Raise the Titanic (1980)

To obtain a supply of a rare mineral, a ship raising operation is conducted for the only known source, the Titanic.

Director:

Jerry Jameson

Writers:

Adam Kennedy (screenplay), Eric Hughes (adaptation),

Stars:

Jason Robards, Richard Jordan, David Selby

3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jason Robards	...	Admiral James Sandecker
Richard Jordan	...	Dirk Pitt
David Selby	...	Dr. Gene Seagram
Anne Archer	...	Dana Archibald
Alec Guinness	...	John Bigalow
Bo Brundin	...	Captain Prevlov
M. Emmet Walsh	...	Master Chief Vinnie Walker
J.D. Cannon	...	Captain Joe Burke
Norman Bartold	...	Admiral Kemper
Elya Baskin	...	Marganin
Dirk Blocker	...	Merker
Robert Broyles	...	Willis
Paul Carr	...	CIA Director Nicholson
Michael C. Gwynne	...	Bohannon
Harvey Lewis	...	Kiel

Storyline

A group of Americans are interested in raising the ill-fated Ocean liner Titanic. One of the team members finds out the Russians also have plans to raise the ship from its watery grave. Why all the interest ? A rare mineral on board could be used to power a sound beam that will knock any missile out of the air when entering us airspace.

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Plot Keywords:

titanic | ship | ocean | military | underwater | 

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Taglines:

They said that God himself couldn't sink it. Now they say that no man could raise it.

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Genres:

Action | Drama | Thriller | Adventure

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

UK USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1 August 1980 (USA)

Also Known As:

La guerre des abîmes

Filming Locations:

USA

Box Office

Budget:

$36,000,000 (estimated)

Gross:

$7,000,000 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Incorporated Television Company (ITC)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

115 min 113 min (Ontario) 119 min (DVD)

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) Dolby (35 mm prints)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Novelist Clive Cussler hated this movie so much that he refused to allow the sale of any film rights for his other Dirk Pitt novels. He finally relented twenty years later, and agreed to sell the rights to three novels. The first to be filmed was Sahara, which Cussler also hated. As such, there was a twenty-five year gap before another Dirk Pitt adventure could make it to the big screen.

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Goofs

During the interview with John Bigalow (Alec Guinness), Bigalow makes the statement; "She was one of a kind." Speaking emotionally this could be true, but it is factually incorrect, as one of the ship's officers and an employee of the White Star Line would have known. The Titanic was the second in what is called the Olympic class of ships. She was preceded in construction by the Olympic (a slightly smaller half-sister ship), and followed by the Gigantic (a sister ship). The Gigantic was renamed as the Britannic following the loss of the Titanic.

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Quotes

Dana Archibald: I'm a dynamite fisher-person. I just can't put the wormy on the hooky.

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Connections

Featured in Beyond Titanic (1998)

User Reviews

It was a dream - they raised it! See it for what it is!

I have never understood the degree of ire, dislike, contempt and scorn heaped upon this movie. A multi million dollar turkey at the box office which virtually sank Lord Lew Grade and one that has provided film critics with cheap laughs ever since. I sit here this morning, having sat through ZOOLANDER last night, watching a complacent, pre-programmed brain-dead audience guffaw itself senseless, contributing another truck load of dollars to Ben Stiller's superannuation fund and you know, I wonder about RAISE THE TITANIC. What has happened to sentiment, simplicity, the ultimately simple values in life?

Sure, RAISE THE TITANIC captures none of the power of Cussler's novel, but I don't really care! Yeah, they got the funnel configuration shot to hell, the underwater model as it surfaces looks much like the little rubber boat I used to play with in the bath as a child, and David Selby has the animal magnetism of Osama bin Laden, but I'd like to tell you something. Perhaps because I maintained a fascination with the TITANIC ever since I was a child and dreamed of just how it must have been that night, when watching that absolutely awesome scene in RAISE THE TITANIC as the great ship broke the surface I have never in my life been so emotionally moved. Tears just ran down my face and I cried like a child. When I got home that night my wife asked me what was wrong. I couldn't talk about it and was never able to explain, and you people reading this want to believe it, I am the absolute last guy you would consider to be a wuss! How anyone could have witnessed that scene in the theater and NOT been moved I could never understand.

So many memorable things in the film. Titanic survivor, Sir Alec Guinness' touching cameo in the pub when he gives Dirk Pitt (the late Richard Jordan) the white star flag that he removed from the stern the night the great ship foundered, and which he wanted replaced if they were ever to raise it from the bottom of the Atlantic. The inarguably realistic scene when Jordan and his crew members finally discover the wreck on the bottom, played out against John Barry's ultimately moving musical score, the best he wrote for ANY film. The external shots of the ship once it has been raised (Way better I thought than Cameron's digitised TITANIC) and the internal shots of the gymnasium still dripping with water. Finally, the wonderful scenes as it is towed into New York harbor to complete its (then) 68-year journey. True, the last twenty minutes or so were all downhill, but nothing can detract from what went before.

Worst thing they ever did was to FIND the wreck! A dream died that day!