the cassandra crossing

Director: george p. cosmatos

Actor: sophia loren,richard harris,martin sheen,o.j. simpson

Data Published: Sat Dec 18 1976

Genres: Drama,Thriller

Key Words: gigolo,bridge,white panties,skinny,singing woman

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074292/

WIKI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cassandra_Crossing

Description: The Cassandra Crossing is a movie starring Sophia Loren, Richard Harris, and Martin Sheen. Passengers on a European train have been exposed to a deadly disease. Nobody will let them off the train. So what happens next?

Plot: When the existence of a strain of plague (vaguely identified as pneumonic) is revealed at the US mission at the International Health Organization, three terrorists seek to blow up the US mission. Two of them are shot, one mortally, by security personnel but one escapes. The surviving terrorist is hospitalised and quarantined and identified as Swedish. Dr. Elena Stradner (Ingrid Thulin) and US Colonel Stephen Mackenzie (Burt Lancaster) (Military Intelligence assigned to the IHO) argue over the nature of the strain, which Stradner suspects is a biological weapon but which Colonel Mackenzie claims was in the process of being destroyed. The third terrorist (Lou Castel) escapes and stows away on a train bound from Geneva to Stockholm. Dr. Stradner believes that the train should be stopped so that the terrorist can be removed and quarantined, but Col. Mackenzie is concerned that all of the passengers on the train might be infected. Mackenzie insists on rerouting the train to an abandoned ex-Nazi railway line to a quarantine camp in Janov, Poland. However, the line crosses a dangerously unsound steel arch bridge known as the Kasundruv Bridge or the "Cassandra Crossing", out of use since 1948 (former railway Zagorz-Solina -Turka – Lviv between Poland and Ukraine) Mackenzie understands that the bridge might collapse as the train passes over it. The presence of the infected terrorist, and the rerouting of the train, precipitates the second conflict, among passengers on the train; they include Dr. Jonathan Chamberlain (Richard Harris), a famous neurologist, his ex-wife Jennifer Rispoli Chamberlain (Sophia Loren), and Nicole Dressler (Ava Gardner), the wife of a German arms dealer. She is embroiled in an affair with her young companion Robby Navarro (Martin Sheen). Navarro is a heroin trafficker being pursued by FBI agent Haley (O. J. Simpson), who is travelling undercover as a priest. Mackenzie informs Dr. Chamberlain of the presence of the terrorist, who is found, but attempts to remove him via a helicopter are unsuccessful because the train enters a tunnel. Chamberlain is also told that the plague has a 60% mortality rate. Mackenzie, however, informs passengers that police have received reports of anarchist bombs placed along the rail line, and that the train will be rerouted to Nuremberg. There the train is sealed with an enclosed oxygen system and a US Army medical team is placed aboard, with the now-deceased terrorist being placed in a hermetically-sealed coffin. 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, acting under orders, has no intention of stopping the train: if, as expected, the Cassandra Crossing collapses, it will neatly cover the fact that the U.S has been harbouring germ warfare agents in a neutral country. Passengers on the train work together to stop the train before it reaches the Cassandra Crossing. The passengers manage to seize the back half of the train roughly one 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. Max, the train's conductor, applies the manual brakes and stops the remaining cars just before reaching the downed bridge. The survivors soon evacuate the remaining cars and head off on foot, no longer under guard or quarantine. In Geneva, both Stradner and MacKenzie depart: she keeps hope of survivors while he feels quiet guilt over the whole affair. After they leave, Major Stack informs MacKenzeie's superior that both the colonel and the doctor are under surveillance.