The Cassandra Crossing is a 1976 disaster thriller film directed by George Pan Cosmatos, from a screenplay he co-wrote with Tom Mankiewicz and Robert Katz. The film is about a viral outbreak aboard a cross-European train, as it heads to a derelict arch bridge which is liable to collapse. It stars an ensemble cast, featuring Sophia Loren, Richard Harris, Ava Gardner, Martin Sheen, Burt Lancaster, Lee Strasberg, O. J. Simpson, Ingrid Thulin, Lionel Stander, Ann Turkel, John Phillip Law, and Alida Valli.
With the backing of the media tycoon Sir Lew Grade (the head of the British broadcast network Associated Television) and the Italian film producer Carlo Ponti, the international all-star cast was expected to attract a widespread audience, with rights sold prior to filming, to both British and American distributors. Ponti also saw the production as a showcase for his wife, Sophia Loren. Shooting took place on-location in France and Switzerland, and at Cinecittà Studios.
The film was first released in Italy on December 18, 1976. It had a generally unfavourable critical response, though it was financially successful.
Contents
Plot
When the existence of a strain of plague (vaguely identified as pneumonic) is revealed at the US mission at the International Health Organization in Geneva, 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 hospitalized and quarantined and identified as Swedish. Elena Stradner and US military intelligence Colonel Stephen Mackenzie 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.
