The Poseidon Adventure is a 1972 American disaster film directed by Ronald Neame, produced by Irwin Allen, and based on Paul Gallico's 1969 novel of the same name.

It has an ensemble cast including five Oscar winners: Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine, Jack Albertson, Shelley Winters, and Red Buttons.

The plot centers on the fictional SS Poseidon, an aging luxury liner on its final voyage from New York City to Athens, before it is scrapped.

Passengers and crew are trapped inside, and a preacher attempts to lead a small group of survivors to safety.

In the Aegean Sea, the SS Poseidon, an ocean liner slated for retirement, travels from New York to Athens.

Despite safety concerns from Captain Harrison, the new owner's representative insists he go full speed to save money, preventing Poseidon from taking on ballast.

Retired Jewish store owner Manny Rosen and wife Belle are going to Israel to meet their two-year-old grandson for the first time.

As passengers gather in the dining room to celebrate, the captain is called to the bridge in response to a report of an undersea earthquake.

The Rosens, the Rogos, Susan, Robin, Acres, Nonnie, and Martin agree to go with Scott, using a Christmas tree as a ladder.

Leaving the shaft, the group meets a band of survivors led by the ship's doctor, heading toward the bow.

Scott leads the survivors to the propeller shaft room's watertight door, but additional explosions cause Linda to lose her grip and fall to her death.

Scott rants at God for the survivors' deaths while leaping across a pool of flaming oil, grabbing onto the burning-hot valve wheel to shut down the steam.

[6] The novel was acquired by Avco Embassy Pictures in 1969 and Allen's Kent Productions signed a deal with them to make three movies, including The Poseidon Adventure.

[5] Parts of the movie were filmed aboard RMS Queen Mary, permanently berthed in Long Beach, California.

[8] Paul Gallico had been inspired to write the novel after a vacation aboard the ship in 1937 in which it was rocked by high waves.

The critical consensus reads: "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".

[15] Roger Ebert gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four and called it "the kind of movie you know is going to be awful, and yet somehow you gotta see it, right?

"[16] A. H. Weiler of The New York Times wrote that "though tensions slacken and credibility is strained here, realistic technical effects make the stricken ship and the efforts of its survivors to escape a fairly spellbinding adventure".

[17] Variety called the film "a highly imaginative and lustily-produced meller" with "some of the most exciting sequences seen in years".

[19] Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times wrote that "the special effects—the genuinely remarkable production values and technical wizardries—sweep everything else aside.

"[20] Gary Arnold of The Washington Post wrote that the film was "strictly formula hokum, but reasonably diverting if one doesn't ask for more than the filmmakers care to give—that is, for imaginative writing and direction.

Instead, he is shown floating upside down with only his feet in sight jutting out from an SS Poseidon life preserver.