- Starring: Javier Bardem, Belen Rueda, Lola Duenas, Mabel Rivera

- Director: Alejandro Amenábar 

- Encoding: Region 1 - NTSC 

- Format: Color, Widescreen, Dolby

- Rated: PG-13

- Release Date: Abril 12, 2005

- Run Time: 125 min.

- Languages: Español (Spanish), English

- Subtitles: English

- General: 2004 - Spain - 125 min. - Feature, Color

- Genre/Type: Drama, Biography [feature], Message Movie.

- Themes: Fighting the System, Suicide, Living With Disability 

- Domestic Box Office: $1,707,621 - Worldwide: $27,546,612

- Theatrical Release Date: December 17, 2004 (USA)

- Production Budget: N/A

Ramón (Javier Bardem) lleva casi treinta años postrado en una cama al cuidado de su familia. Su única ventana al mundo es la de su habitación, junto al mar por el que tanto viajó y donde sufrió el accidente que interrumpió su juventud. Desde entonces, su único deseo es terminar con su vida dignamente.

Pero su mundo se ve alterado por la llegada de dos mujeres: Julia (Belén Rueda), la abogada que quiere apoyar su lucha y Rosa (Lola Dueñas), una mujer del pueblo que intentará con-vencerle de que vivir merece la pena. La luminosa personalidad de Ramón termina por cautivar a ambas mujeres, que tendrán que cuestionar como nunca antes los principios con que rigen sus vi-das. Ramón sabe que sólo la persona que de verdad le ame será la que le ayude a realizar ese último viaje.

Two of the most talented figures in contemporary Spanish cinema -- actor Javier Bardem and director Alejandro Amenábar -- collaborate for this powerful drama, based on a true story. Ramón Sampedro (Javier Bardem) was a fisherman and part-time poet who, at the age of 26, suffered an accident while diving that left him a bedridden quadriplegic. Now 54, Ramón must depend on his family to survive -- his macho brother José (Celso Bugallo), José's wife, Manuela (Mabel Rivera), and their son, Javi (Tamar Novas). While grateful to his family and friends for their help, Ramón was always an active person, and as the years wore on, he has come to see his life as frustrating and pointless and wishes to die with what remains of his dignity. José, however, is bitterly opposed to the notion of assisted suicide, and Spanish laws would implicate anyone who helped Ramón end his own life, which is something Ramón does not want to do.

Through Gené (Carla Segura), a friend who works with a "Right to Die" organization, Ramón is introduced to Julia (Belen Rueda), a lawyer he hopes will help him persuade the courts to let him end his own life. Julia is dealing with her own mortality issues since being diagnosed with a degenerative disease, and Ramón hopes her condition will make her arguments more persuasive. As Ramón and Julia work together on his case and help to prepare a book of his poems for publication, Ramón finds himself falling in love with his attorney, who happens to be married, but while his infatuation gives Julia second thoughts about the case, Ramón remains convinced that the greatest gift to him would be an end to his life. Javier Bardem's performance in The Sea Inside (aka Mar Adentro) earned him the Best Actor award at the 2004 Venice Film Festival