The Poseidon Adventure
Short description
The ocean liner Poseidon is crossing from the United States toward Europe when a New Year's Eve celebration on board is interrupted by a huge wave, set off by an undersea earthquake. The ship is overturned, trapping passengers inside compartments that are filling with water. A small group led by Reverend Scott refuses to wait for rescue from above and instead climbs toward the hull, hoping to be freed near the propeller shafts, while others argue about the safest course.
Ronald Neame directed the film, which came between Scrooge and The Odessa File in his filmography. Wendell Mayes and Stirling Silliphant wrote the screenplay, and Irwin Allen produced. Gene Hackman plays Reverend Scott, with Ernest Borgnine, Stella Stevens, Shelley Winters, Jack Albertson and Red Buttons among the main cast. Twenty-six performers and eighty-seven crew members are credited.
Released in December 1972, the film cost about five million dollars and returned roughly eighty-five million worldwide, a strong result for its time. On IMDb it holds 7.1 out of 10 from around fifty-four thousand votes, and on TMDB 7.2 from about a thousand. A critics' rating of 7 out of 10, drawn from thirty-two reviews, places it close to the audience scores. It runs 117 minutes.
What's left behind the scenes
- The start of filming was postponed twice for financial reasons.
- The scenes of the film were shot in order, as it was convenient considering that the main characters' clothes became increasingly dirty and torn, and they themselves sustained injuries – some according to the plot, and some not.
- The famous scene inside the ship as it capsizes was filmed in two stages. First, the special set was tilted to a 45-degree angle using hydraulics. Then, the cameras were turned off, and everything on the set was rearranged (what was originally on the floor was moved to the ceiling, and vice versa). After that, the actors were brought back onto the set, and it was tilted even further.
- Preparing for the role of a former swimmer and numerous sports achievement award winner, Shelley Winters (1920-2006) trained with an Olympic swimming team coach.
- After the film's theatrical run, ABC paid $1 million for the right to broadcast it on television. At the time, this was the largest sum in history ever paid for the television rights to any film.
- A significant portion of the exterior shots of 'Poseidon' involved filming a model built from the original blueprints of the liner. The model is on display at the Maritime Museum in the Port of Los Angeles. The liner itself is docked in the city of Long Beach nearby.
- The "Poseidon" prototype is the real British transatlantic liner Queen Mary.
- Initially, it was planned to show the sinking ship surrounded by lifeboats in the finale, but there wasn't enough money to film this scene. At the studio, they only filmed a helicopter lifting off from the ship's hull with six survivors, and this scene was filmed by pointing the camera straight up to prevent nearby buildings from appearing in the frame.
- According to the original script, Gene Hackman's character was supposed to assign a task to Mrs. Rosen, during which she would get trapped underwater, and he would go to rescue her. It was Hackman who noticed that his character would never assign such a thing to a woman and suggested reversing the situation. The director agreed with him, and together they subsequently convinced Shelley Winters.
- Paul Gallico (1897-1976) wrote the source novel while inspired by a cruise on the transatlantic liner Queen Mary. Once, during breakfast, the liner was hit by a huge wave, sending people and furniture flying to the opposite end of the dining room. Another source of inspiration for Gallico was an incident aboard the Queen Mary that occurred during World War II (1939-1945). The ship was carrying parts of the US Army to Europe when it was hit by a wave in the North Atlantic. Had the ship tilted even slightly more, it would have capsized, as happened with the Poseidon.
- The scene where Gene Hackman's character saves Robin was filmed with a camera mounted on rails on a set that was slowly tilting into a large pool. When the set was halfway submerged, it was supposed to stop tilting, but it didn't due to some technical malfunction, and soon the entire crew along with the equipment were in the water. The film reel was urgently sent to the lab for development, and it turned out, fortunately, that the film hadn't gotten wet.
- It was previously believed that rogue waves only occurred once every 10,000 years, but a 2004 study of satellite footage showed that they occur much more frequently – several hundred every ten years.
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