10 Thrilling Sci-Fi Movies That Take Place At Sea

The mysteries of our oceans have always fascinated filmmakers, creating the perfect backdrop for sci-fi stories packed with isolation, claustrophobia, and run-ins with the unknown. Let’s face it, underwater settings naturally crank up the tension. You’ve got limited escape routes and the constant threat of drowning… and that’s before throwing aliens, sea monsters, or tech failures into the mix. From deep-sea research labs to futuristic submerged cities, these ten sci-fi films plunge viewers into watery environments where danger lurks in the murky darkness below.

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10Deep Rising (1998)

While mostly set on a luxury cruise ship, Deep Rising earns its spot among underwater sci-fi flicks thanks to its monster: a massive, tentacled deep-sea nightmare that attacks from below. Directed by Stephen Sommers, this action-horror mashup follows mercenary Finnegan (Treat Williams) and his crew who board a seemingly abandoned cruise liner only to find most passengers have been slurped up by prehistoric sea critters awakened by corporate meddling. The film mixes dark humor with gory creature attacks as survivors navigate partially flooded corridors and engine rooms. Though not entirely underwater, the film’s final act dumps characters into the ocean depths, forcing them to face the full horror of what’s been hunting them.

9DeepStar Six (1989)

In this underwater horror-sci-fi blend, a U.S. Navy deep-sea facility crew setting up a nuclear missile storage platform accidentally pisses off a massive unknown sea creature while blasting underwater charges. Directed by Sean S. Cunningham (who gave us Friday the 13th), DeepStar Six traps its characters in the tight confines of a research station with crushing ocean pressure just waiting to burst in. The film stars Greg Evigan, Nancy Everhard, and Miguel Ferrer, and shows how quickly the crew’s mental state deteriorates from stress and isolation, even before the creature starts its killing spree. DeepStar Six embraces its B-movie roots while still delivering genuine tension from the twin threats of a hungry sea monster and the deadly ocean itself.

8Pacific Rim (2013)

Directed by Guillermo del Toro, Pacific Rim plunges us into a near-future battle between humanity and colossal sea monsters known as Kaiju. As these beasts rise from the ocean’s depths, mankind fights back with massive robots called Jaegers, each piloted by two humans whose minds are linked. Starring Idris Elba, Charlie Hunnam, and Rinko Kikuchi, the film brings an epic showdown to the screen with jaw-dropping visuals and intense combat scenes. The ocean becomes both battlefield and barrier, adding to the tension as these titanic forces clash. Unlike typical monster movies focused solely on destruction, Pacific Rim dives into themes of teamwork and resilience, showing how human connection can be just as powerful as any weapon when facing threats from the deep.

7The Meg (2018)

In this sci-fi thrill ride directed by Jon Turteltaub, The Meg dives into the depths of the Mariana Trench where a massive prehistoric predator, the Megalodon, lurks. When a deep-sea submersible is attacked and trapped, expert rescue diver Jonas Taylor, played by Jason Statham, is called in to confront his fears and save the crew. As the giant shark rises to the surface, it threatens everything in its path. With Ruby Rose and Li Bingbing also starring, The Meg blends action and suspense, turning the ocean into a battleground between humanity’s technological prowess and nature’s ancient beast. The film uses its underwater setting for edge-of-your-seat tension with scenes of narrow escapes and heart-pounding confrontations. Unlike other shark thrillers that rely on jump scares, The Meg offers a spectacle of size and scale, exploring humanity’s fascination with, and fear of, the unknown lurking in the deep.

6Waterworld (1995)

In a flooded future, humanity clings to survival on makeshift floating cities. Waterworld follows a lone mariner, played by Kevin Costner, who navigates this vast oceanic landscape in his trimaran. When he stumbles upon a mysterious woman and a girl with a map tattooed on her back, they set off on a quest to find the mythic “Dryland.” As they fend off attacks from ruthless pirates led by Dennis Hopper’s character, the Deacon, the mariner must confront his own isolation and the possibility of hope in a world gone adrift. Director Kevin Reynolds crafts an epic adventure that blends thrilling action with moments of reflection on human resilience. Instead of relying on futuristic gadgets or creatures, Waterworld captures the struggle for survival and the search for belonging in an endless sea.

5Virus (1999)

When a salvage crew led by the greedy Captain Robert Everton (Donald Sutherland) discovers an abandoned Russian research vessel, they think they’ve hit the jackpot. Instead, they run into an alien entity that hijacks electricity and robotics to build cybernetic organisms from human bodies. Starring Jamie Lee Curtis as navigator Kit Foster and William Baldwin as engineer Steve Baker, Virus blends body horror with sci-fi action as the alien transforms both people and machinery into nightmare fuel cyborgs. Director John Bruno, primarily a visual effects guru, creates some truly disturbing mechanical monstrosities as the entity takes over the ship’s systems. The film’s waterlogged setting adds extra layers of danger, with characters splashing through partially flooded corridors while being chased by robotic threats, deadly electricity, and rising water levels.

4Deep Blue Sea (1999)

Renny Harlin’s shark thriller puts a sci-fi twist on the formula by introducing genetically souped-up mako sharks with boosted brainpower. Set in an isolated underwater research lab called Aquatica, scientist Dr. Susan McAlester (Saffron Burrows) has been tinkering with shark brains to find an Alzheimer’s cure. When these super-smart predators start methodically hunting the researchers, the survivors, including shark wrangler Carter Blake (Thomas Jane) and the scene-stealing chef Sherman ‘Preacher’ Dudley (LL Cool J), must navigate increasingly flooded sections of the facility. Deep Blue Sea delivers spectacular shark attacks alongside the dangers of a collapsing underwater structure, creating a double-threat as characters face both clever predators and the relentless ocean itself.

3Sphere (1998)

Based on Michael Crichton’s novel, Sphere throws together a dream team of scientists including psychologist Dr. Norman Goodman (Dustin Hoffman), biochemist Dr. Beth Halperin (Sharon Stone), and mathematician Harry Adams (Samuel L. Jackson) to check out a mysterious spacecraft found 1,000 feet below the Pacific. Their encounter with a bizarre alien sphere gives them mind-bending powers that turn their deepest fears into deadly realities. Director Barry Levinson delivers a psychological thriller that uses its underwater setting to amp up the isolation and paranoia as the characters’ minds literally become weapons against each other. The whole thing explores how humans might handle super-advanced tech while trapped in the pressure cooker of a deep-sea habitat where there’s nowhere to run.

2Underwater (2020)

This claustrophobic sci-fi horror flick stars Kristen Stewart as Norah Price, a mechanical engineer working at the Kepler 822 deep-sea research facility in the Mariana Trench. When a massive earthquake wrecks the station, the surviving crew has to trek across the ocean floor to reach safety, only to discover they’ve woken up some seriously nasty creatures. Set in 2050, the film takes place at ridiculous depths, highlighting just how isolated and vulnerable humans are in one of Earth’s most hostile environments. Despite its hefty $50-65 million budget, Underwater only pulled in $40.9 million worldwide, but critics loved Stewart’s performance and praised director Eubank for crafting such a tense, atmospheric thrill ride.

1The Abyss (1989)

James Cameron’s underwater masterpiece follows a ragtag team of oil rig workers dragged into a submarine recovery mission that turns into a close encounter of the wet kind. Set in an experimental undersea drilling platform, the crew stumbles upon an alien intelligence while salvaging a sunken sub. Ed Harris plays Bud Brigman alongside Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio as his estranged wife Lindsey, mixing tense human drama with some truly jaw-dropping underwater sequences. The film kicks off at roughly 13,200 feet deep and potentially goes even deeper. Cameron’s obsessive attention to detail in showing deep-sea diving tech earned the film an Oscar for Best Visual Effects and set a new bar for underwater filming techniques that honestly still holds up today.