Pushing The Limits - new movies "Wild Wild West" starring Will Smith and "Deep Blue Sea" starring Samuel L. Jackson stretch science innovations

American Visions, June, 1999

Brilliant inventions and experimentations that push the limits of science characterize two movie releases from Warner Bros. this summer. A walking weapon-vehicle, known as the Tarantula, has a starring role in Wild Wild West (July 2), alongside Will Smith, Kevin Kline and Kenneth Branagh. It's enormous, it's destructive, and it moves like a giant spider across the ragged terrain of the Western frontier.

The plot of Wild Wild West--government special agents James West (Smith) and Artemus Gordon (Kline) creep in and out of danger, fighting crime--sounds familiar because it is familiar. Based on the late 1960s TV series Wild Wild West, the feature film transports the adventure to the '90s, with all kinds of gadgets and weapons. stunning sets and computer-generated action. But where the TV series was arch in its depiction of outrageous episodes, the trim adds silly humor (typical of Smith and Kline), romance and fantasy to a story already filled with capers.

In Deep Blue Sea (July 30), starring Samuel L. Jackson, research scientists working to fight cancer have created a new generation of mako sharks that are more intelligent and more lethal than their progenitors. Dr. Susan McAlester (Saffron Burrows) has violated ethical codes in her reengineering of shark DNA, and she can't fend off the animosity of her team members, who question her methods. Nor can she keep Russell Franklin (Jackson) at bay: He's the leading backer of the financial group that has been supporting her research, and when he shows up at the lab, he threatens to revoke the group's funding if her research doesn't prove conclusive--soon.

The ethical issues are left for dead after an accident damages the research facility, and leaves everyone on board--including crew member Sherman "Preacher" Dudley (LL Cool J)--vulnerable to attacks from the "new and improved" sharks.

The makers of this modern-day science-fiction horror film required both a young, athletic cast that could meet the physical demands of diving and stunts and state-of-the-art animatronics. They also required a studio facility that could accommodate the film's massive floating and submerged sets--none other than Fox Studios Baja, which was built to specification in Mexico for the blockbuster Titanic.