BLOWING]
DANI: What's that
tattoo on your arm?
JAMES: A mistake.
- You were a paratrooper?
- Yeah, I was.
I was very young, though. It was
just a short service commission.
This is what
I wanted to show you.
Now this is what
I came here for.
There was 5,000
Canadian soldiers,
and a thousand British soldiers
tried to take this beach.
The guns inside that bunker
killed every one of them.
It was an incredible sacrifice.
[WAVES CRASHING]
Hey, hey, hey!
[LAUGHING]
Ah!
Here.
That was cold!
What's got into you,
Mr. More?
You've been talking to me now
for a long time about the world,
and whales and the ocean,
and, Dani, you have barely
used the words I or me.
You've learned to listen
awfully well, haven't you?
Why did you have to
acquire that skill?
Why would you say that
I had to acquire it?
'Cause no one is an
expert at anything,
if there is not a burning need somewhere
to have that particular skill.
I have sisters.
Would you like
another drink?
- No.
- Okay.
DANI: So, what's your favorite
water body, since you asked me?
The human body.
It's my favorite body,
It's mainly water.
- So much cleverer than me.
- I doubt that.
Africa?
Not really, I...
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
You're still wet.
And you're not...
wet.
You're chicken.
Chicken.
Are you cold?
[CHUCKLES] Yeah.
[DOOR CREAKING OPEN]
[DOOR CREAKING SHUT]
[WAVES CRASHING]
[RETCHING]
[GROANING]
[SHIP HORN BLOWING]
[SIGHS]
MAN: [ON VOICEMAIL] The mobile
subscriber cannot be reached.
[REPEATING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
- Ready?
- All right.
[LAUGHING]
JAMES: Today is the...
the 20th of May.
It's the 21st of May, and...
[GUARD BANGING]
GUARD: [SPEAKING SOMALI]
Will you go and get the fuck...
I will not be quiet!
[DOOR BANGING OPEN]
No! No!
[SPEAKING SOMALI]
Are you spy?
[GROANING]
[THUMPING]
[DOOR SLAMS, LOCKS]
Fuck.
I am myself still...
I'm still James More.
There's no moon.
There's...
only blackness,
like...
like the one that you know,
my Dani.
[BIRDS CHIRPING]
This is what
we found for you, J.
Yusef Mohamud al-Afghani
is now indeed
a forward commander
of al-Qaeda in Somalia.
He seems to be running
the show there.
If ever you see him,
you're close.
There's another guy,
James, Saif Al-Husni.
Was a suicide bomber.
Pulled the ring, but the
vest didn't detonate.
PTSD big time,
extremely violent, apparently.
He probably thinks
he'll never die.
He probably wants to die.
WOLFGANG: Good luck, J,
if you're really going.
DANI: Out there in the deep,
there's salp and jellyfish,
whose vertical migrations
are equivalent in scale to...
to us, as if these birds were
just to fly up from the trees,
and go straight up into space.
On a planetary scale,
the birds crawl.
What?
We go to sleep and you're
nervous to meet me over again,
is that what's happening here?
I usually don't see
the person the day after.
I work.
Don't you think I should at
least know something about you?
Oh, I get it,
you want to pry.
- I don't want to pry.
- What do you want to know?
I want to know about you.
About being a soldier,
for instance.
You're going to ask me what
it's like to kill somebody?
- No.
- Good.
Tell me,
tell me anything.
Anything that will
tell me about you.
[WAVES CRASHING]
Then you're going
to go into the sea?
It's getting awfully cold, and I
really think you should go in soon.
What's the most essential
thing about being a soldier?
Obedience.
Okay.
Death.
It gets very real when you're watching
somebody die in front of you.
You're thinking,
is this all I am?
Is this all I added up to?
And all the clichs are true.
You're thinking, why now?
Why did it have to be...
this happen before I realize
what life truly is?
It's direct, it's immediate,
and it's their whole
life exposed to you.
Did you think about
your own death a lot?
I did, and I do.
I've heard people telling me that
they've had those exact same thoughts
when they fell in love.
No, you don't die
when you fall in love.
Have you fallen in love?
I think you should go in
for your swim now.
Time's up, eh?
No, no don't!
No, no, not in my clothes,
not in my clothes!
[LAUGHING]
- It's cold.
- No, don't throw me in!
No! [LAUGHING]
[WAVES CRASHING]
[SCREAMING]
You are not going
to win me over.
Yes, I am.
That's exactly what
I'm going to do.
[LAUGHS] Congratulations.
Where did you guys grow up?
Sydney, London, Stockholm,
depending on
Daddy's work, really.
My parents were the ones
who used to take me here.
Dani, do you even
know a poor person?
[LAUGHING]
- Yes.
- Oh, yeah?
[LAUGHING] Oh.
- You.
- Me?
No, no, no, no, no,
I am not poor.
I can afford to come to a
place like this once a year.
Is it true that
there's oxygen stored
in the micro life at
the bottom of the ocean,
and that one day
it's going to run out?
We shouldn't run out...
if we take the right steps.
I mean, we are entering an age where
everything will be quantified.
What we see as abundant,
will be limited.
So, oxygen will be like
water and minerals and fuels.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Like oxygen, like...
like air-oxygen?
Like oxygen?
[LAUGHING]
Yeah, if we keep going
the way we're going.
Wow.
That's why I need to
get to the bottom of it.
[LAUGHING]
Was that a science
person's joke? [LAUGHING]
Not everyone can be
as witty as you.
[LAUGHING] I know, but...
it was rubbish.
Oh, I think I'm slightly
less attracted to you now.
[LAUGHING]
Just look at you.
You mongrel.
Half Australian,
some Swedish,
a touch of English.
DANI: Those lines,
are here to stay.
I'm going to remember this.
What if I come and
visit you in Nairobi?
I want to swim in your pool.
[COFFEE MACHINE GRINDING]
Don't, I have 58 minutes.
Read that.
Did you read it?
Just feels like I'm...
reading the same news
all over again.
- It's not interesting enough?
- It's tough 'cause I...
feel like there's nothing
we can do about it.
We could read about it,
we could get interested.
We could educate ourselves and
get involved in a solution.
How is there a solution
to a problem that has roots
in ancient conflicts,
where religious...
What are you saying, you don't
think there's a solution?
I don't know.
This is the same
as your work, Dani.
Trying to get people interested
in potentially
life-saving information,
that lies at the bottom
of the sea, in the dark,
so nobody wants
to know about it.
It's the exact same thing.
Get them interested,
educate them,
get them involved in a solution,
and that is amazing.
But this is our world,
too, isn't it?
I don't know if
that's our world.
Oh.
So, you can be stupid, as well.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
[SIGHS]
DRIVER: Do you
want your backpack in...
In with me, please.
[EXHALES]
Okay.
I'm in.
I'm in, too.
[LAUGHING]
[ENGINE STARTS]
[SIGHING]
[PHONE RINGING]
Hey.
I just wanted to say
that I miss you already.
I'm going to turn
the car around.
Arretez, can you please
pull over, merci.
[LAUGHING]
DANI: No.
- I've stopped the car.
- DANI: No. Don't.
I've stopped it, I can...
No, I'm gonna go
for my swim now.
Okay.
DANI: See you soon.
[SPEAKING FRENCH]
[AIRPLANE DRONING]
[WIND BLOWING]
Nabad, Sharif?
SOLDIER: Come with me.
[DOOR CLOSING]
Nabad.
Nabad.
Uh, Sharif?
I came here to meet Sharif.
Can you take me to him, please?
[GROANING]
[ORCHESTRAL MUSIC PLAYS]
[ELECTRONIC BEEPING]
[GUARD SPEAKING SOMALI]
JAMES: Because of
charity and love,
you should never allow death
to rule your thoughts.
Because of charity and love,
you should never allow death
to rule your thoughts.
Because of charity and love,
you should never allow death
to rule your thoughts.
Because of charity and love,
you should never allow death
to rule your thoughts.
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
THUMBS: Well, I'm just
used to seeing her
careen between work
and relief from work,
not unlike the rest of us.
WOMAN: Well, as long
as she can focus.
Yes, I mean,
this expedition is...
The one, definitely.
We all feel you are close
to a breakthrough,
that would forever
change the understanding
of the dimensions
of the life on Earth.
Absolutely, we've been
speaking about this.
- We're jealous.
- [LAUGHING]
Good.
- Pressure is up.
- [LAUGHING]
THUMBS: I know.
MAN: [ON VOICEMAIL]
The mailbox is full.
Please try to call later...
[REPEATED IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
[SIGHS]
JAMES: Dani, what do you think the
biggest obstacle to a solution is?
DANI: I think it's history,
how it left them behind.
JAMES: But "them,"
that's just us
in a different form, isn't it?
DANI: So, what do you
think the biggest obstacle is?
It's the most beautiful
thing about them,
their ability to believe.
You're no troubled man.
Your mind is not troubled.
[CHUCKLES] Your mind
isn't troubled.
You know...
you know where you are from.
- THUMBS: There she is!
- [CHEERING]
Let me have a look.
[LAUGHING]
[SPEAKING SOMALI] Up, fool!
[GROANING]
[SPEAKING SOMALI] Let's go!
[SPEAKING SOMALI] Move!
Move! Move from here!
[WIND BLOWING]
MAN: [OVER RECORDING] Megafaunal abundances
also showed significant variations,
chi squared equals 273.42,
df equals 5.
With mean areas per image
of n3 equals 3.89
in different years,
with an overall increasing
trend over the course of...
[GROANING]
[GROANS]
[JAMES MOANS]
[PANTING]
JAMES: I'm on the
ocean floor now, Dani.
[WIND BLOWING]
[SPEAKING SOMALI]
MAN: We will kill you now.
[GROANING]
Our Father,
who art in Heaven,
hallowed be Thy name.
Thy Kingdom come,
Thy will be done...
[SPEAKING SOMALI] Get ready!
[GUNS FIRING]
[SCREAMS]
[CRYING]
[WAVES CRASHING]
[SIGHING]
Oh, God, James.
Oh, man, you shit yourself.
[LAUGHING]
[LAUGHS]
[SPEAKING SOMALI]
MAN: [SPEAKING SOMALI]
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
JAMES: So, you're
going to go down there
and you're going to be
surrounded by water,
and infinite blackness.
Are you afraid
something might happen?
- [ORCHESTRAL MUSIC PLAYS]
- [PANTING]
[SCREAMING]
[GRUNTING]
[SPEAKING SOMALI]
[PHONES RINGING]
MAN: [SPEAKING SOMALI]
[MEN PRAYING] Allahu akbar.
MAN: [ON TV] There were
also significant differences
in the numbers of
predators, scavengers...
[CRYING]
Open your eyes.
Open them!
[MOANS]
You're alive.
Good.
Drink this.
Why are you here?
I've told your men,
I'm a water engineer.
I wanted...
I still want to build...
a water system in Kismayo,
I was invited.
Not to do something else?
No, I'm just...
[WHISPERING]
What's your
business with Sharif?
He was the tribal leader
in Kismayo,
and I was going to teach the
water recognition system to him.
How do you know him?
I didn't, he contacted me.
He did? How?
He got in touch with the
charity that I work for
that installs wells
in refugee camps.
They asked me to
meet him, so I did.
Do you understand that
we are fighting a war here?
I understand.
Then what is this?
It was a mistake,
I was a young man.
- I needed a job!
- Coming here was a mistake!
Do you have children,
a wife?
I'm not married.
Your people rely on me
for clean water.
We shall call you Biyole.
That means water boy.
My name is James.
Do you drink alcohol, Biyole?
Yeah.
Alcohol separates you
from your creator.
Yeah, no doubt.
It is important to me
that you are being treated...
generously. It is Allah's wish.
Thank you.
[SPEAKING SOMALI]
[WINCES]
[GASPING]
We also need a
urine sample from you.
Doctor Shadid.
Open, please.
No hemorrhage.
How does it look, doctor?
Not too bad.
For an infidel.
Breathe, deeper.
[INHALING DEEPLY]
[COUGHS]
- You have a fracture.
- Oh.
It's a primitive diagnosis,
but we have limited x-ray.
This is more serious,
Mr. Water.
My name is James More.
More?
I was told to
call you Mr. Water.
Doctor, I haven't
spoken to my family.
They don't know that I'm okay.
Can you please
help me with that?
No.
MAN: [OVER RECORDING] ...across the years.
In particular,
deposit feeders were at
their lowest density in 2007.
- 2.50 plus or minus 0.11...
- [GLASS SHATTERING]
[DOOR OPENING]
Don't.
I've prepared a dozen samples
for you, minus one.
I'll be all right,
I can handle it.
You sure?
Wouldn't say it if I couldn't.
I looked over the work.
We'll be fine, as long
as you do your part.
I'd be fine if I had
signal at some point.
I mean, we've been out now
in the middle of the ocean,
with no signal,
multiple dives,
and it just...
frustrates me, okay?
Okay.
So, you can't reach him.
Why don't you focus on your work
and put him out of your mind.
[SIGHS]
Cover of Nature.
Isn't that what we
promised each other?
Why don't you look at me,
Dani?
I know all about self-sabotage.
I'm the expert on it.
I want you to tell me now that
this is not you doubting yourself.
- This is not what this is.
- It's not doubt.
'Cause it deserves the cover,
not just to be published.
Searching for life that may
share the same way of life,
that we may eventually
find in water on Mars?
Possibly proving that
a billion years ago,
the same ecosystems
existed here and there?
You've touched
the limits of life.
You've touched it.
And now we have to wrap
our whole hands around it,
and bring it to the world...
and finish this.
Ifremer, they've partnered
with us, there's a lot at stake,
- a lot of money has been spent.
- I know, I know.
Now is not the time to
doubt yourself, Dani.
I know.
Good.
Morning, Ms. Flinders.
- Captain.
- Mr. Darren.
Thank you for
coming down, um...
Do you think it would
be possible for me
to go ashore after
the next two dives?
I'm having some difficulties
finalizing my calculations.
You mean go ashore
and stay ashore?
The other teams
don't need you to log?
- I can handle that work.
- And where would you...
We would be in reach
of the Faroe Islands,
after Mark and Annie,
I think.
- Right?
- Yeah.
I could fly to Iceland from
there and then on to Jan Mayen.
I don't see why not,
if your program sanctions it.
- It does.
- All right, then.
We'll arrange a boat
to come and pick you up.
Thank you.
- Good?
- Mm.
There should be a ban on
injecting the suicide bombers
with drugs to limit
their ability to think.
They do that?
I saw it, in Mogadishu.
I was really ashamed.
They also do it in Pakistan.
Why are you telling me this?
Why are you talking to me?
You will be gone soon,
one way or the other.
What do you mean by that?
They will not kill you.
Emir Yusef has promised.
Oh, that's good to know.
And there is
no one else here
to talk to
with an education.
[LAUGHING]
DR. SHADID: So, what should we
do about the wells in Kismayo?
JAMES: Well, that's what
I came here to find out.
DR. SHADID: The water is
too expensive for the poor.
Do the local authorities have
control over all the water sources?
- I do not know.
- You need to find out.
You need to drive out
the water profiteers
by any means necessary.
Wait.
[SIGHS] Well, you need to
ascertain the depth of each well,
and the quality of
the water in it.
So, for example, the closer
a well is to the sea,
the more likely that
water is to be brackish.
You have to find out how many people
are using it, plot this all on a map.
I can help you with this.
This is what I do,
this is my job.
Already you are.
Here, only the air is free.
Not a day goes by
without a child in my care
dying of some
curable illness.
The people have no work.
They have not enough food.
They have no school and this is
something we intend to correct.
When it rains, the mud mixes with
the waste from the latrines.
I do believe with so many people
packed in such conditions,
Somalia will generate a plague
that will spread around the world.
Cholera?
A new plague.
You going to
turn it into a weapon?
[GROANS]
I am a doctor.
Who keeps company
with killers.
We have cholera here already.
- JAMES: Report it.
- Here?
- To the United Nations.
- Never.
- Even UNICEF?
- Especially UNICEF.
Such an organization
that promises so much
yet delivers so little
to the children?
What is necessary is
to turn the Crusaders
back from the Muslim
lands of Somalia,
so that the people here can
live in a pure Islamic state.
What's more important to you,
treating the women and children
that come to your clinic
and looking for your help,
or... Or... Or following jihad?
I see both as one treatment.
Medicine is mercy,
jihad is duty.
What about me,
am I a Crusader?
I came here
to bring clean water.
Allah will ask payment of you.
You said I was
going to be spared.
I need to go home.
[SOBBING]
I need to go back to her.
[CRYING]
Who am I to know
the will of God?
You may die tomorrow.
Or... you may become
a blessed one.
[DOOR SLAMS]
[BOLT LOCKING]
JORN: So, how long are
you going to stay with us
on the Faroes,
Professor Flinders?
At least a week,
maybe more.
We found a quiet
place for you,
where you can
get your work done.
Thank you.
Captain's orders.
Is it possible to dock
by any of those rocks?
- Just for a few minutes?
- Sure.
[BIRDS CAWING]
What are you doing?
I'm counting.
Lichens.
Some of the species
here are very rare.
You think they're shells,
but if you come closer,
they're like tiny trees,
little forests.
And this one here is
the marriage between a...
a fungus and a cyan-bacteria.
If you would magnify the edges,
you wouldn't be able to see,
where life begins
and where it ends.
It just dissolves from...
from life into non-life.
[YELLING]
[MOB CHANTING]
[CHANTING CONTINUES]
[MAN SPEAKING SOMALI]
[CHANTING CONTINUES]
[ROCKS THUDDING]
[WAILING]
[SHOUTING]
[GUNSHOT]
[WOMEN CLAMORING, CRYING]
JAMES: "No man is an island,
entire of itself.
Every man is a piece
of the continent,
a part of the main.
Any man's death diminishes me,
because I am
involved in mankind,
and therefore never send to
know for whom the bell tolls,
it tolls for thee."
Do you keep John Donne
with you wherever you go?
- JAMES: Yeah.
- [DOOR UNBOLTING]
Let me go.
Let me go, please.
I will be killed soon,
I welcome it.
I believe you will
die too, Mr. Water.
[DOOR OPENS]
[GRUNTS]
[MUTTERING]
MAN: [SPEAKING SOMALI]
Biyole, we will
videotape you soon.
Do you know Bambi, water boy?
I saw it when I was young.
You see, Bambi is
the innocent one.
When you watch the
forest fire again,
then you will see his
father protecting him,
giving up his own life.
It is like the Crusaders who
are burning the Islamic state.
[SPEAKING SOMALI]
[BIRDS CAWING]
[SPEAKING SOMALI]
Abdul... go.
I want to convert
you to Islam.
And I want you to be
merciful and let me go.
I won't make
a video for you.
I won't sit in
front of a camera
and say the things
that you want me to say...
You're of use to us.
Shadid told me you can
clean water, stop diseases.
You will do important
work for us.
But you are a non-believer.
I want you to meet
with your Creator.
- No.
- No?
No.
Allah sees you,
and he's waiting for you
to take the straight path.
We've got Allah
in common, you and I.
The Allah of our
common father, Abraham.
I love Abraham.
And I love his love
for all his children.
And yes, I do believe
that Allah sees me.
Sees us, but...
no.
Who are you to know this,
and reject the Koran?
[SPEAKING SOMALI]
[SHEEP BLEATING]
[POP MUSIC PLAYS ON RADIO]
MAN: [SPEAKING SOMALI]
Hey, stop!
[MUTTERING IN SOMALI]
No!
Fuck!
- [SHOUTING]
- [EXPLOSION]
[SPEAKING SOMALI] Let's go.
[MEN PRAYING]
Allahu akbar. Allahu akbar.
WOMAN: [OVER RECORDING] Recent geology
research from the University of Cincinnati,
presents new evidence
for bacteria
found fossilized in
two separate locations.
The 2.52-billion-year-old
sulfur-oxidizing bacteria,
are described as exceptionally
large, spherical-shaped,
smooth-walled
microscopic structures,
much larger than most modern...
[TRUCK RUMBLING]
[SHOUTING IN SOMALI]
You like working
for the MI6, Water?
You have fun?
I mean not now, but in
general, you have fun?
You like the CIA?
I don't know what
you're talking about.
Jihad is life.
Your friends,
they don't care about you.
Jihad is life after death.
[WIND BLOWING]
So, you're not sorry for
being a Donne-loving Brit
who loves his God and country?
No. No, I'm not.
God save the Queen,
and all that.
DANI: I'm not sorry
for that, either.
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
[BOAT ENGINE RUMBLING]
[MEN LAUGHING]
She'll be ready to go
down tomorrow, professor.
Wonderful, thank you.
[SPEAKING ARABIC]
[SPEAKING ARABIC]
[WINCING]
[MEN LAUGHING]
[CHEERING]
- Come on!
- [CHEERING]
[SPEAKING FRENCH]
- Let's go.
- [CHUCKLES]
[RADIO CHATTER IN ARABIC]
Be safe, Dani.
SAIF: [SPEAKING ARABIC]
I don't want death, Dani.
Not in this place.
- And not for any cause.
- [FLY BUZZING]
I wanna...
I want to be beside you.
MAN: [OVER RADIO]
We're listening, Nautile.
Nautile to Atalante, Nautile to Atalante.
Do you read me?
Immersion one, zero, zero, zero.
MAN: Understood, Nautile,
1,000 meters deep. Over.
What have you been writing,
if you don't mind me asking?
Oh, it's nothing.
It's just something...
I felt like I needed to write.
Can you read it to me?
"You will be in Hades...
drowned in oblivion,
swallowing water,
erasing all memory.
You will take your place
among the teeming hordes,
of nameless micro-organisms."
Must be bad luck, talking
like this at this depth.
[MOANS]
[GROANING]
Thank you, Abdul,
thank you.
ETIENNE: In 20 minutes,
we'll be landing.
So, I'm just switching
on the main propeller.
Yeah.
And the sonar.
There's a reason
hell is down here.
There's a reason heaven is up
there, I remember that now.
[LAUGHS]
[SONAR BEEPS]
Can we turn up
the lights now?
ETIENNE: Certainly.
ETIENNE: Okay,
I dropped the second weight.
MAN: [OVER RADIO]
We're listening, Nautile.
We're about to arrive,
give us our new coordinates.
MAN: Navigation reset,
71 degrees north, 45 minutes,
two degrees west, 28 minutes.
You're almost at 3,400
meters now. Over.
Thanks, guys, we got that.
[SIGHING] We're close now.
- Careful now.
- Yeah.
[SPEAKING FRENCH]
Unbelievable.
Amazing.
There's a hydrothermal vent
straight ahead,
just to the right.
Shall we, tienne?
Yeah, sure.
I'm opening the basket.
And I'll start operating
the arm and collect.
You can help me, Dani,
direct the camera to it.
Oh, right, sorry.
Can you get the arm to grab
a piece of that chimney?
ETIENNE: Yeah, sure.
ETIENNE:
Okay, here comes Godzilla.
Okay.
We got it.
Here it is,
mission accomplished.
DANI: Fabulous.
I so wish I could have
shared this with him.
What would you
have told him now?
I would have told him that...
down here,
it's not photosynthetic,
like everything on the surface,
but chemosynthetic.
I would have told him
that life down here
exists without light,
and that it grows,
because of the
chemical energy just
pouring out of those cracks,
from the core of our Earth.
And he would have
understood that?
Yes.
- What's happening?
- I don't know.
Are we all right?
Okay, we need to reboot.
- DANI: You want some light?
- Yeah, please.
Switch off all the instruments.
THUMBS: Okay.
I turn on the emergency
battery, switch on.
Are there any other solutions?
THUMBS: Do we need to drop the remaining
weight and go to the surface?
No, no, no,
we're still drifting.
We can't see anything.
We could float up, hit a chimney
that could fall on us, trap us.
We can't move at all anymore.
Right, let's go through
the sequence again.
We will take our place
among the teeming hordes.
We will be the foundation
for all forms.
We will be in Hades,
drowned in oblivion,
swallowing water,
erasing all memory.
It will be a submergence.
[WAVES CRASHING]
DANI: I've thought about
bodies buried at sea.
It's not dust to dust,
that's for sure.
It's water to water.
We are all being made of water.
Like you said.
Because you're a wanderer
who strayed from
the straight path,
the only path to God...
you're not going
to see Paradise.
[SPEAKING ARABIC]
[CHUCKLES]
You know Arabic, Water.
And you read the Koran.
ETIENNE: Okay, once more.
On.
[EXHALES]
THUMBS: Dani, we're on
emergency battery.
We can't stay.
Yes, we...
we have all the samples.
Let's take her up.
Yeah, good.
[WAVES CRASHING]
[HELICOPTER BUZZING]
[MEN YELLING IN ARABIC]
[PRAYING IN ARABIC]
I'll see you again.
PILOT: How much threat?
- CO-PILOT: Multiple targets.
- PILOT. Copy that. Fire.
[EXPLOSIONS]
[SCREAMING]
[YELLS]
[WIND BLOWING]
[SEAGULLS CAWING]
[WAVES CRASHING]
WOMAN: [OVER RECORDING] Some of
the most common pathways
of energy production
in microorganisms,
who live along the
hydrothermal vents,
are oxidation or reduction
of sulfur compounds.
The most common electron donor
along the vents is
hydrogen sulfide,
making oxidation
of sulfur-containing compounds
the base of the food
web in this environment.
The microorganisms
capable of oxidizing
or reducing sulfur compounds
show amazing diversity.
Over 161 gram-negative
sulfur-oxidizing bacteria species
have been found to inhabit
the hydrothermal vents.
Bacteria in this environment are often
thought of as all being autotrophs,
but of these 161 species,
over 97% are also capable
of heterotrophic growth.
In addition, 37% perform
fermentation.
Furthermore, the sulfate
reducers known to be present,
include at least nine different
genera, including gram-negative...
Yeah, I see.
I understand why.
No, to us it'd make
a huge difference.
She'll be out soon.
You had enough?
[RECORDING CONTINUES]
While most are rod shaped...
They want us on the boat
now for a team debriefing.
DANI: Can I get
in the tank next time?
That's dangerous.
Each suit is designed
specifically
for each aquanaut, so...
Thank you, Paul, but you don't
have to indulge her every whim.
DANI: Thank you, Paul.
Why do you torture
him like that?
He's too young
to defend himself.
I'll race you.
- No.
- Come on now.
THUMBS: No, I... I...
I don't like you!
CAPT. ANCTIL: Okay, I just want to
go over the order of the dives,
so that you can
communicate with each other
about who can help log,
as some of you will be prepping
and not available to log.
All right?
We start from here,
so Jonas and Ren are up first,
- Lucky you.
- with tienne as the pilot,
for the first dive
in the Cadiz Gulf.
Then we're going to
hug the coastline,
going west of Ireland
and Britain
into the Norwegian Sea.
There, Gustavo and
Maria are next,
with Frank piloting
around the Faroe Island.
Frank, who is also taking
Annie and Mark down,
here near Iceland where
we'll spend the most time,
and do several dives, okay?
It's a complete reversal,
I'm sorry.
CAPT. ANCTIL:
And then, our deepest dive,
Thumbs and Dani,
are last, around Jan Mayen,
with tienne as a pilot, okay?
There are definite
advantages in going last.
They're gonna be logging
and not prepping,
and the sub will be tested.
I'm not thinking about that.
Then what's up?
I realized I've never
been lonely before.
[CHUCKLING]
Welcome to the planet.
It's possible there's
no service where he is.
He's working in
Northern Kenya, right?
Or he just stopped calling,
stopped being interested.
THUMBS: Impossible.
He's just stuck somewhere
without reception.
For a month.
THUMBS: Yes.
Why not?
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
[LAUGHING]
MAN: [IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
Don't go near him, boy!
[GROANS]
[CRUNCHING]
[MOANS]
[GROANS]
Next.
MAN: [OVER RECORDING]
The Monk by the Sea is not...
...The Berlin Academy
exhibition of 1810.
[FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING]
What do you got for us?
I have a bona fide source,
willing to give up an
operational bomb unit in Europe.
They want to hit train stations.
Where's the link?
In Southern Somalia.
What's on the
table for the source?
British passport,
we want him.
We found him,
we'll get him.
He's my source,
so I'm going in alone.
Somalia is not a good idea, J.
JAMES: I know.
Check this out.
We are talking about
bombs all over Europe.
If there's even a chance we can get out
in front of that, we have to take it.
We don't know who they are,
where they are.
Their whole pipeline
of intelligence
and soldiers waiting
to stream in.
You don't even know what faction
is in charge in Kismayo right now.
Well, I was hoping you could help
me out with who's in charge there.
Oh, come on, James,
this isn't Afghanistan.
WOLFGANG:
So, how are you getting in?
Small plane.
I'll use my water
engineer alias.
I'll meet my contact
at Kismayo airport.
BOB: So, you're mister water expert
and you're gonna dig up some wells?
BOB: In the tooth again,
that's the safest.
JAMES: Yeah, I'll activate it
once I'm there.
Same as last time.
WOLFGANG: Don't let them
know you speak Arabic, J.
Guys, do me a favor,
just tell me something
that's gonna help me, would you?
Fuck.
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
TEACHER: Yeah? Okay.
BOB: Wait, we've got
something for you.
Look at the picture.
You must remember this guy,
Yusef Mohamud al-Afghani.
Yeah.
He was with Osama in 2001,
wasn't he?
BOB: Yeah,
apparently he's in Somalia now.
We'll get you intel on him,
whatever we dig up.
Give us a few days, J, we'll
contact you on a safe line.
[BOAT MOTOR RUMBLES]
PHILLIP: Hey!
Hi. You came yourself.
PHILLIP: For you,
Madame Flinders, of course.
Oh, so good to be back.
[SPEAKING FRENCH]
[BIRDS CHIRPING]
[BELL RINGS]
[WAVES CRASHING]
- [INDISTINCT CHATTER]
- [AMBIENT MUSIC PLAYS]
Now I must confess,
I'm feeling reckless
Stuck my heart on my chest
Evening.
What kind of whiskey
do you have?
I've got a good Japanese one.
Konnichiwa, let's go Japanese.
- You play rugby?
- I used to.
- What's your name?
- Marcel.
Why did you stop, Marcel?
Oh, you know,
I just broke my neck.
[JAMES CHUCKLES]
Stick that on room 12, please.
- Okay.
- See you later.
Your white wine, Madame.
Thank you, Marcel.
[BIRDS CHIRPING]
[WAVES CRASHING]
Hey.
Good Morning.
JAMES: Good Morning.
- You're English?
- British. Scottish British.
Dani, Dani Flinders.
James More.
- DANI: Will I see you later?
- JAMES: Yeah, I'd like that!
[BREATHING HEAVILY]
Oh.
JAMES:
I think you're following me.
Or you're following
me in advance.
- Tricky.
- [JAMES LAUGHS]
Mr. More,
the newspaper you wanted.
Thank you, Beatrice.
You're definitely following me.
I haven't even had a
chance to shower yet.
I love the smell of sweat.
- I have to do some work.
- Is this your room?
- Lunch?
- Would 1:30 be too late?
No.
[BIRDS CHIRPING]
MAN: [OVER RECORDING]
Free-living chemoautotrophic
microorganisms at
hydrothermal vents.
We integrated the analyses of IPL
diversity and delta13C values,
delta13C lipid with
16S RNA gene-based...
[ORCHESTRAL MUSIC PLAYS]
[KNOCK ON DOOR]
- [KNOCKING CONTINUES]
- Yes?
JAMES: I've come
to take you to lunch.
It's open.
[MUSIC CONTINUES]
Carry on, Professor.
How did you know
I was a professor?
I looked at your name on the
letter you picked up this morning.
What are you a professor of?
Take a guess.
Um...
- Music?
- [LAUGHING]
DANI: Nope.
Do you mind turning
it down a little bit?
It's awfully loud in here.
I mean, you couldn't
really hear me... [CHUCKLES]
knock on the door even, so...
[MUSIC STOPS]
- Thank you, Law?
- [SCOFFS] Please.
- Uh, anthropology?
- Wrong again.
Well, just... tell me then.
I apply mathematics to the
study of life in the ocean.
JAMES:
You're an oceanographer?
There's no such
discipline as oceanography.
I'm a bio-mathematician.
It's the working of the science
to whatever is in the sea.
Or at the bottom of it.
Precisely.
It's quite rude,
just sitting there, watching me.
Insisting that
we eat something?
I know, it's entirely
unreasonable.
[LAUGHING]
So, what ocean is your favorite?
It has to be that one,
the Atlantic.
JAMES: Okay...
Carry on.
- About?
- The sea.
I feel certain it's going
to tell me all about you.
All right, then, um...
close your eyes.
You're determined not
to let me eat, aren't you?
Close them.
The ocean has five layers.
- Five.
- Are you going to cooperate?
Mm-hm.
- I want you to picture this.
- Okay.
Yes, it has five layers
and the first one is epipelagic.
It contains all the plant
life and coral reefs.
Whatever memory
you have of baptism,
or any other form of submersion,
is there in the blue water.
The next layer,
is mesopelagic.
This is the twilight zone...
into which...
blue and all other
colors and light vanish.
[LAUGHING]
Everything under the
mesopelagic is night.
If you were with me
in a submersible,
that's like
a deep-sea submarine...
Is it yellow?
- Of course it is.
- Excellent.
If you were with me
in one of those,
you would have spent
two hours at least,
in the blackness you're
in now, to get down to...
You can open your eyes.
The hadopelagic,
which is what interests me.
Hadal from the Greek "Hades",
meaning unseen.
Doesn't it mean hell?
To some.
This is the other world
in our world.
It's just miles and
miles of blackness?
No one knows much
about the mantle.
They think it has no life,
and therefore no
possibility of reanimation,
and is so without
scientific interest.
I disagree.
It needs to be explored.
What? Excuse me,
what exactly is it that you do?
I... I study...
I collect samples,
from what I think is...
the living bit
of the mantle.
The first few kilometers
underlying the Hadal deep.
I believe that all life and...
regeneration in our world
belongs to it.
We refuse to value what's
down there because it's dark.
We want to forget there
is darkness in our world, and...
and to be on a beach
is to be lucky.
- [LAUGHING]
- We don't educate ourselves.
Our world is
firstly about power,
it's only secondly
about education.
[JAMES CLEARS THROAT]
- [LAUGHING]
- What?
No, don't worry about me,
just you carry on.
No, I'm just writing down
what you just said
- about power and education.
- Mm-hmm.
- Oh, wow, okay.
- I like it.
I'm actually going down on one of those
submersibles in a couple of weeks.
I've waited years
for this opportunity.
Come on, congratulations.
[LAUGHING]
- [GLASSES CLINK]
- Thank you.
What do you do?
I consult on water
projects in Africa, actually.
Hey, we've got water in common.
- You work for charity?
- The British government.
You live in Africa?
Nairobi.
Do you like it?
I do, most of the time.
Nairobi gets a bit
treacherous sometimes.
People say it's like
an African river,
you can't see into it,
you don't know where
the crocodiles are,
and you can't see the
rapids coming at you.
But, I tell you,
it's got its own...
luster.
I kinda miss it,
when I'm away too long.
Wonderful place.
I have a pool.
JAMES: So, you're saying that...
descending to
the bottom of the ocean,
makes us challenge our sense
of self and where we came from?
And that we are not
interested in your work,
because we don't want to have
come from the scum in the ocean?
It kind of makes sense to me.
- Does it?
- Yeah.
DANI: It's caused people
to fight over...
When I drop everything...
I wanna make a case for my
theory on life down there.
And having been down there
it gets more complicated.
What counts the most is
being published in Nature.
So, you're going
to go down there
and you're going to be
surrounded by water,
and infinite blackness
in what, a month?
Yeah.
Are you afraid
something might happen?
I try not to think about that.
Why?
What would happen?
If the submersible
would crack?
Mm-hmm.
Water would come in and
my lungs would seal off,
and I would die a dry drowning
by acidosis and hypoxia.
What would that feel like?
Well, if anything
were to happen,
it would probably just be us
getting stuck down there,
unable to move.
And there's only five days
of oxygen in the sub,
and no one can reach
you down there.
Why?
There's only one of those
deep sea submersibles in Europe.
So, I wouldn't drown,
I'd suffocate.
I'd have a lot of time
to think about things.
[WIND BLOWING]
DANI: What's that
tattoo on your arm?
JAMES: A mistake.
- You were a paratrooper?
- Yeah, I was.
I was very young, though. It was
just a short service commission.
This is what
I wanted to show you.
Now this is what
I came here for.
There was 5,000
Canadian soldiers,
and a thousand British soldiers
tried to take this beach.
The guns inside that bunker
killed every one of them.
It was an incredible sacrifice.
[WAVES CRASHING]
Hey, hey, hey!
[LAUGHING]
Ah!
Here.
That was cold!
What's got into you,
Mr. More?
You've been talking to me now
for a long time about the world,
and whales and the ocean,
and, Dani, you have barely
used the words I or me.
You've learned to listen
awfully well, haven't you?
Why did you have to
acquire that skill?
Why would you say that
I had to acquire it?
'Cause no one is an
expert at anything,
if there is not a burning need somewhere
to have that particular skill.
I have sisters.
Would you like
another drink?
- No.
- Okay.
DANI: So, what's your favorite
water body, since you asked me?
The human body.
It's my favorite body,
It's mainly water.
- So much cleverer than me.
- I doubt that.
Africa?
Not really, I...
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
You're still wet.
And you're not...
wet.
You're chicken.
Chicken.
Are you cold?
[CHUCKLES] Yeah.
[DOOR CREAKING OPEN]
[DOOR CREAKING SHUT]
[WAVES CRASHING]
[RETCHING]
[GROANING]
[SHIP HORN BLOWING]
[SIGHS]
MAN: [ON VOICEMAIL] The mobile
subscriber cannot be reached.
[REPEATING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
- Ready?
- All right.
[LAUGHING]
JAMES: Today is the...
the 20th of May.
It's the 21st of May, and...
[GUARD BANGING]
GUARD: [SPEAKING SOMALI]
Will you go and get the fuck...
I will not be quiet!
[DOOR BANGING OPEN]
No! No!
[SPEAKING SOMALI]
Are you spy?
[GROANING]
[THUMPING]
[DOOR SLAMS, LOCKS]
Fuck.
I am myself still...
I'm still James More.
There's no moon.
There's...
only blackness,
like...
like the one that you know,
my Dani.
[BIRDS CHIRPING]
This is what
we found for you, J.
Yusef Mohamud al-Afghani
is now indeed
a forward commander
of al-Qaeda in Somalia.
He seems to be running
the show there.
If ever you see him,
you're close.
There's another guy,
James, Saif Al-Husni.
Was a suicide bomber.
Pulled the ring, but the
vest didn't detonate.
PTSD big time,
extremely violent, apparently.
He probably thinks
he'll never die.
He probably wants to die.
WOLFGANG: Good luck, J,
if you're really going.
DANI: Out there in the deep,
there's salp and jellyfish,
whose vertical migrations
are equivalent in scale to...
to us, as if these birds were
just to fly up from the trees,
and go straight up into space.
On a planetary scale,
the birds crawl.
What?
We go to sleep and you're
nervous to meet me over again,
is that what's happening here?
I usually don't see
the person the day after.
I work.
Don't you think I should at
least know something about you?
Oh, I get it,
you want to pry.
- I don't want to pry.
- What do you want to know?
I want to know about you.
About being a soldier,
for instance.
You're going to ask me what
it's like to kill somebody?
- No.
- Good.
Tell me,
tell me anything.
Anything that will
tell me about you.
[WAVES CRASHING]
Then you're going
to go into the sea?
It's getting awfully cold, and I
really think you should go in soon.
What's the most essential
thing about being a soldier?
Obedience.
Okay.
Death.
It gets very real when you're watching
somebody die in front of you.
You're thinking,
is this all I am?
Is this all I added up to?
And all the clichs are true.
You're thinking, why now?
Why did it have to be...
this happen before I realize
what life truly is?
It's direct, it's immediate,
and it's their whole
life exposed to you.
Did you think about
your own death a lot?
I did, and I do.
I've heard people telling me that
they've had those exact same thoughts
when they fell in love.
No, you don't die
when you fall in love.
Have you fallen in love?
I think you should go in
for your swim now.
Time's up, eh?
No, no don't!
No, no, not in my clothes,
not in my clothes!
[LAUGHING]
- It's cold.
- No, don't throw me in!
No! [LAUGHING]
[WAVES CRASHING]
[SCREAMING]
You are not going
to win me over.
Yes, I am.
That's exactly what
I'm going to do.
[LAUGHS] Congratulations.
Where did you guys grow up?
Sydney, London, Stockholm,
depending on
Daddy's work, really.
My parents were the ones
who used to take me here.
Dani, do you even
know a poor person?
[LAUGHING]
- Yes.
- Oh, yeah?
[LAUGHING] Oh.
- You.
- Me?
No, no, no, no, no,
I am not poor.
I can afford to come to a
place like this once a year.
Is it true that
there's oxygen stored
in the micro life at
the bottom of the ocean,
and that one day
it's going to run out?
We shouldn't run out...
if we take the right steps.
I mean, we are entering an age where
everything will be quantified.
What we see as abundant,
will be limited.
So, oxygen will be like
water and minerals and fuels.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Like oxygen, like...
like air-oxygen?
Like oxygen?
[LAUGHING]
Yeah, if we keep going
the way we're going.
Wow.
That's why I need to
get to the bottom of it.
[LAUGHING]
Was that a science
person's joke? [LAUGHING]
Not everyone can be
as witty as you.
[LAUGHING] I know, but...
it was rubbish.
Oh, I think I'm slightly
less attracted to you now.
[LAUGHING]
Just look at you.
You mongrel.
Half Australian,
some Swedish,
a touch of English.
DANI: Those lines,
are here to stay.
I'm going to remember this.
What if I come and
visit you in Nairobi?
I want to swim in your pool.
[COFFEE MACHINE GRINDING]
Don't, I have 58 minutes.
Read that.
Did you read it?
Just feels like I'm...
reading the same news
all over again.
- It's not interesting enough?
- It's tough 'cause I...
feel like there's nothing
we can do about it.
We could read about it,
we could get interested.
We could educate ourselves and
get involved in a solution.
How is there a solution
to a problem that has roots
in ancient conflicts,
where religious...
What are you saying, you don't
think there's a solution?
I don't know.
This is the same
as your work, Dani.
Trying to get people interested
in potentially
life-saving information,
that lies at the bottom
of the sea, in the dark,
so nobody wants
to know about it.
It's the exact same thing.
Get them interested,
educate them,
get them involved in a solution,
and that is amazing.
But this is our world,
too, isn't it?
I don't know if
that's our world.
Oh.
So, you can be stupid, as well.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
[SIGHS]
DRIVER: Do you
want your backpack in...
In with me, please.
[EXHALES]
Okay.
I'm in.
I'm in, too.
[LAUGHING]
[ENGINE STARTS]
[SIGHING]
[PHONE RINGING]
Hey.
I just wanted to say
that I miss you already.
I'm going to turn
the car around.
Arretez, can you please
pull over, merci.
[LAUGHING]
DANI: No.
- I've stopped the car.
- DANI: No. Don't.
I've stopped it, I can...
No, I'm gonna go
for my swim now.
Okay.
DANI: See you soon.
[SPEAKING FRENCH]
[AIRPLANE DRONING]
[WIND BLOWING]
Nabad, Sharif?
SOLDIER: Come with me.
[DOOR CLOSING]
Nabad.
Nabad.
Uh, Sharif?
I came here to meet Sharif.
Can you take me to him, please?
[GROANING]
[ORCHESTRAL MUSIC PLAYS]
[ELECTRONIC BEEPING]
[GUARD SPEAKING SOMALI]
JAMES: Because of
charity and love,
you should never allow death
to rule your thoughts.
Because of charity and love,
you should never allow death
to rule your thoughts.
Because of charity and love,
you should never allow death
to rule your thoughts.
Because of charity and love,
you should never allow death
to rule your thoughts.
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
THUMBS: Well, I'm just
used to seeing her
careen between work
and relief from work,
not unlike the rest of us.
WOMAN: Well, as long
as she can focus.
Yes, I mean,
this expedition is...
The one, definitely.
We all feel you are close
to a breakthrough,
that would forever
change the understanding
of the dimensions
of the life on Earth.
Absolutely, we've been
speaking about this.
- We're jealous.
- [LAUGHING]
Good.
- Pressure is up.
- [LAUGHING]
THUMBS: I know.
MAN: [ON VOICEMAIL]
The mailbox is full.
Please try to call later...
[REPEATED IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
[SIGHS]
JAMES: Dani, what do you think the
biggest obstacle to a solution is?
DANI: I think it's history,
how it left them behind.
JAMES: But "them,"
that's just us
in a different form, isn't it?
DANI: So, what do you
think the biggest obstacle is?
It's the most beautiful
thing about them,
their ability to believe.
You're no troubled man.
Your mind is not troubled.
[CHUCKLES] Your mind
isn't troubled.
You know...
you know where you are from.
- THUMBS: There she is!
- [CHEERING]
Let me have a look.
[LAUGHING]
[SPEAKING SOMALI] Up, fool!
[GROANING]
[SPEAKING SOMALI] Let's go!
[SPEAKING SOMALI] Move!
Move! Move from here!
[WIND BLOWING]
MAN: [OVER RECORDING] Megafaunal abundances
also showed significant variations,
chi squared equals 273.42,
df equals 5.
With mean areas per image
of n3 equals 3.89
in different years,
with an overall increasing
trend over the course of...
[GROANING]
[GROANS]
[JAMES MOANS]
[PANTING]
JAMES: I'm on the
ocean floor now, Dani.
[WIND BLOWING]
[SPEAKING SOMALI]
MAN: We will kill you now.
[GROANING]
Our Father,
who art in Heaven,
hallowed be Thy name.
Thy Kingdom come,
Thy will be done...
[SPEAKING SOMALI] Get ready!
[GUNS FIRING]
[SCREAMS]
[CRYING]
[WAVES CRASHING]
[SIGHING]
Oh, God, James.
Oh, man, you shit yourself.
[LAUGHING]
[LAUGHS]
[SPEAKING SOMALI]
MAN: [SPEAKING SOMALI]
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
JAMES: So, you're
going to go down there
and you're going to be
surrounded by water,
and infinite blackness.
Are you afraid
something might happen?
- [ORCHESTRAL MUSIC PLAYS]
- [PANTING]
[SCREAMING]
[GRUNTING]
[SPEAKING SOMALI]
[PHONES RINGING]
MAN: [SPEAKING SOMALI]
[MEN PRAYING] Allahu akbar.
MAN: [ON TV] There were
also significant differences
in the numbers of
predators, scavengers...
[CRYING]
Open your eyes.
Open them!
[MOANS]
You're alive.
Good.
Drink this.
Why are you here?
I've told your men,
I'm a water engineer.
I wanted...
I still want to build...
a water system in Kismayo,
I was invited.
Not to do something else?
No, I'm just...
[WHISPERING]
What's your
business with Sharif?
He was the tribal leader
in Kismayo,
and I was going to teach the
water recognition system to him.
How do you know him?
I didn't, he contacted me.
He did? How?
He got in touch with the
charity that I work for
that installs wells
in refugee camps.
They asked me to
meet him, so I did.
Do you understand that
we are fighting a war here?
I understand.
Then what is this?
It was a mistake,
I was a young man.
- I needed a job!
- Coming here was a mistake!
Do you have children,
a wife?
I'm not married.
Your people rely on me
for clean water.
We shall call you Biyole.
That means water boy.
My name is James.
Do you drink alcohol, Biyole?
Yeah.
Alcohol separates you
from your creator.
Yeah, no doubt.
It is important to me
that you are being treated...
generously. It is Allah's wish.
Thank you.
[SPEAKING SOMALI]
[WINCES]
[GASPING]
We also need a
urine sample from you.
Doctor Shadid.
Open, please.
No hemorrhage.
How does it look, doctor?
Not too bad.
For an infidel.
Breathe, deeper.
[INHALING DEEPLY]
[COUGHS]
- You have a fracture.
- Oh.
It's a primitive diagnosis,
but we have limited x-ray.
This is more serious,
Mr. Water.
My name is James More.
More?
I was told to
call you Mr. Water.
Doctor, I haven't
spoken to my family.
They don't know that I'm okay.
Can you please
help me with that?
No.
MAN: [OVER RECORDING] ...across the years.
In particular,
deposit feeders were at
their lowest density in 2007.
- 2.50 plus or minus 0.11...
- [GLASS SHATTERING]
[DOOR OPENING]
Don't.
I've prepared a dozen samples
for you, minus one.
I'll be all right,
I can handle it.
You sure?
Wouldn't say it if I couldn't.
I looked over the work.
We'll be fine, as long
as you do your part.
I'd be fine if I had
signal at some point.
I mean, we've been out now
in the middle of the ocean,
with no signal,
multiple dives,
and it just...
frustrates me, okay?
Okay.
So, you can't reach him.
Why don't you focus on your work
and put him out of your mind.
[SIGHS]
Cover of Nature.
Isn't that what we
promised each other?
Why don't you look at me,
Dani?
I know all about self-sabotage.
I'm the expert on it.
I want you to tell me now that
this is not you doubting yourself.
- This is not what this is.
- It's not doubt.
'Cause it deserves the cover,
not just to be published.
Searching for life that may
share the same way of life,
that we may eventually
find in water on Mars?
Possibly proving that
a billion years ago,
the same ecosystems
existed here and there?
You've touched
the limits of life.
You've touched it.
And now we have to wrap
our whole hands around it,
and bring it to the world...
and finish this.
Ifremer, they've partnered
with us, there's a lot at stake,
- a lot of money has been spent.
- I know, I know.
Now is not the time to
doubt yourself, Dani.
I know.
Good.
Morning, Ms. Flinders.
- Captain.
- Mr. Darren.
Thank you for
coming down, um...
Do you think it would
be possible for me
to go ashore after
the next two dives?
I'm having some difficulties
finalizing my calculations.
You mean go ashore
and stay ashore?
The other teams
don't need you to log?
- I can handle that work.
- And where would you...
We would be in reach
of the Faroe Islands,
after Mark and Annie,
I think.
- Right?
- Yeah.
I could fly to Iceland from
there and then on to Jan Mayen.
I don't see why not,
if your program sanctions it.
- It does.
- All right, then.
We'll arrange a boat
to come and pick you up.
Thank you.
- Good?
- Mm.
There should be a ban on
injecting the suicide bombers
with drugs to limit
their ability to think.
They do that?
I saw it, in Mogadishu.
I was really ashamed.
They also do it in Pakistan.
Why are you telling me this?
Why are you talking to me?
You will be gone soon,
one way or the other.
What do you mean by that?
They will not kill you.
Emir Yusef has promised.
Oh, that's good to know.
And there is
no one else here
to talk to
with an education.
[LAUGHING]
DR. SHADID: So, what should we
do about the wells in Kismayo?
JAMES: Well, that's what
I came here to find out.
DR. SHADID: The water is
too expensive for the poor.
Do the local authorities have
control over all the water sources?
- I do not know.
- You need to find out.
You need to drive out
the water profiteers
by any means necessary.
Wait.
[SIGHS] Well, you need to
ascertain the depth of each well,
and the quality of
the water in it.
So, for example, the closer
a well is to the sea,
the more likely that
water is to be brackish.
You have to find out how many people
are using it, plot this all on a map.
I can help you with this.
This is what I do,
this is my job.
Already you are.
Here, only the air is free.
Not a day goes by
without a child in my care
dying of some
curable illness.
The people have no work.
They have not enough food.
They have no school and this is
something we intend to correct.
When it rains, the mud mixes with
the waste from the latrines.
I do believe with so many people
packed in such conditions,
Somalia will generate a plague
that will spread around the world.
Cholera?
A new plague.
You going to
turn it into a weapon?
[GROANS]
I am a doctor.
Who keeps company
with killers.
We have cholera here already.
- JAMES: Report it.
- Here?
- To the United Nations.
- Never.
- Even UNICEF?
- Especially UNICEF.
Such an organization
that promises so much
yet delivers so little
to the children?
What is necessary is
to turn the Crusaders
back from the Muslim
lands of Somalia,
so that the people here can
live in a pure Islamic state.
What's more important to you,
treating the women and children
that come to your clinic
and looking for your help,
or... Or... Or following jihad?
I see both as one treatment.
Medicine is mercy,
jihad is duty.
What about me,
am I a Crusader?
I came here
to bring clean water.
Allah will ask payment of you.
You said I was
going to be spared.
I need to go home.
[SOBBING]
I need to go back to her.
[CRYING]
Who am I to know
the will of God?
You may die tomorrow.
Or... you may become
a blessed one.
[DOOR SLAMS]
[BOLT LOCKING]
JORN: So, how long are
you going to stay with us
on the Faroes,
Professor Flinders?
At least a week,
maybe more.
We found a quiet
place for you,
where you can
get your work done.
Thank you.
Captain's orders.
Is it possible to dock
by any of those rocks?
- Just for a few minutes?
- Sure.
[BIRDS CAWING]
What are you doing?
I'm counting.
Lichens.
Some of the species
here are very rare.
You think they're shells,
but if you come closer,
they're like tiny trees,
little forests.
And this one here is
the marriage between a...
a fungus and a cyan-bacteria.
If you would magnify the edges,
you wouldn't be able to see,
where life begins
and where it ends.
It just dissolves from...
from life into non-life.
[YELLING]
[MOB CHANTING]
[CHANTING CONTINUES]
[MAN SPEAKING SOMALI]
[CHANTING CONTINUES]
[ROCKS THUDDING]
[WAILING]
[SHOUTING]
[GUNSHOT]
[WOMEN CLAMORING, CRYING]
JAMES: "No man is an island,
entire of itself.
Every man is a piece
of the continent,
a part of the main.
Any man's death diminishes me,
because I am
involved in mankind,
and therefore never send to
know for whom the bell tolls,
it tolls for thee."
Do you keep John Donne
with you wherever you go?
- JAMES: Yeah.
- [DOOR UNBOLTING]
Let me go.
Let me go, please.
I will be killed soon,
I welcome it.
I believe you will
die too, Mr. Water.
[DOOR OPENS]
[GRUNTS]
[MUTTERING]
MAN: [SPEAKING SOMALI]
Biyole, we will
videotape you soon.
Do you know Bambi, water boy?
I saw it when I was young.
You see, Bambi is
the innocent one.
When you watch the
forest fire again,
then you will see his
father protecting him,
giving up his own life.
It is like the Crusaders who
are burning the Islamic state.
[SPEAKING SOMALI]
[BIRDS CAWING]
[SPEAKING SOMALI]
Abdul... go.
I want to convert
you to Islam.
And I want you to be
merciful and let me go.
I won't make
a video for you.
I won't sit in
front of a camera
and say the things
that you want me to say...
You're of use to us.
Shadid told me you can
clean water, stop diseases.
You will do important
work for us.
But you are a non-believer.
I want you to meet
with your Creator.
- No.
- No?
No.
Allah sees you,
and he's waiting for you
to take the straight path.
We've got Allah
in common, you and I.
The Allah of our
common father, Abraham.
I love Abraham.
And I love his love
for all his children.
And yes, I do believe
that Allah sees me.
Sees us, but...
no.
Who are you to know this,
and reject the Koran?
[SPEAKING SOMALI]
[SHEEP BLEATING]
[POP MUSIC PLAYS ON RADIO]
MAN: [SPEAKING SOMALI]
Hey, stop!
[MUTTERING IN SOMALI]
No!
Fuck!
- [SHOUTING]
- [EXPLOSION]
[SPEAKING SOMALI] Let's go.
[MEN PRAYING]
Allahu akbar. Allahu akbar.
WOMAN: [OVER RECORDING] Recent geology
research from the University of Cincinnati,
presents new evidence
for bacteria
found fossilized in
two separate locations.
The 2.52-billion-year-old
sulfur-oxidizing bacteria,
are described as exceptionally
large, spherical-shaped,
smooth-walled
microscopic structures,
much larger than most modern...
[TRUCK RUMBLING]
[SHOUTING IN SOMALI]
You like working
for the MI6, Water?
You have fun?
I mean not now, but in
general, you have fun?
You like the CIA?
I don't know what
you're talking about.
Jihad is life.
Your friends,
they don't care about you.
Jihad is life after death.
[WIND BLOWING]
So, you're not sorry for
being a Donne-loving Brit
who loves his God and country?
No. No, I'm not.
God save the Queen,
and all that.
DANI: I'm not sorry
for that, either.
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
[BOAT ENGINE RUMBLING]
[MEN LAUGHING]
She'll be ready to go
down tomorrow, professor.
Wonderful, thank you.
[SPEAKING ARABIC]
[SPEAKING ARABIC]
[WINCING]
[MEN LAUGHING]
[CHEERING]
- Come on!
- [CHEERING]
[SPEAKING FRENCH]
- Let's go.
- [CHUCKLES]
[RADIO CHATTER IN ARABIC]
Be safe, Dani.
SAIF: [SPEAKING ARABIC]
I don't want death, Dani.
Not in this place.
- And not for any cause.
- [FLY BUZZING]
I wanna...
I want to be beside you.
MAN: [OVER RADIO]
We're listening, Nautile.
Nautile to Atalante, Nautile to Atalante.
Do you read me?
Immersion one, zero, zero, zero.
MAN: Understood, Nautile,
1,000 meters deep. Over.
What have you been writing,
if you don't mind me asking?
Oh, it's nothing.
It's just something...
I felt like I needed to write.
Can you read it to me?
"You will be in Hades...
drowned in oblivion,
swallowing water,
erasing all memory.
You will take your place
among the teeming hordes,
of nameless micro-organisms."
Must be bad luck, talking
like this at this depth.
[MOANS]
[GROANING]
Thank you, Abdul,
thank you.
ETIENNE: In 20 minutes,
we'll be landing.
So, I'm just switching
on the main propeller.
Yeah.
And the sonar.
There's a reason
hell is down here.
There's a reason heaven is up
there, I remember that now.
[LAUGHS]
[SONAR BEEPS]
Can we turn up
the lights now?
ETIENNE: Certainly.
ETIENNE: Okay,
I dropped the second weight.
MAN: [OVER RADIO]
We're listening, Nautile.
We're about to arrive,
give us our new coordinates.
MAN: Navigation reset,
71 degrees north, 45 minutes,
two degrees west, 28 minutes.
You're almost at 3,400
meters now. Over.
Thanks, guys, we got that.
[SIGHING] We're close now.
- Careful now.
- Yeah.
[SPEAKING FRENCH]
Unbelievable.
Amazing.
There's a hydrothermal vent
straight ahead,
just to the right.
Shall we, tienne?
Yeah, sure.
I'm opening the basket.
And I'll start operating
the arm and collect.
You can help me, Dani,
direct the camera to it.
Oh, right, sorry.
Can you get the arm to grab
a piece of that chimney?
ETIENNE: Yeah, sure.
ETIENNE:
Okay, here comes Godzilla.
Okay.
We got it.
Here it is,
mission accomplished.
DANI: Fabulous.
I so wish I could have
shared this with him.
What would you
have told him now?
I would have told him that...
down here,
it's not photosynthetic,
like everything on the surface,
but chemosynthetic.
I would have told him
that life down here
exists without light,
and that it grows,
because of the
chemical energy just
pouring out of those cracks,
from the core of our Earth.
And he would have
understood that?
Yes.
- What's happening?
- I don't know.
Are we all right?
Okay, we need to reboot.
- DANI: You want some light?
- Yeah, please.
Switch off all the instruments.
THUMBS: Okay.
I turn on the emergency
battery, switch on.
Are there any other solutions?
THUMBS: Do we need to drop the remaining
weight and go to the surface?
No, no, no,
we're still drifting.
We can't see anything.
We could float up, hit a chimney
that could fall on us, trap us.
We can't move at all anymore.
Right, let's go through
the sequence again.
We will take our place
among the teeming hordes.
We will be the foundation
for all forms.
We will be in Hades,
drowned in oblivion,
swallowing water,
erasing all memory.
It will be a submergence.
[WAVES CRASHING]
DANI: I've thought about
bodies buried at sea.
It's not dust to dust,
that's for sure.
It's water to water.
We are all being made of water.
Like you said.
Because you're a wanderer
who strayed from
the straight path,
the only path to God...
you're not going
to see Paradise.
[SPEAKING ARABIC]
[CHUCKLES]
You know Arabic, Water.
And you read the Koran.
ETIENNE: Okay, once more.
On.
[EXHALES]
THUMBS: Dani, we're on
emergency battery.
We can't stay.
Yes, we...
we have all the samples.
Let's take her up.
Yeah, good.
[WAVES CRASHING]
[HELICOPTER BUZZING]
[MEN YELLING IN ARABIC]
[PRAYING IN ARABIC]
I'll see you again.
PILOT: How much threat?
- CO-PILOT: Multiple targets.
- PILOT. Copy that. Fire.
[EXPLOSIONS]
[SCREAMING]
[YELLS]