It was produced and directed by Robert Wise, and was written by Nelson Gidding, Richard Levinson and William Link, based on the 1972 book of the same name by Michael M. Mooney.

A highly speculative thriller, the film and the book on which it is based depict a conspiracy involving sabotage, which leads to the destruction of the German airship Hindenburg.

In reality, while the Zeppelins were certainly used as propaganda symbols by Nazi Germany, and anti-Nazi forces may have been motivated to sabotage them, the possibility of such an act was investigated at the time; ultimately, no firm evidence was uncovered to substantiate the theory.

A. Hoehling, author of the 1962 book Who Destroyed the Hindenburg?, also about the sabotage theory, sued Mooney along with the film developers for copyright infringement as well as unfair competition.

In the meantime, Luftwaffe Colonel Franz Ritter has been named the security officer to protect the Hindenburg as various threats have been made to sabotage the airship, which some see as a symbol of Nazi Germany.

Ritter has reason to suspect everyone, even his old friend, Countess Ursula von Reugen, whose Baltic estate in Peenemünde had been taken over by the Nazis for weapons testing and appears to be escaping Germany while visiting her young hearing-impaired daughter in Boston.

Other prime suspects include Edward Douglas, a suspicious German-American advertising executive, card sharps Emilio Pajetta and Major Napier, as well as several crew members and even the Hindenburg captains Max Pruss and Ernst Lehmann.

Two other code names, for carnivorous air and sea animals, turn out to refer to the Hindenburg itself and the Queen Mary, where Douglas's competitor is in a race to beat him to port to secure a business deal in New York.

Boerth, upon hearing the news of Halle's death, plans to commit suicide by staying aboard the airship as the bomb goes off, to show that there is a resistance against the Nazi regime.

As the airship approaches Lakehurst Naval Air Station, Ritter, now realizing the landing will be delayed, frantically searches for Boerth to find out where the bomb is hidden.

Boerth was injured from being tortured by Vogel and dies of his burns, but manages to set the Channings' Dalmatian dog free before the airship crashes to the ground.

[7] (*) Beside name indicates actual historical person This was the second film released in 1975 to feature the actors William Atherton, Burgess Meredith and Richard Dysart after The Day of the Locust.

Using photographs, a recreated passenger area, gondola and superstructure of the giant airship was constructed to create a realistic exterior and interior set for the actors.

A team of 80 artists and technicians working double shifts for four months, assembled a "giant Erector Set" consisting of eight tons of aluminum, 11,000 yards (10,000 m) of muslin, 24,000 feet (7,300 m) of sash cord and 2,000,000 rivets.

The model of the Hindenburg was hung on display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. along with the gondola as part of its Balloons and Airships gallery.

[14] An interesting aspect was the film's transition from black and white to technicolor and back to grayscale, beginning with a simulated Universal Newsreel that gave an educated view to the history of the lighter-than-air craft.

The scene when the port fin's fabric rips did not happen to the Hindenburg, but a similar event occurred on the Graf Zeppelin during its first flight to the United States in 1928.

"[20] Arthur D. Murphy of Variety wrote "Dull and formula scripting, a lack of real empathy and phoned-in acting shoot down some good though unspectacular special effects.

"[21] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film two stars out of four, faulting it for "really dumb dialog" and a "fake story" but finding it redeemed somewhat by "terrific" special effects and David Shire's music.

"[23] Gary Arnold of The Washington Post wrote "The film has begun to drag by the time the climactic explosion occurs, and the climax itself is somewhat less than thrilling.

Wise has tried to integrate the newsreel footage of the disaster with vignettes of the fictional characters inside attempting to escape, but there's an impossible esthetic gulf between the documentary and staged scenes.