Hollywood has made the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico into a classic American disaster film, with actor Mark Wahlberg as the hero battling “mean old dinosaurs” from the deep.
The trailer for the movie, aptly titled “Deepwater Horizon,” was released on Wednesday by Lionsgate films. The teaser shows Wahlberg’s character in the kitchen of his home with his daughter and wife, played by Kate Hudson, before heading off to an unexpected disastrous day at work.
Initial reviews of the two-minue trailer say it looks more like an ad for the oil company BP than a film about the evils of fossil fuel exploration and greed that is typically expected from Hollywood. But based on the teaser, it has the potential to go either way.
The Deepwater Horizon spill killed nearly a dozen workers due to a malfunction that led to a historically massive oil spill, the effects of which are still reverberating across the industry. Many of the Gulf states say they still have not recovered and blame BP for playing down the long-term environmental effects, while fishermen continue to complain of deformed fish and shrimp catches that smell of diesel fuel.
But before heading off to cause the spill of the century, Wahlberg’s character preps his daughter for a science fair project on offshore drilling.
Wahlberg tells his daughter, “We are the explorers.”
“Like Dora?,” she asks, referring to the exploring children’s cartoon character.
Wahlberg replies: “Like Dora.”
The trailer flashes between his daughter rehearsing her science fair project using a soda can and drillers on the Deepwater rig out at sea. She tells Wahlberg that the oil was created millions of years ago by “mean dinosaurs” that are trapped under pressure deep in the earth, like the soda in the can.
So, the film is educational? Not sure.
An environmental morality tale? Maybe.
“That oil is a monster,” the daughter says at the kitchen table. “Like the mean old dinosaurs all that oil used to be.” It flashes to Wahlberg on the rig in what appears to be the beginning sequence of events before the explosion.
“But for 300 million years these old dinosaurs have been getting squeezed tighter, and tighter, and tighter,” the little girl says, as it flashes to an aging Kurt Russell, who plays the head of operations on the rig, while actor John Malkovich watches a pressure gauge spiraling upward.
“Then dad and his friends make a hole in their roof,” the daughter says back in the kitchen, shoving a metal straw into the bottom of the soda can. “And these mean old dinosaurs can’t believe it. Freedom! So, they rush to the new hole. Then smack, they run into this stuff called mud that they cram down the straw to hold the monsters down.”
It flashes to rig workers seeing mud coming back up the drill line, which begins to flood the drill’s motor and controls. The suspense builds until it looks like it’s about to blow. Then a flashback to the kitchen: the daughter’s soda can starts spouting what looks like an endless stream of Coca-Cola.
On the rig a massive explosion is destroying the entire drilling complex, engulfing it in flames.
Back in the kitchen, Wahlberg looks surprised and happy, not knowing what’s in store for him at work. His daughter asks him to buy her a fossil so she can hold it up to her class, and say “my daddy tames the dinosaurs.”
The movie is scheduled for release Sept. 30. The six-year anniversary of the disaster is April 20.
