The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

Plot

While oceanographer Steve Zissou is working on his latest documentary at sea, his best friend and chief diver, Esteban du Plantier, is devoured by a 10-meter-long, spotted creature Zissou describes as a "jaguar shark". For his next project, Zissou is determined to document the shark's destruction.

The crew aboard Zissou's aging research vessel Belafonte includes his estranged wife Eleanor, chief strategist and financial backer; Pelé dos Santos, a safety expert and Brazilian guitarist who sings David Bowie songs in Portuguese; and Klaus Daimler, the German first mate who views Zissou and Esteban as father figures. Other crew members include Vikram Ray, cameraman; Bobby Ogata, frogman; Vladimir Wolodarsky, physicist and soundtrack composer; Renzo Pietro, sound man; and Anne-Marie Sakowitz, a script girl. Also included is a recent group of unpaid interns from the University of North Alaska. However, the "Team Zissou" venture has hit a decline, having not released a successful documentary in nine years.

Ned Plimpton, a longtime Zissou fan whose mother has recently died, believes that Zissou is his father. After they meet at Zissou's latest premiere, Ned takes annual leave from his job as an airline pilot in Kentucky to join his crew. As Oseary Drakoulias, Zissou's producer, cannot find a financier for their latest documentary, Ned offers his inheritance. Eleanor feels her husband is manipulating Ned and leaves.

Pregnant reporter Jane Winslett-Richardson comes to chronicle the voyage. Both Ned and Zissou are attracted to Jane and a love triangle develops between them. Klaus becomes jealous of the attention Zissou pays to Ned.

On their mission to find the jaguar shark, the Belafonte steals tracking equipment from a remote station owned by more successful oceanographer (also Eleanor's ex-husband and Zissou's nemesis) Alistair Hennessey. They then sail into unprotected waters and are attacked by Filipino pirates, who steal Ned's money and kidnap Bill Ubell, "a bond company stooge" assigned to the project. They are then rescued by Hennessey and towed to Port-au-Patois. Sakowitz, along with all but one of the interns, jumps ship once they reach port.

Zissou persuades Eleanor to rejoin the Belafonte and then leads the crew on a rescue mission. They track Bill to an abandoned hotel on a remote island, saving him along with Hennessey, whom the pirates have also kidnapped. Ned and Zissou make one last search for the shark in the ship's helicopter, but the aircraft malfunctions and they crash. Ned dies from his injuries and is buried at sea. Prior to Ned's death, Eleanor revealed to Jane that Zissou is sterile and therefore Ned could not have been his son.

Zissou finally tracks down the shark in a submersible but decides not to kill it, both because of its beauty and being out of dynamite. He ponders, "I wonder if it remembers me," and is overcome with emotion. Eleanor silently comforts him, as does Jane and the rest of the crew. At the premiere of the finished documentary (which is dedicated to Ned, who is acknowledged as Zissou's son), Zissou receives a standing ovation while waiting outside the theater for the premiere to finish. The crew returns triumphantly to the ship.

Cast

• Bill Murray as Steve Zissou
• Owen Wilson as Edward 'Ned' Plimpton / Kingsley Zissou
• Cate Blanchett as Jane Winslett-Richardson
• Anjelica Huston as Eleanor Zissou
• Willem Dafoe as Klaus Daimler
• Jeff Goldblum as Alistair Hennessey
• Michael Gambon as Oseary Drakoulias
• Noah Taylor as Vladimir Wolodarsky
• Bud Cort as Bill Ubell, Bond Company Stooge
• Seu Jorge as Pelé dos Santos
• Robyn Cohen as Anne-Marie Sakowitz
• Waris Ahluwalia as Vikram Ray
• Niels Koizumi as Bobby Ogata
• Pawel Wdowczak as Renzo Pietro
• Matthew Gray Gubler as Niko The Intern (credited as Intern #1)
• Seymour Cassel as Esteban du Plantier
• Antonio Monda as Himself
• Isabella Blow as Antonia Cook

Production

Literary inspiration

Though the characters were inspired by such American novels as The Great Gatsby and The Magnificent Ambersons, the plot has been compared to Moby-Dick.

Writing about the metaphorical aspects of the film's setting—somewhere in the Mediterranean—film critic Elena Past says that the underwater scenes, because they are central to the storyline, make The Life Aquatic similar in some ways to Respiro. Both films set out a "Mediterranean state of being" where "having left the security of land, the characters in both films are suddenly confronted with the precarious nature of human existence, as the films that depict them tackle the challenges of representing the submarine world."

Casting

James Gray originally signed on to play Wolodarsky but he left when he learned that he was going to spend five months in Italy.

Exotic lifeforms

In addition to the luminescent-spotted jaguar shark, other fictional lifeforms (some stop-motion-animated) are cited and appear throughout the film, such as the rhinestone bluefin, crayon ponyfish, wild snow-mongoose, electric jellyfish, and sugar crabs. The animation work was done by Henry Selick.

Music{{anchor|Music|Score}}

Main article: The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (soundtrack), The Life Aquatic Studio Sessions

The soundtrack to The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou contains a style typical of other Wes Anderson films. Mark Mothersbaugh, a member of Devo, composed the score, as he has for many of Anderson's other films. The film also features many rock songs from the 1960s-1980s, and several instrumental pieces composed by Sven Libaek for the underwater documentary television series Inner Space. Additionally, the film and soundtrack feature Seu Jorge performing David Bowie songs in Portuguese on the acoustic guitar. Jorge, who also plays the character of Pelé dos Santos, performs some of these cover songs live, in character during the film, mostly with modified lyrics reflecting Jorge's own experiences working on the film. The ending scene depicting the beauty of the shark features the song "Starálfur" by Sigur Rós.

The Life Aquatic is Anderson's first film not to feature a Rolling Stones song.

Reception

Box office

The film grossed a total of $24,020,403 domestically after twelve weeks in release, less than half its $50 million production budget. It took in a further $10,788,000 internationally, bringing the total gross to $34,808,403.

Critical response {{anchor|Critics}}

Initial reviews of the film were mixed. The film has a 57% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 226 reviews, with an average rating of 6.10/10; the website's consensus states: "Much like the titular oceanographer, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissous overt irony may come off as smug and artificial – but for fans of Wes Anderson's unique brand of whimsy, it might be worth the dive." The film has a 62/100 weighted average score on Metacritic, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "D" on an A+ to F scale.

Anthony Lane, a film reviewer for The New Yorker, agreed with the conventional criticism of Anderson's deadpan style: that the underreaction of Anderson's characters used to be "hip" but has now become "frozen into a mannerism." He said that "some stretches of action" in the film are being "lightly held within quotation marks," with an "unmistakable air of playacting" in even the most violent scenes. He also criticized the film's deliberately "weird" set ups, which leave the viewer with "the impression of having nearly drowned in some secret and melancholy game."

In the years since its initial release it has developed a cult following, and it underwent a critical reevaluation. Many critics view it more favorably, and some, such as Mike D'Angelo of The A.V. Club, consider the film to still be "undervalued" when compared to the rest of Anderson's filmography.

In 2025, it was one of the films voted for the "Readers' Choice" edition of The New York Times list of "The 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century," finishing at number 226.

Accolades

Home media

The DVD of the film was released by the Criterion Collection on May 10, 2005 as its 300th title, in both 1-disc version and a 2-disc versions. This is Anderson's third film to be released in the collection, after Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums. The Criterion Blu-ray was released on May 27, 2014. It was released on Ultra HD Blu-ray by Criterion on September 30, 2025, as part of the ten film collection The Wes Anderson Archive: Ten Films, Twenty-Five Years.

In popular culture

• The name of Mexican rock band Belafonte Sensacional is inspired, in part, by the film.
• Epic Rap Battles of History released a rap battle between Jacques Cousteau and Steve Irwin. In one of Cousteau's flex bars, he references The Life Aquatic saying, "I'm so cool, Bill Murray played me in the movie."
• The title of an episode of the animated sitcom Family Guy, "The Tan Aquatic with Steve Zissou", is a reference to the film.
• The song "Alan Forever" on Lupe Fiasco's album DROGAS WAVE imagines an alternate reality for Alan Kurdi, in which he survived his emigration from Syria and "might be the next Steve Zissou or maybe Jacques Cousteau."
• The ocean-themed 13th major update released for the video game Minecraft was titled "Update Aquatic" in reference to the film.
• The song "Zissou" by Hayley Williams (solo artist and frontwoman of the band Paramore) is named in reference to the movie and also mentions "Team Zissou" in the first verse.
• Rapper Logic used the poster as inspiration for the cover art to his sophomore album, "The Incredible True Story."

Notes

References

References

1. Formerly listed as a [[20th Century Studios]] film on [[Disney+]] via [[Hulu]].
2. A. O. Scott. (December 10, 2004). "A Seagoing Showcase of Human Collectibles". The New York Times.
3. Michael Wilmington. (December 22, 2004). "'The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou'". [[Los Angeles Times]].
4. Blake, Jason. (October 4, 2005). "The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou - Film Reviews - Film - Entertainment". [[The Sydney Morning Herald]].
5. (2014-05-28). "Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic is much better than its initial reviews claimed".
6. VanDerWerff, Emily. (Mar 26, 2017). "The Life Aquatic might not be Wes Anderson's best film. But it is his greatest.".
7. Reed, Ryan. (December 24, 2014). "In Defense of The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, 10 Years Later".
8. Jones, Riley. (June 26, 2017). "Adidas Finally Releases the Shoes From Cult Classic 'The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou'".
9. Govender, Dyalan. "Wes Anderson's ''The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou'' and Melville's ''Moby Dick'': A Comparative Study". [[Literature/Film Quarterly]].
10. Past, Elena. (Spring 2009). "Lives Aquatic: Mediterranean Cinema and an Ethics of Underwater Existence". [[Cinema Journal]].
11. (October 7, 2013). "NYFF: James Gray Almost Appeared in Wes Anderson's 'The Life Aquatic,' Talks 'The Immigrant' with Joaquin Phoenix".
12. Carle, Chris. (May 4, 2005). "Review: The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou Original Soundtrack". [[News Corporation (1980–2013).
13. "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou". [[Amazon.com]].
14. "Life Aquatic at Rotten Tomatoes".
15. {{Metacritic film
16. "Home".
17. Lane, Anthony. (January 17, 2005). "Go Fish: "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou"".
18. "Readers Choose Their Top Movies of the 21st Century".
19. "Wes Anderson - Explore - The Criterion Collection". Criterion.com.
20. "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou Blu-ray". Blu-ray.com.
21. Zavaleta, Jonathan. (2025-06-02). "The $500 Wes Anderson Criterion Box Set Is Cinephile Catnip".
22. Hidalgo, Juan Carlos. (2014-05-15). "Belafonte sensacional: folk mexicano On the road (Belafonte Sensacional: Mexican folk on the road)".
23. (2018-07-22). "Update Aquatic is out on Java!".
24. (November 20, 2017). "Minecraft: The Update Aquatic adds dolphins, shipwrecks, new water physics, trident weapon and more".
25. A fictional town filmed on [[Ponza]].