
            The film opens in a salt mine in Switzerland in 1948. The miners are preparing explosives to blast new tunnels (and handling them none-too-carefully). It's ten minutes past six (ten minutes past finishing time), and the mining crew wants to go home. However Supervisor Frisch (Adrian Pintea)is determined that one last tunnel will be uncovered before he will let the crew leave. In this last tunnel the miners uncover a "bridal chamber" or small grotto filled with enormous green and blue gems. As the supervisor stands in the entrance of the grotto exclaiming in glee, a giant beetle descends from the ceiling. It is very similar to a stag beetle, but with an extra horn (like a triceratops version of a stag beetle). The beetle impales Frisch with its mandibles as more beetles swarm out of the grotto. The miners flee in horror, staggering back along the tunnels to the lift and getting picked off by the beetles as they go. One miner makes it to the lift which will take him to the surface; however at the last minute a beetle slices through his leg with its jaws, and he rolls in agony on the floor of the lift. He starts it though, and as he ascends, the detonator to the previously mentioned explosives is depressed by a hand, and the mine explodes, making the lift rock and sway. (It is unclear who blows it up. The miner on the lift does not have access to the detonator, however it is not clear who remains alive below to depress the detonator).We cut to a European forest scene, where John Palmer (Christopher Atkins) and his wife Samantha (Angela Featherstone) are at the end of a day spent guiding rich tourists through caves, assisted by their children Miles (Stevie Mitchell) and Emily (Chelan Simmons). Miles is 14ish and gung-ho keen, and Emily is 16-ish, whiny and reluctant(however when John tells Emily to head an hour back to the cave system to get a forgotten belaying rope she is prepared to do so!) We establish that Emily wants to be rich rather than work for rich people. The family is anticipating a much-needed family break in Greece.Meanwhile, in Switzerland, a wheel-chair bound white-haired old man in a fetching lakeside lodge is being pressured by the menacing Marcel (David Palffy) and his hired goons to sign an agreement. When he refuses these guys don't mess around, and chop off his hand (squirting blood pack etc). After some screaming he is permanantly silenced, and Stephan (the rather dishy Christian Popa) is detailed to dispose of the body by the lake. (The implication is that this is the remaining miner from the salt mine, who escaped in the lift).Before the Palmer family make it to Greece they are approached by Marcel, who wants John to guide his party into abandoned Swiss salt mine while his family enjoy a relaxing break in Marcel's beautiful lakeside lodge. Although Emily is whiny and dissapointed, John decides he can't pass up the money, and they all head to the lodge.Stephan is going to stay behind with Miles, Emily and mom Samantha, while John takes Marcel, financial backer Vincent (the reliable Colm Meaney), the beautiful Sophie (Monica Birladeanu), and hired goons Hanz (Marius Chivu) and Carlo (Tudor Vlad Jipa) into the mine. Accordingly they all set out the next morning, after locating a back entrance to the mine on a map (which Marcel has taken from the old man).The mine entrance is an easily-found square hole with a wooden cover hidden by a few leaves. A ladder goes down into the earth, and at the bottom is a lightswitch. John flicks this and lightbulbs go on all through the mine (apparently it is still wired into the town lines, and the explosion did nothing to damage the wiring). So all the rest of the action underground takes place in well lit, open, and quite picturesque tunnels, reminiscent of early Star Trek sets. The group also finds a working electric lift, and head down into the depths of the mine.As the party head into the mine they find a yawning chasm, however they simply shoot a piton into the roof with a rocket-gun and swing across on an attached rope (Hanz is worried that it won't hold his substantial weight). Whenever they come across a rockfall Hanz and Carlo unsling these laser guns that shoot a blue light pulse and apparently pulverize rock (John reminds them not to shoot too high or they will bring the whole mine down).As they work through the mine we see that meanwhile Miles has decided he's big enough to follow Dad, and has headed into the mine behind them, apparantly to grab one chunk of rock salt and get out. However as he descends the initial ladder it breaks and he is unable to return to the surface (not that he tries). He follows the main group of cavers about 10-15 minutes behind.Meanwhile, back at the lodge, Stephan and Emily are flirting outrageously, despite Mom's earnest attempts to get them both out into the fresh air to enjoy some hiking. Emily and Mom ask Stephan about a framed picture of an old man (chopped-off-hand guy) but Stephan answers that he doesn't know who that is. They realise that Miles is not at the lodge and Mom finally gets the lovebirds to head out into the forest with her to look for him. Neither Emily or Samantha know the caving team's plan or proposed route, nor do they have a copy of the map. They seperate and Mom goes alone to the lake edge, where she finds lying on the rocky shore the body of the old man whose photograph she has found in the lodge (Apparently when Marcel told Stephan to get rid of the body at the lake this didn't involve burying the body close to the lake, or dumping it in the lake with weights attached, but instead simply leaving it at the water's edge).Back in the mine, as Hanz is lasering through a rockfall, Carlo and Marcel start to argue. Carlo goes over the edge of the ledge and ends up hanging by his hands. Naturally Marcel won't be questioned and rather than help Carlo up, he steps on his hands sending Carlo screaming down into an abyss. As Carlo lies, injured, at the bottom of the chasm he gets his lighter out to look at his surroundings (no lightbulbs down here), giving us enough faint illumination to see a giant beetle enter the shot and eviscerate him. Marcel tells the others that Carlo fell, and they rush to help him. Shining a torch into the pit the crew sees Carlo's intestines. This does not appear to them to be an unexpected outcome for a fall, however John is shaken, and wants to quit. Marcel insists they expected losses and they will continue on. At this moment Stephan radios Marcel to tell him Miles is missing. Emily asks to talk to John, who reassues her Miles is probably (?) fine. Marcel explains to John that if he argues with him, he will tell Stephan to kill Emily and Samantha. In French Marcel tells Stephan to take the women back to the lodge and tie them up. Back up in the woods we see Emily smile lovingly at Stephan as he receives this instruction and evilly narrows his eyes, however Mom a) speaks French and b) just found the dead body. Unbeknown to us she has snuck up behind Stephan and brains him with a branch. He collapses unconscious. Mom fills Emily in on the Marcel-&-Stephan-are-evil-guys deal, takes Stephan's gun and radio, and they head into the woods to keep looking for Miles.Back in the mine, crawling though a narrow tunnel John examines holes bored in the roof about 4-5 inches in diameter, and explains that these were not man-made. As the team examine them swarms of small beetles cascade forth from them, sending them all tumbling for the tunnel exit, and giving Sophie a chance to scream a lot. As they exit the tunnel and progress through the mine we see that the giant stag beetles are now homing in on them, crawling around the tunnel ceilings, and eventually showing themselves to the cavers, who are luckily all armed with handguns and rifles, not to mention the laser guns. John seems to take the giant beetles remarkably calmly, and counters the team's disbelief by explaining that ancient Egyptians depicted in their art giant beetles as large as humans, which guarded the underworld. John shoots one beetle with a rescue beacon from the rocket gun. The beacon lodges in its side, beeping. This will in future give the team at least two minute's warning of beetle attack as the beeping grows closer.The beetles have also found Miles. As they track him he hangs by his fingers from the same ledge that Carlo fell from. Eventually he too falls, and discovers Carlo's body, however he escapes the beetles and heads deeper into the lower levels of the mine.Marcel is also taking the team into the lower levels in search of the jewelled grotto, which he is determined to find. Various beetle melees ensue. Miles finds the group (this involves an Indiana Jones-esque incident with a rope bridge) and Marcel kills Vincent because he is too sympathetic to John. The mine shakes and heaves a bit, as if in an earthquake.One such upheaval splits open a hole between the mine and the forest above, just as Samantha and Emily are walking by, looking for Miles. Beetles pour out. Samantha empties a few rounds into the beetles and then the girls scamper back through the forest to the lodge. There they think they are safe, and make no attempt to board up windows etc. They hear noises outside the front door, and Mom heads over to give the beetles some more slugs, but, aha! a blood-covered Stephan flings open the door and knocks Mom down; grabbing the gun the girls are his prisoners once more. He stands in front of the window to get a bead on both women and naturally a giant beetle smashes through the window and crushes Stephan in its jaws, severing his upper torso from his legs, rather messily. Emily screams and panics a lot and doesn't want to leave the house, however as the beetles break through all the windows Samantha convinces her they have to go, and indeed as they run off we see the lodge is covered in beetles. Every time they pause in their flight the beetles catch up. They consider shelter in some kind of hut but droves of beetles swarm over the roof. Throughout this they cannot radio the cavers as they fear if Marcel knows they are not Stephan's prisoner he will kill John.Meanwhile, the team, now consisting of Marcel, Hanz, Sophie, John and Miles, finally find the grotto. Marcel starts stuffing jewels into his backpack, and John locates a breeze blowing through a rockfall on the other side of the grotto. As Marcel fills his bag with booty the others dig out the tunnel. The team hear the beeping beacon beetle and know another attack is coming soon, so they all scamper out the cleared hole ...except for Marcel who is collecting gems. He finally decides he has enough, and prepares to climb through to join them. However now the breeze shows the way out John and Miles are redundant, and he doesn't appear to ever have liked Sophie very much. Marcel aims his pistol at Sophie, and John stands in front of her to block the shot. Marcel doesn't care who he shoots first, and prepares to fire...however he probably should have actually got out of the grotto first as a beetle attacks, impaling Marcel fatally. His shot goes astray and hits Hanz - a belly wound. Hanz insists on staying behind with the last laser gun to fight off the approaching beetles and covering the escape of Miles, John and Sophie. Before leaving John grabs Marcel's backpack from where it hangs on a rocky outcrop at the grotto's entrance. Hanz holds off the beetles for a short time until his laser pack runs out of power, then the beetles swarm over him and presumably tear him apart (no gory detail shown however).On the surface Samantha and Emily, persued by beetles, head to the original mine entrance in the hope that this is where Miles has gone.John, Sophie and Miles find a large cavern filled with red root-like vines (like the red weed from War of the Worlds) and lots of eggs (like chicken eggs, standing on end). To one side of the chamber is a small oval hole through which daylight filters. Many large beetles stand on the walls, and a mass of smaller beetles swarm in one corner. Miles explains that this is where the queen beetle lives, and that the others will leave the cavers alone if there is any chance that attacking them will damage the eggs.The trio head for the light, carefully stepping over and around the eggs. John holds Sophie's hand, but it is useless to try to keep her upright as she inevitably falls and lands on a big patch of eggs. They squish stickily on her back. The guard beetles move agitatedly and the queen beetle rears up from underneath the pile of smaller nurse beetles. John reashes into Marcels backpack and pulls out a large number of explosives. He and Miles prepare these (it seems to take some time). Above, in the old mine buildings, Emily and Samantha are under heavy attack from the beetles, and are getting desperate. It is clear they will not be able to hold them off much longer (standing in the middle of an open latticework of girders doesn't help). The use the radio to call Dad (it is unclear to what purpose this is - to say goodbye?)
At this exact moment John shoots some form of explovise charge into the body of the queen using the rocket gun (it doesn't go off though). The queen squeals and all the beetles rush to tend to her. As John answers the women's radio call, the queen's distress call is transmitted to all the attackjing beetles above ground,and they immediately stop attacking and swarm down the original mineshaft entrance to assist the queen. John and Miles distribute the other explosive charges around the cavern and then the trio make a break for the exit. As they scramble for the surface John sets off the explosive charges by remote, and, as the queen and her eggs explode, the remnants of the team at last burst out into daylight, to be reunited with Mom and Emily.Sophie has Marcel's backpack, and she takes out one large gem for herself, and throws the rest to John with a smile. As Sophie walks off the Palmer family hug. John looks at all the jewels in the backpack and reminds Emily that she always wanted to be rich. With much grinning and tousling of hair the family start to walk off.End Credits!
    

Where to watch Caved In (2006) Tv show online

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Where to watch Caved In (2006) Tv show online

Your region:USA

Caved In is currently streaming on the following OTT platforms in USA

Your region:
USA