- Directed by Steve Beck
- Written by Mark Hanlon, John Pogue
- Stars Julianna Margulies, Gabriel Byrne, Ron Eldard
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 31 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RlzNBlMQpY
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
It starts with one heck of an opening scene. And then it’s okay after that. The effects are good, the acting is decent from some powerhouse actors, the script is okay and kind of by the book. It’s entertaining and a good watch, but peaks quickly then tapers off somewhat.
Synopsis
We begin on a cruise ship. As credits roll, the lounge singer is entertaining the formally-dressed dancers in the ballroom. It’s all very elegant, and from the hairstyles, it appears to be the late 1950s. A little girl looks really bored. The captain asks the little girl to dance. Someone starts an engine, and a wheel starts to spool a cable very, very quickly. The cable whips through the crowd cutting everyone in half except for the little girl, who was too short. They all look surprised as their clothes, arms, legs, and torso fall in a pile. Everyone dies.
In the present day, Murphy, Dodge, Greer, Epps, and the crew of the Arctic Warrior rush to save a sinking ship. They are salvage experts. They’re very good at what they do. Ferriman, some young guy at a bar that they don’t know, comes over and tells them that he knows about an abandoned ship in international waters. Their own ship has problems, and they’ve all been at sea too long, but they decide to go after it. After a bit of glitchiness with their radar, they soon find the ship. Actually, they run right into the side of the thing.
Murphy knows all about The Antonia Grazia, which has been missing since 1962. It’s a rusted mess, but it’s intact and still floats. Greer and Ferriman stay behind on the Arctic Warrior, where the radio stops working. Epps thinks she saw a little girl downstairs, but no one else saw anything. They find a digital watch, which means someone has been here since 1962. They all return to their own ship for the night.
Morning comes, and they learn that the Antonia has a hole and is sinking. Greer wants to call for help, but Murphy says they don’t want extra visitors. While Santos starts to repair their own engines, the others work on fixing the hole in the big ship. Murphy checks out the captain’s cabin. Epps finds evidence of old gunfire in the empty swimming pool and then sees the girl again; she falls and bleeds into a hole in the floor. Then the pool fills with blood as soon as she leaves.
Epps and Ferriman find several bodies that have been there for less than a month. Everyone finds little things that shouldn’t be there. Ferrimen finds a whole crate full of gold bars– several crates. They all decide to take the gold and leave the big ship to sink. Meanwhile, on the Arctic Warrior, a canister of propane turns itself on. The little girl screams for them to stop, but the boat explodes, killing Santos. They all argue about what to do next.
Dodge and Munder eat forty year old beans out of a can which turn to maggots. Murphy starts drinking again, this time with the ghost of the dead captain. Greer whines about making bad choices until the ballroom reassembles itself. Epps tries to track down what happened to Katie, the only child registered to be on board and finds her corpse hanging in her room.
Katie’s ghost talks to Epps. The captains talk about the gold being cursed; this isn’t the first ship that died. Francesca seduces Greer in the ballroom and tricks him into falling down an elevator shaft. Katie explains that all the ghosts are trapped here. She talks about “him” who has a quota of souls to fill.
Murphy attacks Epps, thinking she’s the ghost of Santos. Ferriman interrupts the fight. They lock Murphy up for everyone’s safety, and then they start working to repair the damaged hull. They patch the holes and start pumping out the water.
Katie leads Epps to Greer’s body. Then she shows Epps what happened to the crew and passengers. Beyond the cable accident, many were poisoned as well. Robbers looking for the gold killed the survivors. They were the ones who hanged Katie, she didn’t do it herself. Various back stabbings and betrayals led to everyone else dying. Then she sees… Ferriman sucking their souls out.
Epps runs to release Murphy, but she’s too late, as his compartment has flooded. Meanwhile, the ship’s engines eat Munder. Ferriman turns on Dodge, and they also end up fighting. Dodge shoots Ferriman with a shotgun at close range. Ferriman gets back up.
Dodge tries to talk Epps into keeping all the gold, but Epps realizes that it’s the gold that’s actually cursed. She’s wired the whole place to blow up. Dodge then morphs into Ferriman. Ferriman explains that he’s a salvager too, but he’s a salvager of souls working for Hell. They start to fight, but Epps detonates the explosive and starts the ship sinking fast. As the ship floods, Katie shows Epps the way out, and we see all the dead souls escaping as well.
The next morning, Epps is picked up by a passing cruise ship. As she’s loaded into the ambulance on land, she sees Ferriman loading his gold aboard that ship…
Commentary
It’s not as bad as a lot of people say. The characters do make one stupid decision after another, but it doesn’t get boring and is fairly well done. I’m not sure why they decided to kill Gabriel Byrne’s character off-screen; that was a weird choice.
The opening scene is an absolute classic, but the rest is pretty by-the-numbers and almost forgettable.