Earthquake (1974) on Netflix
PG19742h 3mActionDramaThriller
Engineer Stuart Graff is estranged from his possessive wife Remy and having an affair with Denise Marshall, a co-worker's widow. A junior seismologist forecasts a major quake within two days.
- Netflix3.2/5
- IMDb6.0/1018,564 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes44%
Trailer
Plot summary
Remy fakes another suicide attempt during a mild tremor in Los Angeles; her husband, construction engineer Stuart Graff, has been seeing Denise Marshall, a co-worker's widow. Graff visits Denise and helps her rehearse for an upcoming film. Officer Lew Slade is suspended after he punches a deputy from another jurisdiction. Motorcycle daredevil Miles Quade builds a stunt track with his manager Sal Amici, and Sal's sister Rosa fears for Quade's safety. A junior seismologist at the California Seismological Institute predicts that a major quake will hit within two days.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Earthquake (1974)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Stunt performers were paid $500 each to fall 60 feet onto air bags from the rafters of Universal's largest stage, and several were hurt during filming, including one who suffered a concussion in the flood sequence.
- In tests at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood the Sensurround system cracked the plaster in the ceiling; the same theater premiered Earthquake three months later, with a net newly installed over the audience to catch falling debris.
- The dangerous scenes, involving high falls, falling debris and floods, used 141 stunt artists, a Hollywood record for the most stunt artists on any film production up to that time.
- Walter Matthau took a cameo in the film for nothing, and both the unpaid appearance and his screen credit as “Walter Matuschanskayasky” were part of the deal that executive producer Jennings Lang struck to get him.
- The earthquake in the film is given a magnitude of 9.9, which would make it the largest ever recorded, eclipsing the 9.5 of the real Chilean earthquake of 1960.
SPOILER
The scene was attempted over two separate filming days without a usable mechanical effect, so the crew superimposed an “animated blood” effect over a still frame in post-production, giving the shot its cartoonish look; the television version removed it.
