20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1916 film) 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1916 film) 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is a 1916 American silent film directed by Stuart Paton. The film's storyline is based on the novel "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" by Jules Verne. It also incorporates elements from Verne's "The Mysterious Island". This was the first motion picture filmed underwater. Actual underwater cameras were not used, but a system of watertight tubes and mirrors allowed the camera to shoot reflected images of underwater scenes staged in shallow sunlit waters. The film was made by The Universal Film Manufacturing Company (now Universal Pictures), not then
The Mysterious Island (1929 film) article included stills showing the original 1926 undersea denizens and the redesigned version which actually appeared in the film. Footage directed by Maurice Tourneur and Benjamin Christensen in 1927 was incorporated into the final 1929 version. The film is loosely based on the back-story given for Captain Nemo in the novel "The Mysterious Island", and might more properly be thought of as a prequel to "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea". It is the story of Count Dakkar (Captain Nemo's real name is revealed to be Prince Dakkar in "The Mysterious Island"), how he built his submarine, how he was