Rollercoaster (1977)

A young sociopath (Timothy Bottoms) is planting bombs in public amusement parks killing innocent people, his aim is to have the owners of those parks collectively pay him one million dollars. He insists on using a park inspector (George Segal) as the middle man in the negotiations. Thus begins the race against time to catch him before he sets off another bomb. The 1970s was the era of the disaster films and this is one of the less successful entries in the genre. Like EARTHQUAKE, this had a Sensurround soundtrack which caused walls to rumble and seats to vibrate during the roller coaster sequences. But with all that technology, they forgot the thrills! This is really stagnate film making of the first order and it's a bit of a cheat. There's a roller coaster disaster at the beginning of the film and that's it. Everything following is just the anticipation of another roller coaster disaster. There are long (and I mean long) stretches of Segal walking around the amusement park as he's being watched by the bomber and it's flabby. Directed by James Goldstone. With Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda, Helen Hunt, Susan Strasberg (shockingly wasted), Harry Guardino, Craig Wasson, William Prince and Monica Lewis.