Top 10 Scuba Diving Movies Ever Made

If the water's still too cold for you to jump in, then warm up with a great movie with scuba diving as part of the action. Here are the top 10 scuba diving movies chosen by the editors of Sport Diver magazine.

10. SPHERE (1998): Not since he donned skindiving gear in 1967's The Graduate has Dustin Hoffman been so intriguing underwater. In Barry Levinson's The Sphere, Dustin plays alongside Sharon Stone, Samuel L. Jackson and Liev Schreiber as civilian experts recruited to investigate an alleged alien ship found deep on the ocean floor. 

 9. THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU (2004): This might not be everyone's favorite Bill Murray film (Stripes! Ghostbusters!), but fans of director Wes Anderson's work still adore this dark tale based on the fictional oceanographer Steve Zissou. Plus, the film was dedicated to Jacques-Yves Cousteau.

8. INTO THE BLUE (2005): Yes, Into the Blue was a box-office bomb, failing to regain even half of its $50 million budget. But diving fans still probably remember this movie for one detail: Jessica Alba in a bikini. 

7. THE FROGMEN (1951): Not science-fiction monsters, the Frogmen was the nickname given to the U.S. Navy Underwater Demolition Teams during World War II. During the way, Frogmen would remove underwater hazards and scout landings in advance of invading Marines. 

6. THUNDERBALL (1965)/FOR YOUR EYES ONLY (1981): Just about every good James Bond movie has a diving scene in it. But Thunderball and For Your Eyes Only rise to the top, so we let them tie for sixth place.

5. MEN OF HONOR (2000): Oscar winner Cuba Gooding Jr. plays Carl Brashear, the U.S. Navy's first African-American Master Diver (and -- spoiler alert -- first amputee diver). Equally discouraged and driven by his instructor (Robert De Niro), Brashear overcomes the racism of the 1940s and his incomplete education to achieve his goal of becoming an operational diver in the Navy

4. THE DEEP (1977): Based on a novel by Peter Benchley, whose other masterpiece won't be making our list, The Deep follows a vacationing couple (Nick Nolte and Jacqueline Bisset) who stumble upon some mysterious artifacts while wreck diving off Bermuda. (Who knew the submerged vials of morphine from a WWII shipwreck would attract the attention of drug runners? Go figure.)

3. THE ABYSS (1989): Before James Cameron made a fortune with Titanic, he gave us all a vision of deep, DEEP sea diving (and aliens!) with 1989's The Abyss. Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio star in this film about a civilian diving team that is recruited by the military to find a lost nuclear submarine. 

2. THE BIG BLUE (1988): Jean Reno and Jean-Marc Barr play lifelong friends who grow up to be free-diving rivals in the Mediterranean sea. Released as "Le Grand Bleu" in Europe, the movie was a big hit overseas and maintains a cult status among the diving community. (It played for more than a year in theaters in France.) After a heavy mangling during the editing of the American version, U.S. critics weren't as impressed. 

1. 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA (1954): It's been remade a few times, but the original 1954 film by Walt Disney Productions is still awe-inspiring decades later. Maybe it's the droll delivery of James Mason as Capt. Nemo. Or menacing scenes of the green-eyed Nautilus stalking another ship along the Pacific shipping lanes.