Dead Calm

Dead Calm is a 1989 Australian horror thriller film directed by Phillip Noyce and starring Sam Neill, Nicole Kidman, and Billy Zane. Adapted by screenwriter Terry Hayes from the 1963 novel of the same name by American writer Charles Williams, the plot focuses on a married couple, who come across a mysterious stranger abandoning a sinking ship while sailing in the Pacific Ocean. Filmed around the Great Barrier Reef, Dead Calm was the first successful film adaptation of Williams's novel, after Orson Welles worked for a number of years to complete his own film based on it titled The Deep, though it ultimately went unreleased and uncompleted. Dead Calm was generally well received, with critics praising Neill, Kidman, and Zane's performances and the oceanic cinematography. It was nominated in eight categories at the 1989 Australian Film Institute Awards, including Best Film, and won four. Modern retrospective analyses have been favorable, with The New York Times naming it one of the 1000 best films ever made.