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Open
Water
Based
On A True Story-
Open
Water might be best described as Blair Witch Project
meets Jaws, only instead of our central characters being
lost in the woods, they're alone in the ocean and instead
of the terrorizing force being a supernatural presence,
it's a school of hungry sharks.
Based
on a true story, the premise of Open Water
is quite simple, yet horrifying with a shocking ending.
Director Chris Kentis shows the married couple setting
off on a Scuba Diving trip with nine other couples. Once
at the diving spot, the adventurous actors beautifully
played by Susan (Blanchard Ryan) and Daniel (Daniel Travis)
are having the time of their lives as they discover breathtaking
underwater vistas. Overwhelmed by all there is to see,
they lose track of time and are slightly late getting
back to the rendevous point. As they swim to the surface,
they are horrified to discover that the boat is gone.
Open Water spends most of it's running time
depicting a terrifying twenty-four hour period of self
preservation under the most intense circumstances.
The
True Story-
The
movie is based on the following true story-
©
Lions Gate Films |
It
has been six and a half years (January 25th, 1998 ) since
the two American tourists (From Baton Rouge, Louisiana)
disappeared diving on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia.
If one thing has become clear in this bizarre case it
is that Tom and Eileen Lonergans' story will never fade
and haunts many to this day.
Tom
(33) and Eileen (29) Lonergan had just finished three
years in the Peace Corps in the South Pacific and were
on their way to Hawaii to re-enter college to obtain masters
degrees. Diving some 40 miles offshore, the Lonergans
were experienced divers enjoying a three-week vacation
in Austraila before heading off to school. They had met
and married at Louisiana State University, where Eileen
had taken up scuba diving and persuaded Tom to join in
her hobby. For two years they had taught for the Peace
Corps in the Pacific island country of Tuvalu, before
spending a further year in Fiji.
During
a diving expedition near St. Crispin reef off Port Douglas,
Tom and Eileen had been the last divers out of the water
on the other dives that day, so it was not hard to assume
they may have been a little tardy on the final dive.
The
Lonergans advised a diving instructor employed on the
Outer Edge, Ms. Katherine Traverso, that they would "go
off and do their own thing" (quote from Mr. Richard Triggs
of Cairns, a diver on the trip. This action by the Lonergans
is nothing unusual as most experienced divers would know,
but of which some media made adverse comments soon after
the incident.
When
they did surface after less than an hour underwater, they
either saw the boat (Outer Edge) leaving or saw nothing
but open seas.
Outer
Edge Dive Co. did not report the couple missing until
two days after they were left at sea. When the boat had
docked, the crew apparently noticed that there was at
least one bag left behind by the passengers but they do
not appear to have investigated this further and simply
moved the bag to another location on the boat. In fact,
there were two bags. One was a plastic bag containing
the Lonergans' dry clothes and Mr Lonergans' glasses.
In addition, there was a nearly empty dive bag and the
boat was missing two tanks and two weight belts!
It
was two days later, when Jack Nairn (Skipper of the boat)
claimed to have found a bag containing the Lonergans'
wallet and passports on the boat, that the alarm was raised.
He called the Police, 51 hours after the Lonergans disappeared.
On January 28, 1998 a search by 17 aircraft, helicopters
and boats, Police, Navy and civilian divers began.
A
massive search ensued. Documentation of their fist night
was evidenced by what fishermen 100 miles north of the
site found: a dive slate which records their thoughts
as dawn broke that morning. In a wobbly scrawl faded by
months in the water, Tom Lonergans had written: "Monday
Jan 26; 1998 08am. To anyone who can help us: We have
been abandoned on Agin court Reef by MV Outer Edge 25
Jan 98 3pm. Please help us come to rescue us before we
die. Help!!!"
Being
experienced divers, the normal procedure would be to inflate
the BCD (Buoyancy Control Device for diving) and dump
the weight belts.
The
day after the incident the Outer Edge brought another
tour party to the area, and one diver found six dive weights
resting on the bottom. Oblivious to what had happened
the previous day, a crew member described the find as
a bonus.
When
the boat failed to return, the next course of action would
be to discard the tanks. Exposure to the water and the
heat from the sun rapidly accelerates dehydration.
One
of the few criticisms of the movie was that it was hard
to believe that the boat just left the couple, however
it is true and this is what the official investigation
of this incident discovered-
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No proper
head count was performed before the dive vessel left.
~
The
Lonergans were not checked back on board by the crew.
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The
Lonergans' dive details were not recorded in the divemaster's
log book
at the end of the dive.
~
No
dedicated lookout was on duty at the time of the relevant
dive.
~
The
boat left at a time when it was reasonable to assume that
divers could
still be under the water.
Former
Skipper, Jack Nairn still lives in the area despite losing
his business as a result of the publicity and debts surrounding
his trial. He initially refused to talk about the case,
and would only discuss how the fallout from the case had
affected him. "The reality of it is that the thing creates
emotional turmoil for all of the people involved," he
said.
We
will avoid providing more details on the true story at
this point so as not to ruin the movie for those who wish
to see it.
But
What Is Amazing Is That It Happened Again-
After
the Lonergans went missing in Queensland in 1998, you'd
think it could never happen again. But it seems it has.
An 80-year-old American woman went missing after an excursion
to the Barrier Reef in 2000. Police in Port Douglas in
far north Queensland once again had to search the coastline.
Primal
Scream-
The Discovery Channel recently showed a veteran underwater
photographer Valerie De La Valdene in the Galapagos Islands
as she re-lived her most harrowing adventure in 17 years
of diving. She came up to find herself alone in the ocean
after having been pulled by underwater currents far from
her fellow divers and the diving boat.
What
was terrifying was that she had her underwater video camera
with her which shows the entire situation as it unfolds.
You can see the first shark approach her as her video
camera is innocently capturing the scene under the water
as she is above it unaware and discovering to her horror
that she is drifting out to sea with nothing in sight.
You can hear the camera capturing her "primal screams"
as she begins to call out for help and as she pushes the
first of many sharks away from her with her fins.
Shown
during their "shark week" the show Primal
Scream shows the mass number of sharks circling
her shortly after she surfaces and she finds she is alone
in the water, with no land in site, no boat and absolute
primal fear setting in.
This
video is available on the Discovery Channel via DVD and
VHS.
Official
"Open Water" Website
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The
Holistic Wisdom Journal
