Implosion is National Geographics / HBO Max’s stab at an OceanGate submersible implosion documentary… and not, say, Netflix’s stab at the same story (coming out in a couple weeks as of this writing). Not sure we need two but this one had interesting points of access I’ll be curious if the other film will have.

Lest you forget, the story is some billionaire built a submersible that didn’t have any pesky permits or government oversight. It imploded on one of its trips to ogle the Titanic debris field.

This doc is highlighted by footage of the Naval inquest about the disaster and, as such, has plenty of interviews with the people being deposed and the panel members themselves. It’s a nice angle that’s better than any quick YouTube video I’ve seen on the same subject.

Plus, they get interviews and documentary footage from one of the cable survival shows. The host was allowed on board the sub during a test run and, he says that he pulled the episode instead of airing it and driving business to the dangerous sub. That footage is very interesting.

So, yeah, this is a pretty good documentary. Worth a watch if the idea of a billionaire dying aboard a Tylenol-shaped allegory while trying to explore a much, much bigger allegory not bothering anyone at the bottom of the ocean.

Score: 82