by Ailran

Created on: March 22, 2007   Last Updated: May 09, 2007

Adventure Has A New Destination

Sahara, a rip-roaring action adventure in the style of Indiana Jones and the more recent National Treasure, is based on the characters from Clive Cussler's best selling Dirk Pitt novels. In fact the legend "A Clive Cussler Dirk Pitt Adventure" appears in the opening credits. Dirk Pitt previously appeared in the dismal box office failure "Raise The Titanic" back in the 70's and hasn't been seen since, not surprising really as it was an awful film. In fact it was such an unmitigated disaster that producers and film companies were probably scared off doing another adaptation of a Cussler book, but in the synchronistic way Hollywood seems to function Sahara must have been in production at the same time as National Treasure and possibly even picked up because of the similarities. Inside info always seeming to influence what a film company will green light for production.

The opening pre credit sequence sets the scene and is comparable to the opening of National Treasure. A flashback to a part of American history and a ship steaming through waters, this time though it is a Confederate Ironclad (one of the first battleships).
The Ironclad, Texas, disappeared amid controversy and mystery, never to be seen again. Only rumours from sailors of a great iron beast crossing the Atlantic offering any clue as to what happened to the ship and its crew.

Modern day Africa, World Health Organisation (WHO) Doctors Eva Rojas & Frank Hopper are convinced that a plague is stating to spread, a vicious death dealing illness that is killing of whole villages. More and more villages are being affected and the two of them are convinced that the diseases progress shows that it started in Mali, Due to the unstable nature of the country and its ruler, General Kazim violent nature of dealing with outsiders (WHO having already lost people in the country) they are not allowed to enter the country to investigate.

Pitt and his NUMA (National Underwater Marine Agency) colleagues are also in Africa, bringing up an ancient African relic form the depths of the sea for the local government.
While there he hears from a contact of his, a dealer' in artefacts that he acquires from unknown sources', that there is something that Pitt should come and see. Pitt soon finds out that what he has in the one lost Confederate gold coin minted by the Confederacy. Only a small number where known to have been minted and only one is missing, the one held by the captain of the missing

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