Home : Destinations : Abyss Trip : Ground Shots

Abyss Ground Pictures

Here are my shots from my April 13, 2001 trip. If you look at this site with Michael Prendergast's pictures, you will see that the years have not been kind to the set.

Unfortunately when I took these shots I did not yet have my digicam, so these were taken with a Kodak disposable.

This was the first thing I saw upon arriving at the Abyss filming site. This large concrete structure was to be a nuclear power plant that Duke Power was making and wound up abandoning the project. This structure looks to be very sturdy with all the rebar protruding out at the top.

I looked around for some of the little black beads that used to cover the water's surface when this thing was filled up and they were nowhere to be found. Apparently they did a good job of cleaning the beads up. This site can be quite treacherous if you don't watch your step, it has lots of snakes and numerious pitfalls that could seriously injure the unwary.



This is it, DeepCore! I am thankful I visited in April, this site looks like it could be first-rate mosquito hatchery - safe bet that it is since I didn't see any fish swimming around in the tank itself.

The tank is slowly filling up with rain water, when Michael Prendergast took his pictures, you could still see the feet of DeepCore. The DeepCore tank has two rims inside, I wasn't able to get down to the lower rim like Michael did. There wasn't any obvious ways down short of repelling down using a rope or something, but it really wasn't safe.

You can see some of the decay when you compare it to Michael's pictures, rust is now much more wide spread, parts of the rig have collapsed having only been made of plywood. You can see parts of the collapse behind the center section to the right side.


Here is a profile shot of the DeepCore set. Again you can see part of the decay and the cylindrical part near the front end is starting to fall off.

I can tell the site was quite detailed in the construction, they put air tanks, tubes, wires, and various hoses running around the outside of the set to add to the appearance.

This set is quite large, but not large enough for anyone to fit in.



This is inside the filming room looking out what was a water-tight window at the front of the DeepCore set. A lot of the shots of that set were done through this window. This room appears in the "Making Of" video on the DVD but it isn't too recognizable due to decay.

To get here, you have to walk down some rotten looking stairs and keep an eye out for snakes. There is a square hole through the concrete ceiling, on the main entrance you have to watch your step you will wind up in this room. It's about a 20 foot drop so you definitely have to watch your step.

If you continue down the stairs, it leads to a series of corridors that are under the DeepCore set. They did some of the film editing/viewing down there. When I got there it was totally dark and had at least a foot of standing water. Not anywhere I would like to walk/



This is the only set other than DeepCore that is still intact. All the other sets have been sold off or were too badly damaged to be recognizable. This is the decompression chamber set. It is largely intact, but there is still a lot of damage. It is basically a large fiberglass cylinder with a wooden suport frame built around it to keep it from rolling off. Using the ladder in the back, you could likely get on top of it.

It would've been neat to see it when Michael Prendergast took his pictures.



This is a large pressure door set used in some of the scenes. On close inspection, it appears that this thing is the real thing! This sat inside a 4-5 foot deep concrete recess that looked like it was meant to be filled with water from the huge dump tanks above it.



This is only other non-set piece that is still intact. It is a very large dump tank, it is made up of 3 large cylindrical tanks that probably can hold a few thousand gallons of water a piece. Just by looking at it, it is safe to say that if this thing were turned on full blast with you in front of it, it would easily knock you off your feet. The picture didn't come out too well because I forgot to turn the flash on. You can still see the rear drum.