The Poseidon Adventure (film)
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| The Poseidon Adventure | |
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| Directed by | Ronald Neame Irwin Allen |
| Produced by | Irwin Allen |
| Written by | Paul Gallico (novel) Wendell Mayes & Stirling Silliphant (screenplay) |
| Starring | Gene Hackman Shelley Winters Ernest Borgnine Stella Stevens Leslie Nielsen Fred Sadoff |
| Music by | Joel Hirschhorn John Williams Al Kasha |
| Cinematography | Harold E. Stine |
| Editing by | Harold F. Cress |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
| Release date(s) | December 12, 1972 |
| Running time | 117 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $5,000,000 (estimated) |
| Followed by | Beyond the Poseidon Adventure |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
The Poseidon Adventure is a 1972 action/adventure/disaster film based on a novel by Paul Gallico. It concerns the capsizing of a luxurious ocean liner by a rogue wave and the desperate struggles of a handful of survivors to journey up to the bottom of the hull of the liner before it sinks.
It won the Academy Award for Best Song for "The Song from 'The Poseidon Adventure'" (aka The Morning After), which also became a hit single for Maureen McGovern.
The plot centres upon the SS Poseidon, an aged luxury liner from the golden age of travel, on its final voyage from New York City to Athens before being sent to the scrapyard. On New Year's Eve, it is overturned by a rogue wave caused by an underwater earthquake, trapping passengers and crew inside. A renegade preacher attempts to lead a small group of survivors to safety.
Parts of the movie were filmed aboard the RMS Queen Mary.
A huge box office success, it was the top grossing film of 1972. The success of this film is in the vein of other all-star disaster films in the seventies such as Airport (1970) and later films like The Towering Inferno (1974), and Earthquake (1974). A sequel, Beyond the Poseidon Adventure (1979), had an equally star-studded cast, but was a box-office and critical failure. The film was remade two times, first as a television special in 2005 with the same name, and a theatrical release with the name Poseidon in 2006.
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[edit] Primary cast
- Gene Hackman: Reverend Frank Scott
- Ernest Borgnine: Detective Lieutenant Mike Rogo
- Red Buttons: James Martin
- Carol Lynley: Nonnie Parry
- Roddy McDowall: Acres
- Stella Stevens: Linda Rogo
- Shelley Winters: Belle Rosen
- Jack Albertson: Manny Rosen
- Pamela Sue Martin: Susan Shelby
- Eric Shea: Robin Shelby
- Arthur O'Connell: Chaplain John
- Leslie Nielsen: Captain Harrison
- Fred Sadoff: Mr. Linarcos
[edit] Plot summary
The SS Poseidon, a retiring trans-Atlantic steamship, is making its way across the Atlantic from New York City to Athens on its last voyage. On the bridge, company representative Linarcos (Fred Sadoff) orders Ship Captain Harrison (Leslie Nielsen) to empty ballast and head full speed to Athens, against the Captain's better judgement. Meanwhile, Detective Lt. Mike Rogo (Ernest Borgnine) and his ex-prostitute wife Linda (Stella Stevens) receive an invitation to the captain's table. Reverend Frank Scott (Gene Hackman) makes a speech at the Sunday service. Susan Shelby (Pamela Sue Martin) and her brother Robin (Eric Shea) are travelling to meet their parents. Robin is interested in how the ship works and frequently goes down to the engine room with his friend, Charlie the engineer. Retired hardware store owner Manny Rosen (Jack Albertson) and his wife Belle Rosen (Shelley Winters) are going to Israel to meet their two-year-old grandson for the first time. Haberdasher James Martin (Red Buttons) is a love-shy, health-conscious bachelor who takes numerous vitamin pills everyday. The ship's singer, Nonnie Parry (Carol Lynley) practices songs for the New Year celebration with her band, which includes her brother Teddy on drums.
On New Year's Eve, everybody gathers in the dining room to celebrate. Captain Harrison is called back to the bridge because of an emergency. Then Harrison receives word from the lookout that there is a rogue wave heading towards them. He immediately issues a mayday, but it is already too late. The wave hits the ship, drowning Harrison, Linarcos and other ship officers in the bridge. The ship capsizes, killing most of the people on board.
After the upside-down ship steadies, the surviving passengers and crew in the dining room look around, not knowing what to do. Robin looks for his sister, who has ended up under a table that is still attached to what is now the ceiling. Scott assembles a team to hold a cloth that will cushion her fall. They succeed and the Shelbys are united. Acres, an injured waiter (Roddy McDowall), is trapped up by the kitchen door. Martin suggests that they head up towards the hull. Robin tells them that the Hull near the propeller shaft is one inch thick. The main characters all agree (though some do so a bit reluctantly) and start to climb up a fallen Christmas tree; they try to convince more passengers to join them, but most of the other passengers prefer to remain where they are in hopes that the ship's crew will come to their aid (unaware that most of the crew have already been killed).
Almost immediately after the small group of survivors (including Scott, the Rosens, the Rogos, Nonnie, Susan, Robin, Acres, and Martin) climb up the tree, there is an explosion, and water begins to flood the ballroom through the lighted glass ceiling. Everybody rushes to the tree, but the weight of everyone trying to climb the tree at once pulls it over, dooming the people who chose not to climb earlier. Scott sadly closes the kitchen doors behind him to prevent additional flooding.
Acres then tells Scott where the kitchen is. The danger light is on and the fire door has been shut. Scott goes inside the flash-fired kitchen to investigate. It turns out there is a way through, and after Scott returns with the good news, they all go through the kitchen to a staircase on the other side. Scott climbs the ramped underside of the stairs first, followed by Martin's fire hose that he found moments before. Scott then uses the fire hose to pull Rogo and Acres up and instructs Rogo to pull the others up. Scott and Acres go ahead and find the only exit to the broadway (main passage of the ship) blocked. Acres suggests the funnel shaft. Scott unscrews the opening and returns to the others. By now, only Linda, Martin and Nonnie are left. At that moment, water pours into the kitchen from the dining room and begins to flood the staircase. In a panic, the survivors pull the three up just as the water pours in around them. Safe on a dry deck, Scott leads them to the shaft and begins to climb in with the others. Rogo had been instructed to look after everybody. Just as Martin and Nonnie climb into the hole, the water begins to chase them into the corridor. They make it into the funnel and began to climb up, with Acres above them. Suddenly, the ship lets off an explosion and Acres falls into the boiling water and drowns. Rogo makes an attempt to save him, but the shaft explodes and Rogo returns to the surface without Acres.
When everybody climbs out of the shaft and into Broadway, Scott begins to shout at Rogo for letting Acres die when the ten survivors spotted more survivors. The others are being led by the ship's medic, heading towards the bow. Rogo argues with Scott about which direction to go and gives Scott only fifteen minutes to find the engine room. Everybody else goes to find supplies. Scott and Susan find the hatch that leads to the engine room. Scott tells Susan that if he's not back in five minutes, go back and tell the others that Rogo's right. In five minutes, Scott has not come back. Just as Susan tells the others about the bad news, Scott appears and exclaims that he found it.
When Susan shows the survivors where to go, Scott notices that Robin was missing. He finds Robin just as the water begins to flood the broadway. They raced to the hatch and made it up just as the water finishes flooding the broadway. The engine room is on the other side of a flooded corridor, so someone would have to attach a line across the corridor so others could find a way across.
Belle claims that she could swim under it, but Scott refuses and dives in with the line. Halfway, a door collapses on Scott and he gets trapped. The survivors notice something is wrong and Belle dives in to save him. She finds Scott and pulls the door off him; they make it to the other side. As Scott attaches the line to a metal frame, Belle suddenly has a heart attack and collapes back into the water. Scott pulls her back to the surface. With her last breath, she gives her swimming medal to Scott so he can give it to Manny, who in turn would give it to their grandson. A few minutes later, Rogo surfaces and observes the situation. He returns to the other side and says that Scott did it, but Manny suspects something is wrong. He immediately jumps in the water and swims to the other side. A few minutes later, the others make it across and are shocked to find Manny embracing his now-deceased wife.
Scott goes ahead to find a valve emitting steam, as well as a watertight door. He returns and leads the survivors across a catwalk to the valve. There is another explosion, knocking Linda off balance and she falls into a flaming pool of fire. An infuriated Rogo blames her death on Scott, calling him a "lying, murderous S.O.B.".
Scott, upset about the three deaths, yells to God not to work against him and the survivors. He leaps onto the wheel to open the valve. As he dangles, Scott manages to turn the wheel. His grip begins to fail but the reverend manages to turn the steam off, denouncing God in his frustration. Scott begs Rogo to lead the group on and slips from the wheel, into the flaming, oily water.
Rogo can't bear the responsibility of becoming leader, but Martin talks Rogo into it. Rogo leads the survivors to the watertight doors and cranks it open. They step inside, but there are no rescuers. Suddenly, they hear a noise outside the ship. They bang on the hull to grab the rescuers' attention. The rescuers cut a hole through the hull and extract the survivors.
Taglines:
- Hell, upside down.
- At midnight on New Year's Eve the SS Poseidon was struck by a 90 foot tidal wave and capsized.
- Who will survive-in one of the greatest escape adventures ever!
- Combining the talents of fifteen Academy Award Winners.
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[edit] In Popular Culture
- A Pokémon episode was based on the events of this movie. An SNES game called S.O.S., or Septentrion in Japan, has a largely similar plot, although some of the specifics vary.
- An episode of the The Simpsons had a line of the Poseidon Adventure. When people were trying out to be the village idiot of Old Springfield, a tryout said "I played the part of panicking idiot number two in the Poseidon Adventure".
- An episode of The Simpsons (The Wettest Stories Ever Told) parodied the film, even including a spoof of "The Morning After" foreshadowing the destruction of the ship, the SS Neptune.
- The film is parodied in the Seinfeld episode "The Puerto Rican Day", where Elaine accompanies a ragtag group that includes a priest under stadium bleachers in an attempt to escape the parade.
- The band Killdozer's song Man Vs Nature pays satirical homage to the film as well as The Towering Inferno and Earthquake (the last erroneously identified as an Irwin Allen production.) The lyrics of the first verse begin On my screen a ship was sinking/it seemed so real but it was just a movie/made by Irwin Allen (my what a relief).
- The TV show Sunset Beach (1997-2000) borrowed large chunks of the plot for its 'shockwave' storyline. This had around half of the cast boarding a cruise liner which was turned upside down by a giant wave. Like in the movie, Sunset Beach's characters had to make their way to the bottom of the ship (which was at the top) and cut their way through.
- The cartoon The Angry Beavers featured an episode where two of the characters had to escape from the sinking dam.
- A musical has been based upon the story.
- One of the special effects models used for filming is on view at the LA Maritime Museum: http://www.lamaritimemuseum.org/
- In the Father Ted, Speed 3 episode, the priests watch the entire Poseidon Adventure to help them rescue Dougal from a milk float, believing it will help them as "Gene Hackman plays a priest in it!" It is "No help at all".
- The movie Rugrats Go Wild! parodies the boat overturning and uses the song The Morning After
[edit] Awards
[edit] Awards wins
- BAFTA Award for Best Actor - (Gene Hackman)
- Academy Award for Best Original Song - (Al Kasha & Joel Hirschhorn) for the song "The Morning After"
- Academy Special Achievement Award for Visual Effects - (L.B. Abbott & A.D. Flowers)
- Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture - Shelley Winters
[edit] Award nominations
- Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Drama
- Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress - (Shelley Winters)
- BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role - (Shelley Winters)
- Academy Award for Best Art Direction - (William J. Creber & Raphael Bretton)
- Academy Award for Best Cinematography - (Harold E. Stine)
- Academy Award for Costume Design - (Paul Zastupnevich)
- Academy Award for Film Editing - (Harold F. Kress)
- Academy Award for Original Music Score - (John Williams)
- Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score - Motion Picture - (John Williams)
- Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song - Motion Picture - (Al Kasha & Joel Hirschhorn) for the song "The Morning After".
- Academy Award for Sound - (Theodore Soderberg & Herman Lewis)
[edit] See also
- The Poseidon Adventure (2005)
- Beyond the Poseidon Adventure (1979)
- Poseidon (2006)
- The Poseidon Adventure (book)
- SS Poseidon
- SS Andrea Doria
[edit] External links
