Worst oil spill in U.S history illustrated in the movie, Deepwater Horizon

Post date: Oct 5, 2016 6:05:42 PM

By: Robby Timmler, Staff Writer

Posted October 5th, 2016

Deepwater Horizon is the story of the offshore drilling rig--Deepwater Horizon--in its final stages of stages of drilling with its crew. The crew is led by Jimmy Harrell--the offshore installation manager, (played by Kurt Russell), and Mike Williams--a chief technology officer that keeps all the electronics on the rig working (played by Mark Wahlberg), and BP Representative Don Vidrine (played by John Malkovich). Vidrine has not been keeping up with repairs on the rig in an attempt to save a couple bucks. Because of Vidrine’s cheapness, Harrell wants to then do a negative-positive test that tests the pressure in the pipes of the rig. Suddenly a burst of seawater explodes through the drill pipe and is followed by a mixer of drilling mud, methane gas, and water. This mixture ignites into a series of explosions and then a firestorm. Later, the power on the rig goes out causing the propellers of the rig stop working and so the crew of the Deepwater Horizon has to get off in the lifeboats before the rig sinks.

Deepwater Horizon is a very intense and emotional film that puts the audience in the boots of the crew mates and the struggles they went through to survive. The only flaw about the movie is how it makes BP look very vain and greedy--in that they’re in it for the overall profit and not for the safety of its employees or the environment. Deepwater Horizon gets a 4.5 out of 5 stars.