The Poseidon Adventure
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50 free The Poseidon Adventure trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The Poseidon Adventure turned a simple idea into one of the biggest box-office hits of its day: a luxury liner flips over in mid-ocean, and a handful of passengers must climb up through the ship to reach the bottom of the hull. Its upside-down sets and all-star cast helped define the disaster movie boom of the 1970s. This quiz covers the whole voyage: who the passengers are and what becomes of them, the actors behind the roles, how the capsizing was filmed, the music and the awards, the novel the film came from, the 1979 sequel and the two remakes. It is pitched for anyone who has seen the film at least once, with a few tougher questions for fans who know the production stories. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you will pick up something new even on the ones you miss.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What natural event sends a giant wave crashing into the liner in the 1972 film The Poseidon Adventure?
An undersea earthquake
An undersea earthquake raises a huge swell that strikes the liner broadside and flips it upside down, leaving the hull as the only way out.
Q 02What do Reverend Scott's followers climb like a ladder to escape the dining room in The Poseidon Adventure?
A Christmas tree
A Christmas tree is hauled upright so the group can climb to the galley; when the passengers left behind rush it later, it topples under their weight.
Q 03During which holiday celebration does disaster strike the liner in the 1972 film The Poseidon Adventure?
New Year's Eve
New Year's Eve is in full swing when the liner rolls over just as midnight strikes; the original novel sets the disaster on December 26 instead.
Q 04Which actress gained thirty-five pounds to play Belle Rosen in The Poseidon Adventure?
Shelley Winters
Shelley Winters won a Golden Globe for the role and an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress, having already taken home two Academy Awards.
Q 05Which real ocean liner, permanently moored in Long Beach, California, doubled as the SS Poseidon on screen?
RMS Queen Mary
RMS Queen Mary also inspired the plot: the novel's author was aboard in 1937 when high waves rolled the liner onto its side.
Q 06Which actor, years before his deadpan spoof comedies, plays Captain Harrison in The Poseidon Adventure?
Leslie Nielsen
Leslie Nielsen was a straight dramatic actor in 1972; the spoof Airplane! reinvented him as a deadpan comedy star eight years later.
Q 07Which song from The Poseidon Adventure won the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 1973 ceremony?
The Morning After
The Morning After was written in a single night as the film's love theme, and a re-recorded single version later topped the US charts.
Q 08Which star of The Poseidon Adventure, cast as Reverend Scott, won a Best Actor Oscar during the shoot?
Gene Hackman
Gene Hackman picked up the Oscar for The French Connection while the cameras were rolling, then went back to playing the rebel preacher who leads the escape.
Q 09In The Poseidon Adventure, grandmother Belle Rosen reveals she was once a champion in which sport?
Swimming
Swimming made Belle Rosen a champion in her youth, so she plunges into a flooded corridor after the trapped Reverend Scott and frees him.
Q 10In The Poseidon Adventure, the liner's final voyage runs from New York City to which European capital?
Athens
Athens is where the aging liner is due to end its last crossing; in the original novel the ship sets out from Lisbon on a month-long cruise instead.
Q 11In The Poseidon Adventure, what is the job of Mike Rogo, the hothead who keeps clashing with Reverend Scott?
Police detective
Police detective Mike Rogo holds the rank of lieutenant, and after Scott's death he is the one who leads the last survivors to the rescuers.
Q 12Reverend Scott is being sent to a new parish on which continent as punishment in The Poseidon Adventure?
Africa
Africa is where the church has banished the outspoken Reverend Scott, whose guest sermon on board urges passengers to find the courage to solve their own problems.
Q 13What kills Belle Rosen moments after she rescues the trapped Reverend Scott in The Poseidon Adventure?
A heart attack
Q 21Which comedian and Sayonara Oscar winner plays shy haberdasher James Martin in The Poseidon Adventure?
Red Buttons
Red Buttons plays the health-conscious bachelor who talks the terrified singer Nonnie into carrying on when she freezes on a ladder.
Q 22Which Young Frankenstein star was first cast as James Martin in The Poseidon Adventure, then dropped out?
Gene Wilder
Gene Wilder was fresh from playing Willy Wonka when he was lined up as the love-shy haberdasher, a part that then went to a veteran comic.
Q 23Which British pop singer was offered the role of ship's singer Nonnie Parry in The Poseidon Adventure?
Petula Clark
A heart attack strikes Belle Rosen moments after she surfaces, and she dies in Scott's arms before her husband Manny can reach her.
Q 14Manny and Belle Rosen are sailing to meet their young grandson in which country in The Poseidon Adventure?
Israel
Israel is where the Rosens' two-year-old grandson lives; the retired store owner and his wife have never met him.
Q 15What keepsake does the dying Belle Rosen want passed on to her grandson in The Poseidon Adventure?
Her Chai pendant
Her Chai pendant bears the Hebrew word for life, and the reminder of the child waiting for it helps persuade the grieving Manny to keep going.
Q 16Reverend Scott gives his life in The Poseidon Adventure by closing a valve that was releasing what?
Steam
Steam from a ruptured pipe blocks the final door, so Scott leaps across burning oil to the valve wheel, shuts it off and falls to his death.
Q 17Which crew member tells the dining room survivors to stay put and await rescue in The Poseidon Adventure?
The purser
The purser insists that help will come, and most passengers side with him; they perish when water bursts into the dining room.
Q 18Which former child star of Lassie Come Home plays the injured waiter Acres in The Poseidon Adventure?
Roddy McDowall
Roddy McDowall made the film between Planet of the Apes outings; his waiter Acres knows the ship's passageways but falls from a ladder during an explosion.
Q 19Which 1950s Best Actor Oscar winner plays hot-tempered Mike Rogo in The Poseidon Adventure?
Ernest Borgnine
Ernest Borgnine won his Oscar for the title role in Marty, beating Frank Sinatra and James Dean to the award for 1955.
Q 20Which actor, later the star of TV's Chico and the Man, plays Manny Rosen in The Poseidon Adventure?
Jack Albertson
Jack Albertson had played Grandpa Joe in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory a year earlier, and already owned an Oscar for The Subject Was Roses.
Petula Clark, the voice of the number-one hit Downtown, turned the part down; Carol Lynley took it and mimed to another singer's vocals.
Q 24Which actress, Jerry Lewis's co-star in The Nutty Professor, plays Linda Rogo in The Poseidon Adventure?
Stella Stevens
Stella Stevens plays Mike Rogo's wife Linda, who insists the couple follow Scott and later loses her grip and falls near the end of the climb.
Q 25Which producer, nicknamed the Master of Disaster, followed The Poseidon Adventure with The Towering Inferno?
Irwin Allen
Irwin Allen directed the action scenes of both films himself, after a decade spent making science-fiction adventure series for television.
Q 26Which British director of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie took charge of The Poseidon Adventure?
Ronald Neame
Ronald Neame was recruited after the contracted director left, and later called it his favourite film because it earned him enough to retire comfortably.
Q 27Which author of The Snow Goose wrote the 1969 novel that became The Poseidon Adventure?
Paul Gallico
Paul Gallico made his name as a New York sportswriter before turning to fiction, and his capsized-liner novel attracted little attention when it first appeared.
Q 28Which studio put up half the budget for The Poseidon Adventure after Avco Embassy cancelled the project?
20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox agreed to cover half of the cost, and the producer talked two friends into matching the studio's share.
Q 29Which composer scored The Poseidon Adventure, earning an Oscar nomination, and later The Towering Inferno?
John Williams
John Williams composed and conducted the music five years before Star Wars, yet no soundtrack album of it went on sale until 1998.
Q 30Which singer took the Oscar-winning theme song from The Poseidon Adventure to number one in the US in 1973?
Maureen McGovern
Maureen McGovern was working as a secretary when a record executive heard her demo; her single spent two weeks at number one and earned her a Best New Artist Grammy nomination.