Bill Murray plays oceanographer Steve Zissou in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.
Steve Zissou is a documentary filmmaker and ocean explorer who leads the crew of the research vessel Belafonte. The film follows his attempt to find and destroy the jaguar shark that killed his longtime collaborator, Esteban du Plantier.
The 2004 comedy combines maritime adventure, family drama, and a fictional documentary tradition inspired partly by Jacques Cousteau. Zissou’s crew wears distinctive blue uniforms and red caps, while the film uses miniature sets and stylized underwater imagery to create its deliberately artificial world.
The cast includes Owen Wilson as Ned Plimpton, Cate Blanchett as journalist Jane Winslett-Richardson, Anjelica Huston as Eleanor Zissou, and Willem Dafoe as Klaus Daimler. Zissou is not simply an explorer seeking revenge: the story also examines aging, professional decline, uncertain parenthood, and the possibility of rebuilding a damaged team.