Sahara (2005 film)

Plot

In 1865, the ironclad CSS Texas carried the last of the Confederacy's treasury out of Richmond, Virginia, as Captain Mason Tombs ran a Union blockade.

In present day, in Mali, a civil war is being fought between dictator General Kazim and Tuareg people. World Health Organization doctors Eva Rojas and Frank Hopper investigate a disease spreading across Mali. Assassins accompanied by a corrupt Tuareg named Zakara attempt to murder Eva, but she is rescued by Dirk Pitt, who is from the National Underwater and Marine Agency and was diving nearby.

Dirk's contact in Nigeria sells him a gold Confederate States of America coin found in the Niger River. Believing this to be a clue to the long-lost Texas, Dirk borrows his boss Sandecker's yacht to search for the Texas. Accompanying Dirk are his partner Al Giordino and Rudi Gunn from NUMA. They give Eva and Hopper a ride, so that they can continue their investigation of the disease.

Businessman Yves Massarde and dictator General Kazim try to stop the doctors from discovering the source of the disease. Kazim sends men to attack the yacht. Dirk, Al and Rudi survive the attack, but the yacht is destroyed and Eva and Hopper are captured. Rudi tries to leave the country to get help while Dirk and Al go to rescue the doctors.

After rescuing Eva, they try to leave Mali, but are captured by the Tuareg. The Tuareg leader, Modibo, shows Eva his people dying from the same disease she was investigating. After analyzing the water sample, Eva finds out that the water is contaminated with toxins, and there is no treatment available for the sick people. Al stumbles into a cave with a painting showing the ironclad Texas. Dirk believes that the Texas became stranded when the river dried up after a storm and that the same river that carried the ship now runs underground.

They follow the dry river bed and work their way to the border. On the way, they stumble upon a solar detoxification plant owned by Massarde, which is the source of the contamination. They discover that the contamination is being carried to the ocean and, if not stopped in time, will kill everything in it. In addition, they cannot get their government to intervene during a civil war in a sovereign country. Massarde captures the group, keeps Eva and sends Dirk and Al to Kazim. The duo escape but get stranded in the middle of the desert. They find the wreck of a plane and rebuild it into a land yacht, which they use to reach civilization.

Dirk and Al enlist Modibo's aid to return to the plant. To cover up the existence of the plant, Massarde decides to destroy it with explosives. Fearing the plant's destruction would make it impossible to stop the contamination, Al goes to remove the explosives while Dirk tries to stop Massarde. Dirk fights and kills Zakara after a fierce battle. He rescues Eva, but Massarde escapes to his helicopter. Al successfully neutralizes the explosive, much to Massarde's anger.

The three leave the plant on an Avions Voisin C-28, but Kazim pursues them in a helicopter gunship. A series of explosions along the dry river bed reveals the wreckage of the Texas. The trio board the ship, and use its cannons to destroy Kazim's gunship. Modibo arrives with Tuareg reinforcements and forces Kazim's army to surrender, ending the civil war.

The plant is shut down, stopping the source of toxic waste, while the rest is dealt with. Sandecker agrees to do covert work for the government, who in exchange would fund NUMA. The Texas gold, which technically belong to the Confederate States of America, is left with Modibo's people. It is heavily implied that Massarde is poisoned by an undercover US agent. Dirk and Eva start a relationship.

Cast

Promotion

To promote the film, actor Matthew McConaughey drove his own Airstream trailer (painted with a large Sahara movie poster on each side) across America, stopping at military bases and many events, such as the Daytona 500 (to Grand Marshal the race), premiering the movie to fans, signing autographs, and doing interviews at each stop. The trip's highlights were shown on an E! channel special to coincide with the film's release. McConaughey also kept a running blog of his trip on MTV's entertainment website. Both MTV and the film's distributor, Paramount Pictures, are owned by Viacom.

According to McConaughey, this film was intended to be the first in a franchise based on Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt novels (much like the James Bond one), but the poor box-office performance has stalled any plans for a sequel.

Critical response

Sahara received mixed reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a score of 39% based on reviews from 171 critics, with the consensus: "A mindless adventure flick with a preposterous plot." At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 41 based on 33 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Box office

The film opened at number one in the US box office, taking $18 million on its first weekend and ultimately grossed $69 million. It earned a further $50 million overseas, for a worldwide total of $119 million.

Due to its huge costs—including a $160 million production budget and $61 million in distribution expenses—its box-office take amounted to barely half of its expenses. The film lost approximately $105 million according to a financial executive assigned to the movie; however, Hollywood accounting methods assign losses at $78.3 million, taking into account projected revenue. According to Hollywood accounting, the film has a projected revenue of $202.9 million against expenses of $281.2 million.

The Los Angeles Times presented an extensive special report on April 15, 2007, dissecting the budget of Sahara as an example of how Hollywood movies can cost so much to produce and fail. Many of the often closely held documents had become public domain after a lawsuit involving the film. Among some of the items in the budget were bribes to the Moroccan government, some of which may have been legally questionable under American law.

In 2014, the Los Angeles Times listed the film as one of the most expensive flops of all time.

Legal action

For almost a decade Cussler was involved in a lengthy legal action against the film's producer, Philip Anschutz, and his film entertainment company, Crusader Entertainment LLC (now part of the Anschutz Entertainment Group). It began in February 2005 when Cussler sued Anschutz and Crusader for $100milion for failing to consult him on the script. The writer also claimed breach of contract because Crusader had failed to take up the option of a second book, Anschutz counter-sued for "alleged blackmail and sabotage attempts against the film prior to its 2005 release." Cussler claimed he had been assured "absolute control" over the book's film adaptation but when this didn't happen, he believed this contributed to its failure at the box office. He said in statement, "They deceived me right from the beginning. They kept lying to me... and I just got fed up with it." But Anschutz's counter sued claiming it had been the behavior of Cussler that contributed to the film's problems. They claimed Cussler did have certain approval rights regarding the script and selection of actors and directors, but he had been an obstructive presence, rejecting lots of screenplay revisions and attacking the film in the media before it was even released. On May 15, 2007, a jury found in Anschutz's favor and awarded him $5 million in damages. On January 8, 2008, Judge John Shook decided that Crusader Entertainment was not required to pay Cussler $8.5 million for rights to the second book. On March 10, 2009, the same judge ordered Clive Cussler to pay $13.9 million in legal fees to the production company.

But a year later, in March 2010, the California Court of Appeals overturned Judge Shook's decision to award Anschutz and Crusader $5 million in damages and nearly $14 million in legal fees. Cussler then attempted to restart legal proceedings in July 2010 by filing a new lawsuit in the Los Angeles Superior Court claiming the appeals court gave him back the right to recover the $8.5 million he believed Crusader owed him on a second book. In response, the production company's lawyer said, "They're trying to pretend this wasn't already litigated. Cussler has never been able to accept the fact that he lost this case. He didn't accept the jury verdict, then for a year they tried to get the trial court judge to say the jury determined (Cussler was) entitled to $8.5 million and the court said absolutely not. They then sought an appeal and it didn't work. Then they appealed to the California Supreme Court and they didn't take the case. So, despite having had multiple courts say no, they are trying all over again."

There was no further developments in the case for almost three years until December 2012 when both parties were back in court to hear which side was responsible for paying the case's $20 million legal bill. However, the Second Appellate District for California's Appeals Court declared that "there was no prevailing party for purposes of attorney fees." It concluded that "after years of litigation both sides recovered nothing -- not one dime of damages and no declaratory relief."