Poseidon (film)

Poseidon is a 2006 American action disaster film directed and co-produced by Wolfgang Petersen. It is the third screen adaptation of Paul Gallico’s 1969 novel The Poseidon Adventure, following the 1972 film of the same name and its 1979 sequel. A loose remake of the original, the film stars Kurt Russell, Josh Lucas, and Richard Dreyfuss, with Emmy Rossum, Jacinda Barrett, Mike Vogel, Mía Maestro, Jimmy Bennett, and Andre Braugher in supporting roles.

The film was produced by Virtual Studios and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, with a simultaneous release in IMAX format. Its screenplay was written by Mark Protosevich, who reimagined the survival narrative within a contemporary setting while maintaining the premise of a luxury ocean liner capsized by a rogue wave. Principal photography took place on large-scale sets and soundstages in Los Angeles, with an emphasis on practical effects, stunts, and digitally-enhanced water sequences.

Poseidon premiered in the United States on May 12, 2006. It received mixed-to-negative reviews from critics, who praised its visual effects and action set pieces but criticized its script, character development, and lack of originality. At the 79th Academy Awards, it received a nomination for Best Visual Effects. Despite grossing $181.7 million worldwide against a production budget of $160 million, the film failed to recoup its marketing and distribution costs, resulting in estimated losses of $70–80 million for the studio. It is considered a box-office disappointment.

Plot

The luxury ocean liner Poseidon is undertaking a transatlantic voyage during New Year's Eve celebrations. Among the passengers are former New York City mayor and firefighter Robert Ramsey, traveling with his daughter Jennifer and her boyfriend Christian; professional gambler Dylan Johns; single mother Maggie James and her son Conor; architect Richard Nelson; stowaway Elena Morales; waiter Marco Valentine; nightclub singer Gloria; and Captain Michael Bradford.

As the ship’s guests celebrate in the grand ballroom, a massive rogue wave is detected approaching the vessel. The crew attempts to turn the ship bow-first into the wave, but the maneuver is unsuccessful. The wave capsizes the Poseidon, killing the bridge crew and a majority of passengers and crew members. In the aftermath, Captain Bradford advises the survivors to remain in the ballroom and await rescue, assuring them that distress signals have been sent. Dylan, however, believes escape is possible by heading toward the bow and forms a group that includes Maggie, Conor, Robert, Richard, and Valentine.

The group encounters several hazards as they navigate the overturned ship. During an attempt to cross a damaged catwalk, Valentine falls to his death after Richard is forced to let him go. The group later reunites with Jennifer, Christian, Elena, and gambler Lucky Larry in the nightclub, where the rest of the occupants have been electrocuted. As they cross a flooded lobby, Larry is killed by a falling air conditioning unit. Meanwhile, the ballroom windows succumb to the ocean pressure and collapse, flooding the room and drowning the remaining survivors, including Captain Bradford and Gloria.

Continuing their escape through flooded compartments, the group loses Elena, who suffers a fatal head injury in an underwater passage. They eventually reach the bow thruster room, only to find the propellers still active and blocking their path. Robert dives into the submerged control room and manages to reverse the thruster direction, before drowning in the process, allowing Dylan to destroy the machinery by hurling an acetylene tank into the spinning blades.

With an escape route now open, the remaining survivors exit the ship and swim to a life raft. They watch as the Poseidon sinks stern-first into the Atlantic Ocean. After launching a flare, they are rescued by arriving helicopters and ships, which have tracked the ship’s distress signal.

Production

Production on Poseidon began in July 2005. The film marked director Wolfgang Petersen’s return to the maritime disaster genre following Das Boot (1981) and The Perfect Storm (2000).

Production design

Set construction was based on a combination of practical builds and digital environments. As with the 1972 adaptation of The Poseidon Adventure, the production drew inspiration from real-world ocean liners. Designers modeled elements of the fictional Poseidon—most notably the grand ballroom—on the interiors of the RMS Queen Mary 2.

Filming took place at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California. For major interior sequences, two versions of each principal set were constructed: one right-side-up and one upside-down. The inverted ballroom was built above a large water tank, enabling rapid flooding and draining to accommodate multiple takes. Exterior and rolling shots of the ship were created using digital effects rather than physical models.

Visual effects

Visual effects were primarily handled by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) and the Moving Picture Company (MPC). ILM created the ship's exterior shots using advanced lighting and rendering techniques through the mental ray system. The film’s opening—an extended, two-and-a-half-minute digital flyover of the Poseidon—was one of the most complex digital models ILM had developed at the time.

Water simulations were generated using proprietary software known as PhysBAM, developed in collaboration with Stanford University. Additional interior digital work and fluid dynamics were completed by MPC using their in-house tools. Scanline VFX contributed simulations of liquid and gaseous effects via their Flowline software. CIS Hollywood also provided visual effects sequences, employing RealFlow for water dynamics.

Soundtrack

The film's soundtrack was released on May 9, 2006, and features an original score composed by Klaus Badelt. In addition to the orchestral score, the soundtrack includes songs performed by Fergie, who portrays the character Gloria in the film, as well as tracks by Argentine singer-songwriter Federico Aubele.

Although not included on the official soundtrack release, Mary J. Blige’s “Be Without You (Moto Blanco Vocal Mix)” is featured prominently in the film’s first nightclub scene.

Reception

Box office

Poseidon was released in the United States on May 12, 2006, and earned $22.2 million in its opening weekend, averaging $6,232 per theater across 3,555 locations. It ranked second at the box office behind Mission: Impossible III. The film went on to gross $60.7 million in the United States and Canada and $121 million in international markets, for a worldwide total of $181.7 million. Despite its global earnings, the film was unable to recover its high production and marketing costs, resulting in estimated losses of $70–80 million for Warner Bros.

Critical response

On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Poseidon holds an approval rating of 33% based on 204 reviews, with an average rating of 4.8/10. The website’s critical consensus reads, "This remake of The Poseidon Adventure delivers dazzling special effects. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem that any of the budget was left over to devote to the script." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 50 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times criticized the film for lacking creative energy, writing, "Wolfgang Petersen's heart isn't in it. He is too wise a director to think this is first-rate material and too good a director to turn it into enjoyable trash." Brian Lowry of Variety noted the film's technical achievements but lamented its weak writing: "Petersen's large-scale liner moves reasonably well, though anyone with the faintest memory of its 1972 predecessor will wonder where most of the plot went, and the dialogue is so stilted it can honestly be said the less the better."

Accolades

Award	Date of the ceremony	Category	Recipients	Result	Template:Refh
Stinkers Bad Movie Awards	2007	Worst Remake	Poseidon	Nominated
Visual Effects Society	11 February 2007	Best Single Visual Effect of the Year	Boyd Shermis, Rhonda Gunner, Kim Libreri, and Philippe Rebours – "Opening Sequence"	Nominated
		Outstanding Created Environment in a Photoreal Feature	Mohen Leo, Daniel Pearson, Willi Geiger, and Matt Brumit	Nominated
		Outstanding Compositing in a Photoreal Feature	Scott Younkin, Janeen Elliott, Brian Connor, and Mark Nettleton	Nominated
Golden Raspberry Awards	24 February 2007	Worst Remake, Rip-off or Sequel	Poseidon	Nominated
Academy Awards	25 February 2007	Best Visual Effects	Boyd Shermis, Kim Libreri, Chaz Jarrett, and John Frazier	Nominated

Home media

Poseidon was released on DVD in the United States on August 22, 2006, in both single-disc and two-disc special editions, available in full-screen and widescreen formats. The standard edition includes a behind-the-scenes featurette and the film’s theatrical trailer. The two-disc special edition expands on the bonus content with three additional features: Poseidon: Upside Down, a documentary on the film’s set design; A Shipmate's Diary, chronicling a film school intern’s experience on set; and a History Channel-produced documentary examining real-life rogue waves.

The film earned $27.2 million in domestic DVD sales.

See also

• List of films set around New Year

External links

• Template:First word/ Template:Trim at IMDbTemplate:EditAtWikidata
• Template:Wikidata/enwp Template:PAGENAMEBASE at the TCM Movie DatabaseTemplate:EditAtWikidata