The Deep (2012), A Night to Remember (1958), Titanic (1997), The Navigator (1924), Lifeboat (1944), The Finest Hours (1964), The Black Stallion (1979), Twelfth Night (1996) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Shipwreck movies.
Storyline: Lord Brockelhurst, his unwilling betrothed Lady Mary, his butler Crichton and scullery maid Tweeny are on Lord Loam's yacht which is wrecked leaving them all to cope on a desert island. Class distinctions fall apart for the time being.—Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>
Plot Keywords: silent film, drama, adventure, romance, classic, black and white, survival ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Deep into a solo voyage in the Indian Ocean, an unnamed man (Redford) wakes to find his 39-foot yacht taking on water after a collision with a shipping container left floating on the high seas. With his navigation equipment and radio disabled, the man sails unknowingly into the path of a violent storm. Despite his success in patching the breached hull, his mariner's intuition and a strength that belies his age, the man barely survives the tempest. Using only a sextant and nautical maps to chart his progress, he is forced to rely on ocean currents to carry him into a shipping lane in hopes of hailing a passing vessel. But with the sun unrelenting, sharks circling and his meager supplies dwindling, the ever-resourceful sailor soon finds himself staring his mortality in the face.
Plot Keywords: survival, adventure, drama, ocean, shipwreck, solitude, struggle ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: In the winter of 1820, the New England whaling ship Essex was assaulted by something no one could believe: a whale of mammoth size and will, and an almost human sense of vengeance. The real-life maritime disaster would inspire Herman Melville's Moby-Dick. But that told only half the story. "In the Heart of the Sea" reveals the encounter's harrowing aftermath, as the ship's surviving crew is pushed to their limits and forced to do the unthinkable to stay alive. Braving storms, starvation, panic and despair, the men will call into question their deepest beliefs, from the value of their lives to the morality of their trade, as their captain searches for direction on the open sea and his first mate still seeks to bring the great whale down.
Plot Keywords: adventure, history, drama, survival, nautical, 19th century, true story ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Majestic mountains are in the background and a waterfall in the foreground. Is that a canoe on the river? No it's a cradle with a baby. The buoyant Molly Brown has survived the first crisis of her life -- a flood. Sixteen years later she sets out to make her way in the world. Can she sing and play the piano? She assures the Leadville saloon keeper that she can and learns quickly. Soon she is the bride of Johnny Brown, who in a few years will be able to replace the original cigar wrapper wedding ring with a replica in gold and gemstones. But it takes more than a few million dollars to be accepted by Denver society. The Browns head for Europe and bring a few crowned heads back to Denver for a party that turns into a ballroom brawl. Molly goes to Europe alone, returning on the Titanic. She didn't survive a flood as a baby for the story to end here.—Dale O'Connor <daleoc@interaccess.com>
Plot Keywords: musical, biography, historical, comedy, drama, romance, adventure ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: James Burke, after distinguishing himself as a midshipman in the British merchant marine, rapidly rises to the rank of executive officer, second in command of a ship. A broken foot necessitates that he be put ashore to heal. After his recovery, the very proud Jim - his pride rooted in his competence, which had made him a highly respected and admired naval officer - signs on as the executive officer of the Patna, a rusty tub manned by a third-rate crew overseen by a barbarous captain, that is transporting a group of Moslem pilgrims to Mecca. During a severe storm that causes the unseaworthy ship to founder, Jim abandons ship with the rest of the white crew without even lowering the other lifeboat for the passengers. The fleeing crew are prepared to swear they saw the Patna sink with all its passengers; however, in what Jim believes is a cosmic joke upon himself, it is revealed when they get into port on their lifeboat that the Patma did not sink but had been salvaged by a French vessel. In the ensuing inquiry that he himself sought to do penance for his sins (the ultimate sin for a naval officer being to abandon ship particularly when passengers or crew are still on-board), Jim is admonished after confessing his cowardice, chastised for bringing shame upon those to whom he belongs, the British merchant marine. His chief judge asks him why he did not "bury himself 20 feet deep" rather than seek the inquiry and humiliate himself and all professional British sailors. Jim does succeed in "burying himself 20 feet deep" by becoming a drifter and common laborer in various southeast Asian ports, though he never can completely escape into anonymity. The burden of his sin follows him everywhere. Racked by guilt over abandoning his ship, the proud Jim seeks atonement, a second chance, which comes in the guise of running arms and gunpowder to a tribe of indigenous peoples oppressed by a ruthless and brutal warlord. The warlord knows that the difference between a hero and a coward is not as thick as a piece of paper. What will this mean for Jim, now committed to a heroic path for a people whom he does not even know? The man the natives soon call "Lord Jim" is about to face his destiny, which is relentless and inescapable.—Jon C. Hopwood
Plot Keywords: adventure, drama, classic, nautical, betrayal, redemption, honor ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: In the English Channel, John Sands (Charlton Heston), from a small rescue ship, finds the freighter Mary Deare drifting. Although there's only a little fire, the whole crew seems to have left the ship. John's already looking forward to a large salvage fee, but then he finds First Officer Gideon Patch (Gary Cooper) still on board. Sands can't get back to his tug boat and stays with Patch while Patch grounds the Mary Deare. Although he doesn't understand yet what happened on the Mary Deare, Sands allows Patch to persuade him not to talk about what he saw on-board, and to drag out the official investigation of the incident.—Tom Zoerner <Tom.Zoerner@informatik.uni-erlangen.de>
Plot Keywords: adventure, mystery, drama, shipwreck, courtroom, investigation, conspiracy ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Academy Award® winning director and master storyteller James Cameron journeys back to the site of his greatest inspiration, the legendary wreck of the Titanic. With a team of the world's foremost historic and marine experts and friend, Bill Paxton, he embarks on an unscripted adventure back to the final grave where nearly 1,500 people lost their lives almost a century ago. Using state-of-the-art technology developed expressly for this expedition, Cameron and his crew are able to explore virtually all of the ship, inside and out, as never before. With the most advanced 3D photography, moviegoers will experience the ship as if they are part of the crew right inside the dive subs. In this unprecedented motion picture event, made especially for IMAX 3D Theatres and specially outfitted 35mm 3D theaters across the country, Cameron and his crew bring audiences to sights not seen since the sinking 91 years ago and explore why the landmark vessel, more than any shipwreck, continues to intrigue and fascinate the public.—Anonymous
Plot Keywords: documentary, shipwreck, historical, ocean, deep sea, expedition, adventure ...
Movie Details Click Here !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: disaster, shipwreck, survival, at sea, rescue, family, suspense ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: The San Demetrio of the title is a British merchant ship in an Atlantic convoy in 1940. Disabled and left to the mercy of patrolling U-boats the crew must keep her afloat and out of harms way.—Steve Crook <steve@brainstorm.co.uk>
Plot Keywords: war film, history, world war ii, british film, true story, survival, heroism ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Haakon Haakonsen didn't want to go to sea so young, but when his father, a Norwegian sailor, comes home with a badly wounded foot in the 1850s, the Haakonsen family finances require him to enlist as ship boy aboard a British ship under Royal Navy authority. After some hazing he buckles up to learn the hard work and gets accepted by the rough crew. Then Royal Navy lieutenant John Merrick is welcomed to take charge of security on a long voyage to Sidney and Calcutta, through pirates-infested waters, but Haakon distrusts him after finding out that he packed concealed weapons; indeed Merrick secretly poisons the captain. Haakon and his guardian angel, his father's best mate Jens, were about to feel the claw of the cat for helping a stowaway when a rock wrecks the ship. Haakon washes up an island where he finds a pirates treasure and weapons.—KGF Vissers
Plot Keywords: adventure, family, action, drama, historical, nautical, survival ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: In February of 1952, one of the worst storms to ever hit the East Coast struck New England, damaging an oil tanker off the coast of Cape Cod and literally ripping it in half. On a small lifeboat faced with frigid temperatures and 70-foot high waves, four members of the Coast Guard set out to rescue more than 30 stranded sailors trapped aboard the rapidly-sinking vessel.
Plot Keywords: action, adventure, disaster, history, drama, true story, rescue ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Clipper ships taking the shortest route between the Mississippi and the Atlantic often end up on the shoals of Key West in the 1840s. Salvaging the ships' cargos has become a lucrative business for two companies -- one headed by a feisty young woman. Then she falls in love with the captain of a wrecked ship while he recuperates at her home. She travels to Charleston and is charming to the man most likely to be head of the captain's company, thinking she will be able to get the captain the position he wants on the company's first steam ship.—Dale O'Connor <daleoc@interaccess.com>
Plot Keywords: adventure, action, drama, romance, historical, nautical, revenge ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Captain Ralls fights Dutch shipping magnate Mayrant Sidneye for the woman he loves, Angelique Desaix, and for a fortune in gold aboard the Red Witch.—Jim Beaver <jumblejim@prodigy.net>
Plot Keywords: adventure, action, drama, romance, nautical, revenge, mystery ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: An earthquake, a flash flood, an avalanche, a volcano, alligators, jaguars, mutineers, and a man-eating Maoris dog the steps of a shipping company owner, a scientist, and the two children of a lost sea Captain as they circle the Earth along the 37th parallel per instructions in a bottled note the scientist has recovered from a shark's stomach. Only certain facts are discerned from the stained note, especially the words "37 parallel". Teenage Mary Grant (Hayley Mills), her younger brother, Robert (Keith Hamshere), and the scientist, French Professor Jacques Paganel (Maurice Chevalier), trick their way aboard the grand yacht, "Persevero II", during a bon voyage party to see the owner of the shipping company, Lord Edward Glenarvan (Wilfrid Hyde-White), the epitome of British aloofness. With the urging of his own son, John (Michael Anderson, Jr.), Glenarvan's luxurious side-wheeler sets sail for the coastal town of Concepcion, Chile in the search for the missing Captain Grant (Jack Gwillim).—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>
Plot Keywords: adventure, family, fantasy, disney, classic, adaptation, 1960s ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Dramatization of President John F. Kennedy's WWII military experiences during which he commanded a PT boat that sank after being rammed by a Japanese destroyer while on patrol in the South Pacific on a very dark night. He and the other survivors, some of whom were wounded, made their way to a nearby island where they had to survive on meager rations and avoid capture by enemy forces till they could find a way to signal the Navy for rescue.—John Vogel <jlvogel@comcast.net> / Hans Delbruck
Plot Keywords: war, history, world war ii, navy, america, biography, military ...
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