Poseidon
Directed by	Wolfgang Petersen
Produced by	Mike Fleiss Akiva Goldsman Duncan Henderson Lome Orleans Wolfgang Petersen
Written by	Paul Gallico (novel) Paul Attanasio Mark Protosevich (screenplay)
Starring	Josh Lucas Kurt Russell Jacinda Barrett Richard Dreyfuss Emmy Rossum Mike Vogel Mía Maestro Jimmy Bennett Freddy Rodriguez Stacy Ferguson Andre Braugher Kevin Dillon
Music by	Klaus Badelt
Cinematography	John Seale
Editing by	Peter Honess
Studio	Virtual Studios
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date(s)	May 12, 2006
Running time	98 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	US$160,000,000
Gross revenue	$181,674,817

Poseidon is a 2006 action-adventure disaster film and the third film adaptation of The Poseidon Adventure by Paul Gallico. It stars Josh Lucas, Kurt Russell, Emmy Rossum, Jacinda Barrett, and Richard Dreyfuss. It was directed by Wolfgang Petersen and produced and distributed by Warner Bros. in association with Virtual Studios. The film also had a simultaneous release in the IMAX format. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Visual Effects and was released on May 12, 2006. Poseidon generated US$181,674,817 at the worldwide box office and $19,725,028 in DVD sales, making its total gross $201,399,845.^[1]

[edit] Plot

This plot summary may be too long or overly detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (September 2009)

On New Year's Eve in the north Atlantic Ocean, the ocean liner Poseidon, named after the Greek water god, is on a Transatlantic crossing. On one of its thirteen decks, we see Dylan Johns (Josh Lucas) an ex-Navy sailor turned professional gambler, running for an evening workout. Meanwhile, in one of the 800 cabins, Jen Ramsey (Emmy Rossum) is with her fiancé Christian (Mike Vogel) when they are interrupted by Jen's father, former firefighter and mayor of New York Robert Ramsey (Kurt Russell) who is becoming overprotective of his daughter and indifferent to Christian. Down below in the kitchen, a Spanish woman named Elena (Mia Maestro), is stowing away onboard from Spain to be with her sick brother in New York, with the help of her friend Valentin (Freddy Rodriguez), a waiter. Elsewhere, Richard Nelson (Richard Dreyfuss), a distraught architect, is calling his ex-boyfriend, only to get the answering machine.

That night, Captain Michael Bradford (Andre Braugher) welcomes everyone to the grand ball room to celebrate New Year's Eve, with musical act Gloria (Stacy Ferguson) performing. Dylan and Ramsey are playing a game of Texas Hold'em with another professional gambler Lucky Larry (Kevin Dillon). Jen and Christian celebrate in the nightclub along with Elena. Over at another table, we see Nelson telling some of his friends the story of his breakup while he orders expensive champagne for the table just before excusing himself to get some air. When Dylan walks away with his winnings, he bumps into Conor James (Jimmy Bennett) and he takes an immediate liking to Dylan, as does his mother Maggie (Jacinda Barrett).

As the ship celebrates the New Year countdown, the crew on the bridge suddenly detect a 150-foot tall rogue wave coming towards the ship. Nelson, who was about to jump overboard, also sees this and he rethinks the suicide. The officer on the bridge tries to steer the ship to avoid a side-on collision, but to no avail. The wave hits the starboard side of the ship, sweeping dozens of people overboard. The Poseidon completely flips upside down and underwater within seconds.

With the ball room in a panic, Maggie notices Conor stuck on a piano on what is now the ceiling (it was bolted down). Ramsey comes over and with the help of a few others rescues Conor. Jen and Elena try to rescue Christian who is pinned down by fallen light stands in the nightclub, while people around them get electrocuted from water and electrical lines. After the initial panic, Captain Bradford calls for order and assures the people that as soon as the rogue wave hit the ship, emergency beacons were activated and rescue teams are dispatched. Dylan suggests escape may be possible via the bow thrusters, he finds himself joined by Nelson, Ramsey, Maggie, Conor, and Valentin. As they leave, the captain reluctantly seals the hatches behind them. The group makes their way to a service elevator needed to reach their destination. The group rigs a table to cross the elevator shaft, to find the doors won't open. Dylan then tries to get to the open doors above. An elevator car begins falling toward the group, everyone survives except Valentin who is impaled on debris, then crushed by the falling car. The group continues towards the propeller room.

Back in the nightclub, Elena and Jen are still struggling to rescue Christian, when Lucky Larry helps rescue him as the other group arrives. They proceed to the elevator in the main concourse of the ship. Most of the group gets across, but Lucky Larry is killed when an engine crashes through the roof and crushes him, which begins leaking fuel, which is struck with electrical sparks, and causes a fire. Dylan grabs a nearby fire hose, swims across, and climbs up to where the others are to create a zip-line. The rest of the group uses the fire hose to slide across to rejoin the main group.

Back in the ballroom, the glass windows crack under pressure and everyone drowns, the main group can do nothing as they continue on, noticing the water is slowly rising as the ship begins to sink. Meanwhile the main group finds a small air vent that they think might lead to the next level, Elena struggles to go because she is claustrophobic. While they're climbing, Ramsey congratulates Christian on the engagement just as they reach the locked exit from the shaft, then it starts to flood. Ramsey tries to unscrew it, but he can't so he calls up Conor. As Conor is climbing, Nelson suddenly slips. With Conor's help they narrowly escape the vent before they all drown. They end up in a ballast chamber, and Dylan realizes the only way out of it is to flood the chamber so the vent on one side of the room opens. They flood the chamber and escape, however Elena is killed by a blow to the head during the attempt. Rooms continue to flood and the ship continues to sink.

As the group arrives at the destination they see it is flooded. Whilst developing another plan, a massive explosion in the engine room causes a shift in weight throughout the entire ship, the stern drops as the the bow goes vertical. As they head back to their destination, they realize Conor is missing after a short search they find him trapped. Dylan rescues Conor and they reunite with the other group. Nelson sees the door to the propeller tube, when he opens it he is blown back, learning the propellers are still running. Christian says that he can swim to the control room to shut them off, but its a long flooded passage and whoever goes will certainly drown. Christian says he has better lung capacity and can make it to the controls, but Ramsey jumps in first. When he reaches the control panel, the emergency shut off switch is broken. Ramsey runs out of air, with his last breath of life manages to find the button to make the propellers run in reverse.

Back in the propeller room, everyone notices that the blades are now turning the other way. Dylan moves to throw a nitrogen tank into the blades to get them to stop and causes a huge explosion that destroys the propellers. The remaining survivors plunge to the water and make it to an inflatable raft, after the flooding has overtaken the ship, and finally sinks to the bottom of the ocean. After a brief wait, rescue helicopters arrive and the 6 survivors are saved, being the only survivors of thousands lost.

[edit] Sets

Water floods into the ballroom through the imploding windows.

The set of the ballroom for the Poseidon.

Like the film The Poseidon Adventure, which based many of its sets on rooms aboard the RMS Queen Mary, the film's set designers drew inspiration for some of the spaces aboard 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 Brothers studios in Burbank, California, separate sets for each main room were built — one right-side-up and the other upside-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 computer-generated imagery. The visual effects were completed by Industrial Light & Magic and used the most advanced version of mental ray technology. Interior scenes involving flowing liquid were modeled using RealFlow.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Soundtrack

Released on May 9, 2006, the soundtrack includes music composed by Klaus Badelt and 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. Be With You (Club Mix) — Mary J. Blige (Bonus track)
5. The Poseidon
6. The Wave
7. A Map & A Plan
8. Fire Dive
9. Claustrophobia
10. Drowning
11. Don't Look Down
12. Escape

[edit] Reception

With a reported $160 million budget, Poseidon received generally negative to mixed reviews, with a "Rotten" rating of 33% on Rotten Tomatoes with an average score of 4.7/10 and a 50 out of 100 on Metacritic, which indicates "mixed or average reviews." It was also nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Remake or Ripoff. However, the film quickly gained popularity and was commended for its realistic use of CGI in the capsizing scenes^[2] and was nominated for the Academy Award for Visual Effects.^[3] (It lost to Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.)

The film grossed a disappointing $22,155,410 on its opening weekend for an average of $6,232 from an ultrawide 3,555 locations, failing to knock Mission: Impossible III from the top of the box office (by sales).^[4] Warner Brothers President and Chief Operating Officer Alan F. Horn called the results, "very, very disappointing." Poseidon went on to generate $60,674,817 in North America and $121,000,000 overseas, for a $181,674,817 worldwide total.^[5]

The film holds a Guinness World Record for the most detailed CG model in a film. The exterior shots included 181,579 individual objects, including 382 cabins, 876 portholes, 73 towels, and 681 deck chairs, all created by digital-effects company Industrial Light & Magic.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] DVD release

Poseidon was released to DVD August 22, 2006, in both single-disc and double-disc editions. The single-disc edition has a behind-the-scenes feature and theatrical trailer. The double-disc edition adds the documentaries Poseidon: Upside Down: A Unique Set Design Chronicle; A Shipmate's Diary, which covers a film school intern's experience on the set; and a History Channel documentary that explores rogue waves.^[6] DVD sales for Poseidon were 1,183,187 units, for $19,665,430 in sales.^[7] Poseidon has made $19,725,028 in DVD sales, bringing its total film gross to $201,399,845.^[8]

[edit] See also

• The Poseidon Adventure (2005)
• Beyond the Poseidon Adventure (1979)
• The Poseidon Adventure (1972)
• The Poseidon Adventure (book)
• SS Poseidon
• RMS Queen Mary 2

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official website
• Poseidon at the Internet Movie Database
• Poseidon at Allmovie
• UK Site
• Poseidon Teaser Trailer
• Poseidon ShoWest Reel
• The Poseidon Journals for behind the scenes reports from nine different major online outlets.
• Poseidon at Rotten Tomatoes
• Poseidon at Metacritic
• Poseidon Premiere in Berlin AEDT.de
• Review: Poseidon at The-Trades.com
• Poseidon at Box Office Mojo
• Poseidon review - includes images, data, and opinion