The Cassandra Crossing

The Cassandra Crossing (1976)

This movie was made a long time ago, back when O.J. Simpson was still a hero in the eyes of the American public. I saw it in a theater when it was first released.

The film has an impressive cast including Burt Lancaster, Richard Harris, Sophia Loren, and Ava Gardner.

Three Swedish bio-terrorists try to blow up a health organization building in Geneva. During the botched attempt, one is killed outright by security guards. One is captured but soon dies. And one of them (infected with a terrible plague that was stored illegally at the building) sneaks aboard a train. The terrorist dies, but not before infecting people on the train.

In Geneva, a Swiss doctor (played by Ingrid Thulin, who turns in a very compelling performance) tries to solve the mystery of the plague.

American military intelligence, in attempt to avoid a larger disaster and cover up their own involvement, redirect the train to The Cassandra Crossing, an abandoned and unsafe bridge.

Passengers on the train make a heroic attempt to stop the train before it reaches the bridge. O.J. Simpson plays an Interpol agent (posing as a priest) who dies saving the life of a little girl. Martin Sheen plays a mountain climber/drug smuggler (posing as a gigolo) who dies trying to stop the train.

As the train reaches the crossing, the passengers decouple the train. The forward portion is destroyed (and many people are killed) in a horrific crash when the bridge collapses under the weight of the train. The rear portion stops before it reaches the unsafe portion of the bridge, and thus many people are saved.

Not realizing that some people survived, the colonel who engineered the disaster reports to his superiors that everyone on the train was killed.

The colonel’s subordinate then tries to lure the colonel to a quiet location. The viewer is encouraged to make the inference that the colonel would have been killed there to further conceal the involvement of the military.

This version of the DVD ends there, and does not include deleted scenes.

When I first saw the film at release, there was an additional scene where the colonel leaves the building and notices that he is being followed. Again, the audience was encouraged to make the inference that he was being followed by an assassin.

This is a very cynical film with an ambiguous ending. We never learn what happened to the people who escaped the wrecked train. Did they live happily ever after? Were they hunted down and killed by assassins? How did the Swiss doctor resolve her ethical dilemma? Was she murdered before she had to make the choice? Did the colonel, a wily old veteran, elude his pursuers?