Dead Calm

Dead Calm (1989) is Phillip Noyce's seafaring thriller you can watch online on iFILM. Australian couple John and Rae sail alone into the Pacific to grieve the death of their young son. Around them, nothing but flat water to the horizon.

In the windless calm they spot a sinking schooner and its lone survivor: a charming, jittery man named Hughie, played by Billy Zane. He swears the rest of the crew died of food poisoning. Sam Neill's John rows over to inspect the abandoned ship and realizes Hughie is lying. Trapped aboard the foundering wreck, he watches the stranger steal the yacht with his wife still on it. Nicole Kidman plays Rae as someone whose desperation turns her from prey into a hunter. What follows is a cat-and-mouse duel across two boats in an empty sea.

Noyce wrings tension from confinement and total isolation, no land, no rescue, no exit. It was one of Kidman's first big roles, before Hollywood came calling. Ideal if you like a tight three-hander where the ocean does as much work as any chase. Stream Dead Calm (1989) online on iFILM.