In Geneva Switzerland three men break into the International Health Organization intending to destroy the facility. One man is shot by a guard and killed. One is shot and mortally wounded. One gets away but not before being exposed to a new strain of pneumonic plague. The wounded terrorist is put into isolation where he succumbs to the plague. Colonel Stephen Mackenzie (Burt Lancaster), from U.S. military intelligence, is called in to handle the situation. He brings in Dr. Elena Stradner (Ingrid Thulin), an expert in infectious diseases.
The third terrorist is identified as a Swedish man named Eklund (Lou Castel). He manages to stow away on a train headed for Stockholm. Stradner and Mackenzie disagree on what steps should be taken next. Mackenzie is in charge, so he decides to quarantine the entire train. Among the train passengers are Dr. Jonathan Chamberlain (Richard Harris) and his ex-wife, Jennifer (Sophia Loren). Mackenzie contacts Chamberlain on the train and explains the situation to him.
Not long after that, people on the train begin to get sick. Panic begins to set in. The train is briefly stopped to bring on medical supplies and armed guards in hazmat suits. There are approximately 1000 people on the train. The windows on the train are covered and the guards are stationed throughout. No one is allowed to leave. The passengers are told that the train is to be rerouted to an unused rail track where a makeshift hospital can be set up.
The track they have in mind goes over an unused arch bridge called the Kasundruv Bridge, also known as the Cassandra Crossing, to a former Nazi concentration camp in Poland. Unfortunately for the doomed train, the bridge hasn’t been used or serviced since 1948. The authorities plan on sending the train over the bridge knowing that the bridge isn’t safe. Their intention is to destroy anyone who either has or knows about the plague even as the victims are starting to recover. When Chamberlain figures out that they are being sent to their deaths, he must try to find a way to stop the train before it is too late.
“The Cassandra Crossing” was released in 1976 and was directed by George Pan Cosmatos. It is a co-production between Italy, West Germany, the United Kingdom and United States.
It is one in a line of big budget disaster films that, despite its all-star cast, didn’t do very well at the box office. Since this is a big production, subplots abound. There is an international agent on the trail of a drug smuggler, a rich woman with a much younger mountain climbing drug addict boyfriend, a former inmate from a Nazi concentration camp with PTSD, and a few hippy types.
The problem with these all-star big budget fiascos is that it is almost impossible to make enough money to cover the cost of making them. The movie has some decent special effects for the time, especially the bridge sequences. The film is full of action and suspense. It is long but the tension is held throughout its two hours plus running time so that it doesn’t seem long. It was actually pretty decent. It’s what big extravaganza movies are supposed to be about, mayhem.
Producer Carlo Ponti and Sophia Loren, who played Jennifer Chamberlain, were husband and wife. Co-stars Richard Harris, who played Dr. Chamberlain, and Ann Turkel, who played Susan, were also married at the time.