The Neptune Factor

G

1973

1 hr. 38 min.

Sci-Fi

List

Reviews

15%

50+ Ratings

Audience Score

When an earthquake on the ocean floor causes an underwater laboratory to fall into a deep trench and places the scientists' lives in peril, Cmdr. Adrian Blake (Ben Gazzara) embarks on a rescue mission in his small experimental submarine. Along with a crew that includes Dr. Leah Jansen (Yvette Mimieux) and diver Don MacKay (Ernest Borgnine), Blake attempts to save the scientists from the unexplored depths, while encountering gigantic sea creatures that threaten their survival.

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robert p

What a awesomely bad this movie was. Showing regular sized fish as enlarged creatures was just bad even for a 1970's movie.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

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Audience Member

This movie plays like someone dropped a toy submarine in a tank at the local aquarium and got an idea. Hilarious if you like bad science.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

02/13/23

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Audience Member

Silly and simple but a lot of fun.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/20/23

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Audience Member

One of the most boring movies ever made. Characters either look out at the sea, drink coffee, or speak about how they have to turn back or life support will run out. They do all of this incredibly slowly. There aren't any characters, just solemn human beings bored to tears by the "life altering" mission they are sent on. By the time they fight giant fish (and no, using lots of close ups does not make catfish look frightening) the movie goes from boring to incredibly boring. They just keep seeing new types of giant fish and stare out the window hoping they don't hit them. The special effects look like they were shot in someone's home aquarium. Nobody looks happy to be in this movie, and for good reason. It's terrible.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

01/24/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Easy to make fun of, but not as campy or flamboyant as you'd expect-- at least not until the final half hour, when the troop of impossibly good-looking scientists (including as always, Yvette Mimeux, some guy who looks like a Mediterranean version of Richard Gere, and the great Ben Gazzara, slumming it) in peril half a mile below the sea with gigantic electric eels and goldfish trying to kill them! Nicely groovy yet understated wardrobe selections in sunburst yellow, electric blue, Mike-Brady orange... but no patterns!

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

01/14/23

Full Review

Audience Member

This was an attempt at something like The Abyss only 15 years earlier. It wasn't half bad for the first 3/5ths of the movie, as an undersea rescue movie, but once they venture into the realm of sci-fi it gets bad. The "giant" creatures are nothing but regular fish filmed at extreme close up. And they're not threatening or weird looking fish, they're average aquarium fish, and most of the time look like they were shot while still inside the aquarium! Add to that the fact that aside from the obviously toy sub floating past goldfish and lionfish, there is exactly one shot of anything to show a size perspective between the giant fish and the sub crew. I would have welcomed fake rubber puppet fish! This isn't the Abyss. It's not even Sea Hunt. They should have stuck with real world underwater exploration story and left the sci-fi to a film with an effects budget...or at least a director who can work with little.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

02/01/23

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Daniel Petrie

Director

Ben Gazzara

Cmdr. Adrian Blake

Yvette Mimieux

Dr. Leah Jansen

Walter Pidgeon

Dr. Samuel Andrews

Ernest Borgnine

Chief Diver Don MacKay

Chris Wiggins

Capt. Williams

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Dennis Schwartz

Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews

A predictable sci-fi adventure tale with little action.

Rated: C+

Jan 19, 2019

Full Review

Chuck O'Leary

FulvueDrive-in.com

A dull, lifeless deep-sea rescue adventure. Gray Lady Down tells the same type of story with a lot more conviction and suspense.

Rated: 2/10

Jun 21, 2007

Full Review

Brian Webster

Apollo Guide

More of a relic than a film that has stood the test of time, The Neptune Factor is mainly for those who like to see how filmmaking has evolved over the decades.

Rated: 71/100

Jun 4, 2007

Full Review

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Synopsis

When an earthquake on the ocean floor causes an underwater laboratory to fall into a deep trench and places the scientists' lives in peril, Cmdr. Adrian Blake (Ben Gazzara) embarks on a rescue mission in his small experimental submarine. Along with a crew that includes Dr. Leah Jansen (Yvette Mimieux) and diver Don MacKay (Ernest Borgnine), Blake attempts to save the scientists from the unexplored depths, while encountering gigantic sea creatures that threaten their survival.

Director: Daniel Petrie
Rating: G
Genre: Sci-Fi
Original Language: English
Release Date (DVD): Jun 5, 2007