The Watch Below (1966) is a novel by science fiction author James White about a colony of humans stranded underwater in a sunken WWII freighter surviving due to air pockets. Sound familiar? The later half of the book deals with an invasion by aquatic aliens.

I saw that movie 20 years ago, so I don't remember it too much, excepted that the idea of the sunk ship was damn good. Many years ago I played and loved the BIOSHOCK video game, an absolute must have. I then realized that its story was so near from that "old movie I had seen late one evening". In fact the mythic BIOSHOCK largely relies on GOLIATH AWAITS, that makes out of this movie a real MUST HAVE !All BIOSHOCK elements are in the movie : Graphic style are comparable though not identical (BIOSHOCK is "art deco", GOLIATH is 1930s style), atmosphere is dense, there is an "end of the world" feeling, the boss is a "bad guy", life of peoples is awful, its cruel, dark, gloomy ....It's not at all official that GOLIATH AWAITS is the main inspiration of BIOSHOCK, but for one knowing this game there is absolutely no doubt. And there is no shame to have taken ideas from GOLIATH AWAITS, the movie has so many good ones. A remake would be welcome. What is funny is that GOLIATH became a game ... that will become a movie ! !

Goliath Awaits came out in 1981 and the special effects for it are aging gracefully. The notion of people living in a sunken ocean liner may seem far fetched but as Neil Peart of RUSH wrote "We suspend our disbelief and we are entertained." Director Kevin Connor does a nice job of directing thus helping to salvage a soggy script. The mysterious disease that befalls the passengers of the GOLIATH makes the viewer curious about its origins. Later in the movie it is revealed that the ships Doctor is singling out people that he doesn't approve of. The doctor is of course extremely bigoted and wrong to use euthanasia on the ships passengers. The luxury of unused sheets of paper to the children of the ship is revealed. The Captain of the ship seems well meaning but the thought of using geothermal vents for power and oxygen is far-fetched given the ships level of technology. Who knows if Aliens could be powering underwater spaceships from geothermal vents. If so then the Aliens have accomplished an impressive feat. Goliath Awaits inspires humans to think about living in underwater homes for years at a time. Such an underwater project should be made part of the NASA space program. Humanitys survival in a big bad universe might depend on underwater habitats. In Goliath Awaits you feel sorry for the passengers stuck shoveling coal at the same time you are wondering why they have never run out of coal. I gave Goliath Awaits a 10 out of 10 for its novel plot.

Hi, Everyone,I worked on this movie at The Queen Mary (ship) in Long Beach in May of 1981. The crew and cast were fun to be with. I was an extra who was supposed to be a passenger on the Goliath down at the bottom of the ocean. We were all still alive years after the ship sank.A group of us were taught the dances of the 1920s (Lambeth Walk, Charleston). We worked in the cargo hold of the Queen Mary for some of our scenes. There were good guys and bad guys. Frank Gorshin and Christopher Lee were the villains. Christopher Lee was the Captain who kept the people alive and wanted to stay underwater when the rescuers arrived.John Carradine was a very pleasant man to work with in his scenes. He had arthritis but he managed to negotiate the stairway that led down into the hold of the ship. Mark Harmon was the hero who arrives to rescue the passengers.This movie was originally shown over a two night period on TV. It later was packaged as a VHS movie with some scenes edited out, but the short version seems the better and more fast paced of the two.There is one scene where the music does not match the dancing in the background. Watch for dancers moving at the wrong tempo. The scene was rehearsed at one speed (No music actually is played. The dancers are given a tempo and they dance without music while the dialog is being recorded. The music is inserted later.)and different music was put in for some reason.I liked the movie but it was not great. It was an interesting idea that will hold your attention for a couple of hours. If you like ship movies, try "Sea Chase" with John Wayne and Lana Turner or "Assault on a Queen" with Frank Sinatra.Tom Willett