Hollywood has always had a thing for yachts. Tom Hanks battled Somali pirates aboard the Alexander Maersk cargo ship in Captain Phillips. Titanic gave us the world’s most expensive replica and an iceberg we’ll never forget.
But Netflix’s latest thriller, The Woman in Cabin 10, takes it up a notch by filming almost entirely aboard Savannah, one of the most awarded and eco-conscious superyachts ever built.
The film stars Keira Knightley as Laura ‘Lo’ Blacklock, a travel journalist sent to cover a luxury cruise from the UK to Norway. It’s supposed to be an easy story to cover with beautiful destinations, fine dining, and endless champagne. But things take a turn when she hears a scream in the night and sees what she believes is a woman being thrown overboard from Cabin 10.
The only problem? Cabin 10 is empty, and every passenger is accounted for which leads to everyone thinking Laura is losing her mind.
Curated news for men,
delivered to your inbox.
Join the DMARGE newsletter — Be the first to receive the latest news and exclusive stories on style, travel, luxury, cars, and watches. Straight to your inbox.
The movie, directed by Simon Stone, is based on Ruth Ware’s 2016 novel of the same name and also stars Guy Pearce, David Ajala, and Hannah Waddingham. Still, much of the attention has fallen on the yacht itself and for good reason.
A Superyacht Built for Suspense
Savannah isn’t your average superyacht. Delivered by Dutch shipyard Feadship in 2015, the 274-foot vessel was one of the first hybrids of its kind, combining advanced engineering with a focus on sustainability. She’s won design awards and remains one of the most admired yachts on the water. In the film, she’s renamed The Aurora Borealis which is an appropriately moody name for a thriller set at sea.
The yacht made her way to Dorset, England for the shoot, which lasted nearly three weeks and came with a reported price tag of $1.5 million AUD per week. Not exactly a budget indie production.
The interiors of Savannah are filled with luxury including six suites that sleep twelve, along with an owner’s cabin with its own private deck, dining room, saloon, office, marble bathroom, and terrace complete with a helipad. There’s also a gym, beauty salon, spa, and a nine-meter mosaic pool surrounded by sun loungers, all styled by the acclaimed CG Design studio in Paris.
Still, the real showstopper is the Nemo Lounge which is a submerged underwater viewing room that doubles as a private cinema. Picture stadium-style seating, a drop-down screen, and floor-to-ceiling windows offering live views of passing marine life. It’s the kind of space that would make James Bond jealous, and it provides the perfect eerie backdrop for a film about paranoia and isolation.
Luxury With Limits
As glamorous as it sounds, director Simon Stone made it clear that filming aboard Savannah was more restrictive than relaxing. The production team had to follow a long list of rules to protect the pristine interiors, and those rules were non-negotiable.
Stone described the experience as far from the luxury vacation people imagined. A lot of people expected the shoot to be glamorous, he said, but the reality involved serious restrictions. No one was allowed to eat or drink while working and crew members couldn’t even hold coffee cups. For a film set, it was the opposite of comfort and was more like working in a floating museum where one wrong move could cost you an arm and a leg.
Still, Stone admits it was worth it. The design of the yacht, he explained, was done with such restraint and taste that every space felt both calming and ridiculously beautiful. It was the kind of environment where you could genuinely imagine guests relaxing, even if the film crew was anything but.
Making Paradise Feel Like a Prison
Of course, what works for actual superyacht guests doesn’t always translate to screen. Savannah’s interiors are airy, bright, and designed to feel open and serene. But for a psychological thriller, that posed a problem. The production team had to darken the cabins, dim the natural light, and create a sense of claustrophobia and foreboding.
Some sets were built from scratch at Shepperton Studios outside London, including mirrored hallways and a creepy library. The goal was to take this sleek, modern superyacht and make it feel unsettling, like a floating trap rather than a dream vacation.
And that’s the real genius of the setting. There’s something inherently unnerving about superyachts when you strip away the champagne and Instagram filters and because of this, the yacht becomes more than just a backdrop in the movie. It mirrors Laura’s unraveling state of mind becoming a place where luxury turns to unease and no one can be trusted.
And maybe that’s the point. Superyachts are built to be flawless, untouchable. But when something cracks that illusion, perfection itself starts to feel unsettling and The Woman in Cabin 10 plays with that tension perfectly by turning one of the world’s most beautiful yachts into something quietly menacing.
