User reviews

Yes, this is the typical 70's all-star disaster flick. Though this one was made in 1980. This one, however, was not a hit. When "The Towering Inferno" was in theaters, it made over 100 million at the box office. When this one was at theaters, it made less than 2 million. Part of the problem is that it doesn't look much like a movie for the theater. In fact, when I first saw it, I thought it was a made for television movie. I think most of the budget in this one went to the stars, and not nearly enough went into special effects. The story in this one is typical of a volcano movie as it has someone trying to warn people that the volcano is going to erupt. Of course no one believes them and then an eruption occurs. We have people getting fried, and a select group trying to head for safety. Along the way they have to cross a bridge, and it turns out there is someone who has a special ability to be put in use here like the character in "The Poseidon Adventure" who was an excellent swimmer. This one has some good qualities though and if you have nothing else to do it may be worth a look-see, but it is definitely nothing special.

WHEN TIME RAN OUT… is a silly, superficial and often cheesy coda to the cycle of disaster movies produced by Irwin Allen in the 1970s. As a huge fan of disaster movies, I found myself enjoying this film a lot, even if everything that happens has been done before and better. This film sees an all-star cast menaced by a volcano on an Pacific island, and you can pretty much guess every plot point along the way if you've seen any of Allen's other, earlier, better disaster flicks.

Still, you can't say that Allen doesn't try his best…it's just that the budget (or lack of it) lets him down this time around. The volcano itself is a silly little miniature, the rivers of lava are back-projected nonsense, and the final 'disaster' scene at the hotel is so poor as to beggar belief. Even ignoring the below-par special effects, this film takes the biscuit. Although it's notably shorter than the likes of THE TOWERING INFERNO, it takes half the running time for the volcano to actually blow, and until that point we have lots of cheesy dialogue scenes involving romance between uninteresting characters.

Thankfully, things really get going once the disaster hits home as Allen throws tsunamis, explosions, cliffslides and whatnot into the mix. Twinkly-eyed Paul Newman is on hand, thankfully, to take charge and act all manfully, although he's up against a scheming James Franciscus as the island resort's owner who'll stop at nothing to protect his investments. Also caught up in the mix are the usual stereotypes: doting (or should that be dotty) old timers (step forward, Burgess Meredith); hard-timers (Ernest Borgnine in his umpteenth disaster outing), youthful beauties (Barbara Carrera and Jacqueline Bisset, the latter looking a bit off) and even a few ethnic types too (Pat Morita, going Chinese). Much of the resultant running time follows Newman's group as they scramble for safety, evading dangers along the way.

It's no surprise as to who lives or dies, but the 'obstacle' scenes are great fun, especially the extended 'bridge crossing' which makes up the film's climax. And I'll never tire of those ultra-cheesy 'falling into lava' shots which are repeated at various intervals. It's just a shame that the volcano itself only has coming of a cameo appearance in the movie, and that the characters are never menaced by ash clouds or falling lumps of pumice…now that would have been something to see!

Paul Newman only bothered to be in "When Time Ran Out..." (ominous points make any title better) because he needed funding for a salad dressing company, so you can imagine how riveting his performance is. He reacts to the mayhem of a volcano eruption with the shocked grimace of someone who could really go for a salad just about now. In fact, every name actor in this movie completely phones it in. Most of them were there against their will because they signed a wonky deal with producer Irwin Allen, but come on, you still have to do your job. Burgess Meredith is the only one that really tries, so he deservedly gets to play a pivotal part in the movie's (ridiculous) climax. After they got all the stars on board there clearly wasn't any money left for the special effects, so the volcano action is mostly left to your imagination, bits of stock footage and one of those stupid background photos they used before stupid CGI was commonplace. Thankfully, all of this is put together so incompetently that you just can't help but laugh and have a good time. "When Time Ran Out..." starts of a little bit too slow to be a full-blown "so bad it's good"-movie (almost nothing happens in the first hour), but once the volcano erupts you get an absolute feast of terrible dialogue, mom&pop store explosions, forced suspense and marvellous genre clichés. Sorry Paul Newman, I'm going to have to recommend this.

• 2/5 STARS -

The operator of a tropical hotel conceals the mounting threat of the island's active volcano when his laissez-faire partner and a renegade oilman start asking questions. When the volcano finally blows its top, a small group of hotel residents make a dangerous trek to higher ground, but not all will survive as the peak spews smoke, fire, and lava across the island.

This relaxed disaster movie signals the end of the first Golden Age of Disaster movies. It is appropriate, then, that it was produced by Irwin Allen and recycles a variety of cliches that spanned the seventies. When Paul Newman and Jacqueline Bisset start sipping wine on the beach with the volcano in the distance, for example, we know to start counting the minutes until the mountain blows.

With both Paul Newman and William Holden playing roles very similar to those in "The Towering Inferno", it isn't difficult to draw parallels between the two movies. "The Towering Inferno", however, was a unique project involving a joint venture between two studios, a huge budget, an all-star cast, and a blockbuster script culled from the best elements of two popular novels. Does When Time Ran Out represent what we should expect from Irwin Allen when all of the cards AREN'T stacked in his favor?

When Time Ran Out harkens back to the drama-heavy days of the original Airport, with a web of infidelity that will make your head spin. Battle lines are quickly drawn between the defensive developer of the island (Franciscus) and a renegade oil driller (Newman) who believes the mountain is, as he puts it, `a powder keg.'

Occasional visits to the volcano's crater provide distraction while the relationships between the characters are cultivated for the disaster. The oilman stirs up trouble when he wants to see for himself that the mountain is safe before drilling in a high-pressure oilfield. However, it's just ridiculous to think that his inspection would involve stepping into a laughable protective capsule and being lowered inside the smoldering volcano. Naturally, the capsule--with a glass floor!--experiences a series of unexplained malfunctions that send him hurtling towards bubbling lava at the bottom of the crater.

It's the kind of special effect that Irwin Allen was famous for from his television days on The Time Tunnel and elsewhere. But the silver screen requires a much greater level of believability than is needed by television. When Time Ran Out contains some of the worst effects in the history of the genre--images which aren't even acceptable for the SMALL screen. What happened to the Master of Disaster?

When Time Ran Out is heavy on talk before the volcano erupts, but the runaway action we were expecting during the buildup simply never arrives. Only two action sequences occur with the Newman followers, and they both involve a large group of people taking a very long time to cross a treacherous path to safety. It's a snooze-fest all around.

The special effects are ho-hum, even though Irwin Allen attempts to diversify the experience with flaming meteors fired from the volcano and a tidal wave that inexplicably levels part of the same island whose shock wave created it! They're not enough. Most of the visuals are clearly pre-existing volcano footage placed on a chroma-key in front of the actors. And the rest of the eruption footage appears to be poorly executed post-production animation.

The lush tropical setting is a refreshing change of pace for most disaster movies, and Jacqueline Bisset and Paul Newman try their best to keep things classy. But an unnecessary cock fight in the village and a preposterous laboratory perched on the rim of the volcano immediately suggest that this movie needs a dose of reality--and adrenalin. The first Golden Age of Disaster Movies closes with this whimper as `time runs out'-- on the genre.

An active volcano threatens a south Pacific island resort and its guests as a power struggle ensues between the property's developer , James Franciscus , and a drilling foreman , Paul Newman . Molten lava and explosion spread across the island . As an all-star cast is on the run when Mother Nature blows her top .

Exciting film about a volcanic eruption threatens a Pacific island that packs blasts , thrills , overwhelming scenes of blowing up , suspense , excessive talking and turns out to be slightly entertaining . Allen's shameless rehash of all his disaster film clichés set on a Pacific island in which time never seems to run out , as a video version runs 141 minutes . Disastrous catastrophe movie in which lacks characterization , being an immense bore . Lousy screenplay by the prestigious Carl Foreman and Stirling Silliphant ; both of whom were presumably well paid . This formula intrigue movie belongs to catastrophe genre of the 70s , being the undisputed king , ¨The towering inferno¨ along with ¨Earthquake¨ , ¨Two minutes warning¨ and many others ; this formula disaster movie was widely developed by Irwin Allen , previously winner of numerous Oscars for ¨Poseidon¨ until the failures as ¨Beyond Poseidon¨, ¨Swarm¨ and this ¨When the time ran out¨ , retitled ¨Earth's final fury¨ . Filmed at the height of the disaster genre from the 7os , this entry in the spectacular series profits of an all-star though really wasted and a suspenseful final that takes place at a bridge surrounded by molten lava . The bridge was 30 feet above the stage, with smoke bombs and light flashes used to simulate the lava. Main cast carries out average acting such as Paul Newman , Jacqueline Bisset and William Holden , he was hospitalized for six days during production to treat his alcoholism after director James Goldstone convinced producer Irwin Allen that Holden was a danger to himself and others in the cast. Furthermore , a top-notch secondary casting such as Valentina Cortese , Barbara Carrera , Veronica Hamel , Alex Karras , Burgess Meredith , Red Buttons , James Franciscus , Pat Morita and Ernest Borgnine . Ernest Borgnine claims in his memoirs that the reason why the film's special effects were so cheap looking was that the huge amount spent on location shooting absorbed what was usually spent on FX. Many actors were all under contract with Irwin Allen, and appear in this film to void their contracts.

Colorful and gripping photography in Panavision by Fred J. Koenekamp . Intriguing and thrilling score by Lalo Schifrin in his usual style . This big-budgeted disaster movie was middlingly directed by James Goldstone ; this was final feature film of Goldstone . He was a director and writer, known for Scalplock (1966) , ¨Jigsaw¨ ,¨A Man Called Gannon¨ , ¨They Only Kill Their Masters¨ , ¨Red sky at morning¨ , ¨Winning" or "500 miles" and ¨Swashbuckler¨ . Goldstone was also an ordinary TV movies director and subsequently made another catastrophe film , Roller-coaster (1977), much better than the disastrous and monumental bore ¨When time ran out¨ .

In my rankings of Newman's output, this is rock bottom. I'm a big fan and my heart goes out to the man, retrospectively, because he will have known from day one that he had become embroiled in the turkey of all turkeys. Almost every aspect of the film is woeful. The set, the melodrama, the 2-dimensional characters, the frankly appalling acting from almost everyone. Newman stands head an shoulders above the others, but even he looks uncomfortable the whole way through as cliché is piled on cliché. Do you know, the climax is an interminable crossing a wooden bridge over a lava flow with people falling through slats and every other predictable event you can imagine. But the funniest moment is after that when the survivors are in a cave and one of the female bit parts is standing there as if she's at a cocktail party. They must have all have been giving up by then.

In the 1970s and into the very early 80s, disaster films were very popular and brought in a lot of money. The movies were HUGE and sensational...and the king of the genre was Irwin Allen. He produced such blockbusters as "The Towering Inferno" and "The Poseidon Adventure" and he was so successful that there were many copycat films by other producers, such as "Earthquake" and the "Airport" movies. But the problem with the genre was that they ran low on ideas and after a while the plots and disasters became stupider and more farfetched. This led to really bad films like "The Swarm" and "Concorde...Airport '79"...which effectively put the nails into the coffin of disaster epics. Still, there were hopes of reinvigorating the genre which led to some latter films like "When Time Ran Out...".

"When Time Ran Out..." was one of Irwin Allen's productions. But because the public had already seen many disaster films with star-studded casts, this one felt to many like an example of 'been there/done that' and it fizzled at the box office.

This story is set on a tropical island in the Pacific. A company is drilling for oil on this same island where there is also a resort full of rich vacationer. But the island is also volcanic and the hubris and greed of the drilling company result in a disaster being unleashed...one that could easily turn all these tourists and oil company techs into crispy critters!

Like the other Irwin Allen disaster epics, this one has a very impressive cast...with Paul Newman, Jacquelin Bisset and William Holden in the leads. And, as you expect, a ton of A and B-list actors are there to lend support...as well as to become human torches.

As for the plot, it's the usual formula and the story isn't good nor bad...it's just pretty typical. But what IS different is that the special effects look relatively cheap and are little like the great sets, explosions and the like of Allen's 1970s films. In particular, seeing folks falling off the bridge into the lava...well, it could have been done better with Barbie dolls! Additionally, there seem to be less explosions...possibly to save money.

So is it worth seeing? Possibly. I'd place this in the category of a time-passer and not much more. It's NOT horrible (and wow, are there some horrible disaster epics out there) but it's also incredibly familiar and offers little to make you want to see it.

I faithfully watch When Time Ran Out every time it comes on television, and am never bored by it. I had no idea it was such a terrible movie until I read these reviews on IMDB. Sigh...reviewers can be so cruel. At least now I know that I have bad taste in movies so you can stop reading this now if you like.

There are a lot of familiar faces in the cast and they do a good job. This is my favorite Paul Newman movie by the way. (But to be honest I don't watch many Paul Newman movies.) Edward Albert is also great in it, and even though his role is too small, he does get to be heroic but don't blink or you will miss those moments. The women aren't given too much to do but aint that always the way it goes. Sigh again... I did like Veronica Hamel's little bitty role. She was classy but stupid. Should have hooked up with Edward Albert.

This movie is a great soap opera with love, betrayal, danger, greed, and a dastardly villain. Oh, and the way some of the characters die is kinda funny. Sort of like every other disaster movie from the 70's and early 80's. So cut it a little slack why don't you.

Ask a film buff for the worst disaster film of all time and you might get answers like The Swarm, Meteor, City on Fire, Beyond the Poseidon Adventure or Avalanche. But in reality the very worst of all is this incredulously awful Irwin Allen debacle. It has a wonderful cast, which in some ways makes its utter awfulness even more surprising and unacceptable. This is one of the worst films from any genre.

Paul Newman heads the cast, and has a red tinge to his cheeks throughout which may either be sunburn or embarrassment. He is the chief oil driller on a volcanic Pacific island who suspects that a catastrophic eruption is a matter of days away. However, the island relies on its tourist industry, and business bigwigs like William Holden (great actor, never more wasted than he is here) won't heed the warnings and insist on keeping people on the island. The eruption arrives, as anticipated by Newman, and the tourists are left to run for their lives from its clutches. Newman finds himself leading one group of evacuees, made up of the usual clichéd characters. The group includes some great stars, like Ernest Borgnine, Red Buttons, Burgess Meredith and Jacqueline Bisset, but anyone with a brain can figure out with a degree of certainty which ones are going to make it and which are doomed.

The action is marred constantly by terrible special effects. The actors are critically defeated by banal dialogue and actions. The suspense element of the film fails also, because it takes way too long to get going and is thoroughly predictable once it finally kicks into gear. There really is nothing positive to say about this film at all, except that it was so bad that it virtually single-handedly ended the disaster genre once and for all. If nothing else, we should thank the cast and crew for that small mercy at least!

i wish this movie was available on DVD. it's one of those that makes you laugh hysterically - it is so bad. interestingly enough, airplane came out the same year - obviously, the time was more than ripe.

i've been laughing out loud just reading the forum about this catastrophic masterpiece. i almost forgot some of the gory details (including the science lab perched at the edge of the volcano lip).

i saw it as a teenager behind the iron curtain, freshly dubbed into czech in the early eighties. it was such a treat i had to go see it twice.

are you guys sure this movie was intended to be taken seriously?

(well, i used to think the independence day was a subtle spoof that made fun of self- declared u.s.a. greatness, but people are telling me otherwise. i still enjoy it, though.)

I can't get over the amount of negative feedback left here. WTRO was indeed the last of the big disaster movies but the movie, as cheesy as it was, still holds up pretty well. Some of the reviews here, i.e. the guy who falls off the helicopter and falls towards the volcano sideways were very funny but you either take it for what it is or you don't. Personally, I thought it was the cast that made this film. Paul Newman, WIlliam Holden, Jacqueline Bisset, Ernest Borgnine and the late, great, James Franciscus.

As an independent filmmaker myself, check out www.lcafilms.com for more information, I've always loved the big disaster movies of the 70's: THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE, THE TOWERING INFERNO, EARTHQUAKE, and yes, even the likes of THE SWARM and WHEN TIME RAN OUT. Irwin Allen had a knack for getting big name stars to appear in his movies and it's sad that this great storyteller, who was once considered the King of Hollywood, was pushed down to the bottom of the barrel. He probably saw WTRO as the film that could relaunch his career but sadly, that never happened.

I don't agree with this trend Hollywood is going through right now where they feel the need to remake every other movie that has been made already but there are a few exceptions. I can't wait to see POSEIDON, Wolfgang Peterson's remake of THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE. What Peterson did was what needed to be done. He got an all-star cast for today, just like Irwin Allen did back in the 70's with all his disaster movies. I would love to remake WHEN TIME RAN OUT today, avoiding so many clichés and bad special effects the original had but I love the premise.

Imagine yourself and your significant other, on holidays on a tropical island and while there, an inactive volcano suddenly erupts and you have a choice. Either stay at the hotel and pray to God the lava won't come your way or trek across the perilous wilderness, hoping that you will be safe on the other side of the island. It's a wonderful movie premise and that's probably where he got all the actors to sign off. I really enjoyed WTRO for the kind of movie it was and especially because of the all-star cast it had. There's only one filmmaker today who seems to be able to gather all-star casts for his movies and that is Uwe Boll.

Unfortunately, his movies seem rushed and the actors always appear to be walking through their parts. They obviously got paid well and that's about it. I would love to remake THE TOWERING INFERNO today and have an all-star cast playing lead roles to supporting roles. It would be great to see the likes of Harrison Ford, Bruce Willis, Tom Hanks, Liam Neeson, Michael Douglas, Sean Connery, Clint Eastwood, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Kate Capshaw and many others in a disaster movie today. If I get my way, you just might!!!

OK, it's not Shakespeare or 'Citizen Kane'. It isn't 'Towering Inferno' or 'Airport'. But back off on 'When Time Ran Out...' After all is said and done, it isn't such a bad little movie. It seems that Allen and company have the disaster movie genre down to shorthand and show it as the film seems to glide from cliché to cliché, almost as if it's saying 'heck with you all, I know what I am, I don't have to work hard to show it.' As most of the cast has done this before, they pull it all off with a flair and a let's just do it style, like the last day of school. It's proof that entertaining movies do not necessarily have to be 'good' movies.

3/14/18. I have forgotten how suspenseful these old disaster movies were, even formulaic as they were. Why mess with what works? Irwin Allen was always good with that: A love triangle, a helicopter, a loss of one or two of the big stars and you got yourself a hit. While many of the big stars featured were mostly past their prime, that was okay when the disaster was actually THE STAR of the movie. Catch it for nostalgia's sake.

Irwin Allen should be thanked for discovering a cure for insomnia.

The most notable feature about this movie is in the credits. Gayle Kananiokalapontigay's name takes two lines.

The movie is another Irwin Allen disaster - all the way around.

What agents got Paul Newman, William Holden, Jacqueline Bisset, Red Buttons, Ernest Borgnine, Burgess Meredith, James Franciscus, Barbera Carrera, Veronica Hamel, Edward Albert and Pat Morita into this loser?

And the writing? What writing? Carl Foreman and Stirling Silliphant should have had their names removed to save some embarrassment.

A bag of fish left in a car trunk in Sylmar would smell better than this stinker.

The story is stupid. A volcano settles scores and rights wrongs. Except it didn't destroy the master print copy. The acting is wooden, with bad, cliche lines just being spoken. And there's not one shred of excitement or danger at the climax. Just 20 minutes of watching 10 boring people cross a footbridge over a lava bed that poses no real harm.

Somehow Allen got this financed, and nobody read the script. At least I hope that's what happened. Otherwise some people would do anything, and I mean anything, for money.

When Time Ran Out, everybody fled the set.

Even if you've got five million hours left to live, don't waste one second on this piece of junk. Unless you're an insomniac. Even then, you will sleep, but your stomach's gonna churn with this garbage in it.

It's hard to image a major motion picture any worse than this turkey.

Absolutely NOTHING makes any sense. Action sequences are so poorly

executed, you wonder if perhaps they hired brain-damaged high school

students to do most of the work.

Some favorites, not already mentioned:

The ranch-hand must ride on the outside of the helicopter. Dumb enough, but why

then fly DIRECTLY over the mouth of the volcano? You must be kidding.

-And when the guy predictably falls, we first see him fall backwards away from the 'copter, but them the immediate cut-away shot shows him clearly falling in a FORWARD roll. oops.

I also enjoyed seeing telephone poles fall over without anything hitting them, and as they fall over they don't looked cracked at all, just perfect horizontal bottoms that weren't really even in the ground.

Some guy's whole back catches on fire, and he rolls around for about ten

seconds. when they finally put out the flames, only a small part of the top of his jacket is scorched.

two people are flying past the smoking volcano in a helicopter. It suddenly

explodes with a loud crack and flames. Neither person reacts at all.

You could go on and on and on. Every few seconds there's another blatant goof or monumentally stupid scene.

You know, if someone made an edited DVD of this, with all the boring "personal interaction" scenes deleted, and ran a commentary along with the action, this would be possibly the most hilarious movie ever put out.

On an island in the South Pacific, oil rigger Hank Anderson (Paul Newman) discovers increasingly intense volcanic activity within the island's volcano Mauna Lani suggesting an imminent eruption. While Hank tries to alert Shelby Gilmore (William Holden), the owner of the newly constructed hotel on the island of the activity, Shelby's partner Bob Spangler (James Franciscus) is intent on securing their partnership and business deal at the expense of the safety of the guests.

When Time Ran Out is a 1980 disaster film that not only marked the last major release in that genre, but also the last theatrically released Irwin Allen film. The film is a loose adaptation of the 1969 book "The Day the World Ended" by writers Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts which was a non-fiction account of the 1902 eruption of Mount Pelee. Irwin Allen had bought the rights to the film which he soon announced as part of his development slate with 20th Century Fox following his success with The Poseidon Adventure with an eye on producing the film for a Summer 1975 release. After leaving 20th Century Fox for Warner Bros., the film was put on the backburner as Allen instead produced The Swarm with When Time Ran Out not released until March 1980 five years later than announced. Several actors involved including Paul Newman and Ernest Borgnine did not like the script but only did the movie to fulfill pre-existing contracts with Allen so they could get out of them. Upon release the film was a box office disaster making only $3.8 million against its $20 million budget and with disaster spoof Airplane! Releasing mere months afterwards to rave reviews and box office success the genre was effectively dead (barring some TV films produced by Allen) until 1996 when it would be revived by Twister. Critics panned the film for its hokey melodrama and essentially being a repackage of the same formula popularized by The Poseidon Adventure and Warner Bros. Would air the film on TV under "Earth's Final Fury" and trim about 11 minutes worth of footage from home media. It was true then and it's true now, When Time Ran Out is the last gasp of a formulaic and expensive genre that's so exhausted even the effects work can't be bothered to look decent.

It's pretty clear from the actors on display that nobody wants to be here as the soap opera level intrigue and "character" is a rehash of a rehash that is bereft of passion or interest with talented actors stumbling around in threadbare archetypes that offer nothing new or engaging and go through the same predictable motions Allen used throughout the 70s. I will say that unlike Meteor at least the cast aren't sat behind computer screens for 70% of the runtime while someone else does the actual action, but what action there is isn't particularly engaging with the effects for the volcano rather unconvincing and what action beats we're given are mostly slowly paced and clumsily executed with a "climax" involving a bridge ludicrously slow and paying off on Burgess Meredith's character's prior experience as a tightrope walker in a silly and asinine fashion.

When Time Ran Out is an expensive and boring death of the disaster genre. Even by the low standards set by volcano movies that preceded it (save for Stromboli) When Time Ran Out is painfully unengaging melodrama.

Lately and for no apparent reason, I find myself to be quite massively obsessed with disaster movies from the 70's decade. These flicks guarantee spectacular action and thrills but, admittedly, it's also a sub genre that can all too easy be labeled as inferior and derivative. It's undeniable that you can summarize practically all 70's disaster movies by listing just a handful of recurring trademarks. #1: without producer Irwin Allen, there wasn't a budget for special effects and thus no movie. #2: all disaster movies star one major star (especially Charlton Heston and Paul Newman were prime choices) and a long list of "secondary" stars (like Ernest Borgnine, Leslie Nielsen,…). #3: The characters are usually split into two camps with completely opposite ideals and/or initiatives. The camp with the lead star is obviously the triumphant camp. #4: Regardless what type of disaster we're dealing with, variants of the exact same perilous situations are always applicable. #5: always remember that, when the situation appears to be at it worst, it can and will still get even worse!

Not coincidentally, "When Time Ran Out" answers to ALL the above trademarks and thus ranks as the ultimately clichéd disaster flick. This shouldn't come as too much as a surprise as the film was released in 1980, which is more than half a decade after the disaster movie hype was at its peak. Paul Newman stars as the robust macho workman Hank Anderson drilling for oil on a Pacific island that is particularly famous for its tropical holiday resort run by the stubborn and obnoxious island patriarch Brian Franciscus. Everyone's victorious when Newman and C° hit the black gold jackpot, but he warns about the oil's pressure causing the island's volcano to regain activity. Almost everybody disregards Hank's warnings, even when the volcano does erupt and spits out flaming balls of fire. Anderson eventually gathers a small group of intelligent people to flee towards higher grounds, but the majority of tourists and workmen stupidly remain at the resort to await a certain and painful death.

"When Time Ran Out" is a bad movie mainly because the characters are walking, talking caricatures and never cease to take really stupid decisions. Take Brian Franciscus, for example. He refuses to leave or even stop the drillings because he desperately wants to prove to his father that he's a successful businessman and resort owner. But his father is dead and all that remains of him is a stern portrait on the wall. The tourists are even worse. Franciscus initially assures them the volcano will not erupt. He was wrong. Later on, he assures them the volcano won't be spitting out any fireballs. He was wrong again. Finally he claims the volcanic lava will never reach the resort and these idiots still believe him! Wouldn't it be smarter to stay close to the guy who has been right about the volcano since the beginning? I guess not, since only the actors with a slightly bigger paycheck accompany Paul Newman on the perilous journey across the island. I didn't think it was possible, but the script becomes even dumber from then onwards. There's a tidal wave approaching the island even though it should go the other direction and into the ocean and Newman's group shrinks in number due to some textbook clichés like steep rocks and ramshackle wooden bridges over lava rivers. If all this isn't trite enough for you just yet, we still have some additional clichés on sale, like the elderly who sacrifices his life to rescue a child, the triangular relationship between the hero, the millionaire and the hot rebellious girl and the ridiculously abrupt ending. There is one remotely ingenious sub plot that is worth mentioning, however. Ernest Borgnine plays a cop indiscreetly following around a fraudulent banker, but during the environmental disaster they become close friends and dependent on each other. In conclusion: "When Time Ran Out" is literally a disaster of film. It's a volcanic eruption of derivative ideas, predictable moves and cheesy effects. But, on the other hand, I didn't get bored for one second throughout the entire 121 minutes of running time and that alone might be worth a recommendation!

I am relatively indifferent to most action movies but I am willing to make an exception in this case. I was strongly attracted to the multiple personal stories and thus cared a lot about which of these fictional characters survived and which perished. Thus, I am surprised by the cold reception given this film by many writers, both amateur and professional. The characters were all carefully developed, quite an accomplishment for a movie that tells so many personal stories. Examples: We have a ratfink male whose greed gets lots of people killed. He doubles as one third of a love triangle involving two ladies with plenty of misplaced loyalty and very little common sense. We have a reluctant hero who leads many to safety. We have a retired tightrope walker whose former trade will be put to good use before almost everything melts away in the finale. We are treated to the complex relationship between a gentleman crook and his pursuer; the former risks his own survival by going out of his way to render assistance when the latter becomes disabled. A lot of the characters are caught participating in a sadistic cockfight when all hell breaks loose. What happens to most of them before the movie is over seems like a severe penalty, even for cockfighting.

Hollywood first realized the merits of multiple plot movies with the introduction of "[Vicki Baum's] Grand Hotel", circa 1932. This pattern has since been followed many times, usually successfully. Examples: "Stagecoach", "The Bridge of San Luis Rey", "Airport", "[Arthur Hailey's] Hotel", "Lone Star", "The Big Chill" and "Matewan". I believe that those responsible for "When Time Ran Out..." also did an excellent job of multiple character development and I loved every minute of it.

The Hollywood movers and shakers who decide which scripts are given the green light ought to be ashamed of themselves.

The actors who signed up for this debacle should have known better.

The behind-the-scenes crew must've kept their mouths shut while filming the Irwin Allen production, knowing that the final product was going to be garbage.

There must have been a conspiracy within the Costume Design branch of the Academy Awards for nominating this and "The Swarm" two years earlier for the bland clothing right off the store shelves from Sears or K-Mart (or whatever store that was close to the Warner Brothers' Burbank studios lot or on location in Hawaii).

And I'm not going to discuss the poor blue screen effects, the cheap miniature effects or the actor's laughable reaction shots.

While writing this review, I realized that "When Time Ran Out" and "Airplane!" were both released in 1980. I guess it speaks volumes when a silly but unintentionally funny disaster movie was a flop and a silly but intentionally funny disaster spoof was a hit.

Another funny film by Irwin Allen. This one is a hoot to watch. I really like the blue screen effect whenever the lava is shown--lol. If it has Shelia Matthews in the cast, you can be sure that it is going to be a funny film, especially if it is a drama. The ending with the volcano is hilarious--I did not know that volcanos could shoot a fireball that far away and still hit the target head-on!! Impressive. Sort of like scenes from "Bird of Paradise" meets "Diamond Head" were taken and spliced together and then had a few more ingredients added. All that was missing was the sacrificial virgin--but then, maybe that is why the volcano exploded--LOL. Not a movie to be missed for laughs!!