The death of Robert Wagner and Susan Flannery's characters in the movie was sickening. I remember when I first saw the scene how shocked I was. Was it really necessary. We had to see Robert Wagner in slow motion running around on fire. Then we had to see Susan Flannery die a horrific death. I think it was totally unnecessary and sickening to watch.
shareThat scene scared me as a kid. If you like stunt work you'll appreciate it more as there's no cgi involved plus the realism adds to the shock value.
(Spoilers)
I found the scenes from were the security guys first see smoke on the cameras up to the shot of Lorrie falling out the window as the scariest and creates the most suspense/tension, the music sounded creepier too. I think someone else mentioned this from here a while back.
The deaths in the second half were more toned down in comparison to the first half excluding the unexpected demise of Jennifer Jones falling out from the scenic elevator, I found that more shocking.
''If it bleeds, we can kill it.''
Did you ever see the movie Two Minute Warning? Charlton Heston is in that. It's another one of those disaster movies with all of the stars. Only it involves a sniper at a football game. But sometimes I feel like the characters are there only to give us more death scenes. It doesn't matter who they are. They are there to die. I guess they figure that's what we want. Seeing people die gruesome deaths is not what I want. I don't want a sniper picking off random people for no reason, people getting trampled to death, or people getting incinerated for no good reason. That scene in Towering Inferno was nauseating. The Jennifer Jones death was wrong too. They didn't think enough people died yet? That character had to be dead by the end too? You know what I mean?
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I haven't seen, Two Minute Warning, I'll check it out.
Also I'd have prefered McQueen or Newman to have been killed off over Jennifer Jones as she was the real star of the movie.
''If it bleeds, we can kill it.''
Jennifer Jones a "real star" in a movie starring Newman, McQueen, Holden, Dunaway, Astaire etc... by which parameters would that be?
"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan
The person who should have been killed was Jernigan, played by O.J. They should have burned em. Twenty years later the cops had another chance to take O.J. out ot let him commit suicide, and they still let him go. Who knows? Maybe the practice O.J. was involved in in TTI helped him in committing those horrific acts in such a short time frame 20 years later.
share"Seeing people die gruesome deaths is not what I want".
In that case, selecting a film titled "The Towering Inferno" for an evenings entertainment might not have been such a great idea...
And one sort of wonders what might be a "good reason" to get incinerated...
"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan
Great point. You are funny and I like your signature line.
I agree that from the time that you see the smoke coming out from the storage room's door to the deaths of Robert Wagner and Susan Flannery that the deaths are more graphic and disturbing and the music is scarier. The elevator scene was very disturbing too with the guy walking out on fire.
shareYou think it's sickening. But when I saw it in the theater, almost everybody laughed maniacally when Susan Flannery caught on fire and fell out of the window.
shareI know. That doesn't make the movie any easier to watch. I thought that whole scene was just too much. Talk about overkill.
shareI think the arbitrary nature and cruelty of the deaths in Towering Inferno is why the movie has stood the test of time. The intensity in modern blockbusters just isn't there. They are almost jocular in tone. Like the car racing through a crumbling Los Angeles in "2010."
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I just bought the Bluray which is why I dropped by and Inferno has stood the test of time. There's no question the lack of CGI is a significant factor and the inclusion of old school stars. I mean, no disrespect to John Cusack, but he's no Steve McQueen.
shareGary-161 -
Good point, well-made & thanks for reminding me why I've watched this film over & over again.
It is relentless and it doesn't give the viewer any respite, unlike recent disaster films (2012 for instance).
Another reason why it's still watchable is that it's believable;any of us could get caught in a fire, for exactly the same reasons.
And we know it.
People are still cutting corners with building projects, picking up the lowest bid, which might not be the safest bid.
Back to the point: it's a shocking scene but necessary.
I thought it was kind of patheic...
You have these two lovers and then a fire and then the man going, "I'll save you!" *runs into the fire and gets 5 feet* "ARRRGGGHHHH!!!" *burns to death*
Woman:
What else was there for her to do?
www.simplydustinhoffman.com
-#1 site for Dustin Hoffman fans-
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That scene was disturbing when I saw it as a kid, but after watching it again tonight what was really sickening was Simmons trying to throw everyone off the breeches buoy. What a horror of a person.
Next time you point the finger, I'll point you to the mirror.
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Actually, I recently read "The Glass Inferno", which features the characters the film used. Bigelow attempts to wake her, and she doesn't respond, so he leaves, taking a trophy that's important to him. He makes it a distance, but loses his shoe in melted plastic and puts his bare foot down. Naturally, that has a bad effect and he loses his balance and goes face-first into the plastic, pulling flaming curtains down over the top of him, and that's the end of him.
The "Lori" character decides to make a jump for it, using the mattress to cushion her fall, but she's already on fire before she makes the leap, and naturally the mattress does absolutely nothing to save her when she finally gets to the bottom.
So actually, in the book, at least in Bigelow's case, It's even worse than what we see in the film.
I love to love my Lisa.
[[loses his shoe in melted plastic and puts his bare foot down. Naturally, that has a bad effect and he loses his balance and goes face-first into the plastic, pulling flaming curtains down over the top of him, and that's the end of him.]]
Wow what a horrible way to go.
But you say he tries to rouse her and can't so he just leaves her??! Does he think she is dead or does he just leave her to die?
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"Maybe I should go alone"
- Quint, Jaws.
Yeah, it's not a very good death.
I dug out the book. Here's what happens in "The Glass Inferno."
Bigelow sees the fire and shuts the door. He wets a towel and covers his face with it, as the Bigelow character does in the film. He also soaks and puts on a bathrobe.
The woman he's with (Called Dierdre in the book) is asleep. He tries to wake her up, to which she replies "Godd@mnit, leave me alone!" She tries to go back to sleep.
Bigelow says, "Damnit, come on." He pulls at her arm, and she just rolls away from him, giggling.
Bigelow says, "Alright Baby, it's your funeral." Then he goes to the door, sees a trophy that he wants to save from the fire, gets that, and runs out with it, before meeting his fate.
I love to love my Lisa.
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It terrifies me to think how situations like that are sometimes real, like 9/11. But it's probably what it takes to make people avoid and prevent such situations. People can be stupid and unthinking about things like that, and tough scare tactics may be the only way.
And it was an expressed intention of the movie to motivate proactive safety measures.
So maybe that scene has prevented many real ones like it.
I saw a health and safety video when I was on Youth work training around 14 years ago, and they used scenes from TTI of the fire engines. The video was set in a hospital and a patient threw a a lit cigarette down the laundry shoot. A tramp who was sleep rough down there got burned to death!!!
then hours later smoke started bellowing from the shoot!!! A stupid nurse opened it and caught fire!!! The fire spread through out the hospital and 9 people died!!! I wonder if the person making it got the idea from both TTI and Bullitt as when Bullitt chases the hit man dirty sheets come sliding down a laundery shoot and kind of frighten him!!!:-) At the end of the H & S video the patient that started the fire sat crying and lit another cigarette!!!:-)
2 schools of thought...
I just watched the film tonight (after not seeing it for many years), and Wagner and Flannery's deaths were pretty shocking and graphic. I didn't remember if they had died or not when I first saw the film, so it was pretty shocking.
At first, I felt why did they put that scene in there? Wagner's character is introduced and then killed off almost immediately. Ditto with Flannery's. The roles were pretty thankless. But then, their deaths happened so quickly and were quite terrifying. I suppose that's how they would be. The fire isn't going to give a damn about anyone, right? It's burning, and people are going to die in a high rise like that. It's kind of shocking that the director killed them off so quickly like that. It resonates in the mind more.
Sickening and necessary....good description.
Wagner's character is introduced and then killed off almost immediately.
I was sickening, all right, but still it was great. You see Wagner burning up. Then you see Laurie (Flannery) in a beautiful swan dive out the window with her clothes and body on fire. Beautiful.
The problem is that there was no scene where O.J. Simpson got burned. If there had been, then people watching today would have said things like "Burn em." Or "They done BURNED em."
Had OJ burned up, Lisolette, The two kids, the cat and the deaf lady all would have burned up as well.
That's a lot of burning.
''If it bleeds, we can kill it.''
Well, I definitely wouldn't have like those sweet people to have burned up, including the cat. Anyway, there were other opportunitities.
share"...They done BURNED em"
LOL! You know you aren't right (in putting it that way), but I do FEEL ya. Especilly in OJ's case. THAT'S they guy who should've got roasted.
That scene never fails to shock and upset me every time I see the movie. I think it is poignant and horrifying. John Williams' music adds to the intensity of the drama. It is one of the most effective scenes in the movie, as it really puntuates the danger that all those people are in.
"What do you want me to do, draw a picture? Spell it out!"
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That scene never fails to shock and upset me every time I see the movie.
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That scene is an illustration of what happened on 9/11. People didn't jump out the windows. It's an instinctive reflex to recoil from fire. When a huge wall of fire got too close it "pushed" them out.
The scene is very much like the scene depicted in one of the two books the film was based on- "The Glass Inferno." It doesn't bother me. The characters in the film (Wagner and his gf) were nicer than their characters in the book. In the book, Lorie's character also takes a beautiful swan dive out the window holding on to the mattress. However, the book describes several people following her descent until she finally goes throuhg a plexiglass structure scattering glass everywhere. Wagner's burning up in the book was not as dramatic as his slow motion burn in the film.
shareThe scene is very much like the scene depicted in one of the two books the film was based on- "The Glass Inferno." It doesn't bother me. The characters in the film (Wagner and his gf) were nicer than their characters in the book. In the book, Lorie's character also takes a beautufl swan dive out the window holding on to the mattress. However, the book describes several people following her descent until she finally goes throuhg a plexiglass structure scattering glass everywhere. Wagner's burning up in the book was not as dramatic as his slow motion burn in the film.
shareBigelows death was far more gruesome in the novel. He becomes entangled in a burning curtain, his feet pull out of his shoes as they become stuck in the melting plastic from the Christmas decorations and he falls to the floor clutching a trophy. I think that's pretty dramatic. They wouldn't have dare depict his death this way back in 74.
shareI thought you were going to say it was sickening because she wasn't wearing any pants.
- or so the Germans would have us believe...
One thing in those old 70's movies is that anyone who had extramarital sex had to die, and if memory serves the two in question were having an affair. Sort of similar to the 80's slasher movies when any teen having sex immediately bought it. The disaster movies did seem to derive a lot of their entertainment value from depicting innocent people dying horrible deaths. After the reality of 9/11 it is kind of hard to enjoy watching a movie like this.
share***if memory serves the two in question were having an affair.***
Nope, nothing is said about the marital status of either person. I watched the movie today and noticed they were not wearing wedding bands. My guess is the boss and his secretary fell in love but wanted to keep their relationship private for professional reasons.
Thanks for the update...memory is the first thing to go. I can't remember the second.
shareYeah, the scene is shocking, but that makes the movie somewhat unforgettable. We see people dying, we care about them, and their horrific deaths haunt us to this day. We see a young man having a slow and painful end consumed by fire, and a beautiful woman jumping out of a window to her death several stories below, and the contaminating thought of her body hitting the sidewalk offscreen makes it even more disturbing.It's not a good movie, but the filmmaker knows how to manage emotions effectively.
In the other hand, productions like Emmerich's "2012" are pure trash. It has the alienating and soulless aesthetic of a videogame with its depiction of massive destruction of large cities -and the death of thousands of human beings- as some kind of funny spectacle or an acrobatic circus.
He should've invited her to come to the party with him so she could be getting herself ready instead of getting her in the sack!!
shareWe watch movies the same way, Reka! I want happy endings for favorites even if I have to make them up myself.
She should have gone to the party with him in a simply cut turqoise chiffon evening gown, cut snugly from bust to hips with a flared skirt, boat-neck top and diamonds. He would have debuted their relationship at the party, announced their engagement by getting on one knee in front of everyone, they would have escaped the fire and lived happily every after:)
Well said. Emmerich can actually direct effective disaster movies: The Day After Tomorrow, or the first half of Independence Day - but in 2012 he, like so many modern film makers (*cough, George Lucas, cough*) simply got carried away with what the computers can do for him, and forgot to bother with any actual storytelling or character. It's the James Cameron effect: more money he spends on a film, less generally interesting it is.
shareIn the book, The Glass Inferno, their deaths are pretty graphic, too. Lori actually tries to jump out the window with a matress and is engulfed in flames as she jumps, and the firefighters down below see her blazing as she hits the ground. Pretty sickening indeed.
shareThey weren't having an affair. Neither of them were married. But it was shocking for a boss to have an affair with his secretary if they weren't married. For today's standards, who cares?
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