Trailer
Plot summary
In 1865, as the American Civil War ends, the CSS Texas carries the Confederacy's last gold and then vanishes. Mali is split by civil war between the dictator General Kazim and Tuareg rebels. Dirk Pitt, of the National Underwater and Marine Agency, pulls a Confederate gold coin from the Niger River and borrows his boss Sandecker's yacht to look for the lost ironclad, with Al Giordino and Deputy Director Rudi Gunn aboard. Eva Rojas and Frank Hopper, WHO doctors, come along so the crew can carry them into Mali to keep investigating a disease that has struck people who had been there. Zakara, a corrupt Tuareg, tries to kill Eva, and Dirk, diving nearby, rescues her. River samples the group collects hold red algae, which does not belong in fresh water.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Sahara (2005)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Sahara's budget ballooned from an initial $80 million green light to $100 million by the start of shooting and $160 million by the time production wrapped, plus another $61 million in distribution costs, later earning it a spot on the Los Angeles Times' list of the most expensive box-office flops of all time.
- A 2007 Los Angeles Times investigation into Sahara's ballooning budget, based on documents leaked during a lawsuit, found that some of the money had gone toward bribes to the Moroccan government that may have been legally questionable under American law.
- Novelist Clive Cussler sued Sahara producer Philip Anschutz and Crusader Entertainment for $100 million, claiming they had failed to consult him on the script as promised; Anschutz counter-sued, accusing Cussler of blackmail and sabotage attempts against the film before its 2005 release.
- A jury ultimately sided with Anschutz in 2007, awarding him $5 million in damages from Cussler, and by 2009 a judge had also ordered Cussler to pay the production company $13.9 million in legal fees from the lawsuit.
- McConaughey was paid $8 million, Penélope Cruz $1.6 million and Rainn Wilson $45,000. Ten screenwriters were used to polish the script, four of them eventually credited, adding $3.8 million to the budget, and David S. Ward made $500,000 for his uncredited work.
- One action sequence in Sahara took only 46 seconds on screen but cost $2 million to film, and the footage was ultimately cut from the finished movie entirely.
