The Abyss

[Grant Lamontagne]

I don't know how many folks remember this movie, but it was one that I enjoyed at the time.  Basically it's about a bunch of undersea miners that get trapped on the bottom of the ocean, somewhat deeper than their submersible is supposed to be, and their support vessel gets sunk in rough seas.

It was a decent enough movie, although I thought the ending was a little silly, but the part that I will always remember is that the hero and the leading lady are in a small bathysphere which suddenly springs a leak.  The cabin starts to fill up with frigid ocean water despite the leak being quite small.  Of course this gives them an excuse to relate their feelings for eachother yadda yadda yadda.  Of course they can't plug the leak because it's in behind an electrical or equipment panel of some kind.  At one point, the hero says something about how they are going to die simply because they don't have a crescent wrench.

This makes me think of two things- first off, wouldn't they have some kind of small, basic toolkit inside pretty much every piece of equipment?  And two, if there wasn't such a small toolkit, wouldn't that have been a good time to have some kind of multitool?  Of course they survived, but I have to wonder, if it had been me in that situation, how long would I have been back on dry land before I went to the nearest sporting goods or hardware store and bought myself the best multi they had? 

I know it's a movie, but something simple like having a multi to me is like having a fire extinguisher in the kitchen, seatbelts in the car, or a helmet on when you are biking.  Sure, you may not use it, and the times that you do need it may not be life threatening, but if for any reason it ever is, wouldn't it be a darn good thing to have?  I'm an honorary submariner- I went on a military submarine once and submerged for a few hours, got a fancy card somewhere and everything, but I can guarantee you that if I didn't have a multi with me, I had at least a SAK.  I think if I was going for anything more than a 3 hour tour (anyone whistling the Gilligan's Island theme now gets bonus points!) I would have at least a couple of heavy duty tools with me, just in case.

Especially if I was heading out from the main unit in a small bathysphere that didn't have it's own on board toolbox.

I'll be damned if I am going to die because I don;t have a crescent wrench!

Def

[hawkchucker]

Def. The subs. do have a tool kit on them. When I worked at Woods hole they had  them on all Manned Subs.

Funny thing is I bet Craftsman was the most popular tool out there. The reason that that is funny is most of the kits on shore were absolute junk. Scientists are really not tool guys. But on the water, well they allways had the good stuff.

[Anthony]

Were they in that sub BEFORE that guy from Aliens went crazy?  When he went nutso he could have removed the tool kit from the sub...

...it's possible

[Grant Lamontagne]

Personally I think if you would be silly enough to go in something like a submarine without any kind of tools available, then that boils down to Natural Selection in event of an emergency!

Def