Production companies Virtual Studios Irwin Allen Productions Next Entertainment Radiant Productions Synthesis Entertainment
Directed by Wolfgang Petersen
Screenplay by Mark Protosevich
Based on The Poseidon Adventure by Paul Gallico
Produced by Wolfgang Petersen Duncan Henderson Mike Fleiss Akiva Goldsman
Cinematography John Seale
Edited by Peter Honess
Music by Klaus Badelt
Synopsis The RMS Poseidon, a luxury ocean liner, is making a transatlantic crossing. Former New York City Mayor and firefighter Robert Ramsey is traveling with his daughter Jennifer and her boyfriend Christian Sanders to New York, soon to be engaged. Also on board is former Navy submariner-turned-professional gambler Dylan Johns, architect Richard Nelson, widowed Maggie James and her son Conor, stowaway Elena Morales, waiter Marco Valentin, and Captain Michael Bradford. As the passengers are enjoying a New Year's Eve party, officers on the bridge see a huge rogue wave bearing down on the ship. To survive the wave, they try to steer the ship to starboard to take the wave bow-first, but she does not turn fast enough. The wave swamps and capsizes the ship, killing the bridge officers along with many passengers and crew. In the ballroom, a badly injured Captain Bradford attempts to restore order and assures the surviving passengers that help is on the way, and tries to persuade them to stay put. Unconvinced, Dylan leads Conor, Maggie, Robert, Richard, and Valentin as they make their way towards the bow, where he believes that they will have the best chance of escaping from the capsized liner. As they head up, they have to cross an elevator shaft, into which Valentin falls to his death before being crushed by the falling elevator. They reunite with Jennifer, Christian, Elena, and gambler Lucky Larry, who had all been in the nightclub section of the ship, and who are the only survivors out of all of the occupants in the nightclub. The group crosses a makeshift bridge across the lobby, where Lucky Larry gets crushed by an engine. The pressure from the water finally cracks the ballroom windows, drowning the occupants, including Captain Bradford. With the water rising rapidly, the group escapes through an air duct and some ballast tanks, although Elena hits her head underwater and drowns as a result. With the ship slowly sinking, the survivors soon find themselves in a crew lounge where they find the bow section is flooded, until an explosion of the engine room lifts it out of the water. The group enters the bow thruster room and are horrified to find the thrusters still running. With their path blocked by the propellers, and knowing that the control room is submerged in water, Robert swims away to turn off the engine. He finds the "shut off" switch to be broken, but presses the reverse button instead, before drowning. With the propellers now spinning in the other direction, Dylan throws an acetylene tank into it, causing an explosion that destroys the propeller, and leaving an opening for them to escape through. The group jumps out the thruster and swims to a nearby inflatable raft, and as they are getting into the raft, the ship starts to sink. As they are paddling away, the waves push the raft farther away from the sinking liner. Poseidon flips back over, and across the water, the survivors look on as she sinks stern-first deep into the ocean. After the survivors fire a flare, two helicopters and several ships arrive to rescue them, having tracked the location of the Poseidon's GPS beacon.
