Simon Canton

Simon Canton is the main antagonist in the 1998 film Deep Rising.

He is portrayed by Anthony Heald.

Biography
Canton is the owner of a luxury cruise ship named the Argonautica, but unbeknownst to his guests, the ship is costing him more money to maintain than its profits can afford. Due to this, Canton hires a group of mercenaries to sink the ship using torpedoes during its maiden voyage so that he can collect on the insurance, and arranges for the ship’s navigation and communication systems to be jammed so that nobody will come to their rescue. Canton does not intend for any of his passengers to die during the incident and plans for them all to leave the ship safely via the lifeboats, but unfortunately, the ship is attacked from below by a gigantic unseen monster and the vessel is left stranded in the middle of the ocean. Canton, the captain, and three other passengers manage to lock themselves in a vault to hide from the monster while every other person on board is brutally devoured.

Later, when Captain John Finnegan and the mercenary group that Canton had hired find the Argonautica and board it, Canton ends up accidentally killing one of them with an axe after mistaking them for the monster. Shortly after, Finnegan deduces that Canton was the one responsible for the ship’s sabotage, angering the ship’s captain before he is killed by the monster shortly after. Canton joins the group in their attempt to escape from the ship while avoiding the monster’s huge spiked tentacles, which pick off the mercenaries one by one. Eventually, Canton abandons Finnegan and the remaining survivors and escapes due to his knowledge of the ship’s exits and escape routes, and leaves the group to die in order to eliminate any witnesses. After a woman named Trillian (who is accompanying Finnegan) gets separated from Finnegan during their escape, Canton confronts her and attempts to kill her with a flare gun, until Finnegan intervenes and forces Canton to escape yet again.

During the climax, Canton finds Finnegan’s boat and jumps down onto it from the ship’s balcony, breaking his leg in the process. However, he is unaware that Finnegan has already set the boat’s autopilot to crash into the Argonautica and destroy it with the mercenaries’ torpedoes, and Canton is unable to override the controls and switch it back to manual. In horror, Canton screams as the boat rams into the cruise ship and obliterates it, killing him and destroying the monster while Finnegan and Trillian escape to safety.