Submergence (film)

Submergence is a 2017 romantic thriller film directed by Wim Wenders, based on the novel with the same name by J. M. Ledgard. The film stars Alicia Vikander and James McAvoy. The film premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival. The story revolves around the characters' individual professional missions and flashbacks to their romance on the coast of Normandy.

Plot
A talented and idiosyncratic bio-mathematician, Danielle Flinders is staying at a seaside hotel on the coast of Normandy where she meets the British Agent James More awaiting transport to Somalia to search for Somali Jihadist leaders. The two develop a friendly bond during their stay and eventually a romantic relationship. Their conversations mostly revolve around her important undersea work, which she believes may have insights into life on other planets. As they are getting to know each other, More mostly diverts away from his profession and claims he is a water engineer for African non-profits. Her odd, introspective thoughts on life and death in the darkness are attractive and bewildering to More. At one point (with recent bombings on his mind, and stopping the terrorists) More becomes angry with Flinders' mono-dimensional, scientific view of life on earth. However, when they depart for their individual missions, it is clear that they have a deep affection for each other and plan to reunite.

Upon landing in Somalia, More is kidnapped by suspicious Somali terrorists. They do not believe he is a hydrology engineer working for a non-profit. He is shifted to various hiding places and tortured. He holds fast to his story and is promoted up to the next set of leaders, who are determined to break him. His captors, however, have not discovered that a fake bridge in his teeth hold some sort of device. He eventually is taken away by the group's main warlord after witnessing horrible war crimes against women and Somali residents who do not abide by strict Islamic Law. Dr. Shadid, patches him up but warns him that he will be killed eventually.

Meanwhile Flinders is aboard a research vessel in the Greenland Sea with a deep-sea submersible awaiting her turn to visit an undersea sea vent which may prove her theory about life through chemically-based life (lack of light). As the mission goes on, his lack of communication puts her a great unease and her performance on the mission is becoming an issue. She asks to leave the ship in order to get into better internet communication as she is obsessed with More. She is saddened and very distracted by his rejection and is resigned to losing him. She returns to the vessel in time for her long-awaited research voyage in the submersible.

More is taken to a beach enclave which is very close to a United States military base. The Jihadists plan to run a series of suicide bombings to kill the troops. The warlord insists he knows that More is an Mi6 agent and various torturous mind tricks still do not break him.

Simultaneously Flinders, at the bottom of the sea, finally collects samples for her studies. Suddenly the sub loses all power and attempts to reboot the batteries fail. Lit with only a dim laptop, she again recites her prescient gloomy thoughts on the ultimate darkness and life and death. The recitation puts the crew into a panic mode, but her thoughts move to the time at the hotel with More. The crew suddenly manages to engage the backup batteries much to everyones' relief including Flinders. The submersible rises slowly back to surface as she leaves her mission behind.

More, left sitting on the beach, exhausted, overhears plans of the attack as they construct their suicide vests. He turns away and extracts the bridge from his mouth which is a micro GPS beacon. While they are distracted he walks towards the ocean. Suddenly an Apache helicopter armed with missiles destroys the entire complex just as More jumps into the ocean and submerges himself against the shockwave.

The last scenes of the movie are More rolling over to face the bright sun. The film fades to white and Flinders' face dimly appears.

Cast

 * Alicia Vikander as Danny Flinders
 * James McAvoy as James More
 * Hakeemshady Mohamed as Yusef M-Al-Afghani
 * Alexander Siddig as Dr. Shadid
 * Reda Kateb as Saif
 * Alex Hafner as Mr. Bellhop
 * Celyn Jones as Thumbs
 * Harvey Friedman as Bob
 * Audrey Quoturi as Annie

Symbolism
The individual missions are essentially an immersion process for both characters. She is literally immersed in her work and physically submerged in deep water. More is immersed and getting deeper into the world of terrorism. The 2 opposed career choices and missions represent the truth of science and that of man's impact on the earth(and himself.)

Danielle's character is attracted to the biological constructs of nature, while More's purpose in Normandy was to visit the man-made World War 2 bunkers of Nazi occupation.

Presumably, because Danielle foresees her death as the deep unending darkness of the sea floor, her appearance in bright overwhelming light at the end is an indication that More survives and they reunite as he awakens in the hospital. The ending is left open, but the implication is life.

Production
In November 2015, Alicia Vikander, and James McAvoy joined the cast of the film, with Wim Wenders directing the film, from a screenplay by Erin Dignam, based upon the novel by J.M Ledgard. In January 2016, Embankment Films came on board to handle the international sales for the film. In April 2016, Celyn Jones joined the cast of the film.

Fernando Velazquez composed the film's score.

Filming
Principal photography on the film began on 12 April 2016 in Berlin, Germany. The film was also shot in the Faroe Islands, Madrid and Toledo, Spain, as well as multiple locations in France (Dieppe, Sainte-Marguerite-sur-Mer, Bois des Moutiers residence at Varengeville-sur-Mer) and Djibouti.

Release
In May 2016, Mars Distribution and Antena 3 acquired distribution rights in France and Spain respectively. The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on 10 September 2017. Shortly after, Samuel Goldwyn Films acquired U.S. distribution rights to the film. It was released in the United States on 13 April 2018, in a limited release and through video on demand.

Box office
It received generally unfavorable reviews and was a box office bomb. It grossed $852,319 internationally, with no release in North America, plus $106,879 from home video sales, against a production budget of €15 million ($16.6 million).

Critical reception
, the film holds a 22% approval rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, based on 55 reviews with an average rating of 4.3/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "A slow-moving misfire, Submergence isn't as deep as it thinks it is — but still manages to drown its stars in a drama whose admirable ambitions remain almost entirely unfulfilled." On Metacritic, the film holds a weighted average score of 38 out of 100, based on 16 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".

Matt Zoller-Seitz of RogerEbert.com gave the film 2 out of 4 stars, writing that "the actors and the filmmaking are seductive enough that Submergence isn't a chore to sit through, but it's not engrossing, either." Benjamin Lee of The Guardian gave the film 2 out of 5 stars and commented that "Submergence feels like a clumsy melange, a confused adaptation made by people who don't seem quite sure what they have on their hands. John DeFore of The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "More conventional than Wenders' best-loved work, it should manage to please some old fans while reaching — thanks to star power — younger moviegoers who've never heard of him."