The Cave (2005 film)

In the 13th-century Carpathian Mountains of Romania, an Eastern Orthodox abbey and its inhabitants are destroyed by a landslide.

Centuries later a group of Soviet and British plunderers are driving in search for the long-lost abbey/church during the Cold War era. They discover the abbey/church is built above a vast cave system, but it is completely blocked off by an intricate floor mosaic. One of the men tries to get the leader of the group to read the designs and images on the mosaic floor. However, the leader brushes him off. The leader looks ahead and sees a spot he thinks they can get through. Wanting to get through to the tunnel, they set up some dynamite. They are successful but not for long, as The mosaic floor splits beneath them and they all fall through to the bottom of a vast cave. The group of men then hear rocks falling and, as they look up, a massive rockslide covers the church and the opening above them. They are now trapped and realize the only way out is to move forward. They descend further into the cave in hopes of finding a way out. They hear strange rattle/clicking sounds in the darkness. Scene goes black.

Some time later in 2005 a new team, led by Dr. Nicolai, with his associate Dr. Kathryn Jennings and cameraman Alex Kim explore the church that is slowly being cleaned up. Many crew members are removing the rocks that had covered it decades ago. They find the opening to the church and see the mythology behind the winged demons depicted in the mosaic on the church floor. After doing some research, Dr. Nicolai discovers a river that stretches 91 miles inside the cave. Local biologists believe the cave could contain an undiscovered ecosystem, so Dr. Nicolai hires a group of American spelunkers (divers) led by brothers Jack and Tyler McAllister – thrill-seeking professional cave explorers who run a world-famous team of divers. They arrive in Romania with a modified rebreather allowing a diver to remain submerged for up to 24 hours. The diving team includes rock-climbing professional Charlie, first scout Briggs, sonar expert Strode, and survival expert Top Buchanan.

The group gathers and enters the church. One by one, they slowly descend on cables to the base camp they have set up below. Briggs is chosen to go into the river first to scout ahead. Briggs makes it just over 2 miles through the river and checks in with his team. He sees something in the distance but, before he can tell his team what it is, the server crashes and they lose contact. Jack and the rest of the group press on, given the likelihood that the problem is simply an equipment malfunction. The group finds Briggs safe downriver. Still in the river, Strode is suddenly attacked and dragged away by a large, strange creature. He screams for help and Tyler, also still in the river, hears his cries over the radio. As Strode fights for his life, he grabs onto his water scooter and turns it on full speed. The large creature latches onto Strode and pulls him back into a dark crevice. The water scooter speeds off on its own and crashes into the cave wall. The resulting explosion causes a cave-in.

They go looking for Strode's body but Jack calls them back. Jack realizes the cave-in has now forced them to follow the river and search for a new way out. Dr. Nicolai refuses, stating they should wait to be rescued. But Jack reminds Nicolai and his team that they are 3 miles deep from the surface entrance. Also, their crew is not scheduled to retrieve them until 12 days from now. Jack convinces them the only way out is to find one. Jack and Top decide to go in the river together to follow the line left by Strode. As Jack approaches a crack in the cave, he sees a bunch of scorpions and tells Top to back up. As Top backs up he hears Jack scream and sees Jack pulled forward by a large creature. Jack is able to fight the creature off but is injured. When Jack and Top make it back to the team, Jack has 3 cut marks on his back. Jack then throws down a huge claw he had severed from the creature. Katheryn looks at the cells from the claw under a microscope and notices a mutation within them. She realizes the mutations indicate the presence of a parasite. Nicolai discovers the same parasite in all of the lifeforms they find. The known cave species all originated above ground, she explains, but have adapted over generations to life underground. Kathryn theorizes this new parasite originated in the cave environment and has never been exposed to the outside world.

The team stumble across the equipment and remains of previous explorers. They also find a femur bone with large teeth marks against the bone. The team is unaware they are being stalked by the creatures. Jack tells the team they need to descend through a series of rapids, but Nicolai refuses to proceed. One by one, each team member is slammed and whisked through the rapids. Tyler sees Nicolai hanging on to the side of the cave, his leg badly injured. Tyler is sucked down into the current, comes out at the edge of a waterfall, arriving at a large new area of the cave. One by one, everyone starts to surface. They drift about 100 feet when they hear Nicolai screaming for help as he descends the waterfall. Jack volunteers to retrieve him and swims over to him to help. As Jack approaches, Nicolai is dragged underwater by the creature. Jack lights a flare and swims deep below the surface, where he can clearly see the creature pulling Nicolai. Jack resurfaces for air and desperately looks around for Nicolai. He hears Nicolai calling for help as he is repeatedly being slammed into a crevice by the creature's claws. Nicolai's air breather breaks free and the creature successfully drags Nicolai to his death before Jack can help. But, just before Nicolai was pulled away, Jack clearly sees tattooed letters on the creatures hands, proving these creatures were once humans.

Jack regroups with the team and they sit on shore. Jack's senses and physical features begin to transform after being scratched earlier. His hearing has improved significantly and his other senses are heightened. When Jack tells them they must go back up the cave wall to escape, Charlie does not wait and scales the wall but is soon attacked by a creature hidden in the passage above. She nearly drops to her death, but recovers, before the human-sized winged creature kills her on the cliff face in full view of the team. As Jack exhibits super-keen senses and inhumanly slanted pupils, Kathryn brings it up to the group that what is happening to Jack has happened before. She speculates that Jack, the previous explorers, and all the ecosystem's creatures mutated due to the parasite; the infected humans now resemble winged demons. Witnessing Jack's transformation, some of the survivors question his judgement and the team splits up. Alex, Briggs, and Jennings go their own way, while Top and Tyler stay with Jack.

Jack, Top, and Tyler discover a cavern littered with human skeletons and realize this is the ancient battleground depicted in the churches artwork; the abbey's /church residents battled these creatures centuries ago and sealed the cave to prevent the creatures from escaping. Jack notices there is light and cold water coming through the center of the river, which confirms this is the passageway out of the cave. Jack lets Tyler go back to find the others, but in doing so he witnesses Briggs's death, being impaled on several spikes on the cave wall. As Briggs dies he tells Tyler he is sorry. Tyler saves Kathryn and brings her to the passageway. On their way back, they run into Alex and they all run to rejoin Jack and Top. However, the creatures have entered the cavern and stolen the rebreathers necessary to navigate the passage. Top, Kathryn, Tyler, and Alex all run into the river toward the passageway, but Alex is killed before he can get in the water, a creature grabbing him from above. Jack causes a distraction, allowing the others to go into the passageway. They escape while Jack sacrifices himself by battling the creatures. The three resurface in a huge canyon and are finally safe.

The survivors return to civilization, and Top departs. Tyler sits down with Kathryn and asks her if Jack could have survived in out here in the open. She leans forward, giving Tyler a kiss on the cheek. As she pulls back, Kathryn, lowering her sunglasses, answers. She had originally thought the parasite could only survive underground, but now she is uncertain; she suspects the parasite wants to get out. With her sunglasses lowered, it is clear that Kathryn's eyes have mutated just like Jack's. Katheryn then quickly walks away, as Tyler realizes she knows she is infected with the parasite, and that she intends to remain free, able to infect others. He runs after her, but she disappears in the crowd.

• Cole Hauser as Jack McAllister, one of two thrill-seeking professional cave explorers, along with his brother Tyler
• Eddie Cibrian as Tyler McAllister, Jack's fellow thrill-seeking professional cave explorer and brother
• Morris Chestnut as Top Buchanan, a survival expert
• Lena Headey as Kathryn Jennings, a scientist
• Piper Perabo as Charlie, a rock-climbing professional
• Rick Ravanello as Briggs, a member of the dive team
• Daniel Dae Kim as Alex Kim, a cameraman
• Kieran Darcy-Smith as Strode, a sonar expert
• Marcel Iureș as Dr. Nicolai, a scientist and leader of the expedition
• Vlad Rădescu as Dr. Bacovia

Brian Steele portrays the creatures in the cave.

The Cave received mostly negative reviews. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported that 12% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 111 reviews, with an average rating of 3.5/10. The critics consensus reads, "Despite its stylized and impressive sets, this horror-monster movie mish-mash suffers from endless cliches and wildly implausible plotlines."[3] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 30 out of 100 based on 24 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[4] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade "C-" on an A+ to F scale.[5]

The main complaint was the lack of character building and overly familiar cliches, with Neil Smith of BBC Online calling it "a generic duffer that is as exciting as a hole in the ground".[6] Robert Koehler made the same observation in Variety, writing, "The Cave feels familiar as it goes through the rote edicts of the scientific crew vs. beastie formula".[7] In her review for the New York Times, Laura Kern praised the films sets and visual style, but denounced the script, writing "Having worked as second- and third-unit director on the Matrix trilogy and Dark City, Bruce Hunt is no stranger to inspired and stylish productions. But whereas those films managed to inject new life into tired territory, The Cave, his first effort as director, fails to generate anything resembling innovation.[8] Judy Chia Hui Hsu wrote in The Seattle Times, "the serenity of the largely aquatic underground world framed by majestic stalagmites and serpentine corridors succeeds in capturing the moviegoer’s attention," but added, "The insipid dialog lacks even a hint of comic relief, so the audience is grateful when the action quickly kicks into gear," and "one of the film’s biggest letdowns is that the vicious beast, seen in the full light of the final scenes, is not such a surprise after all. The creature is simply an amalgamation of monsters we’ve seen before".[9]

In the US, the film opened ranked #5 grossing $6,147,294 at 2,195 sites, averaging $2,800.[10] It went on to have a final US gross of $15,007,991.[2] In Australia, it opened at 89 sites, averaging A$3,204 grossing A$285,121.[11] It had a second-weekend decrease by 74%, and had a finishing gross of A$570,131.[12] Worldwide, the film has grossed $33,296,457.[2]

Two soundtrack CDs were released on August 26, 2005 by Lakeshore Records, one with the score by the film's composers Reinhold Heil and Johnny Klimek and the other one which features tracks by heavy metal bands including Atreyu, Lacuna Coil, Diecast, Burning Brides, Ill Niño, Killswitch Engage, Shadows Fall, It Dies Today, Trivium and more. Also, the single Nemo by Nightwish is featured during the end credits of the film.

• The Descent, a 2005 British film with the same premise
• The Cavern, a third similar film released in 2005

• Official website
• The Cave at IMDb
• The Cave at AllMovie
• The Cave at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Cave at Metacritic
• The Cave at Box Office Mojo