Evil

2. Doug Roberts is attending the premier of his newest structure , the worlds tallest sky scraper. However on the day of the premier Doug finds out that his original electrical specifications have been altered by none other than Simmons…

3. The fire… Evil Simmons did this in order to save money on the buildings construction. However he also made the building unsafe and prone to electrical faults (in this case a short circuit). The short circuit occurred on the 81st floor in the utility room where there were a lot of flammable substances.

4. Suspicious…. The fire was noticed by a maintenance officer. However because the fire was on the 81st floor, fire fighters were unable to get to it in time and the fires size increased quickly. Fire fighters eventually reached the fire however it was too late for them to stop it. Their main objective at this point was to get everyone out.

5. Happy party At this same time the opening celebration was being run in the buildings promenade room on the 135th floor. Most of the towers guests were on this floor. The fire eventually reached the floor below them. People in the promenade room were using the scenic elevator to escape the building at this time. A zip line was also set up to another adjacent building transporting one person at a time.

6. The Hero’s (real hero’s use plastic explosives) Chief Mike O'Halloran and Doug Roberts carried out a plan sent to them by the commanding fire fighters on the ground floor with a plan to blow up the water tanks on the top of the building to extinguish the fires. Their plan succeeded and most of the characters were saved.

7. Themes The towering inferno from The Towering Inferno Many themes are presented to the audience in the film: Man’s Greed/Hubris: The fire in the film was caused due to an electrical fault in one of the maintenance rooms on the 81st floor. The electrical fault was due to Simmons, the villain of the film, installing cheap unreliable wiring during the buildings construction after the buildings owner Jim Duncan asked him to.

8. Simmons and Duncan made a decision that would benefit them at the expense of others. Their decision was fuelled by their own greed and wanting to keep their wallets in check. The money that they wanted to save was the money that was being used to ensure that the building was safe for others. Evil.. Or is he?

9. When the fire has reached the promenade room a zip-line is set up to an adjacent building so that guest can use it to escape one at a time. All of the guests are given random numbers to tell them when they will get their turn to go. Duncan however wanted him and his step-son (Simmons) to go last/go down with the ship. Simmons didn’t like this decision and tried to intimidate his father into letting him and his friends go before everyone else. Duncan punched Simmons and told him no. Simmons and his friends end up jumping onto the Casket used to carry people across the zip-line all at once. The zip-line could not support their weight. They fell to their deaths. Duncan redeems himself by making a good decision and putting other people before himself, this is why he doesn’t die. One of the main reasons for people building giant towers is because they are greedy and want to build it bigger and better than anyone else.

10. Fire Safety: Fire safety is one of the more obvious themes in the film. Doug Roberts: [Chuckling] Building code? Jesus. Building code. Come on, Dunc, I mean now that's a standard cop-out for when you're in trouble. See, I was crawling around up there. I mean duct holes weren't fire-stopped! Corridors without fire doors in them, sprinklers that won't work, and electrical system that's good for what? I mean it's good for starting fires! Phew, where was I when all this was going on? Because I'm just as guilty as you and that god-damned son-in-law of yours! What do they call it when you kill people? Real hero’s call their mothers before they start being heroic

11. Doug Roberts is saying that the fire safety of the building was compromised because Simmons and Duncan wanted to save money. At the end of the building Chief O'Hallorhan says one of the films more memorable quotes “You know we were pretty lucky tonight, body count's less then 200. You know, one of these days, you're gonna kill 10,000 in one of these firetraps, and I'm gonna keep eating smoke and carrying out bodies until someone asks us... how to build them”.

12. Focus Group Steve McQueen ... Chief Mike O'Hallorhan Paul Newman ... Doug Roberts William Holden ... Jim Duncan Faye Dunaway ... Susan Franklin Fred Astaire ... Harlee Claiborne Susan Blakely ... Patty Richard Chamberlain ... Simmons Jennifer Jones ... Lisolette O.J. Simpson ... Jernigan Robert Vaughn ... Senator Parker Robert Wagner ... Bigelow Susan Flannery ... Lorrie Sheila Allen ... Paula Ramsay (as Sheila Mathews) Norman Burton ... Giddings (as Norman Burton) Jack Collins ... Mayor Ramsay

13. Hero/s - Mike O'Hallorhan and Doug Roberts (both risk their lives for others) • Villain - Simmons (Lowering the electrical standard, effectively the cause of the fire) • Bad Guy Turned Good - Harlee Claiborne, who was previously a con-artist, admitting this to Lisolette, but his love for her (bleugh) makes him right his ways, and he ends up helping greatly during the fire • Self Doubter - Sheila Mathews • Bureaucrat - Jim Duncan, who originally requested the building costs to be cut, which resulted in safety standards less than appropriate for a building of such stature • Strong Woman - Lisolette, who risks herself in order to look for her children, as they somehow lack any common sense to try escape a flaming building, and should’ve probably died in the name of ‘Natural Selection’

14. Mike O'Hallorhan (Steve McQueen) in The Towering Inferno plays a similar character to Reverend Scott (Gene Hackman) from The Poseidon Adventure, as they share a degree of heroism and loyalty to the people they are trying to save. Putting both their lives in danger, Reverand Scott sacrifices himself in order to get the others to safety. In turn, O'Hallorhan risks himself by going back into the tower in order to blow up the water tanks, saturating the building, and putting out a majority of the fire. Before going up he is basically told his escape isn't guaranteed, and yet he escapes anyway. Real hero’s call their grandmothers before being heroic Some hero’s get angry when being heroic

15. Doug Roberts, the architect, is also a hero figure similar to the Reverend in that he too risks himself alongside O'Hallorhan, often putting himself in the firing line without asking any questions, Saving Lisolettes idiot children without second thought. Sheila Mathews and her husband are shown briefly in the movie, in a scene where the husband is comforting her, telling her she is going to survive and doesn't need to worry about the kids. This scene is very similar to one of Belle and Manny Rosen from The Poseidon Adventure, as a similar situation is portrayed, and this gives the idea that Sheila and her husband are the "Rosen couple". This was probably done on purpose, as both movies were created by the same studios, and they do share similarities, from scenes to soundtracks. Will the ever be a morning after was also played in both movies. Man with children Woman with cat

16. Trivia At Steve McQueen's insistence, he and co-star Paul Newman had to have exactly the same number of lines of dialogue in the script. Because Paul Newman is in the movie from the beginning, a large portion of his lines are used up before the disaster begins. This gave Steve McQueen a much greater role when it came to the later, core of the film, making him the bigger hero of the two. It is thought that Steve McQueen did this on purpose, as they were competing actors at the time, and he likely felt threatened by Paul Newman’s already large success.

17. La Fin