The Big Bus

The Big Bus is a 1976 American satirical comedy film directed by James Frawley, and starring Joseph Bologna and Stockard Channing. Parodying the then-popular disaster genre, it follows the maiden cross-country trip of an enormous nuclear-powered bus named Cyclops. The Big Bus initially received mixed reviews, although the New York Times gave the film a favorable review. The film performed poorly at the box office but has since been recognized as a cult classic of its genre. Frawley won the audience award at the 1977 Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival. Plot Coyote Bus Lines' scientists and designers work feverishly to complete Cyclops, a state-of-the-art articulated jumbo bus, enabling man to achieve a new milestone in bus history, namely non-stop service between New York City and Denver. Almost immediately after the bus engine is equipped with nuclear fuel, a bomb goes off, critically injuring Professor Baxter, the scientist in charge of the project. Cyclops itself is undamaged, but Coyote Bus Lines has lost both its driver and co-driver. Kitty Baxter, the professor's daughter and the Cyclops designer, is forced to turn to old flame Dan Torrance. Once a promising driver, Torrance was disgraced after he crashed his bus atop Mount Diablo, and was accused of saving his own life by eating all of his passengers. (Torrance blames his co-driver for cannibalism, insisting that he himself survived by eating the seats and the luggage, and only ate part of a passenger's foot by accident when it was included in a stew). Narrowly surviving an assault by vindictive fellow drivers with the help of "Shoulders" O'Brien, Torrance is recruited to drive Cyclops.