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The Deep

While scuba diving near shipwrecks off Bermuda, vacationing couple David Sanders and Gail Berke recover small artifacts, including a glass ampoule with amber-coloured liquid and a gold medallion bearing a woman's image and the letters "S.C.O.P.N." (meaning "Santa Clara, ora pro nobis ", or " Saint Clara, pray for us") and a date, 1714. An unknown sea creature suddenly grabs Gail's wood baton as she probes the wreck's crevices. Panicked, she gets loose from the strap while the baton's end is left shredded. Sanders and Berke seek advice from historian and treasure hunter Romer Treece on the medallion's origin. He identifies the item as Spanish as he palms the ampoule, taking an interest in the couple.

The dive-shop clerk notices the ampoule, which in turn attracts the attention of Henri "Cloche" Bondurant, a local drug kingpin for whom the clerk works. When Cloche unsuccessfully tries to buy the ampoule, he begins terrorizing the couple. The ampoule contains medicinal morphine from the Goliath, a ship that sank during World War II with a cargo of munitions and medical supplies. The Goliath is off-limits to divers due to the still-live explosives. Treece concludes that a recent storm has exposed the morphine and unearthed a much older wreck containing Spanish treasure that is beneath Goliath.

Treece makes a deal with Cloche to retrieve the ampoules for $1 million, which Cloche can illegally resell for over $3 million, while Treece secretly searches for the treasure. Cloche gives him three days to recover the morphine. Sanders, Berke and Treece make several dives to the wrecks, recovering thousands of ampoules from Goliath and several additional artifacts from the Spanish wreck. They also encounter a huge moray eel, which lives inside the vessel, and was what previously attacked Berke. Adam Coffin, the only survivor from Goliath, joins the venture, but his loyalty shifts when he feels slighted by Treece. When Cloche's men arrive and dump bait into the water to attract sharks, Coffin tells Treece he probably fell asleep without noticing they were in trouble.

Through research in Treece's library, the trio reconstructs the lost treasure ship's history and locates a list of valuable items, including a gold pinecone filled with pearls with the letters "EF" engraved on it. The initials identify Elisabeth Farnese, a noblewoman for whom they were made by the King of Spain. Sanders is determined to locate at least one item on the list to establish provenance, as without it, the treasure has less value. Treece plans to destroy the Goliath to prevent Cloche from obtaining the morphine. Cloche attempts to thwart them and recover the morphine himself. Cloche's henchman murders Treece's long-time friend Kevin. Adam betrays Treece and is killed by triggering Treece's booby trap in the lighthouse tower when he tries to steal the recovered morphine stashed there. During the final dive, Cloche is killed by the giant eel, while his henchman Slake is speared by Gail on the surface, and his other henchman Ronald is drowned by David. The Goliath is destroyed in the explosion that Treece ignites. Treece recovers a gold dragon necklace that provides the treasure's needed provenance.