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20. Deep Rising (1998)

Stephen Sommers' futuristic scarefest details a bunch of memorable character actors portraying hired guns contracted to sink the passenger vessel a fictional ship. However a massive sea creature has beaten them to it! Among the potential cephalopod fodder are Treat Williams as a diamond criminal.

19. 1900's Tale (1998)

A newborn, abandoned on the passenger vessel the central location, develops to be a talented keyboardist (the main star) who refuses to leave the ship. The highlight of Giuseppe Tornatore's whimsical hokum is the protagonist battling a keyboard contest with a historical figure, rather unfairly depicted as a smug bastard.

18. Waterworld (1995)

Kevin Costner plays a samurai-like drifter with webbed feet and a modified trimaran in this big-budget sci-fi B-movie, set in a distant time where vanishing ice sheets have submerged the world. Everyone is searching for fabled solid ground while fighting off the villain and his band of chain-smoking pirates.

17. RMS Titanic (1997)

An extended period of romantic interludes between a wealthy lady (the actress) and an working-class man (the male lead) are saved by the director's spectacular recreation of a famous notorious disasters. You have to admire the boldness of a film-maker who manages to twist a casualties of 1,500 into an inspiring story of liberation.

16. Vessel of Madness (1965)

Peasants, Spanish performers and Nazi eugenicists rub shoulders on a ocean liner journeying from Latin America to the Old World in the interwar period. This filmmaker's sweeping drama includes a legendary actress, in her final role, as a unhappy separated woman, but it's another actor, as the ship's doctor, and a talented performer, as a political noblewoman, who supply the motion picture with its emotional wallop.

15. The Last Voyage (1960)

The central vessel is destroyed in an explosion and Robert Stack's partner (the actress) is trapped in their quarters in this compelling early catastrophe film. Can the hero and a courageous worker (Woody Strode) free her before the vessel goes down? Fun fact: the Claridon is represented by the famous French liner an actual ocean liner.

14. Nile Killing (1978)

Angela Lansbury are including the killing culprits on board a Nile paddle steamer in this ensemble cast crime novelist whodunit. The main star, as the Belgian sleuth, cannot prevent numerous characters being killed, which reduces his suspects to a smaller group. Much more enjoyable than the 2022 remake.

13. Ocean Stillness (1989)

Two lead actors act as a partners trying to get over the grief of their child's passing by taking their yacht for a journey in the sea, where they recover another actor from a foundering ship. Costly error! This filmmaker's suspense film is essentially a horror film at sea, but an high-quality one that put Kidman on the map.

12. The Maggie Story (1954)

An Englishman, shipping goods for an American industrialist, is deceived into using a run-down "type of boat" in Alexander Mackendrick's dark British film in the subversive vein of his own Whisky Galore!. Predictably, the vessel's UK commander and team take the two landlubbers for a trip, in every meaning of the term.

11. Overwhelming Power (1974)

This filmmaker provides his suspense story a state-of-the-nation perspective in this anxiety-inducing tale of bombs positioned on a passenger ship, the fictional ship. Red wire or blue wire? Two lead actors play bomb disposal experts; another actor, as the ship's entertainments director, delivers a touching study in humorous tragedy.

10. The Poseidon Adventure (1972)

This cinematic interpretation of the author's literary work is one of the high points of the era of disaster movies. The central vessel is overturned by a tidal wave, and it's up to Reverend Gene Hackman to guide his group through the upturned hull to rescue. Shelley Winters is remarkable as a small business owner's partner with a handy history of athletic swimming.

9. Everything's Gone (2013)

Robert Redford gives a late-career brilliant acting in one-man show as a individual battling to survive in the Indian Ocean after his sailing vessel, the fictional ship, is damaged in a collision with an lost shipping container. It's anxious enough to watch, so it's difficult to comprehend how exceptionally strenuous it must have been for the 76-year-old star to record.

8. Captain Phillips (2013)

Tom Hanks provides outstanding acting in part of his regular-guys-under-intolerable-pressure roles, as the commander of an American cargo ship hijacked by African raiders off the Horn of Africa. He's matched by another actor ("I control this vessel"), delivering a remarkable initial cinematic appearance as the raider leader in this filmmaker's suspense film, based on real events. Should the last scene doesn't bring tears, you have no heart.

7. Triangle (2009)

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