The Poseidon Adventure (film)
The Poseidon Adventure
The Poseidon Adventure is a 1972 action adventure/disaster/thriller film based on a novel by Paul Gallico. It concerns the capsizing of a luxurious ocean liner by a tidal wave[1] 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 became a hit single for Maureen McGovern, as well as winning an Academy Award for Special Achievement in Visual Effects. Shelley Winters was also nominated for an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actress for her role in the film, and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress in a film for the role.
The plot centers upon the fictional ocean liner SS Poseidon, an aged luxury ship 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 tsunami wave caused by an underwater earthquake, trapping passengers and crew inside. A renegade preacher attempts to lead a small group of survivors to safety. The description of a tsunami is scientifically inaccurate because they are small in open waters and the ship was more accurately capsized by a rogue wave which was corrected in later versions of the story.
Parts
of the movie were filmed aboard the RMS Queen Mary.
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
Cast
Gene Hackman - Rev. Frank Scott
Ernest Borgnine - Det. Lt. 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
Arthur O'Connell - Chaplain
John
Eric Shea - Robin Shelby
Fred Sadoff - Mr. Linarcos
Sheila Allen - Nurse Gina Rowe (as Sheila Mathews)
Jan Arvan - Dr. Caravello
Byron Webster - Purser
In popular culture
The comedy-musical
stage version The Poseidon Adventure, the Musical! by Bill Robens and Genemichael
Barrera, (Los Angeles, 2002) was featured in the FOX Movie Channel documentary
Cult Culture: The Poseidon Adventure.
Another musical has been based upon
the story, POSEIDON! An Upside Down Musical written by David Cerda with Hell in
a Handbag Productions in Chicago.
An official fan club was created in the
late 1990's. The Poseidon Adventure Fan Club (1999-2006) was an international
club run by Jak Castro, which presented seven fan club reunions over the course
of its run. Most of the film's original cast made appearances at these reunions.
The fan club was featured in the FOX Movie Channel documentary Cult Culture: The
Poseidon Adventure, and in the AMC Backstory The Poseidon Adventure, which is
also included on the special edition DVD of the original film.
One of the
special effects models used for filming is on view at the LA Maritime Museum.
The Pokémon episode "Pokémon Shipwreck!" was based
on the events of this movie.
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 cartoon The Angry Beavers featured an episode where two of the characters
had to escape from the sinking dam.
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, the show's characters had to make their way to the bottom of
the ship (which was at the top) and cut their way through.
In the Father Ted
episode "Speed 3", 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."
An SNES game called S.O.S., or Septentrion in Japan,
has a largely similar plot, although some of the specifics vary.
Mad Magazine
did a spoof of this movie called "The Poop-side Down Adventure". The
cover doesn't show Alfred E. Newman's face, but only his legs upside-down in a
life preserver.
In the mid 1990's, "The Poseidon Adventure" was
satired by a live comedy troupe called "The Sick and Twisted Players",
led by Tony Vaguely in San Francisco.
The Urban Legends Reference Page has
a joke page, complete with a phony Internet Movie Database entry which claims
that a silent film version of The Poseidon Adventure, starring Donald Crisp as
Reverend Scott, was playing in the ship's theater on the RMS Titanic at the time
it struck the iceberg. This is done to caution the reader about believing everything
you read on the internet, even on the Urban Legends page.
Plot
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's Captain Harrison (Leslie Nielsen) to empty ballast and head full speed to Athens, against the Captain's better judgement. Meanwhile, Detective Lieutenant 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 traveling 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 (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 tsunami 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 is inverted, killing most of the people on board.
After the upside-down wreck 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 (who has developed a crush on the handsome Reverend) 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 collapses 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. When he finds Belle motionless and unresponsive, he immediately breaks down and cries. 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, 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 son-of-a-bitch".
Immediately after Rogo screams at Scott about Linda, there is a series of more explosions that rupture a large pipe which releases a large spray cloud of scalding hot steam that blocks the group's path to the propeller shaft room behind the watertight door. Scott, upset about the three deaths, and now the hot steam now blocking their way, yells to God not to work against him and the survivors. He leaps onto the wheel to close the valve. As he dangles, Scott manages to turn the wheel, eventually turning off the hot steam, denouncing God in his frustration. Scott begs Rogo to lead the group on and lets go of the wheel, falling 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 door and cranks it open. They step inside the propeller shaft room, 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 (Rogo, Manny, Martin, Nonnie, Susan and Robin) who are then flown off to safety by helicopter.
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.
Animation
- Comedy - Crime
- Documentary
-
Family - Foreign
Language - Historical
- Horror - Musical
- Political
Recommended- Romance- Science Fiction and Fantasy - Sport Movies -- Thriller - War - Western - Wildlife
A map of where different US films & TV programmes blanket across the USA are
ZANADU - A FUN BASED SITE, WITH SOME FILM RELATED SECTIONS
Flight Las Vegas Nevada - Find a flight to Las Vegas
Cheap flights Beijing - Get your tickets here Fly to Beijing
Bank Interest Rates - A Website on Bank Interest Rates
Car Cheap Insurance - Get Cheap Car Insurance from here
Flights London - Want to fly to or Visit London get your Flight and Hotel place here
Get
your fave music here for your IPOD
Buy DVD Rent DVD Get your DVDs from here