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Poseidon (film)

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Poseidon
Directed byWolfgang Petersen
Written byPaul Gallico (novel)
Paul Attanasio (screenplay)
Akiva Goldsman (screenplay)
StarringKurt Russell
Freddy Rodriguez
Josh Lucas
Jacinda Barrett
Richard Dreyfuss
Jimmy Bennett
Emmy Rossum
Mike Vogel
Mía Maestro
Stacy Ferguson
Andre Braugher
Kevin Dillon
CinematographyJohn Seale
Edited byPeter Honess
Music byKlaus Badelt
Distributed byWarner Bros.
Release dates
12 May, 2006
LanguageEnglish
Budget$160 Million

Poseidon is a 2006 remake of the classic disaster film The Poseidon Adventure, based on the novel by Paul Gallico. It was released on May 12, 2006 and stars Kurt Russell, Josh Lucas, Emmy Rossum and Richard Dreyfuss. It is directed by Wolfgang Petersen and was produced and distributed by Warner Bros., in association with Virtual Studios. The film also had a simultaneous release in the IMAX format. Executive Producers are Kevin Burns and Jon Jashni, Sheila Allen and Benjamin Waisbren. It was nominated for a single Academy Award in the visual effects category.

Plot

The story centers on the Poseidon, a luxury ocean liner, named for the Greek god of the sea, in the midst of a transatlantic crossing.

The beginning focuses on a brief introduction to the main characters, as they go about their activities and business throughout the ship: Jennifer Ramsey (Emmy Rossum) and Christian (Mike Vogel) are a young couple hoping to soon be engaged, but her father former New York City Mayor Robert Ramsey (Kurt Russell), harbors doubts about the relationship, and Christian in particular; Elena (Argentinian actress, Mía Maestro), travelling to see her ill brother in New York, is a stowaway in the cabin of Valentin (Freddy Rodriguez), a waiter in the ship's dining room; Dylan (Josh Lucas) is a smooth-talking professional gambler; and architect Nelson (Richard Dreyfuss) is a distraught architect who has recently experienced a break up with his boyfriend.

Later in the evening, Captain Michael Bradford (Andre Braugher) welcomes everyone to the New Year's party in the ship's ballroom as Gloria (Stacy Ferguson) sings before the crowd. On the upper level of the ballroom, Dylan and Robert are playing a game of poker with "Lucky Larry" (Kevin Dillon) and another passenger. Jennifer stops by to say "hi" and her father tells to tie the highest button of her blouse, embarrassing her in front of the crowd. She does what he asks, followed by wishing him good luck with his "two pair", spoiling his cards to the other players. Dylan, walking away with his winnings, bumps into a boy, Connor James (Jimmy Bennett). Dylan is introduced to Connor's mother, Maggie (Jacinda Barrett), when she comes up looking for her son. Down in the disco, Jennifer and Christian are dancing, and Elena maneuvers her way through the crowded disco by herself. In the ballroom, the countdown to the new year ends with streamers, balloons and cheers.

File:Rogue wave Poseidon 2006.jpg
The rogue wave that struck the Poseidon.

Nelson is so depressed he decides to jump of the boat, committing suicide. After he throws his phone in the water, he sees the moon is covered suddenly. As he looks closer, he sees a rogue wave. As he starts to run away, an officer spots the wave as well. He warns the captain and puts in an order to turn the bow to the starboard in order to avoid a side-on hit, but it's too late.

The wave hits the ship on the starboard side, causing it to roll over. As the ship capsizes, scenes of destruction are shown around the liner, the bridge crew are thrown into disarray while the crowds in the ballroom slide along the floors, walls and ceiling, the kitchen staff are overwhelmed by falling storage units and the disco collapses, electrocuting the passengers. Elsewhere on the ship the main atrium overturns with the lift tubes collapsing against the opposing walls and the water of an indoor swimming pool gushes onto the deck as the occupants are seen falling out of the glass housing and into the sea. Finally a flash fire engulfs a maintenance corridor as the ship settles bottom side up with much debris floating to the surface.

After some calm is restored in the ballroom, the captain assures the people that when the ship was hit, a signal-beacon was released and rescue teams would be on the way in several hours. Robert fights with the captain over his desire to go search for Jen, while Dylan, who opts to save himself rather than wait for help, is spotted leaving by Connor. This draws attention to Dylan, first by Maggie, and then by Robert and Nelson. After questioning and arguing, Dylan explains that they will probably be able to get out through the bow thrusters, now above the water line. Joined by Valentin, the group sets off and the Captain orders the water-tight doors sealed behind them.

Making their way to the Disco, the group travels through the fiery kitchen and climbs a deck via a service elevator shaft. In the shaft, the group uses a bench as a makeshift bridge and Dylan, Conor, Maggie, and Robert make it safely to the other side and up. However, as Valentin tries to help Nelson, the elevator cab suspended above them begins to shake loose causing their makeshift bridge to fall, and Valentin is left clinging to Nelson's legs. In order for Nelson to save himself, he kicks Valentin off, who falls all the way to the "top" of the shaft where he's impaled on metal debris and then crushed by the falling elevator. Though visibly shaken, the group recovers and heads on.

File:Poseidon 2006 movie crossing the atrium.jpg
Robert Ramsey and Dylan (third man from the left) helping Conor to cross the collapsed atrium, while Maggie James, Lucky Larry and Jennifer Ramsey wait their turn.

In the nightclub, Elena, Jennifer, and Larry manage to get the girder off of Christian just as the other group arrives from the ballroom. The assemblage then heads through the passenger corridors and into the main atrium, where the fallen elevator tracks form the only bridge to the other side. After most get across successfully, a large piece of machinery torn loose from its moorings falls through the floor above, striking the bridge, with Lucky Larry on it, followed by a waterfall of fuel which ignites into a stream of flame. Without the elevator tracks to cross, Dylan grabs a nearby fire hose, dives into the water, swims across, and climbs up to where the others are, making a rope bridge. With Jennifer and her father alone on the one side of the atrium, she shows him the engagement ring, to which he offers little surprise. The two, using a piece of broken brass railing, slide across the fire hose bridge together.

File:Poseidon 2006 movie ballroom flooded.jpg
Water floods into the ballroom through the imploding windows.

Back in the ballroom, the glass of the exterior windows starts cracking from explosion shock waves, and the rivets pop out, spraying water into the room. It doesn't take long for people to notice and start panicking and looking for an exit, but the corridors beyond the water-tight doors are now flooded. The Captain and Gloria calmly hug each other just before all the windows shatter and water comes pouring in, drowning everyone. The screams of those trapped in the ballroom are heard by the survivors in the atrium, and the group heads off once more, realizing the water is on the way. The flaming lake in the bottom of the atrium begins to rise quickly.

Robert finds a shaft which he thinks might lead up to the next level. Despite Elena's claustrophobia, everyone makes their way into the duct, with the water now rushing into the corridor behind them. Once Robert reaches the grille at the end of the shaft, he finds it screwed shut from the outside, his fingers too big to manipulate the screws on the other side loose. To make matters worse, Nelson slips, trapping Elena and a drowning Dylan underneath him, but Elena manages to free him in the nick of time. Using his small hands, and Elena's cross necklace as a screwdriver, Connor releases the grille, allowing everyone to climb out of the rapidly filling duct.

They eventually find themselves in a ballast tank, with the only mode of exit being through the sealed portal into the next tank beyond, and only flooding the tank will open the portal. By manually operating the external ports, the tank is flooded, the vent opens, and the bunch swims through. Beyond that point they exit the tank and swim through completely flooded corridors towards a set of stairs. However, Elena gets caught on loose wires, and while trying to free herself hits her head. Nelson tries to save her but does not succeed. Noticing they are missing, Dylan and Robert swim back to attempt her rescue, but it is too late. With Nelson distraught over her death, the group clips Elena's cross back on her, and moves on. The remaining ballast tanks continue to fill one by one, bringing the ship closer to sinking.

File:Poseidon 2006 movie the group.jpg
The group discovers that the bow thrusters are under water and they must find another way to escape.

Beyond the stairs, the path to the bow thrusters is discovered to be under water, as the ship is sinking by the bow. Discouraged, the survivors regroup and try to think of another way out when suddenly the engine room explodes, blowing out the stern decks below, and causing the ship to tilt towards the rear. This forces the water within the ship to shift, draining towards the stern, and thus clearing the way to the bow thrusters, though also knocking everyone down in the rush of water flowing down the corridor. Before they all head off on their original route, Maggie notices that after the wave of water, Conor has gone missing. She and Dylan search for him while the others secure an exit, and find him trapped behind a screen in an area rapidly filling with water. He is rescued by Dylan, and the trio rapidly swim towards the other four, who have made it into the bow thruster room.

In the bow thruster room, Nelson, spotting the hatch that gives access to the propeller shaft, opens it, only to get blown back by wind caused by the still-active propellers. Christian proposes jamming the propellers with debris, but Robert points out that the blades are turning the wrong way, and need to be stopped, or reversed in order to create suction. The two argue about who should make the hundred and fifty foot swim to the flooded control room. They know that the one who makes the swim will certainly drown. He will be lucky to be able to hold his breath just long enough to reach and operate the propeller controls; there is no chance of being able to swim all the way back to safety afterward.

Reluctantly, Robert agrees that the plan's best chance at success is for Christian to go, as the younger man's lungs have a greater capacity. However, after Christian says goodbye to Jennifer, he turns to find that Robert has already swam off. Dylan, Maggie, and Connor arrive and are told what has transpired. Meanwhile, Robert arrives at the control room, only to find the emergency engine stop button broken. He frantically searches for another button as he runs out of air. No longer able to hold his breath, he convulses as water fills his lungs, and then freezes as he begins to drown. But in the last moments of his life, he spots the propeller reverse button and manages to press it.

In the bow thruster room, it is noticed that the blades are now turning the other way. Dylan moves to throw a pressurized tank into the shaft, but the tank gets caught crosswise in the narrow door frame, held in place by the strong suction of air. He manages to kick it through, causing an explosion that blows out the propellers on both sides of the ship. The remaining survivors pick their way through the shaft, jump into the ocean, and swim for a nearby lifeboat that was inflated upon the capsizing. As they clamber in, the Poseidon rights itself just before sinking. Jennifer urges everyone to paddle the life raft away from the backwash, which threatens to drown them. After escape, Dylan fires off a flare gun, and after a wait of unknown time, a pair of SH-60 Seahawk helicopters arrive to pick the six survivors from the water.

Sets

File:Pos-2.jpg
The set of the ballroom for Poseidon.

Like the film The Poseidon Adventure, Poseidon based many of its sets on rooms aboard the RMS Queen Mary. The set designers for the 2006 movie Poseidon drew inspiration for some of the spaces on board the fictional Poseidon from rooms aboard the RMS Queen Mary 2, most notably in the Poseidon's ballroom, which is modeled on the main dining room of the Queen Mary 2.

On the sound stage, at Warner Bros. studios in Burbank, California, separate sets for each main room were built - one "right-side-up" and the other "up-side-down." The "upside-down" ballroom set was built on top of a large water tank in the sound stage so that it could be filled with water and drained in a matter of hours. The interior (and exterior) shots of the ship rolling were constructed using CGI.

Characters

  • Josh Lucas - Dylan Johns: A professional gambler who leads the survivors to safety.
  • Kurt Russell - Robert Ramsey: Jennifer's father; the former mayor of New York and a firefighter. He drowns while searching for a way to stop the ship's bow flusters, but helps the survivors escape.
  • Emmy Rossum - Jennifer Ramsey: Robert's daughter and Christian's girlfriend/fiancee.
  • Jacinda Barrett - Maggie James: A bright woman who cares deeply for her son Conor.
  • Richard Dreyfuss - Richard Nelson: An aging architect who somewhat becomes a father to Elena.
  • Mike Vogel - Christian: Jennifer's boyfriend.
  • Mía Maestro - Elena Gonzalez: A stowaway in the ship. She snuck on board to see her ill brother in New York. She is a Christian and claustrophobic. She dies when she gets trapped underwater and punctures her head.
  • Kevin Dillon - Lucky Larry: A drinking gambler. He is crushed by falling bubbles.
  • Freddy Rodriguez - Valentin: A waiter on the ship, and also Elena's friend. He falls down an elevator shaft to his demise.
  • Jimmy Bennett - Conor James: The young son of Maggie. He seems to admire Dylan Johns.
  • Andre Braugher - Captain Michael Bradford: The captain of the ship. He dies when the ballroom is flooded.
  • Stacy Ferguson (Fergie) - Gloria: Gloria sings for the New years eve party. She dies with Bradford when the ballroom impldes.

Soundtrack

Released at May 9, 2006, includes the music composed by Klaus Badelt and the songs performed by Fergie (who played Gloria) and Federico Aubele.

  1. Won't Let You Fall - Fergie
  2. Bailamos - Fergie
  3. Postales - Federico Aubele
  4. The Poseidon
  5. The Wave
  6. A Map & A Plan
  7. Fire Dive
  8. Claustrophobia
  9. Drowning
  10. Don't Look Down
  11. Escape

Reaction

With a reported $160 million budget, Poseidon received mixed to negative reviews with critics (with the exception of Entertainment Weekly and MAXIM), and opened with a disappointing $22.2 million on its opening weekend of May 12, in second place behind the reigning leader, Mission: Impossible III.[1] Warner Brothers president-chief operating officer Alan Horn called the results, "very, very disappointing." The movie was commended for its realistic use of CGI effects in the capsizing scenes.[2] Poseidon generated roughly $60 million domestically and $121 million abroad for a total $181 million worldwide, but the DVD / Home Video rentals made over $36 million, that means that adding the rental profits and the home video sales to the total lifetime grosses, the film was a (not impressive) financial success, surpassing its $160 million reported budget.[3] On January 23, 2007, it was nominated for the Academy Award for Visual Effects.[4] It lost to Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.

DVD release

Poseidon was released on DVD August 22, 2006, in both a single disc and double disc edition. It was also eventually released on HD DVD. The single disc edition has a behind the scenes feature and the theatrical trailer. The double disc edition features both the theatrical trailer, the behind the scenes feature, and also has the documentary Poseidon: Upside Down: A Unique Set Design Chronicle documentary, A Shipmate's Diary, which covers a film school intern's experience on the set, and a History Channel documentary that explores rogue waves.[5]

Trivia

See also

References

  1. ^ [1]
  2. ^ [2]
  3. ^ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=poseidon.htm
  4. ^ http://imdb.com/features/rto/2007/oscars IMDb 2006 Oscar page; Retrieved on 2007-01-23
  5. ^ [3]

External links

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