{"id":84379,"date":"2025-10-19T08:22:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T08:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/84379\/"},"modified":"2025-10-19T08:22:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T08:22:08","slug":"this-classic-disaster-movie-deserves-a-proper-remake-not-just-a-dwayne-johnson-rip-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/84379\/","title":{"rendered":"This Classic Disaster Movie Deserves a Proper Remake \u2014 Not Just a Dwayne Johnson Rip-Off"},"content":{"rendered":"

There was something special about the \u201870s disaster movie<\/a> boom in Hollywood that today\u2019s cinema cannot compare to. Although technological advances in CGI have phased out practical sets and miniatures over the years, recent disaster epics such as Greenland<\/a> and Twisters<\/a> lack the star power that made audiences care for the characters, as well as a relevant underlying subtext. With one recent survivalist film, The Lost Bus<\/a>, proving that the combination of spectacle and human drama can still succeed creatively, it might be time to give 1974\u2019s The Towering Inferno<\/a> a fresh re-imaging.<\/p>\n

Directed by John Guillermin (1976\u2019s King Kong<\/a>, Death on the Nile), The Towering Inferno was more than just another cash-in on the \u201870s disaster craze. It was an epic event, produced by Irwin Allen, the producer of The Poseidon Adventure<\/a> fame, featuring A-list icons led by Paul Newman<\/a> and Steve McQueen<\/a>, who lent their gravitas to a Hollywood spectacle. Achieving the record of the second top-grossing film of 1974<\/a> and winning three Academy Awards<\/a>, the film paved the way for such high-rise suspense-thrillers as Die Hard<\/a> and Dwayne Johnson<\/a>\u2019s Skyscraper<\/a>. The latter picture attempted to recapture the formula of heroic feats being accomplished within the context of a closed space on fire. Where Skyscraper failed, however, is the one key element that would make a Towering Inferno remake worthwhile: The suspension of disbelief.<\/p>\n

What Is ‘The Towering Inferno’ About?<\/p>\n

Based on source material from the novels The Tower by Richard Martin Stern and The Glass Inferno by Thomas N. Scortia and Frank M. Robinson, The Towering Inferno follows architect Doug Roberts (Newman), who is invited to the opening ceremony of The Glass Tower in San Francisco. Billed as the world\u2019s tallest skyscraper, Roberts was the chief designer of the building operated by its developer, James Duncan (William Holden<\/a>). Right before the event, Roberts raises safety concerns after finding some bad power wiring by Duncan\u2019s contractor son-in-law, Roger (Richard Chamberlain<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Once the ceremony gets into full swing, the tower\u2019s spectacular lighting display overloads the electrical systems, resulting in the fire breaking out all the way up to the 135th floor. On the ground, fire chief Michael O\u2019Hallorhan (McQueen) leads the evacuation plan by working with Duncan over the phone to help the guests to safety. But as the gas lines explode and elevators trap claustrophobic guests, the danger becomes greater as the potential mass casualties.<\/p>\n

The Stars of \u2018The Towering Inferno\u2019 Ground Their Characters in Real Fear<\/p>\n

\"Firefighters
\n Firefighters try to contain an out-of-control fire in ‘The Towering Inferno’Image via 20th Century Fox\/Warner Bros.<\/p>\n

The Towering Inferno featured the megastars of the day, such as Newman, McQueen, and Faye Dunaway<\/a>, sharing the screen with cinema legends before their time, including Holden, Fred Astaire<\/a>, and Robert Vaughn. Each actor breathed life into the roles in a way that made audiences care and not just come across as stock archetypes. Newman and McQueen, both at their career heights in 1974, get their moments to shine, whether it\u2019s Newman hanging off metal above a collapsed stairwell or McQueen atop a bending elevator. Yet, they are far from superheroes like the stars of today because they exemplify the cast ensemble\u2019s genuine fear of facing death in a moment of crisis. The use of pyrotechnics on sets that are physically on fire in front of the actors adds to the authenticity of the performances, where no one has time for quick one-liners and winking at the camera. Whether it’s the guests witnessing a real helicopter explosion in front of them or Vaughn\u2019s panic in rushing to a rescue chairlift, the audience can believe this situation could really happen to them.<\/p>\n

Beyond the hair-raising stuntwork and pyro effects, The Towering Inferno carried a deeper message about the greed of corporations and the desire to make everything bigger and better without attention to the limitations. In the midst of the chaos, aside from the soap opera-level subplots that include Robert Wagner<\/a> and Susan Flannery\u2019s affair, is a greater conflict between Newman, Holden, and Chamberlin about the cost-cutting measures to the building that led to the fire outbreak, as well as McQueen\u2019s restrained disgust over the company\u2019s safety oversight. In today\u2019s times, a remake would go further than just money-hungry businessmen seeking a quick buck. As The Lost Bus and the satire Don\u2019t Look Up<\/a> highlighted, themes of powerful people ignoring climate change, spreading disinformation like a virus, and a current generation\u2019s need to livestream a disaster on their phones would tell a greater tale about humanity\u2019s ignorance of a mass casualty event.<\/p>\n

Why \u2018Skyscraper\u2019 Failed to Be a True Remake of \u2018The Towering Inferno\u2019<\/p>\n

When the 2018 blockbuster Skyscraper came along, it retained Towering Inferno\u2019s concept of terror atop the world\u2019s largest building. Many of the same traits were carried over: Johnson\u2019s hero security expert takes the place of Newman\u2019s ethical architect, the building\u2019s safety systems go haywire, and innocent lives are put at risk. With Johnson in the lead, however, Skyscraper easily becomes a Die Hard clone with the addition of terrorists holding the star\u2019s family hostage while seeking to rip off the building\u2019s financier. Rather than making a compelling throwback to the realism and subtle commentary of Inferno, Skyscraper is treated like a hollow CGI-driven spectacle where the stunts come off too sleek and the paper-thin premise cannot be elevated by one-dimensional characters played by Johnson and his co-stars, including Neve Campbell<\/a> and Chin Han.<\/p>\n

To remake The Towering Inferno today would not be as simple as using CGI to accomplish the Fast & Furious<\/a>-level absurdity that Johnson\u2019s Skyscraper aimed to do. The latter picture took away all the 1974 film’s tension, not only because it has a larger-than-life action hero in the lead, but also due to the video game approach of a rescue mission featuring physically impossible heroic feats. Never once does Skyscraper make the audience feel the true fear of heights and being caught in a blazing fire, because never once is it believable that Johnson will die. The Towering Inferno, however, had shock value because any one of the A-list ensemble could lose their lives in the disaster. Even Newman and McQueen\u2019s characters were human enough to avoid death narrowly. If a modern-era filmmaker like Paul Greengrass<\/a> got an opportunity to re-tell the Inferno story, the emotional connection to human characters could be the true selling point, with the spectacle being more grounded and less stylized.<\/p>\n

The Towering Inferno is available to purchase on VOD services.<\/p>\n

Release Date<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDecember 14, 1974<\/p>\n

Runtime<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t165 minutes<\/p>\n

Director<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJohn Guillermin, Irwin Allen<\/p>\n

Writers<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRichard Martin Stern, Thomas N. Scortia, Frank M. Robinson, Stirling Silliphant<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There was something special about the \u201870s disaster movie boom in Hollywood that today\u2019s cinema cannot compare to.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84380,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[146,85,46,397],"class_list":["post-84379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}