The Cassandra Crossing is a 1976 disaster thriller film directed by George Pan Cosmatos and starring Sophia Loren, Richard Harris, Ava Gardner, Martin Sheen, Burt Lancaster, Lee Strasberg and O. J. Simpson about a diseased Swedish terrorist who infects a cross-European train's passengers as they head to a derelict arch bridge which is liable to collapse.

Mackenzie insists on rerouting the train to a disused railway line which goes to a former Nazi concentration camp in Janov, Poland where the passengers will be quarantined.

The presence of the infected terrorist, and the rerouting of the train, precipitates the second conflict, among passengers on the train who include Jonathan Chamberlain, a famous neurologist; his ex-wife Jennifer Rispoli Chamberlain, a writer; a former inmate of Janov and Holocaust survivor Herman Kaplan; and Nicole Dressler, the wife of a German arms dealer.

Mackenzie informs Chamberlain of the presence of Eklund, who is found hiding in the baggage car next to a caged basset hound, but attempts to remove him via helicopter are unsuccessful.

Mackenzie, however, informs passengers that police have received reports of anarchist bombs placed along the rail line, and that the train will be rerouted to Nuremberg.

Chamberlain and Haley form a group of passengers to overcome the guards and seize control of the train before it reaches the doomed bridge.

At the lab, Dr. Stradner tests and monitors the ill dog, which spontaneously recovers, but Mackenzie is unimpressed and refuses to alter his plan.

"[13] Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times called the film "a disaster picture quite literally disastrous and so awful it's unintentionally hilarious.

"[14] Gary Arnold of The Washington Post wrote, "Cosmatos is an absentminded, huffing-puffing director who seems to keep hoping we'll overlook his frazzled continuity, which suggests an old serial slapped together in such a way that the cliffhanging bits are never resolved.

"[15] Richard Combs of The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote, "The one remotely enjoyable aspect of The Cassandra Crossing is that it knows no proportion in anything—from performances through plotting, shooting style and special effects, it is constantly outdoing itself in monumental silliness.

[17] The graphic scenes of the passengers being killed at the end of the film had ensured an "R" rating in theatres and led to two "censored" and "uncensored" versions being released for broadcast and home media.