Aquaman is the King of the Seven Seas and the reluctant ruler of Atlantis. Aquaman is the King of the Seven Seas and the reluctant ruler of Atlantis.
Aquaman starring Jason Momoa. © Warner Bros. Pictures & © DC Comics
Aquaman is a 2018 American superhero film based on the DC Comics character of the same name. Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, it is the sixth film in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU). The film is directed by James Wan from a screenplay by David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick and Will Beall, and stars Jason Momoa as Aquaman, with Amber Heard, Willem Dafoe, Patrick Wilson, Dolph Lundgren, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, and Nicole Kidman in supporting roles. In the film, Aquaman sets out to lead the underwater kingdom of Atlantis against his half-brother, King Orm, who seeks to unite the seven underwater kingdoms against the surface world.
Development of an Aquaman film began in 2004 but did not gain traction until Man of Steel was released in 2013. In August 2014, Beall and Kurt Johnstad were hired to write competing scripts. Wan signed on as director in April 2015, and in July 2016, the film moved forward with Beall's screenplay. The main cast was confirmed through 2016 and early 2017.
Willem Dafoe, Jason Momoa, and Amber Heard in Aquaman (2018)
Principal photography began in Australia in May 2017, taking place at Village Roadshow Studios on the Gold Coast, Queensland, with additional production teams in Canada, Italy and Morocco. Filming concluded the following October. Several vendors provided visual effects, ranging from high-detail hair simulations to the creation of CG animals and locations.
Aquaman premiered in London on November 26, 2018, and was released in the United States on December 21. It grossed over $1.1 billion worldwide, making it the highest-grossing DCEU film, the highest-grossing film based on a DC Comics character (surpassing 2012's The Dark Knight Rises), the fifth highest-grossing film of 2018, and 20th highest of all-time. The film received praise for its tone, Wan's direction, visual effects, and performances, but criticism for its dialogue, runtime, and plot. A sequel,Aquaman 2, is set for release on December 16, 2022, and a spin-off, The Trench, is in development.
Aquaman starring Nicole Kidman, Temuera Morrison, Tainui Kirkwood, and Tamor Kirkwood
© Warner Bros. Pictures & © DC Comics.
In 1985, Maine lighthouse keeper Thomas Curry rescues Atlanna, the queen of the underwater nation of Atlantis, during a storm. They eventually fall in love and have a son named Arthur, who is born with the power to communicate with marine lifeforms. Atlanna abandons her family and returns to Atlantis, entrusting her adviser, Nuidis Vulko, with the mission of training Arthur. Under Vulko's guidance, Arthur becomes a skilled warrior, but rejects Atlantis upon learning that Atlanna was executed for having a half-breed son.
Thirty-three years later, several months after Steppenwolf's invasion, Arthur confronts a team of pirates attempting to hijack a Russian Akula-class submarine. Their leader, Jesse Kane, dies during the confrontation while his son, David, vows revenge. Meanwhile, Orm, King of Atlantis and Arthur's half-brother, attempts to convince King Nereus of Xebel to help him unite Atlantis and attack the surface world for harming the oceans. Nereus points out that if Orm succeeds in uniting all four kingdoms, he will receive the title of Ocean Master, commander of the most powerful force on the planet. Their meeting is interrupted when another Russian Akula submarine attacks the meeting place, apparently in retaliation for the previous submarine's destruction. Orm succeeds in destroying it and the attack convinces Nereus to join forces with Orm to defend the oceans. He swears allegiance to Orm's cause, but his daughter Mera, who has been betrothed to Orm, refuses to aid them, and journeys to the surface to ask Arthur for help, earning his trust by saving Thomas from a tsunami sent by Orm.
Arthur reluctantly accompanies Mera to a rendezvous with Vulko, who urges Arthur to find the Trident of Atlan, a magic artifact that once belonged to Atlantis' first ruler, in order to reclaim his rightful place as king. They are ambushed by Orm's men, and Mera and Vulko escape unseen, while Arthur is captured.
Arthur is chained and presented before Orm, who blames Arthur and the surface for Atlanna's death. He offers Arthur an opportunity to leave forever, but Arthur instead challenges him to a duel in a ring of underwater lava. Orm gains the upper hand and nearly kills Arthur before Mera rescues him. Together, Arthur and Mera journey to the Sahara desert, where the trident was forged, and they unlock a holographic message that leads them to Sicily, Italy, where they retrieve the trident's coordinates.
Meanwhile, Orm meets David, revealing that the submarine that had attacked them previously was in fact the same one David hijacked and that Orm had hired him to hijack the Russian nuclear submarine so that he could stage a false flag attack from the surface, making it seem like Orm's cause for war is justified and causing King Nereus to side with him. Orm provides David with a prototype Atlantean battle suit to kill Arthur, imprisons Vulko after revealing knowledge of his betrayal, and coerces the Atlantean Kingdom of the Fishermen to pledge their allegiance to him and his campaign against the surface.
After modifying Orm's technology, a fully armored David rechristens himself as Black Manta and ambushes Arthur and Mera in Sicily, grievously injuring Arthur before being thrown off a cliff to his apparent death. Mera nurses Arthur's wounds as they journey to the trident's whereabouts, and encourages him to embrace his destiny as a king. Arriving at their destination, Arthur and Mera encounter the Trench, amphibious monsters, but manage to fend them off and reach a wormhole that transports them to an uncharted sea located at the center of the Earth. There, they are unexpectedly reunited with Atlanna, who was sacrificed to the Trench for her crimes but managed to escape and reach the uncharted sea, where she has been stranded ever since.
Arthur faces Karathen, a mythical leviathan and keeper of the trident, and voices his determination to protect both Atlantis and the surface, proving his worth and reclaiming the trident, which grants him control over the seven seas. Orm and his allies lead an army against the crustacean forces of the Kingdom of the Brine with the intent of completing Orm's surface battle preparations. As Orm declares himself Ocean Master, Arthur and Mera, with the assistance of Karathen and the Trench, intervene and lead an army of marine creatures in a battle against him. Orm's followers renounce their obedience to him and embrace Arthur as the true king upon learning he wields the trident. Arthur defeats Orm in combat but chooses to spare his life, and Orm accepts his fate after discovering Arthur has found and rescued Atlanna. Atlanna returns to the surface to reunite with Thomas while Arthur ascends to the throne with Mera by his side.
Nicole Kidman as Atlanna: The Queen of Atlantis, mother of Arthur Curry and Orm
In a mid-credits scene, David is rescued by Dr. Stephen Shin, a scientist and conspiracy theorist obsessed with the Atlanteans, and agrees to lead Shin there in exchange for his help in his revenge on Arthur.
A half-Atlantean/half-human who is reluctant to be king of the undersea nation of Atlantis. He possesses superhuman strength and the ability to manipulate the tides of the ocean, communicate with other aquatic life, and swim at supersonic speeds. A younger Arthur Curry is portrayed by various actors, including an uncredited infant, Tainu and Tamor Kirkwood at age 3, Kaan Guldur at age 9, Otis Dhanji at age 13, and Kekoa Kekumano at age 16.
Princess of Xebel, Arthur Curry's love interest, a warrior, and daughter of King Nereus. She was raised by Queen Atlanna and groomed to become queen. Mera possesses hydrokinetic and telepathic powers that allow her to control her aquatic environment and communicate with other Atlanteans.
Atlantis' vizier, who was a mentor of Arthur Curry when he was young. He trained him to fight as well.
Dafoe was digitally de-aged for the flashback scenes of the film.Patrick Wilson as Orm Marius / Ocean Master:
Arthur Curry's Atlantean half-brother and King of Atlantis, who seeks to unite the seven underwater kingdoms to declare war on the surface world for humanity's pollution of the seas.
Aquaman was released for digital download on March 5, 2019, and on Blu-ray, 4K Blu-ray Ultra HD, 3D Blu-ray and DVD on March 26, 2019. It has an estimated total of $12.4 million in domestic DVD sales, as well as an estimated total of $29 million in Blu-ray sales, bringing in a total of $41.5 million in domestic video sales according to The Numbers.
Nicole Kidman, Jason Momoa and Amber Heard. Photo by CHRIS DELMAS/Getty Images
Courtesy of Visual Hollywood and © Warner Bros. Pictures & © DC Comics