In the film The Poseidon Adventure, a New Year's Eve celebration is taking place when the ocean liner capsizes.
The 1972 disaster film follows passengers aboard the fictional SS Poseidon during a New Year's Eve party. A massive undersea earthquake generates a tsunami that overturns the ship, leaving many survivors trapped inside the overturned hull.
The central characters attempt to reach the ship's uppermost exterior, which has become the only route toward escape. This premise turns a festive setting into a survival environment: ballrooms, stairways, cabins, and machinery spaces are forced into unusual orientations.
The film was directed by Ronald Neame and adapted from Paul Gallico's 1969 novel The Poseidon Adventure. Its plot is sometimes confused with later disaster films set on ships, but the New Year's Eve party and overturned liner are defining features of this specific story.