.gif)
The Cave (film)
Encyclopedia
The Cave is a 2005 horror film
, directed by Bruce Hunt. It stars Cole Hauser
, Eddie Cibrian
, Morris Chestnut
, Marcel Iureş
, Lena Headey
, Rick Ravanello
, Piper Perabo
and Daniel Dae Kim.
of Romania
during the Cold War, where a group of Russian and British explorers are searching for a long lost 13th century abbey
. As they venture inside and below the church, they make a startling discovery: the abbey is built over the entrance to a vast subterranean cave
system. When they try to blast their way in, they cause a landslide that buries the abbey and the men are trapped in the cave below it. Once they recover, they continue on into the cave without a choice in hopes of finding a way out, but as they do, they hear strange pinging sounds coming from the darkness. They are never seen again.
30 years later, a team of archeologists are conducting an excavation of the ruins of the same abbey and discover the cave system. These scientists are Dr. Nicolai and his associate Katheryn Jannings. Local biologist
s believe the cave could contain an undiscovered ecosystem
, so they hire a group of American spelunkers led by Jack McAllister and his brother Tyler to help them investigate its unknown depths. Jack and Tyler are thrill-seeking professional cave explorers who run a world famous team of divers
. They arrive in Romania with the latest equipment, including a modified rebreather
system allowing a diver to remain submerged for up to 24 hours. The diving team includes rock-climbing professional Charlie, first scout Briggs, sonar
expert Strode, survival expert Top Buchanan, and cameraman
Alex Kim.
As they begin the expedition, they send Briggs to find the first advance base camp, much to Tyler's displeasure as he is the best scout, but Jack thinks otherwise due to Tyler's reckless behavior. When they lose contact with Briggs, they all dive in to find him. When Strode wanders off, he is suddenly attacked by an large, unknown creature. When he is dragged away, his water scooter explodes and causes a cave-in. Unable to save him or their only known means of getting out of the cave, Jack resolves with the team that they must find another way out.
As Jack and Top scout for a new route, Katheryn and Nicolai begin examining the bizarre biology in this cave, which they discover a strange parasite in all of the lifeforms they find. All known cave creatures today are variations of outer-world creatures that have simply adapted for cave
life over generations, but Katheryn believes this new parasite to be life that originated in the cave environment and has never been exposed to the outside world.
When Jack gets stuck in a shaft, he is suddenly attacked by the same kind of creature that killed Strode, but Jack manages to break free from its claws; still, he is slightly injured.
As the team heads deeper into the cave, they occasionally stumble across scattered equipment and remains of the previous explorers, and are unaware they are being stalked by the creatures. The team begins to question Jack's leadership as he leads them into unknown passages without second thought, and becomes more unstable since he was attacked, but Tyler assures the team to trust him. Jack also begins to exhibit a transformation of his senses, and physical features.
When he leads them to rapids that flow to an underground lake, the creatures attack again, Katheryn is unharmed but Dr. Nicolai is dragged away. As Jack tries in vain to free him, he sees the creatures are demon-like humanoids, and notices a recognizable tattoo on one of them. The team then reaches a vast delta in the underground river with large walls.
As the team and Jack argue about where to go next, Charlie climbs the wall to an opening for a possible exit. But when she reaches the opening, she is jumped by one of the creatures. She manages to kill it with improvised weapons but she is gutted by the creature as it struggles with her and dies. When Jack tries to save her, he has another transformation that slows him down.
As the team mourn Charlie's death, they see Jack's transformations are beginning to show with his super-keen senses and inhumanly slanted pupils, reminencing the demons'. Katheryn then concludes that his transformations are from the parasite they discovered, for it has entered his body through his wounds from his attack and is affecting his nervous system.
Remembering the remains of the previous explorers and the tattooed creature, they realize that the creatures are the previous explorers. They were transformed as the result of the symbiotic parasite
that infects a host and begins to mutate it. In the case of humans, they are transformed into the mutant-humanoid
demons, built for surviving in a cave environment. They have wings, amphibian skin, echolocation hearing (which are the strange sounds of them navigating in the dark), razor sharp teeth, and long claws. They are no longer human and they now only hunt down and slaughter anything that enters their new home. They realize Jack is quickly mutating into one of them, the team splits up, their trust in him shattered, but Tyler and Top stay with him.
Jack leads Tyler and Top through the opening Charlie climbed to that leads them down an underground ice slope, Top falls and breaks his leg but they manage to find a way through the ice. They discover a hellish cavern littered with skeletons and realize that this is an ancient battleground between the creatures and
the Knights Templar
which the knights clearly lost. The surviving knights built the church at the entrance in order to seal the cave and prevent future generations from entering and keeping the demons from getting out into the world.
When Jack finds the cave's exit in an underwater passage, he has another transformation, at this point he is now barely human and too weak to find the rest of the team. As Tyler heads back to find the others, the creatures enter the cavern and steal the diving equipment necessary to get through the exit.
Tyler finds Briggs hanging from the ceiling of a section of the cavern, impaled on stalactites and barely alive, Briggs points his pupils in the direction the creature went. Katheryn manages to save Tyler from being attacked when she uses their sonar gun to distort the creatures hearing. Tyler and Katheryn swim to the ice cave, she nearly drowns but Tyler does CPR to save her. They regroup with Alex and make it back to the exit. Jack tries to steal back their rebreather while the rest of the group fight off the creatures, but Alex is killed and eaten.
When they are surrounded, Jack causes an explosion with the rebreather and causes the cave to collapse; he stays behind to fight the creatures off and is presumably killed by the cave-in.
Tyler, Kathryn, and Top escape the cave and make it back to the surface. They return to civilization and part ways. Later Tyler asks Katheryn if Jack could have survived out in the open. She's silent, then says that before she'd thought that the parasite could only survive underground, but now she's uncertain and thinks that that maybe the parasite wants to get out.
When she kisses him, she moves her sunglasses down below her eyes, revealing pupils similar to Jack's when he first showed signs of infection. Tyler suddenly realizes that Katheryn is infected with the parasite, and supposedly intends to infect the rest of the world. He runs after her into a crowd of people, but she has disappeared.
, both released theatrically in 2005, and The Cavern
, released on DVD in 2006, are three films with similar themes. All three films involve spelunking and terrifying subterranean life that hunts down the principal characters. The Descent was held as the most successful of the three according to ticket sales and critical reviews; however, The Cave was the only one of the three that was actually filmed inside a cave.
, which features metal bands by Atreyu
, Lacuna Coil
, Diecast
, Burning Brides
, Ill Niño
, Killswitch Engage
, Shadows Fall
, It Dies Today
, Trivium
and more. Also, the single Nemo
by Nightwish
is featured during the end credits of the film.
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
, directed by Bruce Hunt. It stars Cole Hauser
Cole Hauser
Cole Kenneth Hauser is an American film and television actor.-Family background:Hauser was born in Santa Barbara, California, son of Cass Warner, who founded the film production company Warner Sisters, and actor Wings Hauser. His paternal grandfather was Academy Award-winning screenwriter Dwight...
, Eddie Cibrian
Eddie Cibrian
Edward Carl "Eddie" Cibrian is an American actor. He is known for his television roles as Cole Deschanel on Sunset Beach, Jesse Cardoza in CSI: Miami, Jimmy Doherty on Third Watch and Russell Varon in Invasion.-Early life and career:...
, Morris Chestnut
Morris Chestnut
Morris L. Chestnut is an American film and television actor. He is known for his roles as teenage father Ricky Baker in the 1991 film Boyz n the Hood, groom-to-be Lance Sullivan in the 1999 film The Best Man, as Tracy Reynolds, NBA star in the 2002 film Like Mike, and as the Visitor Ryan in the...
, Marcel Iureş
Marcel Iures
Marcel Iureş is a Romanian stage and screen actor.Iureş was born 2 August 1951 in Băileşti, Romania and is one of Romania's most acclaimed stage and film actors. Iureş entered the Institutul de Arta Teatrala si Cinematografica in Bucharest in 1974 and graduated in 1978...
, Lena Headey
Lena Headey
Lena Headey is an English actress. Headey's performance in a one-off show when she was 17 caught the attention of a casting agent, who took a photo and asked her to audition and eventually she got a supporting role alongside Jeremy Irons and Ethan Hawke in the 1992 British drama film Waterland and...
, Rick Ravanello
Rick Ravanello
Rick Ravanello is a Canadian actor who has appeared in several television series and movies.One of several brothers, Ravenello was raised in the Trout Brook Road area of Mira, Cape Breton, and graduated from Riverview Rural High School in 1986.-Filmography:-Guest appearances:*In Justice playing...
, Piper Perabo
Piper Perabo
Piper Lisa Perabo is a Golden Globe Award nominated American stage, film and television actress.-Early life:Perabo was born in Dallas, Texas and grew up in Toms River, New Jersey, the daughter of Mary Charlotte , a physical therapist, and George William Perabo, a professor of poetry at Ocean...
and Daniel Dae Kim.
Plot
The film begins deep in the Carpathian mountainsCarpathian Mountains
The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians are a range of mountains forming an arc roughly long across Central and Eastern Europe, making them the second-longest mountain range in Europe...
of Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
during the Cold War, where a group of Russian and British explorers are searching for a long lost 13th century abbey
Abbey
An abbey is a Catholic monastery or convent, under the authority of an Abbot or an Abbess, who serves as the spiritual father or mother of the community.The term can also refer to an establishment which has long ceased to function as an abbey,...
. As they venture inside and below the church, they make a startling discovery: the abbey is built over the entrance to a vast subterranean cave
Cave
A cave or cavern is a natural underground space large enough for a human to enter. The term applies to natural cavities some part of which is in total darkness. The word cave also includes smaller spaces like rock shelters, sea caves, and grottos.Speleology is the science of exploration and study...
system. When they try to blast their way in, they cause a landslide that buries the abbey and the men are trapped in the cave below it. Once they recover, they continue on into the cave without a choice in hopes of finding a way out, but as they do, they hear strange pinging sounds coming from the darkness. They are never seen again.
30 years later, a team of archeologists are conducting an excavation of the ruins of the same abbey and discover the cave system. These scientists are Dr. Nicolai and his associate Katheryn Jannings. Local biologist
Biologist
A biologist is a scientist devoted to and producing results in biology through the study of life. Typically biologists study organisms and their relationship to their environment. Biologists involved in basic research attempt to discover underlying mechanisms that govern how organisms work...
s believe the cave could contain an undiscovered ecosystem
Ecosystem
An ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving , physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water and sunlight....
, so they hire a group of American spelunkers led by Jack McAllister and his brother Tyler to help them investigate its unknown depths. Jack and Tyler are thrill-seeking professional cave explorers who run a world famous team of divers
Scuba diving
Scuba diving is a form of underwater diving in which a diver uses a scuba set to breathe underwater....
. They arrive in Romania with the latest equipment, including a modified rebreather
Rebreather
A rebreather is a type of breathing set that provides a breathing gas containing oxygen and recycled exhaled gas. This recycling reduces the volume of breathing gas used, making a rebreather lighter and more compact than an open-circuit breathing set for the same duration in environments where...
system allowing a diver to remain submerged for up to 24 hours. The diving team includes rock-climbing professional Charlie, first scout Briggs, sonar
Sonar
Sonar is a technique that uses sound propagation to navigate, communicate with or detect other vessels...
expert Strode, survival expert Top Buchanan, and cameraman
Camera operator
A camera operator or cameraman is a professional operator of a film or video camera. In filmmaking, the leading cameraman is usually called a cinematographer, while a cameraman in a video production may be known as a television camera operator, video camera operator, or videographer, depending on...
Alex Kim.
As they begin the expedition, they send Briggs to find the first advance base camp, much to Tyler's displeasure as he is the best scout, but Jack thinks otherwise due to Tyler's reckless behavior. When they lose contact with Briggs, they all dive in to find him. When Strode wanders off, he is suddenly attacked by an large, unknown creature. When he is dragged away, his water scooter explodes and causes a cave-in. Unable to save him or their only known means of getting out of the cave, Jack resolves with the team that they must find another way out.
As Jack and Top scout for a new route, Katheryn and Nicolai begin examining the bizarre biology in this cave, which they discover a strange parasite in all of the lifeforms they find. All known cave creatures today are variations of outer-world creatures that have simply adapted for cave
life over generations, but Katheryn believes this new parasite to be life that originated in the cave environment and has never been exposed to the outside world.
When Jack gets stuck in a shaft, he is suddenly attacked by the same kind of creature that killed Strode, but Jack manages to break free from its claws; still, he is slightly injured.
As the team heads deeper into the cave, they occasionally stumble across scattered equipment and remains of the previous explorers, and are unaware they are being stalked by the creatures. The team begins to question Jack's leadership as he leads them into unknown passages without second thought, and becomes more unstable since he was attacked, but Tyler assures the team to trust him. Jack also begins to exhibit a transformation of his senses, and physical features.
When he leads them to rapids that flow to an underground lake, the creatures attack again, Katheryn is unharmed but Dr. Nicolai is dragged away. As Jack tries in vain to free him, he sees the creatures are demon-like humanoids, and notices a recognizable tattoo on one of them. The team then reaches a vast delta in the underground river with large walls.
As the team and Jack argue about where to go next, Charlie climbs the wall to an opening for a possible exit. But when she reaches the opening, she is jumped by one of the creatures. She manages to kill it with improvised weapons but she is gutted by the creature as it struggles with her and dies. When Jack tries to save her, he has another transformation that slows him down.
As the team mourn Charlie's death, they see Jack's transformations are beginning to show with his super-keen senses and inhumanly slanted pupils, reminencing the demons'. Katheryn then concludes that his transformations are from the parasite they discovered, for it has entered his body through his wounds from his attack and is affecting his nervous system.
Remembering the remains of the previous explorers and the tattooed creature, they realize that the creatures are the previous explorers. They were transformed as the result of the symbiotic parasite
Parasitism
Parasitism is a type of symbiotic relationship between organisms of different species where one organism, the parasite, benefits at the expense of the other, the host. Traditionally parasite referred to organisms with lifestages that needed more than one host . These are now called macroparasites...
that infects a host and begins to mutate it. In the case of humans, they are transformed into the mutant-humanoid
Humanoid
A humanoid is something that has an appearance resembling a human being. The term first appeared in 1912 to refer to fossils which were morphologically similar to, but not identical with, those of the human skeleton. Although this usage was common in the sciences for much of the 20th century, it...
demons, built for surviving in a cave environment. They have wings, amphibian skin, echolocation hearing (which are the strange sounds of them navigating in the dark), razor sharp teeth, and long claws. They are no longer human and they now only hunt down and slaughter anything that enters their new home. They realize Jack is quickly mutating into one of them, the team splits up, their trust in him shattered, but Tyler and Top stay with him.
Jack leads Tyler and Top through the opening Charlie climbed to that leads them down an underground ice slope, Top falls and breaks his leg but they manage to find a way through the ice. They discover a hellish cavern littered with skeletons and realize that this is an ancient battleground between the creatures and
the Knights Templar
Knights Templar
The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon , commonly known as the Knights Templar, the Order of the Temple or simply as Templars, were among the most famous of the Western Christian military orders...
which the knights clearly lost. The surviving knights built the church at the entrance in order to seal the cave and prevent future generations from entering and keeping the demons from getting out into the world.
When Jack finds the cave's exit in an underwater passage, he has another transformation, at this point he is now barely human and too weak to find the rest of the team. As Tyler heads back to find the others, the creatures enter the cavern and steal the diving equipment necessary to get through the exit.
Tyler finds Briggs hanging from the ceiling of a section of the cavern, impaled on stalactites and barely alive, Briggs points his pupils in the direction the creature went. Katheryn manages to save Tyler from being attacked when she uses their sonar gun to distort the creatures hearing. Tyler and Katheryn swim to the ice cave, she nearly drowns but Tyler does CPR to save her. They regroup with Alex and make it back to the exit. Jack tries to steal back their rebreather while the rest of the group fight off the creatures, but Alex is killed and eaten.
When they are surrounded, Jack causes an explosion with the rebreather and causes the cave to collapse; he stays behind to fight the creatures off and is presumably killed by the cave-in.
Tyler, Kathryn, and Top escape the cave and make it back to the surface. They return to civilization and part ways. Later Tyler asks Katheryn if Jack could have survived out in the open. She's silent, then says that before she'd thought that the parasite could only survive underground, but now she's uncertain and thinks that that maybe the parasite wants to get out.
When she kisses him, she moves her sunglasses down below her eyes, revealing pupils similar to Jack's when he first showed signs of infection. Tyler suddenly realizes that Katheryn is infected with the parasite, and supposedly intends to infect the rest of the world. He runs after her into a crowd of people, but she has disappeared.
Cast
- Morris ChestnutMorris ChestnutMorris L. Chestnut is an American film and television actor. He is known for his roles as teenage father Ricky Baker in the 1991 film Boyz n the Hood, groom-to-be Lance Sullivan in the 1999 film The Best Man, as Tracy Reynolds, NBA star in the 2002 film Like Mike, and as the Visitor Ryan in the...
as Top Buchanan - Eddie CibrianEddie CibrianEdward Carl "Eddie" Cibrian is an American actor. He is known for his television roles as Cole Deschanel on Sunset Beach, Jesse Cardoza in CSI: Miami, Jimmy Doherty on Third Watch and Russell Varon in Invasion.-Early life and career:...
as Tyler McAllister - Daniel Dae Kim as Alex Kim
- Kieran Darcy-Smith as Strode
- Cole HauserCole HauserCole Kenneth Hauser is an American film and television actor.-Family background:Hauser was born in Santa Barbara, California, son of Cass Warner, who founded the film production company Warner Sisters, and actor Wings Hauser. His paternal grandfather was Academy Award-winning screenwriter Dwight...
as Jack McAllister - Lena HeadeyLena HeadeyLena Headey is an English actress. Headey's performance in a one-off show when she was 17 caught the attention of a casting agent, who took a photo and asked her to audition and eventually she got a supporting role alongside Jeremy Irons and Ethan Hawke in the 1992 British drama film Waterland and...
as Kathryn Jannings - Marcel IureşMarcel IuresMarcel Iureş is a Romanian stage and screen actor.Iureş was born 2 August 1951 in Băileşti, Romania and is one of Romania's most acclaimed stage and film actors. Iureş entered the Institutul de Arta Teatrala si Cinematografica in Bucharest in 1974 and graduated in 1978...
as Dr. Nicolai - Piper PeraboPiper PeraboPiper Lisa Perabo is a Golden Globe Award nominated American stage, film and television actress.-Early life:Perabo was born in Dallas, Texas and grew up in Toms River, New Jersey, the daughter of Mary Charlotte , a physical therapist, and George William Perabo, a professor of poetry at Ocean...
as Charlie - Vlad Radescu as Dr. Bacovia
- Rick RavanelloRick RavanelloRick Ravanello is a Canadian actor who has appeared in several television series and movies.One of several brothers, Ravenello was raised in the Trout Brook Road area of Mira, Cape Breton, and graduated from Riverview Rural High School in 1986.-Filmography:-Guest appearances:*In Justice playing...
as Briggs
Reception
The Cave received universally negative reviews, with a current rating of 13% on Rotten Tomatoes. The main complaint was the lack of character building and endless cliches, with one critic saying 'a generic duffer that is as exciting as a hole in the ground'.Box office
In the US, the film opened ranked #5 grossing a poor $6,147,294 at 2,195 sites, averaging $2,800. It went on to have a final US gross of $15,007,991. In Australia, it opened at 89 sites, averaging AUD$3,204 grossing AUD$285,121. It had a massive 2nd weekend decrease by 74%, and had a finishing gross of AUD$570,131. Worldwide, the film has grossed $33,296,457.Similarities to other caving films
The Cave, The DescentThe Descent
The Descent is a 2005 British horror film written and directed by Neil Marshall. The film follows six women who, having entered an unmapped cave system, become trapped, and are hunted by subterranean flesh-eating humanoids....
, both released theatrically in 2005, and The Cavern
The Cavern (film)
The Cavern is a 2005 horror film directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi. The film's original title was changed by the studio to cash in on the success of 2005 films The Cave and The Descent.-Plot:...
, released on DVD in 2006, are three films with similar themes. All three films involve spelunking and terrifying subterranean life that hunts down the principal characters. The Descent was held as the most successful of the three according to ticket sales and critical reviews; however, The Cave was the only one of the three that was actually filmed inside a cave.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack was released on August 26, 2005 by Lakeshore RecordsLakeshore Records
Lakeshore Records is the independent music division of Lakeshore Entertainment . They started out as WILL Records.Will Records were started by Skip Williamson in the early 90s...
, which features metal bands by Atreyu
Atreyu (band)
Atreyu is an American rock band from Orange County, California, formed in 1998. The band consists of vocalist/lyricist Alex Varkatzas, guitarists Dan Jacobs and Travis Miguel, bassist Marc McKnight and drummer/vocalist Brandon Saller...
, Lacuna Coil
Lacuna Coil
Lacuna Coil is an Italian gothic metal band from Milan. Formed in 1994, the group has had two name changes since being previously known as Sleep of Right and Ethereal and was inspired by the combination of gothic imagery and music...
, Diecast
Diecast (band)
Diecast is a five-piece metalcore band originating from Boston, Massachusetts. There are no active members that date back to their inception.-History:...
, Burning Brides
Burning Brides
Burning Brides is an American hard rock band. They are partially known for their live performances, such as in 2000 playing selected dates as the opening band for The White Stripes...
, Ill Niño
Ill Niño
Ill Niño is an American six-piece metal band from New Jersey founded in 1998. The band has sold over 3.3 million units worldwide; they have 5 studio albums and 10 music videos.-History:...
, Killswitch Engage
Killswitch Engage
Killswitch Engage is an American metalcore band from Westfield, Massachusetts, formed in 1999 after the disbandment of Overcast and Aftershock. Killswitch Engage's current lineup consists of vocalist Howard Jones, bassist Mike D'Antonio, guitarists Joel Stroetzel and Adam Dutkiewicz, and drummer...
, Shadows Fall
Shadows Fall
Shadows Fall is an American heavy metal band from Springfield, Massachusetts, formed in 1995. They are one of the few contemporary metal bands who take their lyrical influence from Eastern philosophy and some references to the Rastafari culture...
, It Dies Today
It Dies Today
It Dies Today is a metalcore band that formed in Buffalo, New York during September, 2001.- History :It Dies Today formed in August 2001. The group was established in Buffalo, New York by vocalist Nicholas Brooks, guitarist Chris Cappelli and guitarist Steve Lemke...
, Trivium
Trivium (band)
Trivium is an American heavy metal band from Orlando, Florida, formed in 1999. Signed to Roadrunner Records, the band has released five studio albums, eleven singles, and twelve music videos...
and more. Also, the single Nemo
Nemo (song)
-Charts Performance:Once topped the album charts in Finland and Hungary. In the UK it could only chart at #87 after a chart entry of #101 the week before, but spent over 20 weeks on the top 200 plus a few re-entries...
by Nightwish
Nightwish
Nightwish is a Finnish symphonic metal band from Kitee, Finland. Formed in 1996 by songwriter and keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen, guitarist Emppu Vuorinen, and former vocalist Tarja Turunen, Nightwish's current line-up has five members, although Tarja has been replaced by Anette Olzon and the...
is featured during the end credits of the film.