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Aliens of the deep - Pamela Conrad, Djanna Figueroa, Kevin Hand, James Cameron, Steven Quale

Threat advisory: Under evaluation

Movie propaganda

The search for life beyond begins below.

James Cameron, Academy Award® winning James Cameron, Steven Quale, deep ocean adventurer, and space exploration visionary, combines his talent and his passions in the forthcoming digital 3-D film Aliens of the deep. Cameron takes audiences to the depths of the ocean to encounter some of the strangest life forms on Earth, while inviting us to imagine what future explorers may someday find on other planets.

Aliens of the deep presents the highlights of more than 40 dives made to the Mid-Ocean Ridge, a submerged chain of mountains that winds 75,000 kilometres around the globe and contains mineral-rich volcanic vents with names like Lost City and Snake Pit. These vents spew constant clouds of super-heated water, made dark as smoke by substances sent up from deep beneath the Earth's crust.

Innovative, daredevil filmmaking, an exciting partnership with NASA, engaging educational materials, interactive web adventures, and a National Geographic companion book make Aliens of the deep a truly immersive, multi-media experience. Movie-goers will join James Cameron on a "magical mystery tour" of the most spectacular footage ever made of active hydrothermal vent communities, teaming with life.

The creatures are abundant and very strange, including 180 centimetre tall worms with blood-red plumes, white crabs, and an absolutely astonishing biomass of blind, white shrimp, all competing to find just the right location in the flow of superheated water - or fry trying. "They are as close to alien life as anything seen on Earth," says Cameron. "A clue to what might exist elsewhere."

Aliens of the deep gives first-hand insight into Cameron's passion for exploration, the extreme machines that allow humans to explore the deep, and the possibilities that exist both below and beyond the horizon. Cameron and the mission scientists help us consider the correlations between life under water and the life we may one day find in outer space.

Persons of interest

James Cameron .... Himself, Director
Pamela Conrad .... Herself, Astrobiologist, JPL
Djanna Figueroa .... Herself, Marine Animal Physiologist, UC Santa Barbara
Kevin Hand .... Himself, Planetary Scientist, Stanford University/SETI Institute
Loretta Hidalgo .... Herself, President Space Generation Foundation
Maya Tolstoy .... Herself, Marine Seismologist Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University
Steven Quale .... Director