Film

The Poseidon Adventure

Name: The Poseidon Adventure
Genre: Adventure, Drama, Thriller
Released: 1972
Cast: Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine, Stella Stevens, Shelley Winters, Jack Albertson

The Poseidon Adventure is the grandparent of all disaster films—a 1972 spectacle where an ocean liner capsizes and a desperate ensemble claws toward survival through flooded corridors and collapsing infrastructure. It's built for maximum tension and human drama, with Gene Hackman and Ernest Borgnine anchoring a cast that feels genuinely imperiled. Irresistible if you love old-fashioned blockbuster craft and the particular terror of being trapped with gravity working against you.

TMDb rating

3.6

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy old-fashioned disaster spectacle driven by a squabbling, mismatched group of strangers, where the heart matters as much as the capsized hull.

Skip it if the characterisation is broad and the sentiment comes thick, and the 1970s effects and pacing can feel creaky next to modern blockbusters.

What it asks of you: Expect a patient first act of introductions before the water arrives, then a long, tense climb through upturned rooms where every hatch and corridor feels like a fresh gamble.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Towering Inferno1974

The spiritual successor to Poseidon, with Steve McQueen and Paul Newman navigating a skyscraper inferno. Same formula—trapped people, escalating peril, star power—but refined and even more assured in its execution.

But The novelty of the disaster genre wore off quickly after these films saturated the market, so it can feel a bit quaint and formulaic now.

Earthquake1974

Charlton Heston, George Kennedy, and Ava Gardner survive Los Angeles's destruction. It has the same ensemble-in-crisis DNA, the same commitment to practical destruction, and Sensurround technology that made audiences feel the ground shake.

But The character development is paper-thin, and the script leans heavily on soap-opera melodrama between the shaking stops.

Airport1970

The disaster cycle started here. Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin, and a sprawling cast navigate a bomb aboard an airliner. It's the template: high stakes, ensemble desperation, and actual craft in the filmmaking.

But It's leisurely by modern standards, with long stretches of bureaucratic drama that test patience before the crisis hits.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Poseidon Adventure

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Jaws1975

Both films understand that the deepest terror isn't explosions or special effects—it's being trapped by an indifferent force, and the social hierarchies that collapse when survival becomes the only currency.

Spielberg's masterpiece isn't just the father of the modern blockbuster—it's also a disaster film where the catastrophe is alive and thinking. Like Poseidon, it's about ordinary people (a police chief, a shark hunter, a scientist) forced into impossible conditions, but with the added dread that you cannot negotiate with the sea.

But If you're expecting nonstop action, the pacing will frustrate you. Spielberg spends most of the film building dread, not delivering shocks.

Alive1993

A true-story survival film with Ethan Hawke and Josh Hamilton trapped in the Andes after a plane crash. It has the Poseidon formula—impossible odds, group dynamics under pressure—grounded in real horror and real choices.

But The spiritual and moral weight it carries can feel heavy-handed, and the ending is a foregone conclusion from the opening.

Deep Blue Sea1999

Genetically enhanced sharks trap a research team underwater. It's Poseidon in miniature—claustrophobic, relentless, and genuinely tense despite the B-movie premise. Samuel L. Jackson and LL Cool J elevate the material.

But The CGI has aged awkwardly, and the script knows exactly how silly it is, which undercuts the terror occasionally.

The Morning After1986

Jeff Bridges and Michelle Pfeiffer trapped in a noir nightmare of escalating danger. It has Poseidon's sense of ordinary people in extraordinary peril, with more psychological complexity and atmosphere.

But It's a slow burn that prioritizes mood over action, which can feel deflating if you want spectacle.

The Abyss1989

James Cameron's deep-sea thriller traps an oil-rig crew in an underwater facility during a crisis. It has Poseidon's ensemble-survival core with sci-fi mystery and genuinely transcendent moments of wonder amid the terror.

But The final act pivots into something philosophical and alien that not everyone will buy, and it's a major time commitment at nearly three hours.

La Bête Humaine1938

Both films believe that disaster—whether physical or social—reveals who people truly are. Poseidon uses capsizing; Renoir uses desire and jealousy to overturn the human order.

Renoir's masterpiece—a French poetic drama set mostly on a train, where a group of ordinary people collide and fracture under pressure. It has Poseidon's ensemble in-crisis structure, but replaces spectacle with human psychology and moral corruption. Gorgeously made and hypnotic.

But It's slow, in French, and entirely character-driven with no explosions or rescues. If you need plot momentum, this will feel static.

Come and See1985

Both films use group survival as a lens to examine who people become under extreme duress, but Come and See asks whether survival is worth the cost to your humanity, where Poseidon just wants you out alive.

Elem Klimov's brutally honest Soviet war film about a boy caught in the chaos of WWII. It's Poseidon's survival-through-chaos engine transplanted into real atrocity, with the same ensemble-fractured-by-catastrophe logic but operating at the level of historical horror and moral annihilation.

But This is bleak to the point of unbearable. It's not a thriller—it's a penance. Many viewers find it genuinely traumatizing, not entertaining.