The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is a 2004 American adventure comedy-drama film written by Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach and directed by Anderson. It is Anderson’s fourth feature-length film and was released in the United States on December 25, 2004.
The film also features Owen Wilson, Cate Blanchett, Willem Dafoe, Michael Gambon, Jeff Goldblum, Anjelica Huston, and Bud Cort.
Cate Blanchett plays Jane Winslett-Richardson who accompanies Zissou on his journey; along the way, Zissou himself, as well as his son Edward ‘Ned’ Plimpton / Kingsley Zissou (Owen Wilson), fall in love with her.
The film stars Bill Murray as Steve Zissou, an eccentric oceanographer who sets out with his crew to exact revenge on the “jaguar shark” that ate his partner Esteban. Zissou is both a parody of and homage to French diving pioneer Jacques Cousteau, to whom the film is dedicated.