Calgary divers give thumbs up to Sanctum

Eric Volmers - 

The James Cameron-produced underwater action film Sanctum begins with what appears to be a corpse floating deep under water.

Before the end of the movie (spoiler alert!) there's at least two mercy killings, a slow death by decompression sickness, a panicky drowning, a few fatal falls and one ... um, impalement. On the surface, the 3-D thriller - based with significant dramatic licence on a true story - is not exactly a love letter to the extreme sport of cave-diving.

Nevertheless, earlier this week a group of 50 friendly Calgarians associated with the Aquasport Scuba Centre took in the film with this slightly claustrophobic Herald writer and film snob in an attempt to shine a light on the mindset required to venture into the unknown, underwater depths of a cave.

Despite it being full of wooden characters who bray stiff lines such as "Even God won't know where we are" or "Hey Jim, this cave isn't going to beat me."

(Foreshadowing the fact that the cave will eventually beat him), Sanctum is a fairly decent action film. It's about a disastrous underwater expedition in Papua, New Guinea, where five characters from central casting (including the rebellious teen, the distant father and the boorish American) are trapped when a cyclone floods a massive system of caves they are exploring.

Most of the experienced cave divers at the screening gave the film a thumbs up, while acknowledging that few real-life expeditions end with such a high body count.

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