Special Sub-Topic: "Raise the Titanic!" - Book or Movie Click Here To Play: "Raise the Titanic!" - Book or Movie

Dana Seagram is a marine archaeologist.

book. In the movie, Dana was a reporter for the Washington Star. This role was played by actress Ann Archer. Dana was accused of leaking the Cecilian Project to the Russians by letting it out in the newspapers and on the television. She didn't know what her husband was up to until this time and Gene assumed that Dirk Pitt told her through an alleged affair.

The miner's name was Arthur Brewster.

movie. In the book, the miner's name was Joshua Hayes Brewster. Both Brewsters went down with the ship inside a vault, all for nothing. Both book and movie had Brewster saying, "Thank God for Southby" when he locked himself in the vault. This was a minor change in the names of the miners.

Titanic is found with all of her smokestacks.

none of these. In the book, the Titanic was stripped of all of her smokestacks (or funnels). Two were carried away on her way to the bottom, third was found by Pitt in the submersible and the fourth laid across the aft boat deck. In the movie, however, the Titanic had all of her smokestacks minus the second one which Seagram stated had broken off when the ship went down. Both book and the movie had Pitt and his team finding one of the smokestacks.

A submersible gets trapped on the wreck of the Titanic.

both book and movie. This happened in both book and the movie. In the book, the submersible was the Deep Fathom. It was installing a pressure relief valve when its stern hit a cargo crane on the Titanic. The crane broke off and caused a hole in the ballast tank which filled up with water and pinned the sub to the wreck. To make matters worse, the falling crane also put a hole in the cabin area and it was filling with water at a rate of four gallons per hour. In the movie, the Deep Quest became trapped in the first-class skylight of the Grand Staircase when it attempted to pull a wayward hydrozene generator off the broken second smokestack. When it came free, the generator shoved the sub into the skylight. Battery acid leaked out and filled the cabin of the submersible with toxic fumes. Both book and movie had a six hour margin for the crews to live. Time was running out!

Titanic comes up bow first out of the water.

movie. In the book, the Titanic came up out of the water stern first since the bow was buried more in the mud than the stern. In the movie, the bow came out of the water first and used the rest of the hull as leverage to come completely out.

Dirk Pitt sets up his operations room in the gymnasium.

book. In the movie, Pitt set up shop in the Titanic's Grand Staircase. This is identified because of the clock which depicted Honor and Glory crowning Time in the background. In the book, he said Pitt used the gymnasium instead of the bridge for accessibility and efficiency. The bridge was of no use on a dead ship according to Pitt.

Gravel is found instead of Byzanium.

both book and movie. After the debris was removed from the cargo hold, the vault was cut open to reveal 10 boxes of nothing except gravel. In the book, the body of Joshua Hayes Brewster was also in the vault. In the movie, the body was that of Arthur Brewster.

The Byzanium is found in Vernon Hall's grave.

book. This was another case where the book differed from the movie. In the movie, Seagram and Pitt go to Southby and find Jake Hobart's grave. As the gravediggers are going to get shovels, Seagram uses his equipment and finds the Byzanium is in the grave. In the book, however, Pitt has Sandecker, Donner, and Koplin there at the grave site. Koplin is the mineralogist who found the ore in the fill over Vernon Hall's grave.

Gene Seagram goes into a mental breakdown.

book. In the book, Seagram goes into a mental breakdown after he discovered that the Byzanium was not in the cargo hold. During the book, Cussler makes a parallel course between Seagram and Brewster. He even went so far as to have Seagram envision himself as Joshua Hayes Brewster through a mirror of a hotel room.

The Cecilian Project is a success.

book. In the book, the Cecilian Project was a complete success. Four rockets were launched from a submarine in the Pacific, but blew up shortly before they were supposed to hit their intended targets. In the movie, Seagram found the Byzanium in the grave of Jake Hobart, but decides against digging up the ore, thereby not completing his dream of defending the United States. There were so many vast differences between the book and movie that Cussler would not allow any of his books to become movies unless he approved of the screenplay or of the list of characters. "Raise the Titanic" was made in 1980.