James Cameron reveals he had to punch a safety diver in the face in order to escape drowning while filming 1989's The Abyss.
on September 27, 2023. During the Q&A, Cameron recalled an experience where he almost died while filming underwater, thus forcing him to punch a safety diver in the face so he could swim to safety.When filming a scene approximately 30 feet underwater, Cameron said his equipment began to fail.
“When the tank gets low, you get a warning that you’re about to run out of air,” he said. “Well, this thing had a piston servo regulator in it, so it was one breath… and then nothing. Everybody’s setting lights and nobody’s watching me. I’m trying to get [underwater director of photography] Al Giddings’ attention on the p.a. but Al had been involved in a diving accident and he blew out both eardrums so he was deaf as a post, and I’m wasting my last breath of air on an underwater p.a.
At that point, Cameron removed his gear, which caught the attention of a safety diver, also referred to as an “angel.” The diver handed Cameron a regulator to breathe out of; however, upon doing so, Cameron found the regulator was damaged, meaning he still couldn’t breathe. “At that point, it was almost check out point and the safety divers are taught to hold you down so you don’t embolize and let your lungs overexpand going up,” Cameron continued. “But I knew what I was doing. And he wouldn’t let me go, and I had no way to tell him the regulator wasn’t working. So I punched him in the face and swam to the surface and therefore survived.”
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