Movie review: ‘Rollercoaster’

FloridaGator80
A promotion photograph from the movie “Rollercoaster.”

“Rollercoaster” was one of four films to have “Sensurround” special effects in theaters (big booming bass vibrations to make the audience “feel” the effects of the movie) and is a pretty tight suspense drama as authorities try to thwart a bomber who targets roller coasters. However, don’t believe this is just a throw-away flick used to highlight the technology. It is watchable but, while it appears today more like a TV movie, don’t let that distract you. Check it out. After a slow start, it gains a lot of speed – like a roller coaster?

‘Rollercoaster’
(1977; 119 minutes; rated PG; directed by James Goldstone and starring George Segal, Timothy Bottoms and Richard Widmark)

TAKE A TENSE RIDE ON ‘ROLLERCOASTER’

(NOTE: I expanded this review with some more opinion, more trivia and updating some links on Oct. 19, 2016. I again expanded the review on April 12, 2020. I again expanded the review on March 14, 2025.)

As the 2020s opened, George Segal began his seventh decade in film and television. Segal was always a treat to watch and he has always been totally comfortable in both drama and comedy. He can be easygoing or wound tight (sometimes in the same role, such as 1977’s “Fun with Dick and Jane” – click here to read my review), but he is always watchable and “Rollercoaster” is a prime example.

Segal plays “Harry Calder,” a safety inspector who signed off on a roller coaster that later crashed and people died. Of course, the audience knows that a bomber is on the loose and it’s only a matter of time before the killer, played by Timothy Bottoms and known only as “Young Man,” seeks $1 million (cue “Dr. Evil” quote here from our 21st century outlook) from amusement park owners to keep from killing again.

A promotion photograph from the movie “Rollercoaster.”

“Rollercoaster” starts out slow and you might get discouraged, but you should hang in there. Like riding a roller coaster, “Rollercoaster” picks up speed as it goes along and you soon forget the too-deliberate pacing of the beginning sequence. Actually, it’s nice to have a thriller that doesn’t force the action. It could have edited out about 10 of its first 15 minutes, but after that it is crisp and moves from one scene to the next and one state to the next very efficiently.

It’s not surprising that the best repartee is between Segal and Bottoms, whether it is on a phone line or their interplay via radio at the first amusement park where authorities try to capture the bomber. The 10 minutes that should have been cut from the beginning of the film could have been better used to expand the two main characters’ interaction in “Rollercoaster.”

So, let’s take a look at some of the surprisingly thin principal cast:

  • A promotion photograph from the movie “Rollercoaster.”

    An Oscar nominee (not for this one), Segal does well in his battle of wits with the bomber; a battle of egos with the feds; and an inter-departmental battle with his boss (your basic check-cashing few minutes of screen time by the legendary Henry Fonda). Segal must also deal with some tensions at home. He is smooth, effective and does the best job of the entire cast (although Bottoms comes close). Segal was nominated for an Oscar for his supporting work in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” and is currently on TV’s “The Goldbergs.” I liked him with Robert Redford in “The Hot Rock” (click here to read my review) and even better in “Who is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe?” (click here to read my review). Segal died of complications following surgery at 87 in 2021.

  • A promotion photograph from the movie “Rollercoaster.”

    And Oscar nominee (not for this one), Richard Widmark is in a familiar kind of role with this one: He plays FBI “Agent Hoyt,” an uptight, wound-tight, by-the-book but ultimate professional who nevertheless underestimates the bomber. It’s a perfect turn by Widmark, who absolutely knows how to do the stiff bureaucrat very well. In “Rollercoaster,” though, Widmark manages to show a little emotion near the end of the film. He has better-known efforts in “The Bedford Incident” (click here to read my review) and “Judgment at Nuremberg.” He was nominated for “Kiss of Death” from 1947 and also got a Golden Globe nomination for it, too. He died at 93 in 2008 from complications of injuries suffered in a fall.

  • A promotion photograph from the movie “Rollercoaster.”

    A Golden Globe nominee (not for this one), Bottoms, who is best known as “Hart” in “The Paper Chase” film with John Houseman, gives a cold, unemotional turn as the bomber with the mellifluous voice. It is very effective turn by a very underrated actor. I liked him better in “The Last Picture Show” and got his Globe nomination for best newcomer for 1971’s “Johnny Got His Gun.”

  • A two-time Golden Globe nominee (not for this one), veteran character actor Harry Guardino plays “Keefer.” He’s one of the cops and he has a small role but does an acceptable job of standing around and looking nervous. I like Guardino for his work in several Clint Eastwood offerings including “Dirty Harry” (click here to read my review) and the “Harry” sequel “The Enforcer” (click here to read my review of that one). He also did a number of TV spots in a 40-plus-year career. He was nominated for 1958’s “Houseboat” with Cary Grant and Sophia Loren and 1962’s “The Pigeon That Took Rome” with Charlton Heston. He was just OK in an Eastwood stinker called “Any Which Way You Can” (click here to read my review). Guardino died at 69 in 1995 of lung cancer.

After these three actors, there’s not much to report – especially on the female side of the acting ledger. For the women in the cast …

  • An Oscar winner (not for this one and surprisingly even for one), Helen Hunt is in her first big-screen role with “Rollercoaster” as Segal’s daughter as the actor was 13 at the time, but the role is small and she gives a stiff performance typical of her career (yes, I know; I’m not a fan). Hunt, who had nine acting credits on TV before this one, would go on to much meatier roles in TV’s uneven “Mad About You” (the talentless Paul Reiser made sure with the equally talentless Hunt that the series would stink) and “As Good as it Gets,” for which she won an undeserved Oscar. She isn’t really that good and it was never more obvious than when she single-handedly dragged down “Twister.” Yes, her acting’s so bad it ruined a potentially good action film.
  • Golden Globe nominee (not for this one) Susan Strasberg is the female lead as Segal’s love interest “Fran.” Strasberg didn’t really have much to work with and it didn’t bring out the best from her. Still, she could have at least tried to elevate the character, but if you don’t have much of a chance then it won’t happen. She got her nomination for “Hemingway’s Adventures of a Young Man” and was also in “Picnic” and a bunch of TV shows. She died at 60 in 1999 of metastasized breast cancer.

Oh, you will find two more first-timers on the big screen in this one …

  • A promotion photograph from the movie “Rollercoaster.”

    First is Steve Guttenberg, who is uncredited (but easily identified by his voice) as the young staff member delivering park plans to authorities. He would go on to fame in the “Police Academy” series as well as the critically acclaimed “Diner” and the exceptionally funny sketch comedy film “Amazon Women on the Moon,” and was in the iconic “Cocoon” and its sequel and had a small role in “The Boys from Brazil” (click here for my review).

  • Next is a Golden Globe nominee (not for this one): Craig Wasson, who plays “Hippie Boy.” Wasson doesn’t have much of a role, but he’s OK and it’s fun to see him here. Wasson co-starred in “Body Double” with Melanie Griffith and was in “Malcolm X.” He was nominated for 1981’s “Four Friends.” Wasson notched 80 acting credits in a career that began in 1968 and his resume ends with two films in 2006.

The best sequence involving all the key players is at Kings Dominion amusement park in Virginia. Segal must deliver the ransom to Bottoms, who uses radio communications to run the beleaguered safety inspector from one ride to another in a complicated dance designed to confuse authorities.

The bomber has a surprise for law enforcement and it puts even more tension into a pretty tight sequence of the film.

A promotion photograph from the movie “Rollercoaster.”

In a bit that dates the film pretty well, Segal wins a carton of cigarettes (yes, a carton of cigarettes!) at one station in the park. He declines. In a subplot to inject a couple of light moments, Segal is observed taking off his tracking radio and getting a funny hat by the same youngster.

Bottoms wins the battle of wits at the park, but the money has been marked and he quickly notices. Bottoms then informs them that he’s going to make them pay with the destruction of another coaster.

A promotion photograph from the movie “Rollercoaster.”

“Rollercoaster” doesn’t waste time in segues or long discursive dialogue for characters and benefits from it, although a bit more interaction between Segal and Bottoms would be welcome. As the end nears, everyone gets into gear and there’s a showdown filmed at Six Flags Magic Mountain in California on the world’s first 360-degree loop coaster called the “Revolution.”

“Rollercoaster” was outside the top 10 of films in 1977. Although a bit of a big budget film at the time ($9 million), it certainly didn’t challenge for the top. Of course “Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope” was No. 1 with $307.2 million and all the way down to No. 10 was “Annie Hall” with $38.2 million. Here are the films from 1977 that I’ve reviewed …

Some additional cast and film notes (via IMDB.com):

  • Widmark’s middle name was Weedt; Fonda’s middle name was Jaynes; and Wasson’s middle name is Brewster.
  • The initial crash of a roller coaster shown in the film was graphic, but filmmakers reportedly toned down the images so the movie would not be rated “R.”
  • The band “Sparks” plays at the opening of the “Revolution” coaster and was a real band called “Sparks.” “The Bay City Rollers” were the first band rumored to be in the film, but did not appear. “Kiss” reportedly turned down an offer to appear as the band in the film.
  • IMDB.com reports that Bottoms’ character offers no reason for choosing to attack the fun-park industry so it would remain a mystery in viewers’ minds. It was originally planned to have him avenging the death of a family member on an unsafe ride, but producers believed this might provide sympathy for the12 killer from audiences.
  • The actor portraying a member of the bomb squad at Kings Dominion, Charles W. Bennett Jr., was an actual member of the bomb squad and would later become chief of police in Lynchburg, Va.
  • **SPOILER ALERT** A plaque was erected at the spot where Bottoms is killed by the roller coaster at the park.
  • Finally and directly from IMDB.com: “First film where real location sound effects were recorded in Sensurround. The July and August 1977 edition of Movie News Magazine (Australia) reported, ‘a separate Senssurround sound crew was on hand throughout location filming, recording on prototype equipment designed for extremely low and high frequencies to give the film a dramatically realistic multiple-perspective sound.’”

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