The Towering Inferno/Trivia

• All-Star Cast:
  • This is actually Jennifer Jones's last film appearance (most people who saw it in the theater probably knew her from 40s and 50s romance movies).
• Creator Backlash: Paul Newman regretted doing the movie after the intense rivalry between himself and his co-star Steve McQueen.
• Dueling Movies: A very rare subversion, by the studios joining forces and combining the novels they bought the rights to.
• Dueling Stars Movie: They actually invented Diagonal Billing just for this movie, due to the star power of its leads Steve McQueen and Paul Newman, who were professional rivals at the time.
• Enforced Method Acting:
  • In a scene where a bunch of people are fighting to get onto an elevator, the extras were really fighting to keep off the elevator, since anyone who did get on it was pretty much done, and anyone who stayed off it was guaranteed a job for the next couple of months.
  • In the scenic elevator scene, the explosions were bigger than the actors were anticipating, so they really were panicking.
  • The director fired a handgun into the air to get a genuine look of surprise from the actors' faces.
• Hey, It's That Guy!: The chief of security is none other than OJ Simpson. Lisolette is Jennifer Jones. The fire chief is Steve McQueen.
  • And one of the chiefs filling Steve McQueen in on the plan to blow the water tanks is Dabney Coleman.
  • Bobby Brady is one of the kids rescued by Paul Newman.
• Life Imitates Art: A real fire broke out on set, and Steve McQueen found himself briefly helping out real firefighters. One of them didn't recognise him and said "my wife isn't going to believe this", to which Steve responded "neither's mine."
• Playing Against Type:
  • Richard Chamberlain made a career out of playing heroes, anti-heroes or sensitive guys. Here, he's the Jerkass.
  • By this point, Robert Vaughn was mostly playing villains; however, here, he plays a heroic character.
• Production Posse: Many bit players from The Poseidon Adventure also star here.
• Prop Recycling:
  • The pink satin cape worn by the mayor's wife was part of a costume worn by Jean Simmons in Desiree.
  • The large sculpture in the Promenade Room was used in Hello, Dolly!.
• Reality Subtext: Fred Astaire was genuinely terrified during the explosions, so his look of fright is real.
• Real Life Relative: Paul Newman's brother Scott stars as a fireman. This is the only film they did together.
• Science Marches On: Since the making of this film, there was the notorious MGM Grand Hotel fire when it was discovered and publicized once and for all that in a major structure fire, it's not the flames themselves that is the major killer, it's the smoke.
• Unintentional Period Piece: Get a load of the groovy Seventies fashions and hairdos in the film.
  • Actually probably less than What Could Have Been. Irwin Allen made sure the men's hair wasn't that long and the fashion wasn't too loud.
• Wag the Director: Steve McQueen, a veteran of this trope by then, requested that he and Paul Newman have the exact same amount of lines in the film. Also, he insisted that he not appear until forty three minutes in, by which point Newman would have used up a lot of his lines. William Holden attempted to - demanding he be billed first. But as he'd been in a few flops lately, he gets third billing.