The decidedly odd couple of Charlton Heston and John Cassavetes co-starred in this hammy Superbowl disaster flick, which perched a sniper high above the scoreboard of the sold-out Los Angeles Coliseum, opening fire on fans watching a championship football game.
This gory action sequence takes place during the last fifteen minutes of the movie. The rest is filled with tedious slice-of-life vignettes about selected spectators, who are eventually killed or injured.
Sent in to stop the terror is Captain Peter Holly (Heston), who wants to get his hands on the sniper without endangering the lives of the people in the stadium.
Unfortunately, there is a second group of law enforcement officers – a tactical commando group – who want to go into the stadium and rush the sniper regardless of the danger such an action would cause to the crowd watching the game.
One of the more pointless pleasures to be found in disaster films is contemplating whatever happened to the hot faces of the moment who rounded out the huge casts; this one includes Pamela Bellwood and David Groh, fleetingly famous for being the husband of TV’s Rhoda.
Captain Peter Holly
Charlton Heston
Sam McKeever
Martin Balsam
Peggy Ramsay
Pamela Bellwood
Mike Ramsay
Beau Bridges
Sgt. Chris Button
John Cassavetes
Al
David Groh
Steve
David Janssen
Stu Sandman
Jack Klugman
Janet
Gena Rowlands
Lucy
Marilyn Hassett
Pickpocket
Walter Pidgeon
Priest
Mitchell Ryan
Charlie Tyler
Joe Kapp
Sniper
Warren Miller
Governor Ogden
Garry Walberg
Lt. Calloway
William Bryant
Howard Cosell
Himself
Director
Larry Peerce
