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20. Abyssal Attack (1998)

This filmmaker's futuristic scarefest details a collection of memorable supporting players playing soldiers of fortune employed to destroy the cruise ship Argonautica. Yet a giant mutant octopus has beaten them to it! Including the potential cephalopod fodder are Treat Williams as a diamond criminal.

19. The 1900 Story (1998)

A infant, left on the ocean-going ship a fictional ship, grows up to be a gifted pianist (the main star) who never steps off the ship. The climax of this filmmaker's imaginative story is Roth competing in a keyboard contest with a jazz legend, arguably inaccurately shown as a smug bastard.

18. Ocean Planet (1995)

Kevin Costner portrays a samurai-like wanderer with aquatic adaptations and a enhanced sailing vessel in this big-budget science fiction adventure, set in a later era where vanishing ice sheets have submerged the world. The entire population is seeking legendary terra firma while fighting off Dennis Hopper and his group of continuously smoking raiders.

17. RMS Titanic (1997)

An extended period of tiresome canoodling between a upper-class woman (Kate Winslet) and an working-class man (Leonardo DiCaprio) are saved by James Cameron's spectacular recreation of one the 20th century's most infamous tragedies. You have to admire the boldness of a director who successfully transforms a death toll of 1,500 into an emotionally uplifting narrative of freedom.

16. Ship of Fools (1965)

Commoners, Spanish performers and German ideologists mingle on a ocean liner sailing from Mexico to the Continent in 1933. Stanley Kramer's large-scale film features Vivien Leigh, in her final role, as a sad divorcee, but it's another actor, as the ship's doctor, and a talented performer, as a radical countess, who supply the film with its emotional wallop.

15. Final Journey (1960)

The central vessel is torn asunder in an detonation and the lead actor's spouse (Dorothy Malone) is stuck in their cabin in this compelling early catastrophe film. Can the hero and a brave technician (the supporting player) save her ahead of the ship sinks? Fun fact: the main setting is represented by the renowned French liner an actual ocean liner.

14. Nile Killing (1978)

Angela Lansbury are among the murder suspects on board a Nile paddle steamer in this all-star mystery writer murder mystery. The lead actor, as Hercule Poirot, fails to stop half the cast being killed, which narrows his suspects to a smaller group. Much more enjoyable than the 2022 remake.

13. Dead Calm (1989)

Nicole Kidman portray a married couple trying to get over the pain of their offspring's demise by taking their yacht for a trip in the ocean, where they recover Billy Zane from a damaged vessel. Poor decision! The director's suspense film is essentially a horror film at sea, but an high-quality one that made her famous.

12. The Maggie (1954)

An Englishman, transporting items for an US businessman, is deceived into employing a poor condition "Scottish vessel" in Alexander Mackendrick's brutal Ealing comedy in the subversive tradition of his own previous work. Naturally, the boat's British skipper and staff trick the main characters for a journey, in all senses of the term.

11. Unstoppable Force (1974)

The director gives his catastrophe film a social commentary tilt in this nerve-shredding story of detonators planted on a luxury liner, the main setting. Which wire to cut? Two lead actors portray demolition specialists; a supporting player, as the cruise director, delivers a emotional study in tragicomic desperation.

10. Poseidon's Journey (1972)

This adaptation of Paul Gallico's literary work is among the peaks of the seventies catastrophe films. The SS Poseidon is capsized by a tidal wave, and it's the responsibility of Reverend Gene Hackman to lead his followers through the flipped vessel to rescue. Shelley Winters is memorable as a small business owner's partner with a useful history of sports participation.

9. All is Lost (2013)

Robert Redford delivers a late-career exemplary performance in one-man show as a man fighting to stay alive in the maritime location after his personal boat, the Virginia Jean, is impaired in a crash with an errant cargo box. It's stressful enough to watch, so one can only imagine how exceptionally strenuous it must have been for the elderly actor to shoot.

8. Captain Phillips (2013)

The main star provides sterling work in one of his regular-guys-under-intolerable-pressure characters, as the commander of an American cargo ship seized by Somali pirates off the Horn of Africa. He has great chemistry by another actor ("I'm the captain now"), providing a remarkable first movie role as the criminal boss in this filmmaker's suspense film, derived from real events. Should the concluding moment fails to move you, you're emotionally detached.

7. Three-Sided Figure (2009)

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