Rollercoaster

Rollercoaster follows a safety inspector, Harry Calder, who is drawn into the hunt for a bomber targeting amusement parks. A fatal accident on a roller coaster turns out to be deliberate, and further attacks follow, with the perpetrator sending a recorded message to park executives and demanding payment to stop. Calder, who once inspected the ride involved in the first incident, becomes central to the effort to identify and stop the man behind the attacks. A federal agent, Hoyt, works the case alongside him, and the owner of a large park, Simon Davenport, is among those the bomber tries to pressure.

The film was directed by James Goldstone, his fifth feature and the one that followed Swashbuckler. Richard Levinson and William Link wrote the screenplay, and Jennings Lang produced for Universal Pictures. George Segal plays Calder, with Richard Widmark as Hoyt, Timothy Bottoms as the young man, and Harry Guardino, Susan Strasberg and Henry Fonda in supporting roles. It runs 119 minutes.

Made for about 9 million dollars, Rollercoaster returned roughly 8 million at the worldwide box office, a modest result against its cost. On IMDb it holds a 6.3 rating from around 7,500 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 6 out of 10 from 161 votes, indicating a small but fairly consistent level of viewer approval.