After RoboCop, Peter Weller Starred In An Unfortunate Deep Sea Sci-Fi Horror Flop

After grinding out a string of appearances in TV series and movies, "RoboCop" was a breakout role for Peter Weller. A box office success and a massive hit on home video, "RoboCop" appeared to be the star vehicle he had been waiting for. Despite the heavy prosthetics and makeup and the cyborg nature of its protagonist (and nearly being ruined by a dispute over Oreos), the film provided Weller with a fair amount of leeway to demonstrate his range. The posthumanist cyberpunk drama allowed Weller to transcend the bland action-hero tropes prevalent in the 80s and to exhibit real pathos.

Unfortunately, even before Orion Pictures could capitalize on the film's success with a sequel, Weller made an unfortunate choice of follow-up roles when he appeared in 1989's "Leviathan." While the '80s produced some deeply underrated sci-fi gems, "Leviathan" was not one of them. The deep sea thriller was blasted by critics and largely ignored by audiences, and arguably changed Weller's career trajectory for the worse.

"Leviathan" tells the story of a deep-sea mining operation looking to exploit the riches concealed by the ocean's floor. What the expedition's corporate overlords don't realize, however, is that those precious minerals are guarded by a terrifying unidentified lifeform. When it infiltrates the crew's underwater station and begins to kill and mutate them (in some sequences that rival the most brutal deaths in sci-fi), they're forced to make desperate choices to survive, isolated in a watery abyss.

Weller plays geologist Steven Beck, who's assigned as supervisor for the mining expedition's three-month stint. The film's title is derived from a Russian shipwreck, which the crew discovers harbors a hostile mutant lifeform. Eventually, the creature is revealed to be the result of the Russians' experiments, in which they tinkered with human DNA. Trouble begins when the crew brings some tainted vodka onboard from the scuttled ship, and two of the crew members partake; unbeknownst to them, the vodka contains a powerful mutagen that changes them into outlandish tentacled sea monsters that attempt to slaughter and infect the rest of the expedition.

Critics brutalized "Leviathan," calling it a "stale rehash" and a "big, dumb monster movie." It's currently sitting at a 23% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. In her review for the New York Times, Janet Maslin called "Leviathan" a film trying "to deflect attention from the material's obvious derivativeness (to 'Alien,' in particular) and from the general disgustingness of much of what transpires," populated by "a mix of easygoing racial and sexual stereotypes."

Audiences didn't find much to love in the film either, apparently. The film only recouped $15.7 million domestically of a $21 million budget at the box office, and currently holds an audience score of 28% on Rotten Tomatoes.

"Leviathan" wasn't a death knell for Peter Weller's career by any means. He's continued to work steadily in television and video games, with occasional film roles sprinkled in. However, he never rose to the level of reliable leading man, and his only notable non-"RoboCop" accolade is an Academy Award nomination for the 1993 short "Partners," which he wrote and directed. It's hard not to attribute at least some of that decline to this leading role in a very public flop that happened just as his career appeared to be in its ascendancy.