Director and explorer James Cameron says life at the world's deepest point was desolate and smaller than he had expected, adding that the experience of building a submarine and his expedition will find its way to his future films.

Cameron returned to the ocean's surface Sunday evening, after a 6.8 mile dive in a special submarine designed to explore the ocean's deepest point the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean.

"This is the culmination of a lifelong drive, having first heard about it in the 1960s," Cameron said at a press conference on Monday. A manned descent by the U.S. Navy took place in 1960 but no other manned descents had taken place until Cameron's dive.

"Most people know me as a filmmaker, but the idea of ocean and exploration has always been the stronger driver in my life."

Cameron's Deepsea Challenger, a 2.5 -story tall sub - reached the surface after a 70-minute ascent, according to National Geographic. Earlier, the multi-mile dive was completed in 2 hours and 36 minutes.

Cameron spent hours near the bottom collecting samples and videos. Among the sub's equipment are a sediment sampler, a robotic claw, and a device which can suck up small sea creatures.

Cameron said a manipulator arm did not work, but said it was to be expected with a prototype vehicle. He also said there are more dives planned.

What he saw was different from what he expected.

"I expected life and I found that life is much smaller. Didn't see big jellyfish, anemones. I saw at New Britain Trench," he said.

He called the bottom was "featureless" and "very lunar, desolate, isolated."

"I had this idea that life would adapt, but don't think we're seeing that," he said.

Cameron said what he experienced in the dive would be used later in his films.

"The experience of building the sub and the expedition will find a place in the films I make in the future," he said.

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