Characters / Underwater

Norah Price

Played by: Kristen Stewart

• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Downplayed. Right at the beginning of the film, Norah gets a cut on her right cheek, but it doesn't really take much away from her beauty.
• Bifauxnen: Norah has short hair, and when pulling Paul out of the rubble he calls her "you beautiful flat-chested elven creature".
• Boyish Short Hair: Norah has a buzz cut, which was actually Kristen Stewart's idea, as she felt Norah would keep her hair short for health and safety reasons. Out of two girls in the group, Norah is also the more action-oriented.
• Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: Takes out Cthulhu itself, but at the cost of her own life.
• Cold Equation: She's forced to do this minutes into the story, when she's forced to lock two of her co-workers outside of a door to ensure her and Rodrigo's survival.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: Norah blows up a nuclear reactor to take down Cthulhu and the remaining sea creatures.
• Face Death with Dignity: When she dies, she fully accepts that fact and muses about how one should stop being controlled by their feelings and actually work on improving their situation.
• Heroic Sacrifice: At the end of the film, Norah sacrifices herself to not only save Smith and Emily, but also to take down Cthulhu and the remaining sea creatures with her.
• The Lost Lenore: Her fiancé. He disappeared some time before the events of the film, and it's presumed to be dead. Norah mentions him in her opening narration, and how he was an idealist that liked the see the glass half full, although only later in the film she elaborates on the matter while talking with Emily. It's clear that his disappearence took a huge toll on her.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Has this dynamic with Emily, with Norah being the cynical tomboy with a buzz cut and that can take down sea monsters including Cthulhu itself, while Emily is the more idealistic, traditionally feminine woman of the group.
• Vasquez Always Dies: Norah dies at the end of the film taking down Cthulhu and it's Fish People army, while the more traditionally feminine Emily lives.

Rodrigo Nagenda

Played by: Mamoudou Athie

• Black Dude Dies First: The only black character in the film and the first named character with spoken lines to die.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: His faulty helmet cracks under the enormous water pressure and Rodrigo's body explodes in front of the rest of the group.
• Heroic Sacrifice: It's ambiguous. Norah believes that Rodrigo took a faulty helmet on purpose but it's never left clear if she is right or if she's just feeling Survivor Guilt.
• Ludicrous Gibs: How he dies.
• Taught by Television: Rodrigo explains what kind of destruction a core meltdown will cause, only to mention that he doesn't really know, he just watched a lot of anime.
• Token Minority: He is the only named black character in the whole film.

Paul Abel

Played by: T.J. Miller

• Clothing Damage: The explosion he got caught on damaged his clothes. It's Played for Laughs when he undressed to put on his diving suit and he's dismayed when he sees that even his underwear got ripped.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: The film's Comic Relief character and he's the second person in the group of survivors to die, which ends all the film's attempts at comedy.
• Tragic Keepsake: His plush bunny becomes this after he dies.

Captain Lucien

Played by: Vincent Cassel

• A Father to His Men: One of his most defining traits, always refusing to leave anyone behind and sacrificing his own life so Norah could live.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Dies to save Norah from the increasing pressure differential.
• Last-Name Basis: He's always referred by his title or by his surname. An identification card Norah finds indicates that his first name starts with an A, but that's about it.
• Outliving One's Offspring: His only daughter, Allie, died what is implied to be several years before the events of the film.

Liam Smith

Played by: John Gallagher Jr.

• 13 Is Unlucky: An aversion, as Smith's suit is marked with the letter 13 and he's one of the only two characters that lives.
• All There in the Script: The credits reveal that his first name is Liam, after spending the entire film being called just "Smith".
• Last-Name Basis: He's only ever called Smith, with his first name only being revealed in the credits.
• The Load: Once his air scrubber is damaged, Smith becomes this, since he can't make any moves and must conserve whatever air he has left, having to rely on Emily and Norah to drag him during a good part of their journey.

Emily Haversham

Played by: Jessica Henwick

• Anguished Declaration of Love: Gives one to Smith when it seems that they are the only two people left and Smith is unconscious.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: She's the Girly Girl to Norah's Tomboy, being the more idealistic, emotional and traditionally feminine of the two.