The 1977 film "The Deep" was based on Peter Benchley's novel of the same title. The film is about an unmarried couple, David Sanders and Gail Berke, who are ocean diving in Bermuda. They find some scattered items on the ocean floor near the Goliath, a World War II shipwreck which is off-limits to divers as the ship was carrying explosives. They visit Romer Treece, a veteran treasure diver, for advice, and he identifies a medal as an old Spanish medal and a small bottle as a container of medicinal morphine. Henri 'Cloche' Bondurant, a local drug lord, learns of the morphine find and pressures the three to tell him where they found the bottle as there were much more on the ship. At the beginning of the film some Spanish gold coins are shown as part of a museum display and a large medal with the picture of a woman is shown and becomes part of the story.

The film opens with an underwater scene of two divers.

They are scuba diving which basically means that they carry their own air tanks. They are diving near the wreck of the World War II Goliath which they do not know is off-limits to divers due to the explosives on board. Gail spots something on the ocean floor.

David also finds something and both head for their boat. On shore David shows a small bottle to the clerk of the dive store.

The clerk tells him he should not be diving near the Goliath. Gail wants to identify her object which she believes is a coin and the pair head for the local museum and library. The museum has a display of Spanish shipwreck treasure found by a local diver and treasure hunter named Romer Treece.

Several Spanish gold coins are hung on threads and they appear to be "cob" style coins. Spanish cob coins date from the 17th to 18th centuries, were irregular in shape, and featured designs which incorporated pillars and waves.

More gold coins hung on threads.

An exhibit mimicking the sandy ocean floor. At the library the couple examine Spanish numismatic books and catalogs to identify her "coin."

Gail's coin is shown along with her sketch of it. It is becoming clear that her coin is actually a medal.

The initials "S.C.O.P.N." is "Santa Clara Ora Pro Nobis" or "Saint Clara Pray For Us." Gail can not find a picture of the medal in the books and becomes frustrated.

Gail becomes angry and tells David that if they wanted to spend their vacation in a library they could have stayed home in New York. The couple go out to dinner and a large man introduces himself.

Henry Bondurant, also known as 'Cloche', tells the pair that he heard about the bottle and that he collects old bottles. David becomes suspicious and denies that he has such a bottle. The pair decide to visit Romer Treece, the treasure hunter, who lives and works in a lighthouse.

Romer at first refuses to see them but the good-looking Gail smiles at him and he lets them in and examines her medal.

Romer uses a portable grinder to scrape off some deposits. David shows Romer the bottle which he recognizes.

Romer explains that the Goliath sank during World War II and that it was carrying 98,000 little bottles of medicinal morphine. He also tells them that Cloche is a local gangster and drug lord who would like to harvest the morphine and convert it to heroin for sale. Cloche sends his henchmen to threaten the couple and for their safety Romer invites them to stay at his place. The three of them dive down to the wreck and Gail accidently encounters a Moray Eel.

In the film these eels will attack any nearby animal or human. Romer has his own library of Spanish treasure ship manifests and invoices and the three try to find Gail's medal in one. Gail finds the initials "E.F." on the back of the medal.

Romer comes to believe that the Goliath sank on top of a much older Spanish wreck and that a recent storm moved things around and exposed the Spanish ship. The three divers head back to the Goliath.

They find an old ship bell with the name "Grifin" which must be from the Spanish ship. Back at Romer's house the three begin researching the Grifin manifests.

Gail discovers that the initials were for the 1714 noblewoman Elizabeth Farnese, the Duchess of Parma, who was to marry King Philip V of Spain.

Romer explains that the Grifin was carrying elaborate pieces of jewelry as gifts for the duchess and that if they can find one of the pieces of jewelry described in a ship manifest then any treasure that they find would be more valuable due to the Elizabeth-Philip story.

The medal shows Elizabeth Farnese wearing a piece of jewelry in the shape of a dragon that was in the manifest. Romer decides to put a bomb inside the wreck of the Goliath to keep Cloche and his men from harvesting the morphine. At the wreck he sets his bomb while David looks for more treasure. David finds the gold dragon piece when Cloche and his henchman arrive. David and Romer have an underwater fight with the two gangsters which ends badly for them.

David drops the gold dragon piece and both men head for the surface as Romer's bomb explodes.

David meets Gail on the boat and they see Romer surface and holding something.

Nick Nolte as David Sanders
Jacqueline Bisset as Gail Berke
Robert Shaw as Romer Treece
Louis Gossett as Henri 'Cloche' Bondurant
Director: Peter Yates
Writers: Peter Benchley, Tracy Keenan Wynn, based on the 1976 novel The Deep by Peter Benchley