The Towering Inferno is a 1974 disaster film starring Steve McQueen and Paul Newman and directed by John Guillermin. The film was adapted by Stirling Silliphant from the novels The Tower by Richard Martin Stern and The Glass Inferno by Thomas N. Scortia and Frank M. Robinson.

Doug Roberts, Architect, returns from a long vacation to find work nearly completed on his skyscraper. He goes to the party that night concerned he's found that his wiring specifications have not been followed and that the building continues to develope short circuits. When the fire begins Michael O'Halleran is the chief on duty as a series of daring rescues punctuate the terror of a building too tall to have a fire successfully fought from the ground burns. Written by John Vogel

The premiere party for the world's tallest skyscraper catches fire due to poor wiring. A determined fire chief and an honorable architect fight the fire from the outside and the inside respectively. Meanwhile, the fire engulfs floor by floor of the skyscraper, while the owner of the building struggles to find safety for the trapped party. Written by MonkeyKingMA

"The Towering Inferno," one in a string of disaster movies of the 1970s, was promoted as a tribute to firefighters and their heroic work. It was also among the highest-grossing box office draws of the mid-1970s. The finishing touches have just been made to the Glass Tower, a 138-story skyscraper in the heart of San Francisco. A huge celebratory gala, complete with VIP guests, has been planned to celebrate the dedication of what has been promoted as the world's tallest building. But the building's architect, Doug Roberts, suspects all is not right with the building. The contractors have used shoddy wiring, not the heavy-duty wiring he had specified. The overworked wiring develops short circuits, coincidentally enough during the height of the celebratory extravaganza; it isn't long before the Glass Tower becomes a huge towering inferno. The nearly 300 guests become trapped on the building's 135th floor, where the party takes place. Fire Chief Michael O'Hallorhan immediately devises a daring plan to rescue the trapped guests, but his efforts quickly become a battle against time and the panicked guests. Written by Brian Rathjen

Duncan Enterprises, an architectural and construction empire, is readying the dedication of The Glass Tower, the world's tallest skyscrapper, located in San Francisco. Amid the activities of James Duncan and his chief architect Douglas Roberts, a circuit breaker blows in the building's main utility room - and unknown to all the surge blows another breaker that lights materials in a storage closet on fire. The electrical snafu forces Roberts to cut short a planned vacation with his fiance Susan Franklin and to confront Roger Simmons, the firm's chief electrical specialist who oversaw installation of the wiring. As the dedication party proceeds on schedule, Roberts finds the building's wiring is in worse shape than he could have expected, and it all blows up when the burning storage closet suddenly erupts into the corridors. The fire spreads with such speed that the entire San Francisco fire department must be called in, lead by Batallion Chief Michael O'Halloran, who expresses his distaste for skyscrappers to Roberts because the department can't easily combat a fire above the seventh floor. The two men still must work together, as 300 guests are trapped in the spacious Promenade room at the building's summit - and the fire continues to spread and set off gas explosions, to the point that the only chance to extinguish the fire may well kill the trapped partiers atop the Tower. Written by Michael Daly

Construction magnate Jim Duncan (Holden) has teamed with architect Doug Roberts (Newman) to build a 135-storey structure named 'The Glass Tower' in San Francisco. On opening night, many dignitaries including a U.S. Senator, San Francisco's Mayor & his wife and others are celebrating in the ballroom/restaurant on the top floor. On the 81st floor, in a utility room, an overloaded circuit breaker starts a fire in a can of oily rags. While the party is still going on, Roberts is inspecting the wiring in the building and discovers it is very low standard - a serious fire hazard. In the Security HQ, a guard, Jernigan (Simpson) spots smoke crawling out from under a door, and activates the alarm. The San Francisco Fire Department immediately comes out, with Chief O'Hallorhan (McQueen) commanding. By now fires are starting all over the building, and the enraged Duncan discovers that his son-in-law, Simmons (Chamberlain) is the one who chose the cheaper wiring to save money. As the night goes on the fire races closer and closer to those trapped in the Tower, until the Chief discovers that detonating the water tanks above them will likely drown the fire - but will it kill the remaining men trapped inside? Written by Derek O'Cain