The Poseidon Adventure is a
2005The year 2005 in film saw many new films released worldwide, including several major mainstream sequels, prequels, and remakes as well as original films.-Top–grossing films:...
action and adventure film based on a
novelThe Poseidon Adventure is an American adventure novel by Paul Gallico, released in 1969. It concerns the capsizing of a luxurious ocean liner, the SS Poseidon due to an undersea earthquake, and the desperate struggles of a handful of survivors to reach the bottom of the liner's hull before the ship...
by
Paul GallicoPaul William Gallico was a successful American novelist, short story and sports writer. Many of his works were adapted for motion pictures...
. It is a remake of the 1972 film of the same name.
The plot centered around the
SS Poseidon-In fiction:*SS Poseidon , the subject of the novel and film The Poseidon Adventure.-Ships:, a Panamanian steamship.* ST Poseidon a Greek tug....
, a state-of-the-art luxury cruise ship on a cruise from
Cape TownCape Town is the second most populous city in South Africa, and the largest in land area, forming part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality. It is the provincial capital of the Western Cape, as well as the legislative capital of South Africa, where the National Parliament and many...
,
South AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country located at the southern tip of Africa, with a coastline on the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. To the north lie Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, to the east are Mozambique and Swaziland, while Lesotho is an independent country surrounded by South Africa.Modern...
to
SydneySydney is the largest city in Australia, and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney has a metropolitan area population of approximately 4.34 million and an area of approximately 12,000 square kilometres. Its inhabitants are called Sydneysiders, and Sydney is often called "the Harbour City"...
,
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
. On
New Year's EveNew Year's Eve or Old Year's Night is on , the final day of the Gregorian year, and the day before New Year's Day.New Year's Eve is a separate observance from the observance of New Year's Day...
, it is overturned by a terrorist bomb, killing almost everyone onboard. A passenger attempts to lead a small group of survivors to safety.
The film was made for television by Larry Levenson Productions, directed by John Putch, written by Bryce Zabel, starring
Adam BaldwinAdam Baldwin is an American actor, not related to the Baldwin brothers. He is known for his roles as Animal Mother in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, Ricky Linderman in My Bodyguard, Knowle Rohrer in The X-Files, and Marcus Hamilton in Joss Whedon's Angel...
,
Rutger HauerRutger Oelsen Hauer is a Golden Globe–winning Dutch film actor. He is well known for his roles in Blind Fury, Blade Runner, The Hitcher, Nighthawks, Ladyhawke, The Blood of Heroes and Batman Begins....
and
Steve GuttenbergSteven Robert "Steve" Guttenberg is an American actor and comedian. He became known during the 1980s, after a series of starring roles in major Hollywood films, including Cocoon, Three Men and a Baby, Police Academy, and Short Circuit. In 2008 Guttenberg was one of 12 contestants on the 6th season...
.
The Poseidon Adventure is a
2005The year 2005 in film saw many new films released worldwide, including several major mainstream sequels, prequels, and remakes as well as original films.-Top–grossing films:...
action and adventure film based on a
novelThe Poseidon Adventure is an American adventure novel by Paul Gallico, released in 1969. It concerns the capsizing of a luxurious ocean liner, the SS Poseidon due to an undersea earthquake, and the desperate struggles of a handful of survivors to reach the bottom of the liner's hull before the ship...
by
Paul GallicoPaul William Gallico was a successful American novelist, short story and sports writer. Many of his works were adapted for motion pictures...
. It is a remake of the 1972 film of the same name.
Plot
The plot centered around the
SS Poseidon-In fiction:*SS Poseidon , the subject of the novel and film The Poseidon Adventure.-Ships:, a Panamanian steamship.* ST Poseidon a Greek tug....
, a state-of-the-art luxury cruise ship on a cruise from
Cape TownCape Town is the second most populous city in South Africa, and the largest in land area, forming part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality. It is the provincial capital of the Western Cape, as well as the legislative capital of South Africa, where the National Parliament and many...
,
South AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country located at the southern tip of Africa, with a coastline on the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. To the north lie Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, to the east are Mozambique and Swaziland, while Lesotho is an independent country surrounded by South Africa.Modern...
to
SydneySydney is the largest city in Australia, and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney has a metropolitan area population of approximately 4.34 million and an area of approximately 12,000 square kilometres. Its inhabitants are called Sydneysiders, and Sydney is often called "the Harbour City"...
,
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
. On
New Year's EveNew Year's Eve or Old Year's Night is on , the final day of the Gregorian year, and the day before New Year's Day.New Year's Eve is a separate observance from the observance of New Year's Day...
, it is overturned by a terrorist bomb, killing almost everyone onboard. A passenger attempts to lead a small group of survivors to safety.
Production
The film was made for television by Larry Levenson Productions, directed by John Putch, written by Bryce Zabel, starring
Adam BaldwinAdam Baldwin is an American actor, not related to the Baldwin brothers. He is known for his roles as Animal Mother in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, Ricky Linderman in My Bodyguard, Knowle Rohrer in The X-Files, and Marcus Hamilton in Joss Whedon's Angel...
,
Rutger HauerRutger Oelsen Hauer is a Golden Globe–winning Dutch film actor. He is well known for his roles in Blind Fury, Blade Runner, The Hitcher, Nighthawks, Ladyhawke, The Blood of Heroes and Batman Begins....
and
Steve GuttenbergSteven Robert "Steve" Guttenberg is an American actor and comedian. He became known during the 1980s, after a series of starring roles in major Hollywood films, including Cocoon, Three Men and a Baby, Police Academy, and Short Circuit. In 2008 Guttenberg was one of 12 contestants on the 6th season...
. It was first aired on
NBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices in Burbank,California...
as a single three-hour event on November 20, 2005. It also aired in 2005 on the
Seven NetworkThe Seven Network is an Australian television network owned by the Seven Media Group. It dates back to 2 December 1970, when the first stations on the VHF7 frequency were established in Sydney and Melbourne. It is currently the second largest network in the country in terms of population reach...
in Australia (with the name
The New Poseidon Adventure), and in 2006 on the
USA NetworkUSA Network is an American cable television channel launched in 1977. The channel shows a variety of original and second-run programming, from syndicated TV series to edited movies...
in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. In this adaptation, the plot differs from the original book and first feature film in that the ship capsized due to a terrorist act. Though many of the characters remained the same, several were added. Some were dropped all together. The character of Mike Rogo was changed to a sea marshal who works for the Department of Homeland Security. The story was altered because it was felt that the original's disaster was unrealistic since a
tsunamiA is a series of water waves that is caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, such as an ocean. The original Japanese term literally translates as "harbor wave." Tsunamis are a frequent occurrence in Japan; approximately 195 events have been recorded...
out at open sea is only a few inches high and does not have the strength and size to seriously affect a large vessel.
The final scenes of the film include details from the novel of the
Poseidon's sinking that were not part of the original 1972 film adaptation. The final shot was from the air as the ship's
propellerA propeller is a type of fan which transmits power by converting rotational motion into thrust. A pressure difference is produced between the forward and rear surfaces of the airfoil-shaped blade, and air or water is accelerated behind the blade...
s slipped beneath the surface, which, by design or coincidence, matches several photographs taken by a news plane of the final moments of the
SS Andrea DoriaSS Andrea Doria was an ocean liner for the Italian Line home ported in Genoa, Italy, most famous for its sinking in 1956. Named after the 16th-century Genoese admiral Andrea Doria, the Andrea Doria had a gross register tonnage of 29,100 and a capacity of about 1,200 passengers and 500 crew...
in 1956.
Reviews
This movie received less-than-enthusiastic reviews from critics (although there were exceptions, such as
The New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded in 1851 and published in New York City. The largest metropolitan newspaper in the United States, "The Gray Lady"—named for its staid appearance and style—is regarded as a national newspaper of record...
and the
New York PostThe New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
), as well as fans of the original.
The movie was mainly put into production in order to ride on the wave of public interest that the 2006
Wolfgang PetersenWolfgang Petersen is a German film director. He is known for his body of film work, which includes The NeverEnding Story, Outbreak, In the Line of Fire, Air Force One, The Perfect Storm, Troy, and Poseidon...
adaption of the same story was expected to generate.
Character names
Some characters and rooms were renamed to pay homage; the ship's captain was named Captain Gallico for writer
Paul GallicoPaul William Gallico was a successful American novelist, short story and sports writer. Many of his works were adapted for motion pictures...
on whose novel the story is based; the ship's doctor was named Dr. Ballard for Bob Ballard leader of the 1985 expedition that discovered the remains of the
RMS TitanicThe RMS Titanic was an Olympic-class passenger liner owned by British shipping company White Star Line and built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, United Kingdom...
; the ship's lounge named Jak's Lounge for Jak Castro president of The Poseidon Adventure Fan Club.
Primary cast
- Rutger Hauer
Rutger Oelsen Hauer is a Golden Globe–winning Dutch film actor. He is well known for his roles in Blind Fury, Blade Runner, The Hitcher, Nighthawks, Ladyhawke, The Blood of Heroes and Batman Begins....
as Bishop August Schmidt
- Adam Baldwin
Adam Baldwin is an American actor, not related to the Baldwin brothers. He is known for his roles as Animal Mother in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, Ricky Linderman in My Bodyguard, Knowle Rohrer in The X-Files, and Marcus Hamilton in Joss Whedon's Angel...
as Sea Marshal Mike Rogo
- Steve Guttenberg
Steven Robert "Steve" Guttenberg is an American actor and comedian. He became known during the 1980s, after a series of starring roles in major Hollywood films, including Cocoon, Three Men and a Baby, Police Academy, and Short Circuit. In 2008 Guttenberg was one of 12 contestants on the 6th season...
as Richard Clarke
- Bryan Brown
Bryan Neathway Brown AM is an Australian actor.-Early life:Brown was born in Sydney, the son of John Brown and Molly Brown, a house cleaner and pianist. He grew up in the south-western Sydney suburb of Bankstown, and began working at AMP as an actuarial student...
as Jeffrey Eric Anderson
- C. Thomas Howell
Christopher Thomas Howell , usually credited as C. Thomas Howell, is an American actor. He is best known for having starred in the films The Outsiders and The Hitcher, as well as Soul Man, Red Dawn, Gettysburg, and Gods and Generals.- Early life :Christopher Thomas Howell, nicknamed either "Tommy"...
as Doctor Matthew Ballard
- Peter Weller
Peter Frederick Weller is an American film and stage actor, director and lecturer.He is best known to moviegoers as the titular character of RoboCop in the first two RoboCop movies as well as Buckaroo Banzai in the cult classic The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension...
as Captain Paul Gallico
- Alex Kingston
Alexandra Elizabeth Kingston is an English actress most widely known for her role as Dr. Elizabeth Corday on the NBC medical drama ER.-Early life:...
as Suzanne Harrison
- Alexa Hamilton
Alexa Hamilton is an American actress. Her first starring role on American television was in her late teens, as Sandy Martinson in The Invisible Woman, an unsold television pilot broadcast over NBC as a Sunday night telefilm in 1983...
as Rachel Clarke
- Clive Mantle
-Early life and education:Mantle was born in Barnet, Hertfordshire. He was a pupil at Kimbolton School, Cambridgeshire and a chorister in St. John's College Choir, Cambridge for four years...
as James Martin
- Sylvia Syms
Sylvia Syms OBE is an English actress. She is probably best known for her roles in the films The Tamarind Seed, Ice Cold in Alex, No Trees in the Street and Woman in a Dressing Gown, and is remembered by most for her film works in the 1950s and 1960s but is still active in films, television and...
as Belle Rosen
- Amber Sainsbury
Amber Sainsbury is a New Zealand actress. She has starred in the Sky One UK Television series Hex, as Roxanne Davenport...
as Shelby Clarke
- Rory Copus as Dylan Clarke
- Geoffrey Pierson as Admiral Jennings
- Peter Dobson
Peter Dobson is an American actor who has appeared in Drowning Mona, The Frighteners, The Poseidon Adventure, and the film adaptation of Last Exit to Brooklyn. He also had a cameo role in Forrest Gump as Elvis Presley. Peter also credits himself under alternate name Derek Hoyle...
as Agent Percy
- Nathalie Boltt as Shoshanna
- Andrew Brent
Andrew Brent is an English actor living in Cape Town, South Africa. Little is known about him outside of his film career other than his fondness for meerkats. He spends his spare time observing them in their natural environment, naming and categorising them according to size, age and distinguishing...
as Ronald Acre
- Peter Butler
Peter Butler may refer to:* Peter Butler — Conservative Member of Parliament* Peter Butler — European Ryder Cup golfer* Peter Butler — English Football League player...
as Badawi
Rutger Hauer and C. Thomas Howell worked together on the 1986 film
The Hitcher.
See also
- RMS Titanic
The RMS Titanic was an Olympic-class passenger liner owned by British shipping company White Star Line and built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, United Kingdom...
- RMS Lusitania
RMS Lusitania was an ocean liner owned by the Cunard Line and built by John Brown and Company of Clydebank, Scotland, torpedoed by a German U-boat on 7 May 1915. The ship sank in 18 minutes, eight miles off the Old Head of Kinsale, Ireland, killing 1,198 of the 1,959 people aboard...
- SS Andrea Doria
SS Andrea Doria was an ocean liner for the Italian Line home ported in Genoa, Italy, most famous for its sinking in 1956. Named after the 16th-century Genoese admiral Andrea Doria, the Andrea Doria had a gross register tonnage of 29,100 and a capacity of about 1,200 passengers and 500 crew...
- SS Poseidon
-In fiction:*SS Poseidon , the subject of the novel and film The Poseidon Adventure.-Ships:, a Panamanian steamship.* ST Poseidon a Greek tug....
- The Poseidon Adventure (1972)
- Beyond the Poseidon Adventure
Beyond the Poseidon Adventure is a 1979 American disaster film, a sequel to the 1972 film, The Poseidon Adventure. It was directed by Irwin Allen and starred Michael Caine and Sally Field...
(1979)
- Poseidon
Poseidon is a 2006 action-adventure disaster film and the third film adaptation of The Poseidon Adventure by Paul Gallico. It stars Josh Lucas, Kurt Russell, Emmy Rossum, Jacinda Barrett, and Richard Dreyfuss. It was directed by Wolfgang Petersen and produced and distributed by Warner Bros. in...
(2006)