Scuba Diving Movies, TV Shows and Books


Movies and TV Shows

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)

James Mason, Kirk Douglas

The Jules Verne story of adventure under the sea was Walt Disney's magnificent debut into live-action films. A professor seeks the truth about a legendary sea monster in the years just after the Civil War. When his ship is sunk, he, his aide, and a harpoon master survive to discover that the monster is actually a metal submarine run by Captain Nemo.


The Abyss (1989)

Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio

A civilian oil rig crew is recruited to conduct a search and rescue effort when a nuclear submarine mysteriously sinks. One diver (Ed Harris) soon finds himself on a spectacular odyssey 25,000 feet below the ocean's surface where he confronts a mysterious force that has the power to change the world or destroy it.


Around the World under the Sea (1966)

Lloyd Bridges, Shirley Eaton

Lloyd Bridges stars as the leader of a perilous deep sea mission. Apocalyptic tidal waves caused by earthquakes threaten to destroy the world's coastal cities, and the fate of the earth is in the hands of six scientists. In its state-of-the-art nuclear powered submarine, the intrepid team confronts all the wonders and terrors of the deep: rock formations that are both beautiful and treacherous, a giant moray eel, and a spouting volcano sucking them into its fiery crater.


Beneath the 12-Mile Reef (1953)

Robert Wagner, Terry Moore

Rival deep sea fishermen fight for territorial rights as their teenage children bravely struggle to love each other in an atmosphere of violence and conflict.


The Big Blue (1988)

Jean Reno, Rosanna Arquette

Jean-Marc Barr is a sweet and sensitive but passive presence as Jacques, a diver with a unique connection to the sea. He has the astounding ability to slow his heartbeat and his circulation on deep dives, a phenomenon that's only been observed in whales and dolphins until now. Kooky New York insurance adjuster Joanna melts after falling into his innocent baby blues, and she follows him to Italy, where he's continuing a lifelong competition with boyhood rival Enzo.


Black Water Gold (1970)

Keir Dullea, Bradford Dillman

A scuba team, a marine archaeologist and a Mexican historian join forces to reach the wreck of an historic Spanish galleon before a well-armed commercial expedition does.


The Cave (1988)

Cole Hauser, Morris Chestnut

Blood-thirsty creatures await a pack of divers who become trapped in an underwater cave network.


Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)

Richard Carlson, Julie Adams

Creature from the Black Lagoon tells the mythical story of a dangerous half-human, half-fish creature lurking in the depths of the Amazon. After discovering a unique prehistoric claw fossil on an expedition deep in the jungle, archeologists investigate its origins which lead them directly to a mysterious creature. Led by marine life specialist David Reed, the men try to capture the monster who has become obsessed with David's assistant, Kay.


Dark Tide (2012)

Halle Berry, Olivier Martinez

Kate is a shark expert whose business has been failing since a shark attack killed a fellow diver under her command. Once dubbed "the shark whisperer," Kate is haunted by the memory of the attack and unable to get back into the water. With bills piling up and the bank about to foreclose on Kate's boat, Kate's old flame Jeff presents her with a lucrative opportunity: lead a thrill-seeking millionaire businessman on a dangerous shark dive outside the cage. Battling her self-doubts and fear, Kate accepts the proposal -- and sets a course for the world's deadliest feeding ground: Shark Alley.


The Deep (1977)

Nick Nolte, Robert Shaw, Jacqueline Bisset, Louis Gossett Jr.

This lavish, suspense-filled film was made from Peter Benchley's best-selling novel. Gail Berke and David Sanders are on a romantic holiday in Bermuda when they come upon the sunken wreck of a WWII freighter. Near it, they find an ampoule of morphine, one of tens of thousands still aboard the wrecked ship. Their discovery leads them to a Haitian drug dealer, Cloche, and an old treasure hunter, Romer Treece. With Cloche in pursuit, Gail, David and Treece try to recover the sunken treasure.


Deep Star Six (1989)

Greg Evigan, Nancy Everhard

An undersea missile base is threatened by a carnivorous creature.


Deepsea Challenge (2014)

James Cameron

In James Cameron's dramatic fulfillment of a childhood dream, he pilots a submersible he designed on a dive 7 miles beneath the ocean surface. Visually one of the best diving movies ever made, the film is a celebration of science, courage and human aspiration.

Rolex put 3 experimental watches along the outside of the submersible; one on a hydraulic manipulator arm, and two more on its hull. The watches kept time perfectly during the nearly seven hours they were beneath the water and emerged unharmed.


Flipper - TV Series (1964-67)

Brian Kelly, Tommy Norden, Luke Halpin

A friendly dolphin named Flipper is the family pet of a Florida marine park ranger and his two sons Sandy and Bud. Every week Sandy and Bud have adventures in and out of the water with the brave, resourceful Flipper.


Fool's Gold (2008)

Matthew McConaughey, Kate Hudson

Finn is still in love with his ex and in deep with gangster Bigg Bunny. After eight years of searching, Finn gets a clue to the whereabouts of the Queen's Dowry, a fabulous fortune that mysteriously disappeared in the Caribbean in 1715. Now all he has to do is get the gold, get the girl and get going before Bigg Bunny gets him.


The Frogmen (1951)

Richard Widmark, Dana Andrews

An untried WWII submarine commander must step into the shoes of his beloved predecessor and earn the respect of his new unit, the Navy Underwater Demolition Team.


Into the Blue (2005)

Paul Walker, Jessica Alba

Stunning tropical scenery and gorgeous athletic movie stars may not make a movie great, but they sure don't hurt. Jared dreams of finding sunken treasure and making millions, but his girlfriend Sam is content with their poor but idyllic life in the Bahamas. Still, when they find artifacts from a 19th century pirate ship, she gets caught up in the excitement--until they also find a crashed plane full of smuggled cocaine. Naturally, someone's going to want that cocaine back.


Jaws (1975)

Richard Dreyfuss, Roy Scheider

This 100th Anniversary Exclusive Blu-ray features a 42 page book on the making of JAWS, plus a new 100 minute documentary! From the best-selling novel by Peter Benchley, Steven Spielberg directed this thrill ride of terror. During the height of beach season, the Massachusetts resort town of Amity Island is terrorized one summer by surprise attacks from a great white shark. Three unlikely partners team up to hunt down the rogue and destroy it: the new chief of police from New York, a young university-educated oceanographer, and a crusty old-time fisherman.


Lady in Cement (1968)

Frank Sinatra, Raquel Welch

In this solid suspense drama, Frank Sinatra stars as detective Tony Rome who, while working on a case, discovers everybody he talks to winds up dead.


The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)

Bill Murray, Owen Wilson

Famous oceanographer Steve Zissou sets sail with a crew that includes a journalist, a pilot, a man who may actually be his son and his ex-wife in order to seek revenge on a mythical shark for causing the death of his partner.


ManFish (1956)

John Bromfield, Lon Chaney Jr.

Three deep sea divers get involved in murder while searching for a lost treasure.


Men of Honor (2000)

Robert DeNiro, Cuba Gooding Jr.

One of those rare films that grabs you by the gut and never lets go, Men of Honor was inspired by the life of Carl Brasher, an African American who dared to dream of becoming a U.S. Navy Master Diver. Despite a bigoted training officer and a tragic shipboard accident, Carl never gives up and achieves the impossible in an incredible finish that will leave you cheering.


The Neptune Factor - An Undersea Odyssey (1973)

Ben Gazzara, Walter Pidgeon

Dazzling underwater footage highlights this suspenseful story about a submarine sunk to the bottom of the sea by an earthquake.


Open Water (2004)

Blanchard Ryan, Daniel Travis

Based on actual events, an American couple board a tour boat to go scuba diving off the coast. But during an unfortunate series of miscommunications and a distracted crew, they are accidentally left behind in cold, shark-infested waters to fend for themselves and find their way back to shore.


Sanctum 3D (2011)

Richard Roxburgh, Ioan Gruffudd

From executive producer James Cameron (Avatar) comes a thrilling underwater adventure based on true events. Master diver Frank McGuire leads a team-including his 17-year-old son-to explore the largest, most beautiful and least accessible cave system on Earth. But when a tropical storm cuts off their only escape route, the team must work together to find their way through an uncharted and dangerous underwater labyrinth to make it out alive. With time running out, can they survive, or will they be trapped forever?


Sea Hunt - TV Series (1958-61)

Lloyd Bridges

Ex-Navy frogman is a freelance scuba diver who outwits villains, salvages anything from a bicycle to a nuclear missile from the sea, and rescue's those trapped underwater.


Thunderball (1965)

Sean Connery, Claudine Auger

The thrills never let up as James Bond dives into this riveting adventure filled with explosive confrontations and amazing underwater action sequences! Sean Connery brings his characteristic style, humor and magnetism to Agent 007 as he travels to Nassau to track down villainous criminal Emilio Largo, who's threatening to plunge the world into a nuclear holocaust. From Bond's thrilling jetpack flight to his heart-stopping clash with Largo's killer sharks, Thunderball is a stupendous mixture of action, romance and edge-of-your-seat suspense!


Underwater (1955)

Jane Russell, Gilbert Roland

Two scuba divers find a shipwreck which may contain undiscovered treasure. However, their attempt to salvage it is threatened by scavengers.


Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961)

Walter Pidgeon, Joan Fontaine

A routine scientific expedition to the North Pole turns into a race to save all mankind when a radiation belt in space causes a fiery inferno on Earth. Admiral Nelson and the crew of the atomic submarine Seaview battle saboteurs, giant sea-creatures and attacks by enemy submarines as they race to prevent global catastrophe. Renowned disaster film producer, Irwin Allen, produces and directs an all-star cast including Joan Fontaine, Barbara Eden, Peter Lore, and Frankie Avalon. The stunning visual effects and breathtaking underwater photography make this one of the most respected sci-fi adventure classics of all time.


Wet Gold (1983)

Brooke Shields, Burgess Meredith

When a waitress learns about a boat that sunk with millions of gold, she and two others dive into water to find it.


Books

Beyond the Deep

William Stone, Barbara am Ende, Monte Paulsen

The Huautla in Mexico is the deepest cave in the Western Hemisphere, possibly the world. Shafts reach skyscraper-depths, caverns are stadium-sized, and sudden floods can drown divers in an instant. With a two-decade obsession, William Stone and his 44-member team entered the sinkhole at Sotano de San Augustin. The first camp settled 2,328 feet below ground in a cavern where headlamps couldn't even illuminate the walls and ceiling. The second camp teetered precariously above an underground canyon where two subterranean rivers collided. But beyond that lay the unknown territory -- a flooded corridor that had blocked all previous comers, claimed a diver's life, and drove the rest of the team back. Except for William Stone and Barbara am Ende, who forged on for 18 more days, with no hope of rescue, to set the record for the deepest cave dive in the Western Hemisphere.


Deep Descent

Kevin F. McMurray

On a dense, foggy, late July evening in 1956, the Italian-flagged cruise liner "Andrea Doria," bound for New York, was struck broadside by another cruise ship. After an agonizing eleven hours, the relentless sea would drag her down, settling the "Doria" uneasily into the murky Atlantic ocean floor nearly two hundred and fifty feet below. Amazingly, due to a daring and fevered rescue operation by her oceangoing brethren, only fifty-one of the more than 1,700 people on board both ships were killed in the collision. Years have passed since that tragedy, yet the "Andrea Doria" is still taking lives.

Deep Descent

Drawn by the sirens call of adventure, a small but fanatical group of extreme scuba divers has long challenged the "Andrea Doria," pushing themselves far beyond the limits of recreational divers, up to the very limits of human endurance. Not all of them have succeeded. In "Deep Descent," an author and frequent Doria diver Kevin McMurray takes you inside this elite club, offering an unsparing and unsentimental exploration of those men and women who dare to go deeper, farther, and closer to the edge than prudence or common sense might allow.

Considered the Mt. Everest of diving, the "Andrea Doria" is the ultimate deepwater wreck challenge -- lying in an area long known as the Bermuda Triangle of the Northeast, some fifty miles south of Nantucket Island and two hundred miles east of Sandy Hook, New Jersey. This region, no stranger to disaster, is fog-shrouded and prone to sudden changes of wind, weather, and tide. In addition to many shipping disasters, it has borne mute witness to such recent tragedies as the fatal crash of John F. Kennedy Jr.'s small plane and the mysterious downing of Egypt Air Flight 990. It is an area that guards its secrets well, only surrendering its treasures to the bravest or most determined seekers.


Encyclopedia of Florida Shipwrecks, Volume I: Atlantic Coast

Michael C. Barnette

Volume I of the Encyclopedia of Florida Shipwrecks is the most detailed, comprehensive, and accurate inventory of shipwreck events and artificial reef sites for Florida's Atlantic coast. The author, Michael Barnette, is considered a foremost authority on Florida shipwreck and maritime history, and has spent over 10 years of research compiling this work. This volume, spanning over 300 pages, includes more than 1,300 indexed entries for Atlantic coast shipwrecks and artificial reefs, 330 archival and underwater images, and 1,000 Atlantic coast shipwreck coordinates. As a result, this book is an invaluable resource to divers, fishermen, and historians.


Shipwrecks of Florida: A Comprehensive Listing

Steven D. Singer

Over 2,100 shipwrecks from the 16th century to the present; the most comprehensive listing now available. Wrecks are arranged primarily by geographical section of the state. Within sections, wrecks are arranged chronologically. Extensive and heavily illustrated appendices offer a wealth of information on topics of interest to divers and researchers alike.


More Shipwrecks of Florida: A Comprehensive Listing

Steven D. Singer

More Shipwrecks of Florida is a sequel to Shipwrecks of Florida, 2nd edition. This new book with all new content adds over 1,500 shipwrecks to the guide, and includes additional information on hundreds of previously listed shipwrecks, all organized by year. It also includes more GPS coordinates, as well as stories of pirates and privateers, wreckers, and buried and sunken treasure.