Deep Water

On day 31, Julie starts coughing as well, and immediately realizes the cause: mold. They have been breathing in bacteria for weeks unknowingly, and they both decide they will have to sleep and live outside. They move two mattresses to an alcove outside the storage room and do their best to keep things dry when rains fall. Julie stops marking the calendar, and both wonder how long they will be able to bear their survival situation.

An intense storm, including a waterspout, passes directly over the rig. Julie and Shane take shelter inside the storage room, but when they emerge after the storm passes, they find the deck completely empty. Their mattresses, fishing equipment, water pots, and dried fish were swept away.

Since the deck is wet, Shane and Julie sleep in the storage room for the night, and Julie resigns herself to death now that they have lost the items they needed to survive. In the morning, they both feel weak and unmotivated. They check the lifeboats again and find some barebones fishing kits, but Julie is doubtful they will be useful.

Julie remembers a video from elementary school that showed her how focusing on the details can make a person miss what is right in front of them. When Shane and Julie start talking about the possibility of starting a fire, the red light on the derrick comes up in conversation. Shane suddenly has an idea: he learned from his dad that hazard beacons, like the derrick light, are monitored. If the light goes out, someone will have to come to replace it. Julie is doubtful that such a thing is true, and even if it is, how will they damage the light enough to shut it off? Shane, however, is confident. He decides they must use the light that is left in the lantern to make it through the generator room to the derrick. Julie wants to wait to do it tomorrow, but Shane insists that now is the time.

Julie brings all the remaining matches, along with the lantern, and they make their way through the generator room. The derrick looms 100 feet overhead, and Shane grabs a crescent wrench and starts his ascent. Julie tells him to be careful, and strains to see him climb the derrick in the darkness and falling rain. She hears Shane hit the light with the wrench, and after a few tries, sees the light go out. She waits, and eventually sees Shane descending; at 20 feet up, however, he falls and slams onto the deck. Julie rushes to his side. Shane’s eyes are open, and his face is bleeding. After a moment, he speaks, but he cannot move. Julie moves him into the generator room and cradles his head on her lap.

At dawn, Shane is still breathing, and although he is disoriented at first, he is able to talk. He tells Julie she must go wait on the helipad for help to arrive, and although she knows he is right, she feels terrible leaving him alone. Julie must use all but two of the matches to find her way through the generator room and up to the helipad. She sits in a ball on the SOS sign and feels hopeless. She does not think anyone will come, and is horrified of the prospect of Shane dying, leaving her alone on the rig.

After noon, a helicopter appears and lands next to Julie. A man named Jim emerges from the helicopter and is confused to see her. He asks her questions, and she tells him she is not alone—her friend is downstairs. The pilot and three other men from the helicopter join them, and Julie explains her story. They get in touch with the Coast Guard and confirm that the search for Shane and Julie ended three weeks ago. The Coast Guard is sending a chopper and telling her parents she is alive. As some of the men go to find Shane, Julie asks to stay on the rig until they get him.

Julie wakes up and finds herself on a helicopter headed to the Gulf Shores airport, where Jim says her parents are waiting on the tarmac. Shane is in a separate chopper that is headed to an ambulance; he is bleeding internally. When Julie sees her parents, they are standing together holding hands. They all embrace, and Julie is examined by paramedics. They send her to the hospital, and on the way, Julie learns what happened to the boat the day of the dive. Her dad got sick on the boat and went into a coma. The anchor pulled and reset itself about 50 yards away. A fisherman saw the cabin door swinging open and stopped to help. As she listens to the story, Julie notices her parents’ tenderness toward each other.

At the hospital, Julie’s hands are treated, and she is given medicine for mold exposure and malnutrition. When she falls asleep, she has nightmares again, but wakes to find both her parents with her. The next day, she is released from the hospital. She asks about Shane, but the doctors are uncertain he will survive. At home, she welcomes the comforting background noise of the air conditioner, and she has a heartfelt talk with her mom about her parent’s relationship. Julie’s mom admits that the tanks did not come between them; she was jealous of his dreams. She tells Julie that she and Gibson are going to try and repair their relationship.

Julie longs to know how Shane is doing, but when she calls the hospital, they cannot tell her anything. Three days after their rescue, Mrs. Jordan calls for Julie and explains that Shane is recovering and going to be ok. Julie goes to visit Shane, and he tells Mr. Sims that he would have died if not for Julie. Shane and Julie get a chance to talk alone, and they promise to stay in touch and see each other when Shane comes home on school breaks. Julie also shares that her parents are back together. After all they have been through, Shane and Julie part as friends.

On the drive home, Julie’s dad pulls up to the dive shop and shares that he is thinking about closing the shop. He says he has Julie and her mother back, and that is all that matters to him now. Julie motivates him to get out and start the Barbie Doll to make sure it is working ok. Mr. Sims shares that diving is not as important to him as it once was, and that if Julie never wants to go out on the water again, he understands. Julie, however, reassures him that she does not want to stop diving. She is not ready to give up something she loves despite the ordeal she endured. Hugging her dad on the dock, she realizes that her parents were the reason she was able to fight for her life.