Disney+ Yanks The Abyss Due To Controversial Rat-Drowning Scene

James Cameron’s 1989 underwater sci-fi flick The Abyss featured a scene in which a panicking rat was plunged into oxygen-rich liquid. It was a sequence that proved so controversial at the time that the United Kingdom’s film board ordered it removed. 36 years later, after a remaster of the unedited version appeared on Disney+ in the UK, it’s been pulled once again.

Before Terminator 2, Titanic, and Avatar (and the many Avatar sequels), Cameron brought us The Abyss, a very expensive underwater action-adventure film starring Ed Harris. The movie was a bit of a flop at the time, but has since gone on to become a classic among Cameron fans and sci-fi nerds.

At one point in the film, a rat is placed in a small tub of breathing fluorocarbon liquid. At first, the rat struggles and panics because it thinks it’s drowning. But eventually it calms and starts breathing the liquid, which contains oxygen. Five rats were used, and they all lived. However, many found the scene disturbing, and in the UK, this scene was banned and removed from all versions of The Abyss at the request of the RSPCA. But this scene was later included in the Disney+ version of the movie, which was added to the service in April.

Here’s the scene, but be warned that this is a real rat struggling to breathe and some might find it hard to watch.

On June 17, GamesRadar and other outlets reported that The Abyss had been removed from Disney+ after the RSPCA called out the media giant for including the scene and taking advantage of a “loophole” that allows streamers to ignore some local film and TV regulations.

“This isn’t about cancel culture—we’d welcome Disney Plus reinstating the film to their platform, just with this troubling scene removed—as is already the case in cinemas, on TV, and on DVD,” the RSPCA’s Head of Public Affairs said in a statement.

This was instead about highlighting a loophole that currently exists, allowing animal abuse scenes deemed unacceptable elsewhere to be streamed freely and legally into our homes—and protecting the public from having to see this animal abuse content.

For many years, the film was difficult to watch, as it wasn’t available on streaming platforms and physical copies were out of print. But last year, a 4K version of the movie was finally released. Like some of Cameron’s other 4K releases, it makes some visual changes that people aren’t happy with, but overall, it is a fine way to watch The Abyss. However, in the UK, you can no longer watch this version on Disney+ because of that single, short scene involving a rodent. Hopefully, Disney adds the movie back with that scene removed so folks in the UK can enjoy this underrated Cameron classic once more.

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