O’Hallorhan then orders the tower’s water tanks to be blown up to create a firebreak and stop the fire from reaching the upper floors. He and Roberts plant explosives on the 110th floor, while Simmons tries to escape with a group of survivors through a stairwell.
Simmons is killed by a falling elevator, and the others are rescued by O’Hallorhan and Roberts. The explosives are detonated, creating a massive explosion that extinguishes the fire. The survivors are then evacuated by helicopters, while O’Hallorhan and Roberts share a mutual respect.
The Cast
The Towering Inferno features a star-studded cast of Hollywood legends, including:
- Paul Newman as Doug Roberts, the architect of The Glass Tower
- Steve McQueen as Michael O’Hallorhan, the fire chief
- William Holden as James Duncan, the developer of The Glass Tower
- Faye Dunaway as Susan Franklin, a magazine editor and Roberts’ girlfriend
- Fred Astaire as Harlee Claiborne, a con artist and Patty’s fiancé
- Susan Blakely as Patty Duncan, Duncan’s daughter
- Richard Chamberlain as Roger Simmons, the electrical subcontractor and Duncan’s son-in-law
- Jennifer Jones as Lisolette Mueller, a widow who lives in the tower
- O.J. Simpson as Harry Jernigan, the security chief of the tower
- Robert Vaughn as Senator Gary Parker, a politician who is interested in Duncan’s urban renewal project
- Robert Wagner as Dan Bigelow, the chief of public relations of the tower
- Susan Flannery as Lorrie, Bigelow’s assistant and lover
- Sheila Allen as Paula Ramsay, Duncan’s secretary and Simmons’ mistress
- Gregory Sierra as Carlos, a bartender in the Promenade Room
- Dabney Coleman as Deputy Chief #1
The Production
The Towering Inferno was a joint production of 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros., who both owned the rights to the novels The Tower and The Glass Inferno, respectively. The two studios decided to collaborate rather than compete, and hired Irwin Allen, the producer of The Poseidon Adventure (1972), another successful disaster film, to oversee the project. Allen also directed the action sequences, while John Guillermin directed the dramatic scenes.
