"Sounds exactly like stuff that never happened": Fans in disbelief as James Cameron reveals his near-death experience

A still of James Cameron (Image via Getty)

In a recent appearance at the Los Angeles genre festival Beyond Fest with his film The Abyss, James Cameron revealed a rather ground-breaking detail about the shooting of his film where he nearly died. The story, though heard before, revealed that while filming an underwater scene, Cameron's tank malfunctioned and he almost drowned while being held down by a safety instructor, who he had to punch before swimming to the ground.

In the convention, James Cameron elaborated in detail how he survived the would-be tragic accident. He said:

"At that point it was almost check-out point and the safety divers are taught to hold you down so you don’t embolize and let your lungs overexpand going up. But I knew what I was doing. And he wouldn’t let me go, and I had no way to tell him the regulator wasn’t working. So I punched him in the face and swam to the surface and therefore survived."

A tweet reply to DF's post about Cameron's survival story (Image via X)

While this is a brave tale of survival, but as this news broke out, many fans seemed quite unconvinced of the occurrences in the underwater shoot that nearly killed Cameron. Many came forward on X (formerly Twitter) to express their disbelief at the tale, despite it being quite a famous story.

Fans respond with humor to James Cameron's survival story while filming The Abyss

DF's post about Cameron's survival story (Image via X)

The Abyss was one of its kind when it first came out, and it did rightfully expand the boundaries of filmmaking as we know it. However, shooting such a complicated film was not free of dangers.

The entire film was shot in an abandoned nuclear power plant in Gaffney, which required the cast and crew to master the art of working underwater. But for Cameron, this turned into a nightmare when his equipment malfunctioned, and a lack of communication left him on the verge of death.

Still, given James Cameron's legendary reputation and fanbase, many came forward humorously to share their views on the incident while also expressing a stint of disbelief in the same.

James Cameron also gave a rare glimpse at the two-hour and 51-minute Special Edition of The Abyss in the fest. The Abyss continues to be an era-defining film and perhaps the landmark one in Cameron's directorial career.

Edited by Priya Majumdar