20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1916 film)

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is a 1916 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.