Dead Calm is a 1989 Australian psychological thriller film directed by Phillip Noyce, produced by George Miller, and starring Sam Neill, Nicole Kidman and Billy Zane.

Filmed around the Great Barrier Reef, the plot focuses on a married couple, who, after tragically losing their son, are spending some time isolated at sea, when they come across a stranger who has abandoned a sinking ship.

Dead Calm was generally well received, with critics praising Neill, Kidman, and Zane's performances and the oceanic cinematography.

Her older husband, Royal Australian Navy officer Captain John Ingram, suggests that they help deal with their grief by heading out for a vacation alone on their yacht.

Inside, John discovers the mangled corpses of the other passengers and video footage indicating that Hughie may have murdered them in a feat of extraordinary violence.

Hughie takes hold of the shotgun, but the effects of the sedative cause him to aim poorly and shoot the radio by mistake.

Hughie recovers consciousness and cuts himself free with a shard of broken mirror, but after making his way to Rae, she shoots him in the shoulder with a harpoon and knocks him unconscious.

The next day they are relaxing on deck when John takes a break from washing Rae's hair to prepare breakfast for her.

The prospective film starred Laurence Harvey as Hughie, Michael Bryant as Ingram, Oja Kodar as Rae, and Welles himself played Russ Bellowes.

Jeanne Moreau played Hughie's wife Ruth, a character present in the original novel but cut out of Noyce's film.

Principal photography remained incomplete, and Laurence Harvey's death in 1973 effectively ended any hope of completing the film.

George Miller directed some sequences himself, including one where Sam Neill's character is tormented in the boat by a shark.

The sequence in which John kills Hughie with a flare was filmed at the request of Warner Bros seven months after principal photography finished.

[11] The synthesizer-driven film score was composed and performed by New Zealand musician Graeme Revell, of the industrial group SPK.

The site's consensus states that "Nicole Kidman's coiled intensity and muscular direction by Phillip Noyce give this nautical thriller a disquieting sense of dread".

[12] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 70 out of 100, based on 16 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

[14] According to David Stratton of Variety, "throughout the film, Nicole Kidman is excellent" and "she gives the character of Rae real tenacity and energy" and "though not always entirely credible" the picture "is a nail-biting suspense pic, handsomely produced and inventively directed.

"[16] Desson Howe of The Washington Post praised the film's creators: "Noyce's direction moves impressively from sensual tenderness (between husband and wife) to edge-of-the-seat horror.

With accomplished editing by Richard Francis-Bruce and scoring by Graeme Revell, he finds lurking dangers in quiet, peaceful waters.

"[18] A number of critics faulted the film's ending as being over-the-top, with the Post's Howe writing, "... while it's afloat, 'Dead Calm' is a majestic horror cruise.

And while Rita Kempley of The Washington Post wrote "what's most fascinating about it is Rae's place in the pantheon of heroines, an Amazon for the '90s,"[19] the Times' James called Kidman's character "tough but stupid.