Nine strangers -- NASCAR mechanic Michael D'Ambrose (Antonio Sabato Jr.), movie producer Simon Clark (Adrian Neil), shipping heir Nicholai Kostyukovich (Nicholas Irons), art curator Serena Morris (Deanna Russo), actress Jessica Bain (Julian Berlin), junkie Andrew Gilroy (Hristo Mitzkov), jailbird Luis Santos (Vladimir Mihaylov), and professional thieves Ronnie Cooper (James Patric Moran) and Raymond Hawkins (P.J. Marino) -- awaken on a cargo ship with no memory of how they got there. With no apparent crew other than a steward (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa), who will only tell them the four rules for the voyage, they also have no idea where they are headed. When those who break the rules are carried off one by one by malevolent spirits, the remaining passengers attempt to find a way off the ship.
Ghost Voyage is a made-for-the-SciFi-channel movie based on a script by screenwriter Rob Mecarini.
First, do not breach any closed doors. Second, do not enter the captain's quarters. Third, do not refuse any orders from a member of the crew. Fourth, don't smoke.
The River Styx forms the boundary between Earth and Hades in Greek mythology. Newly dead individuals are ferried across the river by the god Charon. It was customary to bury a dead person with a coin in his or her mouth or over an eye so that the person could pay for the ferryride. The alternative was to wander along the banks of the river for 100 years.
As the only passengers left standing (because they haven't broken any rules), Michael, Serena, and Nicholai raise the funerary boat from out of the cargo hold and place it in the water. The fire demon tries to stop them but they are able to keep it at bay by hosing it with water. Once on the boat, they are joined by dozens of spirits, all circling around them like sharks. Nicholai notices that the boat is starting to sink and attempts to lighten its load by tossing Michael overboard, but Serena stops him. Shouting about how it's the fittest who survive, he tosses Serena overboard instead. Michael clobbers him then jumps in the water to save Serena. Suddenly, the spirits close in on the boat, creating a whirlpool that sinks the funerary boat with Nicholai in it. The sky suddenly clears up, and the sun comes out. 'A single selfless act,' says the Steward, watching from the deck of the ghost ship. He writes 'Returned' after Serena and Michael's names in his logbook and tosses a coin into the water. The scene then shifts to an art store where Michael is admiring a painting of a boat on the sea. Serena invites him inside, and they tell each other how familiar they look. Meanwhile, on the ghost ship, the Steward is introducing himself to a new group of passengers and warning them about the rules.
In ancient Egypt, a funerary boat was a boat that carried the dead to sea, supposedly for a final voyage to the afterlife and a test for each person's spirit. If the sea finds you worthy, you would be delivered to a new life and walk off the boat, living and breathing. If you failed, the sea would swallow your spirit.
Ghost Voyage is often compared to Outward Bound (1930) (1930) and Between Two Worlds (1944) (1944), both movies that feature passengers on a boat who don't know how they got there and who find out that they are on their way to either heaven or hell.
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