Highest-Rated Movies about 'Sinking Ship', Sort by Popularity

A Night to Remember (1958), And the Ship Sails On (1983), The Poseidon Adventure (1972), The Last Voyage (1960), Pursuit of the Graf Spee (1956), Destroyer (1943), Abandoned (2015), Circus World (1964) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Sinking Ship movies.

#1. A Night to Remember (1958)

Storyline: A successful attempt at an even-handed portrayal of the White Star Line's (later part of Cunard) luxury liner R.M.S. Titanic's sinking from the standpoint of 2nd Officer Charles Herbert Lightoller, himself the most senior of the ill-fated ship's Deck Officers to survive the disaster. (Lightoller later went on to distinguish himself as a line British Naval Officer during the First World War and served as a Senior Naval Staff Officer (convoys) during WWII. Between wars he owned and operated a successful family business producing pleasure craft.) His own survival of the sinking, along with several others, is shown atop one of the liner's two "collapsible" lifeboats which was capsized in floating off the liner as it sank. The picture depicts then known facts (c1958) as reported after the sinking; such as the woeful lack of adequate lifeboats, the ship's band playing true to the very end, White Star's co-owner Bruce Ismay's somewhat less than chivalrous departure from the sinking vessel -...

Plot Keywords: captain, sailor, passenger, tense, gripping, ocean liner, atlantic ocean ...

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#2. And the Ship Sails On (1983)

Storyline: In July 1914 a luxury cruise ship leaves Italy with the ashes of the famous opera singer Edmea Tetua. The boat is filled with her friends, opera singers, actors and all kinds of exotic people. Life is sweet the first days, but on the third day the captain has to save a a large number of Serbian refugees from the sea, refugees who has escaped the first tremors of WWI.—Mattias Thuresson

Plot Keywords: journalist, singer, refugee, sailor, sea captain, aristocrat, offbeat ...

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#3. The Poseidon Adventure (1972)

Storyline: A passenger ship, on her way to the scrap yard is pushed to her limits by the new owners to save on the dismantling fees. A tidal wave hits her, flipping her over so that all the internal rooms are upside down. A priest takes a mixed band of survivors on a journey through the bowels of the ship in an attempt to survive.

Plot Keywords: preacher, detective, captain, young man, sister, survivor, spectacular ...

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#4. The Last Voyage (1960)

Storyline: Cliff Henderson and his family are traveling aboard the SS Claridon en route to Japan. The Claridon is an old ship, on its last voyage before heading to the scrap heap. An explosion in the engine room weakens the hull and the ship is now taking on more water than the bilge pumps can deal with. The Captain seems to have difficulty accepting that his ship will sink. Henderson's wife Laurie is severely injured and trapped under a fallen beam. While the men in the engine room work frantically to shore up the hull, Henderson tries to free his wife from the wreckage with the help of one of the crew, Hank Lawson.—garykmcd

Plot Keywords: husband, wife, captain, sailor, daughter, engineer, gripping ...

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#5. Pursuit of the Graf Spee (1956)

Storyline: In the fall of 1939, the German heavy cruiser (referred to as a pocket battleship) Graf Spee seems to have command of the Atlantic. In the first three months of World War II, she was responsible for sinking nine ships. The British sent three cruisers commanded by Commodore Henry Harwood to confront her. The battle took place on December 13, 1939 and the British came out on top. The Graf Spee headed for the neutral harbor of Montevideo, Uruguay. They were given only a short time to effect repairs and the British did their best to make them believe a British fleet of six or eight ships awaited them. Rather than chance the loss of his men, the German Captain ordered the Graf Spee scuttled.—garykmcd

Plot Keywords: boat captain, nazi, soldier, british officer, commandant, gory, suspenseful ...

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#6. Destroyer (1943)

Storyline: Flag-waving story of a new American destroyer, the JOHN PAUL JONES, from the day her keel is laid, to what was very nearly her last voyage. Among the crew, is Steve Boleslavski, a shipyard welder that helped build her, who reenlists, with his old rank of Chief boatswain's mate. After failing her sea trials, she is assigned to the mail run, until caught up in a desperate battle with a Japanese sub. After getting torpedoed, and on the verge of sinking, the Captain, and crew hatch a plan to try and save the ship, and destroy the sub.—mike.wilson6@btinternet.com

Plot Keywords: welder, officer, lieutenant, captain, crew member, japanese soldier, brash ...

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#7. Abandoned (2015)

Storyline: Four men set sail bound for Tonga on the yacht Rose Noelle. However the yacht capsizes in a storm and fills with water, trapping the crew in a space the size of a double bed. Personality conflicts threaten their survival but after 119 days adrift in the wintery pacific the Rose Noelle washes ashore on New Zealand's Great Barrier island. Their story makes headlines around the world but their survival is so miraculous that many commentators cast doubt on their story and they face open hostility from the media and authorities.—Jh

Plot Keywords: man, shipwreck survivor, survivor, friend, explorer, sailor, engaging ...

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#8. Circus World (1964)

Storyline: In the early years of the 20th century, Matt Masters takes his rambling Wild West Show to Europe. His decision is prompted by his desire to find Lili Alfredo, who disappeared fourteen years earlier following the death of her husband, The Flying Alfredo. At the time it was believed that Alfredo dived to his death deliberately when he realized his wife loved Matt and not him. Toni, a beautiful trapeze performer, raised by Matt is actually Lili's daughter, and she is in love with Steve McCabe, one of the stars on Matt's show. Doing their first show in Barcelona, aboard a ship, the ship keels over and Matt loses his show. Now broke, he leaves for Paris with Toni, Steve and his long-time friend, Cap Carson, to seek a job with Colonel Purdy's Wild West Show. But a year later, Matt has rebuilt his own show. First to be signed is a remarkable 12-year-old wire-walker named Giovana, and her guardian, Tojo the Clown, whose real named is Aldo Alfredo, formerly of the Flying Alfredos. Continuing his search for Lili, Matt's show plays Brussels, Vienna, Prague, Copenhagen, Rome, Milan, and finally Madrid, where Lili is part of the audience.—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>

Plot Keywords: father, daughter, old flame, circus performer, circus owner, trapeze artist, emotional ...

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#9. Open Water 3: Cage Dive (2017)

Storyline: To capture thrilling, face-to-face encounters with deadly great white sharks, the young thrill-seekers, Josh; his half-brother, Jeff, and Jeff's girlfriend, Megan, set off to the vast and unforgiving Australian coast to go cage-diving. As the audacious friends start filming an audition tape for an extreme reality-TV show in the relative safety of their heavy cage, a towering wave capsizes their small boat, stranding the reckless trio in the cold water. Now, as the day grows dim, and raw fear gets the best of the defenceless trio, a famished school of man-eating oceanic predators start closing in on them, turning their recording into a bloody diary of death. Do they have what it takes to survive the open water?—Nick Riganas

Plot Keywords: single mother, girlfriend, brother, shark, boy, victim, thrilling ...

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