Continuity mistake: In the establishing shot of the San Francisco skyline, the building appears to be located off Market Street and facing the viewer (elevator tracks facing the front of the building). In a night-time shot from the Bay Bridge, the building has "turned around" and faces the other way.
Continuity mistake: When Steve McQueen is removing his fire suit in the elevator, his tie is loose. But when he runs into the promenade room right afterwards, his tie is secured by a tie clip.
Plot hole: There are numerous problems with the final solution to putting out multiple burning floors of a skyscraper by blowing the water tanks under the roof. Blowing the floor under the tanks only channels the water into the Promanade Room. From there it cascades out the windows and - as we see in the film - falls to the ground without touching the fires on the lower floors. A tiny percentage makes it into the stairwell door and elevator shaft, despite the fact that the elevator doors were closed. All of the stairwell and elevator doors in the building were shut; none of this water makes it to the fire. Also, as we see the flames going out from all the floors no water is coming out of any of those windows, proving that the fires are going out without any water.
Plot hole: The roof of the building is fully engulfed in flames (from the helicopter explosion) right up to the point where they blow the water tanks. When they explode the water tanks the whole building is put out. It would have been impossible for the water tanks to put out the roof fire; it was above the tanks. Although all of the building shots at the end of the film are looking up at the structure you can see flames shooting off the roof before the tank explosions, then no roof flames whatsoever after.
Factual error: The device used near the end of the movie for ferrying people to another building is repeatedly referred to as a "breeches buoy." It is actually a highline transfer chair. A breeches buoy was an earlier, more primitive device that was basically an oversized life preserver with a pair of large canvas trousers (breeches) sewn to it.
Continuity mistake: In the early part of the TV version. They are holding a meeting in Mr.Bigelows' office regarding Romane Conti. He asked a gentleman from Phoenix on the phone if he could get the wine. Then told his assistant "go get it". A flight plan would have to be filed,and the flying time from SFO to PHX is about 2 hours. Then to find the place where he has to get the Romane Conti. I lived in the Phoenix area for almost 13 years and it is spread out. Then get back to the airport,another 2 hour flight. I would say the fire department would have gotten there first.
Continuity mistake: When the elevator is lowering Susan and the rest of the women, the amount of lit floors and the brightness of the lights on the building changes noticeably depending on the shot.
Continuity mistake: When water is cascading outside the building a man jumps out of a window, producing a hole in the glass. When another man jumps out of the window next to that one, the hole in the glass has a different shape and the hole is several centimeters below where it was before.
Revealing mistake: When Lorrie jumps out of the window, she is replaced by an obvious stuntman: Fireproof gloves appear on her hands, she is wearing a fireproof mask, and her hair is an obvious wig.
Deliberate mistake: For the sake of the movie's plot and tempo, all the guests manage to breathe and stroll around quite calmly for several minutes despite the heavy smoke, when in real life they would be blinded and choking.
Factual error: When the fire department first arrived, they should have had the utility provider shut off the gas lines to avoid just the type of explosions that happened continually throughout the movie.
Continuity mistake: When the elevator is lowering the people, a wide shot shows the building on fire. Couple shots later the flames are nowhere to be seen.
Continuity mistake: When the floor explodes and the elevator breaks, a woman in pink crouches. Shot changes and she is standing tall again.
Continuity mistake: When Roberts hands Duncan the scorched wire, the way Duncan holds it differs between the wide and the close-up shots.
Plot hole: By the time O'Halloran phones Roberts, who is in the promenade room, and tells him of their plan to blow the water tanks, over 50 of the floors below the promenade room, along with the roof which is also ablaze, have been destroyed by the fire. So surely the phone lines would have been destroyed as well, making a phone call to the promenade room impossible.
Audio problem: When Lorrie jumps out of the window, she yells out loud and clear, but her stunt is firmly covering her mouth.
Character mistake: When Steve McQueen arrives at the fire scene, he drives his car across a fire hose. It is basic firefighter training that you NEVER drive a vehicle across a fire hose.
Continuity mistake: The light outside the building as seen from the dining hall is dusk, but from the outside it's pitch dark. This swaps back and forth all the time.
Continuity mistake: At Patty's place, she places her right arm next to her face holding a cracker. Shot changes to a side angle and her arm is lowered. Then a shot afterwards it's raised again.
Visible crew/equipment: When Harlee arrives at the building, set lights are reflected on his sunglasses.
Answer: Mainly it was about egos (mostly McQueen's) and a professional rivalry, not only as top movie stars, but also as auto racers. McQueen considered himself a superior driver to Newman, even though they never competed against each other. When McQueen was considered to co-star with Newman in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," McQueen wanted top billing, then dropped out when he wouldn't receive it, even though Newman was considered the bigger star. In "The Towering Inferno," McQueen supposedly obsessed over how many lines he had compared to Newman.
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Expanding on this: McQueen's demand for top billing continued on this film (as did William Holden's, but he was never a serious candidate), which is why the end result was "staggered": McQueen's name was to the left but lower, while Newman's was higher but to the right, so both had top billing depending how one read it (left-to-right, or top-to-bottom). Studies have shown that the name audiences tend to see first is the one on the left, regardless of staggering, so McQueen may have "won" here.
Newman does get a small victory of sorts at the end of this film when the cast credits begin scrolling upward on the screen. Newman's and McQueen's names are again staggered like in the beginning intro, but Newman's name appears first as it scrolls up from the screen's bottom.
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