Tagline: Dirk Pitt. Adventure has a new name.
Master explorer Dirk Pitt (Matthew McConaughey) takes on the adventure of his life when he embarks on a treasure hunt through some of the most dangerous regions of North Africa. Searching for what locals call “The Ship of Death”, a long lost Civil War battleship filled with coins, Pitt and his wisecracking sidekick (Steve Zahn) use their wits and clever heroics to help Doctor Eva Rojas (Penelope Cruz) who believes the ship may be linked to mysterious deaths in the very same area.
1996, Egypt. Searching for a treasure on the Nile, Dirk Pitt thwarts the attempted assassination of a beautiful U.N. scientist investigating a disease that is driving thousands of North Africans into madness, cannibalism, and death. The suspected cause of the raging epidemic is vast, unprecedented pollution that threatens to extinguish all life in the world’s seas.
Racing to save the world from environmental catastrophe, Pitt and his team, equipped with an extraordinary, state-of-the-art yacht, run a gauntlet between a billionaire industrialist and a bloodthirsty West African tyrant.
In the scorching desert, Pitt finds a gold mine manned by slaves and uncovers the truth behind two enduring mysteries — the fate of a Civil War ironclad and its secret connection with Lincoln’s assassination, and the last flight of a long-lost female pilot… Now, amidst the blazing, shifting sands of the Sahara, Dirk Pitt will make a desperate stand — in a battle the world cannot afford to lose!
When master explorer Dirk Pitt (Matthew McConaughey) finds a fabled coin linked to a historical legend, he takes on the adventure of his life as he embarks on a treasure hunt through some of the most dangerous regions of West Africa. As they search for what locals call the “Ship of Death” — a long-lost Civil War battleship that protects a secret cargo — Dirk and his wisecracking sidekick, Al Giordino (Steve Zahn), meet Dr. Eva Rojas (Penelope Cruz), a beautiful and brilliant doctor who believes that the hidden treasure may be connected to a larger problem that threatens the world around them.
Hunting for a ship that no one else thinks exists, Dirk, Al, and Eva must rely on their wits and their daring heroics to outsmart dangerous warlords, survive the threatening terrain, and get to the bottom of both mysteries.
Production notes provided by Paramount Pictures.
Sahara
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Penelope Cruz, Steve Zahn, William H. Macy
Directed by: Breck Eisner
Screenplay by: Thomas Dean Donnelly, Joshua Oppenheimer
Release Date: April 8th, 2005
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for action violence.
Studio: Paramount Pictures
Box Office Totals
Domestic: $68,671,925 (57.6%)
Foreign: $50,597,561 (42.4%)
Total: $119,269,486 (Worldwide)