When Time Ran Out
When Time Ran Out
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When Time Ran Out

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When Time Ran Out

When Time Ran Out... is a 1980 American disaster film directed by James Goldstone and starring Paul Newman, Jacqueline Bisset and William Holden. The supporting cast features James Franciscus, Ernest Borgnine, Red Buttons, Burgess Meredith, Valentina Cortese, Veronica Hamel, Pat Morita, Edward Albert, Alex Karras and Barbara Carrera.

Produced by Irwin Allen, the screenplay by Carl Foreman and Stirling Silliphant is loosely based on the 1969 novel The Day the World Ended by Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts detailing the factual 1902 volcanic eruption of Mount Pelée on Martinique, which killed 30,000 people in five minutes by pyroclastic flow.

It marked the second and final time Newman and Holden appeared in a film together following the box office triumph of The Towering Inferno six years earlier, as well as reuniting Borgnine and Buttons from The Poseidon Adventure. When Time Ran Out..., however, was a commercial flop and Allen's last theatrical release and is often regarded as the final 1970s era disaster film. The film was a critical and commercial disappointment. Paul Zastupnevich's work on the film was recognized by a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Costume Design.

Shelby Gilmore, an international hotel magnate who owns the Kalaleu Gilmore, a resort hotel on a Pacific island, wants desperately to marry his secretary, Kay Kirby and proposes to her under the impression that she'll become his seventh wife. Kay is in love with Hank Anderson, an oil rigger whose scientists are warning him that the island's active volcano, Mauna Nui, is about to erupt.

Shelby's partner is Bob Spangler, who inherited the island from his father, a sugar cane baron. Spangler is determined to diversify into tourism and assures hotel guests that the threat of the volcano is exaggerated. Spangler married Shelby's goddaughter Nikki to help get the Kalaleu Gilmore built, but is cheating on her with Iolani, an executive at the hotel. Iolani is engaged to Brian, the hotel's general manager.

Guests at the hotel include: a fugitive bond thief, Francis Fendly; the New York City cop tailing him, Tom Conti; and Rene and Rose Valdez, retired circus tightrope walkers.

Hank's oil well comes in but Hank is concerned about high levels of subterranean pressure. He and Spengler descend into the volcano in a special observation pod, and are almost killed when lava erupts unexpectedly.

Hank and Kay go for a picnic on the beach. While there, the volcano erupts and they flee by his helicopter. Hank's workers are killed by a tsunami generated by Mauna Nui's eruption. Sam takes Mona and two of his "bar girls," Delores and Marsha, and escapes by car, while Hank and Kay rescue in the helicopter Nikki and some others at a horse farm. At the hotel, guests panic and steal the helicopter, which is destroyed. Hank offers to take the guests to safety on the other side of the island, but Spengler insists the hotel is safe and most refuse. The volcano spews fireballs, which land at the hotel, and Conti is burned and blinded by one of them, to Fendly's horror.

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