''Pressure'' is a 2015 British

disaster A disaster is a serious problem occurring over a short or long period of time that causes widespread human, material, economic or environmental loss which exceeds the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resources ...

survival film The survival film is a film genre in which one or more characters make an effort at physical survival. It often overlaps with other film genres. It is a subgenre of the adventure film, along with swashbuckler films, war films, and safari films. S ...

directed by Ron Scalpello. It tells the story of four men who get stuck at the bottom of the ocean in a

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 ...

Plot

A group of employees working for the oil company Vaxxilon are working on a boat in the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...

off the coast of

Somalia Somalia, , Osmanya script: 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒕𐒖; ar, الصومال, aṣ-Ṣūmāl officially the Federal Republic of SomaliaThe ''Federal Republic of Somalia'' is the country's name per Article 1 of thProvisional Constituti ...

. One night a boss, Karsen, sends four of his men, Engel, Mitchell, Jones and Hurst, down in the

to fix a damaged oil pipe. Having completed the work they make the ascent but the support ship is hit by a storm, causing the cables holding the bell to break. Desperately trying to make contact with the ship, one of the crew members goes out to assess the damage, only to find the body of Karsen and the wreck of the supply ship on the bottom of the ocean. The four men then have to use their wits and knowledge of diving and the bell to try and escape from the ocean floor, down, with a limited oxygen supply. Against orders, Hurst decides to search for the ship for more oxygen in an act of desperation. However, Hurst develops

hypothermia Hypothermia is defined as a body core temperature below in humans. Symptoms depend on the temperature. In mild hypothermia, there is shivering and mental confusion. In moderate hypothermia, shivering stops and confusion increases. In severe h ...

and enters a

delusional A delusion is a false fixed belief that is not amenable to change in light of conflicting evidence. As a pathology, it is distinct from a belief based on false or incomplete information, confabulation, dogma, illusion, hallucination, or some o ...

state. He refuses to return to the bell and the other men realize that he will freeze to death. To save oxygen and to spare Hurst a slow death, Jones cuts Hurst's oxygen supply in an act of

euthanasia Euthanasia (from el, εὐθανασία 'good death': εὖ, ''eu'' 'well, good' + θάνατος, ''thanatos'' 'death') is the practice of intentionally ending life to eliminate pain and suffering. Different countries have different eut ...

. Unknown to the other three men, Hurst dies just feet from the cylinder he had set out to find. While Vaxxilon leaves the men to die, their distress signal is picked up by a

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

fishing boat. They quickly lose communication with the fishing boat which was damaged in the storm as well and all appears lost. The men are later contacted by the navy frigate ''HMS Marlborough'', learning that the fishing boat had relayed their distress call to the frigate. However, the men do not know their exact coordinates and as a result, it will take hours for the ''Marlborough'' to find them. Running out of air, Engel makes a near-fatal dive to recover more cylinders from the pipeline's drywall chambers. With the ''Marlborough'' still struggling to find the men, Mitchell makes a dive to bring their locator beacon closer to the surface. However, while Mitchell succeeds, he is stung several times by

jellyfish Jellyfish and sea jellies are the informal common names given to the medusa-phase of certain gelatinous members of the subphylum Medusozoa, a major part of the phylum Cnidaria. Jellyfish are mainly free-swimming marine animals with umbrella- ...

in the process and dies. The ''Marlborough'' is able to locate the bell, but requires at least an hour to get rescue divers to Jones and Engel. Lacking enough time, Engel attempts to float the bell to the surface, but it gets stuck away. With no other choice, Engel realizes that one of the men must use the remaining dive helmet and swim to the surface. Engel chooses to sacrifice himself to save Jones, sharing a story of how his selfishness in the past cost a young boy his life. Though Jones develops bleeding from the mouth due to

decompression sickness Decompression sickness (abbreviated DCS; also called divers' disease, the bends, aerobullosis, and caisson disease) is a medical condition caused by dissolved gases emerging from solution as bubbles inside the body tissues during decompressio ...

given his fast ascent, he reaches the surface and is rescued by teams from the ''Marlborough''. After learning that Jones has been rescued and with the bell out of oxygen and flooding, Engel tries and fails to make the swim himself and drowns.

Cast

Danny Huston Daniel Sallis Huston (born May 14, 1962) is an Italian-born American actor and film director. A member of the Huston family of filmmakers, he is the son of director John Huston and the half-brother of actress Anjelica Huston. He is known for h ...

as Engel *

Matthew Goode Matthew William Goode (born 3 April 1978) is a British actor. Goode made his screen debut in 2002 with ABC's TV film feature '' Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister''. His breakthrough role was in the romantic comedy ''Chasing Liberty'' (2004), f ...

as Peter Mitchell *

Joe Cole Joseph John Cole (born 8 November 1981) is an English football coach and former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder or winger in the Premier League, Ligue 1, League One and United Soccer League. He is regarded as one ...

as Jones * Alan McKenna as Hurst *Ian Pirie as Karsen *

Daisy Lowe Daisy Rebecca Lowe (born 27 January 1989) is an English fashion model who has modelled for editorial photo shoots, commercial advertising campaigns and fashion shows. She is the daughter of Pearl Lowe, the singer-songwriter turned textile and fa ...

as Emily Lou *Gemita Samarra as Lisa

Critical reception

The film received negative responses from both critics and audiences on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

.com. 2 out of 10 critics gave the film a positive review, a Rotten rating, with 21% of audiences giving a positive review. Alistair Harkness writing for ''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its par ...

'' commented, "...the diving bell's claustrophobic setting never really translates into claustrophobic tension on screen", whilst David Hughes from ''

Empire Magazine ''Empire'' is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. The first issue was published in May 1989. History David Hepworth of Emap, the publisher of British music magazines '' Q'' and ''Smash Hits'', among other title ...

'' stated the film "fails to create interesting, distinctive or sympathetic characters, much less realise the potential of a potent premise." Conversely, Jeremy Aspinall of the ''

Radio Times ''Radio Times'' (currently styled as ''RadioTimes'') is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio programme schedules, with other features such as interviews, film reviews and lifestyle items. Founded in May 1923 by J ...

'' commented, "It's perfectly watchable, if not quite on a nerve-shredding par with lung-busting thrillers like The Poseidon Adventure, The Abyss or Black Sea."

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 3029476, Pressure 2010s disaster films 2010s survival films 2015 thriller drama films British disaster films British survival films British thriller drama films Films about death Films about seafaring accidents or incidents Films set in Somalia Films scored by Benjamin Wallfisch Underwater action films 2015 drama films 2015 films 2010s English-language films 2010s British films