Poseidon (2006)

On New Year's Eve, the luxury ocean liner Poseidon capsizes after being swamped by a rogue wave. The survivors are left to fight for their lives as they attempt to escape the sinking ship.

Director:

Wolfgang Petersen

Writers:

Mark Protosevich (screenplay), Paul Gallico (novel)

Stars:

Richard Dreyfuss, Kurt Russell, Emmy Rossum

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 6 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Josh Lucas	...	Dylan Johns
Kurt Russell	...	Robert Ramsey
Jacinda Barrett	...	Maggie James
Richard Dreyfuss	...	Richard Nelson
Emmy Rossum	...	Jennifer Ramsey
Mía Maestro	...	Elena Morales
Mike Vogel	...	Christian
Kevin Dillon	...	Lucky Larry
Freddy Rodríguez	...	Marco Valentin
Jimmy Bennett	...	Conor James
Fergie	...	Gloria (as Stacy Ferguson)
Andre Braugher	...	Captain Bradford
Kirk B.R. Woller	...	Chief Officer Reynolds
Kelly McNair	...	Emily
Gabriel Jarret	...	1st Officer Chapman

Storyline

It is New Year's Eve, and over 2,000 passengers & crew are ringing in the New Year aboard the huge cruise ship 'Poseidon' when it capsizes on the open sea in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean! A small group of survivors find themselves unlikely allies in a battle for their lives. Preferring to test the odds alone, career gambler Dylan Johns ignores captain's orders to wait below for possible rescue and sets out to find his own way to safety. What begins as a solo mission soon draws others, as Dylan is followed by a desperate father searching for his daughter and her fiancée--a young couple who hours before couldn't summon the courage to tell him they were engaged and now face much graver challenges. Along the way they are joined by a single mother and her wise-beyond-his-years son, an anxious stowaway and a despondent fellow passenger who boarded the ship not sure he wanted to live but now knows he doesn't want to die. Determined to fight their way to the surface, the group sets ...

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Plot Keywords:

escape | new year's eve | survival | cruise ship | north atlantic | 

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Taglines:

Mayday

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for intense prolonged sequences of disaster and peril

Details

Official Sites:

Warner Bros [France] Warner Bros. [United States]

Country:

USA

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

12 May 2006 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Poseidon Adventure

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$160,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$22,155,410, 14 May 2006, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$60,674,817, 10 August 2006

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$181,674,817, 27 August 2006

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros., Virtual Studios, Radiant Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min

Sound Mix:

DTS SDDS Sonics-DDP (IMAX version) Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Dylan Johns (Josh Lucas) jogging on the deck of the ship during the beginning credits the evening before the ship capsizes, pays homage to the original film, The Poseidon Adventure (1972). In it, James Martin (Red Buttons) jogs on the deck of the ship before the night of capsizing. Mr. Martin starts off by taking a deep breath at the deck railing before starting off, and Dylan ends his jog at the deck railing. Both wear a full jogging suit, which are both the same color.

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Goofs

After climbing into a ballast tank, the passengers need to fill the tank in order to open the pressure relief valve that will spill them into the next tank. Aside from the fact that the tank would be impossible to fill (the pump suction is in the air and the tank vent is underwater), and the fact that the pressure relief valve would not open (there will not be enough pressure at the top of the tank), this valve should not exist. A pressure relief valve in a ballast tank allowing water to flow into the adjacent ballast tank would defeat the purpose of having separate ballast tanks. Tanks are kept separate to trim or heel the vessel as necessary, while preventing water from sloshing and de-stabilizing the ship. Having one tank spill over to the next via a pressure relief eliminates that control, effectively creating a "Titanic" scenario where the tanks keep spilling over, forcing the ship to take on an extreme trim and potentially "nose dive" or roll. In the event that a ballast tank is over-filled, the water would simply spill out the tank vent.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Christian: When?
Jennifer Ramsey: Mmm. Today.
Christian: Yeah. When today?

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Connections

Featured in HBO First Look: The Making of 'Poseidon' (2006)

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Soundtracks

Postales
Written and Performed by Federico Aubele
Courtesy of ESL Music

User Reviews

Apparently $160 million doesn't buy a good script

I attended an IMAX screening with a group of friends and family on opening day. Some of us are fans of the original. At least one had seen neither the original nor the Hallmark miniseries. One thing became clear early on in this film: a sky-high budget isn't worth a bucket of seawater if the characters aren't interesting or involving.

On New Year's Eve, the ocean liner, Poseidon, is capsized by an enormous rogue wave that appears without warning. Seems all the sophisticated equipment on the bridge doesn't include reliable radar targeting; rather, the wall of water is detected Carnac-style by a bridge officer, and then spotted by a depressed passenger inches away from taking his life by jumping overboard (the audience laughed out loud during the former instance). What follows is the life-and-death struggle of a handful of wealthy Caucasian, er, I mean, assorted passengers through the fiery, waterlogged bowels of the overturned ship, as they attempt to reach and escape through one of the bow thrusters. Who are these people? I couldn't tell you, because at least one person in our group fell asleep during the film, and afterwards, the rest of us could barely remember any of the leads' names or back stories. We learn nothing about the central characters by the end of the film that we didn't already know or sense in the opening introductions. Storytelling is dead in Hollywood.

The Poseidon Adventure, starring Gene Hackman, is still loved by many decades after its release, because the creative forces behind that project breathed life into the characters and crafted a solid film. Wolfgang Petersen's re-imaging, Poseidon, will be forgotten faster than yesterday's breakfast buffet aboard the Pacific Princess, for exactly the opposite reason. It's yet another exercise in CGI gimmickry and a hollow voyage to nowhere.