The Towering Inferno!

5 Things That Make It A Super Fun Disaster Movie

Best Laid Plans

So, I had intended on doing a fun screen-grab-walkthrough of the entire movie for y’all, but apparently Amazon’s improved its anti-piracy tech because all my screenshots just came out black.

Which is SUCH a bummer because let me tell you, we would have had a lot of fun.

Instead, I just found the best stills I could from the internet (still so few for what was an Oscar Best Picture Nominee!) and brought them here for your viewing pleasure along with all the reasons why this movie is great/terrible/flies by even though it’s 2hours and 44 minutes long/totally unrealistic/and yet also frightening!

Quickly, so you know the gist, ‘The Tower’ was just erected in San Francisco, designed by architect Paul Newman, and is officially the TALLEST BUILDING IN THE WORLD. They’re having a big gala on the top floor with 300 people that’s got horribly under-used Robert Vaughn as a senator, the mayor and his wife, and other so-and-sos.

But! It turns out that the builder, William Holden and his shitty son-in-law, a wonderfully skeevy Richard Chamberlain, skimped on the building materials and this ginormous skyscraper that is over 130 floors tall also happens to be extra super flammable.

Also! Steve McQueen is a firefighter who thinks the world is crazy for building tall buildings (he really scolds Paul Newman repeatedly, it’s like, c’mon man. Give him a break!). Faye Dunaway is Newman’s girlfriend and just is kind of there to look pretty, Fred Astaire is there for some sappy human interest story, and Robert Wagner is… also there to look pretty.

So, why is this movie so fun? Let me tell you.

1. Indiscriminate Dying

This, to me, is the hallmark of all good disaster movies. Once famous people start dying and you’re not even halfway through, suddenly all bets are off. Everything feels more dangerous. Anyone could go at any second!

Take Robert Wagner, for instance, who swaggers around the first act giving his best TV star smile and yet is immolating in the frame below by minute 40.

There is an incredible slow motion tracking shot from outside the windows of the floor he’s on, I think it’s floor 70-something, of him, ON FIRE, making his way through the office, that is also fully ON FIRE, and it’s… breathtaking, really. And then he dramatically collapses, as seen below.

2. Creative Dying

We don’t just want to feel like anyone could die at any minute in a disaster movie, we want them to go in increasingly exciting and creative ways. Which, this movie 100% delivers. Take Robert Wagner’s secretary/girlfriend who he just had sex with. First, she doesn’t put her pants back on even though the building is on fire and she’s probably going to die and has plenty of time to, which is… a choice. I kept yelling at the TV, “Put your pants on!” She looked so vulnerable! Second, rather than be burned alive, she breaks the window and jumps out, while on fire! She weirdly holds her nose like she’s diving into a pool. Sadly, I couldn’t find the immediate shot after this which is an exterior wide of the tower and this little flaming ball falling out around floor 70 and careening towards the ground.

Brutal. But exciting!

3. Unexpected Dying!

SPOILER ALERT

Ha. Well, let me tell you, despite all the indiscriminate dying, I REALLY DIDN’T SEE THIS ONE COMING! Jennifer Jones, who has been THROUGH IT, let me tell you, having been wooed by conman Fred Astaire, risking her life to save a deaf woman’s children, having to climb down the twisted metal of an exploded staircase hanging over a yawning chasm, then back up more stairs only to find the final door blocked by spilled cement, to then get through after firefighters come to blow it up, to then finally get to be one of the few people who get to escape on the last ride down in the scenic elevator, to an explosion knocking that elevator off of it’s track, to her FALLING OUT OF THE ELEVATOR!

They even show her body bounce off the side of the building! I GASPED!

She’s the one in white in the shot below falling backwards to her death.

4. Moral Punishment Dying

Do you see the guy in the frame below and the people in the elevator behind him that are on fire? They were selfish. They didn’t listen. And now they’re dead.

This also applied to the asshole son-in-law who hijacked the one-person-harness-thingy they were using to evacuate people and is pulled down by a lot of other morally questionable people and they all fall to their deaths.

They deserved it!

5. Collateral Dying

The poor dudes in this helicopter. They’re just there trying to save people and these dumb ladies run out and the helicopter tries to not hit them and… crashes.

Afterwards Steve McQueen just says to Newman over the phone, “Now, look, Roberts, I know those pilots are dead.“

Newman, with a tongue cluck, “God it was just awful up there.”

McQueen, “Now our best chance is going to be…” and then he just continues on. It’s crazy.

Paul Newman meanwhile gently escorts these ladies back down the stairs instead of accusing them of manslaughter.

Which brings me to one last thing I wanted to point out.

The many many many similarities to Die Hard.

For example, the helicopter explosion/evacuation attempt on the roof, shown above, and the Die Hard counterpart below:

Or, the framing of Newman and Dunaway on the steps after it’s all over, shown below. Steve McQueen even saunters up to them just like Reginald Veljohnson does to Bruce and Bonnie in Die Hard. There’s LOTS of other stuff too (see: elevator shafts).

So, when the movie was over I went to straight to the internet, and lo and behold…

Author Roderick Thorp was inspired by both The Towering Inferno and a dream of a man being chased through a skyscraper by men with guns to write a sequel to his novel The Detective. This sequel, Nothing Lasts Forever, was adapted into the action-thriller film Die Hard.^[55]

And there you have it.

For some reason you can only buy The Towering Inferno, but my husband and I both agreed it was money well spent. Here’s the classic trailer for you to enjoy: