The Big Blue (released in some countries under the French title Le Grand Bleu) is a 1988 drama film directed by Luc Besson.

Inspired by the Cinéma du look movement, the film is a heavily fictionalized and dramatized story of the friendship and sporting rivalry between two leading contemporary champion free divers in the 20th century: Jacques Mayol (played by Jean-Marc Barr) and Enzo Maiorca (renamed "Enzo Molinari" and played by Jean Reno), and Mayol's fictionalized relationship with his girlfriend Johana Baker (played by Rosanna Arquette).

French President Jacques Chirac referred to the film in describing Mayol, after his death in 2001, as an enduring symbol for the "Big Blue" generation.

His breathing apparatus and rope gets caught and punctured by rocks, and weighed down by water, he drowns in front of Jacques and Enzo.

After hearing that Jacques will be at the World Diving Championships in Taormina, Sicily, she fabricates an insurance problem that requires her presence there, in order to meet him again.

The depths at which the divers compete enter new territory, and the dive doctor suggests they should stop, to no avail.

Jacques—himself suffering from cardiac arrest after the dive—is rescued by supervising scuba divers and requires his heart to be restarted with a defibrillator before being placed in medical quarters to recover.

Jacques appears to be recovering from the diving accident but later experiences a hallucinatory dream in which the ceiling collapses and the room fills with water, and he finds himself in the ocean depths with dolphins.

Jacques then places the release cord for the dive ballast in her hand, and—still sobbing—she pulls it, sending him down to the depths.

In the American adaptation, the ending is extended with an additional scene, where it is shown that after swimming away with the dolphin, Jacques is returned to the surface.

Mayol was indeed involved in scientific research into human aquatic potential, and was fascinated by dolphins, and was recorded as having a heartbeat that slowed from 60 to 27 beats per minute when diving.

Maiorca (renamed as "Enzo Molinari" in the film) also set numerous depth records from 1960 to 1988, despite involuntarily retiring from the sport for over a decade between 1974 and 1986 after an outburst on TV cost him a competition ban.

The American version was recut to include a simplified "happy" ending, and Serra's score was replaced with a soundtrack composed by Bill Conti.

Much of the film was shot on the Greek island of Amorgos, where Agia Anna and the monastery of Panagia Hozoviotissa can be seen.

The website's critics consensus reads, "Though this movie features beautiful cinematography, it drags on, being way too overblown and melodramatic.

In 1993, the Israeli singer Sharon Lifshitz released the song "Ha'ish Me'hayam" (האיש מהים - The Man From The Sea) which was written by Tzruya Lahav and was based on the film.

In the 2009 Japanese anime series Eden of the East, Akira plays the film in his villa's cinema for Saki, who was a big fan.