The Poseidon Adventure

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3:14

The Poseidon Adventure

PG

1972

1h 57m

Adventure

Mystery & Thriller

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

82%

Tomatometer

34 Reviews

76%

Popcornmeter

25,000+ Ratings

En route from New York City to Greece on New Year's Eve, majestic passenger ship the S.S. Poseidon is overtaken by a tidal wave. With the captain (Leslie Nielsen) dead, surviving passengers, including the passionate Rev. Scott (Gene Hackman), band together in the ship's ballroom. The group struggles to avert fires, flooding, structural instability and mechanical malfunctions as they make their way through a maze of ladders and tunnels in their desperate attempt to escape a watery grave.

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Critics Consensus

The Poseidon Adventure exemplifies the disaster film done right, going down smoothly with ratcheting tension and a terrific ensemble to give the peril a distressingly human dimension.

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Pauline Kael

The New Yorker

09/29/2023

The picture would be more fun if we cared about who got killed and who survived.

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Eric Henderson

Slant Magazine

05/08/2006

3/4

What the glittering, star-driving survivalism of Poseidon Adventure actually presents is a nightmarishly schematic fantasia of guiltless discomfort.

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Nick Schager

Lessons of Darkness

04/19/2006

B-

Neither as exciting nor as unintentionally funny as one would like it to be.

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Trace Thurman

Horror Queers Podcast

May 19

4.5/5

A masterclass of a disaster film filled with characters you care about, nail-biting suspense and some truly revolutionary special effects. The Poseidon Adventure has it all, folks.

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Joe Lipsett

Horror Queers Podcast

May 13

4/5

Shelley Winters deserves all the praise for bringing humanity and pathos to her character. It's no surprise why this Oscar-winning disaster movie kick started a trend or that it holds up 50+ years later

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Wesley Lovell

Cinema Sight

Jan 7

2.5/4

Disaster movies had already taken place on an airplane so a sea-going vessel seemed a natural evolution. The Poseidon Adventure was the result, a star-studded voyage of death, survival, and courage.

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Shizue Leigh H

@RT72406249 2d

Capsized ocean liner with an all-star cast. Not one wasted moment, Enjoyable from start to finish. That's why we old timers went to the movies for back in the 1970s.

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thiago S

@Thiagostone Jun 16

Filme fraco, o roteiro é fraco, as cenas são fracas, a história é fraca, o elenco é fraco, e ninguém ajuda a melhorar o filme, os personagens são fracos, e o filme deveria ter cenas bem melhores e relevantes, para fazer o filme ser bom

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Jeff M.

@Jmo54 Jun 11

The Godfather of disaster movies.

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James R.

@Jimbobwa May 6

One of my all time favorites!

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Mike P

@RT09890132 Mar 19

The Poseidon Adventure, Airport and Towering Inferno are basically the Holy Trinity of the Disaster Movie Genre...Each offering its own virtues and rewards ...And "Poseidon" basically rewrites the Titanic Disaster for a modern audience...As a luxury New York ocean liner en route to Greece is suddenly capsized by a tidal wave which turns it completely UPSIDE down...Leaving the crew and passengers helpless in its wake, desperately trying to escape it... Of all the disaster movies this might be the most SOLID...It has the best characters and acting, best, most believable and developed story arc and still impressive special effects. (Although Inferno is definitely the most IMPRESSIVE special effects wise and in terms of overall spectacle). But it's very fascinating and fun to watch the types of movie that dominated the box office right before Spielberg and Lucas would turn Hollywood upside themselves just a couple years later. Overall: I definitely recommend this.

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Seth K

@RT03219903 03/31/2025

Very enjoyable disaster movie, one of the best of its kind. The suspense and action were first rate, particularly considering the movie is over 50 years old (at the time of this writing). The acting and writing a bit overheated at points, but I took it in stride as there were so many fine moments.

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Ronald Neame

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Irwin Allen

Director

Gene Hackman

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The Poseidon Adventure: Trailer 1

3:14

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Synopsis

En route from New York City to Greece on New Year's Eve, majestic passenger ship the S.S. Poseidon is overtaken by a tidal wave. With the captain (Leslie Nielsen) dead, surviving passengers, including the passionate Rev. Scott (Gene Hackman), band together in the ship's ballroom. The group struggles to avert fires, flooding, structural instability and mechanical malfunctions as they make their way through a maze of ladders and tunnels in their desperate attempt to escape a watery grave.

Director: Ronald Neame, Irwin Allen
Producer: Steve Broidy
Screenwriter: Paul Gallico, Wendell Mayes, Stirling Silliphant
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Production Co: Twentieth Century Fox
Rating: PG
Genre: Adventure, Mystery & Thriller
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Dec 12, 1972, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Apr 3, 2016
Runtime: 1h 57m