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 bosun's 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.
The Towering Inferno (1974)
1 factual error
Directed by: John Guillermin
Starring: Faye Dunaway, Fred Astaire, O.J. Simpson, Paul Newman, Richard Chamberlain, Steve McQueen, William Holden
Revealing mistake: Watch carefully as the statue falls on the bartender. It barely touches his chest and rests on his left thigh. As the bartender slumps dead you can see a wide open gap between his whole upper body and the statue. Even if it crushed his thigh it would not have killed him so quickly. When the bartender slumps down the statue rocks freely as he brushes against it; obviously a styrofoam replica.
BocaDavie
Doug Roberts: I don't know. Maybe they just oughta leave it the way it is. Kind of a shrine to all the bullshit in the world.
Trivia: Both Paul Newman and Steve McQueen did most of their own stunts in this film.
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