The Towering Inferno

Answer: Mainly it was about egos (mostly McQueen's) and a professional rivalry, not only as top movie stars, but also as auto racers. McQueen considered himself a superior driver to Newman, even though they never competed against each other. When McQueen was considered to co-star with Newman in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," McQueen wanted top billing, then dropped out when he wouldn't receive it, even though Newman was considered the bigger star. In "The Towering Inferno," McQueen supposedly obsessed over how many lines he had compared to Newman.

raywest

Expanding on this: McQueen's demand for top billing continued on this film (as did William Holden's, but he was never a serious candidate), which is why the end result was "staggered": McQueen's name was to the left but lower, while Newman's was higher but to the right, so both had top billing depending how one read it (left-to-right, or top-to-bottom). Studies have shown that the name audiences tend to see first is the one on the left, regardless of staggering, so McQueen may have "won" here.

Newman does get a small victory of sorts at the end of this film when the cast credits begin scrolling upward on the screen. Newman's and McQueen's names are again staggered like in the beginning intro, but Newman's name appears first as it scrolls up from the screen's bottom.

raywest

Question: In the end after all the tower is extinguished, I wonder how the remaining people on the promenade room got back to the ground floor since the stairs have blown out, the external elevator got broken and there is no electricity for use the other elevators? Maybe they used helicopters?

Answer: Where the stairs were blown out they could have crossed over to the adjacent stairwell and back.

Answer: Exactly, the same helicopter that took Steve McQueen to the roof was most likely the one that picked everyone up.

Maybe not. A helicopter crashed on the roof, setting it on fire and destroying the helipad.

wavyedd

Question: Why did Jennifer Jones (actress who played Lisolette) quit acting after appearing in this movie?

Answer: It had nothing to do with the film, and she was already mostly retired anyway, having not appeared in a film since 1969 and in only three throughout the 1960s. However, what probably led to her permanent retirement came in 1976 when her daughter died by suicide; after this, Jones-a survivor of a suicide attempt herself-devoted her life to mental health causes, founding the Jennifer Jones Simon Foundation For Mental Health and Education and working to remove the stigma surrounding mental health.

Question: Where does Fred Astaire get his briefcase from, as he did not walk in with it? He walked in only carrying his suit and a bunch of flowers.

Answer: The briefcase arrived the same time the golf clubs did.

Answer: This is most likely a continuity error. The briefcase was accidentally left out of the arrival scene.

raywest

Continuity mistake: During the scenic elevator rescue scenes, the building has moved across the downtown core and is now located next to the Transamerica Pyramid, which is many city blocks to the west.

More mistakes in The Towering Inferno

Doug Roberts: I don't know. Maybe they just oughta leave it the way it is. Kind of a shrine to all the bullshit in the world.

More quotes from The Towering Inferno
More trivia for The Towering Inferno

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