SAHARA Movie - A Nod to Clive Cussler, References to Clive Cussler Books

After watching Sahara for the 2nd and 3rd time on Dvd (the first being at the Cinema's) , I've noticed quite a few references to Clive Cusslers books.

I want to start a list of things to look out for when the next time we watch the movie.

Clearly the Opening credits pays homage to Dirk Pitt. The things I picked up.

- A model car on the shelf, which happens to be one very similar to one that Clive owns. Its the green one.

- A model Plane on the shelf. If I'm not mistaken, one very similar to the one "given" to Dirk in Dragon.

- A vitage car sale magazine. Shows Dirk's interest in old cars. He's looking to buy one (circled in red).

- The postcards. One from Mexico and another from Peru (both references to Inca Gold ?)

- Anyone notice a hand drawn "serpent/dragon" in one of the newspaper articles. For some reason, I instantly thought of Basil the sea serpent in Shock Wave.


Things I noticed during the movie.

- A Dirk Pitt cliche line, spoken many times in many books. Dirk at the Museum "You're a good man Admiral, I don't care what they say about you!"

- When doing the "panama". Al finds some cigars and give them to Rudy to "light up". Rudy asks Al, "Aren't these the Admiral's". Another classic occurance in the books in reference to how Al seems to get a hold of the Admiral's cigars without anyone knowing.



There would be plenty others I missed. Probably from books I haven't read yet.

Anyone care to list other references ?

I agree totally. I just ordered my DVD so I haven't seen it since opening day in the theaters, but I do remember being impressed with all of the little references that were inserted into the movie. It seemed like they were taking multiple books and putting them into the movie. I even felt like certain missing scenes of Sahara were included more as references than anything.

However, the sad part is that while there were quite a few "references" to Clive's work, the glaring errors and omissions far outweighted the thought put into the minor bits of trivia. I still don't understand why they feel they need to completely change some things around. Perhaps the writers wanted to feel like the movie was more theirs than Clive's.

They got Dirk's tendency for hiding money in his sock, he dug the gold coin out of there to get them out of the back of the truck.

One of the news articles pinned to the wall in the opening shots mentions the Kurile Trench from Pacific Vortex.There is also a pic of Dirk with an AC Cobra.Until I can watch the dvd thats all I can remeber

Okay, I'm not the foremost authority on Clive Cussler's novels; in fact, I've only read 5 Dirk Pitt novels to date. But I did manage to grab some screens from the opening credits of a few of what I believe to be references to other novels. For instance, I found the Kurtile Trench reference...



...but you'll also notice a newspaper reference to finding gold in the South China Sea. Any ideas?

Here is a screen grab of the car magazine mentioned by 13th Monkey...



...as well as the model airplane...



...and also the green car (also notice the picture of Dirk with another car):



Now this one's easy to guess (and one of my favorite references)...



Finally, I have a screenshot of a newspaper article in French. The headline reads: THE WHITE BIRD FOUND BY NUMA...you'll also notice the article in the upper right hand corner about "River success"...



I also captured a picture from the same French article in the bottom left of this screen:



Be on the lookout for more references from the movie!!

- Andy

Nice shots Andy! I dont know if you can, but if theres anyway that the USA Article could be enhanced so that we could read the article, thatd be pretty cool!

I actually found the same article in a shot after Eva wakes up on the NUMA ship. It was located in a different spot on the wall, and its close proximity to more information about Lagos leads me to believe the article may only be a reference to NUMA's expedition from the beginning of the movie.

- Andy

I tried to get a half-decent shot of the article, but it was pretty tough to get anything approaching readable. Nonetheless, you can make out alittle in this 'enhancement'. Perhaps someone can get a better/cleaner shot? I'm going to try a few more tricks to clear it up if I can...

Well I just got done watching my DVD and one thing I noticed in the opening credits as with all the other references was a newspaper clipping in French reporting about the search for L'Oiseau Blanc, or the White Bird, an actual airplane that Clive Cussler has searched for himself several times, thought that was pretty neat.

At one time someone on here said that they saw Clive Cussler in the movie as a cameo shot. I have went frame by frame and do not see him. Is he in the movie? I watched the movie three times this weekend and loved it. Can't wait till the next one!

This post has been edited by malason on Sep 6 2005, 12:16 PM

I tried to get a half-decent shot of the article, but it was pretty tough to get anything approaching readable. Nonetheless, you can make out alittle in this 'enhancement'. Perhaps someone can get a better/cleaner shot? I'm going to try a few more tricks to clear it up if I can...

Errr, Navy Seals??? Dirk and Al were in the air force.

Nope, Clive didn't make a cameo, either because of shooting schedules, or the lawsuit or a combination of both.
Which is a shame, really. His cameos in the novels is always something to look forward to, being in the movie would have been an equal treat to fans.