This film has been on my radar for a long time. Any movie that has to do with the ocean, especially where cetatians are concerned, I must see it. The only thing I knew about the story going in was from the promotional cover, which doesn’t say much. That image speaks to the spiritual undercurrent rather than the obvious plot. I’m going to spoil the ending, so for those who are interested in a movie about two men breaking world records for free diving, go watch it first.

This exchange comes from the part of the film where Jack, the quieter and more introspective diver, is talking with his new girlfriend over the phone:

“Do you know what you’re supposed to do to meet a mermaid?”

“No?”

“You go down to the bottom of the sea, where the water isn’t even blue anymore and the sky is just a memory… and you float there in the silence… and you stay there… and you decide that you’ll die for them. Only then do they start coming out. They come, they greet you, and they judge the love you have for them. If it’s sincere, if it’s pure, then they’ll be with you and take you away forever.”

When I heard this, I couldn’t help but think about the similar leap of faith required when inviting a loving succubus spirit into one’s life. For anyone who might be watching such a transformation from the sidelines, they probably think it looks foolish and stupid. Death is all but guaranteed. Those are the kinds of thoughts and pressures the would-be summoner must contend with when they commit to a relationship with such pure beings. A jealous and heartless contingent of our world’s religious population would damn such a person to eternal hellfire for making such a commitment. The man who would dare risk being with his love demon must be willing to face even that possibility. He must love so completely that his own life is an afterthought.

It’s interesting to me that most of the world’s religions ostensibly require a similar leap of faith for their adherents, though I have yet to see such devotion put into practice. There are stories, but that’s all they are: hearsay. I spent years trying to entrust my life to the Jewish god of Christianity, but nothing came of it. If it weren’t for the prompting of my parents and teachers, I probably would have found the whole notion of kissing Jesus’ ass for years on end to be pretty gay.

Conversely, I wrote a love letter to my succubus and she was in my arms the very next night. At long last, after an agonizing procession of prostrating myself to an absentee kike landlord of a deity, I was finally going balls-deep into the divine. Getting over those fears is the biggest hurdle in the way of achieving such a union. All of those illusory boogeymen – those mind-viruses – need to be stuffed into a metaphorical box and permanently shelved. Or better yet, forgotten entirely.

“What will my family and friends think of me if they find out?” They already think you’re weird. Only the most boring people in the world don’t have some kind of skeleton in their closet. People really don’t care as much as you think they do.

“Everyone will think I’m mentally ill and just trying to cope with my failures!” Haven’t you noticed how profoundly unsatisfied and mentally ill all those supposedly well-adjusted people are? Why would you let their worthless opinions stand in the way of what you want?

“My sky-daddy will roast my ass for all eternity!” Man in a silly outfit brandishing a book titled BUY BULL said so.

At the end of The Big Blue film, Jack is faced with a life-changing decision. He’s pulled between two different worlds: The life of traditional family where he becomes a father, or taking that leap of faith into the unknown to be with the mermaids forever. Despite the cries of his pregnant girlfriend begging him to stay, he takes his final dive into that world of inky blackness.

There’s a bit of hesitation at first. He keeps one hand on the diving platform and tries to reach out to the dolphin – a stand-in for the mermaid. The dolphin keeps their distance as Jack clings to the machinations of the world above. Only when he lets go of that safety-line completely is he able to embrace the divine. Jack and his mermaid disappear into the darkness. The movie ends.