The Towering Inferno
"Is it bad?" "It's a fire. All fires are bad."
Summary Capsule
A 100-plus story highrise starts going up in flames....who ya gonna call? Paul Newman and Steve McQueen!
Andie's Rating: If it meant Paul Newman and Steve McQueen would come to my rescue, I'd start my hair on fire
Andie's Review: The Towering Inferno is the classic disaster movie. It takes a horrible natural occurrence (fire) and puts it in an "unburnable" setting, then gives us lots of likeable characters we don't want to see burnt to a crisp, and brings in big name hottie action stars to fight it. It's kind of like Titanic, only in a building with fire instead of a boat with water. Especially because only the architect realizes how dangerous the fire could be. The stupid owner at the party thinks they're totally safe up on the 120th floor.
It all takes place during the gala opening of The Glass Tower, San Francisco's new highrise apartment/office building. Fire breaks out on the 81st floor and it is up to architect Doug Roberts (Newman) and Fire Chief O'Hallorhan (McQueen) to try to fight the fire and evacuate the party on the 120-something floor.
I won't say that this movie is a fine piece of cinematic genius, but it is a well-done action movie. The plot is exciting and suspense-filled, the rescues are dangerous, the acting is pretty good, the special effects (considering it is 1974) are realistic looking. It's 2 hrs 45 mins long, but it really flew by. I didn't even realize that it was so long because I was so enthralled with the movie. It has quite the all-star cast as well.
Along with Paul Newman and Steve McQueen (have I mentioned they're in this movie?) there is Newman's wife Susan played by Faye Dunaway, the building owner Jim Duncan played by screen Golden Boy William Holden, and a great older man character played by dancing legend Fred Astaire. There are also smaller roles played by Robert Vaughn and Robert Wagner.
There are some unexpected plot twists and unexpected deaths that totally have you guessing. I also didn't have the climax figured out at all, it was very slickly pulled off. This is one of those movies that people should definitely check out, especially if you're a fan of disaster movies. The daring stairwell fall and subsequent climb made by Paul Newman is just one of the great moments and the climax, where they finally put out the fire, is amazing. It's a well-crafted story that will keep you riveted for all 165 minutes.
 1974 Rated PG Action/Disaster Director
Starring
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One of the deputy fire chiefs is played by a young Dabney Coleman.
Many bit players from The Poseidon Adventure also appear in this film
The Movie Store!
The Towering Inferno: Movie [VHS]
The Towering Inferno: Movie [DVD]
The Towering Inferno: Soundtrack [CD]
Intermission!
This movie was based on two books, The Tower and The Glass Inferno. The scriptwriter, Stirling Silliphant, used 7 main characters from each novel and also included both novels' climaxes.
At Steve McQueen's insistance, he and Paul Newman have exactly the same number of lines of dialogue. Newman and McQueen's names are staggered in the opening credits, closing credits, and on the posters, so that depending on which way you read it (top to bottom or left to right) both appear to get top billing. This is known as "diagonal billing"
Official and Not-So-Official Websites
The Towering Inferno Archive
Groovy Quotes
Duncan: Doug, I think you're overreacting. Now I feel sorry for Will Giddings but he'll be taken care of. But I am not going to concern myself with a fire in a storage room on 81 because it can't possibly effect us up here. Not in this building.
O'Hallorhan: Architects.
Roberts: Yeah, it's all our fault.
O'Hallorhan: Now you know there's no sure way for us to fight a fire in anything over the 7th floor but you guys just keep building 'em as high as you can.
Roberts: Hey, are you here to fight me or the fire?
Duncan: Is it bad?
O'Hallorhan: It's a fire. All fires are bad.
Duncan: The mayor's here, do you want me to pull rank on you?
O'Hallorhan: When there's a fire, I outrank everybody here.
Roberts: How're they gonna get the explosives up here?
O'Hallorhan: Oh, they'll find some dumb son of a bitch to bring it up.
If you liked this movie, try these:
The Poseidon Adventure
Die Hard
Backdraft
