Finnegan (Treat Williams) is a mercenary with a boat whose catch phrase is "If the cash is there, we don't care." He and his crew get hired to take Hanover (Wes Studi) and his gang of international commandos to somewhere in the South China Sea. The target is a luxury liner. Upon arrival they discover the ship is dead in the water, literally and figuratively. While searching the ship in an attempt to discover what occured they run into Trillian (Famke Janssen) a jewel thief. Eventually they run into a giant squid type thing with snake-like tentacles. This sea beast is responsible to the disappearance of the passengers and is now coming after the new arrivals.
Man this is one dreadful movie. There is absolutely no point to Deep Rising. The sea monster looks awful and is not very frightening. The action sequences were poorly done, primarily consisting of a flury of bullets followed by the line "What the hell was that?" The only comedic moments came from Joey (Kevin J. O'Connor), Finnegan's mechanic. He was also the only believable character, Joey actually showed some fear. Most of the others on the ship acted like combating sea demons was an everyday occurrence. There is no end to how bad this movie is. Avoid Deep Rising at all costs.