20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1997 Village Roadshow film)

Differences from the novel

The Nautilus has been sinking and damaging ships and is at first thought to be a giant narwhal.

The Nautilus gets its power by extracting the sun's heat from the sea water: this is impossible technology, and the movie wrongly calls it hydroelectricity.

Pierre Aronnax and Ned Land and Cabe Attucks fall off the USS Abraham Lincoln and are picked up by the Nautilus.

Pierre Aronnax's father Thierry Aronnax is with the US naval party.

Nemo is setting up an underwater domed city under the Atlantic south of West Africa. To avoid earthquake risks to it, he is first setting up a network of underwater explosives to release all Earth's geotectonic tensions at once and thus ensure that no more build up for a long while. During this a Chinese-looking pearl diving girl accidentally activates one of these devices and the Nautilus rescues her in time.

Nemo has a daughter called Mara.

The US Navy finds where Nemo's base is by a concentrated area of sightings of the Nautilus. The USS Abraham Lincoln sails to the place.

At the site, damage caused by Ned Land, and torpedoes fired downwards by the Abraham Lincoln, force the Nautilus to surface. The Nautilus's crew come out on deck and are summarily machine-gunned by the Abraham Lincoln's deck-mounted Gatling guns. Mara and some others escape in one of the Nautilus's diving bells. Pierre Aronnax and Ned Land and Cabe Attucks get on board the Abraham Lincoln. A US naval man boards the Nautilus and shoots Nemo and another survivor on sight. Nemo, before dying, activates a switch which makes the Nautilus explode.

Pierre Aronnax's account of these events finds its way to Jules Verne, who uses it as a basis for his novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.

Cast

Reception

 DVD Verdict described the miniseries as feeling "incomplete" but highlighted Michael Caine's portrayal of Captain Nemo as a strong point. Meanwhile, David Cornelius of DVD Talk critiqued the adaptation as "dreadfully dull," expressing disapproval towards the contributions of director Hardy and screenwriter Nelson.