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The Cassandra Crossing is a 1976 British disaster film directed by George Pan Cosmatos and starring Richard Harris, Ava Gardner, Sophia Loren, Martin Sheen, Burt Lancaster, Lee Strasberg and O. J. Simpson.
Plot
A Swedish terrorist is infected with a bacterial plague (the pneumonic strain) during an attack on the U.S. mission at the International Health Organization (based on the World Health Organization). The escaping terrorist infects the passengers aboard a European transcontinental train bound from Geneva to Stockholm.
The passengers include Dr. Jonathan Chamberlain, his ex-wife Jennifer Rispoli Chamberlain, and Nicole Dressler, the wife of a German arms dealer. She is embroiled in an affair with her young companion Robby Navarro. Navarro is a heroin trafficker being pursued by FBI agent Haley, who is traveling undercover as a priest.
The passengers become aware of their predicament when they’re re-directed to Nuremberg. There the train is sealed with an enclosed oxygen system and a U.S. Army medical team is placed aboard.
U.S. Colonel Stephen Mackenzie wants to send the train to an abandoned ex-Nazi railroad line to a quarantine camp in Janov, Poland. However the line crosses a dangerously unsound steel arch bridge known as the Cassandra Crossing, which has been out of use since 1948. Mackenzie understands that the bridge might collapse as the train passes over it.
Dr Chamberlain learns of the risk of the Cassandra Crossing. He also begins to suspect the disease is not as serious as originally thought: few of the passengers have become infected and few of those have actually died. He radios MacKenzie suggesting the infected portion of the train be uncoupled and isolated, but MacKenzie refuses to stop the train.
It becomes apparent MacKenzie has no intention of stopping the train: if the expected Cassandra Crossing collapse occurs it will neatly cover the fact that the U.S has been harboring germ warfare agents in a neutral country. Passengers on the train work alone to stop the train before it reaches the Cassandra Crossing.
The passengers manage to seize the back half of the train roughly 1 km before the bridge and detach it hoping that with less weight, the front half will cross safely. But the bridge collapses, killing everyone aboard the front half. The back end applies the brakes and stops just prior to reaching the downed bridge. The movie ends with the rear passengers walking away.
Cast
Sophia Loren as Jennifer Rispoli Chamberlain
Richard Harris as Dr. Jonathan Chamberlain
Ava Gardner as Nicole Dressler
Burt Lancaster as Col. Stephen MacKenzie
Martin Sheen as Robby Navarro
Lee Strasberg as Herman Kaplan
O. J. Simpson as Haley
Lionel Stander as Max (Train Conductor)
Ingrid Thulin as Dr. Elena Stradner
Alida Valli as Mrs. Chadwick
John Phillip Law as Major Stark
Ann Turkel as Susan
Ray Lovelock as Tom
Production
The bridge depicted in the film is actually the Garabit viaduct in southern France, built from 1880 to 1884 by Gustave Eiffel, who later constructed the famous Eiffel tower.
At the beginning of the film passengers arrive at Geneva railway station to embark on the train. The scenes were shot at Basel central train station. Where Dr. Jonathan Chamberlain enters the station the green coloured trams (belonging to the Basel public transport company BVB), and Basel's Central Station Square can be seen in the background.
The studio artwork shows a typical US diesel locomotive that doesn't resemble anything seen in the film, along with a pantograph for overhead electric wires.
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