Beyond the Poseidon Adventure

The original was a hit; the sequel not so much. Why'd ya do it Allen? You pretty much ruined the film genre you made popular! Apparently he had Paul Gallico, the author of the original book, write a sequel book and it featured the characters played by Ernest Borgnine, Red Buttons and Jack Albertson going back into the ship for some unknown reason (but it dealt with pirates). I guess Allen didn't like that premise so he came up with a story of a tugboat captain and his crew (who want salvage) along with some terrorists (who want plutonium). This could've been a good, if not great, sequel but it just falls flat. The idea of plutonium (along with crates of AK-47s and grenades) seems very far-fetched (more so than the ship actually still staying afloat after the events of the first film). I mean the ship would've blown up by now considering all of the explosions featured in that and this film. And I must make a quick note; this film made tedious and exhausting use of stock footage from the first film. Was the budget that low? I mean the only set that looks convincing is when Caine and the others enter the ship through the hole from the end of the first one. Once they enter the engine room, we see all-too familiar shots (including a cameo by the "late" Stella Stevens). The rest of the sets look like they were put together on a television budget (you can even see the wires moving a toy right before they rescue Jack Warden and Shirley Knight). The acting leaves a lot to be desired, ranging from the good (Caine, Malden, Warden, Knight and especially Savalas), the bad (Pickens and Jones) and the annoying (Field and Boyle, who just screams more than Borgnine and Hackman did the whole of the firsst film). Though Fields' character does have a few redeeming qualities (what they are yet I don't know) but she's not as annoying as Boyle. Like I said for Allen's other major disaster flick of the decade (Towering Inferno), only one death resonates with me and that's the death of Shirley Knight. She's just swept under the water after she and Caine fall from the ladder (much like McDowall from the first film) and never seen again. Warden's reaction is touching after learning the death of his wife (when Mrs. Partridge comforts him is probably her best bit of acting in the film). I guess Angela Cartwright, who plays Boyle's daughter, gives a heartfelt performance as she grieves her father's murder, but his character was just too unlikeable to really care.

I like ship movies. This one was just a big waste of time. Bad acting by every member of the cast, flimsy story line. After about 15 minutes of the movie, I realized that I would get just as much out of it if I watched most of it on "fast forward". I wish I could sell this or get my money back from the person I bought it from. The original Poseidon Adventure was enough. It did not need this sequel.

Producer Irwin Allen's, The Poseidon Adventure (1972) was a massive hit that helped fuel the `disaster movie' fad in the 70's. In 1979, sequels were not as common as they are now, but with the success of the original film, and the wave of popularity of disaster films, Beyond the Poseidon Adventure probably seemed like an intriguing project.

Unlike author Paul Gallico's novel, the film version of Beyond the Poseidon Adventure features an entirely new set of characters aboard the overturned luxury liner. Approximately five hours after the original survivors were rescued, two groups board the ship together. One is a salvage operation led by tugboat captain Mike Turner (Michael Caine), his crewman Wilbur (Karl Malden) and Celeste Whitman (Sally Field). The second group is a medical team under the command of Captain Stefan Svevo (Telly Savalas), supposedly on a mission of mercy, they are actually after a cargo of plutonium aboard the Poseidon. Along the way the rescuers discover additional survivors, pursue divergent goals, and face a variety of dangers.

While a decent action adventure, for many reasons Beyond the Poseidon Adventure pales in comparison to the original film. The writing is not as good, and the characters are not as compelling or well developed, and some of the dialog is just awful. The setting of a capsized ship is no longer unfamiliar territory, and with many of the elements of surprise gone, there isn't a lot of tension or real suspense. The survivors exhibit little genuine fear, with both Turner and Svevo proceeding confidently throughout the ship.

While The Poseidon Adventure was directed by Ronald Neame and produced by Irwin Allen, this time Allen is both producer and director. Allen's successful television career was largely built on science fiction adventures that featured action sequences and special effects. His programs were mostly entertaining and often fantasies where realism was not always a strong point. While directing action was his strength, he had less experience in general direction. Leave it to Allen to feature a firefight with automatic weapons in the ship's hold. Fortunately, the barrel with the plutonium isn't hit by a stray bullet. Throughout the film, explosions (utilizing footage from the original film) are repeatedly used to stir things up, or trigger a crisis. There are a couple of nice scenes featuring objects crashing through decks, but some of the action scenes are rather tame or plain silly, like jumping across an opening in the floor. It is remarkable that electrical power is still available, miraculously keeping the ship very well lighted most of the time. The original film is lighted much differently. But where are the sources of light? In the upside down vessel, the light fixtures should be either on the floor, or on the wall near the floor, but few are seen. It is not shown on screen, but Svevo's crew cuts another hole in the ship's hull in order to remove the cargo they came for. The underwater escape by Turner's group from the Poseidon is unexciting, and though they manage to surface in the same spot, somehow Wilbur is lost. Amazingly, although under rifle fire at close range, only one of the survivors is killed swimming to Turner's tugboat. Even a blind man (Jack Warden) makes it to safety. Fortunately, Turner's tug is apparently bulletproof. As the tug speeds away, the good ship Poseidon finally explodes (in a truly unimpressive fashion), destroying Svevo's group, and doing who knows what to that deadly plutonium.

The mostly familiar cast makes for some interesting viewing, as they face danger and physical hardships. Svevo comes off as a cold, brooding and pompous Bond type villain (Savalas was Ernst Stavro Blofeld in On Her Majesty's Secret Service), who delivers his lines magnificently. Peter Boyle as passenger Frank Mazzetti, has a role similar to Ernest Borgnine's Rogo, as the overbearing, continuous questioner of authority, but when the chips are on the line he does not hesitate to act. Wilber (Malden) is hampered by health problems, and can't do very much. Ex-UCLA quarterback Mark Harmon (NCIS), steps up strongly into the starting lineup in the later parts of the film. Slim Pickens is typecast as a cowboy type. Angela Cartwright who worked on Allen's Lost in Space as a child, looks younger than 27 here. The Turner and Whitman relationship starts out rough, doesn't seem to gel, and then fades into the background. Sally Field won the best actress Oscar for Norma Rae this same year (1979), and does what she can with a role that has some very awkward dialog, such as `I hate to be called monkey'. Despite having the `shortest legs' Field more than holds her own in taking on the physical challenges. As Turner, Michael Caine is rather abrasive throughout, not always likeable, but definitely a leader.

The extras include the trailer, and a 20 minute behind the scenes feature that although mostly a puff piece, does contain some interesting information and insight into how Irwin Allen worked. The sequel to The Poseidon Adventure is a mildly exciting action adventure, with a rather weak ending, that may be of interest to fans of the original film, Irwin Allen, or disaster films in general.

This is a fair movie to watch and a must have for anybody who wants to comeplet there POSEIDON ADVENTURE movie set this movie puicks up after the first group of people is taken off the upside down ocean liner the movie is fair but not is good as the first one.

I was 13 when I saw the original Poseidon Adventure, and was mezzmerized by it! Being the first big screen action packed flick i'd ever seen..it was HUGE!
When this sequal came out in august of 1979 I was first in line!..wow..what an aweful movie. their was no thought, special effects acting, script or much of any of Irwin Allens talents in this...what happened?? budget problems? what? it was filmed with such a low cost feel too it, lots of stock footage from the original, poor set designs! I wish Irwin would have made a sequal to the book that Paul Gallico did focusing on the aftermath and used the characters from the original film instead of all these top stars of the day and altered the story so much.
I still pop it in and watch it from time to time and keep hopeing i'll find something good about it...

"I knew it! I knew my luck couldn't be that bad! Nothing was going to get worse because nothing could've!" Wrong again. A couple of years after swearing nothing on Earth would make him leave the UK, Michael Caine went into tax exile in Hollywood and signed up for a slew of "But it looked good on paper" pictures, getting off to an inauspicious start with the now forgotten period comedy Harry and Walter Go to New York, a huge flop so horrendously expensive that it very nearly bankrupted Columbia Pictures if they hadn't been bailed out by a consortium of German dentists. He must have thought his luck had changed when he signed for not one but two Irwin Allen disaster movies - after all, The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno had been massive hits, so this was the big leagues at last. After The Swarm was met with worldwide ridicule and disastrous box-office, a lesser man might have cut his losses, but being a man who doesn't have the words 'no' or 'quality control' in his vocabulary, Caine went ahead and made Beyond the Poseidon Adventure anyway. Still, it could have been worse. He could have stuck around for Allen's career-killing volcano flick When Time Ran Out as well.

Lured away from his old stamping ground 20th Century Fox to Warner Bros with the promise of less studio interference (read quality control), bigger budgets and the chance to direct his films as well, even Spielberg would envy the kind of absolute unquestioned power 'master of disaster' Allen enjoyed on the lot in the late Seventies, but the blank check resulted in three massive and much-ridiculed flops in a row. This was number two. Allen's belated and quickly forgotten sequel to his 1972 blockbuster has a bigger budget than its predecessor and an even sillier plot, yet as a guilty pleasure it's a surprisingly enjoyable brain-off time-filler. Discarding the plot of Gallico's novel, itself written as a direct sequel to the film rather than his original novel, the film sees Michael Caine's tough tugboat captain (yes, it's a stretch) and his crew of two, Karl Malden and Sally Field, seeing a way out of impending bankruptcy by staking claim to the salvage rights to the capsized liner but having more luck saving another handful of survivors than holding onto their loot while finding themselves in competition with a rival group of 'rescuers.' Of course, we know they're really baddies - they're wearing white, they're polite and they're lead by Telly Savalas in Ernst Stavro Blofeld mode, posing as a doctor but really in search of the Poseidon's cargo of plutonium. No, really. How else could you include gun battles and an axe-killing in a disaster movie? Not that Gallico's novel wasn't sillier still - that featured a tiger on the loose below decks!

The characters are all of the stock variety - Malden plays the Walter Brennan role as the terminally-ill sidekick, Sally Field the Jean Arthuresque tomboy, Jack Warden the gruff blind writer and Shirley Knight his protective wife, Slim Pickens and his priceless bottle of vintage wine the hearty comic relief, Peter Boyle's 'Sarge' the over-protective father (a character drawn from Gallico's first Poseidon novel that didn't make it into the original film), Veronica Hamel the bad girl in a good dress, Shirley Jones the kind-hearted nurse and a young Mark Harmon, looking like Tom Cruise's not-too-bright and less talented older brother, sharing the juvenile romantic lead with Lost in Space veteran Angela Cartwright. Yet while no-one troubled the Oscar nominations, the performances aren't particularly bad even if Caine wouldn't top anybody's list as a ruthless old seadog, and there's nothing quite as camp as Shelley Winters and her aquatic escapades in the original: rather than an unintentional laugh-riot, for the most part this is professionally well-made nonsense.

The lousy back-projection and hosed on water in the opening storm sequence do bode ill, but once it's shipboard the production values visibly improve (it's well photographed by Joseph Biroc and nicely designed by Preston Ames), though the film makes surprisingly little of the upside down sets and, unlike the original, there's no sense of the rising water cutting off their way back to up the tension. Here the water mainly seems to rush by rather than climb up. Perhaps still feeling the critics' stings at his bee movie, this time the script offers few hostages to fortune - dialogue like "Last night was the worst New Years' Eve party I've ever been to!" or "Oh my gosh! I just shot one of them!" "Well shoot another one!" is at least meant to be funny - but, like The Swarm, there's evidence that this went through some last-minute cuts before hitting theatres: one major character even completely disappears near the end. Still, there's some novelty in having two rival groups working their way in to the ship and climbing down to the top rather than up to the bottom. And talking of bottoms, Allen ensures that Sally Field spends about half her scenes with her back turned to the camera to emphasis how tight her wet jeans are...

The DVD doesn't include any of the deleted scenes from the TV version, though one of them does turn up on the 22-minute making of documentary included on the disc that includes ample footage of Irwin Allen hamming it up for the cameras as well as some chaotic production footage from the surface scenes.

Of couse the stars are changed, but Michael Caine, and Sally Feild, are a nice change.

The DVD quality was fine, but the movie was boring and unnecessary. I loved the original, so I was hoping this sequel would be good but is wasn't. There wasn't anything original about it, and I couldn't wait for it to end.

Granted, "Beyond the Poseidon Adventure" is not as worthwhile as "The Poseidon Adventure, that preceded it in 1972, but still, taking it as a separate movie and by itself, it is not so bad after all.

Starring Michael Caine, Karl Malden, Sally Field, Peter Boyle, Telly Savalas among many others, with a cast like this there is still juice to it, even if the story is a bit weak and shaky.

The premise of it all, is the rescue by a fisher boat of possible survivors on board of the upside-down, but not as yet, sunken "Poseidon".

Soon though a gang of hoodlums also appear and they have absolutely no intention at rescuing people, but rather steal dangerous weapons that were carried in the cargo bay of that ship.

The problems start when the two groups meet and soon thereafter the ship starts to give obvious signs of its sinking...

The rest is up to you, to find out.

The transfer is decent and far better than its VHS counterpart, that only gave you a third of the scope of the entire movie.

The sound isn't Stereo anymore, as for the original picture, it is plain 2-channel Mono, but clear enough to be enjoyed.

This is not a Drama as "The Poseidon Adventure", it is a well-meant adventure movie, with some tense moments distributed here and there.

It is a very typical product of its times though (we are talking of the late seventies here) and as such it is still better than some cheesy pictures we are getting nowadays.

For its worth, it is money well spent.

I grew up watching these all star disaster movies and even if this one is bottom of the barrel, it's fun to watch. If you want something that makes sense look someplace else,but if very bad disaster movies are your thing then kick back and enjoy.

Not as great as the first movie but it's ok you gotta see just because it's a the seqel to the orignal

In 1978, when film critic Roger Ebert interviewed Irwin Allen, the mega-producer suggested a potential story idea for a planned sequel to "The Poseidon Adventure"...The survivors of the Poseidon disaster would be rescued and taken to land in Italy where they would be placed on a train which would go through a tunnel in the Alps. The tunnel would collapse and everyone would be trapped under the mountain. Ebert thought it was an excellent idea. And as it turns out Mr. Allen should have went with it. Because the movie he wound up making is an idiotic waste of time; ranks among the worst sequels ever made; and marked the beginning of the end of Allen's reign as the "Master of Disaster." Side note: Allen directed this mess and, as "Beyond TPA" star Michael Caine said in his autobiography, good ol' Irwin should have stuck to producing! Worth a look for "Poseidon" fans, but that's about it.

Um can I yawn first before I type this ? Hmm guess not , well let me see where do I start , oh yes I remember reading about this in the papers before the film came out and said to myself " Oh my God , WHAT !? How can this be , how can they do this , what are these people thinking !? "

Whats next " beyond the towering inferno " ? Or better yet " Titanic 2 : it was all a dream " ?

If you value your money people , do NOT buy this , hell you shouldnt even rent it , better to wait to see if it comes on late night tv .

This movie is stupid and silly and just dumb I mean lets see we have Kojak on the ship with his goons all holding machine guns shooting people and going after Veronica Hammel , I mean HELLO the ship is UPSIDE down and sinking , now do you readers see where Im going ?

Now Im going to continue my yawning excuse me .............. (snoring)

Um Im up again one more thing Irwin Allen must be turning in his grave asking himself " Why why why shelia ( Irwin Allens Wife ) didnt you slap me silly when I came up with the idea ! ? " ok ciao.............

Finally released on DVD; I guess to cash in on the new Poseidon movie. Producer Irwin Allen returns to the scene of his greatest triumph. Released in 1979, seven years after The Poseidon Adventure broke all box office records and started the entire 'disaster movie' genre.

Beyond The Poseidon Adventure could have been so much better,(not that it is ALL bad)but with a better script (possibly looking at some of the other survivors and their attempts to escape, and a rescue attempt)it would have been an excellent sequel.

However, here Allen resorts to all the old cliche's: looting, guns, ammunitions,shooting, pilfering and something about 'plutonium' all this on a sinking upside down 81 000 ton ocean liner...please. It certainly has a good cast Sally Field, Michael Caine, Karl Malden, Shirley Knight(wasted) and some new up and coming actors at the time; beautiful Veronica Hamel and fresh faced Mark Harmon but they are all given thankless roles. There are one or two gripping scenes, but the whole story and plotline involving Telly Savalas and his looting of the Liner and resulting shootouts etc are tedious to say the least. The sets are well done, and it does pay homage to the original by including a scene or two (see if you can spot them)but the lighting is a bit bright for ship on emergency generators, and surpisingly the ocean around the over turned liner is pristine...no wreckage, oil, bodies, nothing.

It's for the disaster movie completist (and I am one)and fans of Master Disaster Irwin Allen. I guess its time to put 'When Time Ran Out' on dvd too.

Some spoilers perhaps!

Since the original Poseidon Adventure raked in so much dough, Irwin Allen wanted to get a sequel off the ground right away. It would eventually take him 7 years to get it made and in that space of time it would go through many changes.

To begin with, Beyond the Poseidon Adventure was to star Borgnine, Buttons and the rest of the survivors. After being rescued by the French Coast Guard they were to be transported to safety by train through the French Alps. A tunnel cave-in was to trap them all over again amid other, more sinister, drama.

That idea was soon squashed. Hackman didn't want to return (as Reverend Scott's brother!) and even though poster art was created (you can still find the train/gun image out there), that's about as far as production got. Allen focused on making other movies for the time being. Then, in 1978 he asked Paul Gallico to write a sequel. Gallico obliged but died before Beyond was published. His novel had Rogo, Martin and Manny Rosen being forced at gunpoint to return to the ship to plunder its secret cargo. Bandits, pirates, double-crosses and macabre plot developments followed.

Unable to convince Borgnine and the others to return at this point, Allen changed the story to accommodate a bunch of new characters. This Mike Rogo became Mike Turner (Michael Caine) and Bandits and Pirates became Stefan Svevo (Television Savalas) and his group of terrorists.

Beginning just before the storm in which the Poseidon capsized, Turner and his crew (Sally Field and Karl Malden) are out in Jenny the Tugboat. Turner loses his cargo and worries about the bank taking his precious boat away. New Years Day arrives and the sea is calm once again. Turner sees the French Coast Guard chopper buzzing overhead and figures there must be something interesting over the horizon.

Interesting indeed. An abandoned 5-star, world-class super-liner designed to carry hundreds of wealthy passengers. There's sure to be riches to plunder and a quick trip down to the Purser's Office (the idiot who chose to die in the first) might save Jenny from the banks greedy hands.

'Doctor' Stefan Svevo (trying saying that while drunk) and his group of suspicious men dressed in impeccably white clothes follow Turner inside, hoping to save some remaining survivors. Yeah right! Svevo just happens to be after a secret cargo of guns and plutonium and has an agent still stuck on-board.

Turner and his crew find the Purser's safe quite easy and load up on the loot. But they also find a bunch of stranded passengers including a very young-looking Peter Boyle, Slim Pickens, Mark Harmon and Jack Warden as a blind writer. His quick trip to pinch the riches turns into the much more noble task of leading the rest to safety. But once they discover Svevo's plot a fight breaks out.

I think that BTPA has had an unfair amount of criticism. Until the 2006 DVD release the film suffered 27 years of pan and scan TV screenings and videos, which completely screws up the scope photography. Seeing the film in widescreen, as intended, gives it a much slicker look. But I wasn't too impressed with the set-decoration and lighting. The Poseidon was already trashed and unstable before the first survivors escaped. By now it should be seriously threatening to sink or explode and the sets should reflect how much stress the ship is under. But they do look too spotless and the lighting is too bright and un-atmospheric. And, just so you know, a ship of this size would have more than one kitchen. So moans about it 'already being flooded' are invalid.

And I do think that the ending is kind of abrupt and rushed. It was a bit of a let-down having finish with such a lame, flippant finale. And, despite, previous criticisms, I do think that the characters are just as good as before. I felt sorry for Jack Warden when his wife died, or when Michael Caine realised that he lost the gold. Wilbur (Karl Malden) was a good character too and I think that his exit from the film was less than what he deserved. There is also more continuity with the original than the negative reviews proclaim. So don't let that put you off.

It's had a bad reputation, but BTPA isn't as bad as pretentious movie zealots would have you think. If you are a fan of the original then it is at least worth a rental.

The DVD features a 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen picture with Dolby Mono sound (a bit of a downer since the first was in 6-Track Surround). It also contains a vintage a TV featurette running about 30 minutes and a couple of trailers.

I loved the original Poseidon Adventure, and looked forward to seeing the sequel, and the recent remake. (The latter which I'm REALLY looking forward to seeing!) While it's not a patch on the original, it was still an above average sequel.

Beyond the Poseidon Adventure makes use of old sets, and also keep your eyes peeled for a shot of one of the dead from the previous film just to keep the continuity. (Although I think it's just an actual shot from the previous film.) Most of the actors are doing their best with the script, and most of the characters are the exact same as the previous characters. For example, Michael Caine's a bossier version of Gene Hackman's character, there's Wilbur, who's another Rogo all over again. I don't think the original really called for a sequel to be made, but yes, it does actually work.

I did find Sally Field's character really whiny, and her hair, oh my god, even on my worst hair days, my hair looks nowhere near as bad as hers did! And it's amazing how she's 60 now, and still looks exactly the same. Apart from the hair of course.

Rather than follow the usual course for the sequel, trying the story again with another group of survivors trying to get out, they try it with people trying to get IN to the boat. A pretty impressive storyline, considering some sequels do the exact same storyline over again.

I'd definitely give this film a shot if you love movies dealing with water (like me, for some sick reason), or just loved the original.

With the phenomenal success of "The Poseidon Adventure", the first disaster movie of its kind, the sequel was sure to be a hit. Not so. A plot containing two rival treasure salvagers combined with survivors still on board sounded great. Having a leading lady (Sally Fields) fresh from an Oscar win and a few veteran actors (Michael Caine, Karl Malden), might also sound promising. Unfortunately, the magic of the set production of the original is not even close. Instead of upside ballrooms, barber shops, kitchens and bathrooms, the audience is presented with storage rooms simply full of boxes. The rest of the cast is comprised of television actors, who are as wooden as the script. There's no tension and some of the lines are so incredibly ridiculous, you won't even laugh in disbelief. Irwin Allen had gold slip right through his fingers with this very promising sequel. Considering the original, that's a terrible shame.

This sequel has to salvage parties boarding the Poseidon hoping to retrieve some valuables from the wreck. Soon they find themselves trapped and voila: you've got the same story again: they need to get out. Add one plot twist where Telly Savalas turns out not to be a good guy (don't say I spoiled it, you could figure that out yourself). Add some cheesy scenes with Sally Field crying and Michael Caine calling her a monkey, and Jack Warden playing a blind surviving passenger and you've got a slightly enjoyable but not very good movie. "Beyond the Poseidon Adventure" doesn't live up to its predecessor, but is entertaining enough and interesting as a curiosity piece.

At last!!! I have been waiting for this movie to be released for years.
This movie helps bring the original movie to a logical conclusion. The original left me wandering what had happened to the rest of the people on board, and did any more survive? This gives a very credible answer, while telling you it's own story. The cast is good and the action while not as thrilling as the first movie's is every bit as good in it's own way.
I cannot understand the negative reviews for this. I found it to be a really good movie done by the man who gave us such gems as Towering Inferno. Irwin Allen knew how to make a good disaster movie and people must remember that this was made in the days when special effects weren't as good as they are today. I found the sets etc to be fairly realistic looking (I have never been in such a situation, so cannot tell truly) and passed along the feeling of unreality in a world turned upside down.

In 2004 we had the made for TV remake of "The Poseidon Adventure". In 2005 we had the mega-budget remake "The Poseidon". However there was this little known sequel that was made by the master of disaster himself Irwin Allen! The remakes were just bad! However don't miss this one! This picks up "The Morning After" the original ends! 3 people go into the ship to salvage items from the safe. Also joining them is a group of terrorist who are after well I don't want to give away too much more. Its lots of fun to see this movie! Its very campy!

I'm so glad to finally hear that Beyond the Poseidon Adventure is being released on DVD. I plan on getting my copy when it comes out on August 22nd. I enjoyed this sequel to the Poseidon Adventure especially the wonderful cast of my favorites Sally Field, Shirley Jones, Mark Harmon, Angela Cartwright, Shirley Knight and Veronica Hamel. Looking forward watching this DVD and seeing the behind the scenes features of making of Beyond the Poseidon Adventure.